Numbers, Letters, Shapes, and Sentences

One of Ally's favorite toys is her shape-sorter. We actually have two of them; one that belonged to me when I was little, and the Tupperware shape-sorter that looks like a ball and has 10 shapes to sort (one of my fabulous E-bay finds). She has gotten pretty good at picking up a shape and finding its appropriate slot, although more intricate shapes like the pentagon and hexagon are still challenging.

Also, Ally is very much into numbers and letters. She likes to play with her letter fridge magnets as well as the letters that stick to the sides of the bathtub when they get wet. She knows the letter "O" and enjoys the alphabet song. She also likes to point out letters on clothing, particularly the letters on my University of Kentucky t-shirt.

Ally also counts to 10 in both English and Spanish. But apparently she does not believe that certain numbers exist. Here is her sequence in English:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10

And in Spanish:

1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10

Evidently, 7 and 9 do not exist in English, and 5, 6, 7, and 9 don't exist in Spanish.

And to finish, Ally said her first inteligible sentence the other day that consisted of more than 2 words. I accidentally spilled my drink at the dinner table, which Ally observed and said, "Mommy no-no agua." It was pretty cute.

Long overdue cabin photos

Last month, we took a weekend trip to Boone with our friends Matt and Victoria and their almost-2-year-old daughter Elaina. It was a much needed weekend getaway, from both the hot weather and our usual surroundings. We stayed in a cool mountain cabin, cooked our own food, went on several nature hikes, and soaked in a hot tub after Ally and Elaina went to bed for the night. Additionally, Ben and Matt challenged each other to a series of ping-pong matches, in which I believe Matt was the overall winner. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Victoria pointing out a huge waterfall. This particular hike was pretty strenuous in that there was a lot of unsure footing (not ideal if there are toddlers in tow). Ben and Victoria did this part of the hike themselves while Matt and I stayed behind with the girls.

Matt, Victoria, and Elaina at another waterfall.

Ben, me, and Ally with a small waterfall in the background.

The two families.

Me and Ally. What transpired after this shot was that Ally accidentally sat down in a very large puddle of water and consequently had to do the return trip in soaking wet socks and shoes with no pants. She did not seem to mind too much.

Me and Ally after eating lunch on a rock in the middle of a stream.

Ally and Elaina. They are doing very typically girly things here-Ally is browsing though an issue of People Magazine while Elaina admires herself in her mommy's flip-flops.

Ally and Elaina in a big chair.

10K race

I ran the Carrboro 10K on Saturday, my first race since April 2008. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was perfect. I did set a 10K PR, but only by 3 seconds. Still, a PR is a PR. I am already looking forward to training for another race; maybe something in the spring.