Hooray for More Space

It looks like we are actually moving. Well, if the inspection is goes well. It's just in time, too. Alexis definitely needs more space to be roaming around, more space to cause chaos, more space to fill with her antics. Speaking of antics, here are the latest ones:

1. Pseudo-somersaults: She likes to stick her butt up in the air, put her head completely upside down, and then ALMOST push herself over. She did it once, kind of, and landed sideways, which was pretty awesome. Jason likes to help her bring those somersaults to fruition, complete with some extra rough-and-tumble time. Which she adores.

2. Toy box play zone: As opposed to playing with the items INSIDE of her toybox, she chooses to play with the toybox itself. She has become very adept at climbing in and out of it, so she like to hang out there, play with her toys, read a book, make a few phone calls... I had to move it from the side of the couch because she was using it as a stepping stone to get on top of the couch, and we're not allowing that until we move and can arrange things more safely.

3. Drawer love: (No, I'm not talking underwear...) I haven't figured out an effective way to put locks on the bottom two drawers of her dresser. The problem is that her skill set has progressed from simply opening and closing the drawers and putting things inside of them and taking them out again to opening and closing the drawers and putting herself inside of them, occasionally semi-closing herself in. The first time I saw her standing in the bottom drawer was a few days ago, and while it is awfully cute, it's something she can't be allowed to do, and I've had to scold her for it. And she did it a LOT today, and got scolded every time. And sometimes when I do it, it's just about the saddest thing you could ever possibly imagine the way she scrunches up and explodes into tears. Then, of course, I take her in my arms and comfort her immediately. These are the times when it's hard, when she needs to learn that she's going to be told no and that there are consequences to doing things she's not supposed to do, and I have to be firm without being harsh. Quite the challenge.

4. Utensils: She had sweet potatoes with her dinner today, and with a little bit of guidance, ate almost all of them by herself with a spoon. Hooray!

5. Stomp the yard: She has figured out that stomping is fun. And clapping. And sometimes dancing. And even occasionally spinning. That's a pretty funny one to see.

No pics this time, but I'll try and upload the pictures of her relaxing in her box next time. It might be a while before I update due to the move.

Stick a Fork in Her and Call Her Done

Yes, I have discovered the secret to getting any and all children to eat!!!

Perhaps that's an exaggeration..

What I have actually discovered is a way to help my child eat more, and we'll have to see how long it lasts. You see, she has used a spoon (with limited success) frequently, but she's still really had at it, and the appeal of rice cereal splashed across our dining room is limited. However, she has never used a fork. Until now. Alexis' brilliant mother, who in reality is probably way behind the appropriate time range to be doing this, introduced a fork into her eating habits, and she's never been happier! I stuck cubes of sweet potatoes onto her fork, and she LOVED it! The huge advantage here is that while she's building up her fine motor skills, the fork has the ability to maintain its substance as opposed to a wild flinging of said substance across the room. I like forks. They are my new BFF.

In other more pertinent news, Alexis went for her 15 month check up last Thursday and weighs 19 whole pounds! This is great for a number of reasons; it means she's been getting enough to eat the past month and a half, which is almost always a worry for any parent, and she gained good weight, which is great news for us. Plus, she is FINALLY ON THE GROWTH CHART! She's in the third percent, so she's still really small, but she's there. The doctor said she looks fine with everything, and the only thing we're going to watch is her language development because she's a little slower on that. However, she's been really quick with her kinesthetic development and is quite teh explorer, and kids usually develop one or the other more quickly, and that development is not indicative of further tendencies later in life or anything. What's really nice is that, for the first time, she doesn't have to have an interim check-up; she gets to go to her normal, 18-month check up without having to have another one between now and then.

