My Dada and ABC's

This morning Alex was on our bed and pointed at Jason and said "my dada." It was so great! It seems that when she puts two words togehter on her own, they always revolve around Jason. Should I be jealous? She's also doing really well walking down the steps on her own or just with my hand. At least she's not crying most of the time when I make her walk down the stairs. She's babbling and talking so much lately. She makes a whole lot of animal sounds and, even if she isn't saying the word, she can identify tons of items. She also continues to help out her mommy by loading the dryer and throwing trash into the trashcan, which is her favorite chore.

Micah is kicking a lot more and I keep hoping that Jason will be able to feel it, but no luck so far. I'm sure it will be soon, though. I have another appointment at the doctor's office next week for the beginning of my sixth month. It's hard to believe that I'm more than halfway along.

The next few months are going to be really busy. I have about two more weeks of classes, but after that I won't be teaching anymore for at least a while. (I was offered another class for May and June, but there was some question about whether the curriculum had changed for it, and I'm not ready to tackle that right now.) However, I think it will be good because after I'm done with this class, it will be time to seriously start preparing Alex's new room and going through her old stuff. We also need to do landscaping out front, which will take a little bit of time. Jason will be traveling in May and again I think in late June/early July, and then hopefully we'll have those few weeks to relax. We have lots of people coming to visit in the next two months, which is wonderful and makes things very busy! Jason has the global prayer gathering in Tyson's Corner this week, which is a huge yearly IJM event, so he's gone most of the weekend, and on Sunday our church has its annual meeting, which will be cool to attend.

I'm including a few pictures of Alex at the playground last Sunday.

Picture Updates

1st tea Party

Alex is upstairs in her room at the moment, giving invisible tea to a monkey. She's having her first tea party! I set up some of her stuffed animals in a circle on the floor, and she's pouring them tea and giving it to them. It's pretty cute.

Alexis is doing great, and it's hard to believe she's almost two. (I need to make a doctor's appointment for her...) Her language has progressed rapidly, although she still basically chooses when she wants to talk. She says mama and dada all the time, but her favorite expression is "here you go" and "there you go" when she gives you something. Or when she wants something. We're working on that :) She says a bunch of different words, but she understands a whole lot more than she actually says, which is normal. While she does say a few expressions, I've only heard her put words together once or twice, the most notable time when she looked at our wedding picture and pointed and said "daddy shoe" when she pointed to Jason's shoes. It was pretty cool. We're trying to teach her to say thank you, which she's only said once so far.

She's still running around all over the place and doesn't like being contained. We had to run a bunch of errands on Tuesday, and when we went to BJs she was completely unhappy being in cart. I decided to let her roam free and see how she did, and she had an absolute blast! It was a great place for her to roam around because there's not a lot that she can get mess up. Alexis loved it and did really well minding me about staying in the aisle I was in, although occasionally she just wanted to sprawl out on the floor. What are you going to do? Yesterday we had a bunch of errands to run as well, so I let her roam free as much as I could, but I put her in the larger part of the cart now that she's a little older and bigger, and she was much happier than being strapped into the seat part. She's just getting to be such a little kid and no longer a baby. She can even walk down the steps by herself, although she doesn't do it very often. She still has little tantrums when I won't take her down the steps, and she can spend way too much time getting up the steps because she likes to sprawl out on them or the landing. She's got to learn, though, because I can't carry her and a kid up and down the steps all the time. She has really enjoyed having more freedom around the house, especially being in the kitchen while I'm making dinner or doing dishes. She still likes to grab things, but she does a good job for the most part of doing what she's supposed to. (We're trying to instill in her early on a sense that she needs to do what we tell her so that she can learn that's how things are done and can discipline herself. We'll see how that goes, but so far people who take care of her seem to think that she's really well-behaved.) Who knows what Micah will be like?

And now on to Micah Nathanael. Yes, when I sent out the original information I misspelled his middle name, but what can you expect when I haven't looked at the name in over two years? I think everyone knows, but Micah is after Micah 6:8, and Nathanael is from the NT when Jesus says he's an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. The ultrasound from last week said he's right on track and weighs 12 ounces and is due July 19. I definitely look pregnant now! I have a lot more energy than I did the first semester, which is totally normal. However, I still have had a few episodes of morning sickness in my second trimester, but hopefully those instances are over. Next month we're going to start setting up Alexis' new room so that she can move out of the nursery and Micah can move in. I started feeling the flutterins a few weeks ago, but I can now feel full-fledged, tiny kicks and punches, which is probably my favorite part of pregnancy. I keep trying to catch him so that Jason can feel him, but it hasn't happened so far. Soon, though, I'm sure.

