Busy Little Bee!

It seems like in the past few days Alex has just exploded doing so much stuff!

She has know where her tummy and head are for about a month or so, but in the last two days, she learned nose and ears.

She still isn't speaking much but on rare occasions when you aren't expecting it she will repeat something clear as day. So far we have heard, ball, yum yum, yeah (she says this one all the time), Cooper, Daddy, all done...and more, but I can't think now.

She is obsessed with phones. If my phone rings, she runs over to it until I pick it up. She loves her play phone and will hold it up to her hear and just walk around the house. When we were at Josh's parents this weekend, Ray was playing with Alex and his phone rang. Alex picked up a sun glass case that was kinda shaped like a phone and put it up to her ear.

She is getting very good at putting stuff away. She isn't perfect, because she makes huge messes, but every little thing she puts away is one less that I don't have to put away.

She loves bags. She will walk around with her purse, a little makeup bag, or pretty much anything else that opens and she will fill it with her toys.

She learned how to unscrew bottles, which I almost found out the hard way. I was in my bathroom and she was playing in the drawers, found a little travel size shampoo, took it in our room, unscrewed the top and had it all over her hands. Thankfully I saw her before the hands went in her mouth.

She still loves her music. She will go into the living room, point at the drawer where we keep the remotes or point at the TV and start dancing. It's her cute way of telling me to turn on the tunes. If we start singing Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes, she will find her puppy that plays it and push his paw until he starts singing that song, then clap for herself.

She loves bossing us around. Yesterday we were all on the bed and I kissed Josh. She came up to us, turned our heads away from each other and put her head between ours. If I'm holding her and kiss Josh she will lean in and kiss the both of us so it's like a big family kiss. When Josh is holding her and I lean in for a hug, she will give me a quick hug then push me away from them.

She loves playing with her stacking rings. She can put all the rings back on the pole thing in order from largest to smallest! She is getting good at stacking her little people blocks and getting the little people to sit in the wagon, see saw and carousel.

She is starting to climb. I went in her room today and found her with her torso on the ottoman and her legs on her glider, kinda stuck, not knowing what to do next. She is constantly trying to climb on top of her bigger toys, the couch and her glider.

We are heading to Dallas tomorrow so we can go to ICE! at the Gaylord with Josh's parents and dinner afterwards. Sunday we are doing my family Thanksgiving with my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I've got to work on my menu. Our parents are coming to our house for Thanksgiving. THEN...we get to haul out the Christmas decorations! I CAN NOT WAIT!

Even more teeth!

So, I've realized my child has a crazy long tongue! When we feed her if we get the spoon close to her mouth, she will stick her tongue out to feel the spoon! Today I was eating Skittles and she came to me and opened her mouth for me to give her one, which I didn't, and I blew in her face because she usually thinks it hilarious! She must have like it because smacked her lips and kept coming back with her mouth wide open for more Skittle scented blows...crazy kid!

Anyway, this week, 2 more teeth have popped up. All four of her first molars have broken through the gums and her first bottom lateral incisor finally popped through yesterday. Kinda weird, she got her molars first, but at least the first one finally showed up! So the tooth count is now at 11! I've noticed that with each pair of teeth, the left one shows up, then the right one a few days or weeks later.

Alex is turning into a Piggy Sue! This morning she had breakfast around 7:30, a cereal bar for a snack around 9, some puffs around 10 and by 10:45 she was fussing and whining in the kitchen for lunch so she has 2 helpings of white turkey chili! She knows exactly where we keep her snacks because she will stand in front of the cabinet fussing and pointing to it until I give her some. Most of the times, she has her snack bowl in her hand and hands it to me to fill for her. Demanding little thing! If I ask her if she wants milk, she goes to the fridge to try to open it and if I am making her waffles for breakfast, she tries to open the freezer to get them out for me! It's getting bad. When we were at the grocery store Monday I actually had to sneak the puffs and goldfish into the cart because if she sees them she will fuss and try to turn around to get them the rest of the time we are at the store!

Syvie's Birthday Party!

Before we headed home Sunday, we made a stop in McKinney for Sylvia's First birthday party! I haven't seen Amy or Sylvia since a few days after Syvie was born. I miss Amy! Amy and her mom went all out on the decorations and it was soooo cute! Alex loved playing with the other kids!

Alex and Syvie!

The birthday girl and her adorable smash cake!

Alex loved everyone singing Happy Birthday and started clapping!

Alex, Cash, Syvie and Remi...all doing their own thing!

Happy First Birthday Sylvia!!!

