POOP!

I have never been so excited about poop! Alison for the first time today, about ten minutes ago, walked up to me and said "poop!" declaring that she had a dirty diaper!

We have been saying poop whenever she has a dirty diaper trying to teach her to tell us when she needs a 'freshie' a.k.a a clean diaper and it would seem that she got it! I am so proud of her. We all made a really big deal out of her telling us and she seemed really pleased with herself. I know all moms must think this but I have the most wonderful little girl in the world!

Sew fun!

Hello!
It's been awhile so lets talk! I forgot to mention what Chris got me for Valentines Day! He got me the Thomas Kincaid Snow White Finds the Cottage cross stitch kit! Its big and beautiful!

This is going to take a while to finish!

Chris also got me some Thread Heaven which is floss conditioner that I read was really great, it is, it makes your floss glide so smoothly and it tangles a lot less which is really awesome.

We got Alison some stacking blocks and I got Chris his favorite chocolate and a t-shirt he wanted. We didn't do much on Valentines Day because of Alison being sick but it was still nice being able to be together.

On the 15th Alison and I had another Doctors appointment that took so long Chris had to leave work to pick my mom up from the airport. Our appointment started at 10am and my mom landed at 2pm. They were giving Alison some test to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with her. Thank goodness everything came back negative.

Chris dropped my mom off at the clinic and she waited with Alison and I. She was really happy to see us (especially Alison!).

Feb 15th

Alison in the Doctor's office...again

playing with her toys

2/24

Alison's first taste of Ready Whip

'Baba' (Chris and I were trying to get Alison to say Grandma but she says 'Ba-ba instead) cute her up some strawberries and mommy gave her a big dollop of whipped cream!

She LOVED it. 

2/28

Daddy and Alison hanging out.

Alison loves sitting in daddy's lap. She is always so excited when he comes home.

3/1

Alison playing with her baby dolls.

3/2

Alison loves sitting on Ba-ba's lap. Grandma likes to hold Alison and rock her back and forth. Alison is eating up all the attention! She likes to follow Ba-ba around and and Ba-ba taught Alison to say 'cracker'

(its really cute)

Mom and I have been playing on my sewing machine. She has an embroidery machine and helped me out on getting started. We got some interfacing and picked a embroidery pattern and it was that easy!

I love my new sewing machine!

We have also made a dress and a little shirt and pants. I haven't taken pics of them yet but I will!

The finished product!

I still have a lot to learn about my sewing machine (it does so much!) but its nice having someone here helping me figure things out.

Back in November I started a slow-carb diet. Its pretty easy to stick to and I am happy to report that I have lost 15 pounds and weigh less than I did when I got pregnant with Alison! I am pretty pleased with myself. Chris is doing a similar diet to increase muscle and reduce body fat and he is also doing really well with it.

Alison is having a really good week, especially with Ba-ba here! She likes to pull all her books out of the book shelf and bump all her blocks on the floor. She loves running around and her favorite word is Apple. She has learned cracker, beetle, twinkle, water, bow (although I think she has been saying this one for awhile) and a few others words I can't think of at the moment. She is amazing. She is reading more words as well. I am excited to see how much she progresses over this year. The best part is, we are not pushing anything on her, she LOVES books and reading. We just follow her cues and it seems to be working.

Thanks for reading!

Update!

The Doctor called last night with the final bits of Alison's test results and everything came back negative!

We were worried that she might produce too much stomach acid but they ran a test and she is just fine! We are very happy with this news. The doctor thinks that Alison just got a stomach virus and the bout on Monday was its last 'Hurrah!' if you will.

Oh Alison...

I guess I should say poor Alison. on Wednesday (Monday she bumped her head) she got sick and started throwing up. It started at 4am and then again at 4:20ish so we went to the emergency room again. Nothing really happened but they checked her out and said she probably ate something and for me not to worry, that her head and the throwing up were not related.

She threw up a bit more on Thursday and then it seemed as though she was done, nothing over the weekend. Chris came back from Virginia and everything seemed to be going fine. I took her in for a post emergency room check up today (Valentines Day, Happy Valentines Day!) and the doctor said everything looked good. However, tonight Chris was holding Alison and she threw up again, a lot. So I called and made a doctors appointment for in the morning. We already threw out any food that might be bothering her so we can rule out food. I just hope the doctor will be able to figure out whats wrong with her.

