Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Multi-Blood Princess, Alexa

The title of the post is my attempt at humor in relation to Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, which came out in theaters this past week (and I've been re-reading the book).

Like I stated in my last post, Gram rode back to Columbus with us on Sunday night. On Monday morning, she enjoyed some quality time with Alexa. Gram fed Alexa her breakfast and played with her.










Shortly before Alexa's morning nap, Aunt Janine arrived to pick up Gram. She was able to feed Alexa her before-nap bottle. We are really looking forward to our car ride to Perry with them on Tuesday!










On Monday afternoon, we went to the pool with our friends, Tim and Becky. Alexa much preferred to be sitting on the lawn chair playing then in the pool. And just because it hadn't happened in awhile... Alexa had a nice diaper explosion while we were there, lol.










Chloe's 5th Birthday was on Tuesday! I remember picking her out at the animal shelter when she was just 2 months old (and weighed 8 lbs)... I cannot believe we've already had her for 5 years (and she now weighs 70+ lbs)! For her birthday, Chloe got a new ball with ropes in it and two marrow bones. I know my postings never focus on our puppers, but we really do love Chloe and she has been WONDERFUL with Alexa :-)










Daddy is constantly working with Alexa on pulling herself up to stand (and on crawling too). Once in a standing position, Alexa can hold on by herself!










Somewhere along the way, Alexa has learned to share!


Yup, right now those pretty seem to remain hazel colored. Although lately I've noticed 'em darkening a bit. FINALLY... I caught Alexa's smile on camera (pic on the right). She smiles soooo much but always seems to make weird faces when the shutter snaps.










The beginning noise ("ehhhhh") is how JaJa taught Alexa to talk. I got her to mimic me with the "wa-wa-wa" sound.


The VERY talented Alexa Rose holding her bottle in one hand and her foot in the other, haha.


Alexa enjoys looking at books. I'm really happy because if I place toys and books around her, she almost always would rather look at a book then play with one of her toys :-) When she was looking at the book with the babies (animals and humans), Alexa would look back and forth between the pictures then finally settle on staring at the human baby. She is brilliant!










We went back to the pool with Tim on Thursday. Alexa really enjoyed being in the water this time! She stayed in her raft for a really long time. Her little legs were kicking away, too cute. Again, another photo of Alexa "reading."













Close-up of Chloe. I don't know why, but I find this picture of Alexa hilarious.










Alexa building some leg strength in her jumper. The whole time she is staring off, she's looking at Chloe :-)


Alexa has figured out how to get from a sitting position to her tummy. Now if she could only figure out how to move FORWARD instead of spinning or backward!


On Friday night, Pat & Becky came over to babysit Alexa while Dan & I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I was quite disappointed with the film (because I felt like they had omitted some pretty important scenes from the book), but we enjoyed a yummy dinner at the Movie Tavern (this cool theater that serves dinner while you're watching a movie) and a "butterbeer," which is what the characters in HP drink, consisting of Killian's and Butterscotch Schnapps.










I feel like so many of my posts lately have focused on our busy life that I keep forgetting to update you on what's new with Alexa. So here goes :-) On the "movement" front, Alexa is rolling tons! She has even gotten the hang of a barrel roll. Alexa also scoots on her butt and semi-crawls. By semi-crawling, I mean she can turn herself in circles and go backwards. This morning Daddy got her to go forward a teeny bit. I know people say once they start moving you will miss the days when they stayed still, but we are really looking forward to Alexa keeping us on our toes!

One of Alexa's new "tricks" is waving. She does the open-close-open-close hand wave. Most of the time she does it to herself, lol.
From the movies, I'm sure you can tell she is quite vocal. Dan and I are pretty sure her vocabulary has expanded from "Mama" and "Dada" to now include "Hi" and "Book." An amusing note on her vocabulary is that she seems to always say "Mama" when she a. is hungry or b. has pooped her diaper, and she says "Dada" whenever she wants to play. We also enjoy getting Alexa to imitate sounds we make. Like the "ehhhh" or "wa-wa-wa" from the videos.

Alexa continues to do great with food! We've been testing the waters with more and more self-feeding foods, meat purees, and green vegetables. Last week we eliminated the before-bed nursing session and are now just breastfeeding when Alexa wakes up. She has increased her "snack" bottles from 2 to 4 oz, and her meal-time bottles are now 6 oz. We go to the doctor on July 30th for Alexa's 9-month check-up, and I cannot wait to see how much weight "Skinny" has gained since her sick visit on July 3rd.

I know there is so much more that I am forgetting to put on the blog, but it seems to be escaping my brain at the moment (and Dan's too because I asked him). What I need to do is create a list of reminders for myself ;-) Well, I gotta boogie Dan's hungry and wants me to get lunch. We're looking forward to having the gang over tonight to visit with Art! Ciao.


1 comment:

Andy said...

Nice 90210 pillow under her head :) That cracks me up!

Say hi to Alexa for us....she really is growing fast. It was nice talking to you this afternoon. Those three should decide more often to nap at the same time and let their Moms talk.