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It's been quite a week. Sorry to say that blogging has taken the back seat! But I'm back with plenty of cute pictures!

Last week when our daycare took a long weekend, Doug stayed home with Allie that Friday and I stayed home on Monday. We spent our morning taking our first ever walk without the stroller. She liked it so much that we took a second walk that afternoon. And now she is no longer a big fan of going in the stroller. Whoops.

For the first walk of the day we went to the playground. We stayed there for a bit more than half an hour. For the most part I let Allie run around where she wanted. She liked exploring and climbing on the equipment.

She also liked crawling through the tube to get to the slide. She actually sat on the slide and went down all by herself! I caught her at the bottom, of course.

When it was time to go home, she didn't walk too far before deciding she wanted me to carry her. She was tired! I didn't mind. At least it wasn't a too long walk, and I got my workout in for the day!

Later we played upstairs for a little bit. We read some books and ran around in circles. It was a fun day.

Going for a stroll

Allie likes to walk...

and walk...

and walk some more!

We've got a cookie monster

Monday when it was just me and Allie, I started making some cookies. I've been on a baking kick lately and today was a treat day at work. I decided to make these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I started while Allie was napping, but she woke up while I was baking them. I gave her one and then she wanted another... and another...

Ya can't really blame her. These cookies are chocked full of cakey goodness. I told her we'd have to wait for Dada to get home before we could have more. That didn't really appease her. She cried and yelled a lot. I finally got done baking and she was still crying for the darn cookies. So I took her outside and she finally forgot. And now she knows about cookies. Luckily she doesn't ask for one as long as they are not in her sight! Lesson learned... don't talk about cookies with Allie or show them to her!

Hair pretty

I just discovered I can pull all of Allie's hair up into a pony tail! It looks super cute and so far it doesn't seem like she can pull it out as easy as other hair pretties. She looks so grown up!

All about choo-choos

Original plans for Saturday included a trip with my sister Jeni to a bridal shower in New Richmond, four hours away. We unfortunately had to cancel because Jeni and Dave have been having car trouble. I was a little sad but also glad I wasn't going to leave my family all day!

So instead we went to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, which is about an hour away from here. We've wanted to go there for a long time.

The draw of the museum is the ride in the restored old-time train. Its a 7-mile ride on a former branch of the Chicago & Northwestern line with authentic-dressed conductors. We started by getting our tickets for the 1:00 train. Then we needed to get lunch. North Freedom isn't really a bustling metroplex though. In fact, the population, according to the line, is 649. There's not much to North Freedom. Using my fancy new phone I found there was the "Railroad Cafe" in North Freedom and no other food until Baraboo, about 5 miles away. We were a little short on time and looking for something interesting, so we braved the Railroad Cafe.

We were pleasantly surprised. It was an old fashioned diner and we were the only customers, at noon on a Saturday. That worked just fine for us.

Allie enjoyed some crackers and fries. We got her a grilled cheese but she wasn't into it. The only hangup of the restaurant was that it didn't have a changing table in the bathroom. I had to get creative and change her on the floor! It worked fine though.

The food was quick and it was good. We finished in plenty of time to get back to the train.

This is the historic depot built in 1894!

We rode in the Delaware Lackawanna & Western coach #563. They also used cars 425, 557 and 595. According to the pamphlet we got, these cars "were constructed by the Pullman Company between 1914 and 1917 for suburban passenger service in New York and New Jersey. These cars are of riveted steel construction and were one of the last large orders of open-vestibule coaches ever built. Their simple design provided economical transportation in short-distance use."

The weekend staff is volunteer! I'm sure its a labor of love for these people. Fascinating.

Allie liked looking out the windows at all the other trains. She really loved the entire experience, though we had taken a calculated risk, however, in skipping nap time. She had a mini meltdown before the ride started. Luckily she recovered nicely and we all enjoyed our ride.

The way her face lit up when the train whistle blew was priceless. This is the only real picture I got of the expression, hence the picture with only half her face!

After the conductor punched our tickets, we let Allie hold on to hers. Her ride was free, but she still got her own ticket.

The ride was a bit more than 3 miles down the track. When we got to the end of the line they separated the engine from the train to display for people to get a closer look. After everyone got a look, they moved the engine to the other end of the train for the trip back to the depot.

Allie's reaction was interesting. She loved the horn, but I think she was a little scared of it as well. Because her face would light up, but she'd also snuggle in closer to Mama. I think her tiredness played a part in this as well.

