Something new every day!

Alexa is at the stage where it seems like every day her vocabulary is doubling. She thinks she has to repeat EVERYTHING we say! This was at first very cute & amusing. That was until the day I called in to the other room for Micah to come help me with something. The next word out of Alexa's little mouth I hear is "Micah" -- AHHHHHH!~

Her other new thing is stairs. She has been going up stairs for a few weeks already. However, she has recently started to try going down - which is part humerous & part terrifying! She sits on her bumm & slides down, step by step. Only thing is that is not "fun" enough for her - - so instead she has to bounce down step by step on her bumm. This makes for a very amusing experience for her, for her mommy, however, it is terrifying! Her accuracy is not so great and many times she has needed mommy or daddy there to catch her!

Saturday we had quite the scare...Alexa was coming upstairs where I was at the top blowing dry my hair. I looked up to see her 3 steps from the top and she looks up at me & waves & giggles as she says "Hi Mommy, I cum up" -- and not a moment later I see her loose her balance & within a split second she has attempted to regain her balance, slipped a few steps and then rolled down the rest to the landing far below! I dropped the hair dryer & in sheer panic raced to the bottom of the steps to pick up her screaming body from the landing. She was crying so hard & would not calm down as she clung to me. Micah came from downstairs & gave her a huge hug but nothing seemed to help. She finally calmed down a bit & saw the cookies on the counter which distracted her enough to stop crying. I was sitting with her for a while & then I set her down to stand in the middle of the floor...only to find that as she tried to take a step her right leg seemed to colapse beneath her & she let out a sharp cry...much to my horror! I quickly picked her up & hugged her asking her where it hurt...but as she's only 16 months that didn't do much good! I of course feared the worse...something being broken or what not & a trip to the ER being in our future -- however, thankfully as the night went on she slowly went from colapsing with any weight on her leg, to limping and then to walking normal again!

Hopefully that's the worst drama we'll have at our house for the next many many months!

Say Cheese! :)

Someone likes the camera a little too much! -- I had it out the other day to go put it on the charger & as Alexa walked by me she saw the camera so she of course had to stop & say cheese! It doesn't matter if the camera is on or not - if its in her sight someone must be taking a picture of her (or so she thinks!) :) She will say cheese from the moment the camera is out until its finally put away! --Here's a shot I took of her on Sunday morning!

My little go-getter :)

Alexa is constantly running around like crazy - seeming to get older and older every time we look at her! She has to help make supper, open doors, buckler herself in, she wants to walk everywhere and always prove that she's such a big girl! Her vocabulary seems to increase more and more each week and we can't ever seem to get her to stop talking :) which I suppose is a good problem to have!

So I thought I'd add some pictures as I've actually been remember to snap some lately! ;)

Actually falling asleep someplace other than her bed!

(she has not done this since she was an infant!)

Enjoying supper with Auntie Kiley & Sean, Mommy & Daddy at Pizza Ranch :) Yum Yum!


Riding (or at least having mommy push me around) on my car is SO much fun! :)

Any time someone takes a camera out its "Cheese pease, cheese pease" :)

So what if I have my pretty church dress on, I'm still going to climb the stairs!

Kiko, are you coming with me? :)

Random thoughts...

Last weekend we went with some friends to Minneapolis for the weekend. The ladies left Saturday morning to do some shopping and the guys met us up there later in the afternoon. We planned to spend the night at a hotel & then go to the Vikings vs 49ers football game on Sunday. It turned out that despite not being fans of either team, it was a great game to go to - action packed the whole time - it was so close that the winning touchdown was scored with only 2 seconds left on the clock! The stadium was going crazy the whole time and with less than 2 minutes left most people thought the 49ers had won, there were even people who left the stadium at that point - something I'm sure they were kicking themselves for afterwards! We had a fabulous time, I found awesome deals at the outlet stores, and overall we just had a great time enjoying our friends and relaxing.

The only hard part about the weekend was it meant leaving Alexa overnight. In her 15 months we have really only had her stay overnight at someone's house one other time (without us being there) and that was only for one night because we had to be in Sioux Falls on Friday night & again early Saturday morning & all day for a wedding. There have been times I have left her home with Micah for a night or two over the last year, but at least each time I knew she was at home with Daddy -- this time she didn't have either of us and wasn't at home!

She did really great, despite my fears, she probably didn't even realize we were gone! Micah dropped her off at my mom's late on Saturday morning & she stayed there until we took her home on Monday night. Since I couldn't go THAT long without seeing her, Monday morning I even went there & spent a few hours playing with her before going into work. Apparently she didn't mind us being gone as much as I did!

