The Mathies Family: Cute stories

(WARNING: A VERY LONG POST! If you just want to see pictures, scroll down!)

Allie has started using the phrase "my Mommy" and "my Daddy" when talking with us. Running into a room, while looking for me, she'll say "Mommy, my Mommy". Or while reading a book with me she'll look up and say "Mommy? My Mommy?" and I'll say, "Yes, I'm your Mommy." I don't know if she is beginning to understand that there are lots of Mommys and Daddys, if she is becoming territorial, or if this is her way of speaking lovingly to us. Regardless, the words are music to our ears.

Every day she says goodbye to Alex in the morning (and if she can tear herself away from Elmo on Sesame Street, she even throws him kisses). And everyday she comes running to greet him at the end of the work day when she hears the sound of the garage door opening. In the morning, she yells, "Bye Daddy" when he leaves. Then she turns to me and says "Daddy bye?" and I say "Yes, Daddy's going to work." Then she proceeds to say, "Daddy work". She likes to remind herself of his whereabouts throughout the day. Allie - "Daddy, where's Daddy?" Mommy - "Daddy went bye-bye." Allie (nodding her head)- "Daddy work."

Our very curious, creative and quirky child has come up with a new habit that has left Alex and I totally baffled as to where she learned it. Each night the three of us sit down at the table for dinner and each night Allie proceeds to scarf down her meal, hardly looking up (or breathing) between bites. And then one night, in the middle of her meal she stopped eating. She put her hands on the table, one on either side of her plate, and started strumming her fingertips on the table's surface; all while giving us this mischievously bashful look. Alex and I half-choked on our own food, looked at each other perplexedly and couldn't help but laugh. Of course, we get repeat performances on an almost nightly basis.

Allie still loves giving the baby in my belly lots of kisses. Sometimes, while in the middle of playing, she'll run over, lift up my shirt and give the baby a kiss. Today, she said, "Hi baby," gave her a kiss and then said, "Bye baby". So precious.

So we think Allie is going to be a "planner" (hmm, I wonder who she gets this trait from). It all started when Alex began giving her horseback rides. She'd sit on his back, he'd crawl around the room on his hands and knees and then buck Allie off onto the couch (if she ends up in a neck brace, you'll know why!). She loves her horseback rides and no sooner does she get off then she puts her little pointer finger in the air and says "one mo". "Daddy one mo peas." She also does this when we tickle her (yes, the only child I know that asks to be tickled "mo"). Most the time we haven't even finished tickling her and she has her little finger up in the air saying "mo, one mo". This planning, isn't entirely fun and games though. It's a survival mechanism too. At dinner she carefully surveys the amount of food remaining in the serving bowls and even though she has a full plate, she'll ask for "mo" (just in case it runs out before she finishes). And yesterday she handed me her empty lunch plate and then proceeded to immediately ask for a "nack". Planning at its best.

And one final story (I know, I'm writing a novel)...in one of the pictures you'll notice Allie wearing her florescent hat and purse that Aunt Beth and Uncle Dave gave her for Christmas. Allie loves to play with her dress up clothes and one day insisted that she take them to the library with us. We were working with a limited amount of time for this library outing so I let her bring them along, thinking they'd end up on the floor of the mini-van by the time we arrived at the library. No such luck. She insisted on wearing her hat, purse and sunglasses into the library. Needless to say, a few chuckles were cast in Diva Allie's direction.

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Dancing.