I will post an update as soon as I can but feel free to call, her appointment is at ten and then we are picking my mom up fromt he airport at one. So anytime in the afternoon if you want to check in.

Here are some recent picture. I had wanted to take a Valentines picture of Alison today. She was wearing a heart outfit and I had her big red bow on her. She looked really cute, that is untill she threw up. I had wanted to take her picture with her Valentines Day cards and her blocks, Chris and I got her a set of wooden blocks for her Valentine's gift. I read an article that said blocks were important in developing the 'engineering' part of a child's brain. Alison likes to play with them, no stacking yet but she has fun knocking over the stacks mommy and daddy build. I will try and take a pic of her tomorrow with her cards and blocks.

2/9

Alison got to sleep in mommy's room per the doctors orders! Mommy set up the pack and play at the end of her bed.

Posing for the camera

2/12

Alison in her car seat on the way to our friend's Lex house for Lex's surprise birthday party.

Having fun with daddy at the party

2/13

This is our friend Ritchie and his girlfriend Monique. They were visiting from Texas. We met them for some brunch.

Alison wanted to sit on mommy and daddy's laps and not in her high chair the entire time.

She was being really cute. The people at the table next to us even commented on how pretty she is.

Its Good to be Home

Jan 28

Alison is a good eater, I hear that changes somewhere between 2 & 3. Right now she really likes peas! 

'More Peas Please!'

Jan 29

Our friends Lex and Dave welcomed their son Ryan home!

He is one cute baby.

New mom Lex

Daddy holding Alison, she has decided that she is afraid of dogs.

Dad and son

Feb 5

Alison was reading the advertisements and it looked so cute I took a picture!

Bath time!

Alison likes to make funny faces!

'Hi mommy!'

After the bath we brushed our teeth. Alison likes to brush her teeth all by herself.

Feb 7

Alison is eating Mandarin oranges, she ate them all up!

We followed with a banana, which she squished into several pieces!

Sometimes I make Alison a snack station on the coffee table, the doctor says she needs to gain more weight. She has some animal crackers and a fruit salad of apples and blueberries.

Feb 8

Alison is eating apple slices and watching her baby video. If you look at her forehead you can see where she fell down. Yesterday we took a tumble and hit our head on a kettle bell. A bump ballooned up and mommy took Alison to the emergency room, where they told us it was just a head bump! Whew! It looks a lot better today than it did yesterday after it happened. But we got it checked out just to be safe!

Eating Apples.

Alison has started talking this past week and she has really taken off!

She can say cat, hat, happy, good girl, apple, brush, hi, dog, and mama are her most frequent words. She can also show me where her tongue is by sticking it out and going 'ahhhh!'

Its amazing watching her learn and it seems to be happening so fast!

Hawaii!

Chris, Alison and I went to Hawaii!! Let me show you some pictures of our trip! We had a great time and I already want to go back!

Alison was really good on the plane, we got lucky and didn't have anyone sitting next to us so Alison got her own seat!

What a princess relaxing with her airplane pillow, her blanket and a cookie.

We bought a new stroller to take with us. our old stroller went with the car seat Alison grew out of. Chris on the phone pushing Alison through the Hale Koa Hotel (we weren't staying here but it't the military hotel and ours was next door so we ate here a lot and went to the exchange)

Our beautiful daughter

Daddy taking a video of Alison walking, we are so proud at how good a walker she has become.

checking things out

Alison likes to brush her hair all by herself!

The view from our hotel room, it was so beautiful. Chris and I watched the sunset almost evey evening.

Alison in the stroller, "Lets go mom!"

Alison and I spent a lot of time wandering around Waikiki by ourselves because Chris worked during the day. We had a lot of fun and did a little bit of shopping (very little bit) We got Alison a sun hat and a plush cat becuase 'cat' is one of her favorite words to say.

Here is Alison in her new hat! She doesn't like wearing hats so I always make sure they are the kind you tie on! She is too pale and her hair is too thin to not wear a hat and SPF 60 sunscreen whenever we go outside!

Awe...I love this picture.

We went to visit the aquarium and I have to say it was a bit disappointing (ok a lot dissapointing!!). We were hoping it would be like the amazing aquarium in Grorgia. That aquarium is fantastic.

