Where did the time go?

Wow I can't believe I have so many posts detailing the girls' milestones and little anecdotes from daily life on here!

I honestly haven't been on here in many years. I started postng to FB around 2009.

How about some recent updates?

JoEllle is now 15 and Alexa is 12!!

JoElle is finishing up her first year of high school! She has all A's and we are very proud of her! Her favorite subject is biology, so she came to me recently as I slept on the couch (Covid-19 has me crashing on the couch after Tim's kicks me out of our room so he can work!)

She was talking so fast and I was so groggy."Mommy, I want to change my track to science!"

"What in the world are you talking about," I muttered.

JoElle kept talking faster than I could comprehend, plus I couldn't see her holding the paper she was trying to ask me to review since I am blind without contacts!  I finally woke up enough to let her know I needed to put my contacts in and please give me a few minutes to wake up!!

JoElle explained that she wants to change her high school track from Computer Science to Science.
At first I didn't really think that was a smart move since she wants to be an engineer. But when she showed me she will take physics and two sciences her senior year, including AP Biology, I was sold!

She will still take some technology coursed and she already completed year one of Computer Science. JoElle has been teaching me what she is learning in 9th grade biology, and they are learning concepts and details I have never even heard of and I took AP Biology in High School! But to be fair, I wasn't interested in science like my brother and sister, so I honestly only studied what I needed to make an A in the class, and I didn't commit it to my long term memory.  The way JoElle explains these biology concepts is very interesting. So, I have learned some things from her recently!

JoElle loves to watch Korean dramas during her spare time. She also likes listening to K-Pop like BTS and Blank Pink.  JoElle is learning Chinese for fun! I am excited she want to learn a third language. She is finishing up her second year of Spanish.

JoElle is now on week one, round 2 of physical therapy from a major hip fracture along the growth plate.  She injured it Dec 20, 2019 while doing a front aerial on floor at gym.  She practiced gymnastics on it three times before I realized we had a real problem.  Tim and I thought it was muscular so I took her to Airrosti chiropractor because they manipulate muscles to relive pain and then give PT type workouts for home.  The dr was concerned that it was still hurting so bad a few weeks later, so she sent us for an xray.

The x-ray showed a fracture so the dr immedietly informed us we needed to see an orthopedist.
It had been a while since she went to a sports med dr, so I asked Texas Dreams, where she does gymnastics, and was given a few names.  I called around an the first one that called me back and got us in in just a couple days.  The orthopedist ordered and MRI right away.

It took a few days for results, but Tim had prepared JoElle for the worst; that she might not compete this season again. She was unable to compete last year for Level 9. That's a long story for another day...

Dr. Muller, her orthopedist, informed me that it was a major hip fracture along the growth plate. He advised that it should take 4-6 weeks to heal, since she had injured it two weeks before she saw him.

JoElle was still going to practice every morning and doing arms and abs. Pain really wasn't getting much better. Feb 17th she starter PT, but her pain was an 8 our of 10. She told her dr and he decided she could start PT.  Week one was fine.  Week two was not.  Her pain had gotten a little better with the first week of PT and then she was back to an 8 after only two weeks.

I decided to take her back to the orthopedist.  The PA we saw decided to repeat the MRI.
The results took the whole week; dr had to wait for the hard copy of the MRI in the mail.
Dr. Muller called me and told me her hip looks much better and take off another 4 weeks.  She had already been off two weeks per her dr.

So now it has been over 12 weeks and she started that first week last Friday. So far her pain is very low or not at all! Finally!! She is eager to get back into shape.  Her gym is closed due to Covid-19,  and she confided in me that it's a relief that she will not be the only one who needs to get back into shape!  USAG had cancelled all meets through summer, which included state, regionals, national.  The Olympic trial were cancelled and the 2020 Olympics has been delayed until 2021.

