Poppy came to visit

Buttoning Poppy's shirt
Rick was able to spend some time with us, en route for business. We're thankful for any time we can get. I'm also thankful that Alison warms up quickly to family she hasn't seen for awhile. Poor Rick had a torn muscle in his back and was in a lot of pain, but it didn't stop him from playing with Alison and holding her every time she said, "up please".
We went to the Crab Shack for dinner last night and Alison discovered a love for ranch dressing. Poppy scored major points with Alison when he started feeding the birds and ducks. Ben and I got nervous when the birds starting swarming right in front of Alison and she started leaning further out the window. I guess that's what grandparents are for-to do the things parents wouldn't dare. We went to the beach to feed the ducks after dinner. Alison loved getting to see the birds up close and personal.
This morning we went to breakfast at the Bakery where Alison was well fed. Then we walked around downtown and toured the museum.
After we dropped Rick off at the airport we headed to the beach. Ben was finally able to use his body board and Alison actually played in the sand.
After a long morning of fun, Alison didn't even make it back to the car before crashing.

The best surprise ever!!!

Ben was supposed to get home from his 2 week trip in Florida right about now. I had this morning all planned out. I was going to unload the dishwasher, clean the sink, vacuum our bedroom, go to the Y, clean up and then he would be here! Last night I was laying in bed running over my morning schedule in my head when Ben called. He had told me that he was going to leave straight from school at 5:00, drive to South Carolina and spend the night and then finish the drive in the morning. He also told me that he'd call when he stopped (because I'm a worry wort and wanted to make sure he was safe), so I knew that's why he was calling late last night. I said, "So where'd you end up stopping?" and he said, "Why don't you come open the front door and find out?" I ran to the door to find him standing in the dark...man, he got me good! It truly was the best surprise ever.
We both went to get Alison this morning when she woke up. Ben was super anxious to see her and I couldn't wait to see the reaction on her face. Her reaction was quite opposite what I had envisioned. She was crying pretty hard and wasn't stopping when we came in her room. Instead of a smile she had tears rolling down her cheeks. Ben quickly found that her mouth was bleeding. Somehow she tore the muscle in between her front teeth. Our pediatrician warned us that this might happen because Alison's is much thicker than normal. In most cases it eventually has to be cut, but maybe whatever happened in her crib will prevent her from ever having that happen.
My plans for the morning weren't what I had planned, but they turned out to be far better. We found out that downtown Smithfield was having it's Olden Days weekend so we went to check it out. There were old cars lining the streets, people dressed up in costumes, horses pulling carriages and a Paula Deen look-a-like contest. Pair that up with the Farmer's Market and you have one fun morning.I also painted Alison's toes for the first time this morning. I thought Ben wouldn't want me to, but when Alison asked for her toes to be pretty too, he said it was okay. She sat more still than I thought she would and is so proud of her pretty toes.Last week Alison and I met Sarah, her little girl Maddie and baby Jon and the park. One good thing that has come from Alison picking up the Barney song is that she will now give hugs to her friends. The girls had a blast playing together and started calling eachother Madison. We thought it was pretty creative. Maybe life would be so much more simple if we all started combining names.

We've made it to week 2!

Ben said he expected some pictures today, so here they are.
We've been keeping busy, but are very ready for daddy to come home. Friday we went to the zoo with some friends. It was a lot more fun this summer, now that Alison can recognize the animals and is excited to see them. Some friends from Hope brought over a little swimming pool for Alison on Sunday. They had their van loaded up of stuff to take to the DAV, but ended up leaving several things here. Alison wasn't too fond of the fountain at first, but within a couple of minutes was drinking out of the hose. I let her do it for awhile because she's been afraid of water coming out of the hose (like when we wash the cars or water the plants) and I have a lot of memories as a kid, drinking out of the hose and chasing my dad around the yard trying to squirt him. But then I remember kids can't drink the water in Smithfield, so I had to put a stop to it.
One of the new toys Alison received was a little drum. Really, the little clip at the end is for Ben. Alison seems to pick up music really easy. I never showed her how to hold the drumsticks or hit the drum, she just did it. She's been getting words down to songs really well this week too. Unfortunately one of them is the Barney song. Smoochie woke Alison up much earlier than I believe anyone should be up, so I confess that I turned on PBS and took a little nap. Now I know why Barney is so popular. By the end of the show Alison was singing, "I love you, you love me..." It is kind of cute though, because she gives me a big hug and kiss at the end.

