Mommy's Little Helper

Alex is such a great helper. She loves helping to unload the dishwasher. I pull all the knives out first, then she will go through each drawer and remove all of her things. She hands them to me or if I'm busy, she will place them on the counter. When she is finished with her things, she will help with everything else. I used to unload the dishwasher while she was napping now I wait for her to wake up so she can help me. I love it!

She loves it when I wheel the laundry basket from our closet to the laundry room. She stops whatever she is doing to come help. I put whatever I am washing on the floor and she will help me put all the clothes in the washer. When she is done, she will close the door then push the button to turn on the machine.

I love my sweet little helper!

Her last cuspid broke through the gums yesterday! Now we are just waiting on all four 2nd molars!

stuffing it all in!

close the door

turn it on!

Bathtime Cuties

I've changed up our bath time routine a bit. Alex always got baths at night before bed and one day she started getting soo fussy and cranky at bath time. By the time we ate dinner, cleaned up and got her in the bath, she was overtired. I've started giving her baths in the morning after breakfast. She can take her time and play while she is wide awake. Abby brings toys in the bathroom and sits and plays while Alex gets her bath. This morning, when I asked Alex if she was ready for her bath, Abby got sooo excited I decided to let her play in the bath with Alex. They had so much fun splashing around. Abby loves having water poured on her head so of course, Alex kept her entertained by pouring water on her head. When Abby tried to return the favor, Alex was not having any part of it. She doesn't mind water on her head, but once we put the soap on and try to rinse it, she stands up and wants out of the bath. I love seeing them have so much fun together, I know Abby's last day is going to be sad for both of us!

my bath time cuties!

happy Abby

more water please!

my crazy kid!

they look like they are up to something!

Sunday Funday

Sunday we relaxed in bed a little, then we got up and I made breakfast. We had yummy blueberry waffles. We've started giving Alex her own plate and utensils and she will feed herself while we are eating. Since she was having waffles, without any syrup, I gave her a little bowl of yogurt to dip her waffles in. She LOVED it. She was soo cute picking up her waffle and carefully dipping it, then looking at it to make sure she had yogurt on it before she put it in her mouth. If she got any yogurt on her fingertips, she was not happy. She hates her hands being dirty. My mom said I was the exact same way. I would come to her so I could wash my hands anytime I got dirty. After breakfast, we went to the park. It was completely empty so we had the whole place to ourselves. The park was kind of old school and had metal slides. Alex loved the small one since she would just zip right down. We let her try the tall spiral slide. Josh took her to the top and let her go down alone. When she made it to me, she was half on her side, upside down. She was not a fan. Josh slid down after her and he ended up on his side too. I guess parks are moving to the plastic slides since they slow the kiddos up a bit! She loved the swing. When Josh got her off the swing, he put her down and asked where she wanted to go and she took him right back because she wanted to go again. Josh tried getting her to go across the chain bridge and she was not a huge fan, but tried it anyway. Before we headed to the car we took a little walk to the pond and let Alex look at the ducks. Instead of going back to the car, Alex decided she wanted to run in the opposite direction because she was not ready to leave!

We headed home, grabbed the jogging stroller and Cooper and went to Lick Creek to walk the trails. It's a leash free area, but because Cooper is not the most well behaved dog, he stayed on the leash. We walked and walked and walked, then came to a dead end, so we turned around and walked and walked and walked some more until we made it back to the car. It was about 3 miles total. I was pooped...I should really start exercising more! Alex was getting so antsy on the walk back so I started pointing out all the bumps on the trail to her and would say bump bump as we went over. She started saying bump bump back to me! She finally fell asleep about 5 minutes from the car. We came home and had lunch. Alex's new trick is to hold on to her milk without using her hands so she can still hold toys or play.

