life, the universe, and everything birthday related

OK, here it is. The massive update I've been putting off, because there's so much freakin stuff that's happened:

Thanksgiving
We went to my maternal grandma's house. They live out in the middle of the country with fields all around. Grandpa was a farmer until just recently, but not the fields around his house? or something. I don't really know. I think someone else used them for cattle?? Anyway. They were all empty. All the way back to the pond. The kids all wanted to go out to the pond for some reason, so Ally went with. It was absolutely gorgeous weather, and she wasn't even wearing a coat. Beautiful. She ran! This is the girl who never walks along faster than she has too. She runs with her arms all crooked and her elbows sticking out, but she ran. She had a great time chasing her cousins. Then we got to the pond and played a bit. We threw small rocks in the water for a while. I wished I had a good camera lens, because from the opposite bank, I couldn't get any good pictures. Very sad. We ate. We played. Anya cruised between people, fell down roughly 38 times, and took a short nap.

Then there was cake. I got the cake out and set it on the table. Ally promptly stuck her finger in it and asked if it was real. That's what I get for giving her a fake cake to pose for pictures with, I guess. So we pulled her chair away from the table while I got the candles in and lit. As soon as we scooted her up to the table she blew out all the candles with one breath. Only problem was that no one was ready for pictures and we hadn't even sung yet. So I re-lit them and we tried again. She didn't get them all out with one breath the second time though. She ate cake. She got presents. She was happy. She also got to go back outside with my uncle and some other people for quite a while. She was outside as much of the day as was possible. She did not get a nap. She did not get to bed on time.

On a sad note, my grandparents are getting old. My grandma is getting signs of early Alzheimer's. My grandpa broke his ankle recently. They are both starting to, well, be old. I don't know quite what to say about it, except that it makes me very sad.

Ally's Birthday
We woke up and let Ally play a bit Friday while we were getting ready to hit the road. Just before we left, we let her open the rest of our presents. The trip of the day was planned for just before lunch so that she could eat in the car (and hopefully Stop Talking for a few minutes to give our ears a break. The kid never stops talking, so this was a necesary precaution). We were headed for Rob's mom's 2.5 hours away. Anya spent most of the trip playing or at least mostly happy. Her nap ended right before we left, so it worked out well that she was in a good mood. Ally, however would not take a nap (Day 2). And she made us stop to pee twice. Other than that the trip wasn't terrible.

We played outside when we got to Darra's. Rob's sister and kids were down visiting too, and had raked up a large leaf pile that Ally was perfectly happy to thrash around in. I gave Anya to Darra and Rob who were at the porch swing in the back yard and jumped in the leaves with her for a bit. Very liberating to play like that. Must do it more often. When I went back to get Anya and talk, she was trying to gag and spit out a little bit of the leaf that Rob had let her eat. What is it with fathers? You ask them to watch the kids and they do just that. Why don't they understand that "watching" them isn't a passive thing? You should not "watch" them eat leaves. Do somethng about it! Oh hey, I think that was a rant that snuck it's way into my story. Sorry about that. Anyway. We went for supper that night at the restaurant that I used to work at. Yummy. I love their pizza. Miss that place. Ally slept all night. Anya didn't. Grr.

Second Thanksgiving (Saturday)
Darra brought in one of those push/ride-on toys for babies to learn to walk. It was a train with a horn that Anya loved to push. The batteries soon mysteriously disappeared. (Oh my aching head). She pulled up on it and had a good old time with it. I sat her on it a couple times and let Ally push her around. Oh, they loved it. I think Anya is about ready to have one of her own. Ally never really liked to play with hers at that age. She just liked to pull up the seat and put things in the little storage area under it. Surprise! That's still her favorite thing and she is still doing it. Anya seriously liked riding though. Darra had all of her in-laws over for dinner. One little boy there was 4 and he and Ally went out to play in the leaves again. They played together pretty well. Rob's nephew got stuck in a tree. A neighbor's cat came to visit and wouldn't go away, even when Ally picked it up by the back legs and threw it in the leaf pile. She wanted it to play with her. It is actually a very even-tempered cat and let Ally pet it and hold it quite a bit. Nap time came and Ally laid in a bed upstairs, but with so much excitement going on, I let her get up and play after an hour of laying there staring at the ceiling. No nap Day 3. OMG!!!! Can you say crankiness (but only in the evening hours. The daytime was just fine)?

