Alyse's First Christmas

A few photos from Alyse's first Christmas:


Christmas at Papa & Grandma's house.




Uncle Charles shows Alyse the toy he and Aunt Rachel got for her.




Opening presents Christmas Eve morning at our house.





Helping Daddy unwrap one of his stocking presents from mommy.





Sacked out Christmas Eve night before our trip to Tyler.





Opening presents Christmas morning at Grammy's house.





Alyse & Aubrey flash their cool Dora chairs.





Opening her present from Aunt Amy, Unky Jeremy, and Jack!

Two Videos...

After Alyse took her first steps independently on December 13, a few days after her 10-month birthday, we've scarcely had the opportunity to catch her in the act, so fascinated is she with the video camera. Here she is on Christmas Eve eve showing off just a little bit




Alyse plays with a learning toy given to her by her Uncle Charles and Aunt Rachel the night before. At 10 1/2 months old, she displays the depth of her operational cognitive abilities.

¡Alyse Navidad!

Merry Christmas from the Allen family!

You Gotta Stand Up

Dancing Queen!

Alyse throws down some jive moves to the mono-melodic strains of "Old MacDonald" emitting from her bouncer.

You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen

Nanny Heather!

We are so fortunate to have a live-in nanny for Alyse now and got her out of the evil daycare! Heather is wonderful with Alyse and they get along beautifully.

Now we just have to be careful, lest Alyse's first word is "Nanny...."

It's Official...Moreso...

I suppose every pregnancy seems a little unreal until you get to see that first sonogram, which we did on Wednesday. Shortly before the scheduled sonogram, we had to make an unscheduled appointment with Alyse's pediatrician because Alyse has been very sick for several days (later revealed to be an ear infection). Her emergency appointment (3rd floor of the Diagnostic Clinic) was scheduled for 2:00, and the sonogram (1st floor of the Diagnostic Clinic) was scheduled for 2:30. Needless to say, at 2:29 we were still waiting to see Dr. Hudson. Kindly, his nurses had us go to the sonogram and fit us back in after we were finished. Alyse, being the thoughtful child she is, waited until after we were out of the ultrasound room before vomiting in my jacket.

...

Early Morning Alyse

All Bundled Up!

As the weather has turned colder, we've had to go shopping for more fashionable winter clothes. Observe:

That Makes Four!

Alyse is holding the positive pregnancy test if you can't tell.

Random Video Clip

I'm not sure, but I think she was trying to pump water...

A Few Pictures...

Alyse continues to astound us with her advanced maturation. Video soon to follow, but her new favorite activity is walking the length of a long object that she can hold herself up on (e.g., a coffee table, sofa, etc.).

Anyway, here are a few pictures:

Standin' Tall!

Alyse pulls herself up with only the assistance of a stationary laundry basket.

BABY TEETH!

We were finally able to get a good clean shot of Alyse's teeth! The two little chompers played a pretty minor role as she went to town on her first ever "baby biscuit."

Recent Photos of Interest

Alyse sees Jasien for the first time; wacky shenanigans ensue.



Alyse's bathtub seems to be shrinking...



Alyse's love for semi-solid foods remains constant...







An advanced crawling technique, Alyse has been seen to go into this manner of stance, otherwise dubbed the tent position...

Light Switch!

She does this every night.

Keep On Crawlin' In the Free World...

It was on this day—Tuesday, July 25, 2006—Alyse decided to slip the surly bonds of immobility and crawl. Though an otherwise floundering and awkward thing, her first crawl was a truly beautiful moment.

In other Alyse-related news, two little teeth have surfaced on her bottom gum.

Alyse & Mr. Chicken

Here's a brief clip of what was a much longer episode involving many more barnyard animal noises. The chicken was, by far, her favorite. I don't know where the "Dallas" theme song came from--oh well.

Whoa...

That's what I said after taking this picture, and what I still say every time I look at it. I'm not sure where Alyse inherited her photogenes from—possibly Charlotte—but she has a knack for taking the most powerfully cute pictures available.

Alyse's First Swim!

Here are a few photos from Alyse's first experience in the swimming pool:

She Loves to Smile

Long have I bided my time since Charlotte has erstwhile been Alyse's main source of, well, everything. But finally I have something I can hold over her head because—and I don't mean be a loudmouth braggart (well, I meant to offend a little...)—no one can make Alyse smile like daddy can.

Alyse in Hysterics!

June 29, 2006.

We caught Alyse in a particularly merry way last night. The result is as follows:

New Alyse Photos!

Come and check out some highlight photos from the past couple of months at Alyse's Homepage.



See a few pictures from Alyse's first big trip to Houston to bid farewell to Jeremy, Amy, and Jack; also, check out photos from the Gunters' visit!

Alyse's First Real Meal

Here is Alyse's very first introduction to "real" food (a bit of rice cereal mixed in with breast milk), but her first time to consume food in a non-sucking type manner--well, with eating untensils, anyway.

The occasion was to celebrate Father's Day and Amy's birthday. (Shot June 18, 2006)

Alyse Yacking It Up!

Here Alyse begins a strange new way of talking we had not previously observed. Hard to explain, really.
Shot June 3, 2006—four days shy of her four-month birthday.

Alyse Gets Her Roll On!

Here is Alyse performing her newly achieved milestone for the third or fourth time, June 6, 2006--one day shy of her 4-month birthday.

I don't know if most parents get to see their child's very first roll-over, but we didn't. I was at work when Charlotte called and she left Alyse on her back when she, Charlotte, had to go switch laundry. When Charlotte came back, Alyse was on her tummy!

HMMM?

This look is Alyse's only means of conveying her feelings about Jeremy, Amy, and Jack moving to Colorado.

Photo courtesy of the Butlers.

Baby Skills

Alyse is starting to hold her own bottle. These pictures were taken during a ten-minute marathon of said activity.

You don't believe me?

Just ask Stan Grossman. He'll tell you the same thing.

What is this, Chicago?

The other night we were doing laundry, when Charlotte—for some reason—was compelled to toss a couple of pairs of socks onto Alyse. Alyse got a pretty big kick out of it so we started piling them on.

Bottom line: more socks = more fun!

SITH BABY!

Darth Alyse

Alyse & Friends!

New pictures are available for your viewing pleasure at:

http://homepage.mac.com/drewallen/Alyse/PhotoAlbum40.html

Photos like this:



Go!

!

Having a bad day? Just remember Alyse's expression in this picture and everything won't seem so bad.

Alyse Laughs!

This is a video we shot shortly after we had heard Alyse laugh for the very first time. These aren't as discernible as the first laughs, but they're cute none the less.

Pardon my use and bastardization of Entrance of the Gladiators.

Thank God for Camera Phones

...or else I wouldn't have had the opportunity to capture this, my favorite picture of Alyse to date.

Aubrey & Alyse

They don't make cousins cuter than these.

Yet More Pictures of Alyse!

See more cute pictures like this at Alyse's Photo Album

Yawny (Live at the Acropolis)

When You're Smilin'....

...the whole world smiles with you.