Halfway to 2 years

Wow!! I didn't realize how long it had been since I last "blogged"!! But we have been busy to say the least!! Mommy and Daddy both had some really great but BIG changes at work in which they are now in different positions and loving it!! But of course their is always the transition phase in which they are both still trying to wade through. As for our princess, everyone that has ever had a toddler knows that things change quickly! Shortly after I "blogged" last time, the crying phase when we dropped her off at school stopped. It seems Alexis is cutting her 2nd Molars and was definitely "feeling it" since she was always irriatated, clingy, needy and seemed overly sensitive. But, the day after she ran a slight fever, she seemed to snap out of her little "phase" and our happy go lucky little lady is back. We had a little spoof of it when we got back from our Oregon trip since she was around our family and is always spoiled but it really didn't last long.

Still a messy eater!

Our Oregon Trip was WONDERFUL!! Not only did we miss the torrential downpour of rain that came down in Houston(all time record in the few days that it took place), the weather was a nice change(even though it was a bit chilly the first day we got there and we experienced a light shower) from the heat. It was definitely a fast, jam-packed with visiting family, vacation but nice all the same. Alexis was able to meet some of her cousins, some aunt and uncles and most importantly, her Great Granny. It took Lexi a few days to warm up to her but eventually she gave Great GiGi(as she ended up calling her) a smile and would "play" with her. We were very lucky that Auntie Meredith and Uncle Paul were able to come with us as well as PaPa and GiGi. So we had LOTS of help while we were there. Daddy, Uncle Paul and PaPa got a chance to play a few rounds of golf since the courses are so scenic in Oregon while Mommy, Auntie and GiGi went to the park and chased around our 18 month old. We also were able to take a tour of local and well know winery while in Oregon which had been a first for all of us! We got to taste several different wines as well. Needless to say, we were feeling good after this tour! Miss Alexis did WONDERFUL on the plane with take off and landing and she started to get antsy towards the end of the 4 hour flight(but who wouldn't!). She did great with her nighttime sleeping habits...napping was a bit of challenge but we got at least a small one in each day.

Waiting to board our plane in Houston to Portland

Hamming it up!

On a Winery Tour in Oregon..Willamette Valley Vineyard, where the bottles are corked and packaged

Wine cellar where the wine ages

Getting ready to start our wine tasting

wow..that is a lot of empty glasses

It was a little chilly

Out on the deck at the Vineyard

Love their Chardonnay

Of course she had to find something to play with

Auntie and Lexi snuggling

Time to leave the Winery and meet some family for dinner! PaPa and GiGi have it covered.

PaPa and his Girl on the 4th

Uncle Paul letting her get away with hanging on Great Grammy's clothesline

Playing Kick with Uncle Paul

Getting ready to go on a walk to the Park

4 Generations with Grandma, Mom, Me and Alexis...Auntie was holding her up since she didn't want to sit in our lap in the front.

Joe and I honestly can't believe how much she has grown over the last few months. She knows almost all body parts, all her colors, her teachers at school tell us she knows everyone's name, and she is starting to connect words into sentences, short sentences of 3 or 4 words but we were still shocked. School tells us she gets concerned when other kids are playing with other kids things. We were told she told a little girl to get off another girls cot when it was naptime! She is also able to recognize some action words and use them correctly, like swim in the "wawa", put shoe on or read a book. The not wanting to be diapered or undressed/dressed phase has calmed down a bit but it still shows up every now and then.

Singing in the pool

We were so pleased with the results of her swimming lessons, that we decided to sign her up for another 6 weeks that takes her through the middle of August. She's SO close to being able to lay on her back while her instructor holds her....we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. She definitely attempts it in the tub and when she is on her belly, she kicks and moves her arms in "swimming" motion that her instructors have been working with her on. We were in the pool last weekend and again, the difference between the first of the summer and now is ridiculous! She definitely feels more comfortable in the water and is more willing to take chances in the water, which is of course stressful for mommy and daddy but she doesn't whine anymore when trying something new in the water. She's really not into her float since she can walk on the 2nd step in our pool that goes around a good part of the shallow end and through our waterfall(that she now loves).

