Oops!

Tonight we decided to watch an episode of Friends. As you know from previous posts, Ali likes to impersonate the characters from time to time. Tonight, for no aparent reason, she started talking about the character Janice. In case you aren't a huge fan, Janice's catch phrase is "Oh..my..G##!". So, Ali was saying that over and over. We explained to her that while Janice does say that on TV, we don't say that because it isn't nice. Then she said, "I like to say 'Oh my gosh'. Mama, you like to say 'Oh my goodness'. And Daddy likes to say 'Oh my crap'." I didn't want to encourage her to repeat what Daddy says so I burried my head in the freezer (I was in the process of getting ice) so I could laugh but John could not hold it in. He laughed so hard that it scared Ali. I hope he scared her enough to prevent her from repeating Daddy in the future.

Visiting Santa

A couple Saturdays ago we decided to take Ali to the mall to meet Santa. Her history with Santa has been less than happy. Every visit seems to be accompanied with wailing and gnashing of teeth. So, we decided to prepare ourselves. We had a couple practice runs at home with Mom. When we got there they had a sample picture up of a little girl sitting on Santa's lap and smiling which we made sure to point out. Ali did great! I could tell she was feeling a little shy/scared but she didn't cry and, as you can see, she even smiled- sort of. Anyway, Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She said she wanted the Cinderella Movie. It was a good thing that a little elf put that idea into her head because it just so happened that as we were at Costco the day before, that movie slipped right into our cart. It's a Christmas miracle.

Ali's Illness

It was confirmed on Monday that Ali has contracted a disease common to 2-3 yr olds. Experts tell us that most kid's outgrow it (like asthma) but it could take several years. They say that it can be as early as 1-2 years and in some rare cases they never outgrow it. Luckily, it's not believed to be contagious at this time. Though we've been seeing the early signs, we were saddened and shocked when we realized she was one of the millions of children who have diarrhea of the mouth. We have found only two things that help subdue the disease, though both are temporary fixes. The first one- eating- when it works only helps for about 20 minutes. The second one- sleeping- has been the most effective at curbing symptoms and is the only thing keeping us going right now. It's ironic that when Ali was younger we enjoyed and even encouraged her recitation of poetry and singing songs. Now we can't get her to stop. To illustrate the effects of the illness, I will share two examples.

#1: The other day Ali and I (Sarah) were driving to drop off our car payment (15 minute drive each way). Ali decided that the clouds looked like an elephant. Ali repeated for at least 10 minutes "The coulds look like elephants." It did not matter to her that I was saying things such as "Yeah, they do" or "Yes, I see" or "The clouds DO look like elephants". She acted as though she didn't hear me, which upon reflection she might not have heard me over her own loud voice. She stopped repeating this phrase so abruptly I thought something was wrong. When I looked back, she was asleep. Just like that.

#2: Ali has been watching a new Disney cartoon called Little Einsteins. (It is made by the Baby Einstein company for preschoolers.) In it she learns music words like diminuendo, pizzicato, and accelerando. They also feature a few measures from a classical music piece and make it into a little song. (To hear an example of this, see the previous post entitled "Ali wishes you a happy Halloween"). Ali gets these tunes and others stuck in her head. Apparently she has to have constant noise issuing from her mouth. As a result, she is singing these tunes and if she can't remember the words or is too lazy to sing them, she inserts "ducka ducka". For example, think of the "A, B, C" song. She would sing this: "duck-a duck-a, duckaducka duh; duck- a duck- a duckaducka duh" ALL DAY LONG

To aid in the funding of research to find a cure for this disease, we have opened a foundation in Ali's honor. It is called the Send Us Money to Shut Our Kid Up Foundation. You may make contributions at the following address:

29517 SW Meadows Loop #44 Wilsonville, OR 97070

We accept all cash and check donations. (No credit/debit cards, please.) If you know anyone who has a child suffering from this disease, please share our heart-felt condolences.

The Dance of the Halloween Fairy

Here is a funny little video for your viewing enjoyment. (It's a little long so if you have a slow computer, you may want to pass on this.)Dance-of-the-Halloween-Fairy

Happy Halloween Wishes

Ali wishes you all Happy Halloween.

Fall on the farm

On Saturday we took Alicyn to a local farm to get a pumpkin. She was really excited to go to a "sincere" pumpkin patch and see The Great Pumpkin. We had a great time! Here are some pictures of the things we did. Here is a picture of Ali riding on the little tractors. Her legs weren't quite long enough to pedal so Mom and Dad did a lot of pushing. She insisted on trying out every tractor. We arrived a little before all the big attractions started up so we had some time to kill. Ali had a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo out of this mural which has eight or nine holes through which you can stick your face. Here Ali and Daddy are admiring the goats. Though you can't see them in this picture, we are watching the free roaming chickens and roosters. Incidentally, right after this picture was taken a rogue chicken came charging at me and I thought my shins were done for. Luckily I was able to keep my cool and I can happily report Ali's love of chickens remains in tact.

Ali and John went on the huge hay slide. You had to climb up hay bales and then landed in hay. (Ali didn't like it very much)

By far, Ali's favorite things on the farm were the ponies. She got to go for a ride (with Daddy close by her side) on a pony named "Horse" (Ali named it.) She had been looking forward to it for several days. That morning when we were trying to get her to hurry through the dressing process so we could go, we reminded her that the ponies were waiting for her to come and ride them. "And Mommy can ride a cow." was her response. Ali waving at Mama "Look at me, Daddy" Ali learning what horse hair feels like I ask you, does life get any better?