After everyone's stomach had time to adjust, we dragged out yet another birthday cake and sang and opened presents. Ally was very interested in her dress-up princess set and immediately had to have her ponies opened so she could put the babies in her "purse". Oh, and of course she had some more cake. She also loved her Rudolph stuffed toy. Conveniently, I had bought her Rudolph and the Misfit toys and she hadn't seen it yet, so she watched it while holding her Rudolph on the way home.

Sunday we rested. Oh and cleaned. Yuck.

Monday she took cupcakes to day care. Kid had lots of cake this year. No wonder she wants cake for Christmas.

Shew... That was long. Last weekend's update is much easier:

Thursday = rain + sleet. All. Day.
Friday = snow. over ice. yuck. Ally played in her new snowsuit.
Saturday = Santa at the mall. oh yes, pictures were taken. Check out Flickr.
Sunday = sledding. We found a really, very, large, humongous hill for sledding. Anya was supposed to be sleeping and Rob would stay with her. It didn't work out that way. I took Ally anyway. They stayed in the car. We went halfway up the small side of the hill and sledded down together. Then I got the wonderful idea of just sledding down the embankment on the far side instead. Much less scary heights. Plus it had the added bonus of being sloped enough that I could just leave Ally on the sled and pull her up then turn her around. She had a good time. Then Rob and I switched kids and she kinda got bratty. I think she was cold and he took her higher than I had, so she was scared. For some reason, he thought she'd enjoy going down the humongous hill. Duh. This kid has suddenly become afraid of the slide in the backyard. oh well. I think I would've had a blast without the kids. THe hill was slick and fast. I love sledding. Or at least I think I did. I haven't done it forever, and had a good time going with Ally.

Is that everything? God I hope so. I have to go see if there's anything I haven't eaten yet out there. Going to gain 10 pounds today.

Red Day
Today is red day at work. This means that the whole Information Services department brings in food for Christmas to share. Oh. my. God. There is so much good stuff out there. I have to pee very badly, but don't want to get up because I'll have to walk past the food again and I know I'll find something that I haven't yet seen and have to have. I currently have at my desk - 4.5 cookies, a little spicy roll-up thing, a piece of pineapple upsidedown cake, some almond bark covered snack mix, a cupcake, a lemon bar, dip with Hawain bread, and some little mints. Oh, I need to pee! I wonder what I'll come back with this time...

IRS refund

Hey, I got an email about a refund from the IRS. When yuou file your taxes this year, make sure you don't miss it. Here's the scoop: (Oh, and snopes.com verified it.

http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/excise.asp

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tax refund on your phone bill

When it comes time to prepare and file your 2006 tax return, make sure
you don't overlook the federal excise tax refund credit.  You claim the
credit on line 71 of your form 1040.  A similar line will be available
if you file the short form 1040A.   If you have family or friends who
no longer file a tax return AND they have their own land phone in their
home and have been paying a phone bill for years, make sure they know
about this form 1040EZ-T.

What is this all about?  Well the federal excise tax has been charge to
you on your phone bill for years. It is an old tax that was assessed on
your toll calls based on how far the call was being made and how much
time you talked on that call.  When phone companies began to offer flat
fee phone service, challenges to the excise tax ended up in federal
courts in several districts of the country. 

The challenges pointed out that flat fee/rate phone service had nothing
to do with the distance and the length of the phone call.   Therefore,
the excise tax should/could not be assessed.

