18 Month Checkup

Alex went in for her 18 month check up today. Nomi went with us and Alex loved having her there!

She currently weighs 23 lb 6 oz (32nd percentile, up from 15 months!), is 32 inches tall (55th percentile) and her head is 18.6 inches (85th percentile)!!!

Dr. H estimates Alex will be about 5 ft 5 in. So basically, he said she is on the taller side, skinny (but still in a healthy range) and has a big ol' noodle.

She is right on target with her development and is cleared to eat everything now, including peanut butter!

She only had one shot today. I put her on the table, she played with my phone, the nurse gave her the shot, wiped it down and was in the process of putting her band aid on before Alex started crying. She cried for a minute or two then was fine! She got a sticker when we left.

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On another note, I had an appointment with my rheumatologist today. At every visit, I have to rate my pain on a 0-10 scale, write how long I am in pain in the morning, answer a series of questions (can you walk a block, open a jar, cut your food, get dressed) saying if I can, can't and how difficult it is. Today is the first time I could put a ZERO on my pain scale and answer that I can do everything without any pain! I am so excited! I don't think I ever posted, but my insurance ended up covering my monthly injections, but we still have a pretty high co-pay on them. I have been doing the injections for 3 months now. (Injections are a whole ordeal so maybe one day I'll write a whole post about it.) So I have my once monthly injection, once weekly Methotrexate and daily Folic Acid. My medications seem to be the right combination for me. I feel like I do before I had RA. My doctor has not seen Alex since she was 2 months old so she went with me. She played with Nomi while I was with the doctor then came in to see her and all the nurses. They loved her, told her how cute she was and could not believe how much she has grown. She even got a sucker from one of the nurses.

18 Months Old

**Actually 18 months and 1 day today**

We are halfway to Alexandra's 2nd birthday! Man, where has the time gone?

Alex is slowly starting to use her words. Some new favorites: oh look, oh here, oh there (for some reason, she adds oh to the front of most words!), kitty, tickle. My mom and sister could have sworn they heard an "oh shit" while we were running errands one day. Looks like mommy and daddy need to watch the language around Alex! haha!

She loves trying to feed herself. She is getting pretty good with a fork and spoon. She is very into playing with her snacks. She will take all of the Cheerios or puffs out of her snack trap and fill her teacups or any other bowl like toy. She will then move them back and forth from container to container. She can feed herself with a fork and now we can actually give her a plate or bowl and it usually stays in front of her instead of ending up on the floor! Since she has been sick, she has pretty much stopped drinking milk. She will drink most of her milk in the morning, but we are lucky if we can get her to drink 4 more ounces through out the rest of the day. Her likes and dislikes change pretty much daily. Example: we went to Red Robin for lunch, she ate 2 tomato slices, a few bites of mozarella and some onion roll. She refused to eat any fries or hamburger meat. She hates Cheetoes, mac and cheese and any Gerber toddler foods.

She likes to practice jumping, which usually looks like her getting to her tip toes. She still LOVES music. In the morning, she will take Josh into the office, get a record, hand it to him and wait for him to turn it on. He has started holding her up so she can press the play button. They spend about 30 minutes or so just dancing around to music.

Toys!

Alex will turn anything she can into a chair. Some current favorites are the clear box her Little People blocks came in, the metal bins that hold her toys and now, the Little People carnival slide!

She loves pretending. She will serve us tea, wait for us to drink it, then refill the cup. If we pour her some, she will "drink" it and hand it back to us for more. She "feeds" us imaginary snacks from her snack cup. She will find a toy that is shaped like a spoon and use it to feed us from her tea cups. She will put anything that looks like a bracelet on her wrist and walk around. She loves carrying around shopping bags and make up bags. She will fill them with her toys and carry them all over the house. She loves stacking blocks. She will stack her Little People blocks 4 or 5 high, then balance a person on top. Anytime she gets a new toy, she turns it over to inspect it. She knows where the on/off switch is on all of her toys and knows how to turn them on if she wants to use it. She is fascinated with buttons. We have a remote in our room that turns on and off 3 lamps. Every morning, she will sit in our bed turning on and off the lamps. We have to keep the laundry room closed because Alex loves to turn on the washer and dryer then press buttons. I feel like she learns so many new things every single day, she amazes me!