Walking back from the aquarium daddy gives Alison a ride on his shoulders!

Alison in her stroller

Silly bunny

We went to the Paradise Cove Luau, I don't recomend taking a baby if you want to do any of the activities. We were able to do the 'spear' throw (well Chris was) becuase it was quick and there was no line. Alison wanted to walk around and did not have the patience to wait for mommy and daddy to do boring stuff!

Alison looks scared in this pic but she is actually amazed. I changed her into her pajamas while we were at the Luau when it got dark so she would be a little warmer and so we could just put our little bundle in bed when we got back to the hotel.

Alison is watching the dancers, she really liked the fire throwing guy and was very excited when the hula dancers put on big elaborate costumes! She actually crawler onto the lady's lap who was sitting next to me so she could see better! Luckily the lady I was sitting next to thought Alison was a doll and was more than happy to hold her and was delighted by Alison's frequent "Ooooohh!!" and little clapping. 

The stage the people performed on.

Hanauma Bay, so beautiful! We wanted to go snorkling here but we ran out of time. Ah well I am sure we will make our way back out to Hawaii some other time!

Alison and mommy

Reading!

My beautiful daughter, so pretty.

She had a good time looking at all the natural wonder.

the blow hole! I didn't see it actually shoot any water up but they put a marker where it would have, you can see it if you click on the pic to enlarge it (don't forget to push the back button instead of x to get back to the blog!)

Beautiful!

Us in front of the same rock formation as the pic above

There is a light house in the distance on the mountain. Chris and I had a good time looking into all the little pools of water and just taking in all the beauty.

Alison and I in the same spot as the pic above

Chris took this picture. Alison fell asleep on our tour bus and I wasn't about to wake her up! So I asked my wonderful hubs Chris (who offered to stay with us) to take a lot of pics, what a view!

Very nice, Ireally love all the green mountains!

Alison made a friend! This is one of the ladies from our tour bus who fell in love with Alison. Alison was good the entire time we were on the tour (almost 11 hours) I had one guy tell me that she wasn't just a good baby she was a perfect baby! I couldn't have been more proud of my little Ali.

This is the Byodo-In Temple. It and the grounds around it were very beautiful.

click here for more info

Alison loves walking and daddy loves holding her hand

We are at the Byodo-In Temple walking around the grounds.

Beautiful mountain that is supposed to be a lizard. The island dubbed Chinaman's Hat is supposed to be the tail of the lizard that was cut off and thrown into the ocean

click here if you want to read a little bit more about the story

In this picture we are actually on a small boat on a fishing lake.

You can kind of see a building through the trees, that is part of the set of 'Off the Map'

this area was also used for Paradise Island, Lost, the movie 50 First Dates and a slew of other TV and movie magic!

a little closer...

Here is the tail to the dragon/lizard but is called the China man's hat, for obvious reasons.

Daddy and Alison watching a surfing competition. Apparently there was a major big super competition going on. Chris and I don't follow surfing so we didnt really know what it was but there were a lot of people and lots of TV cameras!

This might have been my favorite part, seeing in the wild sea turtles!! I love turtles, lizards crocodiles and of course a very special Ali-gator! they were a lot bigger than I thought they were! This picture doesn't do justice to how big this guy is! If you look in the background you can see a second sea turtle buddy handing out!

A close up and the shadow of my head and camera. The red rope you can see in the corner was put around the area where the sea turtles were to make a protective boundry and there were two wildlife people who kept telling people not to get close. Yo can actually go to jail for bothering these guys.

Mommy shared her chocolate ice cream with Alison and she loved it! I don't recall Alison ever having chocolate ice cream before we have always gotten her vanilla. It was the first time she ate an ice cream cone though!

Cute little tyke. After I took pics we took off her clothes and washed them and her! what a mess! but was so much fun!

Alison wanted to hold her milk all by herself, she is starting to strike out a little on wanting to do what she wants! Uh Oh...I hope the terrible 2s don't come early!

Last morning in Hawaii, its really early as we get ready to go to the airport. I took the blanket off the tent (we throw a blankie over it to keep it dark and warm and Alison didnt wake up at all, so I took pics!

She didn't even wake up when I unzipped it!

She is so cute when she is asleep, and awake!

Still sleepy leaving the hotel and going back home to California!