December 2013 – Peanut Smiles

Christmas 2013

December 30, 2013February 2, 2014 peanutsmiles

Merry Christmas Lexi Lou!

You definitely made the ‘nice’ list this year and were so spoiled with wonderful gifts from your family!

Our first Christmas celebration this year was mama’s dad’s extended family. You were such a trooper with all of the people that were there, and had fun playing with all your second cousins–there are 7 of them now and 4 more on the way!

The crew has grown quite a bit since 2007... 10 new cousins, 8 second cousins and 4 more on the way — The crew has grown quite a bit since 2007… 10 new cousins, 8 second cousins and 4 more on the way

Your second celebration was on Christmas Eve with mama’s family. We went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, ate meat pies, opened presents and then went to church (which you did great in and loved the music and were hamming it up with everyone around you).

Christmas morning, Grandma and Grandpa B came over for breakfast after they dropped Auntie Sheila at the airport. And we hung out all day and played with all of your new toys: table and chairs, baby dolls, your playhouse, books, a new giraffee (which you don’t like, but felt like we needed to have a back up for you) and a couple of other odds and ends.

Then a couple days later, we went over Great-Grandma and Grandpa S’s house to celebrate with Daddy. You loved all the attention from your big cousins, Ashley and Courtney.

It was a wonderful, busy couple of days and you are so loved by your family.

Love,

Mama

Alexis Monthly Posts, Lexi

Lexi 12 Months

December 6, 2013January 1, 2014 peanutsmiles

Dear Lexi,

Happy Happy Birthday! This past year has been so much fun watching you grow. You have stolen the hearts of your family and are such a mellow, genuinely happy baby and oh so fun to be around. Your serious, yet silly personality shines through more everyday and I just can’t get enough of your big hugs and wet, sloppy froggy kisses. There is no possible way to explain the love I have for you or the amount of joy you bring me everyday.

12 month stats:

22 lbs and 15 oz (75%-90%) birth weight: 7 lbs 15 oz (75-90%)

30 1/2 inches tall (90%) birth height: 22 1/2 inches (90%)

46 1/2 cm head circumference (90%) birth head circumference:13 inches (90%)

You’re a healthy and proportionate little munchkin!

Favorite moments

Sweet little peach, you love to eat! The only thing we have found you don’t like is SpeghettiOs, which, if you’re not going to like anything, that is the stuff not to like. And not only do you eat everything, you eat a lot! You’ll throw down just as much as I do; it is hard to keep you full. However, when you finally are done and we are about to remove your tray from your highchair, you have a slight panic and scramble to grab whatever is left on your tray as if you may not eat again for days.

You continue to be an inquisitive little bug and are always asking ‘What’s that’ and pointing to things. So when you heard the microwave running and staggered into the kitchen to see what was going on and asked ‘Hus at?’ I responded, ‘Thats the microwave.’ As you processed the information, you started waving at it. I didn’t think much of it until Daddy said she’s waving because it’s called the microwave. It would have never crossed my mind to connect the two words like that but your little brain in there is growing and making connections and it is so exciting to see the results.

One of my favorite moments of the entire year happened one evening this month. We were getting ready for bed in the family room and you were waddling around in your your diaper playing with your pajamas. You would put them over your face and the top of your head so you couldn’t see and then pull them down quickly and play peek-a-boo with us, while walking around the room. Surprisingly, it took you a while to run into something, but when you did, you were going full force. With pajamas over your head you ran right into the side of the couch, your head did a mini front back jerk while your body bounced backwards and over you tumbled. Of course Daddy and I began laughing right away because you literally looked like a blind sumo wrestler bouncing off of the furniture and falling over. Thankfully you got up with a little confused look in your eye and then continued to waddle around with the pajamas on your head. And too make this whole story better, Daddy miraculously was filming you. I can’t tell you how many times I have laughed re-watching this clip.

Although you took your first steps many weeks ago, over the past four weeks you have really mastered walking. You’re pretty stable and I can’t remember the last time I have seen you crawl. Thankfully, you still do have the little baby walk where you have a wide stance and your walk is more of a stomp, stomp stomp. Whenever I hear true silence, I know you’re into something or heading up the stairs because I don’t hear the sticky clamoring of your bare feet on the hardwood floor.

You’re comprehension and listening skills really took off this month. When we tell you things, you understand it and remember it. I was busy making dinner one night and you were hugging my legs begging to be picked up and I just couldn’t at that moment. So to distract you for a little bit, I suggested that we go read a book and asked for you to go get one of your favorites: Brown Bear Brown Bear. You went stumbling off to your book collection and about one minute later you returned with that specific book. Mind. Blown. There was no way I thought you would understand and be able to go and find a specific book, I was just suggesting that book because I thought there was a greater likelihood that you might go to your books and quit begging to be held.

Other notables:

You often bring books to us to be read. When you hand us the book, you turn around and plop your little tush in our laps and just wait. As we’re reading, you’ve become much more interactive with the books. You recognize items in books and will point to them when we ask you to find them such as the monkey or the fish.

You’ve started to mimic more of baby sign. You use ‘all done’, ‘more’ and ‘thank you.’

You recognize and can point to your nose, pat your belly and give ‘high-fives’ when asked.

You like to close doors (especially when you’re on the closed-in side) but don’t enjoy being stuck inside the room.

You clearly speak the words ‘hot’, ‘mama’, ‘dada’, ‘all done’, and ‘whats that’ and attempt to say ‘woof woof’ and ‘bye-bye.’

Occasionally, when I say, we need to change your diaper, you’ll squat down where you are as if you’re ready to be changed right there. (The other 75% of the time, you squirm and squeal through the entire change–which is a new thing for you. You used to be pretty good about laying still.)

