Halloween Pics

Alli was a bumble bee this year. We celebrated the same as last year - with the Searle's, the Searle's, and the Rosings at the festival in Fountain Hills. If you find the picture from last year, you will see that the group has grown - by 3 kids!!! Yes, all of their families have had another child within the year. Pretty cool!

Ovejita! Where *is* that Little Lamb?!

Alli has a lamb blanket that she has cuddled since she was quite small. Kim and I used to call it "lamby", cause really, what do you name a lamb blanket? Well, Sesame Street came up with a better name.... They have a segment on the show now called "Murray has a Little Lamb". It's cute. Murray is an orange monster and Ovejita is a lamb that speaks spanish. Anyway, according to Sesame Street, Ovejita is "little lamb" in spanish (pronounced o-vay-heeta) Anyway, we started calling Alli's lamb blanket "Ovejita" and lately she's been asking for the lamb, wandering around the house saying "jita, jita".

Last night, she had Ovejita and walked into her room, threw Ovejita into the crib, climbed up the crib and managed to plop herself into it, laid on top of Ovejita and said "night, night". Apparently tired, I decided it must be time for bed - at 6:45pm. Might as well. She was asking for it!! And luckily Ovejita doesn't really care what time she goes to bed. :D

Potty?

Yesterday Alli was more inquisitive than ever about Mommy going to the potty. So I talked to her while she watched and then let her flush the toilet. I lost her in the house about 10 minutes later. Where did I find her? In another bathroom. Or rather, inside the toilet of another bathroom. I think she thought she could climb up and sit on the toilet like a big girl, but she wasn't expecting all that water! I laughed and cringed all at the same time while I grabbed her out of the toilet and started stripping the wet clothes off of her.

Today she was still inquisitive, so I asked her if she wanted to go potty. I finished and then stripped her down and set her on the toilet. She definitely knew what to do - she was pushing trying to get anything to come out, but she didn't really have to go. We've done that twice today and she's so proud when she does it (although still nothing has come out). But she'll see me go potty and then she keeps saying "potty, potty" so I put her there.

I don't thinks he's ready to start potty training, but maybe things will go pretty smoothly when she is if she already has the mechanics figured out!

Mommy's Helper

It's been such a while since I've blogged and lots has happened. Kim and I went on vacation without child - 8 days of rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It was amazing. Alli spent 10 days in Houston with my brother, sister-in-law, and her 3 cousins. Everyone had a great time!

When we met her at the airport, she didn't recognize us. Kinda scary to think that she would forget in only 10 days, but it happened. It didn't take long, and then she was super clingy! That has lasted for the last 6 days (much longer than I was expecting)! But now she's back to playing by herself at times and doesn't need to be physically touching me every minute she's awake. :D

This weekend we had lots of projects as everything seemed to break while we were on vacation. And mommy found she had a new helper, cause everything I worked on, Alli was right there and actually helped. We defrosted the fridge (to try to fix a problem) and she helped me pull everything out of it to put into coolers. And when we were done, she helped me pull everything out of the coolers and put it back into the fridge. Laundry? Same thing. Now she's trying to help me cook too, but I have to draw the line.... ;)

Climbing the slide

Alli the climber

Yay Pictures!

We finally processed the pictures we took for Alli's 15 month photo shoot.




We really love her big toothy smile, and wouldn't you know this was the only shot where we captured it fully!

The Wellness Check

So Alli and I went in today for her 15 month wellness check. Here are her stats:

Height: 29.5" (18th percentile)
Weight: 19.2 lbs (4th percentile!)
Head Circumference: 17.8" (25th percentile)

So we have a short, skinny, big-headed baby! hahaha just kidding.

We were really hoping for 20 lbs though so we could turn her carseat around. Oh well. Maybe by 18 months...


Alli did a great job being examined. When they needed to look into her ears, I picked her up and told her to lay her head on my shoulder, which she did, and stayed very, very still. Perfect! She did that on both sides and even laid still so Joelle could listen to her breathing. And when we were done with that, she lifted her head up and looked at Joelle and said "thank you". AWWWWW!!!! We both were caught up in her sweetness with that one!


