JoElle lost her first tooth!!

After a few weeks of wiggling, JoElle lost her first tooth and she is extremely excited! We were ate Applebee's about to eat dinner with Nana, the tooth was wiggling away and she was getting ready to eat some ribs, so I helped grab it out before she lost it or swallowed it! It was only holding on by one little side.

The night before, when she was brushing her teeth, her mouth filled with blood and she was crying hard! She was scared of all the blood, plus said it hurt. Alexa started crying with her!

Kindergarten!

JoElle started Kindergarten at Pearcy, she had a great first day...



But Alexa cried quite a bit at home and asked for Jojo all day!

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.

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.

Recent developments- reading words, walking, talking, I don't have a baby anymore!!!

Well here we are, back in January again. Has a year really gone by that fast?

Last year at this time, I was miserably pregnant, still working full time, but about to cut my hours down to 32 hours per week. JoElle was just about to have her 3rd birthday party. We had it at the Little Gym and had a blast! She was still attending classes at the Little Gym, but was started to cry more and more when it was time to go in, she didn't want to leave me in the lobby and go in by herself since she had just moved up into the independent class.

So this year, 2009, I have two little girls, one who is almost 4 and one who is almost 1 year old! What? Alexa is almost 1 already? Is that even possible???????

Yikes! JoElle has learned so much with me at home over this past year, such things as:
How to write her name, how to write most of the letters of the alphabet, she can id all the letters and most of the sounds, she reads quite a few words, has several Scripture verses memorized, knows many Bible stories, has many many songs in her heart from FBCE Kim Noblitt CD's like "You Saved Me" songs, and so much more!

Alexa has learned to clap, she can read her first word "CLAP!" when she sees the word, she starts clapping, even before the word is spoken out loud!!! I am very proud of her.
She can sign several words- milk, all done, bye bye/hi
She can say: Dada, Mama, bye bye, hi, all done, night night, oh yeah she decided to use "baba" for bottle, Nana, Ana
When she hears "arms up" she puts her arms up, when you tell her "clap" she claps; she can point to her mouth when you ask her to
She loves to dance to any song, she loves "Yo Gabba Gabba" and "Superwhy!", she tries to do the spider on "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and does the hand motion for "washed the spider out!", loves the song "5 Little Monkeys Swinging from a tree"..when you get to the part "and snapped that monkey right out of that tree" she claps real hard to snap him out of the tree!!
Likes to do patty cake, can do "roll 'em up" really well by herself.

She loves pointing right now- to people, to objects, to babies, to her sister, to our eyes, mouth, nose, teeth.... she still bites me a lot, esp when teething, her molars are still killing her, the bottom left molar cut in yesterday, she is really fussy

Alexa tried to say "baby" when we looked at a baby book, she said real loudly "BAY!" She likes to hug baby dolls and softly say "dada" for "baby"

She still loves to giggle at everything, esp Daddy and JoElle; loves to chase and play hide and seek!

The other day, on New Year's Day, Alexa was walking all over the living room without holding on! She took 10 or more steps at at a time, even would turn and walk other directions without falling down! She has grown so much over the past year!

Alexa learned to use a straw

Alexa grabbed my drink as I struggled to carry her, my purse and my drink through the door. I figured she would just chew on it, but instead....

She started sipping my Coke! Hehe, she learned how to use a straw! She was happy to get some of this sugary liquid, much better than the normal repertoire of water and formula!

Immediately after the soda, she went crazy; she kept standing up and taking little steps as I cheered for her.

Second sign learned

Alexa signed "milk" to me today. She had signed it a few times before, but didn't seem all that sure in what she was signing. But today, she was very definitive in telling me.

She is getting quite good at signing "all done" and she also tries to say it at the same time, it almost sounds like all done. She was saying "Mama" a lot today.

I think Alexa is still suffering from this stomach bug we all picked (for the second time in two weeks), she had nasty diapers yesterday and was still throwing up today. It is difficult to tell when she is vomitting versus spitting up, because she spits up daily at least 10 times and it is not just milk.

Alexa is growing attached to Daddy, she whines and cries for him in the morning and when he comes home. Tonight, both JoElle and Alexa rushed to Daddy at the door when he got home! It was really cute. He was holding both of them. Alexa was crying for him before he got home, she couldn't figure out why it was dark and he wasn't home. I called him and he talked to her on the phone, she smiled, then tried to look at the phone to see if she could see him.

Alexa is doing very well standing up on her own, without pulling up. She still loves t.v. especially Superwhy. She loves to bounce up and down to songs. She FINALLY mastered a sippy cup, I thought she would never learn how to do it, she was not interested, she wanted a regular cup only.

