20 Month Update

I'm a little behind on this update, but better late than never... right? (Five more weeks of school... then I can update whenever I please!)

This little girl is amazing! She is growing and changing so much! She is such a big girl! She is so smart and makes the most amazing connections. I feel like I am copying a lot of what cousin Ava is doing... these little girls are both so much fun and so big!!!

(this is from Allie) kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkiii88888888880009999hjhh23

She has been pretending a lot more lately. It is adorable to watch. She likes to feed her Bert and Ernie and give them drinks. She also does this with her baby doll, though she isn't as attached to her.

She loves to have her hair done. Sometimes she will bring me a hair tie and ask to have her hair done. :) I love this! Her hair is getting long enough to do one pony tail in the back!! It is so curly in the back too. I love it! When we wash it, it goes past her shoulder blades- but because it is curly, it only comes to her shoulders when it is dry. ;)

She loves strawberries and pears and pizza and tacos. (These are all new favorites! :) )

She follows simple directions and seems to comprehend very well what we are saying. We've had to start spelling things because she knows what we are talking about.

She has temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way. This is not my favorite at all, but she has definitely started with them, and they are more frequent than they used to be. We try to redirect her or distract her, but it doesn't always work. We've sat in time out several times. Sometimes she gets this streak and just all of a sudden try to hit. I'll say, "Do you need to sit in time out", and she'll say "Uh-huh!" and march herself ON HER OWN over and sit against the wall. There are plenty of other times when we put her there and have to hold her there until she calms down enough to be let free. One evening, she was cuddling with me and all of a sudden just bit my shoulder blade. (Hard enough to leave a mark!) I put her in time out and told her we do not hit, and teeth are only for biting our food. As I was scolding her and talking to her (in time out), she reached out and hit me! Then, she started saying sorry in her sign language, only it was a "I'm mad at you, and I'm saying it only because you make me do it" hard signing (hitting herself against her chest to do the sign). She was MAD. Um... that's not a real sorry girlie! She calmed down again and all was well with the world.

She loves to crawl in our bed and lay on daddy's pillow. She doesn't stay put for long, but it is pretty cute. I noticed cousin Ava does the same thing! She also loves to play on our bed in the mornings when she wakes up and we aren't ready to get up yet. (Wake up calls on Sunday mornings at 6:45.) Way too early, so we bring her into bed and she plays and jumps and climbs and snuggles with us for a while. :) She's never been one to sleep in our bed and so it is not a go back to sleep time, but it is still fun.

She has started really wanting to walk when we go shopping. We went to Lowes the other evening to check things out and she did so well. We make her hold our hand, or we put her back in the cart. She did such a great job. It was so much fun to have her walking with me and holding my hand like a big girl. She does a good job of keeping a hold of me too. She knows she has to I think! :)

She is talking up a storm. It is amazing to listen to her! There is NO WAY in this world I could even begin to count the words she says. Sometimes she just repeats things she hears us say. Last night I was putting her to bed, and we were saying her prayers and daddy came in. When we were done with the prayer, daddy kissed her good night and told her he loved her. I whispered to her to tell daddy she loves him too and she did her, "wuv-uooo!" and then he said sleep good, and I whispered say, "you too!" and as clear as day, she said it! :)

My favorite words to hear her say are; home, Melmo (elmo), oh my!, oh boy oh boy!, birdie, mess!, dirtee, bus, car, beep beep!, pizza and tacos and of course daddy and mama! It is cute to hear her say Nana too because it used to come out Yah-yah! but now she knows the right way and says Nana! She says papa really well too. We're still working on Grammie and Gramps. She says the aunts and uncles pretty well too.

Uncle Joe was here to help pull bushes one day with daddy, and Allie was watching through the window. He pulled the bush with his blazer and daddy was standing beside it. Allie said, "Uh-o! Bush! Daddy!!" :) Too cute! She knew it wasn't supposed to do that! :)

She has gone potty on her little potty several times, and just recently has started to really comprehend that she is going. We aren't close to being potty trained, but we are getting there... ever so slowly. She will tell us "poof!" if she has gone potty in her diaper. A couple times she has woke up from her nap and is dry, so I'll sit her on her potty and she'll go. She doesn't seem to have much interest right now, so I"m not forcing the issue. Maybe this summer we can work on it more seriously. It would be awesome to be done with diapers! :)

She loves to draw and color. I got the twistable crayons and this works well for her. She likes to try to eat the others, so this way, there is only a little bit sticking out and she can't eat it. :) She likes to get them all out and draw. (Scribble!) She loves it when we draw Bert or Ernie. She gets all excited. :)

She has been saying random letters when she colors, or when she sees letters (like her name in her room- on the wall). Last night, we did the whole alphabet- where I whispered her a letter to say and she repeated it. It was adorable! I wish we would have gotten it on video. Some of the letters she gets the sounds wrong, but they are all so close! :) She also knows the colors blue, yellow and pink fairly consistently. She can identify them if you ask her what something you are holding is. We're still working on the others! :)

She is about 29 pounds, wearing 2 and 3 toddler size clothes. She is still in size five diapers. She has all of her teeth, except her 2 year molars. She identifies her body parts and lots of animal sounds. All in all... she's ornery, and smart and absolutely adorable! :)

Adventures with Bert and Ernie

Allie with Bert and Ernie, and of course, sunglasses.... this is the embarrassed

pose. We mentioned their names, and she wilted with this huge smile! :)

We made Bert and Ernie a slide/ramp with the cushions from the couch...

she had a blast playing with them like this! :)

Easter bunny ears pose... :)

Allie, Daddy and the Ever faithful Bert and Ernie by her side. :)

She knows that there are pictures of Ernie's nose and part of his face as well as

parts of Bert in some of these pictures. She can point them out to us. She also

points out pictures of rubber duckies and says, "Ernie- duck!" She loves to read these books!

