11 Months Old

My Sweet Baby Girl-
   You are 11 months old now!  I can't believe that in one short month you will be a year old.  Time has flown by.  You are growing so fast and developing so many new skills right now.  Here are a few new things about you:

-You have developed into a bit of a picky eater this month.  You learned that you don't have to eat everything we put in front of you so you pick and choose what you want.  I joke that you want to be on an all carb diet (who doesn't), because you'll eat any bread or noodle.  You also love fruit, cheese, salmon and chicken salad and are moving away from eating purees.  We mostly give you solid food.

-You have gone from cruising to standing on your own and moving yourself up and down.  You haven't taken any steps but like to stand and clap or play with a toy. 

-You now have 6 teeth.  Right now your not working on cutting any new ones so we are enjoying LOTS of great sleep during naps and at night. 

-You nurse 4-5 times a day now and eat 3 solid meals, plus a snack.  You are drinking water great out of a sippy cup or with assistance in a regular cup or water bottle.

-You now sound more like you are talking when you babble.  You combine sounds together and chat away when you play or "talk" to mommy and daddy.

-You love to read and especially like to look at books in the car while we are out and about.  Your favorite books right now are touch and feel books, espeically Baby Einstein Touch and Feel Baby Animals and You're Not My Fairy.

-You are a little monkey.  You are learning to climb and try to get up on everything.  Very scary for mommy and daddy.

-You like to figure out how things work.  Pulling the toliet paper off the roll, watching the water fill in our automatic dog water bowl, opening and closing the trash can lid or the doors to the dog pens and filling and empty buckets, bowls and boxes are your favorite forms of amusement right now.

-You LOVE the dogs, especially Kobe.  They might not truly appreciate the WAY you love them, but you think it's a blast to chase them, climb in their dog beds with them, and "pat" them while squealing in delight.

-You are fearless!  You are so trusting in mommy and daddy that you don't think twice about diving right off our laps.  You love to move and play without a care in the world. 

-You still get upset if mommy leaves you with strangers. We will keep working on this, but right now we love that you still need us and try to find the joy in all this together time!

Though you're almost a year old, we remember the day you were born like it was yesterday.  You are, and will always be, our sweet baby girl

A Few Pics

I realized I haven't put many pictures of Lexi up this last month.  I finally got some pictures from the camera uploaded so here are a few newer pics of our little pookiebear.

 A little rock and roll chick :)

 Holding Mrs. Ouchie, the ice pack, after bonking her head.  This face is so sad...:(

 Her new smile...she scrunches up her eyes and cheeks and shows her new little teethy.

 Our big ole grin is getting a little more toothy with the addition of 4 new teeth this month.

 I'm gonna get you mommy!!

Pictures with Mason

This week I had a chance to take one year old pictures of my best friends son, Mason.  I met his mom, Deanna, while I was teaching at Donald and we really bonded while we were pregnant together at school.  Mason is 7 weeks ahead of Lexi and I turn to Deanna whenever I have questions about what's going on with Lexi and, chances are, she has just recently gone through it with Mason.  She has been my listening ear on more occassions than I can count and I am so thankful for her.  So I was happy to get to take some pics for her for Mason's birthday.  We had a blast. I am having so much fun playing around and learning to use my camera so taking pictures of friends babies is great practice. We went to Arbor Hills Nature Reserve in Plano. I wish I lived closer because it would be a beautiful place to take Lexi on some stroller walks/jogs. Here are a few that I really think capture his curious/playful nature.  Lexi played in her pack and play (which I hauled into the nature reserve) and was an angel!  I didn't have enough time to get pics of them together but we have all the time in the world for that later.  I wanted to make sure to get plenty of pictures of Mason before the babies started getting cranky before naptime!  

 

I am so happy our two babies are the best of friends.  It's so fun watching them grow up together and go through all these different baby stages.

Playdate with Mason and Mackenzie

Today we went to my friend Deanna's house for a playdate.  We were out of town when Mason turned one, so it was time to visit Lexi's older and wiser little friend.  Kristen and her baby girl, Mackenzie, joined us and the kids had so much fun together.  Mason and Lexi are starting to at least stay in the same general vicinity and play near each other (sometimes)...Lexi was really excited to play with lots of cool toys!  Mackenzie is getting so much bigger and even though their 6 month age gap seems wide now, it won't be long until she's zooming around playing with Lexi and Mason.  I got some cute pics of her and her mommy today along with a few shots of Mason attempting to walk.  He has already taken his first steps but he was more in the mood to crawl today.  Why wouldn't you want to when it's so much faster?!  

 Reaching for her mama

A few basketball lessons...

 What a sweet smile! 

 Sweet boy trying to share with me!