Things are otherwise going well, but busy as usual. We keep thinking that at some point things calm down, but I think we've learned that life just doesn't happen that way. I'm in the middle of another class right now, which ends at the beginning of April, and then I'll start prepping for everything Micah-related. We have a houseful of people over the next month or so, which is exciting because we'll get to see people we don't usually get to see. Jason has another trip in late May, but other than that this year looks travel-free after that. And then July is looking in the near future! I haven't thought about it in these terms, but Micah is about four months away. Four months ago I was getting ready for Thanksgiving, and that doesn't sound long ago. (After all, we've been in this house for six months...)

Pictures and videos coming later...

A Brief Video of Driving and Animal Sounds

New Name for a New Family

Yes, this has switched from a strictly Alex blog to a blog for the whole family. Considering that we have number two on the way, I thought that it would be easiest. We're now at http:.//theedgertonfamily.blogspot.com. (You probably already know that if you're reading this, though...) ON TO THE NEWS!

Alexis is over 20 months old now, and she is finally beginning to talk some! She's had pieces of language here and there, but she seems to be saying a whole lot more during the past week. While sum of her favorite things to say are still "oh no" and "uh-oh", she is saying mama and dada a lot more and identifying objects on her own a lot more frequently. One of her other favorite things to do is to make animal sounds for tigers, dogs, cows, and ducks. She's not great at them (she says "mmmm" instead of "moo"), but it just makes it all the more adorable. She's starting to pick up other ones as well and will even put her hands in her armpits and make monkey noises for a monkey. Jason and I have BOTH been called monkeys, and I've been called an elephant. Should I worry about that??? :) She is also learning to count a little and says one and two. This morning she even did it all by herself when she was placing puzzle pieces on the windowsill.

She still remains as joyous as ever, with a few attempts at tantrums thrown in. One of her favorite times of day is when we pick Jason up from the train and he hides somewhere around the car. She knows it's coming, but she screams with delight every time, usually right in my ear. It's the cutest time! I know she loves me, but she ADORES Jason, as she should. He comes up with the most ridiculous games, liking getting her Elmo doll to puke up fake potato chips and having Elmo and Maardark steal her milk. For some odd reason, our daughter loves to be "attacked" by her friends. The most recent new game was to put her in a cardboard box and slide her back and forth between the two of us. She loved it! After dinner is the time that the three of us usually hang out together before her bedtime at 7:30, and she loves this part of the day when she has both of us or she gets a bath. One of my personal favorite things is when I say I need a hug and she runs to me to hug me, and then Jason says he needs one and he runs to hug him, and she just goes back and forth over and over again. I think the cutest new thing either of us has seen in a while was last night when I asked her where the pillow was (the one her baby doll has) and she found it. We asked her what she does with a pillow and she laid down on the pillow and pretended to snore. It was hysterical. Oh, and ALSO last night after she got into her pjs after her bath, Jason put her on the floor of her room. She waved and said bye bye to us and the proceeded to back into a cabinet and close the door behind her. (This is the same portal to Narnia cabinet, minus a shelf.) We just cracked up! And with few exceptions, she goes to bed with no fuss and gets up a little after 6:00 am. It works out well.

Alexis also continues to do well with EVERYONE! She doesn't have a bit of stranger anxiety (she can be a bit shy occasionally if she's tired or overwhelmed), and she loves being in the nursery at church and apparently is always a joy to have there. She loves meeting new kids and staring at them, and you could tell at Christmas that she recognizes other important people in her life. She had a blast at Christmas and did a really great job during a very long trip, although with two kids next year I don't think there's any way we're going to be gone for eight nights like we were this past year. She has had a blast playing with the toys she got at Christmas from everyone!

She's still small, but she eats well and sleeps well, and we don't have any reason to worry. I'm doing some research about potty training because my HOPE is that she'll be mostly potty-trained by the time number two comes along. We'll see if that happens. We've also been checking out craigslist for furniture for her new room, because she'll move next door. We'd like to just get her a toddler bed, but part of me is afraid that it won't work out because she's too small or will just be too young to be out of her crib when she has just turned two. We'll figure it all out, though.

