She's got personality!

Oh my! My daughter is so full of personality these days. I probably won't remember half of what I wanted to document here. She is definitely the center of attention in this family and keeps us laughing constantly. She has learned how much fun it can be to climb up onto things and sit there. She first started with her little people bus, then graduated to sitting on the folded up pack and play and today I found her sitting on top of the old boxy radio that my Mom and Matt gave the big kids. She makes the most adorable faces but I have yet to be able to capture them with the camera. She has become quite the disco dancing queen. Anytime she hears music she busts a move. She moves her little feet so quick and is a good little booty shaker. She is in love with Yo Gabba Gabba and will dance every time the theme song comes on. She is also understanding so much these days. If I say "Come on let's go seepie nigh nights" she grabs the closest bink and starts heading for the stairs. She climbs all the way up the stairs (with me right behind her of course) and walks right to her room. If I ask "Are you hungry? Do you want some nummies?" she quickly starts walking to the kitchen. I'm hoping she soon has a vocabulary explosion. I've noticed that she's getting frustrated now when we don't understand what she wants. If she is out in the kitchen and wants a drink she will stand by the sink and cry. Every once in awhile when I forget and start to walk away she gets really angry and starts screaming. If someone tells her no or takes something away from her she angrily smacks herself in the head three or four times. I love spending every minute of my day with her. Sometimes I sit back and just watch her. It's almost like I can see her brain working and her ideas forming. Such an amazing little person!

Bad bad Mommy!

As I checked on this blog today I realized that I haven't written anything since Alexa's 1st birthday. Can you say slacker?!?! I guess it doesn't help that the monster has broken a few of my laptop keys which makes it difficult to type a lot.

June 25th- Alexa's 1st Birthday Party

The day started out super chaotic! I still had tons of things to do and woke up with killer morning sickness. Lovely! I did all the party prep that needed to be done at the house and then called in for reinforcement...my Mom. She came and sat with the kids while Burt and I did out last minute running around. The party was to start at 3pm and we were still running around at 2:30pm. I finally made it home in time to pay the lady for the cake and to meet the photographer. The photographer took pictures of the kids together as I finished a few things. Soon the guests started to arrive and it was party time! Everyone loved all of the decorations and I have to say I was quite pleased with it myself. Alexa was in a good mood but was being very shy. I think she was a bit overwhelmed with all of the people. She loved her smash cake and really enjoyed the ladybug release. She loved letting them crawl on her arm and then watching them sly away. I still can't believe my baby is one.