On another note, today I decided to introduce Alli to her stuffed animal shelf. It's pretty high so she's never really noticed them. This morning she went after the black lab stuffed animal, which I thought was oh so cute since it looks just like Bagheera. At nap time she pointed to the shelf and I said "sure, you can pick out a friend to nap with." So she did. And I was a little surprised by this choice. A nice, soft cuddly....red lobster!?!?! Clearly she doesn't understand "lobster". :D She hugged it and cuddled it all the same and it just made me laugh.

Alli at 15 Months

I know I haven't posted in a while, it seemed like there was nothing to talk about. Life has been fun, but not changing as much as the weeks in Alli's first year. I suppose that's what happens. But today I was trying to figure out what to blog about and it dawned on me there are some things to mention.

Alli likes showers, baths, swimming...anything to do with water. Right now in the tub we let the water run slowly and she dunks her head under it! We're thinking that came from her times in the shower (we've been very lazy parents and this summer she got many more showers with Mommy than baths.)

If I had to mention a favorite shape, I would say circle. I think it's mostly because she spends all of her time playing with things that are circular - cups, bowls, drink shakers... And if you give her a shape sorter, she only sorts the circle. The other shapes seem to baffle her, although tonight was the first time I saw her put her shapes in correctly for one of her games. That one had circle, square, triangle, and star. I was quite proud of that feet.

Favorite color? Maybe purple? And I only say that because it's the only one she is trying to say. ;) That and we have some beads that she plays with and the ones she carries around the most are the purple ones.

Favorite veggie: peas. Without a doubt.
Favorite fruit: tough one, but I'm going to have to go with mandarin oranges.


Friday the family went to the zoo. Alli was super cute. Finally, she can see the animals. Before, she could only see things if they were moving. Now she can just look and see there is an animal. Everything was a doggie. :D We fed the giraffes and went to the petting zoo to pet the goats. Alli was very happy with the little goats. In fact she went up to most of them, gave them pats on the back, then laid her head on their back, and then kissed them. Kim and I were baffled - how come *we* don't get that much loving!?!?!?

This weekend has been rough in the napping department. Alli woke up from her nap both Saturday and Sunday screaming. It took us a little bit to realize what was happening since we couldn't calm her down. Teething. Molars... So we got the baby oragel and put it on her gums. While doing that, I felt a couple of points on both upper sides, so part of the upper teeth have broken through. I couldn't feel anything on the lower, so I'm sure we'll be in for more pain later.

Hopefully pictures soon. We took some for her "15 month" and are planning on going through them.

Love the Music!

This weekend I decided it was time to get a few more toys for Alli. I can't remember the last time I actually went toy shopping for her - not even for her first birthday! (Shhh!!) So Alli and I went to Target to get some things. She's been interested in coloring/writing, so I got her one of those coloring books with special markers so they only write on the coloring book. Wow - expensive! So we started with just 1. And I got her a little travel etcha-sketch. That's a nice easy doodler without having to worry about her coloring everything in the house. I also wanted to get her some musical toys. Well, I might have gotten a little carried away in that department... I really only got her 3 things but...

I got her a drum that when you hit it, it says a letter of the alphabet. It has an English and a Spanish mode. It also has different modes that you can just create music, or make it sound like different drums... And I got her a little xylophone. I like it because it not only has an attached hammer, but it also has buttons that you can hit and they hit the keys from the underside. And then I got her this percussion set... It's a drum (that actually comes with a strap so you can march with it), a harmonica, a tambourine, and some little whistle flute thing. (No, not a recorder flute. It's round. Weird.)

Anyway I put the percussion set in my closet so that she could play with it while we're busy in the bathroom. What I found is she doesn't play with it by herself, but we sure do have fun making music with all of us sitting on the floor in my closet! haha She likes hitting the drum and the tambourine with the sticks (she's got good form!) and she likes handing me the harmonica and then taking it away to give me the little flute thing. It's fun.

In her bedroom, she likes to bang the drum that does the alphabet. But what I noticed is that she hits the drum so that the music starts and then she walks away and plays with other toys. When the drum stops (the automatic shutoff), she walks over, hits it a couple of times til the music starts again, and then walks away. I guess she likes having music in the background as she plays. I find it quite humorous myself.