Happy 4th of July

Our first 4th of July with a baby and Nick and I did what every parent of an infant does on the celebration of our country's independence....stay inside cursing the late night fireworks shows and  praying all the loud noise wouldn't wake the baby.  We are huge 4th of July fans, so we are looking forward to celebrating this holiday with Lexi in the future and watching her excitement about the fireworks.  We know there will be many family fireworks viewing and 4th of July picnics in our future.  Right now, our darling wants to hit the sack at 7:30, so we just hung around the house and tried to keep the dogs from barking everytime a firecracker went off! 

We also took some pictures today of our Little Miss Independence.  How blessed we are to be Americans and to exercise our freedom everyday!  We are proud to be Americans and we hope our patriotic spirit is embraced by our children as well  :)  Looks like our little darling is alreade learning to work the red, white and blue!

Our newest trick...bending over with one hand!

Sleeping (or lack thereof) & Cousin Time

 Lexi has been having some 9 month sleep regression and we have had to start over with retraining her to put herself back to sleep.  So that's what we have been doing the last couple weeks here in the Mauldin house.  Trying to help Lexi learn to cope with her seperation anxiety and figure out that Daddy and Mommy are, in fact, right in the other room and will be there if she needs us.  We have had playtime in our crib and our room, played peekaboo in her room opening and closing the door, we have been strict about following our bedtime routine for every sleep time, and have come when she called everytime and patted and soothed her in her bed.  At first, she was crying when she was put down in bed and waking up crying out for us in the night, but consistency was the key to success.  After two weeks, Lexi is now rolling over and putting herself back to sleep in the middle of the night and sleeping at least 9 but often 10-11 hours straight.  Not that she never needs comfort or fusses, but if I hit her waketime spot on (3 hours) and start winding her down at the right time, she normally goes off easily.  Hooray for us...I'm happy we did this all without having her cry.  It took a lot of patience and work but it is certainly paying off.... until we took our trip out of town. 
    I was warned that traveling with a baby during this stage of life was more difficult.  She has so many things to look at an observe that she did NOT want to go to bed.  New place, new people around her, new bed = a MAJOR struggle.  Lexi fights sleep anyways and I saw flashbacks of her not taking naps at daycare.  Why sleep when you can people watch all day?  Once she went down to sleep she did great at night but one night she stayed up until 10:00 (which is unheard of for our little 7:30 sleeper).  Still, it was worth it to get to make a much needed trip to see Nick's family in Longview.  Courtney and Bobby's house is going up and is going to be so awesome!  I can't wait to see if finished in the fall.  Lexi rode around the farm on the Mule (the electronic one, not the animal) and enjoyed the fresh, country air.  And, of course, we loved swimming in her Gigi and Papa's pool.  Nick and I also enjoyed laying out on the floaties during her naptime, something we never get to do at home anymore!  Lexi and Cord are so fun to observe.  During our last trip, Lexi was so into watching Cord and playing with him and he didn't pay any attention to her.  This trip, he was watching her like a hawk and she was scooting, crawling and playing all over the house and didn't give him the time of day.  She was much more interested in the dogs (and trying to feed them all her finger foods) then she was Cord. 

Alright...picture time.

9 Months Old

My Darling Lexi-
My, my how much you've grown this last month. You've been going through so many changes. Mommy and Daddy wondered why you started having sleep regression the last few weeks and suddenly you were learning one new skill after the other. No wonder you were having such a hard time sleeping....your little brain was working on overdrive to figure
out how to do so many new things. We went to the doctor yesterday and she said that you are about to cut your top 4 teeth. We have known by the telltale signs of drooling and chewing on everything that you had some new teeth in your future. Here are some monthly measurements and new things you have been learning this month:

Height: 28 inches
Weight: 16 lbs. 14.5 oz

Foods:You have been eating all the fruit and veggie mixes and recently started baby yogurt. You also love finger foods, especially sprinkle cheese and Gerber cheese and veggie puffs, cut up green beans, yogurt bites and cereal puffs.

-You learned to drink out of a sippy cup and LOVE drinking your water from it. You work up a thirst from all that moving.

-You have gone from army crawling everywhere at the speed of light, to a half crawl (up on one knee with the other leg straight out), and just today you figured out how to crawl on both knees. And you crawl all over the house!

-You have figured out how to pull yourself up on the furniture this month and a couple of weeks ago you started cruising the furniture. Now when you wake up in the middle of the night you try to pull yourself up on the edge of your bed to practice. You try to pull up on EVERYTHING, the furniture, mommy's legs, the cabinets, the walls and even poor Kobe is fair game. A We can't have our eyes off of you for a second or you will be up on something wobbling around.

-You have fully mastered babbling and are starting to show signs of understanding mama and dada. You also like to "talk" to your toys and baby dolls when you play and will hold toys and our IPhones up to your face when you play and make a sound like you are talking on the phone. So cute!!

-You are right in the middle of some major seperation anxiety. This is totally normal at this age, but you do get nervous when we pass you to a stranger and you get worried when you wake up and we aren't in the room. You like to try to find us by calling out a sound and having us echo you back.

-You love peekaboo. We work on this all time...(the sooner you can master object permanence the better to help alleviate the seperation anxiety) You love for us to hide behind blankets, shower curtains or doors and pop out to say peekaboo. You also love all book with peekabo flaps and to hide objects and find them. You just figured out how to hold up blankets or your shirt to cover up your own face then pull it down to uncover it.