The IRS has now conceded this argument.  Phone companies have been
given notice to stop assessing the federal excise tax as of Aug 30, 2006. 
You will most likely see the tax on your September cutoff statement,
but it should NOT be on your October bill.

But the challengers of the old law also demanded restitution.  So the
IRS has announced that a one time credit will be available when you and
I file our 2006 tax return as I explained above.  However, the IRS also
established limits on how BIG a credit you can get.  Here's how it
works.

  If you file your return as a single person with just you as a
dependent, you get to claim a $30 credit on line 71 of your 1040.

  If you file with a child or a parent as your dependent, you claim
$40.

  If you file your return as a married couple with no children, you
claim $40.

  If you file as married with children, you claim $50 if one child, 
$60 if two children.

  In all cases, the most you get to claim is $60 - UNLESS you have all
your phone bills starting AFTER Feb 28, 2003 through July 31, 2006 (do
not use any bills starting Aug 1, 2006.), then you can add up the
ACTUAL TAX AS IT APPEARS ON YOUR BILLS AND CLAIM THAT FOR A CREDIT.

Now if you have your actual phone bills and come up with an ACTUAL TAX
AMOUNT, you cannot use line 71 on your tax return.  You have to
complete a special form number 8913 and attach it to your tax return.

Individuals using the special from 1040EZ-T will have to attach this
form 8913 also.

One final point - this credit is a refundable credit.  That means you
get this money, no matter how your tax return works out.  If you would
end up owing the IRS a balance, the refund will reduce that balance you
owe. 

If you end up getting a refund, the credit will be added and you get a
bigger refund by that $30 to $60, depending on how many dependents are
on your return.

Feel free to pass this on or make copies for family and friends who
don't have computers.

3 year checkup

I took Ally for her 3 year checkup on Monday. 36.5 inches tall. 34 pounds. No shots! Then I decided that wasn't good enough and asked them for a flu shot. I'm terrible. I had discussed with her ahead of time that she was gong to get a shot and it would hurt a little, but when she was done she'd get a sucker and sticker. Everytime she saw someone new (the receptionist, the nurse, the doctor, the doctor again after interupting the exam to go potty, the nurse again when she came back to give her a shot) she made sure to tell them she didn't want a shot. We told her it wasn't time yet and she went on about her business. But when she got the shot? She screamed! You would have thought I was pulling out her fingernails. She sobbed. "I didn't want a shot! You gave me a shot and I didn't want a shot! It hurts! I didn't want a shot!" She got a sucker and it helped a little. She didn't really stop crying though until I showed her all the stickers and she got to pick one out. When she went to bed that night, she was laying in bed and I had gone back upstairs. I heard her yelling. Rob checked on her and told me that she was yelling because there was a sticker on her arm. It was the band-aid over the shot.

The rest of the checkup went pretty good. The Dr asked Ally a bunch of questions, some of which she actually deigned to answer. He asked if she could count to 5 and said 1. Ally stared at him blankly. So I wispered in her ear "3?" So she disagreed with me and told me I was wrong, cause she can't pass up an opportunity to do that. She then counted the rest of the way to 5. He asked her what color his shirt was (red). What color my shirt was (blue). What color his shoes were (I don't know). They were black. She knows that. She just thought she was being funny. So I asked her what color mine were. She said "the same as his". He accepted that answer as good enough. He asked how old she was (I'm 3 (fwee) years old!) Then he asked if she is a boy or a girl. (No, I'm 3 (fwee) years old!) So I asked "is Mommy a boy?" and she said "No, you're a girl". It was here that the dr decided he had asked enough questions. And he commented on her stubbornness. All in all it went well. It took forever, because she had to pee twice, but oh well. She hasn't had an "accident" for over a week now. Hooray.

She's my girl

What does Ally want for Christmas this year? Cake Hah! She wants cake with icing. I've asked her a million times this past week and I always get the same answer. I try to trick her and ask what she would like to unwrap - Cake. Like mother, like daughter.