Little Miss Sickie

Alex has been sick since Monday. She has a super snotty nose, a cough and sounds congested. She's been running a fever off and on, usually in the evening. Despite being sick, she is in GREAT spirits. Since Abby has a runny nose and cough too, we've stayed home all week, except one trip to the grocery store. Alex is back to her 1:00 nap schedule. I hear her wake up several times during her nap and at night coughing and whimpering. She's been sleeping later since we got back from California. Instead of waking at 6:30, she's been sleeping until 7:30. I think one of the only reasons she wakes up is because that is about the time we start moving around the house and Abby gets here soon after. I'm hoping she will sleep in a little more tomorrow. Josh and I could use a little extra sleep! He's been sick too, mostly a cough and I feel like I'm starting to get it. It's funny, I'm supposed to be the one with pretty much no immune system because of all my meds and I've managed to stay healthy while both Alex and Josh have been sick in the last couple of months. Go figure.

Many of you just thought Christmas was over. We actually have one more Christmas to celebrate next weekend with the Stafin boys, wives and kids. Which means, we have some shopping to do. I hate buying their gifts before Christmas because I have no idea what they are getting from other people. I like to see what they wanted that they didn't get, then getting that. So, a trip to The Woodlands is in store for tomorrow. Yes, we could shop in College Station, but I love The Woodlands and look for any excuse to go! Plus, I have a Williams Sonoma gift card burning a hole in my pocket! I took down everything Christmas related on Monday while the girls were napping. It's nice to have my entire living room back, but kinda sad to see all the decorations boxed up in the laundry room for now. Alex acquired a new found love for opening presents. We had one present left under the tree Monday morning. It was actually for my sister, before we left for Cali, I found out she already got it, so we decided to keep it. Alex was so excited to see one little lonely present under the tree, I had to let her open it. Her little partner in crime Abby was at her side for a front row view!

NYE in California

On Thursday Josh worked half a day then we loaded up the car to head to Dallas. We got to his parents, sat for a few minutes then headed to the airport. I read on the AA.com site they recommend getting there 3 hours before your flight due to extra security. Seriously, it took us 20 minutes to check luggage and get through security. Since we had TONS of extra time, we had an early dinner. Josh noticed our flight that was supposed to leave at 6:55 was now delayed until after 8. We finally left the ground a little after 8:30. My poor girl was soo tired and slept off and on during the flight. We landed at LAX and had to wait almost an hour for our luggage! We made it to my sisters, in Glendale, at 11:45, with just enough time to unload the car, say our hello's and grab a glass of champagne to ring in the New Year! Alex stayed up until 1:30 (yes, 3:30 Texas time!) and was up at 6am. We are used to the first night in a new place not going well, so we were expecting it. She slept with us and tossed and turned most of the night. We were on the go most of the time we were there so Alex was lucky if she got in an hour nap each day in the car. Considering she went to bed late every night, woke up by 6 every morning and hardly napped, she was great! We did notice on the last day that 2 new teeth broke through the skin while we were there and the other 2 are about to. (Alex now has 2 of her canine teeth!) The teething added a little extra fuss.

Friday we stayed at the house most of the day. We all woke up, relaxed, had a yummy brunch and opened presents. That afternoon Josh, Laith, Hudson, Izzy and I went to the mall to find all three kids coordinating outfits for pictures they were having made Saturday. Alex got to stay home with my parents and Jodi to rest.