After the ride Allie ran around a bit while Mama used the bathroom. You gotta leave time for running around!

The other part of the museum is the coach shed, where they display the other restored trains. Its so interesting, but it was difficult, really impossible, to spend much time looking at the trains with Allie, especially with a tired Allie in tow.

Allie enjoyed walking between the trains though. She especially liked going up and down the stairs on the platforms.

It was a great family day. On the way home we stopped at Culvers in Sauk City for some sundaes. Allie didn't care for the frozen custard though. She enthusiastically took a couple spoonfuls and was startled by how cold it was. After a few bites she didn't want anymore part of it! Its better that way though, for her at least. Toward the end of the trip home we really started losing Allie. She'd been in the car and without a nap a bit too long. She was much more relaxed once we got home!

We really enjoyed this trip. We had considered going to one of the Milwaukee museums, but this trip was so much easier and perhaps cheaper. The train kept Allie's attention better than a normal museum would have for sure. They have several special events and we'd love to do any of them. They have a fall colors weekend, pumpkin special where you get a pumpkin at the end of the line, a Santa Express, and a winter train. The one we really want to try though is the dinner trip. Its $80 a person but it sounds like an awesome experience.

The train we rode Saturday was pulled by a diesel engine. The museum's mission though, is to get a steam engine in service. The conductor said they expect that to happen in a year. We were a bit bummed, however, to find out that a steam engine had made a guest appearance the weekend before! Now that would have been an experience. But now we have an excuse to go back next year!

Tantrums and kisses

What a weekend! Allie has had a long weekend because daycare took a long weekend. Dada stayed home Friday. This picture is from their trip to the playground that day. Tomorrow is my turn at home. I'm looking forward to spending time with my baby, but wondering what's in store for me. Along with all her learning and cuteness, she's been a bit of a challenge this weekend. Among other things I saw her almost flip out of her crib this morning and then while at the grocery store, temper tantrums were in full effect. Of course, on the flip side, she hasn't been stingy with giving out the kisses and hugs!

Where's Allie?

Every once in awhile when we're playing and Allie does something cute, I get the camcorder out to see if I can tape it. Of course when I do that, she becomes more interested in the camera than what she was doing to make me get it out! But this video is cute anyway. She was hiding behind her chair and I caught it a little. Enjoy!

Impromptu photoshoot

The other day I decided Allie was going to dress up. We should really dress her up more often. She was SO cute! Anyway, since she was so pretty (she even wore a hair pretty... for a few minutes) and I have a new smartphone with a great camera that I love playing with, we had a photo shoot before leaving for work! Too bad the stairs were such a mess!

Car seat cutie

Think she loves the camera a little?

In our yard

We don't have our own yard in our condo, but we do have a yard with interesting activities to play! We all go out together when we get home from work. Dada takes Monk out to do her business and also gets the mail. Allie and I play, but more often I just watch to see what she'll do next.

One of Allie's favorite things to do is sit on the porch.

She likes pulling leaves off trees and picking the grass.

For whatever reason, there's a manhole cover in the middle of the yard to the side of our building. Allie discovered it and loves playing on it.

She also enjoys picking up the rocks and tossing them around. She gets mad when I take them out of her hand when we go inside. But the rule is rocks, sticks and leaves aren't allowed in the house. We enforce that rule for both Monk and Allie!

And of course Allie likes to just run around.

Aren't these great pictures? I took them all on my phone! I figured out how to upload them to my online photo album too, so its a lot quicker to get them onto this blog. I don't have to mess with the camera cable and uploading them onto the computer before uploading them here. Not to mention the camera on my phone is a lot faster and in the right light takes better pictures. I'm really enjoying playing with the new phone!

Little pink piggies

I call Allie's toes piggies. We like to play "this little piggie went to market." She even calls them piggies too. And today at daycare Bridget's daughter Teagan, whom Allie absolutely loves, gave Allie her first pedicure! You can almost see the pink on her little piggies. I was amazed that she sat still for it. They said she was just fascinated. I think Allie's feet are so adorable anyway, but with the light pink on her little piggies makes them even more adorable!

A purse of her own

Today Mama got a new purse. So what do you think I did with the old one? Well, seeing as how we've got a little girl in the house who loves all purses, I gave it to Allie! And she loved it!