Poker and a new car

Friday night we hosted a poker night at our house. It was for one of Josh's departments. We had pizza, cookies and played poker. I am happy to say, I was not the first person out...I was the 3rd! Josh was the second. Alex had fun watching everyone, until it came time to go to bed. She had a fit and screamed and cried in her crib until she finally fell asleep. Night times are getting pretty bad. She used to be great. She'd entertain herself in her crib until she fell asleep, now it's more like screaming and crying for anywhere from 5-30 minutes before she finally crashes. I don't know what the deal is, but it's getting old. The first few nights, I'd go in and out making sure she was ok...after realizing she was perfectly fine, we just started leaving her there to CIO, but I know she is perfectly capable of self soothing and going to sleep on her own so we will keep letting her CIO until she gets past this phase.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to head to Dallas. We left the house by 8am. I was in my car with Alex and Cooper and Josh was alone in his. I went straight to his parents in Grapevine while he headed to Richardson to get his new car! He got a 2010 Mustang and he LOVES it! I love the new car smell!

While Alex was napping, Josh and I went to Southlake Town Square to walk around and window shop since it was so pretty. We sat outside and had some gelato! yummy!!! We had dinner with his parents and his grandma came over Sunday morning and we all had breakfast before getting ready and heading out! Cooper is staying with them for the week since we'll be back up next weekend! This is the first trip we've taken 2 cars to and from Dallas and I HATE it! I love having Josh in the car to sing with me and get on to me for playing on my phone the entire time instead of talking!

New Playroom

Ok, not really a room, but don't tell her that! Last week I cleaned out Alex's closet. There were a ton of clothes that no longer fit her, stuff that I just pile up when I don't have time to hang it or fold it and well, it was just a mess! I cleaned out her built-in shelves and put some of her board books on the bottom shelf and 2 Boppys on the second shelf. She goes in her closet everyday now to read. She pulls the Boppys down, sits on them and reads her books. She loves it! The only bad part, she can see her shoes on the shelf and fusses and points at them until I lift her up to pick out a pair to put on.

A little cut

Alex's hair was getting really really long! Her bangs were constantly in her eyes if I didn't pull her hair back and even if I did, it would still slide out of the rubberband and fall in her eyes. I decided to give it a little trim. Not an easy task to do alone, but I was armed with a cup full of puffs and Handy Manny!

I mean, there is just nothing cute about this!

The after...a few days later! She still needs to get a real hair cut sometime, but this will do for now!

16 Months Old

Alexandra is 16 months old today! She is still into everything. With her new found ability to open doors, it forces us to keep all the rooms picked up since she now has the run of the house. A few of her favorite places are the laundry room, where she turns the washer and dryer off and on, the office, where she loves playing on the keyboard and with the mouse, and our bathroom, where she loves playing in my drawer where I keep a ton of cheapie jewelry that she puts on. She knows when she isn't supposed to do something because she will look at us and shake her head no, but it doesn't keep her doing it 2 seconds later.

She LOVES dancing! She bounces, steps side to side, spins circles and tries snapping her fingers. She loves dancing with Josh, he will hold her and she will put her hand up so he can hold it while they dance...she may have seen dancing with the stars one too many times!

She and Cooper are soo cute together. They play all the time. They take each other toys to play with. Alex is very bossy to Cooper. If he is in her room and she doesn't want him in there, she will push his rear end until he gets out. If we are going outside and she doesn't want him to come she will push him away from the door, or if she wants him to come, she will push him so he goes outside.

She is getting good at understanding us. If I ask her if she wants milk, she will go to the fridge and try to open it, if I ask her if she wants to watch Oso, she will go to the coffee table and try to open the drawer where we keep the remotes. When I close the blinds in her room and turn on the white noise machine, she hauls butt out of her room so she doesn't have to take a nap.

We are working on self feeding with a spoon. She will pretend feed herself with a spoon, but if there is food on it, all she wants to do is pick up the food off the spoon with her fingers to feed herself.

She has gone back to waking up at night every few nights. We will have a day or two where she sleeps all night, then a night she wakes up. It is usually pretty easy to get her back down, I'll rock her for a few minutes the put her back in her crib and she will go back to sleep. If Cooper comes in to check on us, it's a different story. She gets all wound up and wants to play with him. I am still praying the up at night is due to teething. She was sleeping through the night every single night until she started cutting teeth.

While she was at Nomi's she started taking 2 naps a day again, since she has been home, she's back to one!

She seems to be at a standstill with growing. She is still wearing 12 month pants, jammies and dresses. 18 month pants fall off of her. She had to move into 18 month tops because 12 months were too short. She can actually still wear some of her 9 month onesies, pants and dresses.

every once in a while, you can catch her winking at you!

Her monthly chair picture!

Her bitty baby is wearing one of her preemie outfits that she used to wear!

I can not believe she was that small!