Kindergarten days

After about a week of school, JoElle finally quite crying. The first day, she was fine. But then the next few days, she cried right before they go to the gym, before lunch. She told me she missed me and was already hungry, even though they eat a snack in the morning, since lunch isn't until 12:30. But then Friday of the first week, she cried hard when I left her, and the next Monday she was crying so much, she wouldn't let go of me and I had to ask for help getting her to let me go.

So, Tim took her the next two mornings, and after that she wasn't crying anymore!



Now, she is asking to go to school on the weekends! She is doing very well in school. After 2 weeks of school, she had her first set of sight words memorized and can spell them, too. She is reading some already, she is bringing home readers and can read them to us. JoElle is excited about reading! Alexa is learning to read some of the words with JoElle.

Where has the time gone?

Wow, I haven't posted anything about the girls in MONTHS!! CrAzY, where do I even begin?

How about- JoElle is getting so big! She weighs 46 lbs, had to get size 6 shorts, skirts and shorts- her 5T won't even fit over her bottom or thighs- her muscles have gotten HUGE from 3 times a week gymnastics practice, 1.5 hours each time...

Speaking of gymnastics, she is rockin' it! Back in April or so, her class was going to be broken up and sent to different teams, her coach, Ms. Tamara, wanted the girls to stay together, she told us that this is the best group of girls, balance of girls and parents, she has had in the past 30 yrs and she wants to stay with them for another couple of years, so she told the gym owners she would coach them for competitions.

So, JoElle and her team will be competing at Level 2 starting in just over a month, their first meet is Aug 21st at their gym. Her coach said they could have started at a higher level, but it would have been more competitive, more stressful, the girls would be less successful on all skills and events, so she wanted them to start at 2, get experience, and she will continue to teach them higher level skills. They were working on level 4 and 5 skills before it was determined they would be competing.

JoElle looks so great with her hands, arms, legs, feet, very graceful, but she is super fast, so powerful, she has to try to SLOW DOWN and control her movements. She has her entire floor routine memorized, I did NOT think she would get it, it seemed to have so many components, but now after about 5 weeks of practice, she has it, just needs little tweaking, like where arms go, and they just started working on cartwheel-roundoff, so she has to practice that a bit more, almost there- she is just going too fast.

Tonight, she earned the Top Cat award for working the hardest, she worked so hard today! She fell on the high balance beam while working on her tuck jump, but she just kept going! She was absolutely beaming and glowing tonight afterwards!

She is really really great at the balance beam, I think it will be her best event, although she looks good on everything- vault is hard for her....she has to learn how to push with her shoulders so she doesn't hit her head on the springboard.

Now, on to Alexa...

Wow, she has really grown and grown up too!! She weighs 35 lbs! She weighs more than many of the 5 and 6 yr olds that work out with JoElle! She wears 4 and 5T and she is only 2!!

She talks so well, she understands so much, she is showing how very intelligent she is, so many examples, can't think right now, but wow, she amazes us constantly.

Alexa is extremely strong willed, she has quite a temper, is very blunt, but then is also so very sweet and polite! She is great saying thank you, you're welcome, please much of the time, is learning yes sir and yes ma'am. She loves to try to be mommy to JoElle- telling her "No ma'am!", "Be careful Jojo", "stop climbing Jojo", "Shhhh! Too loud!" etc etc

Alexa has been super fussy these past two weeks, not sure why, but I do know she needs to nap but she quit officially napping months ago...we are going to try to work on that again though starting tomorrow.

She is understanding potty training, tells me she needs to go, holds it sometimes, sometimes goes poo poo on the potty, but then she gets stubborn and doesn't want to b/c I am asking her to... So we still have a ways to go.

She is not that interested in chocolate milk, but JoElle still loves her milk! They both still love their fave blankets. They still play really well together, but really get on each other's nerves at the same time!

Alexa LOVES to play with her Little People and blocks. JoElle has also gone back to playing with both, actually I have never seen her concentrate so much on them, lining them up, making them do gymnastics, etc. She learned from Alexa that it is fun to sit quietly -sort of- and play with toys. They fight over the people of course, but they are figuring it out!