Saturday: wedding

Saturday evening we went to a wedding for couple that works with Josh. We spent the morning running a few errands, then figured it would be best to let Alex take a late afternoon nap since we knew she'd be up well past her bedtime. Alex was great during the ceremony. We came armed with snacks, which we learned at her first wedding, keep her very occupied. She snacked a little then thought it was more fun to take all of her puffs out of the cup and put them in Josh's hands. During cocktail hour, she loved bouncing around on the dance floor at looking at the cakes. She eventually sat down for some cheese, crackers and fruit. We picked a table near the back and close to an open space where she could run. She had so much fun running around with Abby. She sat for a few minutes to eat, but was then off again. We stayed until 8:45 when it was becoming obvious that Alex was TIRED and ready to go. Overall she was great! She loved being around new people and just doing her own thing!

Potty Interest

So, I decided last week I'd really start concentrating on potty training in March. Why March? Well, starting March, I will no longer have Abby. I've known since I started watching her that when she was 18 months, she'd start school. As soon as I decided this, Alex has started becoming more interested in the potty. If I am in the bathroom, she follows me in and tries to sit on her potty. The other morning we went to get her out of bed and she had a super full diaper. She had taken her pants off and threw them out of the crib, I have a feeling had we waited a few more minutes, she would have taken her diaper off too. Tuesday when we got home from Austin, Alex was playing in the living room. I saw a diaper on the couch and figured I had just left an extra when I changed her diaper...nope, she took hers off and was prancing around with a bare booty! She is having a problem with the frog potty. It's hard for her to spread her legs enough to clear the eyes that stick up, so she prefers to sit side saddle! We are still working on helping her to sit on it by herself the right way.

Busy 6 Days!

Thursday evening my parents came in town. They got here around midnight because my Dad had some work in the area to take care of Friday. My mom spent the day with us. They stayed for dinner Friday night and we had fun playing games.

Saturday we headed to Grapevine. We had an hour to relax before we met some friends for lunch at Cracker Barrel! After lunch we went to Bass Pro to let Alex explore and burn some energy. She found a Barbie tackle box and carried it around the entire store for an hour so Josh bought it for her!

That evening after Alex went to bed, Josh and I went to Ojeda's for a yummy dinner with friends.

Sunday we went to Carrollton to do Christmas with the Stafin boys, wives and kids. I am so mad I didn't take my camera. Alex had a blast playing with her cousins!

Monday around lunch time, Alex and I headed to Austin to see my best friend, Shannon. Alex was great and slept the entire drive! When we got there, she was so excited to see their white lab, Wrangler. He is soo good with Alex. She even tried sharing her toys with him!
We ran a few errands that afternoon then went to dinner a little Mediterranean place. Alex LOVED it. She loved all the seasoning on the salad, ate the rice with yogurt sauce and ate hummus by itself from the bowl with a spoon! After Alex went to bed, we watched a movie. Alex ended up sleeping with me because she woke up crying. I hate letting her CIO when we aren't at home so she usually ends up in bed with us if she wakes up. This morning we hung out at the house. While I was in the shower, Alex played dress up with all of Aunt Shannon's necklaces!

We had a great time hanging out and catching up! I was sad to head home, but I was ready because I hate being away from Josh. I know it was just one night, but I missed him!

18 Month Checkup

Alex went in for her 18 month check up today. Nomi went with us and Alex loved having her there!

She currently weighs 23 lb 6 oz (32nd percentile, up from 15 months!), is 32 inches tall (55th percentile) and her head is 18.6 inches (85th percentile)!!!

Dr. H estimates Alex will be about 5 ft 5 in. So basically, he said she is on the taller side, skinny (but still in a healthy range) and has a big ol' noodle.

She is right on target with her development and is cleared to eat everything now, including peanut butter!

She only had one shot today. I put her on the table, she played with my phone, the nurse gave her the shot, wiped it down and was in the process of putting her band aid on before Alex started crying. She cried for a minute or two then was fine! She got a sticker when we left.

***
On another note, I had an appointment with my rheumatologist today. At every visit, I have to rate my pain on a 0-10 scale, write how long I am in pain in the morning, answer a series of questions (can you walk a block, open a jar, cut your food, get dressed) saying if I can, can't and how difficult it is. Today is the first time I could put a ZERO on my pain scale and answer that I can do everything without any pain! I am so excited! I don't think I ever posted, but my insurance ended up covering my monthly injections, but we still have a pretty high co-pay on them. I have been doing the injections for 3 months now. (Injections are a whole ordeal so maybe one day I'll write a whole post about it.) So I have my once monthly injection, once weekly Methotrexate and daily Folic Acid. My medications seem to be the right combination for me. I feel like I do before I had RA. My doctor has not seen Alex since she was 2 months old so she went with me. She played with Nomi while I was with the doctor then came in to see her and all the nurses. They loved her, told her how cute she was and could not believe how much she has grown. She even got a sucker from one of the nurses.

