At the lake

I've been a bad blogger, but I have an excuse! I fried the motherboard on my laptop about a week and a half ago so the laptop is out of commission for now. I usually blog while the girls nap, but Abby sleeps in the office where the desktop is so it's made it kinda hard to update the blog. On a good note, my house is always clean, the dishes are always done, I've been on top of the laundry and I read a book since I'm not on the computer while the girls nap! Josh is considering not fixing the laptop now! Lol, I'm kidding...I think!

In the last week Alex has been walking more and more! She walks about 75% of the time now! She is a great little helper. She loves handing me things when I ask for them and she tries to help put stuff away when I am cleaning up!

We went to my parents for the weekend. We were planning on going Saturday, but in the end decided it would be better to go Friday. When we are away from home, the first night is usually bad while Alex gets adjusted to her new surroundings. We figured if we spent 2 nights there, we'd at least have one good night of sleeping! We were right. We left the house around 6 and got to my parents around 9 and Alex stayed awake the entire trip. She stayed up until 10 or so then cried and cried when we put her down. Josh held her until she fell asleep around 10:30 then put her in the pack and play. She woke up a little after 2 screaming and crying. I went in to calm her down, she was fine as long as I was holding her, as soon as I'd try to put her back down she cried. I ended up sleeping on one of the beds in her room until 7:30. Her first nap of the day pretty much went the same way. I ended up laying on the bed with her until she fell asleep, then I left her surrounded by pillows and checked on her every few minutes to make sure she wasn't awake. I was worried about her trying to get off the bed when she woke up. After that, she was great with her naps and bedtime. Our trip home was the same, we left around 5 and got home by 8 and she stayed wide awake the whole time and started getting really frustrated and antsy. Since we have turned her car seat around, she pretty much will not sleep in the car.

With that being said, we decided to fly to California after all. I'm not going to lie, I was not looking forward to being in the car for 20-something hours and the more active Alex gets, the more we realized the trip would probably end in tears and frustration from everyone! We were able to get a great deal on airfare so now I am really looking forward to going to California!

I am looking forward to a relaxing week before the weekend. We are heading to the lake again next weekend to see Josh's parents, then coming home Sunday for Abby's birthday party and maybe a relaxing Monday since Josh is off!

Watermelon!

When Nomi came to visit us last weekend, she brought us a HUGE watermelon. I think it weighed at least about 20 pounds! I finally cut it on Saturday and we have been eating it non-stop! I seriously had to clean out my fridge to make room for all the bowls of watermelon. Alex is picky when it comes to watermelon. She will eat it great sometimes, then other times she will spit it out. I thought she may have more fun if she got to eat it off the rind. I let her eat it outside since I knew it was going to be super messy and she went straight into the bath when she was done!

Alex loves Oso!

I finally got a cute video of Alex watching Special Agent Oso! She is such a little doll!

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Beloved Blankie

The beloved blankie. Alex got blankie from Nomi and Popi for Christmas. It goes on road trips with us, it went to Chicago, if we know we are going to be out past Alex's bed time it goes with us! It is in her crib with her for every single nap and at bedtime. Every night before I put her down, I hold her and put blankie on my shoulder and sing to her. She puts her head on my shoulder and snuggles with blankie. If we are playing in her room, she will go to her crib and pull blankie out and drag it all over her room. She loves to hold it up to her mouth while sucking on her bottom lip. It is her own little way of soothing herself. At night she doesn't cover up with it, instead she will snuggle it to her face while she falls asleep. I have been telling Josh we need to buy a second one just incase we lose it or something happens to it. He says she will be fine with only one.

This morning, I got her up and she leaked through her diaper. Her sheet was damp and so was blankie. I tossed both of them in the washing machine on the shortest cycle possible and as soon as it was done, it went into the dryer. When it was time for her morning nap, blankie was still wet so I picked another soft blanket for her to nap with. Big Mistake! I went through our normal snuggle and song and she wouldn't touch the new blanket. I put her down and within seconds she was screaming. I decided to give her a few minutes to see if she would calm down. No luck, I went in her room and she had thrown both blankets I gave her out of her crib and she was screaming. I got her up since I knew she wouldn't sleep, went in the laundry room and cranked the dryer up to super high and put blankie in for 5 minutes. Thankfully, it was almost dry after 5 minutes so I put her back down with it and within 2 minutes and no fussing she was out like a light. To say this child is attached to her blankie would be an understatement!

Alex and blankie for the first time!

some of my favorite pics of Alex with her blankie!

Walking!

Alex has been taking steps here and there, but yesterday evening, she just started walking! I am so proud of my sweet baby girl! She started walking about 10 minutes before Nomi got here. We were so excited Nomi could be here to see the pumpkin walk!