Can you spot the hidden Bert and Ernie in this picture. They're watching her! :)

Close up of them... hiding or watching her. :) This is all the closer she'd let them get

when we first brought them home to her. ;)

Before the stuffed characters entered out house, she often carried around the plastic Ernie with a ducky float around his middle and sunglasses on. She had him everywhere... Here he is helping her cook... :)

Allie has this obsession with the Characters Bert and Ernie. I suppose you could say they are her best friends right now. She loves them to pieces.... but also gets extremely embarrassed around them. We got her these two stuffed toys about a month or so ago. We first realized that she had this crush on these two about six months ago or so. We would read books and they'd be in, and she'd get all squirmy on the pages with Bert or Ernie. She would sit and look at the books and just study those pages on her own. When we asked her what she was looking at, she'd quick close the book and hide her face. When she sees them on S. Street, she just about crawls out of the room with embarrassment. Pretty hilarious! :) She definitely likes them- and is not scared of them.

When we were at a bookstore a few months ago, I showed her the stuffed Bert. She seriously about crawled out of her stroller trying to hide from him!

When we first brought home the Bert and Ernie, she wouldn't go near them for a while. Just wanted to look at them. Every time we would bring them close for her to play with, she would bury her face and kind of whine. So we put them up on a shelf for her to look at. She wouldn't go near that corner of the room, but always pointed from a distance and smiled and commented about them. Finally, we started bring them around with us to different places in the house. Daddy took them upstairs once and used them as a gate near the steps. Worked well until she got brave and picked Bert up and threw him down the stairs... :) From then on, she's loved them to pieces. She carries them EVERYWHERE! She loves to swing with them, and just carry them around. I've caught her trying to give them drinks from her sippy, and feed them her fruit snacks. BUT.... when I praise her for feeding and taking care of them, she gets all embarrassed and hides her face, or throws them far from her- almost to say "I wasn't feeding them, or giving them a drink..." :) Silly girl!

She loves everything to do about them, and notices their features. She can pick them out anywhere- even if it is only part of their face, or an outline of them. She loves to look at them in books, watch for them on S. Street, and show us anytime she sees them. She'll sometimes bring us things and just kind of giggle- and usually it has a Bert or Ernie picture on it. :)

She also LOVES to pray for these two... ha! I love this girl! When we pray at meal times or before bed or nap, she always has to tell us things she wants to pray for (I love this about her!) She usually always says Bert, Ernie, Swing and Play. Sometimes there are other things that get mixed in the request line up, but she will persist and say Bert (and Ernie) (Bert is her fav. though) until we repeat it and thank God for him too. ;) Soooo funny! :)

So, that's the story... she's got her first crush! :)

Easter at Grammie and Gramps

After visiting Nana and Papa we went to Grammie and Gramp's house. Cousins K,L and A were there. Here are some pictures of our time with them. Allie got more Easter presents! :) A cute short/top outfit and a little egg that hatches into a chick and some gummy fruit snacks! :) Very fun times!

Easter Dress and the Flowers

These are from Allie's first Easter.... and the ones from this Easter to compare... :) Such a big change in a year! Still adorable though! :)

I love to take Allie's Easter Dress picture in front of mom and dad's beautiful daffodils!

Easter at Nana and Papa's

We celebrated Easter with our families. First we went to Nana and Papa's. We had a big meal together and enjoyed just spending time together. As usual, I took a ton of pictures. :) We had Allie all dressed up in her Easter best and she fell asleep on the way, so we put her down in the crib for her nap and had to wake her to eat lunch at 2 or so. SO, we took the dress off so she wouldn't get it messy during lunch, and then did pictures later. (Another post to come...). She got a basket at Nana and Papa's house, and a bubble puppy that blows bubbles from Auntie D and Uncle J. Her basket from Nana and Papa had all sorts of vacation goodies inside!! :) We'll be needing those soon! Yipppeee!!! She got a swim suit and dress cover up, sun glasses, little beach shoes and of course they all match! Elmo books, a brush, and a new toothbrush and some other fun things! :) Have I mentioned she's spoiled? :) )

OH yes.....a Mess!

This little girl loved her basket stuffing as much or more (at this time- until we took it away... :)

than the toys inside.... she had a blast making this mess! :) So silly.

Easter Morning

We did a basket for Allie again this year. It was the same basket that I had when I was growing up. I think I went a little overboard trying to fill it this year... not everything fit. Yeah, she's spoiled. :) We got her a big princess ball that she can kick around the yard and a stuffed bert and ernie that she both adores and is embarrased by (another post for another day! :) ) . Those things didn't fit in the basket. The rest was a couple coloring books, bubbles, books, a little flute, cards with mickey and pooh that she can learn her colors and numbers with and some other little odds and ends. She loved going through the basket. It was pretty cute. And we can't leave out Gracie puppy... she got a new Frisbee and softball to play with outside! :)