Happy 1st Birthday Alexa! at OneTrueMedia.com

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It has happened

No matter how hard I kicked and screamed she did it. No matter how many tears I shed, she did it. Today my baby turned one year old. She started her day out just as smiley as other days. Abby, Nathan and I sang her happy birthday while she was in her crib. Her face lit up and she danced along. One thing was very different about this day though. I had a secret that I was just bursting to tell. Before I went in to get the birthday girl this morning I took a pregnancy test. A digital one to be exact. It was one I had left over from when I found out I was pregnant with Alexa. As soon as I took the test it came up positive. We were expecting another baby. What better birthday present is there to give Alexa? We continued on with our morning. Breakfast. Getting dressed. When Daddy came home from running an errand I had Alexa walk up to him holding the pregnancy test. He proceeded to sing the entire Happy Birthday song and never noticed the test. I finally said to Alexa "I guess Daddy's not very observant today". He turned to look one more time and said "You're pregnant?" I of course said "Yes". One oops and there we were...PREGNANT. How did this happen after so many months of trying and so much disappointment before? I of course feel completely blessed. Blessed and shocked. We had planned on ttc in June or July right after Alexa turned one. The problem is the past few months I have been very flip floppy on whether or not I really wanted to start trying. I've started to feel a bit overwhelmed with all that is already on my plate. Apparently God has other plans and he reminds me that HE is in charge. We continued about our day with the birthday girl. We went to Toys R Us where she got a birthday balloon and a birthday crown. We picked up her birthday present ( a parent push trike) and a few other things. Then we stopped at Carter's to buy a "Big Sister" shirt for a later surprise and headed off to the park. She loved swinging in the swings and riding on the seesaw. Then we went home and she went down for a nap. Abby and I went to Walmart to pick up some prenatal vitamins and another pack of HPT's just in case the last one was expired. Sure enough I took it and the test line showed up instantly. Mom Mom, Matt, Amanda, Juan, Uncle Frankie and Devon all stopped over for cake. We had a blast watching Alexa make a mess of herself. At first she refused to touch the icing. Burt even pushed a small section of the cake into her face/mouth and she just sat there motionless. Eventually a small dollop of icing made it's way into her mouth. One taste and she was game! We all watched her make a huge mess. After getting her cleaned up Burt and I gave her a present. It was the big sister shirt I bought earlier. Once she got it unwrapped Burt held up the t-shirt. Everyone looked. And looked. And looked until eventually I said "Amanda, what does it say?". She answered. And they still didn't get it. I finally had to say "What does it mean if Alexa is going to be a big sister?" Then the lightbulbs went off. The excitement level was not the same as it was when we announced our pregnancy with Alexa. But we're excited. Abby and Nathan talked about it all day...almost as much as they talked about the birthday girl. This was definately an exciting day and will go down in the books as a fantastic first birthday. The birthday girl got lots of kisses and lots of cuddles. We had tons of laughs and many smiles. Happy Birthday Alexa Lynn! You are amazing and I couldn't love you even a drop more.

11.5 months old

The countdown to the big day is on! It's so hard to believe my baby is almost 1. How did that happen? She's so big now and so full of life! Let's see if we can update a little...

~~She's wearing size 12/18 month clothes

~~She's still wearing size 3 diapers and they fit nicely

~~She has officially grown out of her size 2 shoes but some size 3's are still too big

~~She is drinking less and less fomula

~~For breakfast she is eating, dry cereal, waffles, or scrambled eggs

~~She drinks milk from her sippy cup

~~ She gives high 5

~~She claps

~~She does "sooo big"

~~She plays peek-a-boo by lifting her shirt or dress up to cover her face

~~She loves to be chased

~~She dances when people sing or she hears music

~~She watches Yo Gabba Gabba, Sesame Street, and Barney

~~She just recently started eating Lucky Charms and Trix

~~Her bedtime is 7:30pm

~~She wakes up at 7:30am

~~She took five steps

~~She stands alone

~~She crawls super fast

~~She cruises like a pro

~~She can climb the stairs

~~Still loves her binkie

~~Still eats stage 2 baby foods. I sometimes give her them if I feel like she hasn't eaten very healthy that day

~~She spits food out if she doesn't like it

~~Recently she has been sleeping on her back (maybe because it's hot out now)

~~No longer uses the jumperoo or exersaucer

~~The skin on her face/chin is allergic to baby wipes. She breaks out in a red rash

~~She can walk using her push toys

~~She keeps trying to dig in her toybox and falls in

~~She waves hi and bye when someone waves to her

~~She started a mommy and me music class at the YMCA in April and she LOVES it!

