22 and 23 months old...

I dont know why its so hard to post for me but it is! So we are combining months now. Allie is just adorable, fiesty, and wonderful all in the same sentence. She gives us a run for her money. For example her favorite things to say to Will and I are "No No Mommy, and No NO Daddy. Or "my phone" or MY ANYTHING. She will tell you what she wants and when she wants it. She is still very sweet and relatively well behaved. Although the other day at the grocery store she proceeded to say hello to the man waiting by us at the deli. She kept waving saying hello and then he turned around to say hi back. Then she stated " Go Away" and No No No. I was mortified and told her that she was the one who started this conversation. But I laughed a little. She started back to hitting a little but not too bad and this past week she hasnt done it once. We dont do time outs as much, I have spanked very gently which has helped I guess. She is still not a great eater, but will eat when she is hungry which isnt that often. We usually can get one good meal in her per day which is usually breakfast. She hasnt been into yogurt these days so its mainly banannas, grapes, oranges, waffles, chick-fil-a nuggets, spaghetti, watermelon, sometimes strawberries, peas/carrots, ham and cheese, JUNK FOOD-graham crackers, goldfish, SHE LOVES CHIPS, pizza-cheese preferrably. She has started to not want to go to bed or naps but she only protests for about 30 seconds. She naps for about 2.5-3 hours and goes to bed around 9-745. SO NOT BAD! She LOVES LOVES ELMO and MICKEY right now. We remodeled our downstairs somewhat so we were stuck in our bedroom for about a week in which case we used ElMO a little too much on the t.v. which has created Allie to insist on watching it. SO Now our routine is a little elmo or mickey in the morning, maybe one more time during the day but mainly about 30 min right before bedtime. which gives me/will a little break to wind down after bath. Allie still loves baths, and is obsessed with bubble baths, but I had to stop those as it made her very irritated on her skin, and I thought she had a bladder infection. She loves to put things and me to "night night" and put a blanket over us. She is talking so much too. Everyday its new sentences and new phrases/words. She loves saying "I Did it" even if she means "I'll do it". She loves bailey and screaming her name as well as giving her treats. She is a little pistol but what a cute baby girl. Love her so much and having a lot of fun with her. Although trying at times aka restaurants its still a great age. I say its a hard age, but then its the most fun b/c they truly get so excited to do and try new things. Her favorite toys right now are bubbles, LAMB and Paci, puzzles, stroller, shopping cart. Her birthday is about a week 1/2 away. Cant believe it, what an amazing two years have gone by. I love her so much and she is just growing so quickly.

20 and 21 months

So I have once again been bad about posting to the blog regarding out little miss personality. She has just been too cute these days. 20 months was a good month although sad for us in that we lost our baby at 9 weeks. The baby itself +as only 7 weeks and 2 days old. Been a very hard deal for us but we are okay and moving forward. I had a very hard time with it all, truly felt some grief in losing the baby. But will do a seperate post about that experience later. Allison in her 20th month was not only active physically but truly starting talking so much more. She started doing 2-3 word sentences. Her favorite at the moment is "no no mommmy". She is also saying "what is that" and other such phrases. Allison loves to still walk her baby around the cul de sac and she also loves to walk Bailey. OUTSIDE is a common word and she loves to just beat on the door until I go with her outside. She still enjoys the backyard but mostly the front is where its at. She loves the park and going down slides. She likes babies and putting them to sleep. She has also gotten in to reading to her babies like she does at school. When Will and I put her down at night she proceeds to grab the book from us and turn it around so she can read to us. Its pretty cute but usually book time is cut short as she is over us reading to her. Allison doesnt like to eat much these days and we usually get her to eat in the mornings which consists of a bannana and nutrigrain bar with milk. She loves grapes and bannans, she will eat pb and j sandwiches, broccoli casserole (sometimes), green peas (sometimes), graham crackers, goldfish, NUTS-peanuts/cashews, yogurt, cheese (smoked gouda), granola bars. She is a picky eater and just prefers not to eat. In her 21st month she was very big into water, pouring it out. She loved to have mutliple cups and pour water in and out of each one. She loves mickey mouse and has recently gotten more into Elmo (video). We havent had to do as many time outs but she still likes to hit and often embarresses me as she does it with other kids or playdates. Allie doesnt do it at school. I guess I just bring it out in her. We have been pretty busy with traveling to Galveston to Amanda's wedding and Nashville for a marathon for JOhn. She stayed with her Mama Mel and Fred and the Driskell's. She is still sleeping good with her music and goes down about 830-845 although she has been pushing it to 9 these days. She likes us to read to her probably about 3-4 books before we put her down. She will sleep until about 730 usually. She is not a good restaurant companion as she has about 20 minutes before she is screaming to get out of her chair or throwing things :).... But she is as cute as a button. Loves to dance to music and wheels on the bus. She loves Merle Haggard. She is talking a lot and now days its trying to truly figure out what she is saying. She loves to mess with Bailey, mainly trying to put her to sleep with a towell. She plays in her car, I got her a water table, she loves BUBBLES, she loves the park and slides, she loves her stroller and going on a walk. She loves bath time and drawing with markers. All of these activities only last a short minute until we have moved onto the next. I have tried doing more with her like the library, playdates, esp wine with playdates at Sara McCarroll's, and the park with walks. Its pretty essential to get her out of the house so that she can expend some energy before and after nap. Things are going well. We have been really busy with weddings and other types of events. But its been fun. Allison is also obsessed with putting shoes on and off. Things to remember: pretty girl smile Wa Wa- water and her ever increasing vocabulary. kisses and hugs