Then, after having been away from Alexa all weekend, Micah ended up needing to go on a work trip to Northern Michigan and left again on Tuesday and didn't come home until Thursday! So I spent my 26th birthday with Alexa, my mom, and my sister Sarah and her kids. They were super sweet and bought be supper & they even had a cake for me :)! By the end of the 2nd day Alexa was standing at my mom's front door trying desperately to turn the handle crying out for "DaDa!" I tried taking a picture of it (as Mommy thought it was just too cute) but the moment I took my camera out she would walk up to me & say "Cheese momma, Cheese" until the camera went away, and then she would go back to crying for Daddy. So needless to say I was thrilled when Micah arrived safely home on Thursday night and so was Alexa!

Well, its almost 3 am and I'm starting to get sleepy again - well that or my back & body are ready for me to move to a new positions! No, for those of you who know me I am not turning into a night owl - I still need my sleep! I simply woke up around 1:20 this morning & was thirsty & hungry so I decided to go find a snack. Should have been harmless enough, but as I set my foot down and as sharp pain shot up!

I realized that what I had earlier thought was dry skin ended up being a metal sliver of some sort stuck in my foot! So I hobbled back upstairs and got out the tweezers. As I sat, bent over my foot, digging out the metal shard that felt like it was humungous (when really it was smaller than an eyelash) because I couldn't possibly get away with waking Micah up at this hour for a sliver when he has to work in the morning, I realized that I'm old! Although 26 may not be old, my body is telling me I'm old! At least, I certainly am not as limber as I used to be! After I had achieved success and freed my foot from its pain, I tried to stand up & walk back to bed...but in doing so, I felt like my back was going to shatter! I told myself just breathe and lay down -- after all its only 7 steps between where I was sitting & my bed...but as I eased myself back into bed to lay down, I felt like if I exhaled I would certainly crack every bone in my body! So what did I decide to do? I'm instead sitting on the floor with the heating pad on my back typing away at this blog instead of sleeping. And what final thoughts have I come to now...instead of my back being sore -- I think my butt is! :) Enough for tonight, or should I say this morning?

Growing up too fast!

So over the past week or so as I sit and watch Alexa playing, talking, and interacting, I can't help but think how much she has changed and grown up! She's only 14, almost 15 months old but she acts as if she's older! (at least most of the time) I thought it was about time I start documenting some of the stages of her life before I can't remember them anymore! :)

Here's some fun facts to show you what I'm talking about:
* She wants to walk everywhere on her own. She'll hold your hand and go almost anywhere with you and she's actually not that slow of a walker - good thing she has daddy's long legs!
* She opens doors and loves to close them again
* She thinks that she always needs to feed herself. When she's playing with her toy kitchen she'll take a pan and a spoon and she'll pretend to make food and then eat it or share it for you to eat
* She talks as if you should understand the full sentences she's saying -- the sounds out of her mouth truly do sound like complete sentences, but I'm just not sure what language she's speaking them in!
* We'll walk in to Alicia's in the morning and Alexa will turn and look at me and put her finger over her lips and say "Shhh....baby sleepin"
* If I'm laying on the couch sleeping or even just pretending to sleep, Alexa will come over to me, put her arm on my back, hold her face right in front of mine and say "Boo" then back away and giggle and smile
* She constantly wants to go potty! -- That's right at only 14 months old my little girl will look at me and say "momma, potty" then she goes and trots over to the potty and asks to be put on it! Today alone, she has gone potty on the potty (or what she thinks is the potty- more on that later) 3 times! In no way, shape, or form do I believe its time to get rid of the diapers yet but at least she knows and understands the concept and is interested in it!
* The last time we checked she was 22lbs & that was about 2 months ago!

* She LOVES phones -- cell phone or home phone she constantly begs to play with them all. She'll hold it up to her ear and say "Hi" over and over again!

* She thinks the remote to our fan is fasinating! She loves being able to make the wind start and stop over and over again! (see pictures below!)

* She's silly and only has 7 teeth and has had them since before she was a year old-- four on the top & 3 on the bottom (the fourth front tooth is still missing!) (See pictures below)

* She says more words than I can believe. Everything out of our mouths she tries to repeat and she seems to understand what she's talking about...from ouch, cup, milk, juice, diaper, kiko, momma, dada, chair, more, please, kitty, puppy, bear, cow, car, shoes, door, hat, phone, blankie, bag, bed, nigh-nigh(night), kiss, hug, grandma, grandpa, papa, Bobbie, the list just goes on & on!
* She's using sign language and she is getting really good at it! More and please are her favorites to sign but she's also learning milk & thank you!

