Noni came to town on Monday night, so first thing Tuesday morning she touched up Alexa's toe nails (the paint had come off all but her two big toes, lol). Dixie and Chloe shared the dog bowl for their meals :-)
After morning nap, we took Noni to Babytime with us. Noni did all of the lap-sit rhymes with Alexa. Afterward, they went up to pet Ralf the stuffed dog who "helps" Ms. Allison (in the orange), our librarian. From the library, we went shopping and ran tons of errands. Alexa sat in a shopping cart for the first time at Target.
After dinner on Tuesday night we took Naked Alexa (on the left) out to the pool. Daddy and Noni thought it would be hilarious to mess up Alexa's hair :)~ On Wednesday we did LOADS of yard work - we trimmed and cleaned up all of the bushes, as well as mulched the front and side of the house, and my mom mowed part of the yard. After sweating a ton, us three girls got in the pool (the right picture).
For dinner we had Noni & Daddy's favorite - Pei Wei (a division of PF Chang's). Alexa sat in a high chair for the first time at a restaurant! Doesn't she look happy to be with her Noni? We were all so happy that she came to visit!
On our drive home we stopped by the park so Noni could see how much Alexa loves to swing!
Here is the video of her swinging on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Alexa and I followed my mom back up to Perry to do a little garage sale-ing and to see my dad, brother, and grandmother (Danielle was a counselor at 4-H camp all last week). Alexa played with Papa on Thursday evening when he got home from work and again on Friday morning before he left for work. Alexa, Mommy, Noni, JaJa, and Gram had lunch at Applebee's on Friday. Silly JaJa always thinks Alexa wants to wear his [semi-gross] hats.
Alexa's wondering what drink she should order, haha. Gram giving Alexa kisses!
We drove back to Dublin on Friday afternoon. It was a long, tiring drive because Alexa was fussy. I had to stop several times to feed her, change her diaper, and just hold her. I think she was sick of being in the car. Daddy thought she might be ready for the walker (our exersaucer turns into a walker), but he was wrong. Alexa tried watermelon on Friday morning in Perry, and my mom sent some home with us so that Daddy could see her eat it (on the right she is eating some with breakfast on Saturday morning).
Our community (subdivision) had a garage sale on Saturday. We drove around for over an hour, and I cannot even tell you how many sales we stopped at! Afterward, Alexa and Daddy went to a "Daddy & Me" storytime while I went to a Flannelboard Making workshop at the library.
Most of our weekend was spent working on the yard. Here are some photos of the finished work. We pulled out a lot of ugly or dead bushes and weeds and used 28 bags of mulch. We bought 3 ornamental grasses, 4 begonias, 4 new guinea impatiens, 1 zinnia profusion, and 2 phlox plants. I must say though, that our yard looks a-ma-zing! Just in time for our 4th of July cookout too :-)
As you can read, we had a FABULOUS week with my mom and a productive weekend. I weighed Alexa this morning (because I had tried it last week and it said 18 lbs which I thought might be inaccurate), and she weighed 16.8 lbs! She continues to love everything she eats besides green veggies. I'm working on creative ways to include it in her diet though. Yesterday, she had some baby banana yogurt and she LOVED it - I mean, I have never seen her open her mouth that wide and go crazy-eyed for food (other then to breastfeed). She did not have a negative reaction to it... so I don't think she has a lactose problem! YAY! I was worried about that since she didn't handle the regular formula. She continues to have soy formula during the day and breastfeed when she wakes up and before bed. I kept saying I was going to eliminate the bedtime nursing session when she turned 8 months (which was this past Saturday), but I haven't done it. I'm kind of sad about this all coming to an end...
Well, we surprisingly don't have too many plans this week - lunch today with Dan, a visit from Aunty Kat's mum (yes, Kat calls her "mum") on Wednesday, a pedicure on Friday, and then just preparing for our 2nd Annual Cookout. Andy & Cathy are coming with the kids this weekend, so we will see them for our party on Saturday and we'll go out to Pataskala on Sunday to see them again. Maybe Natalie will teach Alexa a thing (or two) about crawling! :-)
I'm really looking forward to the month of July - Alexa and I will be in Perry for at least 13 days! We are leaving next Monday for a week "home" :-) Dan will join us on Friday, and Tiffanie & Ben are coming up on Saturday. The 3 of us will also be headed north for a long weekend when Aunt Kathy & Uncle Dave come up from NC towards the end of the month. I know my mom (and maybe my sister) may come spend a day or two with us too. I'm so glad that even though my family is 2.5 hours away, Alexa gets to spend so much time with all of them! In fact, it was so cute... when she first saw Gram last Thursday, she leaned out of my arms to have Gram hold her :-) I can already see a strong bond forming between all of them, and it warms my heart. I know that once we live closer to them (sometime in the next two years hopefully) that Alexa and any other children we have will have a relationship with my parents like the one I had with my Papa & Gram. They were/are two of the most influential people in my life. I miss Papa every single day. He was an amazing man, and I know that he would have just adored Alexa. She would have been enamored with him too, like anyone else who knew him :-)
Well, enough of this novel already! I've gotta get our picnic packed while Alexa is still napping - yes she's napping late because the last three mornings she has slept in until 7:30 - 7:45 am. We like that! Hope you all have a great last few days of June!!! Ciao.
