Who's this little kid? Allie at 11 months

It seems someone has replaced my baby with a big girl. 

  

It dawned on me the other day that Allie doesn't look like a baby anymore. She looks like a real, live, little kid. 

And she looks like a little gangster in her pink hoodie.

So where'd my baby go? The only time she looks like a baby now is when she's in her pajamas and drinking her ba ba before bed. And even then she looks more like a kid.

I guess she's a kid now. A toddler. She's 11 months old today and in just 4 short weeks, she'll be 1! What do we do then?

Three years of wedded bliss

I can't believe its been three years since the wonderful day when Doug and I said "I do."

And its been great. In the ups and downs since then, we've gotten through it together and come through stronger. I can't remember my life before meeting Doug. He's truly my best friend, my cheerleader. And now we've started our family. We're living the dream. Happy anniversary honey!

Changin' and rearrangin'

Our house is looking a little different now.

  

We've finally moved that big cabinet from the dining room into the living room. The dining room is so big without it! Its still a mess in there, but its going to be reorganized and everything will finally have a place that isn't the kitchen counter. I hate having stuff sitting on my kitchen counter. But Allie's food has been there for five months now since I had nowhere else to put it.

But there's a much more interesting change in our house.

Allie is now contained in the living room, with a real baby gate instead of the mommy and daddy baby gate.

It surprised her at first, but I think she's gotten used to it. After all, its another thing to play with and chew on!

Baby steps

Those are what we're seeing from Allie these days! She's been taking one step, but last night she took three at once. And a few other times she took two! I'm not sure I'm ready for Allie to walk, but I don't get a choice. At least she waited awhile! I don't really know when I'll consider it walking. I don't think of it as walking just yet, but it will be soon. I'll post pictures and video soon!

The spoon: Utensil or toy?

A few days ago, I decided to see what would happen if I gave Allie the spoon.

She was having peaches here. She had great fun picking up the peaches and putting them on the spoon! Mommy learned, however, that she needs to get baby plates before performing this experiment again.

Allie wants to use the spoon, but I don't think she realizes yet how to use it to feed herself. Right now its just another plaything. You can tell that she enjoyed it though!

Unfortuately Allie has been having some digestive problems so she's just eating bland foods, mostly oatmeal and apple sauce. Its been tough and we're hoping Allie is just about over this little sickness!



Last hurrah of summer

It was a rather abrupt change of seasons here, which left a lot of cute summer clothes unworn. So this morning when the forecast said it would be a bit warmer, I got out this cute outfit.

But it true Allie fashion, she came home wearing something else. I hope we have a few more chances to keep the warm weather clothes in the dresser!

Fun time with the fam

I posted my full race report over on My Marathon Journey, but I wanted to post pictures from our family race here too. On Saturday Jacob and I ran the 8K (he ran it about 23 minutes faster than me, but came back to find me at the end to help me finish), Jocelyn did the 2-mile run and Jeni and Johanna did the 2-mile walk. Our parents and Allie were there to cheer us on.

Here we are before the race. The morning was rainy but right before the race it cleared up! It did end up misting the whole time I was running, which made the race harder (that along with the hills).

And after the race.

I always need to have a post-race picture with Allie!

Jocelyn won her age group for the 2-mile run!

And Allie really liked playing with Jocelyn's medal.

We had a lot of fun with this event and I think we'll do it next year. Who knows? Maybe Allie can take part in the kids races next year or surely the year after.

Its that red crayon again

Allie sure does some funny things to amuse herself.

She loves this red bucket and her latest amusement is to wear it on her head and/or over her face. I took the strap off the bucket so it wouldn't get stuck and she's always supervised while she plays with it.

I can't help noticing the parallel between this bucket and an outfit Allie wore when she was really little. Its the red crayon!

I wonder if this means she will become an artist?

Fabulous find

Last Friday while on furlough, I decided to stop by the Goodwill store to see what I could find there. I was hoping to find a pair of pants for me or pajamas for Allie. I decided I didn't need pants and there weren't any pajamas so I thought it was a wasted trip.

But on the way out I perused the book shelves and stumbled on this cookbook, "Take 5," from weight watchers. I have no interest in counting points, but I figure a weight watchers cookbook is full of healthy recipes. And with only five ingredients, they're simple.

Tonight I made Quick Posole, a Mexican-style stew that was great and filling. I just went through the book and marked many recipes that I want to try. So many of my cookbooks sit unused, especially since I made the switch to day shift working mom. I need simplicity, and this book looks to be it.

We've been struggling for a long time to find the balance between easy and healthy cooking/eating. I'm hopeful this book will help with that.

Oh, and I also grabbed a couple books for Allie on this trip. While she doesn't sit to listen when we read to her, she is interested in what she hears. Considering how much books cost, Goodwill will be a gold mine to develop Allie's mind!

Secret passage

Since we still don't have gates in our house, mommy and daddy serve as the gatekeepers between the living room and dining room. But we have one smart girl here.

Allie just goes through her secret passage behind the chair and crawls right out into the dining room where such fun things as the shelf with the blender, kitchen chairs and the dog food can be found! If she's lucky, the gatekeeper isn't watching and she will just run for it (well, crawl for it) to wreak havoc in the house. Most of the time though, we catch her before she leaves the carpet.

Taste of Madison

This weekend we said goodbye to summer by going to the Taste of Madison, as we have the past three summers. A bunch of local restaurants set up on the Capital Square and offer samplings from their menus for between $1 and $4. Its a great way to try new restaurants. Our favorite selection is always the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Egg Rolls from Bluephies. One of these days we actually have to go to Bluephies to have a meal.  

Of course, Allie didn't have the pleasure of eating with us at the Taste of Madison, but she had fun nonetheless.

Go Badgers! We all dressed up in our Badger red for the day and celebrated their first victory of the year.

Allie only got to enjoy the sippy cup. Next year she can have the full enjoyment of Taste of Madison.

We sat on the Capital lawn and listened to the music. Allie even danced for us! It was fun but our fun was dampened when it started raining. We walked around a bit more, got more to eat and then went home. It was a nice way to bid adieu to summer. What made it even nicer was the fact that today the house was clean, the weather was nice, we grilled out and just relaxed - nowhere to go. Now tomorrow we all have to go back to work, but at least its only a four-day week!

Laundry helper

Last night Allie decided to help daddy fold her laundry.

Or maybe she just wanted to have a soft place to land.

I wonder if she will always be this helpful?

Girl around town

Allie's newest hat. Mommy wishes hats looked that cute on her! She got this hat, along with some other cute outfits from Grandma and Grandpa Durso.

When we were in southern Illinois, we took in an independent league baseball game, the Southern Illinois Miners. We sat on the lawn, but it was a decent grade hill so we had to hold onto Allie to keep her from rolling down!

She always has refreshment nearby, courtesy of the sippy cup.

On our way home Monday we stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Mattoon to see Macenzie, Desiree and Tim. Macenzie and Allie get along great. It was really funny to sit them on a bench and see what they would do as we tried to take pictures.

I wish we lived closer. But Allie and Macenzie will be great friends because their mommies are!

Fun at the playground

We love taking Allie to the playground, and she loves going to the playground.

Allie loves to go down the slide with Mommy.

She loves to swing too.
 

She loved it when we took turns pushing her, higher, but not too high!

She was fascinated with her shadow.

The one thing Allie was not sure about, however, was this giant alligator she rode on with Daddy. She smiled for  a picture and then reached for Mommy.