It's Raining!

It's of course raining again today and as usual Alison had her heart set on swimming. I had just finished explaining to her that it's raining outside and therefore we cannot go swimming when she pulled her dress over her head as a hat and said, "It's raining!". Somehow her creative hat turned into crazy dress up day. Along with her dress over her head, she found my swimsuit and tangled herself up in it and then topped that off with her coat and hat.

Blowing bubbles

We've been trying to teach Alison to blow bubbles while swimming. She's pretty good at kicking, but her arms are usually busy clinging onto something and up until now would just drink the water instead blowing into it. This week it's been raining off and on and just not good swimming weather...well, according to me-Alison would be in the pool rain or shine. Well, this evening we came in from playing outside and Alison was completely filthy. She went straight into the bath, and I threw in all of her toys for an extra long play time. She flipped on her belly and said, "I swimmin'!" I'm sure no one else think this in monumental, but I'm her mommy and I document all firsts. June 16th: first swim in bath tub.

This is what happens when Ben is gone

So apparently Ben got bored in class and changed everything on the blog.

The cats took over the den (don't they look ginormous?) and Alison went crazy. For some reason when there's ketchup on the table it ends up in Alison's hair, and top that off with a cheesy smile you can't help but laugh.

Trumpet

I am so thankful I married a musical man, especially one who is patient and wants to teach. Ben plays music everyday when he gets home from work and Alison can't wait for that time of day. The other day she kept asking to play daddy's trumpet. I thought it was cute but was totally shocked when she actually could play the trumpet. The first part of this movie does not give Alison's little singing voice justice. She can sing all of the song but of course stopped singing as soon as the camera was out.
Alison was so tired from church today that she fell asleep after one bite of lunch. She took a great nap and woke up with a bit of spunk to her. I was in the middle of a Wii game and she came out of her room looking like this. She wanted to wear her fleece pajamas (it was in the 70's here, definitely not fleece time) so bad, but kept putting them on backwards.
Ben left this morning for 2 weeks! He's in Florida for class and all I can think about is how long 2 weeks is. I'm hoping it goes by quickly.

Play Time!

William came over Friday for our weekly play date. They decided to turn the living room into a track and ran around pushing carts. What made me laugh was watching Alison try to push her cart. She's now too tall for, what we call the "mail cart", that we bought only a year ago to help her learn how to walk. She kept lifting it up and running with it and later resulted to walking on her knees so it was the right height. In the midst of them running around the "track", Alison stopped and sighed and said, "I love William."Yesterday Alison decided to pretend to be a kitty and climbed in the kitty cube. She thought it was the best thing in the world until she tried to get out. Ben and I were busy cleaning up so she was stuck in it for awhile. I thought it might just be the perfect time-out spot.Yesterday was also a special day because we added a Wii to the Shear house. When Ben and I first met we spent a lot of time playing Nintendo. In fact, Ben asked me to winter formal after a game of Tetrus. Earlier this week Ben made a big sacrifice for our family. He was very involved in an online computer game that he really enjoyed and thrived at. However, because of the nature of the game it took up all of his free time and left little quality time for our family. Ben quit the game this week, which spoke volumes to me. His decision told me that he values our family more than anything and is willing to do whatever it takes to make it the best it can be. In light of all this we decided to invest in our family, and what better than to go back to the roots of where it all began. As silly as this my sound, my prayer is that the Wii will give us something to do as a family that we all enjoy and bring us together. So far, I would say it's done it's job. I told Ben I wanted to give up cable TV, as he had his game. He didn't let me but I must say there has been some perks to Ben watching a little more TV. He watched a show on barbecuing ribs the other day and last night he grilled his first slab...boy, oh, boy where they good!!!
P.S. I realize that Alison is often photographed with no clothes on. I do dress the child, I promise. My disclaimer for this picture is that it was taken this morning before church and she had an accident in her pj's and I never put her church dress on until right before we leave, which didn't seem to make a difference this morning, as she spilled milk all over herself as we walked out the door.