Friday, February 21, 2014

Stats

I took both the girls to their Well Child check ups at the doctor today.  It was an hour of screaming.  Lexsi haaaaates the doctor.  She goes into panic mode and doesn't stop screaming and crying until we leave.  Even when we go to the doctor just for Mia and it has nothing to do with her, Lexsi is the one freaking out.  So today was a treat-- both girls had to have shots.  It wasn't awesome, but it was just one bad morning, so whatever.  Here are their stats:

Alexsi:

Weight: 22.4 lbs (5%)
Height: 33.5 in   (41%)
Head: 18.5 in (36%)


Mia:

Weight: 12.4 lbs (15%)
Height: 24.7 in (56%)
Head: 16.6 in (75%)


I've been thinking that Mia looks chubby, and I guess today's stats explain it;  Lex was always really tall for her age up until about 18 months old, when she slowed down.  Mia is very average in height, so she seems chubbier than Lex was at her age.  Lexsi's stats kinda crack me up, cause she's just SO small!  I've known that, cause she still wears mostly 18 month clothes.  Mia is finally wearing her 3-month clothes, but is skinny in them.  I love that I have small baby girls!!!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Two Whole Years!

Somehow, somehow, my sweetheart has turned 2 years old.  I can hardly believe it.  My sweet Alexsi-- who I waited for for years, who made me sicker than I've ever been in my life while I was pregnant with her, who had a ridiculous birth story, who broke my tailbone, who has made me happier than I ever knew was possible-- is 2.

Lex is an absolute fireball.  She is a sass, and I love that about her!  She knows exactly what she wants, and has no problem telling you about it.  She is crazy smart-- her language abilities are impressive in both Spanish and English, and she understands both languages fluently.  She is starting to speak in sentences, and I love it! She can count to 14 in both English and Spanish (our house has 14 stairs, and she learned to count by walking up and down them with us).  I'm very impressed with her Spanish language skills, since DJ isn't home a whole lot, and he's the one who speaks Spanish to her.  She does watch movies in Spanish, so that's a big help.

Lexsi LOVES Disney Princesses!  She can sing just about any Disney Princess song to you (at least parts of it).  She has lots of princess dress-ups, and is almost always wearing one of them while she's awake.  When she gets a princess dress on and dances around, singing, "Dancing the prince!  Dancing the prince!"  She loves to pretend dance with a prince-- so girly!  For her birthday, we had a princess party and she got TONS of new princess toys, which is awesome!

She is still an awesome reader!  She'll go into her toy room and pull stacks of books out of the shelves and read for at least half an hour at a time.

Lex loves to sing!  Besides the princess songs, she loves to sing the songs she's learned in Nursery.  She especially loves the action songs.

As always, she is very independent.  She doesn't like to hold hands, and doesn't want help in general.  She chooses her clothes each day-- usually a princess shirt and leggings.  She also LOVES socks, and has a blast choosing out her socks for the day.

Lexsi is such a good helper!  She particularly loves to help me in the kitchen, which I love too!

She's such a good big sister, and spends lots of time playing with her "Mimi."  The older Mia gets, the more Lex loves her.  She brings her toys to play with, "feeds" her with her pretend food from her kitchen, and reads her stories.  They have such a sweet relationship, which makes me so so happy!

She is a relatively good eater.  Her favorite foods are spaghetti, pizza, peanut butter toast, smoothies, and cheetos.

My favorite phrases that Lex says are, "That's funny!"  "That's a great choice!"  and she'll ask herself if she wants to do something and then respond in the affirmative, for example:  "A Belle dress?  Yeah!  A Belle dress."

Lexsi is such an amazing little girl.  She keeps me laughing and smiling all day.  She has my heart.  I don't know what I'd do without my sweetheart!!!


My sweet girls:

Sorting through Disney movies:

Cheeto face!

"Playing" Mario Kart with dad:

Ready for church:

Running around... love that hair in motion!

Playing with Kate:

Playing with my mom's dog, who she calls her "puppy friend"

Me and my sweethearts:

Getting into my makeup, which she usually brushes into her hair:

She got a balloon and popcorn at Harmon's with her daddy, and was thrilled!

I was trying to get a picture of my new hair color, and Lex totally photo-bombed me by climbing on the toilet.  Haha!

"Cooking:"

Watching a princess video:

She loves wearing Daddy's hats:

Reading to Mimi (she's SUCH a good sister!):

We went on a date to see Frozen, and she loved it!