19 Months

Allison Allison Allison, What a HAM! She is absolutely precious although can get in trouble quite often. She is not hitting as much but she does it more at night before bedtime because she is tired. But honestly I think she wants to go to time out because we will ask her if she needs to go to timeout and she will nod her head that she does. She loves loves loves to dance still and will point to the stereo for me to turn on and she will start dancing. She loves the song if your happy and you know it clap your hands and she loves do you know the muffin man. She is getting more and more into puzzles and books although she still grabs them from me so that she can read them. She loves ba ba black sheep and has gotten into elmo books. She also will watch (for like 5 minutes) mickey mouse clubhouse. she loves the IPAD and will call it by its name. She knows how to do all sorts of stuff on it and often at times looks at the pictures on it which are mainly pictures and videos of herself. Her hair is getting so long and I am trying to learn new ways to do it as is slippery and she is wiggly. She weighs about 23.8lbs and is still quite tall for her age. She loves bailey and now tries to pick her up. Bailey doesnt enjoy that part as much but bailey often goes up to her room with me in the morning to greet the punkin. Allie still sleeps through the night although we have had some illnesses this month, another EAR INFECTION and last weekend she had walking pneumonia. It was kindof scary as I could tell that she was having difficulty breathing and breathing very fast. But we are much better and she is still enjoying her school. She talks about her little friend Abby although we dont know if she truly loves abby or if its just easy to say her name. She knows how to say PACI like a champ and she says Wills name too. She says Oh no and Oh Boy and knows many words of course dog, daddy, mommy, Wa Wa (water), paci, cow-moo,nana (bannana), apple (which she means orange) as SHE LOVES ORANGES but of course it still hurts her stomach so we cant give her many of those, she says outside a lot as she loves to go outside, either to park or just walk around the cul de sac, and/or to push her baby doll in stroller or walk bailey. She has really gotten into baby dolls. Its cute at night because she will put her lamb or baby in bed with her and then tuck it under her blanket and put it to night night then she will say bye bye to me. :) She still gets cranky on car rides that are long as she wants to be out and about. She still enjoys stickers. She climbs up and down the stairs. She is still a picky eater as one day she likes something and then the next she doesnt. Banannas, brocoli cheese caserrole, green peas, corn, meatballs, cresent rolls with ham/cheese, graham crackers, yogurt,oranges, raisins, NUTRI GRAIN BARS (she is currently obsessed with these), cheetos, PB and Jelly sandwiches, kolache (mainly the bread), and a few other things. But you never know with dinner time. She still also loves spaghetti and chick fil a nuggets. She drinks milk very well and apple juice/water. She gives wonderful hugs and kisses which melt your heart. We are going through throwing our food at times which also gets her put in time out and meal time over. :) I just bought her an elmo insert toilet as she kept pointing to it at the store. but everytime I try to sit her on it she screams. so we are just waiting. She keeps giving me signals that she is ready but then obviously no too much.She loves twinkle twinkle little star and will sing aloud once you get to the part "up above the " and will point to the sky.

Fun age and very cute.