Alex is great, and I'm starting to feel better. So far this week I haven't had any real stomach issues, which is nice. For a while, I was getting them pretty consistently around 10 and 5. I've also been eating something about every two hours this week, so that might be helping as well. I have my next appointment on the 4th of February, and then hopefully in March we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl! Since I had such significant problems last time, the doctor is going to do an extra special ultrasound on me to check me out really well.

The house has really come together, although we've both realized that owning a home takes a lot more work than renting an apartment. (Yes, we were prepared for that, but it's still a lot of work.) We're planning an official work this Saturday to try and knock out some final small things that we need to do, and once spring rolls around we're going to have to figure out what to do with the yard. We love owning a home, though, and daily feel so blessed to have bought when we did and where we did. The area has been great as well, even if some things are a little further away. Ultimately, though, we like being out of the city right now.

Work has been going well with Jason, and it looks like he'll take fewer trips this year. He's going to Guatemala in February but isn't sure when his other trips will be. (He's NOT going to be traveling after early July, though; I'm due July 20th!!!) I've got another class beginning in March - Rhetorical Patterns in Writing - but after that we're going to have to figure out if I can really manage to teach with a newborn and a toddler, especially because I believe there are going to be some significant curriculum changes to the English courses at Eastern. (Good changes from what I understand, but it will take a lot more time to prep for classes at the beginning.) So who knows?

And that's basically life for now. Life is good. We're very happy and are looking forward to this year! (How's that for a nice generic way to end the blog?) Oh, and there are a bunch more pictures on my facebook page.

Finally a New Post

Sorry about the time lapse...

Alexis Grace Edgerton Edgerton (that's her full Nica name) is almost 1 1/2 years old, and that is unbelievable to me. She seems to be growing bigger and bigger every day because she can do so much. She is definitely asserting her independence much more frequently, and we're learning the balance of letting her have that but also of trying to stand firm with discipline. This becomes hard with situations like eating. For example, this afternoon with lunch she didn't want to eat unless she was feeding herself with the spoon; she wouldn't let me feed her. It was a time when it was fine for her to assert her independence, and she could just get messy. However, throwing her food overboard gives a resounding no from us, and sometimes a slap on the hand for reinforcement. (Not in an abusive way... :) It's a difficult balance to try to find, but I think/hope we're doing okay with it.

She still isn't talking much, although she babbles quite a bit and we continue to work with her. She has her checkup in a few weeks, so I'll be interested what her new doctor has to say about her development. However, her language development in the are of hearing seems to be doing well. Yesterday, all in a row she identified her eyes, nose, mouth, head, hair, toes, fingers, and belly button. It was one of the coolest thigns yet! And she has started to give kisses, although the past few days she's been shying away from them. It will melt your heart to get one, or to see her give one to her maardvark or another friend.

The house is great for her, too. In the rec room she now has a play kitchen, which she enjoys a lot, and she loves going up and down the steps, although she wants to do it like an adult. This girl has NO desire to go butt first; she wants to put only one foot on each step. Danger? She LAUGHS in the face of danger. This girl has no fear.

The New House

Alexis is in love with the new house. She wants to go down the steps like an adult, which is adorable, and she loves having more space. Originally I think she was taking a little time to adjust to her rec room downstairs, but now she loves it, ESPECIALLY because of her new toy. I finally bought her a play kitchen off of craigslist, and she is in love with it. It came with a few toys, and she's in love with the french fry it came with, which is hysterical because she adores french fries. The house has made her very happy, and when I look at her now having all of this space, I wonder how we ever would have made it much longer in our old apartment.

She is babbling a ton now, and using words more often, although still fairly infrequently. She doesn't have a huge vocabulary, but she's good at mama and bye bye, and she'll say other things randomly. She has molars coming in right now and seems to be doing okay with that. She continues to eat well and grow well. Seventeen months old today - wow!

I know this is a short post, but (understandably) things have been pretty busy. Alex is happy happy happy, and was overjoyed to have her daddy home after a long trip. I tried posting a brief video of her favorite new pastime, but it wasn't working, so feel free to check it out on my facebook page.