TMI Tuesday #6 - The Uncle Tom Edition

When I was in high school, I had a slave. Ok, he wasn't my slave, but he was community property. I was free to use his services if I chose to be lazy. Me and my husband's group of friends that adopted me were all upperclassmen. A sophomore wanted to be friends with them. He talked to them and hung around them. In exchange for letting Billy hang out at our table at lunch, he had to be our slave. We gave him our orders and money, and he went and stood in line and fetched our food for us. Sometimes we'd call him Billy and sometimes we'd just say "Hey, slave." He was a pretty good kid, but I don't know what the hell possessed him to agree to this. I mean really? Why? What would be worth it? Anyway, we didn't really treat him badly or anything, and he kept coming back, so it must not have bothered him.

When he became a junior (I was a senior and my husband had graduated) it all ended. He started dating Abby (the really annoying girl who was friends with my husband's ex-girlfriend) and just became a real person. I feel kind of bad about it occasionally, but mostly, I remember it fondly. It was nice while it lasted. Those cafeteria lines were long. I enjoyed not having to stand in them. 

Does that make me a bad person? Nope? ok, I'll accept lazy.

to all my co-workers

When you see someone walking around with a large bag over their (yes, I know that's bad grammer, I just don't care) shoulder, you shouldn't automatically assume they are going home. Especially in December without a coat. if you ask "Goin' home?" you just might get an answer you don't expect. I try not to shout it from the rooftops, but if I just say "No" you look at me like I'm rude. It's really none of your business. If you wouldn't ask - you wouldn't have to be faced with the fact that I'm about to go pump my boobs. Just don't ask.

Thanks
Katie

more pics
Same link as before.  Also, I'm in the process of putting up some at Flickr. Had a busy weekend. Will tell you all about it soon.

Well, crap...

I was all proud of myself for being at work when everyone else couldn't make it in, and then I had to come home. Anya got sick at daycare. She threw up twice. I think she's just draining a bunch of snot and her belly is a little upset, because she's acting just fine. She even slept last night and woke up happy this morning. She let Rob get her out of the crib and was happily playing when I got out of the shower this morning!

So anyway, we bought Ally some boots because she just grew past the boots I had. First they were too big, now they're too small. She went outside to play and help Rob break up all the ice blocking the back doors. She had a good time and got to use the snowsuit that Darra got her for her birthday. Great timing! (She actually got it for her a long time ago and left it with me in case I needed it before her birthday, but I didn't) Now, it's almost nap time. Maybe I'll even get one today!

pictures

I got one set of pictures back. These are the ones we took with my sisters kids.

SNOW!

Okay, so this morning, there was a giant sheet of ice on the car and it took forever to get it our of the driveway so we could drive our truck to work. Most other people did not even try. We were the only ones in our parking lot and the others were pretty deserted too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first is our lonely car in our parking lot. I turned around and took the second. There's going to be no one at work today. I wouldn't be surprised if they send us all home.

Updated: The phones all around me are ringing like crazy. I've seen about 5 people that work here. No one else has shown up yet. My boss got stuck in his driveway. So did one of my co-workers. Another's day care closed. There is only about 4 inches of snow, but there is a solid layer of ice under is. It rained all day yesterday then turned to sleet. Oh what fun!

Photo Friday

This was last week at Grandma Darra's house. Both kids had lots of fun. (and Anya only ate one leaf)

Busy, busy, busy
I realize that it seems I've forgotten to mention much of last week's festivites. Not so. I only haven't had time. You see we've done so much. We had Thanksgiving(s) and Birthday party(ies) and car trips and all sorts of neat things. I'll get to it eventually, I'm sure. With pictures even (that's what I've been working on). I have some all set for tomorrow and need to work on more. But right now I need to go pretend I'm a cow (moo! Oh wait, was that Too Much Information? Damn, and it's not even Tuesday!)

