Wakeful Wiggle Worm

Don't let this sweet little face fool you! She is a perfect little angel during the day, but at 2am the horns poke through her baby fine hair! The last 2 nights at 2am Alex woke up screaming and crying. The first night, I went in and rocked her for a few minutes and put her back in her crib. Before she even touched the mattress she was screaming! I sat on the floor so she could see me and she sat up in her crib for about 20 minutes. We tried rocking again with no luck. After about an hour, I gave in and put her in our bed. She tossed and turned and was just so restless and I figured there was no need to keep both Josh and me up so I took her back to her room. We rocked again, I sat on the floor again. When I thought she was out, I slid out of the room on my rear end! lol!!! The second I shut the door, she started crying. I sat on the couch for a few minutes to see if she would calm down. Josh got up and held her for a few minutes then I went back in her room and she immediately reached for me. We rocked again, I put her down and went to our room. She screamed and cried. Finally Josh said, just bring her to bed with us. So we tried it again. She sat up, tried crawling all over the bed, kicked Josh then started talking in her sweet little voice. As tired as I was, her little voice made me smile. I decided to give the rocking one more try. I got a blanket, snuggled with her in the glider and after 20 minutes she finally fell asleep. I waited longer this time to make sure she was really out. After an hour of dozing, I finally put her in her crib and she was fine. It was now 4am and I was beat!

I chalked it up to teething. I noticed 2 teeth that are about to break through the gums and in the past, she usually has a bad night right before they pop up.

Last night, again screaming and crying at 2am. This time, I decided I'd just rock her until I could tell she was out and I'd put her back in her crib. At 3, I put her back in her crib and she woke up. I laid down on the floor and put my hand through the slats on the crib and she held my hand and fell asleep. After 45 minutes or so I headed for my bed and she started crying. I ended up on the bed in the office with her. She tossed and turned forever. She'd giggle, rub her feet on my legs, poke my eye, pinch my cheek...basically anything but sleep. Finally around 4:30 she fell asleep on my chest. We got in about 2 hours of sleep until the alarm in our room went off and she popped up happy as a lark.

Needless to say, I am one tired mama. I don't think I can handle another night like this.

Mommy's little helper!

Last week we had a few days where I was going batty. Alex went from taking 2 naps that were each around 2 hours long to taking 1 decent nap and 1 mini-nap. Friday, she slept for about an hour in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon. It was rainy so we couldn't play outside and mama was going crazy. She was tired, but refused to sleep, cranky, fussy and just sooo needy! I decided we'd make cookies! Alex sat in her high chair playing with a bowl of water and a mini spatula then got to have a snack of raisins...and a couple of chocolate chips! Josh loves oatmeal raisin cookies and I'm not a fan of raisins, so I made half a batch with raisins and half a batch with chocolate chips! Alex loves watching the KitchenAid Mixer so she was happy to have a good view of the action!

The cookies turned out great and sadly, they are all almost gone. Alex loves getting little nibbles of the cookies when we eat them.

On the sleeping, or lack of sleeping, note I think we are getting close to moving from two naps to one. Alex has been taking naps at 9am and 2pm. Lately, the naps have been getting shorter and shorter. Today, each nap was right at an hour. It was the same over the weekend. Saturday her afternoon nap was about 15 minutes in the car. I just can't decide when to move her nap to. Part of me is saying right around noon since she is pushing her morning nap a little later and later each day. I just don't know. I'm going to play around a little this week and see how it goes. I am reluctant to start a new schedule since we are leaving for California a week from Saturday and I know whatever we do is going to be completely thrown out the window while we are there. I may just wing it for the next 2 weeks and work on her schedule when we get back. I wish there was a rule, at such and such age your child move to 1 nap, it will be this long and will be at (insert time here)...wouldn't that make life (and parenting) easier!?!?

Alex and the Horse!

This weekend, we went to Josh's company picnic. It was raining off and on all day so I was not looking forward to it. It sprinkled a little when we got there, but then the rain stopped for the afternoon. We took Alex around to see the animals in the petting zoo area. She wasn't too impressed with the bunnies. I think it's because their area had pretty tall walls and they were being lazy. We then went out to see the horses. She started squealing and reaching out to them. One put his head over the gate so she could pet him. She loved it! She had a huge smile on her face the whole time. The horse liked the attention and kept poking his head over so she could pet him!

Other than the picnic, our weekend was pretty uneventful. Next weekend is our last "free" weekend where we don't have any plans. After that, we are booked solid for 7 straight weekends. I'm excited about all of our plans (California, the Texas State Fair, company cookoff, a couple of trips to Dallas, my parents annual Halloween party and Las Vegas!), but not looking forward to packing, unpacking and laundry!

14 Months Old!

Our little doll is 14 months old today! She amazes me every single day. She soaks up every little thing. She is walking non stop now. Every once in a while she will crawl, but for the most part she is officially a walker! She LOVES to read. She can sit with a pile of book for half an hour and just look through them and babble to herself like she is reading them! It is the cutest thing! She loves giving kisses. She has the muah sound down and loves to kiss her stuffed animals and the animals in her books. She will kiss me and Cooper, but is very stingy with her Daddy kisses! She likes to slide toys around on the tile while making a vroom vroom sound. She is obsessed with opening and closing doors.

