March is Eventful!

Just wanted to note a couple of things...

Last weekend, we were in the ER for Croup again. Ugh. Alli was fine - no sign of anything and then woke up at 11pm wheezing and coughing. The wheezing was bad so off we went to the ER. It won us a 3.5 hour stay (because they wanted to monitor her until the steroids kicked in). Boy, we knew when that was because she had the wonderful reaction of GETTING ENERGY from them! Yes, a bouncing baby at 4am. Yikes. When we got home, she just wanted to play with all her toys. She finally dozed off at about 6:30am, but then woke up promptly by 8. Needless to say, the whole family was a bit out of sorts the next day. She's doing fine now - a lingering cough but nothing much else.

And today was hectic, not because of Alli, but because of Bagheera. Earlier this morning Alli and I went outside. We were in and out of the house and garage, no biggie. So then I decide we should have a snack and go to the park before I drop her off at Marcie's. So she sits down and eats some oranges and I realize there is no dog. So I go looking for Bagheera and I found he had inadvertently got locked in the garage. Apparently, he decided that this was his golden opportunity to EAT THE DIAPERS IN THE POOP trashcan that we keep in the garage so Alli's room doesn't stink. There were diaper remnants, dirty wipes, and poop smeared all over the garage. I actually started gagging as I was trying to clean it up. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the park.

After I dropped Alli off, I came home and decided the whole house smelled like poop so I bathed the dog, opened all thewindows, and lit a bunch of candles.

Shape Sorter

This weekend, Alli was sick with Croup, as well as some allergies (I think). Anyway, we had a lot of indoor play, so she was pulling out toys from her closet that she hasn't seen in a while. One of the toys she pulled out was a Tupperware Shape Sorter. You know the one - it's a ball where half of it is red and half is blue and you pull it apart to get the yellow shapes out of it, and then you have to put them in the right holes to get them back. You remember? We all had them when we were kids... Anyway, she pulled it out and asked for help. So I pulled the halves apart to get the pieces out, and then we put them back together. I would show her the hole for the shape she grabbed and she would put it in. The next day, she saw it on the floor and asked for help again, so I dumped the shapes for her, but I was putting laundry away so I figured I would help her further when I was done. To my surprise, she had 5 shapes already in the ball by the time I returned to her. And now, one day later and only about 2 additional tries at the toy, she can do them all herself except for the trapezoid and the pie shape. For some reason, she can't figure out how to hold the shape to get it in the hole (maybe because these are the only asymmetrical shapes). I was pretty impressed!

February Stuff

I have decided that maybe a recap of the month's events would be a good thing to put on the blog. Let's see if I can keep that going for a while…

So February events for Alli:

We went sledding in Forest Lakes over the weekend of Feb. 12-14. There was a *ton* of snow! We were so excited to take her down the hill, after all, she loves going fast in the wagon and every other thing she does. But the snow gave her a different want. OUT! She wanted nothing to do with the snow. She *hated* it. Don't set her down in it. Don't put her hand near it. Don't make her sit on a sled on it. Ugh. What a bummer. By the end of our two days of snow play, we got her to go down the hill with us a couple of times (about 10 feet of total travel distance each time) and she cried the entire time down every trip! We also made her walk in the snow, which she cried the whole time as well. Maybe next year she will see the fun of playing in snow…

The one thing I've noticed as a big change for her is she's starting to wake up happy. Instead of crying to get us to grab her, she's finally yelling "MOMMY". We enjoy that much better. And every now and then she just stays in her room quietly and we realize she's awake because Bagheera wanders in and we hear her talking to him. :) That is an *extra special* morning.

We have had to learn a lot about discipline lately. She definitely is hitting the 2's and wants her independence. There are choices we don't agree with though and since she doesn't seem to listen to reason (yet), we have to discipline. We do try to tell her why - she's a smart kid, so at some point she's going to understand it.

She plays several different video games on her iPhone (daddy's old phone). "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Wheels on the Bus", "Hatch", "Peekaboo Barn" and "ABC Animals". But now we don't start the games for her, we just hand her the phone and she knows how to turn it on, get into the interface, and pick the game of her choice. Yikes!!

Alli is also quite the parrot. And now that she's reaching 2, we hear "no" a lot more. It's really cute though. You say something like "Alli, do you want to kiss Bagheera?" And she'll say "No, no kiss Bagheera". It's always "No, no" whatever you said. I've had her say some ridiculous things, so I know she doesn't mean "no", she's just reciting. It does get a little trying though if we are trying to figure out what she wants!

Oh, one other thing that I would love to document. Marcie's youngest is a year older than Alli. His name is Gage. The interaction between the two of them is just adorable. Gage answers the door in the morning when Alli arrives and he is always very excited. Likewise, Alli is always excited to see Gage. It's so cute to watch them talk to each other in the morning. The other day, Alli was at home playing with a phone. Her standard phrase when she plays is "Hello? Hi. Blah, blah, blah. Ok, bye." Clearly my conversations must take that pattern. But then she threw in a new one… "Hello? Hi Gage. Blah, blah, blah. Bye". Awwwww, she's calling Gage!! :D

And as for the toilet thing? Yea, that was a fad. She doesn't even want to sit on the toilet anymore. Oh well. When she's ready...

What a Big Girl!

