Alexis' Birthday

First, I'm trying out some new features for easy picture and video upload to Blogger, so hopefully I'll have more pics and videos up. I'm also diving into the HUGE task of trying to organize our pictures. There are a lot of them. I think I got through 2010 yesterday, and now it's time to tackle 2009. Yikes.

Alxis is now THREE!!! She had a very nice birthday. On Wednesday she opened up our presents and some other presents from family, and she had a blast. We put a happy birthday sign on the curtain rod and a bunch of balloons on her chair while we opened presents. We had hot dogs for dinner, and after we opened presents we went out to Coldstone Creamery so that she could get her first free birthday ice cream. It was a nice birthday. The other day we finally took the balloons off of her chair, and she discovered a "pocket" next to our black chair that has a floor vent. When she put the balloons there and the air came on, they started bouncing all over while staying in that same little pocket. She calls it a balloon party and keeps inviting us to her balloon party. It's so cute!

She went to the doctor on Thursday and is 34 3/4" tall and weighs 28.5 pounds. What was cool is that her doctor remarked on her vocabulary multiple times and was pretty impressed. He said that she did a great job following directions (he asked her to push his hands and pull him towards her and stuff like that), and he asked if I sent her to preschool and I said no, and he seemed pretty surprised at that and said that I was doing a good job at home. WHen we were leaving he said that she has a pretty amazing vocabulary and called her a smart cookie. Yes, I'm bragging a little bit about my girl. I try really hard not to be too wrapped up in things like that, but when her doctor says that she's smart, that feels pretty good.

She is still doing a good job with potty training. We've had a few accidents here and there, but for the most part she's good with it. She was still sleeping with a gate up because she's a wanderer, but now that she's three I'm starting to leave the gate off and a nightlight on. I don't want her wandering around in the middle of the night, especially with stairs, but I also want her to have ready access to the toilet if she needs it. I'm also trying to teach her not to come out of her room to get me until there's a 7 in the first number slot on the clock. We'll see how it goes. She did a great job this morning and went to the potty before she ever came to get me. Hooray! (The kids also slept a little later because it's raining and darker than normal outside.)

And tragically, she cried when Jason left yesterday. She has an understanding that he's going to be gone for a while and keep saying things like "Don't go to Guatemalee" and curling up in his lap and asking him to stay. When he got out of the car at the airport, she started to cry, and it was so sad and cute at the same time. Jason loved it and hated it all at the same time, which I'm sure you can understand.

Micah is downstairs playing right now, which is wonderful because he got sick on Saturday. It was either some 24 hour thing or teething, but Saturday he was running a pretty high temperature and I slept on the floor next to him that night (meaning I didn't sleep much, but that's what you do, right?). His temperature was down a little bit yesterday morning, which was good because if it had been the same I would have called the doctor. He was still pretty unhappy yesterday, but last night he started to feel better and wasn't nearly as warm, and he slept for over twelve hours last night and wok eup happy and feverless this morning. Hooray! I'll still keep an eye on him for a day or two, but hopefully he's all good now and isn't making Alexis sick.

Micah has been standing on his own sometimes for about five seconds at a time, and he understands putting one foot in front of another for walking, but I think it will still be a little bit of time before he does that. I'll be interested in seeing whether he does it before he's one.

My birthday was also pretty great. I came downstairs early to make a bottle for Micah and was confused because there was stuff out for pancakes... Jason surprised me by taking the day off of work! It was pretty great. He's a keeper.