The End of July

It seems like July has been our busiest month the past few years! I find it hard to believe that we got home from vacation about three weeks ago!! Here's what we've been up to...

Sunday, July 18th
We took Alexa to "Sunday Funday" at the Grumpy Troll (our fave bar from our glory days, lol) to see a few friends, particularly Darrell a guy we met at Jamboree in the Hills years ago who lives in Buffalo. Alexa remembered Jamie from 4th of July and kept saying, "Fireworks. Up in the sky."









She enjoyed helping Darrell pick out music on the jukebox and a few rounds of Skee-Ball.









Tuesday, July 20th
Sometimes Alexa is too smart for me... I mean, she is like a little GPS - I cannot even drive past the backside of Babies R Us without her shouting "Barney Ride!" Sometimes I'll stop and let her ride once or twice, and sometimes I tell her no. But as you can see, she loves it!









Alexa has really grown fond of Mrs. Jenny and loves to do the lap rhymes with her (I jokingly told the librarian it's because she has more lap room for Alexa then I do at the moment, hehe).









After nap, we had a playdate at the Splash Pad with Michelle & Leylynn. We knew this was going to be our last opportunity to hangout before the newest addition was born into the Sip Family (scroll down for pictures of Serey Jackson Sip). The girls had a great time playing in the water and on the playground, and Michelle and I were actually able to catch-up quite a bit while chasing them around :-)









Wednesday, July 21st
After ZUMBA we went to the Zoo with Bobbi & Kyla. Usually the tiger is laying down far away, but on this particular day he was pacing right by the window! Alexa and Kyla SQUEALED with delight each time he passed - it was too cute! Speaking of squealing... when Bobbi picked me up this past Saturday to go to her ZUMBA class in Hilliard, Daddy brought Alexa to the car to say hello to Kyla. He doesn't get to see the girls together very often and was amazed at how they reacted (squealing) when they saw one another. When I got home, he told me that it made him so happy to see that Alexa has her first real friend. It too warms my heart to see our daughter so happy when she sees her BFF ♥









Thursday, July 22nd
Alexa & I took a road trip down to Kentucky to visit with Aunt Janine & Uncle Ken. She was excellent in the car and in a great mood when we arrived! We enjoyed playing in the pool, visiting, and had an excellent dinner with my aunt & uncle. They were amazed at just how smart Alexa is - apparently my ever boastful postings don't do her justice. In the photo on the right, Alexa is naming animals that Aunt Janine was finding on Google Images.









Friday, July 23rd
Alexa woke up super early and enjoyed watching a Barney episode with Aunt Janine. Then, Aunt Janine did the first of two great things she did for Alexa that morning... she gave her a map (they have loads of 'em right now as they are preparing to leave on a cross-country road trip). Alexa says, "I'm the map!" all the time and was super-de-duper (ugh, Barney wearing off on me) excited to have one of her own to play with!!









The second great thing Aunt Janine did was give Alexa quarters and a little change purse to hold them in, and off we went to ride the mini Merry Go Round in front of Kmart. Alexa got to ride "twice" (she'll tell you) and loved every second of it!









We returned to the condo and Alexa got to work on her fine motor skills by putting together a Cootie with Aunt Janine. You should have seen and heard her, tongue sticking out and breathing so heavy, reminded my aunt and I of my Papa... he would have loved/enjoyed Alexa so much!!









It was hard to say goodbye, it seems like one night was not enough, but unfortunately with our busy schedule that's all we could do. We had such an amazing time with Aunt Janine & Uncle Ken and cannot thank them enough for their hospitality and all the fun!!! We're looking forward to Aunt Janine and her friend, Chris, stopping for a visit and trip to the Zoo on Monday!

On our drive back to C-bus, Alexa fell asleep in the car but woke up screaming less than a mile from Jeffersonville. I took that as a sign that she wanted to get out of the car and go to the Coach Outlet ;-) So that's what we did! She entertained herself with Coach stickers while Mommy shopped her heart out :-)









Saturday, July 24th
Thank goodness for my parents, who were willing to meet us in Ashland to pick-up Alexa for a "sleepover at Noni & Papa's house" so that we could attend a wedding kid-free (or without paying Francesca a pretty penny to babysit for 7-8 long hours!). It was nice to get dressed up and have fun together and with our friends!!!









Congratulations, Jarrod & Kelly Lilly ♥









Dan had fun busting a move on the dance floor with Pat (Sean & Kelly's mom) and with Sean. Kelly enjoyed coming and rubbing my bump while asking, "Is he moving yet?" Haha.









Since Alexa was already in Perry, I figured this was as good as time as any to have a mini Perry-cation. So after doing some stuff around the house with Dan, I headed north on Sunday afternoon.

Monday, July 26th
The main reason I wanted to be in Perry for a few days was so we could go to the Cleveland Zoo! It was great to see animals that we don't have in Columbus, like giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and seals!!









We had a van-full: me, Alexa, Noni, Papa, Auntie, & Katelyn. It was great to have so many people help Alexa see the exhibits!









In the Butterfly House, Alexa got to pet a few different butterflies. Her and Noni were in heaven seeing their favorite flying creatures :-)









Of course, Alexa found the gibbons in Cleveland and had Auntie "pick you up" (she doesn't understand she is supposed to see me not you, lol) to get a better glimpse of them. Then Papa wanted to show her the large birds, like the condor and bald eagle.









It seems as though the train is ALWAYS broken at the Columbus Zoo, but we were lucky that it was working in Cleveland! Alexa really enjoyed riding it with Noni & Papa!! Here is our whole group in front of the flamingos ♥









Alexa & Noni playing with the sprinkler ball.









