Another weekend at the lake

We had a wonderful weekend at the lake with our friends Deb and Alan and their kiddos Shelby and Isaac. We got off a rocky start when Josh realized he forgot the key to the house so we had to turn around to get the key. We were about 40 miles from home!! We finally got to the lake house a little after 10 Friday night. Alex woke up when we got there and stayed up for a little while before she crashed. She let us sleep in until about 8:30, which was sooo nice! Saturday was beautiful but we spent most of our day inside being lazy! We ended up venturing out for a bit to watch the kids fish. The weekend went by way too fast! Before I knew it, it was time to pack so we could head back home. Alex was a little angel all weekend! She did great, took great naps and had the best time watching Cooper and Rocco play!

DRAMA

Yes, we have a dramatic little girl on our hands! I have no idea where she gets it from! :) I am going to blame it on teething...but as we approach the 9 month mark, we are still toothless in Texas! Alex has always been so great with Cooper...but lately for some reason she has a fit if he comes into her "personal space" (personal space being within 2 feet of her). She will scream and fuss until he goes away. Now, it is perfectly ok for her to combat crawl over to him and play with him, but it is not ok for him to come near her. Every little thing is the end of the world. If she brushes her head on the leg of the table, she screams. When she is tired, she screams. When I leave go into the kitchen without her, she follows me, screaming. It's not a long drawn out scream, but short little scream/squeals like she doesn't want us to forget she is there. I have noticed that the drama screams usually start about an hour before she takes a nap or goes down for the night. I guess it's just because she is getting worn out and irritable.

I guess you take the bad with the good. The last week or so, the girl can not stop giggling. She giggles at everything! I love hearing her sweet giggles! She loves when I mimic animal sounds (cat meow, pig oink, cow moo, lion rawr).

We have also been adding new foods to her diet. I've finally found 1 food she is not a fan of...potatoes! Just regular white potatoes. I baked them, boiled them and gave her a few chunks, and even mashed them and added a little cheese...she's just not a fan of them, no matter how I cook them! A few new favorites: broccoli, beans, mini whole wheat bagels, mini waffles. I got some frozen mini organic wheat waffles, which are perfect for her. Each waffle is 4 mini waffles so I break them apart and she gets 2 little minis for breakfast, along with chunks of fruit and yogurt or oatmeal mixed with fruit. I'm still giving her a pureed fruit or veggie with each meal to make sure she is getting enough, but she continues to impress us each day with her ability to pick up all of her finger foods! I actually have to make sure I only put 1 piece of food on her tray at a time because if I put more, she will just keep putting them in her mouth until they are all gone.

We are some what back on a schedule. She is great about her morning naps, by 9 or 9:30, she is ready! Afternoon naps are still kind of all over the place. She will take one, but nap time and lengths just vary each day. She is now going to bed between 7:30 and 8. By about 6 or 6:15, she is ready for dinner and she will sit in her high chair in the kitchen with me while I cook dinner. Once our dinner is on, I get her cleaned up and dressed in jammies and give her a sippy cup. I was trying to put her in bed right after the bottle, but after 3 nights of screaming and crying, I decided to let her play just a little while right before bed time. It actually work out pretty well because we eat dinner while she is playing, by the time we are done, she is ready for bed!

Yummy waffles

All smiles

The drama begins

Standing!!!

We took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday and spent most of our day outside! Josh mowed the lawn while I planted a few things and vacuumed my car. Alex hung out on a blanket with Cooper! I took many little breaks to play with her and she kept trying to stand up. I remembered our friend Rachel let us have a VTech Sit to Stand walker that her son no longer used so I thought it was time to break it out! Alex sat in my lap with the walker in front of us (the wheels we locked) and she grabbed the bar and pulled herself right up!!! I, of course, stayed right beside her in case she lost her balance, but she did great!!! She could balance herself for 1-2 minutes at a time! This morning she tried again and I moved away a little to take a few pics. I still don't have batteries for the camera so the quality isn't that great, but you can see the little pumpkin standing!!!

I don't usually put buttons on my blog but I have been reading about Stellan since he was in utero. You can read his story on their site, but in brief, he was diagnosed with heart failure and an enlarged heart when he was in the womb, he was born in great health and now, he is back in the hospital with his heart function slipping way. The story just breaks my heart and makes me hold my sweet baby girl a little closer, tighter and longer every chance I get.