* She LOVES shoes -- give her shoes and she'll be happy playing with them for hours!
* She loves backing up to sit on anyone and anything so watch out -- if she's backing her little butt up to you -- she's about to sit! :)
* She loves stairs -- going up them is her favorite thing to do -- this scares mommy and daddy but she is pretty good at it -- now if only she could master going down...

* Playing horse is her favorite game. Beware - if you let her ride you once, you'll have to let her do it a hundred times or more!
* She is a smart little cookie - she piles her bear, her baby, and all her blankies against the side of the crib and she tries to get her body over the edge by pulling her little body up to the top and then she sort of hangs there on her tummy until she goes back down having unsuccesfully gone over the edge - its a good thing she hasn't figured out she could be doing that against the shorter side & she'd actually succeed in getting out!
* She has to be a big girl & help with everything! From telling her to bring mom something to give something to dad -- she actually listens & does what you ask (most of the time at least!)

* Her belly button is not private. It is totally okay in her mind to lift up her shirt at anytime and show everyone her belly button and tummy. Oh and beware - if you say anything when she does it - you're next! She has no hesitation in going up to others and trying to pull their shirt up to find their belly button! :)
* Every morning she has to carry her diaper to the garbage and throw it away herself. We keep our garbage hidden in a cupboard that she has to open and close which she absolutely loves to do!
* She's getting so big! Everyone tells me she's just a little peanut and although I know she is -- the girl is only 14-15 months old and is wearing 24 month clothing!

Some other cute stories to document about our little 'angel'
- she thinks if anyone in her sight or vacinity is eating something, all she has to do is tell that person please and then they'll give her some of their food...no matter what it is - so beware our little piggy LOVES to eat your food! ;)
- she has decided that in addition to using the potty chair and the big potty, the booster chair that daddy left sitting in the living also makes an excellent potty chair:
Last night I was working on my bible study lesson (which I had put off for far too long since bible study was at 8pm that night) and I was sitting on the couch trying to focus on the lesson. Daddy had agreed to keep an eye on our adventurous and impossible to contain little darling who was running around diaperless as she had gone potty on the big potty just a short time before. Alexa comes into the living room to see what I was up to and after I tried sending her back to her daddy, I saw her headed for the booster seat in the corner of the living room floor...she backed up and sat down and said to me "momma" "potty" and I looked up to see her sitting there grinning at me. So I of course told her no, that's no the potty chair, and I called for Micah to come watch her. "I am" was the answer I received from the other room ;) by this time Alexa had again grinned at me and said "potty mama" and as I watched her stand up to run away she wiped out on the floor -- having of course gone potty on the booster chair and by that point she had gotten the floor all wet! Good thing we have hard-wood floors and not carpet!

Now for the second night in a row she has used the booster chair as a potty chair successfully - much to mommy's dismay! In my opinion there is not enough disinfectant in the world to make me say that's okay!

Goodbye hand-me downs! :(

So irony strikes again! When I was a little girl I hated, absolutely despised, getting hand-me-downs! I begged & pleaded & wished & hoped for the day I could buy my own brand new clothes & finally wear something that no one else had worn before! Being the youngest of 5, accomplishing that goal took a very long time!

Now that I am grown up (sort of) and have a little girl of my own do I hate hand-me-downs? No way! I absolutely love them. It lights up my day to get "new" clothes for my little girl from my sister (who's had two girls of her own). The first year of Alexa's life her babysitters often commented on the fact that she wore a new outfit everyday with hardly ever a repeat in outfits! It was amazing & grand & I loved every minute of it, especially as my husband tends to think that children's clothes should cost about $0.25 or less! ;)

Only there's one problem with my beautiful world of hand-me-downs...they will be coming to an abrupt and awful end! Alexa, my 14 month old little girl, is the SAME SIZE if not bigger in some aspects than her older cousin, Faith, who will be 3 in November! Yes that's right -- there is an almost 2 year difference between the two little girls & yet they are currently the same size!

So apparently my animosity to hand-me-downs has come back to bite me in the butt big time! I suppose all that complaining I did as a child had to have consequences but who would have ever thought it'd come this soon or in this way. I guess I'll just have to keep feeding Alexa until she's bigger than Faith & then Alexa can get her older cousin Mackinzie's hand-me-downs before Faith does! :) hehe oh how a girl can dream!

His last message...Watch Therefore!

Below is the recording of the last sermon my Dad ever preached. I had the privilege of being in the congregation that Sunday, August 31st, 2008 at Lynden URC where he was preaching as a favor to their pastor. He passed away while golfing in a charity tournament only 6 days later on Saturday, September 6th while on the 7th hole.
I find it comforting and yet ironic that his last sermon told people to Watch Therefore! As you do not know the day or the hour... -- We never know when the Lord will call us home or when He will return...we must always be ready & watching...