Alexa is starting to lose interest in Fresh Beat Band, although she asks for it all the time. She is liking Wow Wow Wubbzy! while JoElle is losing interest in it! JoElle mostly likes the dramas on Disney, esp Wizards of Waverly Place, sometimes Hannah Montana- on our trip to Corpus Christi a few weeks ago (oh yeah that's another post, mental note...) that was all she could watch, she loved it, Alexa watched too.

JoElle is only on sleeping pills right now, but she would like to get off of them. Her dr wants her to stay on them b/c trazadone is also a mild anti-anxiety medication. She is very nervous about starting school, but we are constantly encouraging her and reassuring her. I am more worried about Alexa than JoElle, what will she do without her big sister???????

Alexa's fave phrases....

"I don't want to, I want to....

I don't like it, I like it....."

These are her favorite things to say right now, pretty much about everything. She finishes off the sentence with whatever activity or object is applicable.

Last night, her blanket was dirty, so she asked me "Where's my blanket, Mommy?"
I told her it was dirty and I needed to wash it. So, she took Daddy's hand and asked him, "Daddy, you wash my blanket, please??"

It was too too cute!!!

Alexa is sleeping in her toddler bed!!

The last two nights, she has slept in her OWN toddle bed!!!!!!!!

The previous two nights, she slept in JoElle's room on the trundle bed!!
The two nights before, she either fell asleep at 1:00 a.m. (with Benadryl) or with Tim sleeping on the floor in her room.

So I am so excited that this transition is going much smoother than the first two days!!!

My little girl turns 2 in less than a week!

JoElle is in the No Cavity Club!

It's official, JoElle went to her first dentist appt and she is officially in the No Cavity Club, sticker and all!!

I was thinking I would get fussed out for not bringing her in earlier since hse is now 5, so I was excited about the no cavities, but even more so I was SO happy that she went back with the dentist and the assistants ALL BY HERSLF! This would not have happened a few months ago, she would have cried and wouldn't let me go, she would not have answered the dentist's questions.

The dentist talked to me briefly about JoElle's depression and anxiety and I was able to educate her a bit on how it can start as early as 3 or 4, she thanked me for all of this so she can be looking for it in her patients, she hasn't seen anyone younger than 6 in her office suffering from depression.

So again, our situation might have lasting positive influences on others, I love this dentist, she is great, and a woman obviously and she is also black, I think it is important for JoElle to see that it doesn't matter what gender or race a person is, they can do what they want if it is God's will.

I got to see JoElle's X-rays, you can see her 6 year old molars starting to come in, they have been coming in since she was 4.5, the dentist estimates another two months till they actually cut through. These will be her first permanent teeth!

Then she will start losing her baby teeth, bottom first, then top, etc. pretty much the way they came in is the way they come out and get replaced by permanent teeth!

Good sentence from Alexa today...

Alexa handed me the oatmeal container so I could make her some oatmeal.
She dutifully went to her little table and sat down to eat, without my even having to tell her!

But, the oatmeal was too hot.

So, she tell mes, "I don't like it hot."

Plain as day, each word enunciated! I am so proud of her sentences lately, she is almost 2.

Some history behind JoElle's medical condition

JoElle was 4 when she was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression, but we already knew things were not "normal" when she was only 1; she quit napping before she was even 1, she never could go to sleep at night, even when she was a toddler, then she started crying when she was 2 when I would drop her off, but it wasn't the normal separation anxiety either, then it got even worse after 3- she would stand in her room, naked, not sure why she was in her room (to get dressed), she would ask me, "Mommy, why do I just stare all the time?"
From 3-4 I was at home with her and Alexa so she did ok, we found ways around the difficulties, she went to sleep every night with 2 benadryl still late,at 10-11:30 p.m.

Then it just nose dived when she was 4 and she started mother's day out, I was teaching there, I started seeing her zone out, cry, become despondent, become defiant to me, I thought she was just choosing not to listen, finally realized she just couldn't concentrate on what I was saying so then I started thinking ADHD.