We had a chance to take a tour of the farm in a pony drawn buggy. The horses' names were Junior and Red. Ali thought they were great and even got to pet one. After the tour, we knew where the pumpkin patch was so we headed off to find the Great Pumpkin. It didn't take long before Ali found one she liked. Ali was gracious enough to pose for a few scrapbook pictures The Queen of funny faces After loading our pumpkins into the car we ended our visit with some hot chocolate and homemade doughnuts. This day will definitely go down in the books as one of the funnest family days ever!

Ali Tribbiani

This video speaks for itself...

Ali memories

Today I spent the major part of the day at Super Saturday. When I got home Ali ran up to me and said, "Mommy, I'm so glad you're home" and gave me a big hug. So, whilst John is at the stake center watching the BYU game I thought I'd just spew out some funny/cute things that she says and does for posterity's sake.

***Lately Alicyn has been really into The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. She has the whole thing memorized and will correct me if I make a mistake. Yesterday we were on a long car ride and so I passed her the book to read while I recited from memory. She got quite frustrated when I said the Grinch was "so clever and slick- he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick." "No, Mama! Smart" Ali corrected. "What?" "The Grinch was so smart and so slick he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick. Read, Mama. Read!" Which meant I'm done helping you now so do it yourself and do it right.

***Another funny Grinch related incident happened earlier this week. It is not uncommon for Ali to say she has an idea but this week she was a little more descriptive. "Mama, I have an idea. An awful idea. Ali has a wonderful, awful idea." The italicized words were whispered.

***It took Ali a while to adjust to the change in humidity when we moved from Utah to Oregon. For the first 3+ months we lived here she would open her mouth wide and stick out her tongue as if she were tasting the air. Maybe she has some special gift in which she can predict the weather by doing this. Yup- tastes like it's going to rain.

***Ali has been blessed (cursed??) with tight curly hair. As a result she gets comments about it where ever we go. For some reason those comments are frequently accompanied with people touching her hair. One of Ali's ways of showing her affection for me and John is to stroke our hair while saying, "I love your curly hair" just like she hears all the time. She will also say "I love your deep blue eyes." One day Ali and I were walking into swimming lessons and I was carrying her to save time. She started stroking (like she does with my hair) my chest and said, "Mama, I love your chest". I was so embarassed but I didn't want her to think I didn't appreciate her affectionate words. So I said, "Thank you Ali! Don't say that anymore." I didn't want the guy sitting at the front desk to think she was still nursing or something.

***Ali has been potty trained for several months now- half way. She is great at going to the bathroom by herself when she needs to do #1. However, she is scared of going #2 in the toilet. So, the little squirt will hold it until she has "sleeping panties" (aka pull-ups) on for bed or naptime.

***While we were on vacation in Boise last summer, I took Ali to a public restroom at a grocery store. It had automatic flushers. Since Ali is so small it didn't take much for it to think she'd left and flushed while she was still working on going. Her eyes got really big and I laughed and explained that since she was moving it thought she was done but if she would sit still it wouldn't do that. She didn't and it flushed again. This time she was really scared so I put my finger over the sensor to prevent it from further traumatizing my child. Unfortunately, the damage had been done. She didn't want to ever use a toilet again. It took some coaxing but John finally got her to use the toilet at Jeremy's house. It took a good month before she would use public restrooms and to this day as soon as we walk into a stall she says "It's not scary anymore" and then looks up at me expectantly. So I say, "No, it's not scary" and she can go to the bathroom.

Answer: You go to bed really hungry and wake up in the middle of the night asking where your dinner went. 

Question: What happens when you're too stubborn to take a nap when Mommy says to? 

Ali's favorite gift was the slide that she got from Mom & Dad and Grandma & Grandpa King. It is a lot of fun to be able to climb and play even if it's raining outside. We debated between this slide and the JR version but ended up choosing the one that would last the longest. As a result, this one is really steep (more than she's used to) but Ali wasn't afraid at all. The tights she's wearing helped her go down REALLY fast. She thought it was even more fun to lose control completely and land on her bottom. The huge box that the slide came in also gave hours of entertainment.

Here we are sorting the eggs to make sure everyone got one of each color. (The blue eggs had stickers, the purple eggs had candy, the green ones had a nickel etc.) 

The cake was a little messy but who cares? It's a party- right?!? 

Alicyn turned 2 this year and had a fun birthday party with 6 of her friends. She loves watching "Jo Jo's Circus" so that is the reason for the cake I made. We also played "Pin the clown nose on Jo Jo". (Modified for 2-3 yr olds= no blind fold but lots of spinning.) Since her birthday was the day before Easter this year, we also had an Easter egg hunt. The girls decorated brown lunch sacks with crayons and stickers and then we added handles to make them baskets. We had originally planned to do it in the yard but the weather wasn't cooperating. ("It rains 9 months out of the year there.") We all had a great time. I'll add a couple more pictures from the party and a short video of the clown nose game. 

Static Electricity--What Fun!!!

Ali discovered static electricity a few months ago while using her slide on the patio. Now her pleas of "Mama, wanna shock?" can be heard several times a day. Here is some video we caught.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Presenting her royal majesty, Princess Alicyn. This year for Halloween, Ali is going to be a "princess with butterfly wings". She is looking forward to "tricks or treats" but is worried about running into the "pumpkin eyes that scratch [her] legs while [she's] in bed".  

Blah Blah Blah

What a hassle to be able to write a nice comment on a friend's blog. Oh, well. I guess we've been needing to set one of these up for a while.