love
I can't believe just how much I love my baby. It's so amazing that just this time last year, she was barely crawling. How did I get so lucky to have this little girl in my life? I can't imagine life without her now. I look at her and see her grinning at Elmo or trying so hard to put her shoe on or one of the countless other things I watch her do all night, and it almost makes me cry sometimes. I see the determination on her face when she's trying to climb into the kitchen chair; the pride when she makes it; the sheer enjoyment of watching her Elmo DVD; the fierceness in her eye when she tries to convince me to give her animal crackers for supper; the disgust when I give her (God forbid!) green beans. I pick up the camera to try to capture it, because I know that it will be gone so soon, but I look at the picture and it's so 2-dimensional. It can't catch all the feeling in the moment. Tonight, she was sitting against the arm of the couch watching TV streched out with her arms bent and hands behind her head. She just had this grin on her face that I want to much to remember. Mostly what the camera picked up, though, was her mouth halfway open, and her hair all messed up. I didn't even see those things. Oh well, at least it'll remind me of what I saw - my baby.

18 months pics
I put the 18 months pictures on the web. They third outfit is the same outfit she wore at 6 months in a different size. I can't believe the difference in her size between then and now. For one thing - she's thinning out a lot now that she's running around. Wow.

our swimming pool
Mom came over Monday and brought the girls to swim. It's really about the first time we've gotten in the pool so far. It was a little cold, but once you got used to it, it wasn't too bad. Ally had a blast. First, she was playing in her little one on the patio until I fniished vaccuuming the big one. Then she had a great time jumping in to Mom. Her idea of jumping is to hold onto your fingers and lean out and squat down until you "jump" her in. She loves it when she gets splashed a little. I jump her and don't let her get very far in the water and she gets impatient with me. When Rob does it, though she spends the next 15 seconds blowing raspberries and wiping her face off. But she would rather have him do it than me. She also loves to climb on and off the ladder. She even lets you hold her under her bely and let her pretend she's swimming. She even kicks her feet. Anyway, she had such a good time. We've gone swimming 3 or 4 times this week. I just took her out a little while ago and let her get good and tired for her nap that she is now taking. :)

teeth
Ally has been drooling like crazy, and chewing on her fingers lately. I thought for sure that her 4th top tooth was coming in, because it has looked like it for a long time now. But last night, her bottom 3rd and 4th teeth popped through her gums. That brings the total up to 7 (although her 3rd one still isn't all the way down yet). It's about time. She's 19 months old!

sleep and bargaining
We're doing great!!! She has slept all night for 3 or 4 nights in a row now. Before that, she was waking fewer and fewer times. She's started bargaining with us at bedtime though. Sometimes she climbs up to the table and tries to convince us she's hungry. Most of the time she tries to get us to read just one more book (or as she says bup).

food
All of a sudden, Ally is trying a couple new things. It's not like we can just give her anything to eat yet, but we're expanding the list. She used to only eat peanut butter on crackers. Well, that's not quite true. She used to eat peanut butter off of crackers, then hand the cracker back to us for a refill. She started eating peanut butter sandwiches a couple weeks ago - on wheat bread no less. She also stole some croutons off my salad, and now regularly eats popcorn shrimp. She tried Jello the other day and ate some of Bill's pistachio salad last time we were in Robinson. Last night, she stole both Rob's and my garlic bread. It's pretty cool.

NO
Ally has started to say no. It's not really what I expected yet though. For that I'm grateful. She hasn't made it to that stage where it can only be screamed at 100 dB. Instead, she usually starts out pretty calmly and matter-of-factly and says no. If, however, you fail to stop doing whatever (for example: offering her something she doesn't want to eat) or continue doing something she doesn't want you to (for example: putting her in her car seat), she changes her tone a little.

I know she's not a teenager, but they are the only beings I know of capable of making that sound. It's kinda of a cross between "You're not listening to me", "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard", and "I'm about to lose control and sream at you". With a little sarcasm thrown in.

