And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

For the record, Ally enjoyed watching the "ball" on TV with Daddy and rooting the Phillies on to victory. I almost missed the very last pitch because Ally was sitting on the toilet pretending to go potty, but we raced into the living room in the final seconds and saw the stockpile of players jumping on the pitcher's mound. Chris told Ally it will be a day to always remember; I say it would've been even more memorable if Ally had actually pooped.

A few weeks ago Ally started counting 1-2-3, usually in conjunction with jumping off her step stool. (She spent a whole morning doing it, as seen below.) She will also count the trees, cars, houses, airplanes, trucks, and people in her Clifford counting book. Ally surprised Chris by saying "two doggies" when she saw a second one come on TV, so I think she's catching on to how numbers work. She's growing up so fast!
















I raked our lawn last week so I could take a picture of Ally in a pile of leaves, but she didn't like the idea. I only got the above photo of her desperate pleas: "Help me" and "Up, up!" Sadder still, after all that effort and no cute pile-'o-leaves picture to show for it, the grass was completely covered again by morning! Next year I know to wait until all the leaves have fallen before taking on such a venture.


We never did find the turtle costume, so Ally went as a ladybug. Here come to find out, Norma's other granddaughter also spent Halloween disguised as a ladybug. Being cute and pesky must be in the Hoffman genes.

Ally strolled her way through Trick-or-Treating at the Uptown shopping plaza, and then we headed across the street to do some Trunk-or-Treating in the church parking lot. Ally quickly learned how to say "Treat please" and hold out her pumpkin purse with one hand while feeding her face some chocolate with the other. After she had collected enough candy, she sat on the trunk of our car and helped Daddy pass chocolate out to all the strange little creatures that were walking by.