Of course, she is teething again. This time, it is two back molars and two of the canines. After these 8 come in, she will be done until her 2 yr old molars come in.

JoElle learned to write the letter "G" today and I also taught her the story about David and Goliath. We also talked about some other G words, God and gingerbread. She loves gingerbread! She loves God, too.

Oh yeah, last night she was singing "Yes Jesus named me Coats, yes Jesus named me Coats..." hehe it was cute!

JoElle has been taking good care of me lately with my back aching so badly. She likes to doctor me! Yesterday she was doctoring me and I told her she was a great dr, she told me she was being a Mommy, not a dr! How true, Mommy's are doctors too. Then I reminded her that Aunt Ana is a Mommy and a doctor, too :)

JoElle was also planning her "baby's" birthday party, it will be this Saturday at the mall. We will have cupcakes, we will buy some so we don't have to make them, and we will also make some so Alexa can eat them, without lactose. We will play some games, too.

Oh yeah, during this planning, she learned how to measure things around the house, including herself, using nonstandard measuring. She used a hollow plastic tube to measure herself, the counter, the balance beam, the playhouse. She saw this on Sid the Science Kid last week. It was a good idea, though, we enjoyed it.

Guess who took her first steps???

Yes! Alexa took her first two steps unassisted! (8 1/2 months old)

She really suprised us; she was bouncing all over the place tonight and we were looking at each other wondering why she had so much energy?

Then she pulled up on the couch (like always) but this time, when she let go, she took two steps to me!

It was great to see her face light up as we all cheered for her! JoElle and Tim were clapping so hard and were so excited for Alexa!

8th tooth

Alexa got her 8th tooth today, top 2nd to her right.
Next comes molars...

2nd word...

Alexa finally said Mama today!!!
She is 8 months old...

Tooth Number 7...

So yesterday Alexa got tooth # 6 in, well today tooth #7 also came in! Number 7 is the bottom left, to finally match the bottom right she got in about a month ago!!

She has at least 4 more cutting in, you can see them bulging underneath her gums....

Tooth Number 6

Alexa got her sixth tooth today, the top right one.

She has been fussy the last few days, especially yesterday evening and today and not very interested in bottles. Also, she has woken up the last three nights for one more bottle between 12-1 a.m., which is unusual for her.

Alexa has 4 or 5 more trying to come in right now......!!

We also had a playdate today with a little 3 month old girl named Shelby from our neighborhood. Alexa loved watching the baby and touching her, but she is not very gentle, so I had to watch her carefully.

We visited Rene at her house today, Alexa let Rene hold her and feed her tacos. JoElle played with Laura and tried to do flips on the floor, but it is wood, so she was scared to flip and hurt herself :)

Alexa said Dada!

Hey, guess what?Alexa started saying Dada today!

It was so cute, all of a sudden, she said in a cute little high pitched voice "Dada!" He was at work, but she saw him earlier, so she thought he was still here!!

She kept saying it over and over as she crawled around, like she was looking for him!!!

I called him and told him and he heard her say it!!!

She is almost 8 months old; just last night, Tim and I were talking about how she isn't talking yet, but she understands us very well.

Cooking Class and Alexa crawling like crazy....

JoElle and Peyton attended a trial cooking class at the Young Chef's Academy in Colleyville; they were the only two chefs, we left them and came back for them.

They both did awesome! They loved making Spatter Cookies, they measured, mixed and baked the cookies. They also assembled funny face pizzas, with ranch, cheese and veggies.

They were so excited to feed us their creations when we got back! Alexa and Madison also ate with them. They were so proud of what they had made!

As we left, JoElle wanted to know "Where is the teacher who is pregnant?" Several weeks before, we were supposed to have class, but the teacher was sick with morning sickness; JoElle remembered that :)

Tonight we had our Neighborhood Night Out; we met some neighbors we had not met before down the street and the JoElle played with Sierra and Landri; they had a blast chasing each other. JoElle is so grown up, I can't believe it!

Alexa is ALL over the place, she has been crawling since last Wednesday and also pulling up since then. She looks for me all the time, usually in the kitchen and she crawls to me. It is so precious, I love it! She is so excited that she can come find me and JoElle also now. She is pulling up really well and is walking alond the furniture.

One thing I can't get her to stop doing is biting me. She bites me all the time, I tell her no and she laughs at me.

Alexa is waving to everyone like crazy, she is also starting to sign milk and all done. I have been working with her a few weeks now, not all that consistently, but she is catching on fast.

Friday we went to story time at the library for JoElle; Alexa loved it as well, she hung on every word the teacher read and sang. JoElle got to make a squirrel hand puppet; she was so excited that she got to do a craft, too!

