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Last weekend we made the 6+ hour drive up to Indiana - land of Jeff's cousins from his mom's side of the family. It's a small town where Jeff has about 15 cousins, many our age with kids. We stayed with cousin Jennifer in her new huge house. The basement was the kid zone and Allison was in heaven - kids her size, toys, doggies, etc. We spent the whole weekend there and everyone came to us. it was nice. haha. We were even able to spend a good portion of the time on the covered deck since the heat was not as suffocating as it is here right now. We plan to make it an annual summer trip so Allison will get to know her cousins (more than I could even dream about). Next summer will be grandma's 90th birthday so I'm sure there will be a big bash and good times. I'd write more but I think I've said plenty of good stuff from previous visits. Yes I'm still wondering where the black sheep is hidden in this perfectly nice and normal family and no I have not found it yet.
(photos are in my picasa gallery - link above)

Allison opened her first door yesterday. (She's been trying for a couple weeks now.) Jeff had gone in the bedroom and she took after him and cried when the door shut in her face. She kept reaching and finally moved the lever door knob the same time she pushed against the door. It swung open and she lost her balance, wobbled and luckily fell on her butt instead of face first. then she cried again. It was cute... and scary. Most of our doors in the house are about to require 2 hands to open. This could be a pain. I'll update in a few weeks.

There are a couple cute sprinkler videos on the youtube page. It was so hot yesterday the power kept flickering and finally went off for about an hour. Guess the power grid couldn't handle all the usage.

She has her 15 month appt today with shots :(

I know every kid is different and reaches milestones at different ages but it's been about 3 weeks since Allison started walking and I still want to keep her in a padded room. Yesterday she put mark #3 on her forehead, thank goodness the one between her eyes is gone or that would have been 4 marks forming a big speckled and scraped shadow across the top of her head. She still wants to hang on to a toy or cheerio container or whatever it is and keep walking and then she doesn't always have her hands free to break her fall. I thought I would get smart and try to remove the object from her hand but that just makes her head spin 180 degrees and pitch a screaming fit. So for now she's still in the learning process of falling and slamming her fingers into drawers and all that fun stuff.

The cute parts are when she claps for herself. For months now she's been on a tear to throw her sippy cup on the ground, so whenever she puts it back on the tray of course we get excited and clap our hands. Now she puts it down and claps for herself. She's also starting to show signs of having favorite books. We can go through all 40? books we have and many times she'll shake her head no and grab the book and throw it down and keep pointing till you get the right one. She is doing one more thing we are most excited about - showing signs needed for potty training. She'll come up to us and start trying to pull her shirt off when she has a poopy diaper. I guess I need to do some reading material and see what I have to work on and watch out for along those lines. We are still amazed at the sign language she uses. I think she confuses 'eat' and 'more' but those pretty much go for the same thing so it's working for us. Except the sign for more means cookie in her mind. haha.

Allison got her first taste of jealousy this weekend. Her grandparents have been at our house for a short time the past 3 weekends, so there is a strong connection to Mimi and Grandpa. Then Sunday when Greg and Claire came with baby James, Allison had to share her Mimi and the look on her face when she was holding another baby was priceless. She really didn't know what to think. She didn't pitch a fit, but there was just a look of confusion and bewilderment. It's so amazing to look at your child and see them grow and develop within just in a few seconds of a stare. It was just one of those precious moments to be looking at a 2 week old baby remembering your child was that tiny bundle that could barely move or communicate and now she's probably forming all kinds of brain connectors generating complex emotions of confusion and jealousy. This part of parenthood is becoming more fun. I really don't miss that newborn stage.

We all learned something this morning - I FREAK OUT when I see blood on my child. The first time it happened was when her umbilical cord fell off but she was only 6 days old and I was freaking out about everything at that stage. This morning Jeff had the lovely awakening at 5 am of me practically kicking in the bedroom door screaming get up, Allison's bleeding. I didn't wait for him to reach me, for some crazy reason I ran back to her bedroom with her in my arms I guess because that is where the only light was on so we could see. (Nothing makes much sense at 5am to me) Looking back now this was totally cruel to him because he had another few seconds to wait to see where the blood was. It was all over her mouth and drooling down her chin by that point. We got a washcloth, sippy cup and flashlight but couldn't really figure out where it came from. Guess I should clarify that Jeff got the washcloth, sippy cup and flashlight - I was in a frozen state almost crying myself holding on to her. I'm sure this whole scene description is common for first time parents and one that second time parents would laugh at. She does have a top molar only partially broken through so I'm guess that's all it was. She ate some breakfast just fine. And we sent her off to school. She may have a fussy day from getting up so early.