Things to Remember:
Wa Wa, Dada, Mama, Wull (will), PACI, outside,her cute language
pushing baby dolls around and/or walking bailey outside
park- sliding down slides
dancing to her songs
ipad and her knowledge of what to do
her love of oranges
hugging and kissing
bath time
playing in her ball pit
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC

17 Months and 18 Months

Christmas, New Years, 30th Birthday, OH MY OH MY
Wow, I have been a huge slacker in posting on our blog. We have had so much going on with the holidays, my birthday, Christmas, New Years, Breckenridge etc. Its been a whirlwind but a lot of fun. But I will be honest in that I am really looking forward to hanging out around the house some. Allison has become even more animated than ever. SHE DEFINTELY has started showing us her own independence and NO is often a way of expressing herself. For her 17 month in December she got to do a lot of fun things. She really loves her preschool and you can tell she has really adjusted. She really enjoyed the christmas music especially with her amazing dancing skills :). She loved putting on a show and especially liked Nat King Cole. She liked the Christmas tree and the lights and impressingly enough she didnt take down the ornaments. For my 30th birthday, Will and John planned a suprise party for Emily and I with a lot of our friends in Ft. Worth. Allie went to Jim and Sabrina's and spent the night. The boys took us to the stockyards, we stayed in the Worthington Hotel and then had a suprise dinner at Cattlemans. First we got there and the boys took us to Joe T Garcias where we met dad and Sherry which was a huge suprise for me. Then we hung out around the hotel and then went to H3 and then cattlemans then partied at a bar across the street. Lots of fun... Okay back to the gator.... She met Santa again in Allen with the virtual line where they just text you when to go wait in line. At first Allie cried but then we sung the wheels on the bus go round and round and then she smiled. So we got two great pics-one crying then one smiling. ALLISON loves to walk/run. Sitting is not a strong suite these days. Car rides are harder as Allie does not want to be strapped in. We often try to do the drive around nap time so we can at least get 2 hours then try to entertain her some more. We went to mama mel and grandpa zuker's for christmas. Nat and Wyatt were there too. Allie was such a ham and little turkey too. She got so much from Santa. What a special Christmas. She woke up and we took her downstairs in which she just starred at all of the gifts. She didnt know what to do, so we put her down and she would go to each toy and then look back at us to see if it was either hers or okay to touch. She got a ball pit, dancing puppy, crayons, dry erase board, books, leap frog junior, stuffed animals, baby piano. Mama mel got her lots of clothes, her cute cute pottery barn luggage, aunt natty and uncle wyatt got her a cabbage patch doll, she got a learning purse and picnic basket from Grandmother and Grandaddy, as well as a stroller and baby doll from Aunt Brina and Uncle Jim, and another purse from Uncle Tommy and Aunt Christine. She got a whole lot. Allie then went back with Will to Frisco so she could go to her school and then Nat/Wyatt and I went to WImberley to hang out with daddy for new years. We had a lot of fun and then Will and ALlison came to Wimberley that Thursday before new years. We had a new years party at dads house on the hill and Allie stayed up with us until about 830. Then slept her way through the new year with the party going on downstairs. 17 and 18 months are kindof running together as she is doing about the same stuff although she is talking a bunch more. She loves to say "oh no" and then she loves to say no no. then she says bow,okay,ball,cup,dog,and lots others just cant think right now :) She can do some animal sounds-cow,monkey, dog, pig. She knows all of her body parts AND IS OBSESSED with putting her shoes on and off. She loves to bring daddy his shoes or anyones for that matter. She climbs on stairs alot but now knows how to climb down. She enjoys bath time, and Will and I are still bathing with her. She goes to bed around 8pm. FOOD TIME is another story. Sometimes she will eat but most of the time she wont. I will say spaghetti is by far her favorite and she loves these crescent rolls with ham/cheese although she only eats the cresent part of it. She loves to snack, graham crackers sometimes with PB, granola bars, raisins (although she cant have these too often as they make her sick), organges (same cant have them a lot), banannas, rice/beans, She isnt a fan of meat these days either. She does like PB and Jelly. She will eat cereal and she loves loves yogurt. She loves goldfish and cheezit, and still likes fruit. Only veggies she will eat is if they are hidden or peas and sometimes corn. she likes chicken nuggets. But overall i guess she is a good eater but we only get about 1 good meal eaten. She drinks quite a bit of milk with meals and juice/water. She has started being a little toot at times in that she will try to hit us. We have started implementing time out and then at times a little swat and firm no. She also thinks throwing her food is appropriate which then we tell her meal time is over and another firm NO. We cant take her to restaurants for more than about 15 minutes as she wants out of her seat and gets very mad. So one of us is either scarfing down our food and the other is entertaining and then we get the check. :) Its a fun age though but its a hard age. She is very loving and still hugs/kisses. She does open kisses and closed. She overall is still a very happy baby with some whining on the side. :) She is our pride and joy. I just love watching the new things she does. She really has "grown up" in that she can really understand what you are asking her. I can ask her to bring me something and she will do it. Pretty cool. I love love love my baby. She also loves to color some, still not into tv although this past trip to breckenridge she got into mickey mouse clubhouse. i also bought her some elmo tapes but she isnt there yet. I am really going to start doing more with her on my days off, join a play group, do art work etc. Its going to be a good year- I will post more about Breckenridge on the next post.
Things to Remember:
open kisses, hugs
night night, bye bye
no no
lamb
paci
dancing to everything
the wheels on the bus, row row row your boat, the itsy bitsy spider
christmas
santa
juice
puzzles-putting shapes into things
walking bailey
putting her shoes on and off