This could be bad
I ordered Christmas cards from Penney's last time I went. I don't rememebr choosing the text for the card. I wonder if it's too late? I wonder what will show up? If it's something generic, or "Insert your text here"? If Penney's will return my call soon...

oh, and Beth is doing a Christmas card swap. I think that's a neat idea. If anyone wants to do it, let me know. I love Christmas cards!

Oh,Thank God!

I took Anya to the Dr this afternoon. She has an ear infectino! She's not just crying for no understandable reason. She's in pain!

Ok, maybe that's not exactly good news, but um, it's pretty close.

The worst part, though, is that she didn't even have a fever. That sucks. It means that I have no way of knowing if she's just being a butt, or is actually hurting.

Anya's doctor didn't have any open appointments today, so I saw a different one at the practice. He said their standard protocol is to refer to an ENT after 3 months of not clearing fluid or 6 infections in a year. If I remember right (and I am going to check my archives as soon as I'm done with this) she was first diagnosed with fluid on Oct 15th. So, we're almost there. She's not clearing the fluid between infections just like Ally. hopefully we can get her tubes much earlier and avoid much of the pain and suffering all around. I really don't want Anya's hearing affected. We caught Ally's in time, but her speech was a little delayed because of her ear problems.

She's sleeping right now with ear drops soaking into her little ear. I hope it helps. Poor kid.

Pictures

My mom wanted to get her annual group pictures of all her grandkids taken, so we did it last Sunday. it was kinda crazy. My mom has 6 grandkids - my 2 and my sister's 4. Two of Christy's live with mom. 1 lives with my aunt Ruth. 1 lives part time with Christy and part time with his dad (I think? i try not to ask questions. It's just easier that way) So we all descended upon JCPenney's at 3:00. Well, not all of us. Christy and Bamako were late. After waiting a while, I got someone's attention and told them we hadn't been checked in yet. They didn't have my appointment written down. Grrr. So they said they'd work us in. Since Christy wasn't there yet, I was okay with the plan. Whatever. but, she still wasn't there when it was our turn. So we took individual pictures of all the kids. Christy's girls were all in matching clothes as were my girls. Mom bought all the outfits to coordinate. We had just about run out of kids to photograph when Christy showed up. So we got some with all the kids and some with just Christy's. It actually turned out okay.

Then Wednesday, it was time for just my kids monthly pictures. We needed Anya's 7 month, Ally's 3 year, Ally's Christmas, Anya's Christmas, and the two of them together. Last time I got Anya's, she was very cooperative and happy. It was at 11:00, so I scheduled this one for as close to that as i could. I picked the kids up early from daycare and took the day off. Apparently, 10:00 is NOT a good time for Ally to get her pictures taken. Oy! I wanted to strangle her! She wouldn't hold still. She wouldn't look at the camera. She stood when she should have sat. She sat when she should have stood. She screwed her face up when she smiled. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She's only been to Penney's for pictures, like, 30 times before. At one point I actually hugged her tight so that I coudl try to control my anger. God, I'm not getting enough sleep. Anya was in a great mood. She smiled wonderfully and entertained herself in the cart while Ally got most of her pictures taken. The bad thing is that Ally used up all of Anya's patience. By the end, it sucked. Anya was not happy. We didn't get many good ones of Anya in her Christmas dress. i was so mad. They looked so adorable and Ally screwed it up. She just had too much energy. It looks like I'm going to have to start taking them seperately or something. I'll have them digitally soon, but won't put up the Christmas ones until after I've sent out cards.

I'm thinking of taking them to the mall this afternoon for Santa pics. Yes, I'm insane.