Alexa is adorable!

Isn't she adorable? Alexa was laughing at me and Tim. She is all about Mommy right now and has been for the past few months. Guess what? Sunday she crawled to me! She also crawled to Tim. What a wonderful feeling when your precious one is finally successful at crawling towards you and you are able to pick her up and give her a huge hug and shout joyfully for her! Both of the girls thrive on praise; so we shower them with praise as much as we can.

Alexa gets her 4th tooth! (Correction: and 5th tooth as well, the same day!)

While we have been waiting for her 4th tooth to break through on the top (her top left), instead a new one popped in today, the bottom right, next to the first one on the bottom! So, Alexa now has 4 teeth, but not in the order we expected!

So, right now she is cutting in the top right and the bottom second on her left. Considering that she had 4 teeth trying to come in at the same time, she is doing quite well! She is a little bit fussy, but it's not too horrible at the moment. Now she has 4 teeth in with two on the way......

Correction: Alexa ALSO got her fifth tooth the same day that her fourth one (the third one on the bottom) came in unexpectedly!) So, Alexa did get the top left front tooth as well today!!

I can't believe she got two teeth the same day, how crazy, considering that she was cutting in two teeth the same day, she was not so bad after all! She was crying out in pain when we went to eat at Applebee's with Granny and she would not let me put her down, not even in a shopping cart at Mardel's, I had to hold her through the entire store.

She did let Granny play with her, feed her and hold her later that afternoon, though!

So close to crawling and pulling up!

Alexa is so very close to crawling! She is constantly rocking back and forth on all fours, "crawling" backwards, and a few days ago, she started to put one knee forward, and at other times, but the other knew a little forward.

While on all fours, she also lifts her knees off of the ground like she is in some sort of plank yoga pose, then she starts to scoot her hand back towards her feet and she tries to stand up. Our only guess is that she is trying to pull up/ stand up on her own. Alexa is pretty good at holding on to her stationary activity center or the ottoman by herself.

She is so great at rolling every which way that last week she was literally all over the living room floor. She gravitates toward the t.v. (I found her under the t.v. armoire chewing on JoElle's Leap Frog computer cord, or to my dad's recliner. She can get back and forth around the room rather fast. What is extremely funny is when I turn Backyardigans on, as soon as she hears them singing their opening song, she stops whatever she is doing, twists, contorts, cranes her neck and arches her back, whatever it takes to see them! She also calms down when waiting for a bottle to be cleaned and made if we turn this on for her. JoElle loves to watch it too, it's a very cute show.

Alexa: 6 months old and learning so much!

September 3rd, 2008: Her 3rd tooth broke through today, the top right front tooth.

September 2nd, 2008: she learned how to get to a sitting position from all fours!

September 1, 2008: Alexa started waving bye-bye with her right hand at JoElle riding her bike!

FINALLY said MAMA

JoElle FINALLY said Mama! I have been waiting for this day since she was born!! After Daddy and I have been trying to coax her to say it, she finally did Nov 19th and then again Nov 20th! It's about time! She has been saying "Dada" forever!

Sick and more teeth, first hospital trip

Our poor baby has her first ear infection and she is wheezing. She either has asthma like mommy or bronchiolitis, which causes wheezing and a runny nose. Either way, she is now on breathing treatments of albuterol. JoElle is taking after mommy; when I was a baby I was constantly sick with runny, stuffy noses, coughing and wheezing just like her. I think Grandma is having flashbacks...
So her first breathing treatment went ok, for the most part she stayed still while I held the little fish mask to her face and Daddy read "Hop on Pop" to her. Of course, she occasionally took the mask off to look at it and watch the vapors wafting up!

We had to take her to Cook's children hospital to find all this out, she was unable to drink her bottles because she was so stuffy, so her pediatrician said to take her to the hospital since it was a Saturday. The ER dr there let us know that at around 4-5 months old, babies get sick because their mother's immunity is no longer covering them, they are having to develop their own immune system.

Last night, she was screaming at 3:00 a.m.; her nose was stuffy and bleeding, she would not stop screaming so I held her until 6:00 so that she could get some sleep, but she still screamed; we both knew there was something more going on, but JoElle couldn't tell us it was her ear :(
At any rate, I think she is now on as many meds as I am! I hope it works; at least she is already much happier. What a refief!

Yesterday, JoElle and I also visited the Little Gym for a intro class. It was lots of fun, even though JoElle wasn't feeling so good, she made friends with some of the other babies; we joined the class. I know that she will really enjoy it!
JoElle's 7th tooth (top, right of her big tooth) popped in last week, Friday Oct. 28th.