But as I talked to her, I found out her mind was racing with lots of thoughts, she described it like someone spinning a wheel in her head, the wheel would stop on different random things. One such thing was on hurting herself, taking a bad pill, her "wheel" was telling her to cut out her eyes, to cut off her nose, and to cut her wheel out of her head, but she knew not to and didn't want to.

Obviously, we were really concerned. The dr's and hospital all confirmed severe depression and anxiety. Once it was under control, we were still seeing some focus issues and too much energy. She is on sleeping pills to sleep. So we tried ADHD med, for a 5 yr old, the FDA has only approved Adderrall, it did not work, she lost 3.5 lbs in 5 weeks.

So we all agreed to take her off the med, I offered up the question of being bi-polar, so now we are treating her with mood stabilizers, which is actually for seizures, again the only one approved for under 6, but some of my friends have taken it and it has worked as a mood stabilizer. She was having seizure, we just didn't know, she would stare and we couldn't get her attention, then she would tell me she it was like she couldn't breathe and she was upside down, then right side up. Everyone says what she is describing is a seizure.

She is doing better though, we have found a great charter school in our city, called the Classics Academy, please pray she is picked FIRST in the lottery at the end of March. I feel strongly that this is where she is supposed to be, so does Tim. But it is in God's hands. It's free since it's a charter school, but they teach Spanish from K on, and they teach the Trivium way, grammar of every subject is important. Plus, they learn some Latin in the morning and an English world derived from it. The principal actually hired Tim at Fidelity Investments back in 2000! Isn't that crazy!?

JoElle's weight

JoElle is still losing weight... she is not even on Adderall anymore, and hasn't been for several weeks now. She is eating like crazy, more than she ever used to, is drinking a ton of chocolate milk....

She was 40 lbs just over 6 weeks ago, the after 4 weeks on Adderall she had lost 3.5 lbs. She had no appetite (one of the side effects) plus her stomachache and headache never went away (also side effects).

She is now at 35.5 lbs. We are charting it on the Wii Fit, it just keeps going down it seems.

Alexa is almost 2, and she weighs 30 lbs. She also is wearing the same size clothes as JoElle.

I am a bit worried about her, but I know she has to start gaining, right?

Update: as of April 1, 2010- JoElle is now up to 42.5 lbs! All of it muscle :) She started to eat normally 6 weeks ago when she stopped taking the antidepressant and the mood stabilizer, it is so great to see her growing again and eating without us having to remind her all the time. Oh yes, she also grew taller, by about an inch or so, not sure exactly as we haven't measured, but judging by her pants getting extremely short and needing 5T, I would say 2 inches at least!

Tough Day with JoElle and our outcome

thanks for the prayers, and @Elizabeth, thank you for being so willing to help, you have a very giving spirit. We are treating JoElle with mood stabilizers, so it is very up and down. Even throughout each day, very much of the up, then the down. Not depression, just not able to control herself. She cycles fast like me.

Tim and I just sat down and drew out a rewards chart and ideas of rewards, like spending 15 minutes alone with one of us doing an activity of her choice, piece of candy, staying up an extra 15 minutes, watching a fave show before bedtime, etc. We are going to get a large presentation board to put it on, then use velcro, so JoElle can move it herself when she does the things we want her to do. This is her positive motivation, so she will NEVER go backwards.

What we are targeting is: 1) Listening and obeying the first time 2) Eating twice per each time slot (oh yeah, we are breaking it into three times periods each day- time she wakes up to nap/ rest time; from time rest time is over till Daddy gets home; and from the time Daddy gets home till bedtime)
3) Keeping room clean- which we will define for her
4) Brushing teeth twice a day and taking a bath
5) Being Calm and having self control (again explanations will be illustrated as we do CONSTANTLY!)

Then, I am going to pull out of my garage my color chart from when I taught first grade, and when she doesn't do the things she should, I will have her change her color. There will also be a few rules- be nice to Alexa, be nice to Mommy, and be nice to Daddy. I don't think at this point there will be a negative consequence, I think she will just not be happy to have to change colors.

