Two Words:

Swimsuit Season!

Happy Memorial Day and unofficial start of summer!

My favorite part...

I'm pretty sure that my favorite part of being mommy to a little girl has got to be...

dresses, hairbows and extreme cuteness!

TEN!

Ten is a great number! Allow me to demonstrate:

1) 10 is the number of months Allison turned today. 10 whole months! Just 2 months shy of a year. She's getting so big and doing so much fun stuff. Sadly, we spent most of her 10 month day feeling crummy. It was a day of firsts: her first real, non-teeth related fever. Her first trip to our pediatrician's after hours clinic. Her first lab cultures being taken. Her first precription for being sick. It was a sad, sick day... we may not be headed to church tomorrow.

I noticed Allison's fever after her afternoon nap. I acutally think it woke her up (it was only a 45 minute nap). The poor thing was just inconsolible... her binky wouldn't do, her bottle wouldn't do, snuggling was not good, being put down was even worse. She was so hot and so miserable. Once we got into the doctors office all she wanted to do for the rest of the day was snuggle. Poor thing... I hope she starts feeling better soon. She's too darn cute to feel crummy.

2) 10 is the number of days we have left until Allison and I hope on a plane and fly to meet Brian in Berlin! Granted, it'll be 11 days before we actually get to Berlin, but in 10 days (and 10 hours consequently) we will be on the plane waiting to take off for Berlin! We are both so excited for that day. Allison really misses her daddy. Brian has found an internet cafe near his apartment in Berlin, so he heads over there and we video chat a couple of times a week. Allison gets SO excited when she sees her daddy's picture on the computer and hears his voice too. She starts to show off for him... its really cute.

3) 10 is the number of complete days Brian, Allison and I will be spending in Paris and London in July! =) But now I'm just bragging...

A Multiplicity of Milestones

The last few days and weeks have been red-letter in the Thornock house. Allison reached so many milestones in the last two weeks! Here are just some of the things we have enjoyed experiencing the last little while:

• Learning to army crawl! My baby is now mobile, even though she looks gimpy doing it.
  
  
  


• Clapping! You'll have to see the end of the crawling video for this one... she refuses to clap if she knows I'm trying to get her clapping on flim. =)


• Cutting her bottom two teeth, FINALLY! They just barely cut through between bedtime last night and wake-up time this morning. No photo for this one... but I know at least one is there... she bit me while I was trying to fish something out of her mouth. =)


• Pulling up! My baby can now interrupt her sleep by using her crib rail to pull up and stand! Guess I'd better go lower that crib mattress again...

I can't believe how big and grown up my little girl is getting to be... I wonder who gave her permission to do that, becuase I'm pretty sure I didn't!

It's the little things...

I agree with Paul McCartney when he said "People are the same where ever you go", because they are. It's the little things that sets us apart. Take for example the age old addage in the USA "pedestrians have the right of way". I learned the hard way that such is not the case in Germany. Here, you only have the right of way if you can run between cars. Another small thing, what they call opened "late" here is not all that late. The latest stores tend to close about 8 pm. My final little thing to mention is that in the public restrooms, they give you, free of charge, 80 grit toilet paper. I could use that stuff on a woodworking project...

Anyway, just some random thoughts about things that I found funny.

One month to go...

Until Allison and I fly to Berlin that is. Brian has been gone for a week and a half already and we miss him. Allison is unsettled and definatly knows that its been too long since she last saw daddy. Needless to say combine an unsettled baby with a teething baby (and possibly a baby with an ear infection) and that makes for a long, mommy-clinging week. We definantly can't wait to jump on that plane and get to where Brian is.

On another note, Allison's hair is long enough to put into pigtails now! Granted, they stick straight up, but it sure is cute to see. I had her hair in pigtails last weekend and when we made a mall run, the photographer at Kiddie Kandids didn't have an appointment and caught us. We got a free sitting and free 8x10 out of the her looking cute. She was so cute and funny for the photographer too... all giggles. They really turned out cute! I figure that gets to count for her 9 month pictures (it was just a few days after) and it was all FREE! Love it!