A Year and a half old

My sweet baby Allison celebrated her 18 month birthday today! Lauren and I sang happy birthday to her this morning and Lauren asked if we were having cake and ice cream!:) I am daily amazed at how well Allison talks to us. Tonight as we were coming home from church we were playing our normal CD music in the car and Allison kept asking for the song "Fee Fi Fiddleeio" aka "I've been working on the railroad." She is so funny because when she says Fiddleeio her tongue does the cutest thing. I wish I could get a video of her singing that (or any other song). Every time I get the camera to video, she stops singing and I end up doing all the singing. Anyway, in the car after playing Lauren's song "Flying way up in the sky" Allison asked for "Fee Fi Fiddleeio" again and when I switched to that song she said, "Thank you, Mommy"! That almost made me cry. While I am so sad that she's not a baby anymore, I am also really enjoying the interaction between the girls. They really play well together most of the time. What ever one girl is doing, the other girl wants to do also. Tonight before church they made steps out of a drum to climb up on Lauren's bed. Both girls climbed up the drum onto the bed and they would just laugh as they climbed off the bed to do it again.

I didn't get a picture of Allison on her 18 month birthday but here a few recent favorites.

Happy Birthday my sweet angel from heaven!

Allison at Lauren's school. She always walks right in and makes herself at home.

Allison and Lauren reading My Two Hands and My Two Feet.Allison eating spaghetti.Mmmm, Mmmm Good!What a smile!!!

Our Littlest Singer

Allison continues to amaze Bill and I every day with her communication abilities. She has really developed quite a repertoire of songs that she can sing. Probably because we listen to Cd's every time we ride in the van. The only problem with that is Allison is now able to voice her opinion about the choice of songs. Lauren has a history of picking and choosing the songs she will listen to on a given CD. All I can say is we are grateful to be in the age of Cd's instead of cassettes. (Actually I think the current population is past the CD age and into the ipod age....but we haven't gotten there yet!) As of the past week or so Allison will now express her opinion of the song being played by saying "No, No, No!" Her new favorite song is Wally Acha and she wants it to be played over and over. Other favorites are Baa, Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Ring Around the Rosie, and the ABC Song. It is so fun to hear her sing. For the most part she can sing those songs with only a few omissions of the unimportant articles. :) It is especially fun to listen to her while she is in her crib singing one of those songs. A week or two ago, she woke up in the middle of the night and I could hear, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.

She has learned to count to 10. It is so sweet because when she gets to 10 she says 10 with such enthusiasm and she waves her hands in the air.

Another funny thing to hear coming out of her mouth is, "I don't know". The other day I was carrying her back to her room to change her diaper and she had on a pair of crocs that were a little big. She lost one on the way back to her room, and I asked, not expecting an answer, "Where's your other shoe?" Allison answered, "I don't know!"

We went out to eat with my parents on Monday night and just happened to have the camera in the diaper bag. We took this short movie of Allison eating a lemon. She was in rare form for entertaining after spending the day with Granny and Pawpaw!

First Antibiotic

Lauren has tasted her first dose of antibiotics as of yesterday. We went to the doctor and she has an ear infection. We have been blessed beyond measure with good health for both of our girls, but Lauren has had a rough week. She has had a cold for well over a week that is coupled with a nasty cough. On Thursday she was not herself and complained a couple of times that her ears hurt inside. I couldn't see anything inside either ear and she had no fever, so I just thought I would monitor the situation. Well Thursday night she came into our room around 10:30 and I put her back in her bed after seeing that she seemed to be ok. She came back in our room just a few minutes later and we decided to let her get in bed with us. She was very restless and would not lie still. Finally after several minutes of keeping Bill awake, I asked Lauren if she wanted to go back to her bed with Mommy. She said yes, and as we were going back she wanted to go to the bathroom. We went to the bathroom and then she wanted a drink, so we went to the kitchen for a drink and while in there, she threw up! Luckily we were on the linoleum floor! After cleaning up Lauren and cleaning the floor, we headed off to Lauren's room. I had the presence of mind to put a sheet and towel on the floor by her bed. After getting in bed, I could tell it was coming again. We managed to get out of the bed and sit on the towel on the floor for round two. After another clean up and another sheet and towel placed on the floor, Lauren decided she wanted to sleep on the floor. By this point she was weak so, I put her pillow on the floor and we lay down on the floor together. She was asleep in no time at all and I enjoyed the time lying there stroking her hair. I thanked God that we have not had to deal with any serious illnesses because I felt bad enough for my little girl with just a stomach virus. We slept through the rest of the night in that tiny little twin bed. Friday morning we started with a small of mostly water with a bit of juice. She seemed to do well with that. I gave her a banana Popsicle when I fed Allison breakfast. That didn't last very long in her stomach before she was throwing up again. By then she had a fever and was chilling. She just wanted to be held most of the morning. When I put Allison down for her nap, Lauren curled up with a blanket on the couch. She was sleeping by the time I got out of Allison's room. After her nap she seemed to feel a little better. She was able to eat a cracker and drink some water. After that she felt better. We thought she was on her way to recovery, but she continued with the fever Friday night. She complained again about her ears hurting, so Saturday morning we called the dr. and took her in to find out that she did have an ear infection. She has been fever free today, but we kept her home from church to give her body time to get over everything. She's such a little trouper, she never complains about being sick. We ask several times if her ears are hurting and she says they are all better. She's not too fond of the antibiotic. This is different because she LOVES Tylenol or Motrin! :( So does her sister. Allison cried on Saturday because we were giving Lauren medicine and didn't give her any! I don't know if I really like the fact that they make some of those medications taste so good.

