Look Mom, No Hands!

Alex is standing on her own! She is so cute when she does it because it looks like it surprises her! If I am right there, she just leans forward until she looses her balance and I catch her. Last night she figured out how to slowly lower her booty to sit down without falling! She will take steps holding on to one of my hands. Maybe walking is just around the corner!

Yesterday Erika and Dane came over to play in the splash pool. Alex loved it for a while, then she became more interested in the nectarine Erika was eating. Dane loved it! Abby was happy sitting in my lap waving her hand over the spray. I'm mad I didn't get any pics, but I figured it would be best to leave the camera inside, last thing I need is to get the new one wet! :(

11 Months Old!

Oh sweet baby, you are almost 1 year old! I can not believe it! Month ten was a busy month. Tooth #2 made an appearance, she went from pulling up every once in a while to now pulling up on everything! She is cruising and can stand for a few seconds with out holding onto anything. This month we transitioned from the infant car seat to the convertible car seat. She is still rear facing and will probably be until right around her 1st birthday. According to our home scale she is 19 lbs and 29 inches (give or take a couple of ounces either way). She is moving away from purees and pretty much only eating table foods. This weekend was the first time she actually ate what we made for dinner. Josh made a lasagna and we made her a little one without the spicy turkey sausage. When we eat out, we order her a side of veggies instead of packing food, but we always keep a cup of applesauce in the diaper bag just in case.

We have also taken a small step backwards in sleeping through the night. Every 3 or 4 nights, she will wake up crying and screaming so we have to rock her for a few minutes then she goes back to sleep. A few times, she has stayed up for an hour or longer just wanting to play. I am hoping we will get past this...very soon!

Alex understands no, but usually stop what she is doing, smiles at us and keeps on going. She will wave bye bye about 75% of the time on command and will now look in the mirror and wave at her reflection. She has great fine motor skills and has been self feeding for several months now. She is always saying mama, and is slowly connecting it to me. While Josh was changing her diaper this morning, she said Dada. When we are on the bed and pat it to call Cooper, she mimics us and pats the bed until Cooper jumps up. She is only using a sippy cup and has been since 5.5 months and is now using a cup with a straw on a daily basis. She can, but not always will, hand us a toy she is playing with if we ask for it.

She is still in size 3 diapers and I'm sure will be for some time. Clothes are still all over the place. If she is wearing a dress or shorts, she can wear 6-9 or 9-12 month, jammies are all 9-12 month because she has long legs. I am not looking forward to fall/winter, because I have a feeling if pants fit her in the length, they will be way too big around the waist. We are working on shoes. If we leave the house, I put them on her, if we are at home, she is barefoot. She is not a fan of shoes. She currently wears size 2 or 3.

Alex and Cooper's new favorite book...Doggies, by Sandra Boynton.

Alex laughs and Cooper goes a little crazy when Josh reads it!

Baby Sprinkles!

We had another fun weekend! I love warm weather! Yesterday we met Katie, Tracy, Mark, Veronica, Sarah, Chris, Kerri and Damien along with the babies (Abby and Grisham) at Koppe Bridge for burgers! From there, the guys headed to the movies and Katie, Sarah and I headed to the pool with the babies. Alex and Abby had a blast in their little pool floaties. Alex was worn out by the time we finally got home, Alex was pooped! She slept until 6, which we knew would bite us in the butt, because she didn't go to bed until 8:45 or so. She was up at 5am crying so Josh rocked her back to sleep then the was up for good at 6:30!!!

Today, Josh went with a guy from work who is looking to buy a project car, to give advice and help him check it out. Alex and I went to Target. I got her a new baby pool/activity center since the old one had a leak. There are so many little pools and stuff to pick from. I settled on the Bonzai Baby Sprinkles! It is so cute and big enough for 2 babies to play in. It has a sun shade area, a little slide, some blow up stars, a whale Alex can sit on and a blow up tree. When Josh got home, he started blowing it up while I got Alex ready. She LOVED it! It has water that sprays up from all different directions. She loved tried to drink the water that was spraying up! I will tell you, it is a pain to drain and put away, so it's sitting on our back porch now since I figured I'd use it with Alex and Abby some time this week.

As soon as the water started bubbling up, Alex was off the blanket and headed straight to see what was going on!

Trying to catch the water in her mouth

trying out the slide
trying to drink the water...again

When we turned the hose off, she decided she was over the pool.

