First night of no sleeping meds!

JoElle fell asleep so easily tonight for the first time in 6 months without 1 full Trazadone and for the first time in over 3 years without Benadryl.

I am so excited! But, do not expect this to be every night. Yet. I know she will get to that point, most likely when school starts and she is practicing gymnastics 3 times per week, 1.5 hours each time.

Tonight was gymnastics, her coach was tough on them and JoElle learned to pull herself up on the high bar, flip underneath, hold it at the top, then flip back over, lowering herself s-l-o-w-l-y. Very impressive as tonight was the first night for her to practice this.

JoElle's coach read my mind tonight, was going to ask her if she would be adding a day of practice anytime soon, before I could ask, she told me they would add another day so the girls will practice 3 days per week- JoElle was driving me crazy early in the week, begging to go to gymnastics- she told her coach she wants to go every day, and she means it!

Her coach also told me and Tim to keep her in gymnastics and let her practice as much as possible b/c gymnastics is JoElle's "thing", and it is, I know I am her mom, but the girl is is gifted in the arena.

If only I worked out and ate like her, would have a great body, she is very lean, muscular, and she can pick up 2-3 times her body weight, not to mention the back kickovers, handstands and flips she is doing on the bar, pretty amazing! She has been at this gym and with her coach for almost a year now, I can't help but just wonder, what if she had started even earlier? She would have some crazy mad skills, flipping across the floor and on the bar I am sure :)

She is close to a back handspring/flip- you know with no hands down- I don't know the terminology until JoElle, sighing, tells me, "Mommy, that is a cast, not XYZ..don't you know?" Then I gently reminder her that, no I do not know until SHE teaches me, as I have never done gymnastics before myself.......

Has anybody written a book Gymnastics for Dummies b/c I could sure use it. I never did gymnastics, or anything else for that matter as a child, just ask my mom, I was stubborn and or scared or both..... no wonder where Alexa gets it...

Fun at the botanical gardens!

We had fun at the botanical gardens in Ft. Worth and also ran into our cousins taking family pics!

We needed to get out of the house, so spur of the moment, I decided to drive to the botanical gardens where we smelled the beautiful roses, literally. Ran around the "mazes" in the Rose gardens, as JoElle calls them.

We loved the smell of the purple wisteria growing on the arbors- so beautifully fragrant!

Both Alexa and JoElle were super excited by the water spurting up just beyond the walkway of wisteria, not to mention the pond filled with turtles piled on a hill- which we later found out was actually the fountain and once it started to work again, they scrambled off in a jiffy!

JoElle posed for a plethora of pictures, most dictated by herself, posed by herself, interesting facial expressions and questionable hand gestures...



Alexa mostly chilled in a stroller, I tried to get her to walk, but ended up back at the car for it. Those magnolia trees are gargantuous- I recall they were gigantic back when I was young, now even more so! This cute squirrel was digging up all of his nuts and munching on them- there were over 50 holes underneath the shelter of the magnolias, and also riddling the fizzled out daffodils. Alexa told the squirrel "HI!!!" but then was a bit scared of him, even with me holding her.




We went on a nature walk, found plenty of large goldfish swimming around, birds flitting from tree to tree, turtles still sunbathing..until that blasted water fountain is turned back on!



We sat under some large oak trees to eat our snacks- fruit snacks for Alexa, cheesy Doritos for JoElle, water for all.

They both loved climbing up the steps in the Rose garden, touching the water streaming down, oh yeah, a little boy tried to take off with our stroller we had abandoned at the bottom of the steps...Alexa was not happy about him touching her stroller!

We also walked to the other pond, a newer section with some beautiful functional sculptures, one a butterfly bench, as they threw acorn shells into the water and ran around the paths, smelling flowers. Before we left, Alexa had to stumble and scrape up her knees, that is the way she rolls after all :) Like her Mommy.



Tired, we ate at Galligaskin's per JoElle's request. Who can resist these most delicious Italian Cold Cut subs with fries?? yum yum.

Rest when we get home? Naw! More playing outside, in the backyard! Until JoElle had an allergic reaction to the pollen she had accidentally sniffed into her nose that I had to wipe off. The back of her neck broke out in one itchy, red, bumpy rash, her throat was itchy and dry, perhaps some anaphlaxis, so I gave her a full adult Benadryl and gave her a bath in Cetaphil, her back was also bumpy from eczema, brought on by the pollen I am sure.

She is fine, slept ok once she got past all the issues...!!

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!

It's cold

Alexa was walking in the snow yesterday, then looked up at me, with a red nose, and told me,

"I don't like it!"

hehe

Heights from the Stock Show

Alexa got to attend her first Stock Show!!
JoElle went when she was around Alexa's age, with her cousin Peyton, but was too short to ride much.

This year, JoElle is 42 inches (with her tennis shoes), so she can ride lots of rides.

Alexa is 32 inches, so she could ride everything in the kid's area, too. Key word is "COULD", she cried on two different rides, had to be taken off, so every time we got near a new ride she would tell me...."I don't want to!"

Alexa told me "I want to swing!" and pulled me over there, but once it started moving, all she could say was "Mommy! MOMMY!!!!