PreSchool Graduation

Allison has "graduated" from preschool. I'm really not quite sure what that's supposed to mean, except that I have a child headed for REAL school in the fall, for which I cannot possibly be old enough.

Her preschool held a fun little graduation celebration with carnival-like games and a few bouncy houses to celebrate the occasion. It was pretty fun...

 Carter playing their hoops game, which he totally owned... 

 Allison looking cute. :) 

 Look! Proof that I was there! Ignore the gery band on the side... I'm still having disagreements with my camera. I'm pretty sure it know the threats of replacement are empty, since what I WANT isn't cheap...

 Seated for her graduation.

 Saying the Pledge of Allegience

Receiving her certificate. 

And we are now just one short summer away from starting Kindergarten. And if I play my cards right, I could get down to one kids for 5 whole hours each week starting this fall. :)

Ballerina in Training

This week was Allison's last week of ballet for the year which meant recital week. I spent a lot more time that I would have like running her back and forth to rehearsals, but that's part of my job description, right?

 Ready for dress rehearsal... its really weird to let your 4-year-old leave the house wearing more make-up then you are... 

 Recital night with Miss Alyssa, her teacher. 

 The ballet school was brilliant and had coloring activities backstage for the little girls

 At intermission... hyper & ready to watch the story ballet that made up the 2nd half.

With Daddy and her flowers... Daddy always gets to be the good guy and give her the flowers. 

We have really love the ballet studio we chose for Allison this past year. Light of the World ballet is a company and school and the company considers it as a ministry. It is really a wonderful environment to have a little girl in: no body image pressure, not worrying about questionable costumes or choreography, and the women who dance in the company and teach the classes are loving and Christ-like. It is really a great place to be. Needless to say, we'll keep Allison there until she is ready to move on from ballet or she outgrows their training, which could be never. 

Oh, and are you wondering if there's a video of her dance for you to see? There sure is! Where is it, you ask? Well... my camera and my computer and I are currently having a disagreement about what the camera has on it (the video is there!!!) and whether or not it will download. I killed a brand new pair of batteries during said argument today. I'm not sure that the camera realizes that this is a matter of life and death for it...

I'll post the video when I figure out how to get the camera to play nice.

Look who's learning...

to read!

Now, she's not reading every word... she's using lots of sight words she's learned and lots of context clues, and maybe a little bit of memory too. But only a little, becuase Brian and I both this Go, Dog! Go! is kind of a strage book and we're probably read it less than 5 times. Ever.

I don't know how this girl got so smart...

First day of school

Allison started pre-K yesterday, and she was so excited.

All ready for circle time to start! She might have been one of the first kids to sit down (there was an issue with the school-aged kids using the classroom right before her class and a late bus). That really is a smile of her face, not a grimmace... camera delay...

When did she get so big?

Me? I'm enjoying 2 and a half hours every day of just one kiddo (at least for the next 3 months). And Carter? He wasted no time styling himself out at Target during our first run of preschool-time errands yesterday. What a cute, crazy kid...

Allison's recital

Allison had her dance recital today and she did so well. She's really enjoyed ballet this year and I'm excited to see how she does next year (in whatever studio we decide to land at).


For your viewing pleasure... really, this one's for you, Grandmas!



Carter behaved like a champ during the (two hour) recital. Here's how he spent a good three quarters of it...

And Allison after her dance. We surprised her with flowers, which she, of course, loved.

Our Little Graduate

This week was the last week of Joy School, which meant a graduation ceremony!

I can't believe how big Allison has gotten this year and how much she's grown in so many ways. We don't plan to do Joy School next year, which makes me a little sad... but I'm not sure I could handle it next year with Carter and a new baby.

Oh, and how do you like the dress with yesterday's bright, pre-ruffled fabric? I used this tutorial from Make it and Love it (one of my very favorite sewing/crafting blogs). Turned out cute, I think. Its a little big, but that just means she'll be able to wear it for a good while. There is leftover fabric, so Allison with either get another little borther and skirt from the ruffley fabric, or she'll get a little sister with a matching dress. :)

Allison's First Day

Allison started Joy School this week, which we're super excited about. I love having more structure to her week. This is just a quick picture I snapped before we left for her frist day last week. It was sharing day, and she was taking her teddy bear to share.

Isn't she cute? And when did she get so big?

Things of note:

These were probably worth mentioning... but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

*Allison is fully potty-trained, and 98% accident-free. She's also very independant about it... I generally don't have to remind her to go. She'll tell me she has to, then run upstairs and do it all herself. Its wonderful (and it cut my diaper budget in half!). And it was easy... on our third try.


*Carter is walking. He's very cute when he walks, because he's so darned chubby. He sticks his belly out. Its adorable. Sometimes I look around and wonder who dropped their toddler off for me, becuase that can't possibly be my baby.


*We FINALLY managed to get family pictures taken. Sadly, we could not get the kids to sit nicely for a photo together, but we got a few good ones of all 4 of us. I'd call that an accomplishment. I think this one is my favorite.