I guess she only liked it when it was spraying everywhere!

Same Park, Different Story!

We hit the park today! The same park we had a minor melt down at last time, but today, it was great! Main reason? We stayed off the swing! We started out by meeting Josh, Katie, Tracy, Mark, Veronica and Randy at Ninfa's for lunch! Yummmy! From there, I took the girls to the park, prepared this time! We got there, put our blanket down and had a seat while the girls got used to their new surroundings. Alex was off in a flash! Abby was a little more timid and was just fine sitting on the blanket looking around. Both girls had a great time and it was nice to be outside for a while, even if it was HOT!

Lunch with Daddy!

hmmm, what is this black stuff?
Wait! You want me crawl on this? OK, I approve!
Sitting like a big girl!

What is that I see over there?
Of all the things to play with, my child heads straight for the diaper bag and stroller! Mmmm, tasty! Hey Alex, how about a little drink for your bestie? Determined to get to the top! Am I doing this right?

More RA News

yes, we are playing in the car seat box!

I had my appointment with the Rheumatologist today. Everything is still good, I don't know what my blood count numbers were, but she said they are great, so I'm happy. I have been having a few little aches and stiffness, but we determined that was because I was lowering my Prednisone dosage too quickly so I have to slow it down a bit. My next appointment is in 3.5 months and hopefully after that, I'll go back every 4 months. I do have one new prescription for Prevacid since everything I currently take can mess up the lining of my stomach. Just one more thing to add to my daily pill intake!

We are hosting our HOA meeting at our house tonight. When we volunteered, it sounded like a good idea. Now, it just seems crazy. Josh and I spent last night cleaning, now all that's left if picking up. There is no point in picking up until about 6 tonight since Alex loves to pull the DVD's off of the shelf as soon as I put them back and dump all her toys as soon as I put them in the basket.

My sweet little bundle of joy decided to wake up last night when I went in her room to turn the timer on the white noise machine around 11. Not just a little groggy moving around, but straight up, bright eyed awake. I rocked her for a few minutes and put her back down and she screamed. Tried it again, same results. So, I took her in our room and let her lay with us for a little bit. Lay = play. She crawled all over us, stood holding onto the headboard, tried to get Cooper and just rolled all around. She got the giggles which was soo cute. But about hour into her play time, it started getting old. I took her back in her room and rocked her again, put her down, she screamed...repeated that a couple of times then it was back to our bed. She had no intentions of sleeping. Finally, at 1:00, after being up for 2 hours, I turned off the monitor so Josh could sleep, put her in her crib and shut the door. She fussed for a few minutes and finally gave in and crashed. I stayed in the living room until about 1:30 to make sure she was sleeping then I turned the monitor back on and crawled in bed. And wouldn't you know it, she was up right on time this morning!

Fun Weekend!

Our weekend was great. It started out Saturday afternoon when we went to the Lozano's to learn how to make gorditas! Alex got to see her BFF Abby, but was much more interested in what was going on in the kitchen. Veronica taught Katie and me how to make gorditas while the guys hung out with the babies and watched TV. The gorditas were YUMMY and much easier than I thought they would be. I'll have to give them a go one day on my own! The girls were very content crawling around in the dining room until they realized we were eating. Once they noticed that, they wanted to be up at the table with us eating too. Alex had some tomatoes, beans and rice. Girl is quick...at one point Josh was holding her and she got a little too close to the table and grabbed a handful of rice off his plate! Little piggy!

Alex, trying to love on Bruno

Alex and Mark
Alex and Veronica

This weekend we also said goodbye to Alex's Chicco car seat. I ordered her "big girl" car seat online Monday and it got here yesterday so I couldn't wait for Alex to try it out. We decided on the Britax Advocate CS and so far, after 1 day, are very happy with it. Alex gave it her seal of approval by taking a nap in it on the way to Katy.

Alex trying out the car seat before Josh installed it

Checking out the buckle

Goodbye Chicco base!
Hello big girl seat! Man, that thing is HUGE!

When we got home from Katy Mills and lunch in the Woodlands, we decided to air up the pool so Alex could play. We quickly found out we will need to purchase another pool sometime in the near future. This one may have had a leak in it and a we may have torn it when we tried moving it on the grass, but it held enough air and water for Alex to play for a while.

Our day of shopping and splashing in the pool wore the little bunny out, she was ready for bed by 6:15!!!

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