RIP Summer slim and secure monitor

Our baby monitor has been recalled. Well really only the battery was recalled but the same day I called about the battery the screen stopped working. It kept saying middle frequency and showing a fuzzy picture. Luckily Summer, without hesitation, told me they'd replace it with a new one no questions asked. All I had to do was pack it up and ship it out via UPS. I didn't think about it at the time but that left us with no baby monitor. No way to know when she awoke in the middle of the night and no way to check on her at nap time. You never know just how accustomed to using something you get until you no longer have it. To solve half of those problems I've been sleeping in bed with Alexa and probably creating more problems in the meantime. I'm so worried this is going to mess up her sleep routine. She's been on such a great schedule and I'd hate to mess that up. Fingers crossed the monitor should be here by Friday or Saturday and we can go back to the way things were.

In other news (not baby news)...I'm waiting on our income tax return to buy a new camera. A nice camera. A close to thousand dollar camera. My goal is to learn to use MOST of it's features by Alexa's 1st birthday. Can I do it?

I always feel as if I'm neglecting Abby and Nathan on this blog so a little talk about them. This morning they awoke to their alarm clock at 7:25am. As usual they went downstairs and made themselves a bowl of cereal while Alexa and I slowly arose. Little did I know they had scarfed down their breakfast so that they'd have enough time to straighten up the downstairs and surprise me with it. I always know when they're up to something when I call down and ask them if they've eaten breakfast yet and it's 8:00. They know they have to be finished eating by 7:50 or so to have enough time to get ready. So when I called down today at 8 and they said they hadn't eaten yet I knew they were up to something. I of course played along and said "Well you better hurry up and eat." I heard little giggles and I knew they were having fun. The entire living room, dining room, and kitchen were straightened up. They even came upstairs and wiped the bathroom sink and cleaned the toothpaste out of the sink. So they do listen when I complain about that! They're such great helpers and such wonderful kids. How did I ever get so lucky? I hope I'm helping them grow into awesome people.

7 month old...ALREADY?!

Every day my baby girl is growing by leaps and bounds. Some people look at her and say, "She's 7 months old already?" But for me it feels right. My days seem so rushed and chaotic and yet it feels just like she's been around for 7 months. I look back on those days spent in the NICU and think "Wow, that was so long ago!" and it was. I get goose bumps all over my body just thinking about the tears I shed in those first few months of her life. But now she's ALLLLLLL better! And changing so much.

7 month stats:

~~Still loves her Mam binkies very much! Santa brought her 2 new packs so we got rid of all the 2 month + ones and she now uses only "big girl" binks
~~She is becoming a Mommy's girl. Only Mommy can take away the tears if she gets hurt or scared.
~~If she sees Mommy in the room she grunts and whines until Mommy comes to pick her up
~~Has graduated to baths in the big tub. She can even sit up and play and splash until Mommy needs to wash her hair. Then I let a bunch of water out so she can lay on her back to finish getting washed
~~Still fits her size 2 shoes very nicely. Now has 1 silver pair, 1 black with silver lining pair, 1 shiny black pair, 1 pair of light brown boots, and 1 pair of size 3 black and pink Nikes.
~~Has one picture of the week on the June Jitterbug's facebook page for Best Halloween Costume picture and Best 1st picture taken of the new year.
~~Rolls over from back to belly with ease and all the time.
~~Can roll from belly to back but I've never seen it with my own eyes. I've only realized it when I notice she's not on her tummy anymore in the crib
~~Sleeps on her tummy EVERY night ALL night. I put her in her crib sleepy and she immediately rolls onto her tummy
~~When falling sleep in bed with Mommy, if I tuck her face into my chest she cuddles right up and falls asleep
~~She sits like a pro
~~Will sit and play with her toys for all of five minutes
~~She laughs and smiles at her toys now.
~~She loves when Mommy sings songs to her. Some of her favorites right now are "The wheels on the bus", "How much is that doggie?" "The ants go marching"
~~She laughs just because Abby laughs
~~I have moved the exersaucer up to the 3rd and final height adjustment but she's still on the lowest adjustment on the jumperoo
~~Her feet finally touch the floor with nothing underneath of her in the jumperoo
~~She goes to bed around 8:30pm and sleeps until 7:30am unless disturbed.
~~She is a very light sleeper. Even the slightest creek of her door wakes her up.
~~She wakes up happy.
~~Is wearing size 3 diapers with lots of room to grow.
~~Still using Pampers
~~Some mornings she has peed so much that the front of her diaper has leaked and wet her onesie
~~Still on soy formula
~~Eats rice cereal and 1 four ounce jar of fruits for breakfast. She tops that off with a four ounce bottle.
~~She eats a total of 25 ounces of formula a day.
~~She has 1 four ounce jar of veggies for dinner around 7:30pm.
~~She can now eat Gerber puffs, Mum Mums, and Yogurt melts
~~She hates green beans, peas, and Gerber carrots. Beechnut carrots she'll eat.
~~Table foods that she has tasted are mashed potatoes, bananas, and icing.
~~Her hair seems to be darkening.
~~Her eyes are still blue
~~She now wears Gerber onesies size 12 months and they're getting snug. But Carters size 6 month onesies still fit. Go figure!
~~All of the clothes I'm buying now are size 12 months.
~~She fits best in size 12 month fleece sleepers from Carters and Children's place
~~Gets a red chin from drooling so much but still has no teeth
~~Makes all kinds of sounds with a binky or other toy in her mouth but when there's nothing in her mouth she's rather quiet.
~~Everytime I complain or worry about her not doing something she does it.
~~I worried about her not saying "Dah Dah" and she did it the next day. She has since stopped saying it.
~~She touches everyones face and loves to play with your hair
~~She can pull her knees up under her body but doesn't crawl.
~~She started mimicking me when I stick out my tongue.

