Walking

It looks like I forgot to mention a pretty important thing in my last blog: ALY IS OFFICIALLY WALKING!!! Since the middle of May she has been able to hold her self up and take a few steps when we want her too. We would stand her up and back away and she would take several steps to get to us. Personally I didn't consider that to be her "first steps" because she wasn't doing it all on her own. On May 20th she was standing holding on to the couch and she let go and walked to JV! so that in my opinion was her first steps. She still doesn't do it all the time, but she will every once in a while.

She has a lion that she can push and she absolutely loves it. I have a few video's of her walking that I wanted to share:

West Palm beach 2010

Aly in front of Jason's Turtle

Playing on the luggage cart on Friday night

Aly and Grandpa in the ocean

Aly and Daddy

Catching up on some serious reading

Sleeping

Me and Aly having Mommy/daughter time

Hanging in the pool

All ready for the waves

First time in the sand

Hanging on the beach

The view from our room

Aly, Austin and Uncle Brett in the pool waiting on the rooms

She's a pro swimmer already

"are you sure I can get in with my clothes on?"

This is the new way to use the passy

On the way down to Ocala

Eating Lunch at the rest stop. She cared more about the stick then lunch

As our 2010 vacation came to end we were left with so so many wonderful memories! We had such an amazing trip. Aly was so good, we couldn't of ask for a better vacation. JV and I haven't spent that much time together or with Aly since we went back to work after she was born, so it was some much needed bonding time.

We left Friday morning and headed to Ocala, FL. to spend the night. Aly did really good in the car. Being that about 2 hours was the max she has been in the car we were prepared for 6 hours to be horrible, but it really wasn't. She took a good nap on the way early then we stopped a a rest stop to eat lunch and stretch. She didn't want to get back in the car after that but once she was in she was good. Sat. Morning we hit the road again and stopped for lunch in Melburn FL, at our friend Kevin's bar for lunch. The food was amazing and so was Aly. She had fun playing with Mrs. Becky. We arrived in West Palm around 4:00 and had to wait for a few mins for the rooms to be ready so Aly got in the pool with Uncle Brett, Austin and Maddy (well until she pooped, then that was over).

We went to the beach Sunday but since Aly's 1st nap fell right about the time everyone was ready to go down, JV and I stayed up in the room until she woke up then we met everyone at the beach. The water was really rough and the waves were huge so Aly didn't get to stay in very long. She didn't know what to think of the sand at first but after just a second, she was fine. She loved the water rushing over her feet!! We didn't stay long because all she wanted to do was eat the sand when she wasn't in the water so our beach day was cut short.

We had a day of gloomy weather so some of us played some beach volleyball while Auntie Laura stayed with Aly while she was napping. Grammy and Grandpa kept all the kids one night so all of the siblings could go out to eat together. We had a blast!

We switched off days staying up in the room with Aly so JV and I could have some beach time and Alice kept her one day so we both could hang out on the beach, it was so nice. Just to sit and read for a little while!!!

We went out to dinner on Friday night for JV's birthday dinner and when we got home we had to start packing to come home. We brought a cart up to start packing and I think that was Aly's favorite part of the vacation! She played on that thing for about 30 mins straight, it was so funny.

We were so lucky to have so much help from everyone with Aly. It was great to spend our first vacation with her but it was nice to have some grown up time too. All the kids were such a great help too. Maddy and Austin would help us in the morning and some in the car. And Nate got to ride with us some of the way home and got some good quality playing time in with Aly.

We were not sure if we were going to be able to make it all the way home on sat. but we were going to try. Aly was such a champ!!! She only fussed a few times and I sat back there with her some and JV did too so that helped. We made it to dad's about 6:30 to pick up Marley then home around 8:00. Aly was so wired when we got home she didn't go to bed till about 9:30.

A quick update with Aly. Her tubes are doing great and making such a difference in her sleeping more then anything. She goes to sleep on her own for naps and bed time. That is so nice not to have to deal with that. We are starting to give her some whole milk in her bottles to start weeing her off the formula. We started Sunday with 1 oz in each bottle and we will do that for several days then go to 2 oz and so on. We are still working on the sippy cups but she doesn't really like those much yet. She claps all the time. She know "more" in sign language, she has started pointing at people (which is really funny) and waving Hi and Bye. She talks all the time. Recently she will look and me and Jv and say momma and daddy and she recognizes people when you ask her where they are. She is so smart and growing up so fast!!

We are having Aly's 1 year old pictures done on the 5th of July (my birthday, yeahh). I'm super excited about these. I have some really cute outfits picked out!!!