It ain't just a river in Egypt

Anya isn't sleeping. I haven't wanted to mention it, because I was afraid that by putting it in writing, it would be real. But from the way I feel lately, I can tell that denial just isn't going to work anymore. Recently, her longest stretch of upinterrupted sleep is right around 2 hours. That means mine is shorter. Sometimes she goes back to sleep easily and sometimes she's up forever (like last night). Mostly, I want to grab her by the arms and shake some sense into her. So instead, I nurse her and cry. I know she's not hungry, but it puts her back to sleep...

We have tried a bunch of different techniques to get her to sleep. I have tried sleeping with her. Nope. I have tried sleeping next to her on the floor so I can soothe her before she gets really woken up. Nope. I have tried feeding her more often while she's awake in case she's not getting enough to eat during the day. Nope. I have tried giving her more solid foods. Nope. I have tried giving her less solid foods. Nope. I don't know if you noticed that I said "We" have been trying different things, but all the different things "I" have tried? That's becaue it's Rob's idea to try all these things. He thinks that it would harm the kid in some way to cry herself to sleep. He can't soothe her, so I have to. "We" agreed that we wouldn't let our children cry, so I have to follow through with it. It's not working. I'm a basket case. I started crying this morning when Rob merely suggested that I get out of bed earlier so that I'm not late for work. The problem was that I tried to get ready this morning, but Anya screamed everytime I left her side. I'm so frustrated. I told Rob that if she's not sleeping by the end of the year, I'm doing CIO whether he likes it or not. I'm not a big proponent of the idea, but when nothing else works, you can't afford to rule out any possibilities, right? Oh god, I hope it doesn't come to that. I think I can handle Anya's crying, but not my husband's bitching.

TMI Tuesday #5 - How I met my husband - Part 2

When I moved, I had a couple weeks off school. My old school had cut the semester at the end of the year, but the new school's semester didn't end until mid-January. In the meantime, I didn't really have anything to do except settle in. (Oh, and get a job. Because we were poor and if I wanted to have any money, I needed to make it myself.) I found out that there was a scholastic bowl team at the new school. It sounded like fun. Geeky fun, sure, but fun. I like trivia. I'm really not all that good at it, but what the hey? So I signed up. The practices had just started, so I didn't really miss anything. I went to my first one after school got out one day before I had even started attending school yet. So the first people I met were the quiz bowl kids.

They were great. There was this group of friends that accepted me right away. They saw that I wasn't an idiot and made me one of their own. Tim was the captain. Rob did science and math. Jeremy (Ford) did more math. There was one other person, whose name I can't really remember. Abby and Emily did english and mythology. Bill and I ended up being subs. Oh my god. Just writing this makes me seem like such a dork. but it wasn't really like that. We Most of us weren't geeks. We were just smarter than the average population and chose to hang out with other intelligent people. It was nice to be able to talk about more than just who was going drinking with whom, etc.

I'm not a very confident person most of the time. I dealt with this in high school by attaching myself to a boyfriend and joining his group of friends. I wanted to be in this group, so I found an unattached guy - Bill. We started dating. I later found out that the rest of the group weren't really that close to Bill until I joined them. He was kinda the idiot of the group. They hung out with him more because of me. Oh well. Rob was dating Emily and Abby was Emily's best friend. Mostly Rob Emily Abby and one guy not in the group hung out. Then me and Bill. I got tired of Bill pretty quickly and we broke up. Bill kind of dropped out of the circle a little. Rob got this idea that I should date Tim, so I did. He was a nice guy and a great friend, but I just wasn't all that interested long term. We went to prom together with Rob and Emily. After a while, I broke up with Tim, I started dating someone else back in my hometown because I still visited pretty often. (Tim was fine with it. In fact, when he came to visit me in college one time, I set him up with my old roommate, who is now his wife)

