18 month Portraits

Another day at the Picture People and here are a few shots. She will not let go of that bear! I had to distract her with something else to get her to drop him. I like the third one because that's what she looks like when she laughs.

She is getting very independant - I forgot the stroller and I had a hard time keeping her still while I had to decide which ones to get. Anyway - not too traumatic.

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

Fish Face











Happy Face











Peekaboo!







One of my favorite things about my new camera is how close you can get and still be in focus!

Fun in the Park

We went to the park the other day looking for ducks to feed. We found a see saw first and Alison took a ride. She seemed to like it - more when Nick was sitting with her.












Yes - this was her sitting on it alone - she looks a little more apprehensive. But it's okay, she has her bear. (and these are the first pics taken with my new camera - I love it!)

Pig Tails and Pink Bears

Alison likes to hang out on the front stoop with her best bud bear. I'll be interested to see what she names her when she starts talking more. I only assume the bear is a she because of the pink pjs - but she takes that thing with her EVERYWHERE. I taught her the sign for bear and she is always asking for her.





I can't resist pigtails and tiny flip-flops, yep there's trusty ole bear.












This was mid-pattycake. She loves pattycake and "itsy-bitsy spider". I think people at the grocery store think I'm a little nutty pushing my cart and singing those rhymes.

Food Fun!

Here is the requisite "first time eating spaghetti" picture. I can't really get her to eat pasta, mac and cheese, anything. But this day she was sort of into it.














This was at breakfast and she was working on stacking her cup on her glass. She was really pleased with herself. I think she might be a future Cirque du Soleil artist.

Time for Daddy

Here she is chilling with dad and then trying on his boots. She fell over before I could get the picture - but they come up mid-thigh - nice go-go look!

New teeth, new words?

I don't know if her new teeth are prompting more speech but she has added several new words to her vocabulary. She now says "bye - bye" (in addition to the wave), cheese (pronounce 'chis'), baby, and this new one (see the video). I didn't even know she'd picked up on this.

Teeth, teeth and more teeth

So she cut another molar and another front tooth a couple of days ago. That explains the mess we've been in for the last couple of weeks. I think she's still got a few more coming, she hasn't quite come out of the crankiness yet. Little Miss Cranky-Pants, that's her name! No new pics as the 2nd one below says it all.

Happy Easter, or just, Hey, it's Easter!

Alison has been going through something lately and has been having a few more meltdowns than normal. I like to chalk it up to teething, lack of sleep (from teething) and the fact that she now has to share Grandma Jan. She did cut her first molar a couple of weeks ago - and she's still working on her top 4th and bottom 3 & 4 teeth. I tried to get a good picture of her in her darling dress from Grandma Suzie, but this is all we could manage. No smiling allowed.

Maybe she was just upset I forgot to make the deviled eggs.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

She loves checking herself out in the mirror.

Dancing Queen

Here you can see what she does any time music is playing - she does like the hoedown Farmer Tad plays on his banjo!

Cherry Blossom Festival

We headed up for an early morning stroll through the blossoms on Sunday morning. It was cooler and more overcast than we would have liked - but still breathtaking and an official start to spring. Here Nick was teaching Alison how to throw pebbles in the water. We opted to keep her in the stroller since there's no barrier to keep her from running into the water. The tidal basin was high this weekend. A friend lent us their digital SLR so I got some great pics. Click here to check them out on my other blog.

I love Paris in the Springtime

Okay, so we're not in Paris, but we love Spring!








Today we pulled out the jellies - remember those? Her feet were cute before, but now look!











She is so well dressed, thanks to adoring family and friends. This courtesy of Philippa and Dave. I think she may be ready for the fashion runways of Paris.

Photoshoot

Ignore my voice on the video - why is it that our own voices sound so weird?! Anyway, we had a little photoshoot on Saturday - she was hamming it up and I got some of it on video. She LOVES being outside.