Then, if she DOESN'T have to change colors, she will get to add a paper gumball to a paper gumball machine, when it is full she will earn a BIG prize, not sure what yet :) but it will different each time.

FINALLY! ALexa's 2 yr old molar poked through..

After months and months of agony, pain, crying, fussiness, and so on....

Alexa's first 2 year old molar poked through the gums! YAY! Only one side of what is obviously a four-side molar, but hey it's a start!

The molar is her top left.

All the other three have also been erupting, so we are waiting.....please come through the gums quickly....oh please....

JoElle's dr appt

JoElle's dr appt with her psych. went well.

He automatically noticed JoElle had lost weight since the last appt, about 5 weeks.
So, in 5 weeks, she had lost 3 lbs from Aderrall. She only weighed 30 lbs, so this is 10% of her body weight. She couldn't eat much at all, didn't have an appetite, her stomach hurt constantly, her head hurt constantly. Her anxiety was increasingly getting worse, she couldn't stop biting her nails at all, then she needed one of us to sleep with her. She was starting to cry all the time again.

We all agreed to take her off immediately.

I suggested she might be bi-polar instead, as it is often mistaken for ADD/ADHD. Her dr won't diagnose her as such at this age. But, neither will my dr or my mom's dr.

Instead, he put her on a med that works like a mood stabilizer, but is actually an anti-seizure medication. So, Dr. A. is treating her as if she were bi-polar, without calling her such. Crazy, huh?

One of the worst things going on that concerned us so much was that JoElle was going into these catatonic states, we could not get her attention, she would just stare. Then, after a few minutes, she would snap out of it, complaining that she felt like she couldn't breathe and she was going upside down, right side up, upside down, and she was scared.

I thought this sounds much like a panic attack. The Dr. said it could also be a type of seizure, hence the med he put her own. Also, until she is 6, she cannot take any mood stabilizers labeled as such, per FDA regs.

The pharmacist confirmed it sounds like a seizure and the med is a good one. The only thing to look for is increased anxiety within the first 4 days. So far, none of that. Of course, it has only been 1 day.

On a positive note, even on the Aderrall, she decided she was ready to be baptized. AND she decided she was ready to go back to her Sunday School class with Mrs. Kay and Mr. Eddie. She did it, and stayed second hour. We are so proud of her!!! She made a friend, Lauren, who is also lonely a lot in there with the other kids, and who also is a good gymnast.

Yesterday was a good day for JoElle. She is still on Prozac and then Trazadone to sleep, plus this new med. She is sleeping well b/c of the med, tried to take her off, didn't work.

JoElle and Meds

Yesterday I had to up her Aderall to an entire pill b/c it was not doing her any good, but today she scared me.

She fell asleep in the car on the way to counseling (which is very rare) and I could not rouse her for almost a minute. It was very strange.

Then, with her counselor, she fell asleep again and was hard to rouse. She was breathing fine and her heart was beating fine.

I confirmed with the pharmacist that ADHD meds do not make a person sleepy/tired/lethargic, so it must be the trazadone at night having lingering affects, since she is starting to become calmer from the medication.

I was proud of her that she asked to go to sleep with no sleeping aid, then asked for half a little later when she couldn't stay still and go to sleep.

We took her to Cook's Children's Hospital today for her EKG and no problems there. Very happy that her heart is handling the meds she is on.

She is calming down quite a bit, doesn't have much anxiety and not much depression either.


UPDATES: After only a couple of days, she was unable to fall asleep again at night with half a trazadone and is now back on a full pill, and is not falling asleep during the day.

Meds...

So, we tried upping JoElle's daytime med to an entire pill b/c it seemed like she needed a little extra help.

Bad idea!

She went looney, couldn't hold it together, crying, couldn't calm down... I had to give her half a pill of trazadone just to calm her down.