I got along with Emily okay. She wasn't really a person I'd pick to be friends with, but I liked Rob, so Emily was around. She was a really needy person and kinda whiney. I didn't like Abby at all. One of the many times I went back to my hometown to visit, Rob and Emily broke up. By this time it was summer. Rob was going to go to Basic training soon, because he was in the National Guard. Rob decided that he wanted to go camping before he left. But his tent wasn't good enough for some reason. I don't remember why. He enlisted my help to create a tent out of mosquito netting, duct tape, and pvc pipes. Of course, I had to try it out too, so I lied to mom, and went camping with him. He cooked me macaroni and cheese over the campfire. That was the best mac and cheese I've ever had. We watched the sun set through the mosquito netting, laying on a blow up air mattress. I don't remember how it happened, but we ended up in a tickle fight. Rob didn't know it at the time, but I'm not really ticklish. I have found that being ticklish is a great excuse for a guy to have his hands on you though, so I feign it on occasion. I think I got about 80 mosquito bites that night because we hadn't gotten the tent up early enough for it to really work and mostly we just trapped the bugs in with us.

When he left for Basic a couple days later, we were together. We talked on the phone and wrote letters while he was away. I moved in with him the second half of my senior year. We broke up about 3,3221,435 times, but always managed to get back together. Good or bad, he is one of the reasons I am who I am today.

When I write it down like this, it just doesn't really sound all that interesting. There are a lot of holes in the story. Some of those are because I don't remember. I had some bad shit happen to me when I was younger and my memory was affected, I think. There are big chunks of my life that I don't remember. Some of it's missing just because it was just life. You know, all that stuff that they never put in the soap operas because it's just too boring - going to the bathroom, paying the bills, going to work, high school, etc. Mostly, it doesn't really matter anymore. We're together - that's what is important. So most of the time when someone asks how we met, I just say "We went to high school together." I mean "We shared a life" and we still do.

Wednesday? How did that happen

Tuesday came and went at my house. It left me lying in bed most of the day with a congestion, a sore throat, and headache from hell. I stayed home from work. I got nothing accomplished. I took lots of medicine. And now, I have to get ready for the weekend. Yikes. Tomorrow we go to my grandma's for Thanksgiving and a birthday party. Tomorrow, we let Ally open some stuff at home and then drive to Rob's mom's. Saturday, we have t-day meal again and another birthday party. So, yeah, busy. Gonna have to wait til next week to finish the story of Rob and I.

Anyway, I feel really bad lumping her birthday party into holiday visits instead of celebrating it separately, but that's the only way the whole family will be able to do it. otherwise, there's just no way to get everyone together. Too much going on. So I channeled my guilt into presents. I just realized this because I just finished wrapping them, and I went way overboard. Now, most of them are books and movies, but it looks like she has a mountain to unwrap. Oh well. I had fun getting them, and I'm positive she'll have fun too.

Now I've got to go start gathering things. Yikes!

and of course, a little about poop

Ally only had one accident all weekend. Saturday morning, I was in the shower when Ally woke up. Rob was upstairs with Anya and I blame him (of course). Ally came looking for me. She did not go immediately to the potty without Passing Go like I always do in the morning with her. So she peed in her panties. She is determined to where them to bed, so I let her. She has done really well. I think I'm going to have to donate her left over pull-ups soon. Yay.

Saturday night I was downstairs nursing Anya and Ally was watching TV upstairs. Rob was in the bedroom messing with a computer that we're trying to get set up to give Ally for Christmas. (I got my first computer when I was 19. Rob - when he was 24 or so? She'll be 3)  Ally started talking very loudly to me as she was coming down the stairs. When she got closer, I heard what she was saying and yelled for Rob to deal with it. She was carrying her potty seat cup downstairs because she needed to dump it in the toliet. She had pooped all by herself!

I believe that it just had to be her idea to potty-train. We used the pee-pee timer for a while. The potty wasn't an option anymore, it was just a matter of when. We had control with the timer. So she took the control away from us and peed in her pants on purpose. We stopped using the timer and she was back in control. The potty still wasn't an option, but the timing was all under her control, so she goes now. Maybe I'm just attributing motives, but that's how it seems to me. She's stubborn like that. She comes by it honestly