Say Cheese

Lauren had her first "school" pictures taken today at preschool. Mrs. Jackie told me as I picked her up from school that the photographer really worked hard to get Lauren to pose and smile, but that she was "WIGGLY"! She seemed to think I might be upset about the pictures. I just laughed and said, "Hum?!" We can't seem to get a picture of both girls looking in the same direction much less get a smile on both faces. Lauren usually has her finger either in her mouth or her nose! Allison just won't be still for 2 seconds!
Bill took these two pictures and I honestly think the girls plotted together saying you look and smile this time and I'll look and smile the next time!:)
Guess we'll just get side by side frames to put these two pictures in!

Lauren's School Harvest Party

Lauren was so excited to get back to school today. Not just because they were having a party, but because she really loves school. I don't know what she will do with Christmas vacation being 2 weeks long. She could barely stand being out one week. I'm so glad she enjoys school and I pray that feeling stays with her throughout her school career.

Lauren is really excited for Halloween this year. She actually chose what she wanted to dress up as, a pumpkin. She is excited to go trick-or-treating this year. She hasn't been before. We were going to take her when she was 2, but she wouldn't even put on her Halloween costume. So we decided to stay home and hand out candy at our house. Last year when she was 2 and Allison was just 5 months old, we just went to the church Fall Festival, which Lauren enjoyed. But this year she's excited about everything Halloween has to offer. We are excited to take the girls trick-or-treating this year.

Here are a couple of pictures of Lauren at school this morning.

Lauren and her friend Darrah

When Darrah saw Lauren this morning in school she gave her big hugs!

Lauren holding hands with Darrah

Doctor Visit

I finally took Allison to the doctor this week because she continues to cough at night and at nap time. She couldn't seem to get rid of this nagging cough that only really occurs when she is lying down. Well the diagnosis was that it is probably allergies. Not something I really wanted to hear. (I am thankful that it wasn't anything really serious.) I just hate for my baby to have to deal with that at such a young age. Bill and I are blessed because neither of us suffer from any real allergy problems so I guess I just hoped the girls wouldn't either. Well they prescribed Singulair and Zyrtec for her to take only at night. Bill and I have decided we don't really want to start that medication yet. Allison's cough doesn't seem to really disturb her sleep. She doesn't usually cry for us. It just really bothers me to hear her cough. We're going to just wait and see how things go before we start the medication. I didn't get the opportunity to ask what the difference was between these allergy medicines and the cold medicines that we are advised to steer clear of.

Lauren Funnies
A couple of weeks ago when Lauren had her cold, she would wake up in the mornings with a lot of drainage in her throat. One morning at breakfast she couldn't hardly talk and said, "Mommy, I need more voice!" She repeated that phrase for several days when she was a little hoarse.

My Mom and Dad both got a terrible cold last week before they were to leave for Hilton Head. My Mom could hardly talk, but Lauren insisted on talking to her on the phone. Mom told Lauren she had a frog in her throat. That really puzzled Lauren. Then Lauren talked to my Dad on the phone and he was hoarse also, and so Lauren asked my Mom, "Granny, did you give PawPaw your frog?"

Pumkin Patch and Picnic

We went to Oakes Farm last weekend and enjoyed a great time at the pumpkin patch. I was going with no great expectations, because my favorite pumpkin patch, Poore's Pumpkin Patch is no longer open. I took several classes there for field trips and loved each visit. I also got to go with my friends Cindy, Ashley, and her daughter Haley. I was so hoping to take my girls there, but since they were no longer open, we had to find a new place. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised. The Oakes Farm was a great place for children as well as adults. We didn't go in the corn maze, but the hayride out to the pumpkin patch was very nice, and the other activities they had for the girls to enjoy were lots of fun. The girls loved the outing. This farm may become a tradition for us.


Lauren and Allison


Lauren and Allison
Lauren and Allison off to find a pumpkin. Allison stepped on a rotten pumpkin and Lauren put her hands on the rotten pumpkin in the picture. I forgot to take wipes on the hayride!

Resting for a minute after all the searching they did looking for that perfect pumpkin

Allison getting buried in the corn box. The girls loved this and I enjoyed the fact that it cleaned up easier than sand!

Sliding down the big tube in the hay bale maze for kids. This was a favorite spot for Lauren. She loved running through the maze.

Two weekends ago we went to my parents house for the weekend. While there we went on a picnic to the weir at South Holston River. We had a perfect fall day and enjoyed cooking hamburgers, taking a short walk on the island, and then coming back to make smores.

Dad, Mom, Allison, Lauren Bill & Cindy at the weir

Allison & Uncle Bill throwing rocks in the river

Uncle Bill & Allison

Uncle Bill & Lauren
Daddy & Lauren

Mom, Dad, Bill, Uncle Bill, Lauren & Allison on the island looking out to the South Holston Dam

Daddy, Mommy, Lauren & Allison
Allison playing with rocks
Allison playing by the river


Allison on the blanket with Granny