I realize posts are few and far between. We're having more fun playing than sitting in front of a computer. Plus things don't change drastically. But here are some updates:

Last week, Alli started a new trick. She started climbing out of her crib. Yikes! Yes, a very daring trick. So far, no injuries. We're not ready to move her into a bed, so we're going to have to deal with this a different way. (And no, I don't want to put a net over the top.) We were going to take the bumpers off, but then I saw her do it. She doesn't use the bumpers at all. She's able to hoist her leg to the top bar, then she pulls herself up so that she is parallel with it, then lets herself go over, holding on tight with her hands and then she drops. Holy crap! Little gymnast!

The next big change we've seen in her is just blurting out things we didn't realize she knew. Like Zebra, Monkey, yellow... And then most of the words to the songs on her kiddie CD. Yes, most of the words. The songs she likes the best right now are the ones with hand motions, like Itsy, Bitsy Spider and Wheels on the Bus. It's just really cute to hear her sing.

And for the hat trick.... going pee-pees on the toilet. Yes, we've had a few successes. Not that we are trying to potty train, we aren't. But every night she wants a bath after dinner, and she runs in there butt naked and I hurry up and whisk her into the bathtub. As soon as the water starts running (and sometimes before) she goes pee. So, I decided I would instead whisk her onto the toilet. And it worked, she went pee-pees in the toilet before her bath. We were both very proud of her. So then today we lost her in the house, and when we found her, she was in a bathroom next to the toilet raising the seat and saying pee-pees. So Daddy helped her get on the toilet and sure enough, she went! So we were praising her about it and she was proud. We'll see what happens and if this progresses. I would think 20 months is still young for potty training, which is why I'm not going to push it. But if she wants to do it herself, I'm all for it!

Happy New Year!

With the new year came a little vacation for the family. We went down to Rocky Point with about 11 other families to celebrate. We shared a house with the Wolfert's and their 3 kids. Sydney, the youngest, is 4, so Alli was doing all she could to keep up with the older kids. Well, to our surprise, part way through the trip she gave up sitting in her high chair, gave up drinking from a sippy cup, and started wanting to sit on the toilet (although nothing came out). Yikes! I wasn't really ready for her to be so grown up, but I also wasn't going to argue with it.

When we got home, the trend continued. Tonight was the first sign of it reverting back to normal, which I will gladly accept. It's not that I don't want Alli to grow up, it's just that she still eats with her hands and sitting in a big girl seat tends to be.... very messy as she touches EVERYTHING, including the fabric seat with her sauced hands!!

Night Night Daddy!

Alli got sick this weekend. She's doing fine, just sorta sick right now. So I decided it would be an early dinner for her and an early bedtime. Unfortunately, Daddy had a late night at work, so there was no seeing the baby before she headed off to bed. I was putting her to bed when she heard my cell phone make a noise. I knew what it was - it was a text from Kim saying he was on his way home. Alli knew it was my phone, slid off my lap saying "phone?" and started in to the kitchen where my phone was sitting on the counter. She said "night night Daddy", so I asked her if she wanted to call Daddy to say night night. We called, and she said it! She usually gets quiet as soon as the phone is "live", but this time, it was "night night Daddy!". Once we hung up, she was happy to go to bed. Awwwwwww!!

Mom! I can't find my bellybutton!!!

The weather is getting colder and that means warmer PJ's for Alli. (When do they learn to keep covers on themselves??) Anyway, we're finding that "winter" pajama selection is difficult. Some kids suck their thumbs to calm themselves, Alli plays with her bellybutton. But not through her clothes. What we're finding is if we put her in nice warm, fuzzy, zip-up PJ's, she wakes up during the night because she can't soothe herself back to sleep. No, instead we have to find PJ's that are warm and also snap somehow so we can leave a little opening in her belly area for her hand to slide in so she can find her bellybutton. Well, there goes the soft fuzzy ones!

Alli's 18 Month Pictures and Stats

Alli has a very large vocabulary - I won't even try to count the words. She's been saying phrases as well, like "where are you" and "bye bye daddy", "thank you mommy". It's very cute.

She's able to do her shapes wooden puzzle. It has a circle, square, rectangle, triangle and oval. She can count to 8 or 10 (sometimes it's hard to tell what she's saying) but she skips 4 every time! I'm not sure why.

Her favorite song is still the ABC's and she sings it well enough that people recognize it. And yes, she sings the whole thing and if she doesn't get lost while doing it, she even finishes with "yay" and clapping at the end, just like when mommy sings it.

Itsy Bitsy Spider is another favorite. She does the hand signal for the spider all the time, sometimes she does the "wash the spider out" hand signal, but none of the others really. But it's soooo cute!!

I'm pretty impressed at what she can do at 18 months, and amazed at how much development has happened in the last 3-6 months.

So stats:
Height: 32 inches (59% - I have no clue where that's coming from. Must be Kim.)
Weight: 21.2 lbs (8% - I can probably guess where that's coming from. ;) )
Head Circ: 17.8" (13%. This one seems odd. It means her head hasn't grown for 3 months.)

And finally, pictures of our little darling.

First Ride in a Bike Trailer

Kim and I finally broke down and paid uber money for a really cool bike trailer. Today we made plans with our "biking neighbors" to tool around the neighborhood and check it out. We had lots of fun - all 5 of us! Here are some pics of Alli with her new gear.

Oh - she was finishing up her snack of an apple...

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!