Camera bug

Our little mimic

I've always heard that kids watch and imitate everything you do - I just didn't realize how young they started. Here are some of the things I see her mimic.

1. Locking the lock on the cabinet doors under the sink when I've neglected to do it.
2. Saying no, no, no and patting my hand with a stern look on her face when I touch the DVR and TV.
3. Saying awwww and patting our shoulders as she gives us hugs.
4. Tickling us.
5. Shutting doors and turning off lights.
6. Myriads of facial expressions.
7. I think the sweetest was tonight, as Nick and I were starting to eat our dinner we paused to say the blessing and she dutifully folded her arms and waited. She got that just from watching us - I guess I thought she was too young to get it. So cute. And I better be careful what else she hears and what is said around her!

catching snow

I just figured out how to post video! yay!
This was my attempt to get a video of her catching snowflakes. It was cold, wet and my gloves got in my way - so it's really short. But she was having fun.

oompa loompa

aka buddha belly. I tried to get a good shot of it, but it was difficult -she's such a busy body, couldn't keep her still.

Big Fluffly Flakes

We woke up to a surprise storm on Sunday morning. So much snow that they cancelled church. SNOW DAY!!! Not that I don't enjoy church, I just get tired of chasing miss Alison around for 3 hours.

I would have to say that this was more fun.She definitely was having fun - just look at the smiles!

and the "organic" snow cones are her favorite!

14 months

Guess what Alison got for her 14th month mark? A stomach bug - ewww, gross. I will spare the details of the throwing up but it was not pretty. And then she was sick and cranky all weekend due to the arrival of a new tooth - well, it's almost arrived. Teething is not for the faint hearted parent.

She is learning to communicate better and has all sorts of things that she says. The newest addition is "night-night". Besides the requiste "mama" and "dada" she also says "whosat?", "whasat?" (who's that and what's that), "thank-you" and "all done". She's not keyed into naming things so much however she does sign milk, all done, eat and more.

We also turned her new car seat around this week. It was kind of anti-climatic. She doesn't mind the car and would have stayed rear-facing for as long as we let her. But her legs were getting to long. I'm still not sure she meets the 20lb weight requirement but our scale said she was close enough. It's nice to be able to look in the rearview mirror and be able to tell if she is asleep or not.

I needed to write this down somewhere so I wouldn't forget - this seems so much easier than writing it down on actual paper.

Grandma Suzie and Grandpa Ken

I just wanted to share a couple of shots taken during our visit to Utah. She was really cute with Grandpa and finally warmed up to Grandma just in time to leave.

Physics Experiment

No Vandegraft generator required. This hair is a common 'do for her - with the cold and dry air, it does pretty much whatever it wants. I had to get it on film. Oh, and forget bows, barrettes and elastics - they only last two seconds before she pulls them out. Unless I immediately distract her with food or Little Einsteins.

Winter Hiking

We took a little trip along the Skyline Drive in the Appalachians on Saturday. Not the colorful spectacle you would see in the fall - but the sky was bright blue with crisp mid 20 degree temps. We took a little "hike" along the Appalachian Trail. Alison loved being outside, despite the cold.

Sleeping Beauty

I took this picture last night while she was sleeping. We always find her in the funniest postions. Usually there is one leg propped up in the air somehow.

1st Birthday Portraits

Sitting pretty and she still loves her toes!


Don't mind the zazzle written across the print - these are contraban from their web site.



This is her new expression, inquisitive and surprised!

Sad Day

We will miss Great-Grandma. (taken 5/27/06)

Baby's 1st Christmas?

Santa's little helperNew pajamas

She hasn't figured out it needs to be peeled first.

Her first car - thanks Grandma Suzie!

Well, it seemed like her first - she was only a week and a half old last year. She loved opening presents and playing with all of her new toys. She is so entertaining!

Christmas Lights!

Oh how I love blue. AND Christmas lights. So what's even better? Blue Christmas lights. Alison LOVED it! She was giddy and was laughing the whole time!