Happy Birthday Al-ligator!

This pic was supposed to be at the end of the entry, but then I accidentally deleted and I can barely figure out how to post much less move things around, so now my flow is all messed up but frankly it feels like I've been working on this entry almost as long as I was in labor with this child, so it's staying. Okay, the beginning of Al's emo phase. :) Gotta love the Ghoul costume. And considering she wants to be a medical examiner, it's good she has no problem with skeletal things.

The obligatory Oh my God Mom, oh no you dint', oh yes I did well that means you're going in the bad old folks home later on and this blog will be why. Happy 17th birthday to my first born daughturd!

We loved this little outfit so much, not only did we make Annie wear it too, we saved the thing, along with a few other select items. I am really bad at guesstimating ages from pics, so lets just say she had to be older than 9 months, cuz that's when she started walking. She was all precocious like that, although to be honest, she didn't walk WELL.

Getting the infamous ding-dong from her Grandpa. Basically you just pretend like the kid is the clapper in a bell, and you do this sing-songy "Ding-Dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong." And no, we're cruel and all, but there was no version where you throw the kid down and yell "ding-dong ditch" although in retrospect, that totally sounds like something we would do. The kids are always sad when they outgrow this game. Also, I think Grandpa looks like Jean Luc Picard with big glasses (google him if you don't get that reference, and shame on you!)

Getting a pony ride from Dad the same day, evidently we were grasping for photo ops. This was back when we were good about taking pics and videos. Terry and his Dad have matching glasses! And aw, look at that shiny shiny hair on Terry. I think the little jumpsuit thing Al is wearing was made of corduroy, and was a hand me down. We had a lot of those, thanks to my sister in law, because Al's cousin is only a year older than her.

On our old deck at Easter, forced into a dress that Nanny sent. Aw, isn't she cute? She's totally hating on us for shoving her in a dress, not even counting the indignity of the huge bow in her head, which was some old hair clip I had left over from the 80's.

The last day of school one year, young Al was having fun just a-swangin' at the playground. And then not only did she fall off (or maybe the swing broke?) but she nose planted onto the hot playground surface and did a combo burn/scrape thing that took most of the summer to heal.

She still gives us this look, rather regularly I might add. I think in this particular instance, she had the chicken pox and we were taking umpty leven pictures and she was sick of it. I think she was on her way to bed after brusing her teeth, because that looks like a big water spot on her shirt.

Typecasting at the preschool play, she was a little raincloud! We thought it would be closer to reality if the cloud had been black. But, she's looking pretty happy here. I think she liked that preschool. I remember one time they were having their little circle time after the Christmas party and the kids were each saying what they wanted. Everyone else was all reasonable with dolls and footballs and such, and then Al says "I want a cape like a superhero so I can FLY!" and then she got up and started zooming about the room. She's always thought out of the box. :)

I hope you have a wonderful birthday Al. I know I bitch and moan at you a lot, but I also love you, think you are smart and beautiful, and that you can do anything you set your mind to. I'm so proud of you. Oh, and this is from your Dad too, because he scanned all the pics in for me because you know there's no way I can figure that stuff out.

WE LOVE YOU!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!