Ride 'Em Cowgirl!

Nick's parents have this wooden rocking horse from their oldest Grandchild, Loren. The boys love to rock on it but Allie hadn't shown much interest in it. Nick decided to put her on it the other night and she went crazy! She loves that thing!

Daddy, can you put me on the horse?

Woohoo! This is so much fun!

Pretending she's doing some bull-riding.

She loves riding the rocking horse!

I don't think this is how you're supposed to ride...

This is definitely NOT how you're supposed to ride the horse!

Restaurant Week

Twice a year the Greater Cincinnati Independents host a Restaurant Week. During this week, various independently owned restaurants put together a special 3-course menu and offer great deals to allow more people to experience their food. Nick's Mom is all about food. She's a wonderful cook and loves to try new things. This week was her dream come true!

We started our Restaurant Week experience Friday night at Bella Luna. I had heard wonderful things but had never been there and really didn't know what to expect. We arrived, slightly under dressed, with Nick's parents and our small child in tow, but no one seemed to notice. Allie was a trooper through a very long meal. She charmed the waiter and several of the patrons while we ate. She loved Linda's chicken and gobbled down almost an entire chicken breast! I guess she knows good food when she tastes it! The food was wonderful and we can't wait to go back.

Saturday night's destination was a steakhouse called Red. We dressed appropriately this time but did not feel overly welcome thanks to the waiter. Allie sat quietly and played with her toys. She's a pro at fancy restaurants already :) I thought my food was pretty good but Nick said his left a little to be desired. Allie wasn't interested in trying our main courses but loved sharing Grandpa's cookies! That's my girl!

Offering her Mum-Mum to the table next to us.

Reading her book while we read the menu.

Posing with Grandma and Grandpa after dinner.

One of our few family pictures.

Allie gives restaurant week a big thumbs up!

Going For A Ride

Nick's Aunt Peggy had a neighborhood garage sale a few weeks ago. We decided to stop by and hang out for awhile. The triplets, the twins and Izzy were there running around. Allie does not understand that she is over a year younger than the other kids and had a wonderful time chasing them around. She actually does a good job of keeping up with them. The girl loves her cousins! I think we have a lot of fun years ahead of us with all of the kids being so close in age.

All of the kids, minus Cameron.

Cole re-living his younger days when he fit in the stroller.

Peggy had a little tricycle there for her grandkids. Allie could not get enough of it. She kept climbing on and off, although she climbed on backwards most of the time. She was so proud of herself!

Fun At Home

While I tend to take more pictures of "special days" or events that we go to, some of my favorite times are just hanging out at home with Princess Pea. Here are a couple of pics from a recent afternoon at home.

Sharing some puffs in the living room with Mom

This smile just melts my heart!

She's gone Hollywood!

Not overly thrilled with the new baby gate keeping her confined to the living room and hallway.

Weekend At Tony's

After the Union Picnic, we headed up to Columbus to spend the weekend at Tony's house. He was hosting an Ohio State vs USC party and invited the whole family. Allie was all decked out in her Buckeye gear for the occasion. Of course the game didn't turn out quite as we had hoped, but we still had a fun weekend.

Exploring the backyard before the game.

The sippy cup thief is at it again.

So proud of herself for stealing the boys' cup.

Cameron giving Allie a hug...so sweet!

Logan and Allie playing in the storage bin.

We stayed in Columbus for the Bengals game as well. That, of course, meant that Allie needed her Bengals outfit on for Sunday!

Not feeling too hopeful for the Bengals game.

Wow, these new toys are much better than the football game!

The boys checking out the fish that Uncle Casey caught in the pond.

Cutie Carson doing a little hula-hooping in the backyard.

Daddy's Union Picnic

Nick's Union Picnic was held at Stricker's Grove Amusement Park. We've been several times with the boys (and Allie in my belly) but this was Allie's first trip on the outside.

She loved the carousel. I think I rode it about 10 times by the end of the day. She would dance on the horse as the music played and wave to people as we went around. She's not a ham at all, is she? It's hard to make sure she doesn't fall off the horse while dancing and take a picture at the same time but I did my best.

