hi bug
See below about being outside last night. Ally saw a spider on the sidewalk. She put her hands on her knees and leaned down real close and said "Hi bug" Then I stepped on it. I hate spiders. There was a little black hopping bug on the sidewalk too, so Ally said hi to it instead. After a while she changed it to "hi bug, smash it" though and tried to step on it.

go away clouds
Last evening was gorgeous. Rob, Ally and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. After 2 laps, Ally was getting restless, but didn't want to go inside, so we sat around in the front yard. There was a storm coming, so the sky was pretty cloudy again. We could barely even see the moon. Ally was looking for it though. She kept asking "... moon go?" Rob picked her up and showed her where it's supposed to be but told her it was behind the clouds. He taught her "go away clouds. I want to see the moon" Then the moon came out a little later and she was happy. When the clouds started to cover it again, she kept saying "go way couds. moon"

stars
Ally has stars hanging from her mobile. The other day, she learned that they can come off the mobile. Now, when she wakes up in the morning, she throws a fit if we don't take them off and bring them upstairs with us. They're "tarsh". She also loves it when you draw stars on a piece of paper for her to color. She colors faster than I can draw though (with a blatant disregard for the lines(: )and is very impatient. This has been going on for a couple weeks now, and every time I remember to look at the sky before I take her to bed, the stars are behind clouds. Someday, we'll go outside and lay down to look at them.

puzzles
Igot Ally a bunch of puzzles on ebay pretty cheap recently. She is doing great! Some of them have knobs on the, and some don't. She has trouble with the ones that fit tightly and are the same height as the rest of the board, but only because she can't get them out. The others, she is mastering. Especially the ones with pictures underneath. She does have a little trouble with the ABCs and the numbers puzzles. I think they are a little too abstract concepts for her. The animals and shapes, she can relate to. She says "puzz" and "peeces".

potty
Ally is still working on the potty thing. Sometimes she gets it and sometimes she doesn't. We're not really pushing, since it's still early. I switched her to Feel-and-Learn pullups diapers to help her learn (except at night. I don't want her to notice she's wet at night. I want her to sleep). I always sit her down in the morning when she gets up, and flip the tv on. She just sits there until I'm ready to get her ready. When she pees, sometimes she stands up and claps and says YAY. Sometimes she just goes on watching tv, and I don't even know she's gone until I stand her up.

Occasionally, if it's been a while since I changed her and she's still dry I'll ask her if she needs to go. She usually says potty and sits down pretty good for me. Or, I'll see her playing with her diaper. That usually means she's about to go.

Saturday night, I noticed she had been dry for a while, so I asked her to go potty for me, and she pooped!! I was so ... disgusted. (I bet you all expected me to say excited didn't you? well, maybe the ones who have done this before didn't because they've been there.) I can't wait until she decides to sit on the real toilet. Anyway, I am proud of her, and maybe there's an end to dirty diapers in sight.

sleeping again
Ally started sleeping again. I'm partially recovered after this weekend. I don't know what her problem was. Or how it got fixed. Sometimes kids have a radar though. It tells them when they've gone far enough that they are about to be disowned. When the radar goes off, they switch back to sweetness mode.

dishes
Rob started to wash some dishes today. Ally ran over to him and tried to climb up and started whining. She wanted to help. So, he told her to get a chair and she could. She ran right over and pushed a chair right up to the sink and climbed up. She knew just what she was doing too. She grabbed the scrubby wand and stuck it in the cups and pulled it in and out. She took a long time on each cup before she decided she was done and Rob could have it to rinse it off (and properly wash it). She had a lot of fun. Of course, when she was done she ran over to tell me about it and got me soaking wet.

birds
Ally climbed up on Rob's lap and gave him a crayon and some paper to draw with. So, he drew her a sun and some clouds and some little v shaped birds flying. She loved the birds. She's now obsessed with making him draw them. She puts the crayon in his hand and tries to move his arm while saying "buds". He's tried to teach her to draw them, but she would rather he do it.

gold-bug
Rob tells Ally to get a book before bed so he can read it to her. Lately, she brings him the biggest ones she can find. She brought the gold-bug book (Otherwise known and Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go") to him tonight. He didn't know it was the gold-bug book though. She kept saying bug and he didn't know why. I told him that there is a little gold-bug hiding on every page, so he started looking for them with her. She found quite a few without help. Some of them, she even found before he did. The book was too long for one sitting, but she was pretty interested in finding that bug.

rain
Ally started singing in the car tonight for no apparant reason. She said "rain, rain, go, go" a couple times. I guess they must have taught her "Rain, Rain, Go Away" at day care at some point. First I ever heard of it.