I can't wait...

more dirt
I needed to take a shower Sunday morning, so Rob was going to take Ally outside. He asked her if she wanted to go out. She said "no" (She next entry) and went back to playing. He asked her again and she said "no, no, no" So I asked her if she wanted to go outside to play in the dirt. She stood up and started walking to the stairs saying "dirt, dirt, dirt".

sleeping
Ally is getting better about sleeping all night. We've actually had 3 or 4 nights this month that she hasn't woken up at all. Hopefully tonight will be another

bath
She's getting really brave in the bathtub. She lays down on her belly and "swims". At first, she would lay down for a second, if you were holding her up. Then she'd sit up and make sure you were proud of her and do it again. Now, she's gotten to where she'll lay there on her elbows and turn her head to you and grin. One day, she turned her head so far, one of her ears went under. She was startled and sat up really quick. Rob asked her why she got her ear all wet. She just grinned and leaned over, turned her head and did it again, but from sitting up this time. She thought it was funny. And God forbid, I pour water on her head to rinse out the shampoo (she used to like it actually), but she loves to dump a cup on her own head.

dirt + trowels
Lately Ally has been helping us with our planting. Last Saturday, she helped rob get some dirt out of the wheelbarrow. She likes to break up the big clunks and sprinkle the dirt on the ground. Last night, she helped me transplant some stuff a friend from work gave me. We broke it up into littler groups and stuck them in pots. She kept stealing my garden trowel though. I'd set it down to grab a plant, and she'd take it before I even noticed. She wasn't satisfied with her little sand shovel. She tried taking the big shovel too, but it was too much for her. Then, she got mad because there were plants in her dirt, and she pulled a couple out so I had to plant them twice. She was filthy. But, All you have to do is sit her down with a pile of dirt and she's happy. (Don't sit next to her though... She likes to shovel into/onto people's laps)

bored
My gosh you can really tell that I've been bored at work lately. The last month, I've got lots of entries. Last week, I actually had something to do, and stayted off the internet for a while. Wow. I just keep telling myself that they are paying me well to sit on my butt all day.

work
I have actually had some work to do this week. It's amazing. It will probably only last a week, but at least I have something to do.

sleeping
I know I talk about sleep a lot, but it's a major topic at our house. When you're not getting any, it's always on your mind.

This weekend was a good one. Friday night, Ally went to bed at 9 with about 10 minutes of crying. She woke up a coulpe times in a 45 minute span, but went back to sleep when I told her to. The last time she woke up, I went in and checked on her. She was still asleep, but yelling anyway. I just patted her back and she settled down. maybe she was having a bad dream? Saturday night, she was really ready for bed. We had gone out to dinner and some other stuff and got back home around 9. She stayed upstairs with G'ma Darra while I helped Rob put on some more lotion. By the time I went up to get her, she was waving nigh-night to everything she could see. She laid down and slept til 6:45 in the morning. Last night she was pretty tired too. at 8:15, I told her to come with me and went down the stairs to go outside and water the plants. She passed her pillow on the way and picked it up to bring with us. She thought we were going to bed already. I held her off until about 8:45 and she went to bed with no trouble and slept til 5:20 this morning. Yay!

Knight's Action Park
I planned to go to Kinghts Action Park yesterday morning, but it was cloudy and hazy all morning. I piddled around all morning and when Ally woke up from her nap, it looked a little more sunny, so we decided to go. She was very excited when we got close enough that she could see the pools. First, I let her get in a big one by the lazy river. It slopes in and goes to about 18 inches or maybe 2 feet deep. She lept wanting to go in deeper than I wanted her too, and chase the big kids. So we went further in to the kids area - "Seal Bay". The water there was 12 to 18 inches, but she didn't mind at all. She walked right in. First, there were some kids jumping on a floating turtle and falling off into the water. She thought that was hilarious. She laughed and laughed.

It took her a little while to realize that she could stand up in the water. She'd walk a little then slip. I was holding both her hands, so when that happened, I just lifted a little and she floated. She didn't realize she could put her feet back down. But once she got past that, there was no stopping her. She refused to let me hold onto her a couple times. But, she'd get walking too fast and her feet would go out from under her. So I had to get as close as she would let me so I could catch her. We wandered around and played in the water for a while.

Then we went down some slides together. She wanted to go down one that I was too big for (according to the lifeguard). It was barely even a slope over a distance of about 6 feet. So I helped her walk up the rampto it, and she climbed over the edges and sat down while I ran back to the bottom to catch her. I shouldn't have bothered to run. It took her about 5 minutes just to get into sliding position. Then, she sat there and yelled at me to get out of her way, because she didn't want me to catch her. I had to move to the side and she proceeded to scoot down. She finally got to the end and I helped her slide off. When we went to yet another slide, a lady offered to watch her climb up while I waited in the water, so I didn't have to worry as much. Then, her daughter (maybe 3 years old) took over. She grabbed Ally's hand and tried to drag her around everywhere. She helped her climb up ladders, and sit down to slide. She even tried to push me away once. I had to tell her to give Ally some space. ALly didn't seem to mind though.