She is turning into quite the toddler, and I am constantly remembering what Earl told me about staying calm and quiet with a low voice. The doctor basically told me the same thing, so when Alex tries to throw a tantrum, which she's learning about, I don't pander to it. She's got other, cooler new tricks than crying for my attention, though. She is saying a few words, albeit sporadically. Yesterday she said the word "ball" twice without being prompted, and I was so proud! She'll also say "hi" occasionally, but it almost seems like once she's figured out how to do something once, she thinks, "Well, that's cool. But what's next?" I'm working with her very specifically trying to name everything and get her to repeat sounds, but she does her own thing, sometimes verbalizing and sometimes not.

She also has gotten into this new thing of now wanting me to lean back, which is absolutely bizarre. If I lean back while sitting on the floor in her room, she will walk up to me and push me forward, and she'll do it over and over and over again. I don't know if she thinks I'm trying to claim her space or what, but she goes behind me to the other side, then back, until I lean back again and she pushes me forward, and we're in a neverending cycle if I would let it continue. Sometimes I make a game out of it and pick her up by her arms onto my back, and she loves that and laughs and laughs.

And while she's growing more independent, she's also growing more dependent. She hugs me now, crashing into me with her arms around my neck, or when I pick her up putting her arms around me a squeezing. I absolutely adore those moment. But then she wants down again immediately to go explore. We went for her first walk today with her new harness, a monkey stuffed animal that goes on her back and clips around so that I she is secure and I can stay attached to her. (Yes, like a leash. I treat my daughter like a dog. Get over it... and isn't a stroller more of a restraint anyway? lol.) We went outside today with it for the first time, and she initially did the first thing she always done when plunked down into wide open spaces. She stands, overwhelmed with excitement, and doesn't move. But then she was off, and it was AWESOME to let her roam and not have to worry nearly as much, giving her freedom and safety all at the same time. Now if only there were something to prevent her from picking up everything on the sidewalk... She made friends with an eldery lady who was outside pruning er bushes. (Honestly, I think she came out hoping that we would come back by because the first time we passed her house, she was looking out of her window with a huge smile on her face.) You could tell she missed her grandkids, and she thought Alex was adorable. But we had a grand old time.

At the moment, though, you'd think that I had sentenced Alex to a life void of love and affection. Yes, she's having a little mini-fit at the moment. Oh well...

And regarding the pictures, well, we've had to move some things around in her room. She wanted to rearrange.

Currently Screaming

She sounds as though she's having the worst morning in the world right now, although the only reason she's crying is because I'm not in the room with her. Poor kid! She's starting to become much more vocal now in general, babbling a lot. It sounds like she is sometimes saying things like "daddy" and "bye", but it's so hard to know! It seems like her whole world is changing right now, and it's hard to get used to. She eats differently, sleeps differently, and plays differently. She also has two top teeth now, but only one of them is in the middle, which makes her look kind of weird when she smiles really big.

Alex is still obsessed with having me read to her, and she likes to curl up in my lap while I'm doing it. She is also obsessed with having Jason chase and tickle her. She ADORES it! He found a ticklish place under her chin and jaw, and he'll wait for her to come get him, and then he'll attack. Alex will run to me and give me a huge hug and bury her face into my arms. Or she'll bend over all the way to her toes and almost fall over, trying to escape but loving it at the same time. It's amazing to hear her just laugh and laugh and laugh.

She's getting so big it seems like. She has a doctor's appointment next week, so we're interested in seeing her stats, especially because she's been such a picky eater the past few weeks. I suppose that's part of being a toddler, though, and she is truly a toddler. We're going to be excited when we finally move and she has true space of her own for playing.

Any suggestions?

Alex and I went to visit Nanny and Papaw this weekend while Jason went to Guatemala. She loved running around in their house and had a blast, and she even got to go "swimming" on Saturday night! She was trying to climb all over things while she was there - the high chair, the fireplace, etc. The first time she tried to get off the fireplace she just kind of walked off and fell over, but the second time she figured out to grab hold of something to help her. However, she kept trying to climb onto one of the side tables.

So, this morning I'm cleaning up the kitchen and walk by her room to check in, and she is sitting on the couch, playing with a pair of socks, as content as can be.

This is not good...