Nap times have gotten much easier. You roll around and get comfortable for awhile before falling asleep, but rarely cry or make noise while doing so. When you wake up, you’ll often chat to giraffee and play by yourself for 20 minutes before standing up and crying for someone to come get you. I love love love our video baby monitor and watching you play on it. You’re slowly dwindling down from two naps a day. You still take two naps about 60% of the time, going down from 12-2 for the first and 5-6 for the second, if you have it. Night time has been pretty good too, going down around 9 and waking around 8 am the following morning. You still take a bottle before bed, half whole milk and half breast milk.

No new teeth this month, you’re still at 5 (two on top, three on bottom)

You still love music and whenever you hear it come on, you stop what you’re doing and start dancing.

You love to screech to the pitches of mice, and seriously make daddy squirm with those high-pitched sounds.

God has truly blessed us by bringing you into our lives and we couldn’t be more grateful! Happy ONE my Lexi Lou!

Love,

Mama

Birthday Parties, Lexi

Happy 1st Birthday Lexi

December 4, 2013February 2, 2014 peanutsmiles

My sweet ‘baby’ girl,

You are ONE TODAY! I can hardly believe it. Mommy and Daddy had a really fun day planned for you but we’ve been greeted with a snowstorm that has kept us home bound. I’m a little disappointed because I was really looking forward to all of the fun activities we were going to do like visiting Santa and Underwater World, but I guess we’ll save them for another day.

Over the past few weeks as this day has been getting closer and closer, I couldn’t help but remember and relive the events leading up to your arrival in my head.

I remember the excitement yet nervousness that ran through my body as I was listening to the message from the doctor telling us we needed to be at the hospital in 20 minutes and you were going to arrive the next day; 12/4/12 (and secretly was happy that your birthday was going to be all even numbers). Although I had our bags packed for weeks there was this rush of ‘Do we have everything we need?’ as if we were going to be gone for weeks and were never coming home.

I remember putting my hand on top of Daddy’s hand and weaving my fingers through his as we drove to the hospital and chatted about stopping for Chipotle as if our lives weren’t going to drastically change.

I remember playing hours of Suduko on my phone that night as I couldn’t sleep from the discomfort of the IV and the anticipation of your arrival.

I remember feeling like I had been sitting on a balloon and it pooped when the doctor broke my water.

I remember the chill I felt while laboring on the exercise ball and how good the warmth of the sun felt shinning through our window.

I remember how positive and supportive Daddy was through each contraction as he would rub my shoulders and helped me relax instead of tense up.

I remember the absolute fear I had in getting the epidural because ‘How was I possibly going to sit still through a contraction while they administered it?‘ and I remember the instant relief I felt from it.

I remember the surprise in how relaxed the actual pushing was and the laughter that filled the room in-between each contraction as your daddy made jokes.

I remember your dark ‘curly’ hair being visible for like an hour of pushing but you just never coming.

And I will never forget hearing your weak little cry for the first time and Daddy saying ‘Its a girl’ with the biggest smile on his face and the tears of joy in his eyes.

It was truly the best day of our lives and somehow you have managed to make everyday better than the previous. I can’t wait to share more about your 12th month, your first birthday party and how happy and fulfilling you have made our lives. But today I want to remember all of the emotions and subtle memories that this one year milestone marked for your mama.

I love you little bunks!

Love, Mama

Birthday Parties, Lexi

Lexi’s 1st Birthday Party

December 1, 2013December 31, 2013 peanutsmiles

Lexi Lou,

There are so many exciting things to document and remember about this exciting milestone. One whole year with you! Without question, it has been the best year of Mama and Dada’s lives and we can’t wait for what year two will bring for us!

With your birthday falling so close to Thanksgiving, we celebrated a couple days before your ‘actual day’ so some of your aunties that live out of town could come. I spent a lot of time planning and prepping for the party and was so excited for it.

So naturally, you got your first fever (with the exception of shots) and were lethargic and didn’t have energy for the entire event. I was so disappointed, but I’m glad the Tylenol helped you feel well enough that we didn’t have to cancel.

Given the fact you weren’t feeling well, you did pretty good. For the anticipated cake smash, you were really scared while everyone was singing and starring at every move you made once the cake was put in front of you. You kept reaching for me from your highchair and didn’t really even blink an eye at the cake. Once everyone put their cameras away and began talking amongst themselves, you dug in and enjoyed yourself. You had a pretty similar reaction to gifts. You didn’t really get the concept of ripping the paper off and didn’t like everyone starring at you. But boy were you spoiled with so many wonderful things!

Party details:

Inspired by your mini love affair with your giraffee, the party was themed around giraffes. Daddy did a fantastic job designing your invitations.

My very favorite detail of your party was your outfit! You wore a hand-made tutu (made by your favorite mama) and a onesie with a big 1, giraffe holding balloons and had your name embroidered on it. And we paired that with a little firework ponytail and pink bow and you were as cute as can be.

Over the summer, I took some classes on cake decorating so I could make fun cakes for you and your future siblings! It probably would have been smarter to start with a cake that was a little more simple, but I made a giraffe, which requires a whole different ‘how to post’.

It was 100% made of cake and edible, so we gave you the head to smash into and served everyone else cupcakes, which were decorated with little flags that had pictures of you throughout the year.

I also made a birthday banner and a couple of photo collages that we put up on the wall, including one that documented many of ‘your first time moments’.

For decor, we hung streamers in the family room and kitchen, put balloons around your highchair and all the way up the staircase creating a fun and grand entrance for all of your guests.