I finally asked someone what time it was. It was 6:20 and Ally hadn't eaten supper yet. I had no idea. We left the house at 4:30. So I asked Ally if she was hungry, and she signed "eat, eat, eat". She didn't throw a fit when we changed clothes and left, but you could tell that she wasn't thrilled about it, she was just too hungry to stay.

the mall (Fluff-N-Stuff)
Last night we went to the mall for supper at Ruby Tuesday's. I thought for sure Ally would sit down and eat, because it was kinda past her supper time.
I was wrong. AShe played for a while. She ate some fruit. Abou the time we got our food, she was starting to climb around in the booth and really get in trouble. Darra ate quickly and then took her for a walk around the mall. Rob and I got to eat and then went to find them. We found them sitting outside the restaurant with a new stuffed pig. I guess they ran into the fluff-N-Stuff booth and Ally picked out a pig. You get to pick their outfit and a bunch of stuff to customize your animal. Darra said she let Ally pick the outfit. She asked Ally "Do you want this one" and Ally said "No-no-no" about 30 times. Finally Darra asked and Ally took the outfit. She picked pink pajamas with a hat. I guess Ally was really hesitant to let the guy stuff it, but he promised to give it back, so she gave it to him. She was giving it lots of hugs all the way home, and putting his hat on and taking it off and putting it on her head. She slept with him the rest of the weekend.

sun poisoning
Last night sucked. Especially for Rob. To start with, someone didn't come in to work, so he had to stay over til 5 pm. He got home about the same time his mom got here. She came up to help us plant our new stuff. Our neighborhood garage sale was this weekend, so when everyone got here we took a walk around the neighborhood. We came home and were deciding what to have for supper when Rob came downstairs to get ready. His sunburn was starting to hurt from walking around and sweating, so he did the same thing he did every night since he got sunburned. He started rubbing some aloe/lidocaine stuff on it. It stung, so he tried some regular lotion. It hurt. So he wiped it all off and still hurt. He called me down to help, and started to freak out a little from the pain. I tried lots of stuff, but nothing worked. We were about to go to the ER, but first I went upstairs and sent his Mom down. She figured out that it was sun poisoning set in. She made him take some benadryl and calmed him down a little. They rubbed baby lotion on and it soothed him a little. He was still in a lot of pain, but the benadryl seemed to be helping. We sent about 2 hours dealing with it and went through almost a whole bottle of baby lotion. I've never seen Rob in so much pain. His back wasn't just burnt anymore, it was spreading. You could see it moving around his sides and down his arms. The next day, he was feeling a little better. He stayed on benadryl and rubbed lots of lotion on, and now it's gone back to a regular sunburn. I believe he'll wear sunblock next time.

plants
We got the plants we ordered online yesterday. They screwed up the order though. Last week, we received an email telling us they were out of one thing we ordered. Even so, we still didn't get everything. The deal was you order $110 and get 25 free hibiscus flowers. We thought they were pretty, so got a couple extra things to pad our total. They were out of one thing we ordered, but said they would ship the free stuff anyway. They didn't. They ran out of the free stuff too. Then, they only sent 2 of one thing instead of 4. I called and complained. They offered to send me the missing stuff and send some burning bush instead of the hibiscus. Then, I talked to Rob, and realized that we have no use for them, so I called the nursery back and told them that. I asked for a shipping label so I could send the 2 things I ordered extra because I didn't need them if they weren't getting me the flowers. They said they don't do that, but could refund that part anyway and I could keep it as a free gift. So Basically, I ended up with most of the plants that I wanted originally, and I got the stuff I liked enough to buy for free. I'm almost satisfied.

books
There was a book fair at Revenue yesterday, so I got Ally a couple new books. She wasn't thrilled about leaving day care, and wanted to get down and play instead of sitting in her car seat. I sat her down and gave her a new book though, and she instantly calmed down and sat quietly all the way home checking it out. She's a strange kid.

sleeping
Ally cried for about 10 minutes last night at bedtime. I stood at the door and told her to lay down and she did. She woke up once, but I didn't even have to get up. I told her to lay down from bed and she did. I'm not sure why I always have to tell her to, but it's getting better.