Playing on the steps in the shallow end

Giving Daddy a "Kissy"

We had our 18 month check up on July 8th...yes, I am definitely behind in posting!!! And Alexis REALLY doesn't like the DR office AT ALL! As soon as we got into the examining room, it was game over for my eardrums! She cried when the nurse weighed her, measured her height and her head. Which, by the way, Miss Alexis weighs in at 23 pounds(50%) and stand 32 inches tall(75%). Her head is still in the 95%! Go figure! So, the nurse leaves and she settles down and goes back to playing with her toys that we brought and then her pediatrician comes in and now I have an attachment on my hip while screaming. So, trying to take a look at her ears was a chore since I had to hold Alexis in my lap while holding her head in between my  hands so the DR could look in her ears!! Got to get a thorough look since she has had so many double ear infections! So, once again the DR and I are screaming at each other and discussing developmental things for Alexis and they also tested for Autism and she was telling me that Alexis is fine. But they also test for it at 2 years. SOOOOOOOOOO....the DR leaves and Alexis settles down and we get her dressed but we still have to get a shot....YAY for mommy's ears!!! So, once we are dressed, her favorite nurse from before comes in and gives her a quick shot. Now, Alexis's recovery time from a shot was so quick, that I didn't even realize she got a shot...or maybe I was just used to the over an hour crying session that I just didn't notice! We are definitely in the terrible 2's! Alexis is right on track with her height, weight and head circumference as well as all her developmental skills....and even ahead of her time in some areas(like the talking...yep..she is definitely mine!). She is all over the place with walking, running, jumping, climbing, kicking and throwing a ball....it doesn't stop until nite nite!!

We are keeping our fingers crossed that we do not have to go back to the DR until January for her 2 year appointment and one more shot but with the seasons changing in the fall...we get into trouble! I am hoping to not let as much time pass between postings! We sure have been busy!

Until next time!

"Phases"

We are definitely going through many phases at one time with Miss Alexis these days. She is back in the phase of where she doesn't want to be dressed or diapered again! We experienced this around 10 months and the evil and challenging phase is back! This time she is a lot faster and more vocal about it. And feeding her is always a challenge but now she will tell us she is "all don" and wave her hands and then want to eat what Joe and I are eating!

She came home with a pretty good pigtail from school and of course I had to get a picture of it!

After 3 weeks of swimming lessons, we now have a waterbaby on our hands so this is definitely a GREAT phase! It took a few kicks and screams but we jumped a big hurdle this past Saturday with her being dunked and really not crying all that much except for the first 10 seconds of when I had to hand her off to her instructor. Getting her dressed for swim lessons is another story!

Swimming on Father's Day

She is in a MAJOR "NO" phase right now. We will ask her if she is ready for bed and she will flat out say NO BUT...when she is ready for bed, she will lead you to her room. But right now everything is NO with pursed lips and shaking her head.

Hamming it up for Momma in her playbox

Reading before bedtime

Lounging on Daddy while reading another book

And for some reason she has to put her feet on the book while reading...who knows why but it was funny!

The most recent phase is she does not want to be dropped off at daycare in the morning! Normally, I just drop her off, sit her down at the table since they are serving breakfast and she is all for it! But not recently, she death grips me and screams "NO" when I try to put her down while in her classroom! I do call her school while on my way to work to see how long lived the "fit" is and the power of distraction seems to work just fine. Just tack on another phase while we are at it! AND, we are getting our Eye teeth in in which the pacifier is constantly being used and of course all the drool!

We have one more airplane adventure for our princess. We leave for Portland, Oregon on July 1st to go see Great Grammy! We are all looking forward to this trip since the whole family is going. FUN!! We are continuing our swim lessons through the month of July and have our 18 month check-up on July 8th. More shots! GRRR! But only a few this time.

Happy July 4th to everyone! We are escaping the Texas heat for a long weekend. :-)

Our First Trip Together

Well, we finally decided it was time to brave our first airplane trip to Michigan with our very mobile and VERY vocal princess. We were a little worried since we had to make a trip to the DR a week before we were leaving since Alexis was running fever and sent home from school one day. Turns out, she had some fluid in one ear! So we got on some quick acting medication since we could not mess around with the trip so close! We definitely took a chance since we had to connect to get to our destination so we really tested the limits of Alexis! Our flight out was not too terribly early BUT we had to wake her up to get to the airport at a decent time and she wasn't too happy about that! Lucky for us Grandpy picked us up and was able to distract her. For our first trip, we actually did pretty good on the packing part in regards to not overloading too terribly on things we didn't need.