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Cooper Pooper...literally

My sweet big oaf of a dog makes me laugh some days and want to scream others. Yesterday when Alex woke up from her nap we went out front and sat on a blanket in the yard. Cooper was sniffing around then sat by us. He was so cute rolling around in the grass and Alex laughed watching him. Cooper loves sniffing around in the side yard because we have empty lots on both sides of us and he just explores smelling animal trails. When we were getting ready to go inside I called him and he didn't come, so I went to the side of the house to look for him. There he was rolling around, I called him and he came. As he passed me, I got a whiff of poop!!! I looked at him and he had poop all over his head and neck. GROSS!!!! I ushered him into the garage while I picked up the blanket and toys. I had no idea where I was going to clean him up so I set Alex down in the living room and took a brush and skin & coat spray to the garage with me along with a ton of paper towels. I tried spraying him and wiping the poop off and he went nuts running around. The water hose freaks him out so I knew that wasn't an option. I decided to take him in the guest bathroom and try to wash his head. I put towels down and put some water in the tub. I practically dragged him in there by his collar and poured water over his head and scrubbed J&J baby shampoo into his fur. We never bathe him here so we didn't have any pet shampoo and the J&J was the easiest thing to grab. I realized I wasn't going to be able to get the shampoo out with out running his head under the water so I dragged him to our bathroom so I could try to get him in the shower. Alex the whole time was right up in the mix to see what was going on. Getting a 60lb dog in the shower is no fun. He yelped, I yelled and Alex laughed. I could only get his 2 front paws in but it worked. I had to straddle him to keep in from backing out of the shower. Thankfully we have a hand held shower head in there so I was able to get the shampoo rinsed out of his fur. I had the shower door open because we were half in and half out of the shower, again, there was Alex trying to get in the shower to see what we were doing. I quickly realized why we don't bathe Cooper at home. His fur is like a sponge and just soaked up all the water. I towel dried him as much as I could then got the blow dryer out. I left his collar on him so I could have something to hold onto, then realized it was turning his fur red. Ugh. The blow dryer freaked him out so I had to leave his head wet to air dry. Before all of this happened, I was so happy I had time to shower, get ready and pick up the house a little. In a matter of an hour, it looked like a tornado went through here. Thankfully the rest of my day was much calmer!

Josh came home for lunch today and he finally got to see Alex walk! She was standing in the kitchen at the fridge and I looked up she had taken a step away from it. I nudged Josh to look and she took several steps to the middle of the kitchen then looked up at us. When she noticed we were watching her, she stopped and sat down. It was like a turning point. For the last hour, she has been standing on her own and taking more and more little steps!

Tooth #4 and 5

I love this sweet pic of Alex holding Cooper's paw!

Alex has 2 new teeth! The left upper central incisor and right upper lateral incisor are peeking through the gums now! One peeked out yesterday and the other today. As much as I miss her sweet gummy smile, her little toothy smile is even cuter!

We also have some big travel plans coming up. Next month we are driving to California. Yes, I said driving. We thought about it long and hard and decided to drive instead of flying. We are going to take our time getting there, will spend 4 nights with my sister, brother in law, nephew and niece in Glendale, then will take our time getting home. We love road trips and this will by far be our longest! We kinda thought driving would be a little easier so we can take the pack and play, stroller, car seat and as much stuff as we want without having to worry about lugging it through the airport and pay crazy baggage fees.

Then in November, Josh and I are heading to Vegas. No, we are not driving, we are flying this time. We are spending 4 days, 3 nights there. My parents are watching Alex while we go. For Josh's birthday (in May) he said all he wanted to do was go to Vegas. We have been looking and looking at airfare and hotels everything just seemed outrageous until we looked on Southwest and they had friends fly free and hotel deals so we booked our flight and hotel for pennies! (not really pennies, but dirt cheap!) We are so excited about our upcoming trips!

Two Years

Josh and I have been married for 2 years today! It's sad, I was looking for a picture of us on the laptop and surprisingly they are all of Alex, and I really don't want to wade through all of the pictures on the desktop and external hard drive, so no picture today.

We celebrated a bit early by going to San Antonio Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa came to stay the night with Alex and they both reported she was perfect! We headed out Saturday afternoon and spent a couple of hours shopping at the San Marcos outlet mall. Man, it was HOT! We then spent 2 hours stuck in traffic but finally made it to our hotel on the Riverwalk around 8pm. We changed clothes and turned right back around and headed to The Melting Pot. Neither one of us had been so we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to take our time and have an nice long dinner without little hands trying to grab everything. It was sooo yummy, but we both decided our favorite was the dessert! We got to sleep in until 9 on Sunday which was great! We also decided we should get black out curtains for Alex's room so maybe she would sleep a little longer instead of getting up with the sun! We decided to have breakfast in SA so we went to Mi Tierra and were greeted with a 45 minute wait so we walked around the Market area for a while. We made it home around 3 and got to visit grandma and grandpa a little before they headed out. I wish I could say Alex was happy to see us, but she just looked kinda confused when she woke up from her nap and we were there.

