Alexa's 1 Year Checkup

Alexa's Stats:

29.5 inches tall- 50 percentile for height
22 lbs 12 oz- 75 percentile for weight
head size is up from 25 percentile to 50 percentile

Everything is great- she is ahead of schedule on physical dexterity, she is already climbing- she climbs up on the couch

Here is JoElle's 1 Year old Post from 1-23-06:

January 23, 2006 JoElle went for her 1 year old check up today,
She got a few more shots, did pretty well, she screamed more this time than ever before, but still got over it quickly. JoElle weighs 20 lb 4 oz and is 29 inches long (75 percentile for heigth and 50 percentile for weight); she gained a half a pound in a little over a week, when we took her to the Dr about a week and a half ago after the milk incident, she only weighed 19 lbs 11 oz. She has been chowing down over the past week.

The funniest thing happened today; JoElle saw her pretty orange dress that she wore at her birthday party, and she took it down, so I put it on her over her pants and shirt. I took it back off a few minutes later (since she was fully dressed underneath!) and she got really upset! So I put it back on her, and she was instantaneously happy again! She is exerting her wishes, it was really cute! Normally we just ignore her little tantrums and they go away just as quickly as they start, but I only took her dress off because I didn't think she would care, but boy did she want to keep it on!
Tonight JoElle grabbed Daddy's hand so that he would walk around the house with her, holding his hand. She just started doing this last week; it is so precious!
Hey great news! We starting giving her Lactaid milk (milk without the lactose in it, for grownups) and she is doing great! NO tummy problems, no messy diapers at all, so I think this is finally a success and she will be off of her lactose-free formula within the week! Now, as far as getting her off a bottle, that is another story! We tried tonight to only give her milk to her in her cup, but she refused to go to sleep, she cried instead, which she never does when she is ready to go to bed, so I gave her milk to her in her bottle, she was happy and after playing a little more, laid down to sleep for daddy. She is weaned off the bottle at daycare, she only drinks her milk from a cup since all the other kids are older and only use cups.
Ok so if JoElle has a sister one day, Tim and I like the name Alexia.

Updates on Alexa

I don't even know where to begin, Alexa has learned so many things over the past weeks, with my being sick, I haven't been able to blog about them...

I'll start with while I was in the hospital (1/31-2/6)

Alexa stopped crawling altogether and started running around the house instead :) She decided to show off for Daddy and follow him around the house all the time.

Alexa started singing to one of her favorite shows "Superwhy" and she lifts her arms up with the Superreaders when they are in their huddle and when they say "to the rescue!" It is super super cute, she started this with Daddy :)

Alexa learned how to climb onto the couch by herself. She hikes her leg up real high and then pulls herself up.

She started putting two words together; when Tim got home from the hospital that first night, Alexa greeted him in Aunt Ana's arms by saying "Hi Daddy!" She normally says Dada, this time she decided to say Daddy. She really suprised him and Aunt Ana.

Since I got home from the hospital, some things I have noticed:

She likes to put on shoes, she tries to slip them on by herself when we get our shoes on. She brings shoes to me to put on her and she likes to bring everyone's shoes to them.

Alexa likes to give stuff to people, she brings Tim and me things all the time!

Alexa still loves clapping, all the time. She walks around so so happy, usually with her arms up in the air and a big grin on her face. She likes to carry things around the house, like helium balloons, huge blankes, food, toys... Alexa walks around the house and eats most of the time :)

She loves to scare people and roar at them and loves it when others do it to her. JoElle roaring at her now scares her, along with when Fred and Laura roar at her.

She is reading quite a few words: hi, clap, wave, arms up, arms down, and some animal words.

Alexa still signs milk, all done, more and night night. She also says "all done" and "night night" She started saying "Nana" when I was in the hospital. Other words she had already mastered and speaks very clearly are "Mama, Dada, bye bye, hi" Occasionally she says "Jojo" At Ana's house, she called her Ana once. I can't think of the other words she says right now.

Alexa is learning body parts: When she hears the corresponding body part/ comman, she can point to her ears, open her mouth, stick out her tongue. For nose, she can point to mine, but for her own, she pats her ears :) She knows her toes and eyes, too. She can show you her arms, as well as put her arms up when you ask her to. She can wave and clap when you ask her to.

Alexa loves books, she doesn't eat them anymore!

Alexa LOVES music and dancing. She will clap and stomp when appropriate for the song "If your happy and you know it" She also learned most of the hand motions for "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Twinkle" If she wants to watch her "You're Baby Can Read" DVD, she brings it to me or Daddy.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Words everywhere!

JoElle is doing very well learning to read. Two days ago, she saw the word "run" and read it to me. I was a little bit suprised b/c it was not a word we had been working on.

JoElle is reading at least 20 words, probably more that I am not aware of.

She is great with recognizing the letters of the alphabet and their sounds and can write most of the letters. I throw in Spanish once a week or once every two weeks. She catches on to it extremely fast! One morning she woke up and said "Como te llamas?" Tim asked her if she was speaking Spanish, he wasn't sure :) She enunciates extremely well, you would think she is a native Spanish speaker. She learns really fast, so we don't spend much time each day or week on serious school work, 20 minutes a day or two a week is really all. Of course we are learning / teaching all day long, just not sitting down and formally learning.

Si le pregunta dónde están sus ojos que le apunta a los ojos.

(If you ask her where her eyes are, she will point to her eyes)

JoElle también sabe su nariz, la boca y la cabeza.

Officially we are on Letter N right now. She has masterd writing the letter M. The first time we tried it, she got extremely upset - she is very much a perfectionist. If she can't do it perfectly the first time, it makes her upset. We are working on staying calm and practicing and that is going pretty well. Yesterday she started to get upset that she couldn't put her baby's diaper back on, but she stopped herself from becoming frustrated and told me. I was proud of her!

Yesterday we talked about nurses and nests, practiced writing N and n. Later I had he write "Mama" and "Nana" and she did a great job writing both.

Alexa is walking!!

Did I already post this? Alexa is walking! She started walking 3 days ago, and is really picking up steam!

It's so cute watching her walk, she is so tiny (chubby, but still tiny!)

Daddy time

JoElle had some fun Daddy time tonight while I relaxed in the bath. When they came to check on me, I asked her what they were doing, she replied " I can't tell you" When I asked her why not? She told me "It's a secret!", then giggled and started to skip away. I called for Tim and asked him, he also told me he couldn't tell me, it's a secret!! hehe

Then when I got out, she was giggling in the bed with him, they were reading books. I asked her if I could join them or if this was special Daddy time, she informed me that it was definitely Daddy time.

So I went to the living room and could hear her giggling and having fun with Tim! She came in to tell me that she had my head on her. I asked her "You have my head on you?" and I could hear Tim laughing loudly from the other room! They were being silly.

JoElle got so much energy from them being silly. I also asked her for a kiss. She told me no. (Usually she gives me kisses easily!) When I asked her why not? She told me "All of my kisses are for Daddy!"

I went to tell him this and she was giggling and falling on the floor, then she got up on the bed and kissed Daddy on the cheek over and over again! It was really cute!!