Spring Has Sprung...

 

 ...Which is a darn good thing because we are very clearly running out of things to do indoors as evidenced by the odd collection of spiders across Alessandra's torso.  

The sun is shining, the grass is muddy, and the dirty snowpiles are melting.  The countdown is on to inhale some fresh air and shred some stompin' grounds that don't consist of man-made unscratchable wood-like material.  So, while we've been on pins and needles waiting to burn rubber on Alessandra's new cool retro Roadster that Uncle Mac sent out,

we've been keeping busy with other things outside of watching "Buzz Lightyear" over and over and over (and over) again.  What happens, see, is my precious daughter has a newfound empathy toward all inanimate objects thinking that they will come to life with feelings the minute she leaves the room, see? So she treats them real nice-like and puts them all away at the end of the day, see?  Extravagant excuse for letting her watch Toy Stories 1, 2, and 3 far too many times?  Perhaps.  

It's not all boob tube though, I promise.  Ali steals my Nook every chance she gets and really gets into her stories.  And she's heard them enough times now that she can recite them to herself with live action and drama added!  "Shoo!" one can hear her exclaim, "Take your nosey nose somewhere ELSE!"  (The Elephant's Child, Rudyard Kipling.)  I am also proud to report that all of those (insanely expensive) DHA supplements that I took while her address was in utero have paid off, because this child o' mine actually grasps the concept of reading at 2 1/2 years old, and I think that if she really wanted to, she could learn in a day.  She gets that she has to sound out each letter and put them together.  She also knows to look at the pictures for contextual clues.  We've started with the good ol' Scholastic BOB books, remember those?!?:  "Sam sat on Mat.  Mat sat on Sam.  O.K. Sam.  O.K. Mat.  O.K. Dog".  Silly non-sensical books, but they seem to be working...When she's interested...Which isn't often.  But we'll keep trying when she's feeling so inclined.

Another big breakthrough:

 

Christi at day care was convinced Ali was ready.  I, told her, "Lady, I don't think so, but you're with her all day long, so be my guest.  Have fun cleaning your carpets out! (Insert mocking, maniacal laughter here.)"    This is the part where I admit I was wrong and that the super villain laugh was unwarranted.  Ali was completely dry by the second day and hasn't turned back (except for toward the back of the potty) since.  I hadn't heard of the rear-facing method before, but it seems to be working, so we're going with it!  The only issues we're having right now is that she refuses to poop until she gets into her diaper at night.  If you have any pointers on that one, please let us know!

I know I already posted the crazy spider stickers lady at the beginning of this post, but I just can't get over a) how old she looks here and b) how she is thinning right out and turning into this little muscular creature.  Forget about P90X, I need to take lessons from my daughter!

When her hair is not a wild out-of-control afro, look at the adorable perfect little curls Miss Ali's piggys make.  So cute! 

Well, that's all that's going on in our world.  Still jet-setting (New York and Nashville the last two weeks respectively), and now off to Fort Myers to visit Grandma Jo and Great Germa Filly next week!!!  This time will be more fun than I can imagine.  Contrary to last year, daddy's joining his girls for the trip, and we'll be meeting Uncle Mac and Marley down there too!!!  Lots of fun photos will be posted in my next post, on that you can bet.

Until then, big hugs from Team Torres!!!!