Talking

Tiffany:

Allison is talking up a storm these days. Here's a list of the words that she uses regularly and appropriately and that we can consistently understand.

*Momma
*Dada
*Nana
*cat
*shoe (wish us luck - she LOVES shoes)
*sock
*water
*bottle
*thank you (still a little fuzzy)
*no and no way
*yes
*wow and wowee
*hi
*hello
*bye bye
*uh oh
*hat
*hot (we're still working on this one - she thinks it refers to all food)
*cheese
*duck
*dog
*cow
*go
*ball

I'll add more as I think of them. I think this is a pretty impressive list for a 14 month old, but I do realize that I am slightly biased when it comes to considering the intelligence of my daughter.

Christmas 2009

Allison was a great "help" when it came to putting up the Christmas tree this year.




Allison didn't quite enjoy the trip to see Santa as much as we'd hoped.



Here's our family of 3.5 on Christmas Eve.


Christmas morning after Santa came!


Allie was very interested in the presents and stockings.


And some final pictures of presents:

Henry Ford Museum trip

Kevin:

Several former students of mine are or have been employed by the Henry Ford Museum or Greenfield Village, which is unsurprising as HFCC is only a mile or two away. One of those students has visited my office quite often in the several semesters since he passed one of my writing courses. He has discussed his job with me on numerous occasions, and he was kind enough to bring me four Employee Guest passes last spring. Tiffany and I took Allison to Greenfield Village over the summer, and we decided to pay a visit to the Henry Ford Museum yesterday (after I discovered that the passes expire at the end of the year!).

The museum is currently featuring the Lego Castle Adventure exhibit, which Allison quite enjoyed. We saw only a fraction of the museum, but plan to get annual passes in the future as the girls grow up, so I'm not to worried about that!

I must let my former student know how much we appreciated his kindness. We had a great time!


Tiffany (22 weeks pregnant) and Allison by the Lego knight


Allison reading books in a comfy chair in a corner of the exhibit


An awesome red Lego dragon!


Allie and Daddy, smiling in apparent obliviousness of the ferocious beast behind them

Thanksgiving pictures

It's...

ANOTHER GIRL! We found out at the big ultrasound on December 2nd that Baby Trovini #2 is perfectly healthy and that we should be expecting another girl in May. Now we just have to figure out a name. This won't be easy!

Baby Sign Language

We've been pretty laid back (read: lazy) about teaching Allison baby sign language, but she's starting to learn a couple of signs. Here's a video of her doing the sign for "all done". She's taken it to extremes, though, and goes for a full "touchdown" kind of motion.

All Done Youtube video

Halloween

Allison dressed up as the Red Baron this year (get it?). We decided not to trick or treat this year and went out to dinner with Bah and Nana (Tiffany's parents) instead. Overall, it was a very mellow Halloween for Baby Trovini #1. Here are lots of pictures for you to enjoy!