-You are constantly trying to figure out how things work. All objects are fascinating and each couple of days it seems to be something new...from the doggie door, to opening and closing doors, to splashing in the dogs water bowl or playing with an egg carton and ping pong balls, you just want to discover how everything works. You also love to put objects in and out of containers.

-Babyproofing is a must. You figured out how to open and close doors and unclug things from the wall, so our eyes always have to be on you.

-No new teeth (still just the bottom 2) but I have a feeling we'll be seeing some new ones before long.

-You are a water baby! You love the pool and we go swimming multiple times a week. Thank goodness it's right down the street from our house.

-You started recognizing when I put my sunglasses and purse on that we are going somewhere and you get so excited! You jump up and down and shake you hands in the air and laugh whenever I put these items on!

-You are such a daddy's girl. When daddy gets home from work you giggling and laugh at him and babble up a storm. It's like the fun can finally begin when daddy gets home from work because your favorite playmate has arrived.

What a fascinating time of discovery this month has been. Mommy is having so much fun being home with you all day long. Despite being stuck inside because of the triple digit temperatures here, we are having a ball together. We love you so much sweetheart....you are our little angel.

House Updates-New Flooring

After battling some sickness in our house this week we decided to brave the outdoors and blistering heat this Saturday to do a little shopping.  With our new wood floors we were in major need of some rugs.  Lexi loved to pull her "salamander baby" routine and slide all over them, but I knew I would feel a little better with some cushion under her little belly. So all around Dallas wewent hunting for rugs.  We ended up with a combination of rugs from West Elm and Home Depot.  Here are a few pics of the new floors in our house.  I am so excited and am itching to update the bedroom and artwork on the walls now.  I can't help but tweak the decor all the time.  It's just my nature :)

  

Happy Daddy's Day!

Lexi worked hard on her first Father's Day gift to her daddy.  And why wouldn't she....she is blessed with the most amazing daddy in the whole world and she truly is a "daddy's girl."  I knew Nick would be an amazing father (if anyone has seen how he pampers his dog, Kobe, you can back me up here).  I can honestly say he has surpassed even my highest expectations.  He is a "superdad" and Lexi knows it.  Watching her face light up when he enters a room or comes home after a long days work can attest to her absolute adoration of him.  

We love you so much Nick!  Happy Father's Day :)

House Facelift

Lexi and I packed up and headed to Houston this week to visit my sister, Meagan, and my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Bobby. While we have been in Houston our house has been getting a major facelift. We are putting wood floor throughout a majority of the house. We ripped up a little tile and a lot of carpet and are having the floors installed. Here are a few pics from their first days of work....nick is handling everything at the house and is SOOO glad that he didn't decide to do it himself. I can't wait to see it all finished when I get home on Wednesday (on our 4th anniversary).

7 Months Old

Lexi-
    Today you turned 7 months old.  How quickly you are growing and what a big girl you are becoming right before my eyes.  You change so much each and every day.  Daddy and I always wonder what new surprise is in store for us from week to week.  Here are some of my favorite things that you have learned to do this month.

-At your 6 month doctor's appointment on April 9th you weighed 14 lbs and 1 oz.  You are a teeny petite little thing, but you are right on track with all of your developmental milestones.

-You are talking up a storm.  I thought you were vocal before, but now you talk ALL the time.  You have learned to put consonants and vowels together and when you play with us or your toys it is a non-stop stream of bababa dadada mamama (this one melts my heart even if you don't connect it to me yet).  You also love to "talk" in the backseat of the car when I am on bluetooth.  People laugh now because they can hear you in the background on the phone.

-We have really explored a variety of solid foods this month.  Your favorites are all the fruits, especially apples and peaches.  You don't love veggies yet, but you'll eat them all except carrots.  You HATE carrots and everytime I attempt to give them to you again, you go on an solids strike for a day.

-You are sitting completely on your own.  It's so cute to watch you bend all the way down to reach for your favorite toy and pull yourself back up.  They are so impressed at daycare with you strength, especially because you are so teeny.

-You love bathtime and anything in the water.  You love playing in your blow up pool in the backyard when it's warm enough, or "swimming" in the bathtub when it's not.  You are already a little water baby!

-When you are on your belly you have developed some interesting ways to reach toys that are near you on the floor. Earlier in the month, you would smash your face into the ground and push your booty in the air.  That didn't get you anywhere and you got very frustrated.  Then you started turning your head sideways, stretching your hands to reach as far as you could and kicking your feet until you scooted forward.  This week you figured out the beginnings of keeping your head up and pulling your legs underneath you to squirm forward.  It won't be long until your up on all fours.

-You like to attempt to "chase" your Move and Crawl ball and Follow Me Fiona around the living room while army crawling around.  You are still very slow, but the look of determination on your face tells me it won't be long until you are scooting quickly around the floor.

-You have been teething and have had a few nights sprinkled throughout the month where you woke up multiple times.  You have been such a good nighttime sleeper for so long that it took Daddy and I by surprise.  We have just adjusted and done what we need to do to make you comfortable and help you sleep better.

-You developed a little seperation anxiety this month, when I try to hand you off to someone you don't see all the time.  It takes you a bit of warming up and then you are a social butterfly.

-You love to listen to stories after bathtime at night and help mommy or daddy turn the pages as we read together.

I can't believe as I write this that by the next time I write you a letter summer vacation will almost be here. I'm sure this last month will fly by, just like the other 4 have!  It's fun to watch you grow, but it's more and more obvious to me every day that I can't keep you little forever.