She also rode the flying elephants (think Dumbo ride at Disney on a smaller scale) with me. She was a little hesitant at first but started to enjoy it more towards the end. Of course, by riding with her, I forfeited any opportunity to take a picture of her but it was well worth it!

She was too small for most of the other rides. We don't call her "Short Stuff" for nothing! She was ready to ride the boats with Cole but the lady caught her at the last minute and said she didn't meet the height requirement. Maybe next year!

We also got to ride the choo-choo-train with the boys. She would crack up if I made the train noises and really liked going through the tunnel. I see more train rides in our future. I didn't get any good shots of Allie on the train but here's a good one of Cole.

Overall, it was a fun-filled family day. I can't wait until next year's picnic!

A Few Pictures Since I'm Behind

I'm doing my best to get caught up but we've been so busy lately. Here are a couple of pictures from back in September.

Playing in Maggie and Laney's Bratz Doll Chair.

Apparently we don't need chairs at our house because she prefers to sit in her toy baskets. Maybe she just doesn't want to sit on our ugly couches?

Cute girl ready for a walk around the block!

Game Face

This is Allie's "game face." It cracks us up everytime she does it.

1st Hospital Visit

We had quite the scare on Labor Day Weekend with Princess Pea. While we were at Nick's parent's house, Allie got her hands on Linda's weekly pill container. Before I realized it, she had popped open one of the days and the pills spilled all over the counter. As I gathered them up and compared them to the other days, I realized that one tiny little blood pressure pill was missing. We searched all over for the pill but could not find it. We had no other choice than to believe that Allie had somehow swallowed it.

I called Poison Control and told them the situation. They told me that I needed to drive "very quickly but safely" to the nearest branch of Children's Hospital. So Nick and I piled Allie in the car and headed to the Liberty Campus. On the way, Allie fell asleep and Nick had a very difficult time getting her to wake up. I don't think I have ever been so scared in my entire life. I had 911 dialed on my cell phone, just waiting to push "talk." She finally woke up just as we were about to arrive at the ER.

Poison Control had called ahead and pre-registered us so we were seen immediately. Allie was acting like nothing had happened and just played with the toys they brought her. I felt like a complete idiot every time I had to explain how she got her hands on the pill and they definitely made me feel like the worst parent ever, but Allie didn't seem to notice.

Several people came in and examined her in the ER. The doctor finally came in and told us the wonderful news that we were being transferred to the downtown location for an overnight stay in the cardiac ICU. She said that there is no way to tell if Allie had swallowed the pill so she would need to be hooked up to a heart monitor until it was out of her system.

They came and put an IV in. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to watch. Thank God the nurse got it on the first try or I would have totally lost it.

We then waited for the ambulance transfer to arrive. It seemed like it took forever but they finally got Allie strapped to the stretcher. She had a big smile on her face and waved to the nurses and staff as we were leaving the ER. I rode in the ambulance with her. She stayed awake watching the lines on the monitor for awhile, but finally zonked out.

When we arrived at Children's we were escorted to our room. Allie slept through being weighed, measured and checked. The doctor came in and wanted to do an EKG. We were not lucky enough for her to sleep through that. She screamed as the doctor applied the stickers and started kicking and hitting when they tried to hook up the lines. I finally had to ask them all to leave the room so that I could calm her down. She fell asleep and they were able to run the test while she slept in her bed.

We were told that we would be staying at least 18 hours and to try to get some sleep. It was hard to sleep with her monitors beeping all night, but we made it through.

The next morning she was re-examined by a whole throng of doctors and nurses. We continued to wait. She did not like being confined to the hospital bed but had to be hooked up to a heart monitor . It was so hard to attempt to entertain her in that small bed, even with the toys they brought her.

Finally, we were allowed to go to the playroom so that she could get out of the crib for awhile. You would have thought she won the lottery, she was so happy!

Around 3pm we were finally released and headed home ! We'll never know if she took the pill or not but are beyond thankful that she showed no effects from it at all. We're hoping this is our last trip to the hospital but with our little monkey, that's not looking like a very good possibility.