Eating like a human?

Meal time can be difficult sometimes. But lately its been really good. Tonight I made cajun red beans and rice. Since it was too spicy for Allie, I saved her some plain rice and mixed some vegetables in. The plan was to start with that and then try a few other things and see what she'd eat. Not only did she eat it up, she started using the spoon really well! She hasn't quite grasped the whole process; she puts the spoon in the bowl but hasn't figured out how to get food onto the spoon. But she let me help her with that and did reasonably well with feeding herself as long as you don't pay attention to all the rice that littered the table!

Allie is learning the proper way to eat. However, she occasionally does try to lick food from the bowl or the plate like the dog!

I made a discovery on Sunday. Allie loves blueberry muffins. And I mean she LOVES blueberry muffins. I know she's had them before, but this was the first time I made some for her. The result? Out of a dozen muffins, I think Allie has had eight of them. Lesson learned? Mama needs to buy more muffin cups and make a lot of muffins!

Hair restraint

Allie's hair is so shaggy, but I can't bear to get it cut yet. Problem is, she takes out everything we put in her hair to try and restrain it. Saturday I bought some of those cute little rubber bands (there are 400 pieces in the set!) and tried those. Its tight enough that it she can't take it out right away. But she was successful, shortly after I took this photo, in getting the rubber band out. She looks really cute though while its in!

Nowhere to go but up

Remember the post where we let Allie climb the stairs and swore we'd never do it again?

Oops! We did. Its so cute though. And it also means we don't have to carry her up the stairs!

She's recently grown fond of climbing up on the fireplace.

I've even heard that she took the cushion off the couch and climbed up there yesterday. But since I didn't witness it, it didn't happen.

She loves her some nutella

Its not always easy to get Allie to eat. What she likes one day she'll throw on the floor the next. But one thing she always eats is toast with nutella. I discovered nutella from a friend in an online group a few years ago. I love it. Allie does too. Its hazelnut spread with a hint of cocoa.

As you can see here, it can make quite a mess. Definitely worth it though. If you've never had nutella, you should try it!

An unlikely new toy

Our kitchen and dining room are usually off limits, which means that when the gate comes down (or if we don't close the gate fast enough), Allie runs in there to see whats up. For a long time she was more fascinated with the phone in the dining room. Now, however, she runs into the kitchen where her current fascination is with the step stool.

She doesn't use it as a step yet, and for that I'm grateful.

Show me your belly!

Last week Allie discovered her belly. We usually layer her up with a onesie under her clothes, but Monday we didn't. So by the end of the day she started pulling up her shirt and we told her about her belly! We all showed off our bellies and decided Allie's was the cutest and thus, the only one I photographed!

It was funny the next day when she had her onesie on again. She looked for her belly and couldn't find it!

A post a day

Well, I was going to post yesterday that I was challenging myself to post every day this month. I've already lost that challenge!

But I'm going to challenge myself anyway. Its only the second after all!

So to start, I want to post this picture I took of Doug and Allie last October. I loved how the sun lit them and the surroundings. I took it on my cell phone and its my current wallpaper on it. I'm not sure why I haven't posted it until now.