18 Months Old

**Actually 18 months and 1 day today**

We are halfway to Alexandra's 2nd birthday! Man, where has the time gone?

Alex is slowly starting to use her words. Some new favorites: oh look, oh here, oh there (for some reason, she adds oh to the front of most words!), kitty, tickle. My mom and sister could have sworn they heard an "oh shit" while we were running errands one day. Looks like mommy and daddy need to watch the language around Alex! haha!

She loves trying to feed herself. She is getting pretty good with a fork and spoon. She is very into playing with her snacks. She will take all of the Cheerios or puffs out of her snack trap and fill her teacups or any other bowl like toy. She will then move them back and forth from container to container. She can feed herself with a fork and now we can actually give her a plate or bowl and it usually stays in front of her instead of ending up on the floor! Since she has been sick, she has pretty much stopped drinking milk. She will drink most of her milk in the morning, but we are lucky if we can get her to drink 4 more ounces through out the rest of the day. Her likes and dislikes change pretty much daily. Example: we went to Red Robin for lunch, she ate 2 tomato slices, a few bites of mozarella and some onion roll. She refused to eat any fries or hamburger meat. She hates Cheetoes, mac and cheese and any Gerber toddler foods.

She likes to practice jumping, which usually looks like her getting to her tip toes. She still LOVES music. In the morning, she will take Josh into the office, get a record, hand it to him and wait for him to turn it on. He has started holding her up so she can press the play button. They spend about 30 minutes or so just dancing around to music.

Toys!

Alex will turn anything she can into a chair. Some current favorites are the clear box her Little People blocks came in, the metal bins that hold her toys and now, the Little People carnival slide!

She loves pretending. She will serve us tea, wait for us to drink it, then refill the cup. If we pour her some, she will "drink" it and hand it back to us for more. She "feeds" us imaginary snacks from her snack cup. She will find a toy that is shaped like a spoon and use it to feed us from her tea cups. She will put anything that looks like a bracelet on her wrist and walk around. She loves carrying around shopping bags and make up bags. She will fill them with her toys and carry them all over the house. She loves stacking blocks. She will stack her Little People blocks 4 or 5 high, then balance a person on top. Anytime she gets a new toy, she turns it over to inspect it. She knows where the on/off switch is on all of her toys and knows how to turn them on if she wants to use it. She is fascinated with buttons. We have a remote in our room that turns on and off 3 lamps. Every morning, she will sit in our bed turning on and off the lamps. We have to keep the laundry room closed because Alex loves to turn on the washer and dryer then press buttons. I feel like she learns so many new things every single day, she amazes me!

Little Miss Sickie

Alex has been sick since Monday. She has a super snotty nose, a cough and sounds congested. She's been running a fever off and on, usually in the evening. Despite being sick, she is in GREAT spirits. Since Abby has a runny nose and cough too, we've stayed home all week, except one trip to the grocery store. Alex is back to her 1:00 nap schedule. I hear her wake up several times during her nap and at night coughing and whimpering. She's been sleeping later since we got back from California. Instead of waking at 6:30, she's been sleeping until 7:30. I think one of the only reasons she wakes up is because that is about the time we start moving around the house and Abby gets here soon after. I'm hoping she will sleep in a little more tomorrow. Josh and I could use a little extra sleep! He's been sick too, mostly a cough and I feel like I'm starting to get it. It's funny, I'm supposed to be the one with pretty much no immune system because of all my meds and I've managed to stay healthy while both Alex and Josh have been sick in the last couple of months. Go figure.