Tuesday, July 27th
Noni made Alexa a house out of a box. She had tons of fun playing in it with her stuffed friends and even "moving" to new locations, haha (I think only Mom & Danielle will understand that joke).












In Perry, Alexa has her own personal hairstylist - Noni. She ate a peach like a "big girl" for the first time (because Alexa likes to "do it herself"). She is becoming extremely independent, more communicative, and less like a baby every single day!









Pool time with Noni :-)









"Alexa drive a minute." She says this all the time so JaJa actually let her pretend drive his truck.









Wednesday, July 28th
We made it back just in time for ZUMBA, phew, and then rushed home to have our new hot water tank installed. In the evening we were able to go visit the Sip Family who had just arrived home from the hospital. Congratulations, friends, on your perfect new addition! Seeing the four of you together (and holding Serey) was wonderful, it definitely boosted our anticipation at meeting our son and becoming a family of four too!!









Thursday, June 29th
Alexa and I met Daddy for a picnic lunch. She had fun crawling up this little rock wall and looking at the pond until she slipped and cut her side. The little bruise is fine and healing nicely.









Friday, July 30th
Here is Alexa practicing to sleep in her BIG GIRL BED!!! That's right... we took the crib out of her room and moved it into what will become Jack's nursery - did I tell y'all we had settled on Jack Walter Ritchey for Baby Boy's name? Right now her [twin size] boxspring and mattress are on the floor because I was extremely paranoid that she would either fall out of bed or hurt herself trying to get down.









Of course, we couldn't help but sneak a peek at her in the middle of the night to see how she was doing... as you can see, she slept sideways, on top of the covers that first night. But over the past few days/nights she has gradually started staying underneath the covers and on her pillow. When she wakes up in the morning, we here her on the monitor saying, "Alexa. No. Stay in bed. Mommy Daddy." (because I told her she needed to wait for one of us to come get her so she wouldn't be climbing in and out of bed all the time!) She's really done a wonderful job transitioning to the bed and is thrilled to be giving her crib to Baby Jack.










Other updates on Alexa
- She continues to do a great job at using the potty whenever we sit her on it, and has even begun to tell us when she needs to pee or poop (not consistently though). Based on "advice" from a potty training book, I've started talking with her about the difference between being dry & clean vs. wet & dirty. I really praise her when her diaper is dry & clean when we check it! She knows that she can wear big girl underwear like Mommy if she keeps them that way... so I think that after our next trip to Perry - next weekend - we'll try progressive potty training, where she will wear underwear and we pretty much won't leave the house for a few days to see if she can master it. I'll keep you posted on her progress :-)
- She is really doing a great job eating with utensils. It seems like everyday more and more stuff is making it from the spoon/fork to her mouth then down her bib ;-)
- She officially knows all of the colors and will pretty consistently count from 1-10. She is a mini-genius!
- Her animal knowledge is astounding. Besides being able to tell you what animal we are approaching at the zoo (or identifying pictures of tons of different animals), Alexa will give you a fact about them. Example, "Koala. Always sleeping."

An update on Baby Jack
- At my 32 week appointment (yesterday - 8/4/10), I measured 34 cm (from pubic bone to top of uterus). On average most women measure at the number of weeks they are (which means I should have been measuring 32 cm). Because I'm 2 cm bigger than average, Dr. Davy wants to do another ultrasound at my 34 week appointment to check Jack's size. I'm super excited that we'll get to see him again on the screen one more time before he is born :-)
- I've been expressing my desire for Jack to have his own birthday to Dr. Davy for months, and she had tentatively agreed to induce me early depending on how things were going. Yesterday I started explaining to her how I've been stressed & worrying about who was going to be with Alexa while we are in the hospital for two nights. I want her to be with Mom, but she is restricted on what days she can be here because of Danielle's 18th birthday. So after looking at the calendar, Dr. Davy suggested that we ease my concern and set an induction date of Sept. 21st. She warned me though that since I am measuring large that he may come on his own beforehand, which means that in less than 7 weeks we are going to be a family of 4!!!

"Nesting Projects"
- Alexa's Room: She obviously just got her new bed. Daddy made her a new bookshelf (that is shorter & sturdier then the one that was in her nursery). We found a dresser at a used furniture store in Grove City. They are painting it white for us and putting on new handles - we pick it up on Aug 16th. Once we have all of that, we'll just need to arrange Alexa's room, hang up some new shelves, and she'll have a beautiful big girl bedroom :-)
- Jack's Nursery: The crib is in there now. We will move the infant dresser into his nursery once we get A's new dresser. We still need to paint but are waiting for the bedding to arrive (early next week). We also need to find a rocking chair. All of his new clothes have been washed and are hanging up ready for him to wear 'em!
- The Office: With the help of our neighbor, Anthony, Dan was able to move the couch in the living room downstairs. We've moved both of our computer desks upstairs. The room is kinda chaotic and not as nicely decorated as either of us would like, but we will buy new office furniture, paint, and hang pictures in here at some other point in time - hopefully a few months after Jack is born.
- The Playroom: With the removal of our desks and the addition of the couch, we are almost ready to take down the gate and turn the entire finished side of the basement into the Playroom. I've started getting out some of the baby toys/things and Dan is going to make a kids' table & chair set. It'll be really nice to have a huge open space (rather than the confined, gated-in space) to play in with Alexa and eventually Jack!
- Cleaning: I feel the need to scrub clean the entire house. We may begin doing that this weekend.

Well, I've probably bored y'all enough for now... Hope everyone is enduring this hot & humid weather okay! Ciao.