It scared me to death, because how is she going to get down? And there's always stuff on her floor that she could fall onto trying to get down? Plus, if she fell off the side, it's a lot further to fall.

I went in and sat on the couch to see what she would do. She cried and cried, which is unusual, but I think it was because she knew she could get up there and wasn't there. I watched her try to get up again, and after about two minutes she used my knee just a little bit and climbed up the couch as neat as anything.

She is now in her crib with a bunch of her toys. The only thing I can think of is to put something on the couch that would prevent her from being able to climb up without being in danger of falling down from the couch. If anyone has any good ideas, please feel free to let me know!

Update on the DQ

And the DQ stands for drama queen. Yes, she has turned into a drama queen recently. Welcome to toddlerhood. She's actually still a really happy kid most of the time, but she is less content to simply stay in her room and play with her toys. She wants to be out and about, running around the apartment. Literally running, too. She grabbed a hold of walking and almost never crawls anymore, and she is fast fast fast.

She was at the doctor about a week and a half ago and weighed 17 pounds, 6 ounces. She's gaining decent weight, and there's usually a weight gain slowdown around this time anyway, but they're still watching her simply because she's small. All of her tests and bloodwork came back perfectly normal, which was great, and she's now drinking real milk. We're also supplementing her diet with pediasure to get some extra nutrition in her. We're wondering if she might be allergic to either that or the milk, but we're keeping a close eye on her. It's been fun now that she's eating more solid foods. She enjoys most things that we give her and is big on wanting to feed herself most of the time. She's a pretty independent kid.

She still isn't really talking at all, but apparently I was a late talker, and you see how much that slowed my talking progress... She understands some words, and I've been trying to teach her parts of the body. However, she's still mostly content to just babble.

She is starting to enjoy putting things into other things, which she didn't do too much before. She can put a blue circle into the opening for the blue circle, which is pretty cool, and she'll put some of her toys on the shelf of a cabinet in her room. She also has started to throw her friends overboard. She has a big collection of stuffed animals in her crib, and sometimes she likes to pick them up one at a time and then throw them over until there are no more, and then she cries until we rescue them. It's pretty funny. I think what she likes most, though, is being read to. She's really grabbed hold of this in a huge way in the past week or so. We've always read to her, but now she is very, VERY determined to have us read to her. You know how she used to bring toys over to me and put them in my lap or shoulder? Well, she still does that, but when she does it with books, she doesn't go get anything else. She stands there and kind of bounces up and down a bit and makes commanding noises until I start reading to her. It's gotten a little out of control. Jason apparently read her three books this morning before I got up, and then when I got up I read her a number of books about six times. And just now she kept bringing me book after book, and sometimes she'll interrupt one to start another. It's adorable and pretty funny. I think her favorite is There's a Wocket in My Pocket.

She's also had a few new experiences. We took her to the zoo a few weeks ago. She wasn't very interested in the big animals that were far away, but she LOVED the smaller animals that were closer. She was fascinated by the turtles swimming around in the tanks, and she absolutely loved some small, monkey type of creatures with bright gold manes. They were really active and would get close to the grass, and Alex loved them! We also took her to the playground and she used the swings for the first time and really enjoys that, although she wasn't overly impressed with going down the slide with daddy.

Last but not least, she has a new morning time. 5:30. Ouch, right? Jason sometimes gets up at that time in the morning anyway, but when neither of us does get up, we'll usually get her milk and give it to her in her crib so that we can get a little more sleep, and she's usually pretty content with that. We usually put her down about 7:30, and unless we have company and she wants to be out playing, she'll usually put herself to sleep after a series of playing with the toys attached to her crib, throwing a few animals overboard, and making a series of squeaks and squawks before she settles down.

Overall, happy, healthy, and growing up more every day.

First Words

Alex knows the word book! How appropriate is that? I've been working specifically with a group of words, and book is the first one she's really grabbed a hold of, although it sounds more like "bu" than book. I think k is kind of difficult. We were just playing in her room, and I asked her where the book was, and she looked around the room until she found a book and went straight to it and picked it up and said "bu" when she picked it up. She's done the same thing before, but I realized that I needed to come and update her blog, so right now she's standing at her gate crying and crying because I left.