Needless to say, we are sticking to half a pill, but we did have to up her to an entire sleeping pill within just a few days of seeking the psychiatrist. She is sleeping well now, it is wonderful! She has not slept in over 2 years, not peacefully, not enough....

We are blessed to have been sent to Dr. A. I trust he will help us and help JoElle. She called him Dr. Pepper and he told her she can call him that if she likes, since he loved to drink Dr. Pepper.

We are starting to get our little JoElle back and I am so happy. Every day is still tough, we still are learning so much. But she did tell her counselor, Alli, that the pill her Dr. gave her helps slow down her thoughts and she is happier.

Tomorrow will be two weeks on medication.

Sometimes it is still so hard to believe that at 4 she has such bad depression and anxiety and has battled this for over a year now, but nobody would listen to us.

Yet at the same time, she still has so much joy! Not always, of course. But tonight, as she prayed at bedtime, she expressed to God how much she loves Him, more than anybody else, and she thanks Him for making her.

Alexa is really growing up fast

I haven't posted much lately, so much has happened. Alexa is really growing up, she doesn't seem like a little toddler anymore at times!

Her words are still growing exponentially, she had her language explosion a few months ago and is enjoying stringing words together to form sentences and questions.

Some of her favorite things to say lately:

"Can I have that?"
"I want to touch it"
"Want to pray?" is another favorite! She ALWAYS remembers to pray when she eats and before bedtime, also at other random times!

Today, she learned "Happy Birthday" and she was singing "Happy Birthday" to herself as she played with cups on the kitchen floor, her singing voice is so adorable,really soft and sweet, she has a pretty high voice. She sang Happy Birthday to Nana last week and loves it now!
She likes the word "pumpkin" since it is almost Halloween.

Some other words she says very clearly and all the time: water, Nana, Ana, Madi, Peyton, Dan, Granny, Grandad, bed, JoJo, baby, potty, bath, moon, it's hot, it's a hot day, it's cold, boo, Jesus, amen, fries, apple, Dora, ...so many more, just some I can think of!

She can sing almost every word to all of the Yo Gabba Gabba songs on EVERY episode, along with most of the words to our adult choir songs on our practice CD's, the entire Avalon CD, Little Levite CD, and several other kids praise CD's. Also, she sings almost every word of many songs like "Twinkle Twinkle", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and can almost get every letter in the alphabet.

Alexa is learning to read and write, too. She can write "A" "e" and "o" and tell you what letter it is, she also recognizes a handful of written letters, possibly more: A, B, C, D, E, J, O, S for sure.

She knows a few colors without any help, green, pink, blue, purple, orange, red.

Alexa is getting pickier about having messy hands, although she likes to get messy, she wants it wiped off rather quickly. She loves to wash her hands in the bathroom, all I have to do is say, "Let's go wash our hands" and she runs to the bathroom, gets on her stool, tries to turn on the water and sometimes can, uses soap and scrubs her hands and rinses.

She is like Daddy in that she loves to eat lotion, when he was her age, so did he! She esp loves Jergens, almond flavor, she comes and asks me "Can I have lotion?" and then say "MMMMM, yummy!" when she starts to lick it off her hands!

Alexa has such a great personality, although quite hardheaded at times, she is also a great listener and very compliant much of the time. She is easy going most of the time, but gets upset so easily at certain things, esp her sister. When she gets upset, she throws things, runs off and hits something, bites JoElle and me, bites herself, throws herself on the floor, but rarely cries when she gets upset. She is learning to cope with her emotions much better though, I try not to laugh as she attempts to work through them on her own.

I normally don't have to repeat my requests for Alexa, she does whatever it was the first time, but JoElle has to be asked over and over and over...ad nauseum. There are many times Alexa is defiant, but on all of the litle things, like "Go get your shoes on", time to go bye bye, turn off the tv, turn it back on, put that in the trash, go brush your teeth, close the door...etc etc. she is GREAT about!

Alexa is super friendly, she makes friends easily, loves to hold hands with other kids, even if she just met them, loves to smile at everyone and laughs when her new little friends smile back at her! She can usually get strangers to say hi back to her, like today at the mall, she got two men in the 20s to say hi to her, I didn't expect them to even acknowledge her!

