Alex's Room

We decorated the house a few weeks ago. (Pics will come later.) Alex's room has been an ongoing process. She started out with her small tree we've used in her room the last 2 years but I decided it was time for an upgrade! Here are a few pics of her room and the Christmas decor we have added!

The "A" Christmas tree hanging from her door

(It was actually a gift tag my sister made last year!)

Alex's new pink tree!!!
Her wicky wacky tree Nomi got her!
(and all of her Christmas books!)

Cute little stocking for her room!

Hanging snowflakes and a tree and snowman from Josh's childhood!

ICE!

We went to Dallas last weekend. While we were there we went to see ICE at the Gaylord. Alex liked it, but didn't love it. When she went down the ice slide, she tried stopping herself and fell forward in front of everyone and started crying. After that, she pretty much cried and said she was cold. She was very happy when we were done and walking around the hotel.

The Stafins (2009)

The Stafins (2010)

Mommy's Little Girl

On mornings that we don't have something to do, Alex usually showers with me. Then we get ready together. She sits on the bathroom counter and we brush our teeth together. Then we put on lotion, brush our hair and put on makeup. Alex has her own little set of mini make up brushes. I gave her a palette of cheapo makeup to play with. I love having my little girly girl in the bathroom with me!

Potty Training Update...

Well, we've had a little set back with potty training. Wednesday Alex started having accidents again. She had one accident Wednesday evening and 2 accidents Thursday. She has still been sleeping in diapers. For the first few weeks, her diapers were dry in the morning, but about a week ago, she'd wake up completely soaked and usually with poop. Yesterday for one of her accidents, she actually got in her bed and used the bathroom. We think it may be because we are letting her know it's ok to use the bathroom in bed since we put her down in diapers. We cut out her night time milk and have been keeping late afternoon/evening liquids to a minimum but it hasn't helped.

Yesterday we stopped diapers completely. She went down for a nap and for the night in panties. She woke up from both wet, but no poop. As soon as she got up this morning, we ran to the bathroom and she went poo poo.

I am back to asking her every hour or so if she needs to potty. I have been washing her sheets EVERY SINGLE DAY...sometimes twice a day. Ugh!

Christmas Pics

I decided to take some pics of Alex today so I could get a cute one for our Christmas cards. Here are a few of the outtakes. Actually, I didn't use any of the pics I took today. I ended up picking one we took last week. Our Christmas cards are now ordered! I can't wait to see them!

3 years ago...

Three years ago a skinny little collie stole our hearts. Josh and I had been talking about getting a dog and we came across the Houston Collie Rescue. We saw a super skinny collie named Max. We could tell he was beautiful, just needed some love and a few pounds! We emailed the group and soon found out Max was being fostered in College Station by a family that lived 5 minutes from us! They agreed to bring him to our house on a Friday evening. We saw him and immediately knew he was the one. Linda and Gary offered to let him stay for the weekend so we could see how he did with us. We were going out of town the next day so he only stayed one night then they picked him back up. On the way back in town, we stopped and got a few supplies. Cooper came home as soon as we got back. Our first mission was to pick a name. Max didn't suit him so we named him Cooper, after our favorite BBQ place in Llano! Cooper completed our family before we knew it. 3 weeks after we got him, I found out I was pregnant with Alex!

Cooper has his moments, but he is the best dog. He adores Alex and is soo gentle with her. He is a snuggler and will let me just lay on him and hold him. He is the perfect dog for our family!

Like Father, Like Daughter

We had a great weekend! I absolutely love my weekends with Josh and Alex!

Saturday afternoon we helped Axel celebrate his first birthday. The funny face glasses were one of the favorite favors!

Techie

Alex's favorite toy is my phone. I have a few apps that she plays with, but her favorite is ShapeBuilder. She will lay on my bed and do puzzles while I get ready. It's great! She threw a few fits when it was time to put the phone down so now I tell her we will stop playing when...I'm done getting ready, when I get out of the shower, or whatever. That has seemed to work so far! She also loves watching videos on my phone. My mom sends me short little clips of Bo, Annie and Stoney and Alex will watch them over and over and over again!

