Twinkle, Twinkle...Ally Style

Please don't mind the messy hair and orange drool on her face...it was a special day and she was enjoying her treat! :-)

One, Tuu, Tree, Boor

In case you were wondering about the title, that is "Ally Speak" for- one, two, three, four. Ally can count to TEN! Nineteen months old and she can count to ten...proud mama over here. :-) Some of the pronunciation may be a little off, but you can understand every number she is saying and she counts in order every time. Just wanted to brag a little, because she so darn cute when she does it! If I can catch her on video, I will post it here, but she is stubborn when she sees any kind of camera so I am not making promises. I'll try though!

Trick-or-Treat

We had our first (now to be annual) Trick-or-Treat party last night and it was so much fun. We had quite the crew of Ally, Dylan, Ryan, Alyssa and Jillian all out on the streets collecting candy! All the kids were wonderful (no complaining, fussing, fighting, etc.) and even the littles made it to at least 20 houses. We weren't even planning on taking them, except to a few neighbors, but they were in to it and ready to go so we forged on.
Ally would not let go of her candy bucket, to the point that I thought we might have to let her take it to bed with her (and then steal it away after she fell asleep). She had a great time and ate too much candy!
David got his fill of scaring all the kids in the neighborhood (he is really quite good and funny when he does it) and we had lots of laughs and ate yummy pizza and snacks.
What a fun night!
Trick-or-Treat!!

A Few Things I Would Like To Remember:

Ally says some of the funniest things as she learns to talk more and more. She is a very verbal child and a good percentage of things she says actually come out coherent, but it is still so cute to listen to a child who is learning to talk. I keep saying to David that we need to get her on videotape more, but life seems to always get in the way and we forget. Well, there are a few things in particular that I don't want to forget, so I thought I would put them down in writing here. It's not the same as actually hearing her say them, but at least it will help me remember some day. :-)

• Gobbee, gobbee (that's Ally talk for gobble, gobble...like a turkey)-this is one of my favorites! It is so cute the way she says this and when you ask her what a turkey says, she always answers, gobbee. She knows pretty much all of the animal sounds and between gobbee and her southern version of neigh (comes out Naaayyy, with a southern drawl), she keeps us in stitches. So far, Ally can tell you what a cow, turkey, cat, dog, pig and sheep says. She usually will say, grrrr, when we ask her what a bear says and an interpretation of 'roar' when we ask her about lions, but we haven't perfected these yet. We are working on duck, because when we ask her what a duck says, she says, "Duck"...funny. She recognizes most animals and will say either the sound they make or their actual name. Smarty pants!


• She loves Dora for some reason. I say "some reason", because we have NEVER had Dora on the TV at our house (in fact, we don't watch a lot of cartons at all) and the only thing Dora we own is a pair of her pajamas that were given to her for Christmas last year. The babysitter doesn't let them watch TV very often, but I guess she must have seen Dora there and feel in love. :-) Anyway, she recognizes Dora regardless of what she is on and how she is dressed and when she sees Dora she calls out her name. It is so cute and comes out like 'Dowra'. Sometimes she gets stuck on the 'D' and it takes a few seconds for the whole thing to come out, but she says it and it makes me smile every time.


• Rocka bay-bee! The other night when I was rocking Ally at night, the room was quiet and dark and I thought she had fallen asleep. All of a sudden she blurts out, "Rocka bay-bee" and I about busted a seam! She is funny, that kid. That's what she says now when she wants you to sing Rock-a-bye-baby to her. She also says it when she has her dolls clutched under her arm and rocking back and forth. She loves her babies!


• Ally can not only say, "Buckeyes", very clearly, but she also can recognize them too! She points to the logo and says, "Buckeyes" and the other day when the team was running onto the field she turned around and saw them on TV and yelled, "Buckeyes" and when you ask her what her favorite team is, she (without hesitation) hollers, "Buckeyes". No, we did not brainwash her, but apparently when we bleed scarlet and gray, so does our child...and that's the way we like it! Go Buckeyes!

These are just some examples of the funny things Allyson says right now, that I want to keep fresh in my mind. I will try to post some other funny things as the come along and I will see what I can do about getting an actual video of her posted, so you can hear it for yourself. So cute!

Making Applesauce

Ally was up bright and early this morning (like 6am bright and early...UGH!), so I decided to make applesauce with the apples we picked yesterday and have Ally "help" me. She did a GREAT job...such a good helper and she REALLY enjoyed eating the finished product. I love that she is getting old enough to start doing little crafty projects with me. So fun! :-)

First, I peeled and sliced the apples and put them in the crock pot (I used a variety of apples).

Next, I put the ingredients (sugar, cinnamon and water) in little bowls that were easy for Allyson to pick up.
Then I put Ally up on a chair at the table and let her pour each ingredient on top of the apples. She did a great job and only needed help with the sugar (She was close to the edge of the dish and started pouring backwards...only minimal amounts of sugar was lost.). She is really into pouring things or throwing things away, so this was right up her alley!

Next, it was time to stir up the apples and get them all coated with sugar and cinnamon. Ally liked being in charge of the wooden spoon!

Once the apples were all stirred up, I put the lid on and turned the crock pot to let it do it's magic!

Several hours later, this is what we had! Yum!

Ally's favorite part was testing her work at the end of the day. She is getting better with using a spoon, although you can see from the pictures that some ended up on her shirt and pants. Oh, well, it was the end of the day. :-)

Ally liked the applesauce so much that when David tried to take it away from her to give her a bath, she started crying and stayed mad at him until bedtime! Must have been some good applesauce, 'cause that girl loves her Daddy! So much fun for this little girl and her mommy!

What a Day for a Dip in the Pool

We let Ally play in her baby pool this past weekend, while we gave an extra deep clean scrub to our shower doors (made them squeaky clean...like brand new!). She had a blast (even with only a few inches of water!) and stayed in the pool spashing around for almost 45 minutes! She didn't want to get out. It was a great way for her to stay cool (and let us get some work done at the house) and have some fun on a very hot summer day.

When Did We Get a Bunny?

So, there is this bunny that has been hanging out in our yard for the past several weeks (possibly due to the height of our grass until this morning) and I have been trying to get a picture of him for a little while now. Every time we see him, it seems I am without my camera and as soon as I run to find it and get it ready, the bunny takes off. Well, this evening he was in our backyard just nibbling away on grass when we were out on the deck and he stayed for quite some time. Not only was I able to get some pictures, but David also got Ally to say rabbit. She was just yelling like crazy fot that rabbit to pay attention to her and she thought it was so funny. It just amazes me the things she is able to do now. She is so smart and is getting smarter by the day!
Here are some pictures of our summer yard guest and of a little girl who wanted to make sure that rabbit knew she was there and saw him! :-)
Oh, she also yells at airplanes too (she looks a little angry in the picture below, but she really LOVES airplanes...she was just really trying to get its attention. We just happen to live in a landing path for the airport, so she is in heaven with all the airplanes that fly over)...