1-11-11

And nothing exciting to report. These dates are cool and I would love nothing more then to get married on one. For another day!

Alexa began, last night, trying to imitate me sticking my tongue out. It was super cute. We were at Boy scouts and I was trying my best to entertain her and resorted to sticking out my tongue. Attractive in so many ways! But she loved it. And as I held it out there for everyone to see she slowly began to stick hers out. Someday I'll be mad that she's imitating everything I do but for now it was sweet. I tried getting a picture of her doing it. Here is what I got...

Alexa's latest accomplishments

1. Learned how to hold her own bottle if you put her hands onto it.

2. Is sitting up full time now with very minimals tipping over.

3. Pushes her tummy up off the ground.

4. Pulls her kness up into a crawling position and can stay in the crawling position if someone puts her there.

5. Can hold her mesh eater thingy and suck on it by herself.

6. Can drink from a sippy cup.

7. Can sometimes put her binky back in her mouth.

8. Can play in the bathtub on her tummy.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I should write a little something something while I have the time. Christmas has come and gone. And although it was amazing I am happy it has. Burt is home now and I appreciate the help even when he annoys me! Let's reflect back though. Christmas Eve I baby-sat Chase so a lot of our normal traditions were plus one kid. We read "Twas the night Before Christmas". I gave the kids their gifts from Burt and I. Which by the way they loved! New Ipods! We left out cookies and milk for Santa. We sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn. And we left Santa's key hanging on the outside doorknob. It was off to bed around 10pm. Burt didn't get home till around 1:00am. I was passed out on the couch. He trimmed the bottom of the tree. Or should I say cut off half the tree?! By this time my mouth was throbbing. We headed up to bed around 3:30am but I tossed and turned for at least 1.5 hours. Finally after 7 tylenol, 5 motrin, and 3 benadryl, I passed out only to be awoken at 8am. Ugh! They did good though. The day before I asked them not to wake me up until 8am. To buy myself more time I asked Abby to feed the baby her bottle, which she did and at 8:45am we headed downstairs. The older two were super excited to tear through all the wrapping paper. Nathan got his DSI, a remote control jeep, a Wii game, a DS game, among other things. Abby got her camera, a new baby doll, a doll stroller, and a DS game. Alexa hung out on Daddy's lap on the couch as he fell in and out of sleep. After the big kids opened their presents I put Alexa on the floor with hers. She wasn't much interested until I tore the paper a bit. Then she attempted to tear some but soon started crying. By this time it was her morning nap time and so she headed up to bed. She finally opened her presents around noon. I got some cute pictures of her enjoying it all. We spent the rest of the at Debbie's house. I took some vicodin to ease my pain but still stayed in pain. Luckily by the next day the pain was subsiding. The day after Christmas we got our first snow storm of the year. They estimated 12 inches but there was lots of drifting snow so some areas looked like they got maybe 6 inches and others tons more. The big kids by this time had caught a stomach but and my day was spent nursing sick kids back to health. Burt and Frankie plowed snow. New Years wasn't much more exciting but I don't really like all the hustle and bustle so close to Christmas anyways. Abby and Nate stayed up until 2 am snacking on Auntie Anne's pretzels. Alexa took a late afternoon nap and made it to midnight. Now that the holiday is over my house is slowing getting back to normal. In Alexa news...she has started saying her first words. Da-Da-Da! On Sunday January 2nd she started mumbling it. It's funny because two days before that I was saying how I was starting to worry because she never made any sounds or attempts at talking without the binky or a toy in her mouth. No sooner did the worry cross my mind that she started doing it. I love my baby!