This means that she is definitely experiencing some separation anxiety. She's always fine when we leave her with people, but she gets very distraught if I'm not with her 24/7. She's learning to cope and I'm trying to learn the balance between being with her and giving her some independence. (She has currently stopped crying and is playing contentedly.) It's a tough thing to figure out, though, because I can't always be with her, but I want to be with her to play with her and talk with her and help her learn things.

All of this ties into her independence. She is choosing to walk a lot more now, even when she's just chilling out in her room. She also wants to eat (almost exclusively) foods that she can feed to herself, which makes some feeding times more difficult. At the same time, though, it's amazing to watch her eating peas and green beans and beans and chicken and other "real people" food that isn't all smashed up. We're still tracking her weight gain pretty carefully, and she'll see the doctor again at the end of the month to check in with her weight and possibly to go on regular milk. I'm always trying to pack in as many calories into the day as I can, and she's having all sorts of fun eating English muffins and trying to scoop up her applesauce with a spoon.

Her language skills are coming along, and she's learning other new skills as well. She has always been obsessed with taking things OUT, but now she's starting to put things in. She has shaped blocks, and yesterday for the first time she actually put her star block and her circle block into the shaped holes for them! It's really awesome to watch, although sometimes she just chooses to throw the blocks at the general direction. It's never gone in that way, although she's kicked it in when the block was balancing on top of the hole.

And her teeth are just growing and growing, and they are very, very crooked! This doesn't give me hope for having Jason's teeth, which apparently were a TON better than mine were as a kid. Her sleeping schedule has changed some, too, and she's pretty consistently up at 6:00 am and in bed by 7:30 pm, although this morning she was awake before 5:00 and hungry... Hopefully that won't be a constant.

Last but not least, I am sorry to report that we have found one thing that she is absolutely terrified of, and that is The Count from Sesame Street. We've tested in on multiple occasions (NOT with the purpose of terrifying her), and as soon as he comes on the screen, she starts crying like she never cries. It's completely sad and utterly hysterical all at the same time.

First Birthday

Hello! Yes, Alex is now one. And she is still small, but happy and healthy. She had her year check-up and weighs 16 pounds, 7 ounces. Again, still small, but she's doing well. She got poked five times at her appointment, which was hard, but she's a trooper and recovered quickly.

She's walking more and more now, letting go of things on her own and walking instead of crawling. Most of the time she's still crawling, though, and usually only takes a few steps at a time, but she's doing it more and more frequently.

She's also getting her first teeth! She was kind of fussy last week and had a horribly stuffy nose, and Jason noticed a little prick when she started gnawing on his hand. And guess what? It looks like it's not just one but TWO coming in at the same time! I think she was having some pain when it was happening, but she seems good now. In the past 2-3 days we've actually been able to see them poking through.

Her maardvark (don't ask) is her closest friend. Most of the time when we go into her room to see her in the morning, she's holding onto his legs, and she'll drag him around. She's become pretty attached. She's become even more inquisitive and is quite the explorer. One of her favorite activities recently is to crawl under our knees when we're sitting on the floor. She needs tunnels to go spelunking... She also loves to roar at us if we roar at her; it's like this little tiny tiger growl and is absolutely adorable! She also loves Baby Einstein videos, especially the caterpillar at the very beginning beginning. Alex is obsessed with her shoes and socks, pulling them off at every opportunity and putting them in her mouth, as you can see in one of the pictures. She also loves peas and lunch meat and feeding herself. There hasn't been any difficulty switching her from a bottle to strictly a sippy cup, and the doctor's holding off on putting her on whole milk until she sees her again in late June/early July.

And she is still a really happy baby, loves playing, is being a little bit fussier at bedtime but usually puts herself asleep, and is a handful when we go out in the evenings but is usually pretty composed when we're out during the day. There are a bunch of new videos but I have to organize them, so right now it's just pictures.