She kept bringing it to Mama and Dada to unzip, open it. Then she'd ask right away to close it. She put funny things in there like her shoe, her toy tea pot and her milk cup. It was cool to have her ask for us to open and close it because we didn't know up until then that she knows those concepts! Allie's collecting all sorts of grown up stuff. Dada gave Allie his old phone last night but when I gave Allie the purse, the phone was charging.

Catching up with technology

What a great picture of Allie! And I took it on my phone!

Yesterday was the day that both Mama's and Dada's cell phones became eligible for upgrade. Mine has been eligible for a year or so, but it took another year before Dada's was eligible. Seeing as how we both hated our old phones and were really excited to get smartphones, we went to the Verizon store at the first possible opportunity, right after work yesterday!

We spent a good amount of time with the salesperson learning about data plans and how the smartphones work and stuff before we made our decision. We had a pretty good idea but it was confirmed with what we learned in the store. We got the Droid X2 and so far they are awesome! Its strange though trying to figure out some of the functions, and discovering all the new things! The first thing I did was post a facebook mobile status! I was up until 10 last night and the time went by so fast because I was playing with that phone.

I figured out the camera this morning and took this sweet picture of Allie. The camera on this phone is 8 megapixels. I think my regular camera is only 5! Talk about quality. I was able to upload the photo to facebook, but I haven't yet figure out how to upload directly to the blog. I have a Picasa web album, which is part of my blogger/google account, but for some reason the upload failed the three times I tried. So I went to send a picture message to my email and realized I could just send an email! So I'm mastering the new technology. I've played so much with my phone today that my battery is just about dead, at 3 p.m. Surely once the newness wears off the battery will last a bit longer.

Where's the camera?

It was a beautiful day today, especially when we got home from work. It was nice and cool and breezy, more like a fall day than summer. We hadn't been to the playground in awhile because we don't like going when its super hot. So we got home from work and off to the playground we went.

Doug has taken Allie to playgrounds a few times when I've been busy with other things. So it came as a surprise to me to see her playing so independently! Not so much on the playground equipment, no, she was more interested in swishing the rocks around and climbing one step and going down. But she just ran and ran and acted like she owned the place. I wished I had brought the camera to take a few pictures and document the difference I saw in her today versus how she was the very first time we went to that playground earlier this spring.

We came home from the playground and gave her a quick dinner. She seemed tired since she hasn't napped well the last few days. She stayed up playing in her crib for almost an hour though! We talked at the playground about giving her a bath after dinner and Dada went up to start the bath and Allie started asking for the bath! Every day she's showing off new skills. Things that make Doug and I ask each other, "Where did she learn to do that?"

In the car on the way home from work she likes to sing. She kind of grunts and we sing the ABCs or The Wheels on the Bus. She asks us to sing more before we've even finished the song! She sings along too, in her gibberish. Dada is better and figuring out what she's saying than Mama is though. We also count to 5 and she counts some numbers with us if she's in the mood. Even if she doesn't count she'll put her fingers up like Mama and Dada do.

She really likes this pink water bottle that I have. It can't be anywhere in her sights or she fixates on it and won't give up until she has it. I can't drink out of a water bottle in the car either or else she cries for it... and promptly dumps the water all over herself.

Its just funny the things that Allie picks up on. She was enjoying the ride to the playground in the stroller and I asked her if she likes the wind in her hair. She smiled this beaming smile looking upside down at me and put her hands in her hair and shook her head. So cute!

I remember when Allie was only a few weeks old, people coming to see her and telling me to cherish this time because they don't stay small for long. They were right. As much as I'd like her to, this kid isn't staying small forever. At least Doug and I get the pleasure of seeing her learn new things and make new discoveries every day. This is why I became a Mama, for the moments like these.

Big kid spoon

Yes we do occasinally feed Allie in the living room. But thats not why I posted this picture. I made a rhubarb crumb cake yesterday and we gave Allie her own piece. She seemed to like the cake but I think she was way more excited about the big spoon we gave her instead of her baby spoon. She's getting pretty good with the spoon, though not so much the big spoon.

How we spend a Friday night

We spend our Friday nights with lots of playing and laughing. Well really, we spend any night this way and feel really privileged to do it.

She's such a goofball! And did I mention she's oh-so-smart! She's really talking a lot these days and eating well with the spoon and running and jumping. She keeps growing up even though I'd like her to stay small forever.