Our First 5K

Well, I should say Josh's first 5k! We were up bright and early this morning dressed in our warmest clothes because it was COLD!!! Alex was bundled up and looked like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man! We could barely buckle her in the car seat!! Alex and I walked a whole whopping .9 miles because it was so cold! My whole goal was to see Josh cross the finish line and we missed it because I was helping Tracy's mom with Abby! :( He finished in 29 minutes and 30 (something) seconds!! After the race and awards, we headed home to get ready for the day. Alex was great considering how cold it was, she only got fussy when she started to get sleepy. We ran errands the rest of the day. Josh got a new lawn mower, we had lunch then headed to Houston to pick up a few gifts for upcoming baby showers and finished our day off with dinner at Chuy's.

My poor pumpkin is having some tummy issues. Sometime between home and Babies R Us, she blew out her diaper. It was on her car seat and clothes. Good thing I had a change of clothes. Since we knew we were going to be out a while longer, we bought another outfit at BRU just in case! Poor Alex has had 6 poopie diapers and 3 outfit changes today. It doesn't seem to bother her in the least, but it still makes me feel sorry for her! I hope it passes soon, if she is still having issues on Monday, I'm taking her to the doctor. I can only handle so many poopie diaper changes and poo covered clothes a day and I think I've met my limit! I have gone through half a bottle of Shout this week!

Baby, bundled up

Warm me up! Josh, post race

Bunny cup

So the poor little pumpkin has made me some very interesting "pants
presents" today, we've had 4 wardrobe changes!!!. I called the pedi
and he said to keep an eye on it, stick to starchy foods, give her
some pedialyte to make sure she stays hydrated and it should pass in
the next day or so. I've been trying to get Alex to learn how to use
a straw so while I was at Target yesterday, I saw the cutest bunny cup
with a soft straw. I put some pediatyle in it and after a minute or so
she figured it out!!!

Stomach Bug

We have had an off couple of days...no, it's not Alex this time! It started Wednesday with poor little Abby getting sick. She had some stomach bug thing so Katie picked her up around noon. By two, I wasn't feeling so hot. I think I had a mild touch of it and spent most of the afternoon/evening throwing up. Josh came home to take care of Alex so I could rest. By the time I went to bed, I was running a fever. Good thing is, Thursday morning I was feeling like a brand new person. Miss Abby stayed home with Tracy yesterday so Alex and I took advantage by going to Kohl's, Target, lunch with Josh then the mall. Now thinking back, I probably shouldn't have made my first meal after being sick a whole plate of honey seared chicken from Pei Wei. I felt ok until we got to the mall, then I started smelling all the wonderful mall smells (warm pretzels, cookies, and all the other goodies) and my stomach started turning again. We high tailed it out of the mall as quickly as possible. We made it home just in time for me to heave. Thankfully that was it! I tried getting Alex to take a nap so I could sleep for a few minutes, she had no part of it, so I put her in bed with me, gave her my phone case to play with and she was a happy camper for about 20 minutes, then she went down for a nap! Since I was feeling much better, I decided to join Josh for one of his departments work things. We went to the bowling ally and everyone played video games and stuff while Alex and I hung out with Sheena and Kyler. When we left, I decided I was hungry so we picked up a pizza. Again, probably not the smartest thing, but the doughy crust and bread sticks just sounded so good! Thankfully I was ok and am still ok! Abby is back today, feeling much better, but now Katie has it!

Somewhere along the way, I lost a huge package of batteries for my camera so I've had to use my cell phone to take pictures. For some reason, every time I am out, I seem to forget to pick up more batteries!

Alex, perfecting the pout
trying to keep the munchkin entertained in bed so I could rest

Cooper pillow

Giving Mommy kisses!!!

Cheese Thief!

Cooper has learned the best place to be during meal times is right by Alex! He stole a piece of cheese off her tray today! He is so darn cute, I couldn't get mad at him!

Our schedule is still way off! Yesterday, Alex napped for a whole whopping hour the entire day. She was out by 6:20 last night! I had a doctors appointment this morning and I could tell she was getting sleepy, but she just cried when I put her down. Since Josh was coming home so I didn't have to take the girls, I figured I wouldn't push for her to take a nap. She played with Josh the entire time I was gone and about 15 minutes after he left, she crashed! I'm pretty much going day by day now to see what she decides to do. I've never really pressed to put her on a schedule, I usually follow her lead, so I'll just wait and see what she settles on!

On a good note, I had a great visit with the rheumatologist today! Normal RF (rheumatoid factor) is around 23, my counts were 150-something about 5 months ago, 112 at the last appointment and 42 this week! This means, the meds are working!!! In a few weeks, I'll start lowering my daily Prednisone intake. I'm currently taking 5 mg a day so each month I'll lower it by 1 mg until I hopefully don't have to take it anymore! My next round of blood work and appointment will be June!

Both girls are up and calling so we are off to run errands!!