Our pre-anniversary weekend was perfect and just what we needed!

13 Months!

It feels like just yesterday we were having Alex's birthday party. I can't believe a whole month has passed! Our little turkey still isn't walking, she is a cruising machine, will walk behind her baby stroller and will take a step or two, but won't let go and just walk! She is also holding strong with 3 teeth. I can see 3 more that are getting close to breaking through the gums and I keep thinking we are going to see them any day now, but I've been saying that for a month so who knows! She is still saying Mama and Dada and a lot of other babbling, but nothing we can distinguish yet.

We can see more and more of her personality come out every single day. She is still very laid back, but has a little temper. We haven't had a full out temper tantrum, but I can see the temper come out when she gets frustrated! She is all girl and squeals when she is excited.

She loves climbing on stuff. If I am sitting on the couch, she can pull herself up using my legs, she tries to climb in her baby stroller and while we were in Chicago, she climbed an entire flight of stairs on her own!

She is an eater! She loves her milk and will drink 4 full sippy cups a day and cry when they are empty! She loves feeding herself and we are working on self feeding with a spoon. She is getting picky about veggies so I've started feeding her veggie "chicken" nuggets and she loves them!

She is content playing on her own, crawling around and exploring any and everything!

Pet sitting hell

**this all happened last Thursday**

So, being the good neighbor that I am, when one asked for me to cat sit while she was on an Alaskan cruise, I agreed. I've been checking on the cats twice a day, feeding them, cleaning out the litter box and watering plants. Yesterday I skipped the morning check because the cats have been great, their food bowls and water bowls have been no where near empty when I've been going. Josh had a cookout for his department last night so Alex and I went. When I got home around 8, I took Alex with me to check on the cats. I walked in and noticed a huge puddle of pee on the ground. I found one cat and she was fine. I walked to the back to look for the other cat and noticed 3 more puddles of pee. The cat was laying in the family room. I bent down to pet him and he barely moved and kinda whimpered. Alex of course wanted to pet him and he still barely moved. I cleaned up the pee really quick and called Josh to see if he could come help me. He was still at the work event and didn't answer his phone. I went home to change Alex because it was about an hour and half past her bed time. Josh came in right as I was putting her down so he stayed with her while I went back to Jeanne's.

The cat had moved so I thought this was a good sign. I sat down with him and noticed his paws were soaked as was his arm and stomach. It looked like he laid in a puddle of water. I looked around her house for her vet contact info and couldn't find anything so I called my vet. They had an after hours number and also provided the number to the A&M small animal emergency hospital. I called the hospital and described what was going on and they said I could keep and eye on him and if he started having breathing problems bring him in. I didn't have anywhere at our house I could put the cat and I didn't want to stay at her house for the night so I called Josh and he said I should take him in to be examined. He came over and helped me get the cat in the carrier and off to the hospital I headed. I knew it was a $125 charge for them to examine the cat but I knew if it was Cooper I'd want who ever was watching him do the same. The vet came out and told me the cat's temp was 90 when it is supposed to be around 102 and he was really sick, but they weren't sure what it was yet. About 10 minutes later they came back and said the cat is diabetic to have any chance of surviving they would need to start a 3 day treatment that runs between $2000 and $3000! At this point the vet wanted to know if we wanted them to start treatments knowing the cat would have a very slim chance of recovering and need to be on twice a day insulin shots for the rest of his life or not start treamtments and they would make the cat comfortable until he passed. How could I make this decision for a neighbor I barely know? I was crying and beside myself. We had no idea what to do!?!? There were a few possible outcomes...

we could start treatments, the cat could recover and when Jeanne got home we could let her know she has to give her cat shots twice a day and she owed us $3000!

we could start treatments, the cat could not recover and when Jeanne got home we could let her know her beloved cat died and she owes us $3000!

we could opt for no treatments so when she got home we could tell her Robbie died because we didn't want to pay $3000, to which she could say; you made the right decision or worse, I would have paid $10,000 to try to save his life.

