BUSTED!!

9 Months

At 9 months, Ally weighs in at 18lb 11oz, measures 27 1/4 inches and has a head circumference of 44 1/4 inches. That puts her at the 50% mark for all three measurements. What a well balanced kiddo!

It seems like Ally has grown leaps and bounds since last month. She is starting to say some words, but Will and I disagree whether her first word is "ball" or "Dada" (Will knows it's "ball" but he wants bragging rights!) She has also started waving and saying "bye" which we all think is really adorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHjwB6SuEUw (I turned off the camera right as she said bye - doh!)

She has officially outgrown her baby bath tub, so I replaced it with a bath chair. She can now take a bath with Sophia without me constantly worrying about her getting knocked down, and we're all very happy with it.

She is trying really, really hard to pull up, but she hasn't been successful yet. She can get onto to her knees without much effort, which gives her ample opportunity to get into her sister's stuff!

If we help her to her feet, she can stand up holding on pretty well and is even attempting to do a little cruising. She's also been known to let go and stand on her own for a few seconds - the little daredevil!

Her biggest accomplishment has been crawling. It's been fun to watch the process, especially since Sophia skipped over this phase entirely. Ally started doing what Sophia nicknamed "swimming." It didn't get her moving at all, but it showed her determination (and was totally hilarious!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfuz4ALsivU

Next she started rocking, and was eventually able to crawl backwards. She kept getting stuck under her toys, so she gave this up pretty quickly.

It was about 2 more weeks before she finally started doing a true crawl, and she really doesn't do it as often as I had anticipated. She has to really want something to crawl, otherwise she's happy just scooting and rolling. We went ahead and put up the baby gates because I have a feeling once she really gets it down, she's going to be hard to stop.

I thought I would mourn the loss of my immobile baby, but it's not bittersweet at all. I beam with joy and cheer when I see her moving across the room. I know it'll be the same way when she walks, but I hope we have a few more months before she hits that milestone.

A-I-H-P-O-S

Will was driving Sophia to school yesterday and from the backseat she said "Daddy, I can spell my name..." and without hesitation she said "...S O P H I A." Will was impressed, but she's been working on spelling her name at school and at home, so he wasn't too surprised. Before he could praise her, she continued "...and I can spell it backwards." Without missing a beat, she spelled her name backwards, and Will's jaw hit the floor.
When she got home from school, I instantly grabbed the camera to see if she could do it again, and sure enough....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4eqGr4Snew
We have a book with Allyson's name spelled on every page, so out of curiosity, I asked Sophia if she could spell Allyson's name. She did it without too much trouble...and then spelled it backwards!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIGR63PqUgM
We tried it again today just for kicks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6aOeM7J3SI
We are so proud and amazed! She's been very curious lately about spelling and phonics, but we haven't talked at all about the concept of spelling things backwards. She hasn't learned it at school either. She's always been an incredibly observant kid, and now I'm wondering if she has some form of photographic memory. I'm definitely thinking all those playground moms who told me she'd have trouble reading because she didn't crawl were dead wrong!

If you're happy and you know it...

At the end of Sophia's 11 month blog entry, we have a video of her clapping along to "If You're Happy and You Know It" I took this video of Ally last week and was shocked at the similarities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmcYDNCAAy0

Easter

Now that we have 2 kids, I've noticed that our holidays tend to be spread out over several days or even weeks. This Easter turned out to be a classic example. It started with a cute "Daddy Day" project carving and decorating mega-sized Easter eggs with our neighbor Elizabeth.

The next big event was the Easter egg hunt at the community center. They had bounce houses, face painting, balloon animals, and two playgrounds. We couldn't pull Sophia out of the bounce house until we promised the egg hunt was about to begin.
There were 4,000 eggs and it was all we could do to hold back the kids. Even Ally was excited although she had no idea why!

Sophia quickly learned to shake the eggs before putting them in her basket so she could decipher if it contained candy or just a sticker.

Next up was Easter morning. Between the Easter bunny and family, the girls made out pretty well.

The girls both dove into their gifts and were really excited. Sophia kept exclaiming "This is just what I wanted!" even when she hadn't figured out what the gift was yet!

After cleaning out their baskets, the girls instantly started checking out what the other one got. Ally chewed on Sophia's new chapstick while Sophia drew on Ally's new Doodle Pad.

(Drum roll please).....The Easter dresses!

We had an Easter egg hunt for Sophia, but she ran out of steam about half through. It should work out perfectly next year with Ally to help in the hunt.

We celebrated the day by hosting a brunch with "Greypa's" side of the family. Our oven broke the day before, but we were able to rig it just enough to get through the day and enjoy amazing food with great family. Sophia loved showing off her room and Ally's bottom never touched the floor.

And last but not least, we built a "bunny house" that Aunt Caity gave to Sophia. It was perfect because Sophia had been begging to build a ginger bread house for weeks.

8 Months

I haven't read the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" but somehow I still ended up raising one! Ally is a seriously happy baby these days. Every time she makes eye contact with us she scrunches up her face in a huge grin. She also laughs all.the.time. Most of the time we have no idea what she's laughing at, but we can't help but giggle along with her. And she thinks everything Sophia does is hysterical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL29B3OopLk


She's babbling all the time now, and Will is proud that the phrase she says most often is "dada." She's not crawling yet, but she's getting closer by the day. We're constantly amazed how much trouble she can get into just by scooting, rolling, creeping and reaching. When she is sitting, she'll lean forward, push one leg behind her, and rock back and forth. It looks kinda painful to me, but doesn't seem to bother her at all.

She also likes to straddle our laps and rock back and forth. We can't help but laugh when she does this because it's impossible not to compare her to an amorous little dog!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ4ZLmggweM
She can now hold a bottle by herself which has made life so much easier. We still snuggle with her during most feedings, but when we're in a hurry and she's hungry, it's really nice to have her feed herself.

Although she's still toothless, we've started giving her finger foods with every meal. I'm not sure who is more excited about this: Ally or Trent! And Sophia loves to help shovel cheerios and other munchies into her sister's mouth.

Ally and Sophia get along wonderfully most of the time, but towards the end of the day when Sophia starts getting grumpy, Ally often ends up being the target for Sophia's frustrations. Ally's only method of defense right now is hair pulling, but she's really good at it!

It's so strange to see Ally wearing some of the same clothes that Sophia was wearing when she started walking. They're such different girls, although somehow they both ended up with the same big blue eyes.

I'm not sure what the odds are of 2 brown eyed parents having 2 blue eyed kiddos, but I do know that we're incredibly lucky.

Snow Day

While Will was off of work last month, we finally had a day with no plans and no chain requirements, so we bundled up and headed for the snow. Sophia doesn't remember playing in the snow from years past, so she was really excited.

Ally...not so much. But these days she's happy no matter where she is (as long as Mommy or Daddy are in sight.)

The first order of business: snow angels. Poor Sophia has wanted to make snow angels so badly that she's been practicing on our kitchen floor for months. The sad thing is that there's usually so much Trent hair on the floor that it kinda works!

Next on the list was the snowman. The snow was so hard that it was near impossible to make one from scratch, but luckily Sophia was happy decorating a pre-existing snowman with Mr Potato Head parts.

There was also a pre-existing igloo, which Daddy and Sophia thought was the perfect place to eat their lunch.

And last but not least was the sledding. Sophia did really well climbing up the hill and holding onto the sled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfstqd1xt0o

Despite my objections, Will took her to the top of the hill, and she actually came down asking for a bigger hill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONOfxUmB2Aw

And Ally LOVED watching her big sister sled right up to her feet.