She is a very head strong little girl. If I'm in the kitchen in front of a cabinet she wants to open, she will push and push until I get out of the way. She gets frustrated very easily if she can't do something. She loves her alone time. She will go in her room and shut the door behind her so she can play alone. I follow her in, with my phone so I can play games, and just let her play. If I'm in the middle of something I'll just open her door back up so I can hear her while she is playing. She loves to dance/bounce along to music, the more upbeat the better!

She is becoming a slightly picky eater. She will eat most fruit and veggies all day long...meat is another story. She will eat 3 or 4 bites of meat then start taking it out of her mouth or turning her head. I even cut up meatballs really small and mixed them in with some spaghetti and sauce. She would let me put the food in her mouth, eat the spaghetti and sauce, then spit the meat out. She LOVES Morningstar "chicken" nuggets. If she sees them on her plate, she will not eat anything else until she eats the nuggets.

Even though she is an active toddler most of the day, at nap time and bed time, she turns back into my little baby. She loves to snuggle with me before naps and at bed time she will let me rock her as long as I want. Last night she woke up around 10pm and snuggled with me until 10:45 or so. She was so sweet, when I put her back in her crib, she sat up and just looked at me. I sat on the floor to watch her and she picked up her bunny/bear "bearnnie" and held it like a baby then she offered me her blanket. She melts my heart!

Labor Day Weekend

We started our weekend heading to the lake house on Friday night. Alex was TIRED since she decided a 20 minute afternoon nap was all she needed. She slept for about 30 minutes in the car. When we got to the house, we unpacked and got her ready for bed. She was not having it. She cried and cried and cried...and cried some more. We ended up letting her sleep with us and she slept from 11 to 6:30. After that she was perfect, she went down for naps and bed, in her pack and play, without a problem! Grandma and Grandpa got there Saturday morning. Josh helped his Dad replace the doors that lead to the patio with doors with built in blinds. Well, he tried. The builder used an odd size door so the door Ray ordered didn't fit so after a long day, the guys boarded up the opening with plywood. We'll save the before and after pics until the actual door is put in! While the boys worked on the door, Alex got to spend some QT with Grandma! We went on a walk and Grandma pulled Alex in a wagon. She loved it! We cut our trip short to head home for Abby's birthday party!

Since Abby is Alex's BFF, we couldn't miss it! We timed it so we would be home for Alex to take her 2:00 nap while we got ready. She had other plans. She was getting so sleepy on the way home but wouldn't fall asleep. As soon as we walked in the door, I put her down for a nap. She spent an hour talking to herself. After an hour, she was over being in her crib, so we let her play while we finished getting ready. She got a bath and we headed to the party. I was worried she would melt down since didn't nap, but she didn't! She was perfect! Alex had a great time playing with all the kiddos, eating and having cake!

Happy Birthday Abby!!!

At the lake

I've been a bad blogger, but I have an excuse! I fried the motherboard on my laptop about a week and a half ago so the laptop is out of commission for now. I usually blog while the girls nap, but Abby sleeps in the office where the desktop is so it's made it kinda hard to update the blog. On a good note, my house is always clean, the dishes are always done, I've been on top of the laundry and I read a book since I'm not on the computer while the girls nap! Josh is considering not fixing the laptop now! Lol, I'm kidding...I think!

In the last week Alex has been walking more and more! She walks about 75% of the time now! She is a great little helper. She loves handing me things when I ask for them and she tries to help put stuff away when I am cleaning up!

We went to my parents for the weekend. We were planning on going Saturday, but in the end decided it would be better to go Friday. When we are away from home, the first night is usually bad while Alex gets adjusted to her new surroundings. We figured if we spent 2 nights there, we'd at least have one good night of sleeping! We were right. We left the house around 6 and got to my parents around 9 and Alex stayed awake the entire trip. She stayed up until 10 or so then cried and cried when we put her down. Josh held her until she fell asleep around 10:30 then put her in the pack and play. She woke up a little after 2 screaming and crying. I went in to calm her down, she was fine as long as I was holding her, as soon as I'd try to put her back down she cried. I ended up sleeping on one of the beds in her room until 7:30. Her first nap of the day pretty much went the same way. I ended up laying on the bed with her until she fell asleep, then I left her surrounded by pillows and checked on her every few minutes to make sure she wasn't awake. I was worried about her trying to get off the bed when she woke up. After that, she was great with her naps and bedtime. Our trip home was the same, we left around 5 and got home by 8 and she stayed wide awake the whole time and started getting really frustrated and antsy. Since we have turned her car seat around, she pretty much will not sleep in the car.

With that being said, we decided to fly to California after all. I'm not going to lie, I was not looking forward to being in the car for 20-something hours and the more active Alex gets, the more we realized the trip would probably end in tears and frustration from everyone! We were able to get a great deal on airfare so now I am really looking forward to going to California!

I am looking forward to a relaxing week before the weekend. We are heading to the lake again next weekend to see Josh's parents, then coming home Sunday for Abby's birthday party and maybe a relaxing Monday since Josh is off!

Watermelon!

When Nomi came to visit us last weekend, she brought us a HUGE watermelon. I think it weighed at least about 20 pounds! I finally cut it on Saturday and we have been eating it non-stop! I seriously had to clean out my fridge to make room for all the bowls of watermelon. Alex is picky when it comes to watermelon. She will eat it great sometimes, then other times she will spit it out. I thought she may have more fun if she got to eat it off the rind. I let her eat it outside since I knew it was going to be super messy and she went straight into the bath when she was done!