A few little things...

Little Miss has become very vocal lately. She doesn't use actual words (we can understand) but she loves to babble to herself, us and Cooper. She also squeals all the time, especially when she is excited!

I love our mornings together. She is slowly waking up earlier and earlier. Where it used to be around 7 or 7:15, it has slowly creeped back to 6:15. The great thing about it is, she will hang out in her crib talking to herself and rolling around until we get her up around 7. I've learned before I get her up, I MUST make her bottle first, otherwise she cries until it is made. After her diaper change and bottle, she will just sit on my stomach for awhile, look around, play with my face and will occasionally put her head on my chest. She is so darn sweet. Once I put her down on the ground, she is off exploring everything almost like she missed her toys so much while she was sleeping. She usually makes her loop around the living room and dining room, first checking out her toys, pulls a couple of movies off the shelf, then a few little bangs on the piano, inspects her car seat and jogging stroller, then a look around the kitchen. As she makes her lap, she checks the view out of every window. On the weekdays Abby is usually arrives during her lap so she takes a little break to try to get one of the James' to pick her up and check Abby out. After she is done with her lap, she inspects Abby's diaper bag to see what kind of goodies she can find in the outer pockets. The girl is so nosey!

Alex is finding her rhythm. When she hears music, she will rock back and forth or if she is standing, she will bounce. I have the cutest video of her standing at the piano while Josh is playing and she is just bouncing along. I was trying to upload it, but since it is a HiDef video, it was taking forever. After 3 hours of letting it upload yesterday, I gave up. I'll have to figure out how to compact it so I can upload a few videos.

Alex was very mad because I would not give her the camera...but it resulted in me getting a shot of both of her teeth!

The girls watching Cooper in the backyard

Wonderful Long Weekend!

We had a great long weekend! Nomi and Popi came to visit us and we hung out and played games! Alex was worn out from their visit, she took a 2 hour nap as soon as they left. When she got up, Josh was cleaning out garage so I took Alex outside and took some pictures. I'm working on the invitations for her 1st birthday party so I took a couple of hundred pics trying to get the perfect one. Here are a few that I love! I'll share the finished invite after they go in the mail in a couple of weeks.

These next 2 are my favorites! (they were touched up with photoshop, which I am learning to LOVE!!!)

Pool Party!

We went to a birthday party for our friend Tyler at his parents house in Spring. The house was beautiful and the pool/backyard was AMAZING!!! They had a diving stone, slide with fire features, lazy river with waterfalls, a grotto and a very shallow beach like entry to the pool. Alex LOVED the water. I bought her a ladybug float she can sit in that has a sun canopy at Target earlier in the week and it was perfect! She just kicked her feet, smiled and squealed. The water was a little too cool for me but Alex didn't seem phased by it but we only let her stay in for a little while because I didn't want her to get too cold. We are now very excited to start swim lessons in 3 weeks!

BTW, they were in the middle of having their landscaping done, that't why all the plants in the pics are still in pots!

Making Music

Alex loves playing with the piano. Josh holds her and she bangs on the keys! Today while she was playing, she pulled up to piano bench and got her little hands on the keys and had a blast banging away! Maybe she'll be a musical prodigy! LOL!!!

A few pics...

We took advantage of the beautiful weather last night and sat in the front yard while Josh did some work in the garage. Alex is getting braver about leaving the blanket and exploring the grass and driveway.

She fell back while she was on her knees and Cooper brother was there to cushion the fall!

I have been trying to get a pic of the tooth, I finally got it! If you click on the pic, it enlarges it and you can see the little snaggle tooth! The second one hasn't come up enough to see it in the pic.

The Little Things

Little things make me realize my baby girl is growing up right before my eyes. I am getting a box of clothes together to send to my best friend's niece who just had a little girl. Going through all of Alex's old clothes just saddens me. I can remember her wearing each little outfit and looking at them now, they look so tiny. I finally decided it is time to move up a size in jammies. Her 9 month stuff is just a little too tight in the length. I loaded up the girls today and we went to the Carter's outlet. I walked in and looked at all the adorable snap up footed jammies at the front of the store, then I realized, they only go up to 9 months. As I made my way to the back of the store for the "big girl" jammies I thought there had to be a mistake. They looked HUGE! Now, I know they go all the way up to 4T but how can my sweet baby be in the style where the size range goes from 12 months to 4T? We no longer get the sweet little footed jammies, now it is the zip up jammies with the rubber grips on the feet. So, I got 2 pairs of footed jammies and a couple of short/pant/tee shirt pj sets.

She is getting so independent. It seems like in just a matter of days, she went from pulling up to stand every once in a while to now pulling up on EVERYTHING from the wall, my legs while I'm standing and Cooper if he sits still too long. She is now always standing in her crib when I get her up for the day or from a nap. She is getting more confident walking while holding onto something or someone. She is very much a social butterfly. We walked down the street the other day so we could return a few gardening tools and I wanted her to meet Alex. Joan opened the door and Alex immediately held her arm out and leaned to her so she could hold her. This girl has never met a stranger.

Tooth #2 cut through the gums yesterday!!! She now has both lower central incisors.

Baby, you are not supposed to grow up this fast, can you slow down just a little bit and let me savor the last 2 months of you being my baby before you turn 1?

Before and After

Terri and Ray came down to visit and help work on our yard. We decided we wanted to add a stone wall to our flowerbed and create a new bed on the side of our house. After 2 days of working our butts off we finished! Josh and Ray did all the hard work and they did an amazing job! I was the gopher, running all the errands while Terri was Alex's personal entertainment! While the guys worked on the new bed, I was in charge of shoveling the mulch out of the truck and filling the front beds. Let me just tell you, 1 cubic yard of mulch is A LOT! It filled pretty much the entire bed of the truck. I am so lucky to have such wonderful in laws who will help with anything we need. Alex loves having them here, she is showered with attention and loves every second of it!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

A few more pics of the front!