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!

Alex loves Oso!

I finally got a cute video of Alex watching Special Agent Oso! She is such a little doll!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Beloved Blankie

The beloved blankie. Alex got blankie from Nomi and Popi for Christmas. It goes on road trips with us, it went to Chicago, if we know we are going to be out past Alex's bed time it goes with us! It is in her crib with her for every single nap and at bedtime. Every night before I put her down, I hold her and put blankie on my shoulder and sing to her. She puts her head on my shoulder and snuggles with blankie. If we are playing in her room, she will go to her crib and pull blankie out and drag it all over her room. She loves to hold it up to her mouth while sucking on her bottom lip. It is her own little way of soothing herself. At night she doesn't cover up with it, instead she will snuggle it to her face while she falls asleep. I have been telling Josh we need to buy a second one just incase we lose it or something happens to it. He says she will be fine with only one.

This morning, I got her up and she leaked through her diaper. Her sheet was damp and so was blankie. I tossed both of them in the washing machine on the shortest cycle possible and as soon as it was done, it went into the dryer. When it was time for her morning nap, blankie was still wet so I picked another soft blanket for her to nap with. Big Mistake! I went through our normal snuggle and song and she wouldn't touch the new blanket. I put her down and within seconds she was screaming. I decided to give her a few minutes to see if she would calm down. No luck, I went in her room and she had thrown both blankets I gave her out of her crib and she was screaming. I got her up since I knew she wouldn't sleep, went in the laundry room and cranked the dryer up to super high and put blankie in for 5 minutes. Thankfully, it was almost dry after 5 minutes so I put her back down with it and within 2 minutes and no fussing she was out like a light. To say this child is attached to her blankie would be an understatement!

Alex and blankie for the first time!

some of my favorite pics of Alex with her blankie!

Walking!

Alex has been taking steps here and there, but yesterday evening, she just started walking! I am so proud of my sweet baby girl! She started walking about 10 minutes before Nomi got here. We were so excited Nomi could be here to see the pumpkin walk!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Cooper Pooper...literally

My sweet big oaf of a dog makes me laugh some days and want to scream others. Yesterday when Alex woke up from her nap we went out front and sat on a blanket in the yard. Cooper was sniffing around then sat by us. He was so cute rolling around in the grass and Alex laughed watching him. Cooper loves sniffing around in the side yard because we have empty lots on both sides of us and he just explores smelling animal trails. When we were getting ready to go inside I called him and he didn't come, so I went to the side of the house to look for him. There he was rolling around, I called him and he came. As he passed me, I got a whiff of poop!!! I looked at him and he had poop all over his head and neck. GROSS!!!! I ushered him into the garage while I picked up the blanket and toys. I had no idea where I was going to clean him up so I set Alex down in the living room and took a brush and skin & coat spray to the garage with me along with a ton of paper towels. I tried spraying him and wiping the poop off and he went nuts running around. The water hose freaks him out so I knew that wasn't an option. I decided to take him in the guest bathroom and try to wash his head. I put towels down and put some water in the tub. I practically dragged him in there by his collar and poured water over his head and scrubbed J&J baby shampoo into his fur. We never bathe him here so we didn't have any pet shampoo and the J&J was the easiest thing to grab. I realized I wasn't going to be able to get the shampoo out with out running his head under the water so I dragged him to our bathroom so I could try to get him in the shower. Alex the whole time was right up in the mix to see what was going on. Getting a 60lb dog in the shower is no fun. He yelped, I yelled and Alex laughed. I could only get his 2 front paws in but it worked. I had to straddle him to keep in from backing out of the shower. Thankfully we have a hand held shower head in there so I was able to get the shampoo rinsed out of his fur. I had the shower door open because we were half in and half out of the shower, again, there was Alex trying to get in the shower to see what we were doing. I quickly realized why we don't bathe Cooper at home. His fur is like a sponge and just soaked up all the water. I towel dried him as much as I could then got the blow dryer out. I left his collar on him so I could have something to hold onto, then realized it was turning his fur red. Ugh. The blow dryer freaked him out so I had to leave his head wet to air dry. Before all of this happened, I was so happy I had time to shower, get ready and pick up the house a little. In a matter of an hour, it looked like a tornado went through here. Thankfully the rest of my day was much calmer!

Josh came home for lunch today and he finally got to see Alex walk! She was standing in the kitchen at the fridge and I looked up she had taken a step away from it. I nudged Josh to look and she took several steps to the middle of the kitchen then looked up at us. When she noticed we were watching her, she stopped and sat down. It was like a turning point. For the last hour, she has been standing on her own and taking more and more little steps!

Tooth #4 and 5

I love this sweet pic of Alex holding Cooper's paw!

Alex has 2 new teeth! The left upper central incisor and right upper lateral incisor are peeking through the gums now! One peeked out yesterday and the other today. As much as I miss her sweet gummy smile, her little toothy smile is even cuter!

We also have some big travel plans coming up. Next month we are driving to California. Yes, I said driving. We thought about it long and hard and decided to drive instead of flying. We are going to take our time getting there, will spend 4 nights with my sister, brother in law, nephew and niece in Glendale, then will take our time getting home. We love road trips and this will by far be our longest! We kinda thought driving would be a little easier so we can take the pack and play, stroller, car seat and as much stuff as we want without having to worry about lugging it through the airport and pay crazy baggage fees.

Then in November, Josh and I are heading to Vegas. No, we are not driving, we are flying this time. We are spending 4 days, 3 nights there. My parents are watching Alex while we go. For Josh's birthday (in May) he said all he wanted to do was go to Vegas. We have been looking and looking at airfare and hotels everything just seemed outrageous until we looked on Southwest and they had friends fly free and hotel deals so we booked our flight and hotel for pennies! (not really pennies, but dirt cheap!) We are so excited about our upcoming trips!