Mason is crazy about this shell!  He couldn't help breaking into a HUGE grin whenever he saw it.

I got the sweetest picture of Mason and Lexi...he looks like he is giving her a kiss and she has her eyes closed.  Right after this they bonked heads and both broke into tears.  But I still think they had a sweet little friend moment.  I know they are going to be such close friends!

10 Months Old

Dear Alexis-
   I feel like I was just writing your 9 month old post yesterday!  This month has zoomed by in the blink of an eye.  We've been busy, with Mimi up in Dallas part time, and it seems like July was over before it even began.  You have grown leaps and bounds this month and are doing LOTS of new things. I know these letters are lengthy but later on we'll want to look back and remember every detail of our time as we watched you grow up.

Current weight: Around 18 lbs. (no doctor's appointment this month)

-You are eating a combo of baby food and table food, but are getting close to being able to eat just table food.  You love many things and seem eager to try new food if it's something the adults are eating.  You especially love any type of pasta, Cheerios, Gerber Lil' Munchies (we call them cheater cheetos), chicken, salmon, macaroni, strawberries, banana, green beans, yogurt, cheese, toast, and eggs.  I am amazed at all you are eating!

-You are now an expert at crusing and now can walk and stand with one hand, bend over to pick up your toys from the floor and occassionally let go (when Mommy is around).  At times you seem fearless, but really I think you have faith that I will not let anything bad happen to you so you aren't scared to try something if I'm right there to catch you.

-You LOVE music and have started really dancing around this month.  You have a new piano toy that plays music and you know to push the button to play songs, then you will shake and bounce and make sounds like you are singing.  It's so cute!

-You have sprouted 3 new teeth and are working on a fourth in the top center of your mouth.  Right now we are at a total of 5 (soon to be 6) which makes chewing that food a whole lot easier.

-You still fight going to sleep.  You don't want to miss the action.  I relish this time that you still need me at bedtime.  You're independent with so many things and I'm not quite ready to give up this time together yet.  I like to know that you still need my help for some things and helping you wind down is definetely an area you need a little assistance.

-You know lots of commands such as "Get your baby" "Find Mommy" "Come here" "Hold your cup" "Stop" "Open".  You have shown that you know the names of things for a while by looking at them when we refer to them, but now you are getting good at following directions too

-You started calling me Mom...I'm still working on mama because you know how to say it but right now when you want me or I'm out of the room I hear "MOM!" plain as day and when I come into the room or pick you up, your face lights up.  Though you have been saying "words" for a while I don't really count them until you obviously connect it to something.  It took much convincing, but I do think that you know I am "Mama" and "Mom" is your way of calling for me :)  Very exciting!  Your new sounds this month are up and um along with any combination of babbling consonants and vowels.  You make your voice go up and down like you are talking, so it's funny to listen to when you play or ride in the backseat.  It really sounds like you are trying to talk to us.

-You LOVE books.  You will sit on the floor and "read" and flip the pages one at a time, sometimes for 10 minutes or more.  You especially love books with parts you can touch and feel.  The current favorite is "Touch and Feel Baby Animals"...the main characters name is a monkey named Mimi (guess who bought it for you)

-You are crawling on all fours all the time now, but still go to your salamander belly crawl sometimes on our wood floors.  You are wanting to walk so badly and stand so often that you seem to be MUCH more interested in working on that.  You pull up on anything and everything and try to walk around holding on.

-Your seperation anxiety has not gone away yet but you do recognize Mimi enough to stay with her without getting upset.  I am staying patient because you will only need me like this for a short time and I know I will miss it.  I don't like for you to cry unneccessarily and I don't think it's good for you to do that for any length of time, so I am perfectly content working through this with you as you develop the necessary skills to understand I will be back when I leave.  Until then, I'm stuck to you like glue (except for naptime when I enjoy a little "Mommy" rest)

-Daddy is your favorite play buddy now.  You light up when he comes home and you can't WAIT until he changes clothes and scoops you up for playtime. You crack up every day when Daddy makes up new games to play with you.  Just recently we started playing ball and you'll pass the ball back to us or bounce it on the ground.  He puts you up on his shoulders and you ride around banging on his head.  Then you'll lay your head on top of his and it is truly the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

-Your hair is lightening up even more and is looking totally red now.  I guess I will end up with a little redhead after all.  Now if you could only get enough for some cute little pigtails!

Though you grow bigger, smarter and stronger every day, you are still my sweet, little baby.  I take pleasure in each moment that we cuddle and rock, as well as our with our many hours of playtime together.  Your toothy grin melts my heart no matter how many hundreds of times I see it.  Daddy and I love you so much and can't believe in two months you'll be ONE!