Monkeys in the bed!

This "blog" today is dedicated to my friends since zero. There is nothing like them! I love all of my friends for different reasons - but, the reasons I love these friends is because they've seen me through thick and thin (and even diapers!) and still are gracious enough to be/stay my friend!

One of the hardest things throughout my pregnancy with Ali was that I did not have any close friends that were pregnant at the same time and I was terrified that Ali would miss out on friends since zero - that I hold so near and dear to my heart. It bothered me so much (I am somewhat obsessive/compulsive) b/c I just didn't think that would be fair to her! Luckily, I started worrying to early and Ali has made lots of adorable little friends through church! (Just like my friends since zero!) Last night, we went up to the concert on the square (so fun!) with some of Ali's friends and their parents and it was so much fun - although a little past their bed time! Beforehand, some friends came over, including Ali's bff, Libby! :) Ali gets so excited to see Libby and loves to talk about her when she's not around. It's crazy to see them start to recognize and know eachother - it is such a special little thing. Here is a picture of the two little monkeys jumping in Ali's bed! They were having the time of their life and screaming (in joy!) and cracking up so we had to take some pictures!! Two little peas in a pod....

First Oreo

Yesterday, I unfortunately went to the grocery hungry and came back with a bag of Oreos! I decided to taste a few to make sure they were still good, and Ali wanted to try so I gave her one. (I figured it would go well with her milk!) She only ate about a half of one and then came up to me and handed it back to me and said "apple?" so, luckily, I did not corrupt her too much and we moved on to fruit from there! Here is a picture of Ali after enjoying her first half of an Oreo!

Into everything!

So, this is what they mean when people describe toddlers as being "into everything!" Ali does not stop - I mean, she is go, go, go from the time she wakes up until she goes back down to bed! I wanted so bad to get some pictures of Ali today to start putting good ones up on here but she was playing with everything that she saw outside and did not have time to smile for the camera! Since I have yet to figure out how to post videos (goal), here is a pictoral view of one minute in the life of Miss Ali Patrick....

Quick trip to the beach!

After a long and time consuming tax season, we took the first opportunity we could to go to the beach. Ryan went down on Thursday for Ty's bachelor party and then Ali and I rode down with Mimi and Big Papa on Sunday for a short little getaway. (Ryan had to be back at work on Wednesday) It was short and sweet but just so nice to get away! The whole way down Ali kept saying her ABCs (she can say them up to D and it is hilarious b/c she is so proud of herself and wants to say it all the time!). She pretty much talked and ate the whole way down until she dozed off for a nap. She's a little chatterbox! She kept us all entertained while down there - copying every bad thing Uncle Sig did. Ryan and I thought she was hilarious b/c one night at dinner she was clapping her hands and saying yay (and making sure everyone saw her!) and at the end, she was stuck with her hands together after clapping, so she bowed her head and said Amen! It was hilarious! Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of us at the beach b/c we only made it to the actual beach one time - for about 30 minutes! Ali did NOT like the sand touching her bare feet. She seriously stepped off of the towel, felt the sand on her foot and held her foot as high as her shoulder to get me to wipe it off and to not have to touch it anymore. I was amazed she stayed balanced! I'm not much of a sand person myself so I understand! We're heading back to the beach at the beginning of June for much longer, so hopefully we will get more pictures then. We did go for lots of walks, though and it felt so good down there and Ali loved looking at all of the birds (except for black birds that terrified her!), trees, cars, dogs, etc. Here is a shot of Ali after one of our walks - she was pooped!

Rockin' in my favorite chair!

I promised I would add some pictures, so here are some of Ali just rocking away in her favorite chair. Sometimes I will just hear her go into our playroom and start going "rocky, rocky, rocky" as she rocks away on one of our little rocking chairs. It's the perfect size for her to jump on and start rocking!

Guess who Ali gets to meet next month!

That's right! We're going to Disney World and we are sooo excited!! We're just going for two nights for our little family vacation. We're going to spend most of our week in St. Simons, but after I found out that Disney World was less than 3 hours away from St. Simons - we figured we'd make a short drive down there for a few days. I know it will be interesting with a 1.5 year old (and being pregnant!) but we are planning on just getting a "taste" of it - and I can not wait! Every day this week, Ali and I have been looking at "Mic KEEY!" on the Disney World website to start planning our trip! Here are a few pictures of Ali today hanging out with her pal, Mickey Mouse.





Disney World - here we come! (Well, next month!)

Say Cheese!