16 Months

Oh Allison, what a character. She is so cute these days and INTO everything. She finally feels better as we have been battling a stomach bug, a bad cough, upper respiratory infections, and sinus problems, but doctor kept telling us it was all viral so we have been doing this for about a month. But finally the doc gave us an antibiotic which has cleared it all up :) SO with all of that plus getting all her eye teeth we have had some clingy moments. Its such a cute age though, she now dances quite a bit and gets down really low with her hand in the air. She also can understand when you ask her to do things such as bring things to you and she will tell you when she is hungry by bringing you to the panty or highchair. She loves mashed potatoes, spaghetti-chicken and meat, grandola bars, graham crackers, apple sauce, brocolli-cheese-chicken rice casserole, she doesnt care for much veggies but loves fruit. Mainly bananas and grapes. She still loves goldfish and loved candy. She had a great halloween and was able to walk and take her little lamb sack to a couple of houses. She was the cutest little lamb. She loved the candy. We went over to Jim and Sabrinas and went trick or treating in Prosper. They were giving out full size candy bars :) so Will and I ended up eating the majority of the candy. She has also moved to another preschool-Primrose which I am loving so much more. The other place was truly a daycare and were not teaching her anything. I am excited, Will and I went to her little school for her thanksgiving meal. She wanted us to hold her and wouldnt eat but all the little kiddos were doing that. She is talking more and singing at times. She has said bath,bannana,mama, dada, night night, hi, bye,She is back to waving at people all of the time especially when we are out shopping. She loves her little horsie still, and she is big about opening and shutting doors. I often hear the doors shutting and then her screaming because she wants out or just attention. :) She loves bath time usually and Will and I usually take one with her now. I sing a song to her: bath time bath time lalalalala and she LOVES It. SILLY yes I know but it works to get her excited about bath time. She is wearing 12-18 but she can wear 18-24 months. She is a mamas girl still and can have stranger anxiety but warms up fairly quickly. Her other favorite toys are her car and building blocks. She is getting more and more into books and I do that with her each night before bed.

15 Months Old

Walking Walking and more Walking!!!
She is just getting cuter and cuter. What a little ham. She is also definitely protesting a lot more regarding being tied down in car seats, shopping buggies, etc It makes it very difficult to take her to a store unless its in a 15 minutes span. She loves walking around the cul de sac and really can walk quite far. She is able to play on the playground which is a lot of fun. She has started a little daycare although I think we are going to move her as I dont think they do as much with her as I like. She is also crying a lot cause I can watch her on the cameras they have remotely which makes me sad and makes me wonder if she isnt adjusting. I think she is moving to Primrose, as I want her to have a schedule and more attention :). Back to allie though, she is laughing quite a bit, and we have kindof started some tantrums but they arent bad yet, she just cries quite a bit if she doesnt get to do what she wants. She loves phones, remotes, pens (with the cap on), crayons, her couze coupe, blocks, play telephones, her grocery cart-she puts all sorts of stuff in it and will push it around the kitchen. Allie also acts as though she is on the telephone and when she sees a dog she mimicks it by barking. She wont watch much cartoons although if they are on she will look at them for a second especially if there is music as that is when she will start dancing. She still loves baths and plays with her alphabet letters. she likes splashing her feet in the water as well. She also loves to be outside!! anytime she can go outside she loves it which we will usually open the back door and let her play. she loves playing on computers and the IPAD. She is still saying mama, dada, dog, ball, nana, and she says na na na na and points to what she wants. she gets very mad if she points to something she wants and you dont have it correct she gets louder with her na na na na. :) she is very loving at times if you can get her to slow down. Every night when its night night time if I take her or Will the other parent will get lots of night night kisses and she will tell you night night. She is still very obsessed with her little lamb as she takes it with her at all times especially at her little daycare. You see her with her paci and lamb. She sleeps with it everynight with her music. She is a good eater most of the time, but once she is done she starts standing in her seat. She loves puffs,cheetos (although I dont give her many at all), goldfish, BUT SHE IS OBSESSED WITH FRUIT. Mainly grapes and oranges although its too acidic so she doesnt get many of those. She loves watermelon, bannans, strawberries, apples. She loves yogurt too. I can always get her to eat spaghetti. She also likes chicken brocoli cheese casserole, hot dogs, rotisierre chicken, peas although not as much as when she was younger. She loves cheese and milk as well. I give her milk at all meals and then water or water/apple juice in between. She has dropped her second nap although at times I can get her to do two although very difficult. But I will say this has been hard because she is very tired but cant go to sleep so she is very tired by the end of the day so her bedtime is now 730 sometimes as early as 645-7. She will sleep all night and always wakes up around 7:20. Even if we keep her up later she wont sleep later. I have also taken her to the mall a couple of times and they have the cutest little play area for little kids. She likes playing with kids, its just such a fun age. They are so interactive and amused. ITS very busy but also so much fun. What a great time.

