The Princess and Her Pet

Updates: Walking and Teeth

In addition to her push toy, Ally has now started walking behind anything in the apartment that moves. This includes her stroller, high chair and even a laundry basket! She knows how it works so we will see how long before she is doing it on her own.

Also, her top right tooth has finally popped through. The left one wont be far behind but you can definitely see and feel the right one. I know she is going to lose these eventually but I am still hoping they come in somewhat straight!

Push Toys are Great

Ally's first real steps! She pulled herself up to her toy and began making her way all the way across the living room. She was halfway across the room before I was able to get the camera going so this really only shows her last few steps but it was pretty amazing. She was so happy just pushing her toy across the room! She didn't quite know what to do when she ran into the sliding glass door so she decided that was enough. I'm hoping she will show off again when I am more prepared to video. This FisherPrice convertible toy is great, it goes from a push toy to a ride on toy easily and Ally just loves on the moving parts on it. Its just the right height for her and will be good for quite a while.

10 Months Old

Its so hard to believe that Allyson is almost a year old already! She is still on the move constantly and is getting more adventuresome by the day. She has perfected the art of pulling herself up and can do it on just about anything but has yet to get on her feet without holding on to something. This week she has started to experiment with letting go of things she is hanging onto and seeing how long she can stand alone before she sits down. Its sort of funny to watch because she is so careful and she lets herself down to her knees or butt very gently even when she isn't holding on to anything.

Her favorite activities still include emptying things and taking items off/out of things. She spends a lot of time each day removing any items from the table, her book shelves and toy baskets. Some of her other new tricks include clapping, waving, motor noises/raspberries, blowing kisses and hitting her hands on things to make noise. She claps all the time, anytime she hears "good job" or "yay Ally" her hands go along with a big smile. Waving is new as of last week but she doesn't quite use it in the right context yet. She knows the word kiss and will smack her lips like a kissing noise and its so cute. Some days she is stingy with the kisses but other days she does it constantly. This week she also started to hit things like the sides of her head, her legs, chairs, table top and me of course just to see if it will make noise. Ally is very vocal and makes a ton of sounds. She refers to Karl as da or daddy but he isn't the only one so Im not sure if we can count that as her first official word or not. She is getting pretty good at carrying on a conversation even if we can't understand her.

Ally is eating more table food and has recently taken to feeding herself chicken, turkey and bananas in addition to the breads and crunchy stuff she has always liked. She is hit and miss on the pureed baby food items but she definitely likes to have bites of everyone else's food. The funny thing is that she is a fantastic eater out in public and really only puts up a fight to eat when she is in her highchair at home. We are experimenting more with a sippy cup but she hasn't quite figured out that she has to suck to get the liquid out. She tips it correctly using the handles but she only bites on the spout. We do have one cup that doesn't have the spill-proof spout so she likes that one best but she makes a huge mess so I prefer she learns how to use the other ones. She also knows the correct motion to use a regular cup but she gets surprised every time liquid comes at her so she tends to get a huge mouthful and pull back. We are looking forward to the one year mark so we don't have to mix formula anymore but we need to get this cup thing down sooner rather than later.

This week we wrapped up Ally's first 8 week session of swimming lessons and she seemed to enjoy it. We go to the pool about once a week in addition to the Y class and she just loves the water and to watch other kids at the pool. Milestones coming soon will be Ally's top two teeth, more words, standing alone, cruising and walking. Not sure in what order they will come but her top right tooth has broken through a little and she is starting to walk more with help. She hasn't shown much interest in cruising around furniture and things but yesterday she walked all the way across the living room behind her walking toy with no help from me. Scary! I didn't do a very good job taking photos this month (surprise) but here are some to enjoy.

Ally's First Competition

On Friday I took Ally to South Bend to watch her first baton competition. They have made some changes to the competition and they have now crammed 5 days worth of events into 4 days so I decided to make the trip up for the finals. This was my 20th AYOP and my 6th year as a spectator. I can honestly say I never thought I would take my own daughter there so it was quite the experience!

Now that we live further away, we made a stop in Lafayette and spent Thursday night there and then went up in the morning so we weren't driving all 5 hours in one day. We were able to see Whitney compete in the twirl offs, the corps finals and several of the exhibition performances. Of course Notre Dame was experiencing a major air conditioning failure on the hottest day of the year so the arena was easily over 100 degrees. Everyone was so incredibly hot, especially all the babies but Ally was a trooper. In addition to seeing some great twirling, we also got to catch up with some old friends and Ally got to meet lots and lots of people. She was her usual adorable self so we got stopped by many moms asking if she was a future Miss Majorette or future Golden Girl. It was great to meet up with my friend Rachael (Socially Inappropriate Mom) and meet her baby Daisy, see Jenny O and her two girls and to see all the girls on the team looking so grown up. Most of them don't remember me since I taught most of them when they were 4 or 5! Obviously it would have been much more enjoyable if it hadn't been so unbearably hot and moving so slowly but we saw what we needed to see and made it back to Lafayette by 1am.

I have been asked several times since Ally was born if she was going to twirl and my response has always been "if she wants to". Maybe I can show her a few things when she gets old enough and then she can make an informed decision but its hard to imagine not having her go to the studio where I grew up so we need to find a way back to Oshkosh before that time comes! I certainly don't want to be starring in an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras but I wouldn't mind having her learn what it means to be dedicated and work hard and to have something to show for it...like a Miss Majorette title or a college scholarship. Daddy might think otherwise but we will just take it one step at a time :)

A side note: ND has gone through a major renovation and did some things that will be similar to what Mackey will look like soon. They did a great job with the history of the school and all of the images around the arena, and the seating area itself is a huge improvement. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of Ally by some famous/infamous landmarks but you can be sure I was telling her "you may see a few football games here, but you will never go to school here". These were taken on my phone so they are pretty poor quality.