~~She went on her 1st vacation- New York city

Party planning

I've become slightly obsessed with planning Alexa's party. I've had a theme and colors picked since January. I've had a guest list written up for months and I even started making decorations a month ago. In my free time I like checking out party planning websites and I stalk the pictures just to brainstorm ideas. I've always loved throwing parties but celebrating this little ones first year of life has brought my party planning to another level. Last month when I started cutting things out with my cricut I was excited to be making things. This month I do it with a bit of a sadder face. It's so hard to believe that she's really going to be one. When I was doing things so far in advance I felt better about it all because I knew I was going overboard and doing everything super early. Now I know I really need to get on the ball so the closeness of it all is starting to scare me. It seems like just yesterday I was getting her dressed and ready to come home from the hospital. All of the emotion is just still so fresh in my mind. I remember the pride I had as I walked her in the stroller down to pick up Abby and Nathan from their last day of school. I remember how excited they were to see her for the first time outside of the hospital walls. They had this "can't believe she's actually ours" look on their faces. We pulled together as a family in those first few months and it made us all stronger. The love we all share for her is a common thread in everything we do around here. She has made us all happier. I can't wait to see what this next year brings. I'm sure in another blink of my eye I'll be writing another post but then it will be about her approaching 2nd birthday. I hate to even think it!

I'm kicking myself in the butt these last few months as I've been a real slacker with her baby book and even just updating her calendar has become a task. She's doing new things and making news faces and sounds everyday it's just become so much harder to record. She's just a ball full of silly energy. Most recently she's been a real scaredy cat. Anytime someone opens the front door she stops what she's doing and quickly scrambles to a standing position and tries to climb up off of the floor and onto the nearest person. She'll grab and reach for you until you reach down and scoop her up. Loud noises scare her. Quick and sudden movements get her scrambling also. A total goofball I tell you! This past week I had been giving her whole milk in her sippy cup in the morning since her spitting up had become almost nonexistent. Well that all took a turn for the worse on Friday night at Nathan's boy scout banquet. I had been letting her snack on just about anything small enough for her to eat. As we neared the end of the night I let her have some of my oreo cake. Not even five minutes later I was wearing half of it down my jeans. She had thrown up all over herself and my pants. And this wasn't just a baby formula pukey smell. This was a full grown manly tummy yucky smell. Sour milk to be exact! I just about threw up in the hallway cleaning her up. To make a long story short...she hasn't had milk since. I am however hopeful that she does not have a milk allergy. And I guess I should leave you with happy thoughts of my bundle of joy. One of her newest tricks is by far my favorite. She has become a dancing queen! Anytime music comes on the TV or even if Nathan busts out a beat Alexa and her booty are shaking. If she's no where near something to pull herself up with she crawls like lightening to the nearest piece of furniture so she can pull up and bust a move. I laughed so hard yesterday I actually had tears streaming down my face.

Ok. Well of to dreamland for me. It's already 1:30am. I have to be up in 6 hours to get the rugrats ready for school. Oh yea and hopefully we'll get a few good 11 month photos in.

Daredevil

So the littlest munchkin has learned to climb up the steps. At first, I'll admit, I was excited to see her learning something new. Now? Not so much! Today I let her climb up four steps hoping it would take some of the fun out of it and she'd be over it. Boy was I wrong! She's doing it more then ever! Even after falling off the bottom step and bumping her head..nothing stops her! I must get myself to BRU this weekend and pick up another gate. It does however stink that our wall doesn't start until the second step so she'll still be falling off the bottom step. This is way better then falling from the 5th step right?

I also took a few minutes today to take her 10 month onesie pictures. I know, LATE! She's already 10.5 months. Better late then never is my motto. She looked as adorable as ever.

We've started to receive her JB birthday cards in the mail. I think it's really starting to sink in now that she will inevitably be turning one very shortly. I've been so swept up in the fun of party planning that sometimes I forget that she actually has to leave babyhood and enter toddlerhood. Boo-hoo! can't be too sad though. I've treasured every minute of these last 10.5 months. Every night time cuddle. Every boo boo. Every smile. I don't feel like I've missd a thing. I make a conscious effort everyday to appreciate every little things she doing. Oh for instance...on Friday as I was cooking dinner she decided it would be a great time to pull out every single pot and pan that we own. She loves opening the cabinets and drawers. She has even started pulling up and leaning on the oven door. Again, a trip to BRU to baby proof the kitchen. For so long I thought she was never going to crawl and now here she is standing on her own, cruising everywhere and a ball full of energy.