Here we are at the Houston airport and we just finished our breakfast. We had to bring her carseat since we were renting a car so we were told to put it on wheels so we could pull her along in airports. This thing was a HUGE lifesaver and she loved it! She didn't mind being carted around on escalors, moving walking floors. trams between terminals...WE DID IT ALL!

Of course by now she is awake and has all the energy an 18 month old has!! Playing all over the place and of course running all over the place. We had to change her diaper before we got on the plane and we used our fingers to ask Alexis to "come here" and before you know it, she is mocking us!!! We couldn't stop laughing! Her little finger telling us to come to her...too cute.

Here she is on Daddy's lap...taking off from Houston and flying to Detroit where we had to connect to Michigan. She did really good on the way up with no problems with her ears but on the way down was another story! She was sleeping when we were told to start getting ready for landing and we had to wake her strike #1, and she was hungry strike #2, and she had to either sit in our lap or her own seat strike #3 so we experienced our own kind of fit from our daughter on the plane. Lucky for us, it only lasted a few minutes but any parent knows that a few minutes of a screaming child feels like FOREVER! But we got through it!

Here we are at the airport at our final destination and of course what does she spot....YES!! The luggage carousel and definitely wants to climb on it and run on it. She kept giving us that, "are you watching me look".

Our little helper! Checking out of our first hotel and she wants to help with anything that is on wheels. But first we have to climb on it and test it out.

We had to unplug the phones at both hotels because she would always pick up the phone and try to call someone...Grandpy was one and Aunt Wuwee(Julie) since she was also there with us from Dallas.

We are astonished at her vocabulary!! She is now putting 3 words together like "I love you" and recognizing what animals are such as "turtle green" and "get in water". She is definitely a sponge so we have to be VERY careful what we say because she LOVES to repeat!

Aunt Vickie bought a little swimming pool for Lexi which she loved!! The majority of the time, we didn't get to her in time for a bathing suit before she drenched herself with a cup of water or tons of splashes!

Alexis was a really good sleeper! We had to bring her pack n play all the way from Texas but her sleep pattern stayed right on schedule for the most part. Most of the time we would put her to bed at our Aunt's house(since that is where we spent most of our time with the family) and then just scoop her up when it was time to go and relocate her and her pack n play to the hotel. We were so grateful! We had tons of snacks for her when she woke us and even let her eat in bed and watch cartoons until Mommy and Daddy were ready to go and get some breakfast. She even napped during the day for a couple of hours each day. A lot of setting and breaking down the pack n play but totally worth it so she could sleep!

Sitting on her cousin Cadie's lap and playing while the grown-ups played a game called "Catch Phrase".

Admiring the big pool from the sidelines.

Had to put a hat on her since it was getting a little too sunny for her fair skin.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Vickie had a family reunion BBQ while we were up in Michigan in which we were able to see a lot of family. It was tons of fun and Alexis got to meet a lot of family that had not met her yet.

Sitting in her cousin's lap..Abby

Playing with her cousin Aidan in the pool

Aunt Diane was willing to hold her snack bowl while she played with the jewerly she let her wear!

Playing the "what's on Daddy's face" game in the Atlanta airport while we wait for our connection. We had a minor incident in the Atlanta airport. There is so much to see and do in airports and of course our toddler wants to touch EVERYTHING!! And this time is was play with a pay phone( Didn't know these still exist!). Of course we didn't let her and we even moved locations so out of side out of mind would kick in but NO SUCH LUCK!! She threw a hissy fit and it didn't help that she was so very tired. So, another temper tantrum that lasted for about 5 minutes and screaming at the top of her lungs so all of Atlanta could hear her. But, like the first time, we got through it. She ended up falling asleep on Mommy's lap on take off! And slept for about an hour.

We had to end our travels with a nice hot bath in her favorite tub and Dora "strawberry" Bubbles.

It was definitely a good trip with a few minor incidents. We are so grateful we have a good traveler. We are off to Oregon for the 4th of July to meet Great Grammy!! The whole family is going this time, Grandpy and Grammy and Uncle Paul and Aunt Mere. We are very much  looking forward to this trip as well. We will have lots to report since a few days after we get back we go in for our 18 month check-up and we will have completed our first 4 week session of swim lessons!