Allie's hair is finally long enough to pull back into tiny pigtails. Hooray! I can't believe how big this girl looks to me when her hair is in pigtails. Updates with this girl is that she is getting to be such an independent little girl and parenting is getting harder. Lately, when I go to try and help Allie put on a shoe or a small task, she will push me away because she wants to do it on her own. Then she gets frustrated because she is so little and can't quite do it, and oh it's hard to just sit back, be patient and let her learn.
Allie and I headed up to Seattle for the weekend. My sister was throwing her husband a 40th surprise party. Allie and I hung out with my brother's for the first 2 days prior to the big PARTY and spend our last two days with the whole family.
Day 1-Friday November 2nd
We arrived in Seattle on Friday morning and first things first, we tried to locate my lost suitcase. No worries though, it was just my one and only bag for the weekend, with all of Allie's and I's stuff....needless to say it came at 10:35 p.m. that night. After grabbing some lunch, we went to downtown Seattle and did some shopping at Pike Street and my favorite, Nordstroms. Bless those ladies in the bra department. I know it's sad to say I was still wearing my one and only nursing bra, and my "girls" needed some attention. Thankfully I got a couple great new bra's, my favorite purchase of the trip.
Day 2-Saturday November 3rd
We browsed the stores in the morning by my brother's house. He lives in a great little area of Seattle and their are lots of fun shops around. We got some "brunch" since we knew we were going to be eating later on at the party. We had a couple hours to burn so we decided to go browse IKEA for a few; who can't spend a couple hours here??? Well, Allie had a blast in the kid section here and we literally spent hours here. Following IKEA we headed off to the party. Needless to say my sister did a GREAT job at hiding everything she put together for the party, including a 2nd surprise...a vacation to Hawaii for the two of them.
Day 3-Sunday November 4th
We enjoyed the day hanging out at my sister's house. We had a family birthday party for Adam, since his birthday is also a soon to follow. We had a great day!
Day 4-Monday November 5th
I woke up and did not feel well.....needless to say I felt rotten the entire day. Thanks Lara and Dad for watching Allie. We had a late flight home and thankfully my dad was on the flight and helped me out with my child who was soooo tired, but fought going to sleep for the whole flight. She literally crashed right when the plane landed and pulled up to the gate. Thanks Lara and Jeremy for letting Allie and I crash at your homes; we had a great time!
Happy Halloween! We had a great 1st year trick-or-treating. We missed dad this year; he is in Portland for the week for work, but we have lots of pictures. Allie and I went over to Aunt Katie's for some chili and scones for dinner. Allie and Cam then hit up some houses for candy (with the assistance of the moms). At first Allie was a little unsure of what was going on, but by about the 5th house she would grab candy out of the bucket and stuff hers full. We also made it around to all the family in town so everyone could see our cute monkey!
Allie in her Halloween outfit for the day
Our cute monkey!
After the door shut at the first house, Allie could have been done trick or treating. Here is Allie plopped down on their door mat to check out her candy and of course wanted the wrapper off!
Of she goes to the next house.....she loved hanging onto her bucket and didn't want to let go...smart girl
Well the annual "Dinner In A Pumpkin" has come once again. Allie decided to wake up from her nap after about one and a half hours of sleeping, just in time to help me clean out the pumpkin. She wasn't to sure about this experience. Lately, she has been so finicky about the textures of things on her hands. So, here are a few clips of Allie cooking with mom.
Trying to coax Allie into this great experience
She slowly got the hang of it, but really didn't like the "guts" on her hands
Allie and her "cheesy face." The other day I asked Allie to show me her cheesy face, never having said those words to her before. She literally gave me the most cheesiest smile ever. She squints her eyes and smiles largely, showing off those pearly whites.
Okay, okay....we too went to the pumpkin patch this year. Allie had a little bit more fun than last year, since she was such a wee one last Halloween. We returned to our favorite Linder Farms Pumpkin Patch this year and we brought with us Grandpa and Grandma. I took Allie on her first "ride" if I would even call it that. There is a tractor with some plastic barrels with a seat cut out of each barrel. The tractor pulls you around for about 10 minutes. Allie wasn't to sure about this ride; she just sat on my lap and wouldn't smile or laugh, her eyes just stayed fixated on the tractor.
After our fun ride in the barrel and a couple of greasy, but yummy home made doughnuts we hopped on the big flatbed covered in hay barrels. Allie loved passing by the fields covered in pumpkins. We stopped off at the perfect place for Allie-they had the tiniest little pumpkins, which she was thrilled about. I was also able to find me a perfect sized pumpkin to make the yearly "dinner in a pumpkin."
Allie sitting for her "yearly" photo on the hay barrel
Last years photo shoot in the same spot, just 12 months younger
Me and Allie before our "ride" in the plastic barrel
We picked the caboose barrel for a reason..1) If Allie fell out she wouldn't get ran over, 2) So we didn't have to ingest tractor fumes for the 10 minute ride
Well I am so mad because I though I captured this grand event with a photo. My camera shut down due to low battery following my picture of Allie on the potty and I guess due to low battery it never took the picture in the first place.
Allie's "potty" is one of those small rings that you place in the toilet seat so you don't fall in . It has dogs on it, so she loves to sit and look at the dogs. The whole potty issue started because she just loves to get me my toilet paper (and then some extra) off the roll and she loves flushing the toilet. So I thought well since she loves the toilet, let's see what she does if we strip her down and sit her on it.
Over the last month we have had a ritual before bath time of placing Allie on the potty while I am filling up the bath tub. She always seems to go to the bathroom in the tub when I turn on the facet and water starts coming out. It's nothing that I'm really pushing, just slowly introducing the concept since she was interested.
Well, tonight we did not have pee, but poop. Allie was just sitting on the potty while I went to turn on the facet. I turned around and she was pushing and you know how it ends. To say the least, I'm not sure if it really clicked in her mind, but I was very excited. I made a big stink about it and Allie got to get her own toilet paper for her bum and got to flush the toilet and watch her poop go "bye-bye." I'll keep everyone posted on the future success of Allie and potty training. Do I dare say I am really potty training?
Allie has a fetish lately of placing shirts and pants on her head. It all started one day when she was helping me with the laundry and started wanting me to put the clothing on her head. I don't know if Blake has done this before or where she got the idea that she wanted clothes on her head. Now anytime there is an article of clothing lying around anywhere, Allie brings it to me and motions to have it on her head.
Allie leaves the clothing on her head forever and just walks around and plays until it comes off