14 months old

I keep writing this blog later and later when she is almost into her 15th month :) oh well at least im trying to stay on top of it. Well Allison is into almost everything. She is walking very well and fast. Although we are definitely still toddling but she is truly such a cute age. She has found her belly button probably about a week ago though. She has really started comprehending things and if I tell her to bring me something she can usually do it (if she wants to). She has become obsessed with her lamb that we got her for her dedication. She takes it with her everywhere, all day long and sleeps with it too. Its pretty cute. Allison started her little school, aka Daycare at Kids R Kids this month. I have had a hard time with it mainly because I know she isnt used to it and there are so many kids. You feel like your just dropping her off all alone. I cried the first few times and may continue but she seems to like it. I can watch her all day long on the camera they have in the room so that helps. She only goes twice a week and then goes to Nicole still once a week. She loves Nicole and I love Nicole so I am not ready to part ways. Allison loves bath time, I recently went and got her some alphabet letters as she likes the ones on the fridge-which I need to buy those too. She is gotten very good at feeding herself and we are almost to the stage of having plates although I know she is tempted to still throw them at something or me. She has gotten pretty good with using utensils too. Our other huge milestone is trying to drop her second nap. WHICH I HAVE LOVED having her have two naps because it was the perfect amount of time for me to work some from the house and get things done twice in one day. I will say this transition with the naps has been difficult as she is so tired. So sometimes we still do two but since at Daycare and Nicoles she only takes one we are trying to follow suit. She will go down about 11-1 so not a ton of time like I was getting but that means she is exhausted at like 5. She has started having earlier bedtimes around 7-730 as she starts melting down after that. She loves to talk to herself and she is very big about pointing to everything she wants to do. She loves sitting by herself in chairs, and will often at times push me out of the way so she can sit somewhere by herself. If I even put my hand on the chair she gets mad. She is also very loving and at different times of the day will come walk/run to me with big open arms and big open mouth for a kiss. What a blessing. She always gives night night kisses to either Will or I depending on who is not putting her to sleep. She although hates for you to leave her in her crib when its time to take a nap or go night night but will only cry for about 30 seconds and then just plays in her crib until she falls asleep. Allison no longer does any bottles, but she was finished with those around 13 months, and she doesnt like to have any milk before bedtime. She loves raisins,grapes, watermelon, bananas, oranges, spaghetti, hot dogs, graham crackers, goldfish, chewy granola bars, yogurt,cheese but not macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets from chick fil a.. she is a good eater. Everytime from daycare they report that she ate all her meals. She got a another ear infection last week. I am not sure if they are thinking tubes, I dont think they are but we are defnitely watching it and im curious as how it will be during winter considering that is when she will get more colds. Oh goodness. But I will say this is a fun time, she is so interactive still loves music. We are on the brinks of temper tantrums though which scares me because I dont want her to do that :) and I want to do the right thing so she wont do them again, but I know that wont happen, just wishful thinking. We get onto her right now for standing in her highchair, and bathtub. But now she is getting quite vocal to get out of things like carseats and buggies at the store. So the adventures will continue I know. But what a ride. I am going to start doing some new activities with her as I think she is ready and can really get into them, just got to find them.
On another note, natalie got married. It was absolutely gorgeous, and she looked amazing. Her and mother did such a good job. Everyone had a great time. Allie stayed with the Driskells, thank goodness as there wouldnt have been any time to do things with everyone else.
Things to Remember:
Words: dog, night night, banana, ball, momma, mom, da da, uh oh,
sitting in her own big girl chair
her new pink car from mama mel that she loves to hear the horn since it makes songs
her lamb
her love of stairs
playing peek a boo where she makes mommy find her
allie finding mommy's belly button and her own
allie starting to like books, pop up or touch books although wants to hold them and turn the pages herself, then is done with it after 10 seconds.
mommy trying to let allie watch tv for at least 5 minutes straight but no go at this time