Newspaper ad I'm going to place
Nearly new little girl. Almost 2 years old. Blond hair, blue eyes, chubby little cheeks. Starting to speak well. Likes to play games. Gets lots of sleep. Almost potty-trained. Loves the bath. Free to loving home. No exchanges

Favorite words are no and stop. Favorite game is dumping her food on the floor. Sleeps in 2-3 hours naps only. Sticks her hands in her diaper after she's pooped. Occasionally poops in the bath. Someone save me!

UM....
Monday, Ally was sitting my stomach while I was laying down, just before her bedtime. I asked her if she wanted to sing some songs. She said "roun an roun" So, we sang the wheels on the bus. I got to the mommies on the bus part, and she said "stop" I sang a little more and she said "no stop stop" so I said "ok what do you want to sing then?" she looked up a little and said "UM... wah, wah wah" (which is the babies on the bus) It was just the cutest thing though. I've never heard her say um, while she was thinking of an answer before. She did it again last night. I asked her what she wanted to sing and she said um then ran to the book cabinet to get the book with songs in it.

songs
Ally has a bunch of songs she likes to sing. She's actually starting to sing a little more than just doing the motions too.

Wheels on the bus. This has always been one of her favorites. She rolls her hands around for the wheels and says "roun an roun". She "beep, beep"s for the horn and pushes an imaginary horn. The baby's on the bus are supposed to be making fists and rubbing their eyes, but mostly Ally's babies put the backs of their hands to their eyes and blink and open and close their hands. Mommies say "shh". She just recently started to join in on "all around the town" too.

Itsy bitsy spider. She started to sing a little on this one. She says "Sun" "up" "mumble-mumble pider"

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes. She makes me point to everything, cause she can't do it fast enough. She says "hep" then puts my hands on her head and pushes the button to make the song start. She calls the song "toesh".

Have you ever seen a Zoe. This one's kinds strange. The tune is what I remember as "the more we get together" but it goes like this.
Have you ever seen a Zoe, a Zoe, a Zoe
Have you Ever seen a Zoe, spin this way and that
It came on one of those music books where you push the button that matches the picture in the story. She just sways back and forth saying "Zoe, Zoe, Zoe" (or trying to, I can't even descibe what it actually sounds like.)

20 months pics
OKay, finally got Ally's 20 month pictures posted out there

Crocs
We went to Payless about a montha ago to get Ally's feet sized. While we were there, she latched onto a pair of pink crocs (those little plastic clog-like shoes) and wouldn't let go. They were too big for her, but she didn't care. She put them on and wouldn't let me try anything else on her, or even measure her foot very well. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in her size. They called another sore for me, but couldn't find any. So, we left the store screaming without them.

Last weekend, we found the same shoes at the Paylesss in the mall. We found a pair that fit. She was so excited. She didn't even wait for me to take her shoes off her before trying to put the new ones on. She even wore them the other day without socks. She never wears shoes without shoes. She hates it. Rob was shaking his head at her. He says it's too early for her to be shopping and picking out shoes. Boy is he in for a surprise.

She wears a 6 now. My god she's getting bigger too fast

colors
Ally knows quite a few of her colors now.
boo
wet
geen
yewo
pint
purp

By far, her favorite is yellow. It's usually her first choice if she doesn't know what color something is.

counting
Last night on the way home from day care I got a surprise. I started counting with Ally to keep her occupied. This is how the conversation went.
Me Ally
1 No
2 No
3 No
4 No
5 6
???????
7 7
8

9

10

Yay Yay (clapping)

She did that 2 or 3 times and even threw in the first numbers. I asked at the day care this morning and they said they count every day at lunch. They said they thought they told me. I was astonished.

yellow
Ally got herself wet Sunday, so Ibrought up an outfit to change her into. She saw it and got really excited. she started shaking and clapping and yelled "yewo". It's her favorite color

Room 5
Well, Ally didn't seem to have any trouble adjusting to the new room. Like I said before, most of the class went with her. Jayden is younger than I thought, so he is still with her too. Hope he controls himself.

The new room has lots of older toys and stuff. The teachers were really working on manners at the table when I came in to pick up Ally. They said things liek "Ellie, it's not nice to put your feet on the table. We don't do that here" and "Alec, we don't throw our cups" The last room thought they were doing good to keep everybody sitting. Ally showed me some of the toys on the way out. I think she likes it.

sit and spin
Saturday we took Ally to the mall. She rode the merry-go-round twice. The second time, we sat in one of those seats that turn and have the disk in the middle you can slow or speed up with. She understood the idea, and was turning us with it a little. So, we got her sit and spin down for her to play with on Sunday.

It took her a little while to get the concept, but not very long. She was turning and saying whee. She calls it her roundan (as in round and round and round...). She told me to sit on it last night, and was very insistant. I couldn't convince her I wouldn't fit.