She left me 2 pages of written instructions while she was gone, however she didn't leave me anyway to reach her, an emergency contact, or vet info. The vet came back and told me that his body wasn't reacting well to the fluids they were giving him so they had to stop them. He was in a lot of pain, they would continue to give him the best possible treatment but I should go home and try to see if I could reach her and they would call me in the morning. When I got home, Josh and I went back to Jeanne's to see if we could find any information about what cruise line she was on so we could get in contact with her. We found out she was on Princess and found a cell phone number for her daughter who was cruising with her. I left her daughter a message then went home so we could call Princess. They were great and gave me an international number to the ship and her cabin number. I tried calling and found out I didn't have international calling set up on my cell so Josh activated it. After several tries I finally got through to Jeanne, but the connection was horrible and she couldn't hear me. I walked back to her house to try from her land line and still couldn't get through. I checked her caller ID and her daughter had called back and apparently called my cell while I was trying to call out so I didn't know. I was finally able to get them on the line around midnight and relay the information. They made the decision not to start treatment and have Robbie euthanized. It was probably one of the longest nights of my life, one that I hope to never go through again. I can officially say, this was my first and probably last attempt at pet sitting.

my heart

This sweet little girl melts my heart.

I love when she squishes her eyes closed because she is laughing so hard!

heart attack!

I swear, this child is trying to give me a heart attack. I was loading the dishwasher yesterday while she played in the living room. I looked up and she was kneeling on the window ledge. Granted, it's only a foot off the ground, but it scared the crap out of me. She has a habit of losing her balance backwards and hitting her head. I dropped the silverware in the since and ran over to grab her. The clank from the silverware scared her and made her cry. She is a climbing machine. Over the weekend, I was sitting on the couch, she stood up and used my legs to climb up there with me. She is also trying to climb on top of the exersaucer table any chance she gets.

While we were in Chicago, her schedule went completely out the window, so I figured it would take a couple of days to get her back on it when we got home. Nope, yesterday was just like any other day. She actually went to her bedroom door, which was closed, and cried and fussed until I let her in for her nap yesterday afternoon.

Alex now has enough hair pig tails! She looks soo cute with them! It makes her look like a little girl instead of a baby. She actually leaves them alone, but only if she doesn't notice when I put the bows in her hair. If she sees me do it, she will immediately try to take the bows out.

Chicago!

We had the best time in Chicago, once we got there! Our original flight out of CS was cancelled so we ended up flying out around 3. We made it to Chicago around 10 and to Josh's aunt's close to midnight. Alex was PERFECT on the plane. The first flight she was a little antsy and squirmy. By the 2nd flight she was a pro! She ate dinner, watched a Baby Einstein DVD then fell asleep just as we were flying over downtown Chicago. She ended up sleeping the first 2 nights in bed with us. The first night, because she was so off her schedule, had a fit and screamed if I got anywhere near the pack and play. Then the second night, just because she was so snuggly the first night, we wanted her in bed with us one more night! The last 2 nights, she slept in the pack & play without a problem. I didn't take my camera so I only took a handful of pictures on my cell phone.

Dawn and Mike's wedding was beautiful! Alex was so quiet during the ceremony because we kept her occupied with Cheerios and puffs! She started getting fussy and sleepy during the cocktail hour at the reception, so we fed her again a little pre-dinner snack of all the appetizers that were going around. She lasted longer than we expected her to, but we ended up leaving early to get her to bed. We were asking a lot of her to stay up much later than normal 2 nights in a row! Saturday we went to Dawn's for a picnic. It was baby-palooza there! Alex had fun playing with all the kiddos and her cousin (really 3rd or 4th cousin) AJ. He is 3 months older than Alex and is absolutely adorable!

Sunday, we hung out at the house all day relaxing and AJ came over and he and Alex had a blast playing. She is sooo darn close to walking. I thought with AJ being around, she would finally give in and walk to keep up with him, but not so much. She is constantly taking a step or 2, but still doesn't have the confidence to take off.

We headed home this morning. When we got to O'Hare, they were asking people on our flight to give up their seats for vouchers. It would have put us in CS around 8:30, since we didn't have anything planned for the entire day, and we are looking at flights to go to California to see my sister, we decided to give up our seats for the vouchers. At the last minute, they were able to get us on our original flight...in first class! Man, I love first class! It made traveling with Alex so much better! We were the very last ones on the plane, in the first row and one of the first ones off the plane! Alex nibbled on our yummy salads, got her own milk and had a warm chocolate chip cookie! She fell asleep while we were waiting for everyone to board the flight to CS and woke up a few minutes after we touched down. Over all, Alex is a perfect flyer and we are looking forward to traveling with her again!

Our trip was just what we needed; we got to relax, see family and eat a ton of great food!

Alex checking out the plane for the first time!

Chicago, here we come!
Alex and AJ "driving"

Uncle Andy pushed the gas pedal with a stick while Josh took the wheel!

Alex and AJ

tired Alex on the way home!