Nothin' Much

When I talk to anyone from back home the question is always asked "What's going on?"  Well, my answer is pretty much always "nothin' much"  So that's the theme of this post:)  We don't do much that's too exciting-everyday life usually gets in the way:)  Brian goes to school, I go to work and of course do the mommy thing everyday-even after working all night-not much fun sometimes, but that's life I suppose.  So, here are just some random pics...

We play together

Alli's friend Benson had a pirate b-day party and she loved the hat so she wore it for the rest of the day:) Don't try to take it off for her to take a nap cause...you'll see

We went to the zoo the other day and saw the baby elephant and fishies-Alli does this face for fish

Talking to the big kids at the zoo-she loves to chat

Just dancing and playing

 Trying to be a happy and patient mom after working all night-pale faced, dark circles under they eyes and all-staying up for >24 hours doesn't do much for me

And every once in awhile when I get the time (or rather when I'm not sneaking in a nap with Alli-shh don't tell)  I like to make fun things like this for the little stinker-I can't decide if its too matchy matchy though, Brian's opinion is always-"it looks good" so....

That's about it-nothin' much!

18 months

Alli has hit her 18 month mark-it's hard to believe we've all made it this far:)  She is a sweet, funny, social, loving, crazy, active little gal and we love her to pieces! 


She had her first day of Nursery this past Sunday(Mother's Day) and it was great-for her and for us.  It was the best gift Alli could have given me:)  We were able to listen without any distractions.  We dropped her off, she ran right to all the other little kids and toys and started playing-not a shy bone in her cute little short body!  Brian and I checked on her in between meetings and she was talking and playing away.  When Brian picked her up she said "dada" and ran over to him, but then she just kept looking back at the toys and kids-its difficult for her to leave a good time:)  Church is going to be a lot better now for all of us:)  


After church-all smiles-at least I was:)  Alli was starting to lose her energy after all that playing and talking at Nursery...

 Alli ran out of gas...

She loves to try to help with whatever we are doing

She is finally getting some more hair-it is actually getting longer and we are able to have a few options with style:)   Alli doesn't appreciate having anything in her hair, however, so she takes every clip or cute accessory out of her hair within minutes...

Loves to play outside!

Is getting better at feeding herself-still really messy though:)

Is no longer afraid of the stairs and is quite the climber!

Alli is doing so many fun things its hard to keep track-her vocabulary is growing daily it seems.  Brian and I were trying to remember everything that she says and thought we might want to document it somewhere so we don't forget:

mama or mommy

dada

baby/babies

"dobby" for boppy-she loves this thing!  It is her substitute for a security blanket:)

"ereal" for cereal

juice

nana-for banana

"ite" for kite

bee

Bo-for boy

"mow" for more and she signs it when she says it

shoe

sock

ball

wow!

"nummy" for when she wants a treat or snack and runs to the pantry to point at what she wants

hi

ollo-for hello-she says this when she is pretending to talk on the phone

bye bye

go

Oh!-whenever she gets excited about something

ouch-she loves to say this and gets a scrunched up face-even if something doesn't hurt:)

"guck" for stuck-anything she can't get to is "guck"

duck

"joe joe" for a dog-every dog is named "Joe Joe

No!

Yah!-she says this a lot more than no now thank goodness:)

cookie

cracker

hot

Ka Ka-anything that we don't want her to get into-she says if for most everything

guys-to get our attention:)

"dis" for this

that

poo poo-she hasn't necessarily correlated it for when she goes however:)

two-she has this mastered for when she turns 2

waffle

cheese

teeth

eye

"no" for nose and actually sticks her finger up her nose to point at it

"coot" for cute-she usually correlates this with "coot shoes":)

bubble-she LOVES bubbles

Keys-she is obsessed with keys and tries to open everything with them

"peas" for please

Night Night

"ook" for book

 "icker" for sticker

Animal sounds:

quack quack for duck-and we have a lot around here so she is constantly "quacking"

roar-she growls whenever she sees a tiger or lion

Ew Ew-for a monkey

cow

snake

dog

cat

horse

bunny-she scrunches up her nose

bird

rooster

pig

She knows all her body parts-head, hair, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, belly, belly-button, arms, hands, legs, feet, and toes.


Alli has her 18 month appointment this upcoming week so we shall see what her stats are-pretty sure she has grown a little because some of her pants don't fit her anymore!


There is never a dull moment with Alli-she is our little stinker and we like her that way:)

The Windy City

We were able to get away to Chicago this past weekend with our buds Dave and Steph.  We had a good ol' time in the "Windy City" eating it up, site seeing and walking... a lot:)  We stayed right down town where most everything was within walking distance.

This is where we stayed-we got a pretty good deal on Priceline for a 4* hotel...

 First day we did a "Double Decker" bus tour-it was great-we got to see most of the city-get the history behind it with some stories and had quite the view...

We learned that the term "Windy City" does not coin off of wind, but about a political battle for the 1893 World Fair...I think it should be called the "Windy City" because, well, it's just windy:)

The FOOD

You hear about Chicago Style pizza, well we got to taste some and it does live up to its reputation-we tried Lou Malnati's-it was probably the best pizza I've had, their appetizers-delicious!

Waiting patiently for...

 THIS!

Chicago Style Pizza, Fresh Bruschetta, Spinach/Cheese stuffed bread-Oh it makes me hungry to look at these pictures! Yummo!  I do have to say it is quite the pizza!  Alli wanted to clean up a bit too:)

We also had the infamous Chicago Dogs-they were actually really good and we finished those off with a chocolate cake shake which made a really delicious, unhealthy lunch:)

Navy Pier

Navy Pier was neat, really windy since it was right on Lake Michigan, but not as much to do there as we had thought, maybe if you did a lake cruise or something...

Alli always wants to "get down" and walk everywhere so this little leash came in handy-although it felt like we were walking a doggie at times:)

Alli got a lot of walking in and made a lot of friends along the way.  She would stop at everyone and say her conversation starter "Hi," wave and then smile and wait for them to talk to her-she is one social bug.

Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field

We had a few of these moments, good thing Steph pulled out the Kettle Corn Popcorn

 Happy again...for a minute:)  

Alli was a trooper with us hauling her around everywhere.  She got to stay up WAY past her nap time everyday and she handled it well-if only she would fall asleep and shut down her little body for a moment-that girl never stops moving!

Sears Tower-The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere

It was pretty cool looking out at the city. They have glass boxes that stick out of Sears Tower that you can walk out on and look down and see the city streets down below.  You don't think you'll be scared, but it made us all a little nervous!

The Walk out...

Proof that Brian did it:)

  Proof that we did it... we were sweatin' just a little:)

Fields Museum

You could spend all day here, it was really neat, but not really toddler kid capturing...we did get to see a neat display about Mammoths and saw a real baby that was preserved in a lake and found in Siberia-pretty cool since I thought Mammoths were fake... j/k

And Alli wanted to do a lot of this-steering instead of riding

 See that little munchkin poking through the stroller? Busy busy busy body!

We had a great time seeing the sights and eating delicious food.  We probably won't attempt a 6 hour car ride again for awhile with Alli though:)  She did pretty well, but who wants to sit in a carseat that long?  It was a fun city to see and visit and glad we could actually drive there.  There are some perks to living in Ohio:)