13.1 Finisher

Jim ran in a half marathon this weekend. He ran a 7 minutes & 45 seconds pace. He was pretty happy with his time but is hoping to run under the 7minutes & 30 seconds pace in May. I'm planning to run a 5k in May on the same day. I'll be happy if I finish!! The camera battery was dead as Jim finished the race. So, to remember the day. We decided to dress Allison up as a race finisher. Awesome foil blanket, finisher's metal and of course sun glasses!! She thought the foil blanket was great. She drug it around the house for quite a while.

I'm sure she'll be running circles around her parent's before long!!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Allison was dressed in green and white to help Daddy celebrate his birthday on March 17th!! Of course we took James Patrick out for a beer to celebrate his special day! Plus, bars a great place to showcase your parenting skills(just kidding)!! I know Jim looks smashed in this picture. He wasn't smashed. It is just IMPOSSIBLE for me to take a good picture of him and Allison. I'm not sure why? You'd think I'd have better luck getting a good shot with a digital camera but I don't!! As you can see, it was dark in the bar (at 3:30 in the afternoon) and they are both making silly faces.

Calling the Hogs, kind of...

Here is Allison dancing with a bottle opener that calls the hogs! She came across it while she was "cleaning out" the all the drawers in the kitchen. She loves to dance. She dances to music on commercials, from cars driving by, and the jackhammer digging up the street (she thought it had a mean beat)! The second video is her taking a few steps in the kitchen. She is mostly walking now. I'll try to get videos of her walking around town and in the park. I have to get Jim to go with us. Otherwise, she'll be bolting for the street or eating dirt while I try to film her!! Then I'd be "that Mom" at the park!! (Which I usually am any way;))

Tons of Randoms

Here's some of what we've been doing for the past couple of weeks! We've been really busy but it's been great to be busy! I'm ready for Spring!! I'm tired of being inside....
On one of our outings we went to the Museum of Natural History. They have a great cafe and neat gift shop. While we we're there we took some time to cruise through the hall of mammals. Allison with the Zebras. She was more excited about banging on the glass than she was about the animals (which don't move much ). The 90 year old elevator operator said, that Allison was dressed in "boy pants but the pink bow let you know she was a girl". I guess jeans could be considered "boy pants". I promise, Allison will be wearing more dresses come Spring time!

Cousin Connor entertaining Allison. He is always so good with her!!

Out and about on a cold day! I love this jacket.

Allison and the fork!! She was fascinated by her new fork! For several days she would eat anything you put on the fork. Sadly, the thrill is gone. Now she throws the fork and food on the floor if she isn't happy with my offering.

More to come soon!! Thanks for taking the time to read our blog!!!

We have a Toddler!!

Allison took 5 steps last weekend in NJ. She has been practicing walking every since. But today, she was really working on walking around the house. So much that she didn't take an afternoon nap! She was so busy trying to perfect walking. She couldn't be bother with sleeping!! Hopefully, skipping the afternoon nap won't be a new trend!! Here's two clips of her toddling around the kitchen. I'll try to keep up with her progression this week! I hope you enjoy the faces she makes as she concentrates on walking. As you can see, she is proud of her self!!

Allison's First Birthday!!

Sorry the pictures aren't in order! But here is Allison enjoying her first taste of cake on her first birthday!! I made a banana cake with butter cream icing. She liked the cake but hasn't eaten a banana since she had cake. Maybe she thinks all bananas should be covered in butter cream!! Before she tasted it. She stuck her hand into the middle of the cake. Then she licked some of the icing off her fingers and decided she would accept my offering to her!!

We cut her a big slice and let her have at it!! She eventually ate some and dumped the rest in her lap. She was happy with herself and all that's all that matters.

The cake before demolition began....

Here's a short video. More of Allison's adventure on her quest for her first sugar high. The sugar high aftermath was pretty entertaining as well!

Chinese New Year!!

Allison asked if we could go the Chinese New Year parade today. It sounded like a good idea so we walked to Union Station and took the metro to China Town. It was a beautiful day, 50 degrees!! Much better than last Sunday, when it was 29 degrees. We didn't even need jackets! The parade was a neat experience for us! Safe to say, it was our first Chinese New Year celebration! Allison really enjoyed all the bright colors and loud sounds. There were dragons, flags, drums and firecrackers! She was excited about all of it.

And for those of you who are looking for a good preschool....You could try the Chinese immersion school here in DC!! They start full immersion at 3 years old! Which would be a neat experience for the child! (But not so neat when your teenager is able talk to their friends in a language you can't understand!) The kids from the school were really cute. They were singing in Chinese and the kids were from every race you can name. DC has immersion programs for just about every major language. It's neat for the kids that have been adopted from other nations to be able to go to these schools and learn to speak their native language.

Happy Chinese New Year, year of the Ox!!