The 6 month check-up

On December 17th Alexa had her 6 month check up. We had the doctor that I don't really like and she rushed us through the whole appointment. We have a very healthy baby girl. She weighed in at 16.03 lbs and was 27.25 inches long. So tall and skinny. I told the doctor that she was now eating 26 oz of formula a day and 1.5 jars of baby food and 2 tablespoons of rice cereal. She was happy with that. She asked if we had started introducing a sippy cup to her and I said yes. Poor baby got three needles one of which included the flu shot. We're hoping to avoid any crazy sicknesses this winter.

Santa Clause is Coming to Town!

Alexa's reindeer hat. I bought it on Etsy. Too cute to pass up!

Ho Ho Ho! This picture was taken after we went Christmas carolling at Manor Care nursing home.

She's doing her part in the cookie testing. Yep they're done! And she cried when I took it away.

She slept through our entire trip to Arasapha Farms. Next year she'll be walking. *Tear*

But the big kids had fun!

She also did her part in decorating the x-mas tree.

The traditions have begun! In fact they're almost over. We've got 8 days until Christmas if you count today. We've been busy making memories this year as always. Daddy has been working crazy hours at the tree lot and I've been home with the kids by myself. It's been a long 3 weeks but I'm surviving. I thought adding a baby to the mix this year was going to make this super duper crazy but it's been okay. We've even managed to do the majority of our usual traditions. Let's see. We made our countdown to Christmas trees. Usually we do them on December 1st but this year we ran a day behind and did them on December 2nd. The kids have steadily been enjoying their hershey kisses every morning after breakfast and before brushing their teeth. We went and picked out our tree. I think we picked one of the windiest days in December to do it but we did it. I bundled all three kids up in hats and gloves and even put Alexa in her "baby bubble" (the plastic cover for the stroller). Daddy helped us pick it out and didn't even put up a fight when I wanted a Douglas instead of a Frasier. he said the douglas' looked nice this year. That's coming from a Christmas tree professional. We had Christmas pictures taken at JcPenny's this year. We did them in two sittings. The first time we did the group picture of all 3 kids and then the older two had their individual pictures done. Success! The next day my Mom and I brought Alexa for her individual shots. She did pretty good aside from the spit up I caught in my hand. Yuck! It just so happens that the day before the pictures I had gotten her to sit up alone for a few minutes at a time if she had a toy or something to focus on. We used this to our advantage and tried to get a few shots of her sitting up. My favorite shot of all was the one of her laying down on her tummy looking at "Twas the Night before Christmas". Priceless! The weather here has been brutally cold and windy lately. So I'm surprised we've ventured out as much as we have. We made a trip to Rosetree park to check out their light display. Which might I say wasn't all that spectacular. That same night we took a ride up to Arasapha Farms to visit Santa. His workshop was adorable as usual. We didn't take the hayride like we usually do because Alexa had fallen asleep and to be quite honest because nobody could afford to pay for it. We've baked cookies, sat on Santa's lap, and did some shopping. And through it all I've managed to get Alexa on a pretty good schedule. Her schedule now goes something like this: Wake up at 7:40. Take the big kids to school. Breakfast consists of 2 tablespoons of rice cereal and 1/2 a jar of Gerber Stage 2 fruit. Then a 5 oz bottle which by the way she can hold by herself. Then we play for a bit and she goes down for a nap at 10:00. I take my shower, try to straighten up, and even get a little computer time. She's up usually around noon and I get her dressed and we head out the door to run errands. She takes another bottle, 7 oz, at 1:00. We pick up the big kids from school at 3:20 and usually head home. She has another 7 oz bottle at 5:00 and then we try for another nap. Her afternoon naps are a bit tricky. Sometimes she goes down without a fight and other times she cries and cries. By 7:00 I like to feed her 1 jar of Gerber Stage 2 veggies and then she gets a 7 oz bottle before bed at 8:30. She usually sleeps through the night with making one little stirring for a binky. Now that she's a bit more predictable life seems to have calmed down a bit. It's only taken us 6 months!