Helping me make cookies:

Sweet babies in Mia's bed:

One morning she climbed into a laundry basket and pretended to sleep:

With Kate and Cougar at her princess party:

Princess birthday cake:

My princess with her cake:


It's blurry, but she LOVED riding the carousel with Nikki!

4 Months Old!

My baby is getting too big too fast.  She is technically 4 1/2 months old already... stop the madness!

Some things about Mia:

- She has learned to roll from her tummy to her back.  She actually enjoys being on her tummy a lot, and has excellent neck strength.
- She is SO happy and smiley.  Other people may not believe this, cause she is so attached to me that a lot of times when other people hold her, she's a grump.  But with me, she's just about the happiest baby ever!
- She is starting to show interest in the food we eat.  I started feeding Lex rice cereal around 4 months, but I'm trying to hold off a little with Mia.  Mostly because I HATE teaching babies to eat.  It's my least favorite part of parenting so far--- weird?  Maybe.  But I hate how messy it is and how it's just easier to strip them down to their diapers before feeding them and you still have to bathe them afterward.  Ugh.  Not my fave.  I have, however, given her occasional tastes of food.  This morning I let her try my smoothie (all fruit and vegetables), and she loved it.
- She is getting better at grabbing things, and will hold toys for an extended period of time.
- She has discovered her feet, and loves them!
- She seriously loves being in nothing but a diaper.  She will love summer time, when I don't feel the need to bundle her so much!

Now let's talk about sleep for a minute.  I decided to move Mia into her crib in Lexsi's room, and it actually went pretty well.  There was once or twice that Lex would wake up when Mia cried at night, but it was rare.  After about a week, though, I decided to move Mia into her cradle in our "closet room" so I could see if I let her cry a little more at night if she'd go back to sleep without eating.  She's been there for a while, and that's not really happening.  At first I felt frustrated that she wasn't sleeping through the night, especially when compared to Lex, who slept through the night from 6 weeks old.  However, I know that all babies are different.  I can't expect Mia to be the same as Lex or anyone else.  And the thing is, when she wakes up at night, she's actually hungry!  She's not nursing just so she can go back to sleep.  I'm not going to make her cry and cry til she falls asleep hungry just so I can sleep more at night.  I'm a firm believer of nursing on command, and I've never been a "cry it out" mom.  So there it is.  I'm going to put Mia back in her room with Lexsi, and continue getting up every few hours with her as long as she needs it.  I know that it won't be long before she's bigger and doesn't need me as much.  For now, I'm going to enjoy the fact that I can comfort her and make everything okay with some snuggling and a little milk.

Something I never want to forget about my sweet Mia is how funny she is at night when she's going to sleep.  She'll be nursing and pull off every few minutes and look up at me with a grin on her face and start cooing at me.  I love it.  She's just so adorable, and totally has my heart!  Also, every time I run my finger on her cheek she smiles, and so I do it when she's nursing and she tries to keep eating while smiling and it makes me laugh every time.  I adore my baby girl!!!

Me and my baby love:

SO happy:

4 months old with her zebra:

Piggies!  (one is hiding!)

I LOVE these two!  They have so much fun together!

Rockin the Bumbo :)

Mia and her cousin Hailey, who is just 3.5 weeks younger than her:

Borrowing sister's princess maraca:

Sunny day walk:

Loving those toes!


Thursday, February 6, 2014

Braggin

The summer after I got married, Jordan and DJ were working on finishing my parents' basement apartment so that DJ and I could move in there in the fall.  Every Saturday was spent over there, and so I spent my time making a new quilt for our bed.  As is typical for me, I finished the quilt top and never completed the rest.  The quilt top sat in my mom's house for several years, and this past summer I finally got around to finishing it.  I decided to give it to Nikki for Christmas, so I needed to make it into a king-sized blanket, when originally it was made to be queen-sized.  The actual quilted middle section is nearly the size of the top of a king-sized bed, so I added the blue border so there is plenty of overhang, then bound it in brown.  I couldn't get a picture of it on my bed, cause Mia was asleep in it at the time and I wanted to get it wrapped up. 



When I finished the quilt, I really wanted to keep it for myself.  My mom has always taught me, though, that you know it's a good present if you want to keep it for yourself.  So I gave it away, but I still wanted to post about it, cause I'm proud of my work!