It's Saturday night, Ryan is watching his taped DVR version of today's Masters, Ali is snoozing and I'm bored! Unfortunately, I have been bad about taking pictures of my little bff lately so I am going to strive to be a lot better - now that tax season is nearing an end and my 2nd trimester energy is alive and kicking! As I just looked through my camera, however, I did have 150+ pictures of Ryan's trip to the Master's on Wednesday - but I did not find them half as enjoyable as a cute shot of Ali. :) Unfortunately these two are all I had and they are not very good - just some random shots of Ali this past week hanging out around the house on a rainy day and saying cheese! This is her "cheese" smile. She is not supposed to have her pacifier (or as she calls it ever so cutely and full of love/admiration - "pappy") during the day - only to go night night - oops!

Sometimes I take things for granted and forget to thank the Lord for all of our blessings in life - b/c I feel we have been truly blessed with Ali and baby #2. I am bored and being the internerd I am I have been reading other people's blogs and hear sad stories (that make me cry of course) and it just makes me want to go run, wake up Ali and kiss her 200 times and tell her how much I love her and how grateful I am to have a healthy, hilarious, brilliant (etc, etc) little 1.5 year old girl in my life. God has been good to us. I can't wait until tomorrow so we can go to church and Ali can learn more about this gracious God! I can't imagine what it is going to be like to have two little ones that both fill my heart so completely this fall - Ali and her little sibling. I turn 28 next month and sometimes it is just crazy to me that at the ripe age of 28 I will be a mother of 1 with one on the way (and halfway here at that point - and, I will know what I'm having at that point! yippee!) - but, boy, do I feel lucky!!

I'm hoping to have a lot more pictures to share with yall (if anyone reads this! :)) very soon - maybe even tomorrow - but, I can't make any promises!! In the meantime, I will share one funny story of something Ali did the other day. Sometimes I will point at my belly and say "baby!" to Ali (even though I am barely showing) to try to teach Ali slowly about her little sibling she gets to play with coming this Fall. She'll say it back to me but I think it just goes in one ear and out the other. Last week, Ryan came back from a run with her shirt off (he gets really hot when he runs!) and I was in the kitchen with Ali, feeding her breakfast. We were just talking while she was eating (and, she, of course chimes in the whole time - she is a chatterbox of her own language!) and Ryan for some reason was playing with his belly - maybe talking about how he wanted to run it off?? It was funny b/c we didn't think Ali was paying attention and then all of a sudden she looked at him and screamed out very loudly "BABY!!!" and pointed at Ryan's belly! Then, immediately started dying laughing like she knew she was making a joke! Ryan and I were cracking up at our little comedian. I just hope she doesn't make that joke to someone else who may not appreciate it as much!! I may hold off on saying "baby" and pointing to my belly for a little while. :)

Ali is 17 months!

I just realized that Ali is 17 months today - I can't believe it! I feel like I haven't gotten to be with her as much as I have liked lately due to tax season (April 15th - please hurry up and get here!) but she is full of energy and probably the funniest person I know! She knows she is funny too. Ryan and I took Ali and Baxter on a walk last week and we heard her talking in the stroller. We bent down to hear what she was saying and she was saying "Go Dawgs!" and bringing her arm down as she said it! We thought it was hilarious - and then we looked to our left and noticed that the house had 3 little GA Bulldog statues out - she is one smart cookie! I started trying to count how many words she can say now and I got up to over 50! I feel like she pulls a new one out every day - or at least repeats what I say. We will be driving in the car and I will just hear her back there practicing her words - one after another. Her favorite song/saying right now is Old McDonald - I will hear her in her crib at night (as well as probably 5 hours of the day) just saying "E I E I Ooooooo!" I am going to try to get Ryan to help me put a video on here to show - rather than having to listen to my boring summaries. Watching her in action is hilarious - much better than just talking about it!

I am so excited b/c not only is tax season drawing to an end, but I am also now officially in my second trimester and it's like I am a brand new person again. My energy has just popped back up and I am so grateful for that. Just in time for spring and nice weather - to play outside with Ali!! I know she is going to be a great big sister!

Amen!

Every night, we have a routine to put Ali to bed. We start by reading her a few of her bedtime stories, then singing three lullabies and then we say our prayers. I am more amazed by the little things she picks up every day! For instance, one of the songs we sing is a lullaby we learned in music class called "bye bye baby" and I noticed on Monday night that she started singing with me - saying "bye bye baaa beee" and it just made me melt! I have heard her say "bye bye baby" before (which I was so excited by b/c she put two words together) but I never realized where she learned it! We have been singing this song in music class since she was only 3 months old so it is a song she knows very well! Tonight, though, she did something even more precious to me. When we say "Now I lay me, Down to sleep" every night, Ryan and I both bow our heads and put our hands together in prayer. I peeked my eyes at Ali tonight (hoping she wouldn't catch me!) and saw that she also had her head down and was clasping her hands in prayer! To top it off, when we got to the end, before we even got a chance to say "Amen", Ali chimed in with her very own "aaahh - men!". I am one proud mama of my precious little girl. She is growing up and learning new things every day and I am so very proud of my little princess!