Alexa is huge for her age and for being a girl, at her last checkup for 18 mo, she was measuring 90 percentile or so for height and for weight. She has outgrown her 18 month old pants/jeans in length by several inches and can wear 24 mo length. She has been wearing 3T shirts for quite a while now, although some 18 mo to 2T fit ok. At this age, JoElle had a tiny waist and was short, so she wore 18 mo clothes until Alexa was born, and she was 3 years old!

Alexa just entirely skipped a shoe size last month, she jumped from a 5 to a 7; she wore 6s for a few days, then they didn't fit, I couldn't believe it! The same day I had to buy her new sneakers, size 7, my sister had bought Madison new shoes, also size 7 and she is almost 3! But her feet look proportionate to Alexa's size, unlike JoElle's feet, they used to always look big for her size. JoElle wore size 10 shoe for almost a year, now she is in 12s I think. She needs 5T/ XS 5-6 size pants and shirts now!

Alexa loves to drink my coffee and she will fight more for it!

Alexa's 18 mo checkup

Alexa had her 18 mo checkup- she is a big girl!

27 lbs 4 oz and 33 inches tall- 80th percentil for both height and weight.

She had fire ant bites ALL over her feet, stings were really swollen. Alexa screamed before her shots, during and after for quite a while, not anything like JoElle, she would only cry because it hurt going in, didn't cry once I picked her up.

Words everywhere!

Wow, so many new words each day, Alexa is learning to say so many things!

Eye is definitely her fave right now, along with Mommy (rather than Mama.
Uncle Aaron taught her to say "ear" the other day, and Nana taught her to say "hand"

She loves to say "Doda" for Dora, she is excited to see Dora all around the house! She also started to say "Daddy" instead of Dada. Alexa likes to pray and says "Amen!" Alexa also started saying "spoon" and "water"
She has learned a few more new ones, can't think of them at the moment!

She likes to sing the ABC song, she has a few of the letters down at the right time, B, P and Y.

One of her favorite songs is Hokey Pokey, she really gets a kick out of it, she will sing Patty Cake all by herself, and sing "roll em up" over and over as she rolls her hands. Twinkle Twinkle is still a fave, she can sing most of the words coherently.

Alexa's Teeth- 15th one

Alexa's top left "eye" tooth came in, the pointy one. She is still very fussy and in pain as it is not all the way through the gums.

One more tooth to go, on the left bottom, then she is finally done, until the 2 yr old molars start cutting! Whew, this has been a long long time, she has been super fussy with each new tooth, sometimes getting two teeth cutting through the gums on the same day.

"Mommy!"

Alexa's fave word of the week is: MOMMY!!

She used to always call me Mama, but last week she picked up on Mommy from JoElle; so, now she runs around the house with her sweet little voice "Mommy!" It just melts my heart. Until they get to be 4, then it gets annoying to her "Mommy" every few minutes :)

I had to grab something out of the car last night, in the garage, so I closed the laundry room door behind me (so she wouldn't follow me into the garage again and get stuck by herself in the dark...) and I heard her knocking at the garage door, saying "Mommy! Mommy!" It was completely adorable!

Another new word is "eye", she started pointing to Daddy's eye on July 3rd while exclaiming "eye!" She tries to also say "ice", which also comes out as "eye" as she retrieves her own cup from her cabinet, hands it to me or JoElle or anybody else in our house, points to the freezer and asks "i please, please!"

Word, word, words

Every day, Alexa is learning to say one or more new words, she is constantly repeating what she hears!

Her favorite word this past weekend was "Happy" and she used it ALL weekend, all the time.

She also likes "Peyton" (her cousin!) When we got into the car the other day, Alexa announced,
"Bye Peyton!" He was not at our house and we had not been talking about him, so Alexa must have just been thinking about him! He is really sweet with her and she likes him a lot. He is like her big brother.