Saturday afternoon we took the kids to a friends studio for pics. Alex napped about 20 minutes in the car and was not happy about pictures. I haven't seen them yet, but from what I saw, we may have a handful of good pics, but I think it's going to be slim pickings! After we got home, Alex got to nap for about 30 minutes then we went to Granville for dinner and walked around the Americana for a little while. We ended our night early so we could take Alex home so she could go to bed.

Sunday we all got ready and headed to Pasadena to do some shopping and have lunch. We passed by the Rose Parade route where all the bleachers were still set up. The whole set up looks much bigger on TV! We had a great dinner at the house. My sister and Laith are great in the kitchen so we had delicious food the entire time we were there!

My nephew got a kitten 2 weeks ago. He is a little black tuxedo cat named Houdini. He is the sweetest cutest cat I have ever seen. Alex LOVED him and he won Josh, a dog person, over. Every time Alex would see him she would laugh and yell kit or kitty at him. He ran from her so she would look for him, then he would come back to see her and let her chase him again. Sunday night he was on my lap and Alex was beside me. He slowly started reaching for her with his paws until he was pretty much in her lap. She just let him sit there. It was the cutest thing. One afternoon Josh was napping and Houdini was snuggled up next to him. I think Josh actually liked it! The Stafin house is now in negotiations for adding a kitten, but it's something we really want to think about and if we do, it wouldn't happen for several months.

Monday morning Alex started getting sick. She has a snotty nose and a cough. Last night she was running a temp. I think it's all due to the drastic weather changes, teething and lack of sleep the last several days. I'm keeping an eye on her and I have nothing planned this week so we can work on getting back on a sleeping schedule and so my sweetheart can get caught up on some sleep!

holiday brunch tradition, crackers with the paper crowns and toys in them!

Josh and the kiddos

every morning, we would go downstairs and snuggle on the couch with Nomi

Alex and Houdini!

Like Butter

This little face just turns my heart into butter. If she would let me, I would just smother her with kisses all day, every day! In the morning, Josh and I just lay there listening to her talk to herself through the monitor. She has the cutest little voice I have ever heard. So far, this is my favorite age, by far! She is becoming such a ham. If she sees the flash of the camera, she gives us the cutest toothiest smile. She just cracks me up. She is so active and such a busy body and every once in awhile she will stop what she is doing, come over, put her head on your shoulder, lay on you or give you and kiss and your heart just stops. This sweet little girl has her way of making you feel like the most special person in the whole world, then in a flash, she is off to play again. She is the light of our lives. We say 100 times a day how perfect/cute/adorable she is and how lucky we are to have her. We are so lucky to be her parents, she brings so much joy to our lives.

Big Ol' Egg

When we got home from Dallas, we spent the afternoon picking up and putting gifts away. Our house was in disarray and there was stuff EVERYWHERE. Josh sat down to watch a little football and Alex hurried to him so she could watch too. She went a little too fast and tripped over one of the millions of toys and happened to hit her head on the coffee table drawer Josh had just opened to get a remote out of. I was on the other side of the couch and I saw it happen, as did Josh. She was hysterical and immediately had a purple mark on her forehead. I fought back tears because it broke my heart she was hurt. Josh held her and rocked her, then I held her for a few minutes. It didn't help that she was already super tired to it made consoling her even harder. I got her special bunny cup she hardly gets to drink from because it isn't kid friendly and leaks if she shakes it and gave her some water while she snuggled with Josh watching football. She calmed down and was fine after that. She went about her business playing and having a great time.

Before bed time, Josh took her on a ride in her cozy coupe. He told her to get in, she opened the door, got in, and closed it behind her. He took her to the bedroom, where she got out, closed the door, explored a little then got back in so Josh could push her back to the living room. They then played bumper coupe. Josh pushed the car, with her in it, into bags of wrapping paper and tissue paper while Alex laughed hysterically. When bed time rolled around, she got back in her car so Josh could drive her to her room to put on jammies then she got back in the car so Josh could drive her around to look for her blanket. She LOVES her car and LOVES her daddy pushing her around in it!

in great spirits despite her boo boo!

my poor baby!