More updates and videos of Allie

Since our last post, each member of the household took a turn getting sick. Nikki was the first to get a bad cold that she likely brought home from work. It lasted a week, and then Allie got sick. It started out just as Nikki's cold did, but then it got much worse. Poor Allie had RSV, which led to bronchiolitis and pneumonia. The doctor heard both wheezing and crackling in her lungs, so she got an antibiotic and some albuterol and pulmicort for breathing treatments. We were also alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours for 3-4 days for her fever. She had to have breathing treatments every 4 hours. We gave her a break at night so that she could get some good sleep. Allie is usually such a busy baby, but she was really lethargic when at her worst. But despite being so sick and miserable, she tried to be happy. She is such a good baby. When she started to improve, Jared got the cold. Nikki felt really bad for bringing the bug home. But luckily all are healthy now.

Sick little Allie still trying to be happy for the camera.

Allie is always doing funny little things that make us smile and laugh. We often don't have the camera at-hand, so we miss a lot of it. But we wanted to share a few of the things that we were able to capture on camera and video.

Allie likes playing with Nikki's bra straps. She will pull on them and shake her hands up and down while holding them. The night we took this picture, she actually got the strap around her. Then when she wanted to crawl away, she still had it around her and ended up being caught by the bra and could not go very far.

For the videos that come below, you will want to turn up your volume. Enjoy!


Allie likes to sing. She is not saying any words, yet, so it is just cute baby babble singing. But she will often sing to herself while in the crib or while playing by herself. One night when we were eating dinner, Allie was tired and started singing to her spoon. Luckily, the camera was on the table and we were able to capture it. (Sorry we didn't get it rotated.)

Allie cannot say, "no," but she definitely knows how to shake her head. We aren't sure where or from whom she first learned it, but it was pretty funny when she started. One day at church, a man in our Sunday School class was smiling and making faces at Allie. She then shook her head, "no" at him. So he nodded "yes" back at her. She just kept shaking her head, "no." They probably went back and forth with nods and shaking the head about 5 or 6 times. Since then, she has seemed to get a better idea of what it means, and she will crack us up by shaking her head at random stuff. Here's a video of her showing her moves.

In the last post, we talked about Allie learning how to crawl. We wanted to share videos then, but had problems doing so. We still cannot get one video of when she very first started to crawl normally, but here are some videos showing the progression of her new skills.

Fast Crawl

A good slow walk with her walker - Daddy helps her drive.

A little faster with her walker

This is Allie's newest skill - WALKING!!! Her record is 15 steps. Sometimes she is still pretty wobbly (mostly when she tries to walk quickly), but she is getting better and better each day. She really likes practicing and gets really excited when we do. Sometimes she will get so excited she does a little hop thing that usually makes her fall. It is really cute, though.




Grandma Carpenter got Allie a fun ball popper toy for Christmas. She has enjoyed it since she got it, but more recently she is able to play with it as it is intended. Here's a little clip of her playing with it. She really likes to grab the balls and flap her arms.



We were growing a little concerned because after getting sick, Allie seemed to stop liking solids. We could not get her to eat foods that she had previously enjoyed. She had become quite independent and only wanted to feed herself. She loves eating Puffs and Cheerios because she can feed them to herself. Baby food was an issue, though, because we were the ones putting it in her mouth. Daddy then learned a trick. It leads to a big mess, but we get a lot more food in her this way: letting her feed herself with the spoon. We put the food on the spoon, and then give it to her to put in her mouth. She gets REALLY excited about feeding herself. She bounces up and down and kicks her feet. Enjoy!

Here's a picture of the end result. Notice how dirty the shirt is and her hair on the side of her head sticking out due to food being in it.