Next year, I aspire to use a real photographer. But these are good for now.

Its awesome when...

your 2 year-old comes running into the living room, wearing nothing but a shirt, saying "Mommy, I peed in the potty!"

Allison's Early Reading Skills!

Allison LOVE books. She asks us to read a good 20 or 25 books a day to her. She's also good at sitting down and reading to herself. She has a few favorites... She loves "Fancy Nancy", "The Tooth Book" and "The Monster At the End of This Book." Lately, this is what we have been finding when she reads her monster book to herself.

She's saying "the page" on the pages where Grover is shouting about having the pages turned! She shakes the book back and forth because Brian and I tend to shake the book when we read it to her on those pages. I thought it was too cute. Do you think I'll have an early reader?

First Boyfriend

Allison has a friend, Luke, who lives down the street. His mom Kristi and I are good friends, so they see each other often. Here's what happened today.

I only interfered to that she didn't end up tackling the poor kid in some future attempt. Plus, it was totally cute. =)

First Haircut

Last week I finally bit the bullet and got Allison her first hair cut. This little girls has SO much hair and its getting so long. I wanted to avoid the childhood mullet, so we cut it off at the nape of her neck to give the rest of her hair time to catch up and get all one length. We cut bangs too... her hair was just so long on top and it falls forward. They're a little short, but cute when side swept. What do you think?

On another subject, I had my 12 week doctors appointment yesterday. My doctor couldn't find the baby's heartbeat so we got to do an ultrasound instead. Baby is fine... was active and bouncing around in there... just playing hide and seek right behind my big abdominal vein. In theory we'll find out the gender in 8 weeks. =)

Football!

I love football... especially college football. I'm the kind of wife who will quite happily let the TV be tuned to college football games for most of the day on a Saturday. NFL is a different story, but college football is great, if you ask me.

This year, Brian and I are excited to be Cougar Football season ticket holders again. YEAH! Yesterday was the home opener. We took Allison and it was so much fun! She really wasn't sure what to think at first... there was so much to look at and take in. But, I think she enjoyed it.

Great photo, right? Football is just so beautiful... we pretty much have nosebleed seats, but its really not a bad view...

Touchdown! She really will do that if we ask her to say touchdown. =)

She was a big fan of the yummy popcorn...

Getting ready to leave. It was a fun day, and so past bedtime.

Apparetly she was hungry...

Allison very much likes to be helpful. She especially loves to be helpful when mommy and daddy are putting away the groceries. That means the fridge gets opened and she can explore it. She's very interested in the fridge... especially since she made the connect between the fridge and food.

Today, while we were putting groceries away, Allison gets poking around and what does she find? A plum. Apparently she was hungry and she decided that this plum looked so good that she had to have it right then. No waiting for mommy or daddy to get it cut for her. She just bit right on in. So, heres to my big girl, eating her first fruit the "big girl" way. And yes... she ate the WHOLE thing.

Allison's Expanding Vocabulary

With her steps into toddlerhood, we are also fast explore with wide and wonderful world of words. Its new words everyday. Here is a list of Allison's current words. (Disclaimer: much like the bible, you should believe this list to be true as far as it is translated correctly)

"Eeeets" - Eat
"Duts" - Duck (as in rubber ducky)
"Ezzzzz" - Please
"Ot" - Out
"Pu pu" - puppy
"Mum Mum" - Mom
"Da Da" - Dad
"Ba ba" - binky
"Mon Mon" - monster (as in "The Monster at the End of This Book")
"Ma ma ma ma ma!" - MORE!

And she signs. We have signs "milk" and "more" (both of which seem to mean "food" to her). She will sometimes tell us "all done". And we're working on "please" and "music."

I'm relatively certain that Allison has more words and signs than this list... Brian and I just haven't figured out their translations yet. Hey... its not like we've got a rosetta stone here! =)

One Year Photos

We took Allison in to get her one-year photos today. I wasn't real crazy about how the session turned out as a whole. Either the photographer didn't have a ton of imagination, or Allison was just too difficult (wanting to crawl around instead of sitting/standing still to have her photo taken)... probably a combination of the two. Anyway... we did get two or three really cute photos out of it. Here is one of my favorites.

Allison Turns One!

I can't believe that my little baby is officially one! Allison spent her birthday at the Lourve.

She wasn't too much of a fan of all the crowds at the Mona Lisa...

All the looking at old stuff sure tuckered that poor girl out...

Her favorite part was splashing and dipping her feet in the fountains outside.

And she LOVED the chocolate cupcake mommy and daddy got her from a French patissarie (no, Brian's not helping her shove that in her face... he's keeping it from ending up in her lap!)

Happy birthday, little munchkin! Love you so, so much!

Fun sounds

Apparently Allison loves to hear the sound of her own voice... especially when bumping along the cobbled street in her stroller. Its quiet, but you can hear it.

In addition to being cute and funny, my munchkin is 11 months old! How on earth did that happen? I can't believe that in 30 short days I'll have a 1 year old (and I'll be in Paris, but thats just bragging)! Time sure goes by quickly...

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!