I am looking forward to our weekend. We are doing a little shopping Saturday then we have a birthday party. Sunday will be our day to relax (and there is a very big possibility all the Christmas stuff will be coming down because I just can't wait!) This is actually our only weekend with little to no plans until 2011.

Sleeping Beauty

Last Monday, Alex decided to stop napping all together. Since then she has taken 1 nap. It was on Saturday and only because Abby was here and she took a nap. I've been keeping our afternoons super busy so we don't go crazy at home. Today my windshield was being replaced (finally!) so we were at home from about 12:30 on. Alex actually cried because she wanted to leave the house. She gave me suggestions of Chickfila, Barnes and Noble, Target and HEB. She asked for a snack around 4:20 so I gave her a bowl of pretzels. A few minutes later I looked at her and saw...

It was hilarious! I grabbed my phone, took these pics and sent them to Josh. I then realized she still had food in her mouth so I woke her up so she could finish eating. I tried taking her bowl away and she cried so I took most of the pretzels out and let her keep it. She finished them and has been snuggled on the couch since. I know she's tired, but she won't go back to sleep. Actually, at this point, I don't want her to sleep since she'll be going to bed in a few hours!

Alex and Abby

Alex and her bestie reunited for a sleepover this weekend! We picked Abby up Saturday morning after breakfast and she spent the night with us. The girls play sooo well together and have had a blast. It was soo much fun having both of them together again!

Alex and Abby (October 2008)

Alex and Abby today!

ignore that Alex has on Halloween shirt! We had baked ziti

for dinner so I put this old shirt on her in case she spilled!

Toy Story time!

Bedtime Fun!

Bedtime is becoming one of my favorite times of the day. Not because the tinks is going to sleep, but because we have so much fun! After dinner, Alex gets a bath and we play in her room until it's time to go to bed. Alex loves playing rocket and pays for her rocket rides in kisses. Cooper usually gets banned from the room at some point, only to have Alex let him back in a few minutes later. Alex loves to dance around her room, do forward rolls and just be silly. Some nights we read books, some nights we don't, it just depends on her mood. When it's time to go to sleep, she crawls in bed and we sing songs. It started out with just sweet bedtime songs, now it's Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Row Your Boat, The Wheels on the Bus and our song we have to sing and hum to her. For awhile, I'd tell her I was going to go let Cooper out, clean the kitchen, use the bathroom, just whatever so I could leave the room for a few minutes then come back to check on her. Now when I tell her I'm leaving, she tells me not to check on her, then she tells me to go potty and wipe. The first time she told me this, I almost fell on the floor, it was when we were starting potty training, now it's a nightly thing and makes me smile!

Color Blind?

Josh and I are almost positive Alex is color blind. There are different variations of color blindness and we think she is red-green color blind. Alex has known all of her colors for some time now and can easily identify all colors...except red. For a while, she would just guess random colors and lately, red is always green. At Alex's next doctors appointment, we will discuss it with him. We are still a little baffled because we do not know of any color blind people in our family (it's hereditary) and it is very uncommon for a female to be color blind. Only about 0.4% of women in the US are color blind, where 7% of males are. Apparently for a female to be color blind, both mother and father have to have the same defect on their X chromosome.

We did a little research to try and figure out what a red-green color blind person sees and here is what we found.

A Braeburn apple and a Granny Smith.

The second row shows how a color blind person would view the same apples.

If we tell Alex something is red, she will tell us red next time we ask her, but I think that is just because she remembers it. If we introduce new red items, she always identifies them as green.

If she is in fact color blind, I already told Josh we are completely redoing our Christmas tree. We have all red ornaments. Alex is already showing a pure love for all things Christmas and I want her to be able to enjoy and appreciate our tree as much as we do!