Many of you just thought Christmas was over. We actually have one more Christmas to celebrate next weekend with the Stafin boys, wives and kids. Which means, we have some shopping to do. I hate buying their gifts before Christmas because I have no idea what they are getting from other people. I like to see what they wanted that they didn't get, then getting that. So, a trip to The Woodlands is in store for tomorrow. Yes, we could shop in College Station, but I love The Woodlands and look for any excuse to go! Plus, I have a Williams Sonoma gift card burning a hole in my pocket! I took down everything Christmas related on Monday while the girls were napping. It's nice to have my entire living room back, but kinda sad to see all the decorations boxed up in the laundry room for now. Alex acquired a new found love for opening presents. We had one present left under the tree Monday morning. It was actually for my sister, before we left for Cali, I found out she already got it, so we decided to keep it. Alex was so excited to see one little lonely present under the tree, I had to let her open it. Her little partner in crime Abby was at her side for a front row view!

NYE in California

On Thursday Josh worked half a day then we loaded up the car to head to Dallas. We got to his parents, sat for a few minutes then headed to the airport. I read on the AA.com site they recommend getting there 3 hours before your flight due to extra security. Seriously, it took us 20 minutes to check luggage and get through security. Since we had TONS of extra time, we had an early dinner. Josh noticed our flight that was supposed to leave at 6:55 was now delayed until after 8. We finally left the ground a little after 8:30. My poor girl was soo tired and slept off and on during the flight. We landed at LAX and had to wait almost an hour for our luggage! We made it to my sisters, in Glendale, at 11:45, with just enough time to unload the car, say our hello's and grab a glass of champagne to ring in the New Year! Alex stayed up until 1:30 (yes, 3:30 Texas time!) and was up at 6am. We are used to the first night in a new place not going well, so we were expecting it. She slept with us and tossed and turned most of the night. We were on the go most of the time we were there so Alex was lucky if she got in an hour nap each day in the car. Considering she went to bed late every night, woke up by 6 every morning and hardly napped, she was great! We did notice on the last day that 2 new teeth broke through the skin while we were there and the other 2 are about to. (Alex now has 2 of her canine teeth!) The teething added a little extra fuss.

Friday we stayed at the house most of the day. We all woke up, relaxed, had a yummy brunch and opened presents. That afternoon Josh, Laith, Hudson, Izzy and I went to the mall to find all three kids coordinating outfits for pictures they were having made Saturday. Alex got to stay home with my parents and Jodi to rest.

Saturday afternoon we took the kids to a friends studio for pics. Alex napped about 20 minutes in the car and was not happy about pictures. I haven't seen them yet, but from what I saw, we may have a handful of good pics, but I think it's going to be slim pickings! After we got home, Alex got to nap for about 30 minutes then we went to Granville for dinner and walked around the Americana for a little while. We ended our night early so we could take Alex home so she could go to bed.

Sunday we all got ready and headed to Pasadena to do some shopping and have lunch. We passed by the Rose Parade route where all the bleachers were still set up. The whole set up looks much bigger on TV! We had a great dinner at the house. My sister and Laith are great in the kitchen so we had delicious food the entire time we were there!

My nephew got a kitten 2 weeks ago. He is a little black tuxedo cat named Houdini. He is the sweetest cutest cat I have ever seen. Alex LOVED him and he won Josh, a dog person, over. Every time Alex would see him she would laugh and yell kit or kitty at him. He ran from her so she would look for him, then he would come back to see her and let her chase him again. Sunday night he was on my lap and Alex was beside me. He slowly started reaching for her with his paws until he was pretty much in her lap. She just let him sit there. It was the cutest thing. One afternoon Josh was napping and Houdini was snuggled up next to him. I think Josh actually liked it! The Stafin house is now in negotiations for adding a kitten, but it's something we really want to think about and if we do, it wouldn't happen for several months.

Monday morning Alex started getting sick. She has a snotty nose and a cough. Last night she was running a temp. I think it's all due to the drastic weather changes, teething and lack of sleep the last several days. I'm keeping an eye on her and I have nothing planned this week so we can work on getting back on a sleeping schedule and so my sweetheart can get caught up on some sleep!

holiday brunch tradition, crackers with the paper crowns and toys in them!

Josh and the kiddos

every morning, we would go downstairs and snuggle on the couch with Nomi

Alex and Houdini!