Dear Lexi,
Well, January held up to its reputation of being long and cold! There were many days where it was -40 degrees (with the windchill) and I think it only was above 20 degrees 5 times the entire month. When it has gotten above 15 degrees, it snows…so it has been a hard month cooped up inside. Of course, you haven’t minded. You love wondering around the house, getting into drawers, (literally) cabinets and anything you’re not supposed to. I’m not sure what your growing stats are, but it feels like you’ve gone through a major growth spurt as you seem a taller and have grown out of your size 4 shoes.
Favorite moments:
I document this every month, but sweet girl, you love you dance! Anytime you hear music, whether it is from a TV commercial, itunes, your toys or ring tones, you start grooving–even in your car seat and highchair. You love to boogie! Your newest move is a one-shoulder shrug. So cute, especially when the rest of your body is still and you pop you shoulder up and down.
In addition to dancing you really enjoy reading books. You like to flip the pages and ‘read’ them by yourself. Daddy will often find you sitting in your room throughout the day reading books by yourself for a good 15-20 minutes. You also love to be read to. On average, we’ll read 15-20 books a day. As we read, you pick out the smallest most-minute details such as a spider in the background or a little mouse peeking through a hole—very detail oriented my girl.
We had Auntie Angie and Uncle Joe’s Christmas card on the cupboard and whenever I would hold you, you would randomly say ‘woof woof’—as you saw Lucy on their card. Eventually, I let you hold it, and you carried it around the house the entire day and kept saying ‘woof woof’ and kissing the pictures of Uncle Joe and Auntie Angie.
Your Auntie Beca graduated from her dental hygiene program this month so we were out at Grandma and Grandpa S’s house celebrating and you had so much fun playing with Ashley and Courtney. The three of you went up and down the stairs at least 50 times. At the top and you would put your arms above your head and go ‘ta-da’ and then scoot down. When you got to the bottom you would sit on the last step and bounce up and down, laugh and then repeat the process. It was so entertaining to watch your big cousins take care of you and the three of you playing together.
This month, you’ve begun to initiate peek-a-boo games. Instead of waiting for mama and dad to start, you’ll run behind a piece of furniture and then peek out, giggle and tuck back. Additionally, by the end of the month, you started putting your hands over your eyes and then pull them away, giggling and then repeat over and over and over again. I love to watch your innocence and peer enjoyment in the simplest things.
My favorite moment of the month took place just after you had finished eating a cookie. You were at your table and had chocolate frosting on the top of your lip, giving you a mini mustache. As soon as you swallowed your last bite, you ran to the stove, grabbed the dish towels and started dabbing your face to clean off the chocolate. It was such a sweet, genuine and completely un-solicited moment—especially since you despise having your hands and face washed.
When we went swimming, for the first 30 min or so, you were very unsure of the water, the people, the noises and the whole situation in general. But after you became more comfortable, you loved it! You kicked your legs like a little frog, were very comfortable on your back. You even volunteered to put your face in the water and didn’t cry when you went underwater. It was a lot of fun to see you enjoy a new activity and I can’t wait to go again!
Noteables:
Another tooth popped through on top for a total of 7.
You’ve had some bad diaper rashes and a couple of colds throughout the month.
You learned to go down stairs. You sit on your butt and scout down one at a time.
Whenever your sippy cup is backwards, you flip it around (previous you just drank from it backwards)
You love to… RUN, read books, pretend to put clothes on, eat snacks at your table and chairs, take things off Dada’s desk and play our bathroom—probably because you know you’re not supposed to.
You play really well by yourself—for as long as 30 minutes sometimes.
We officially weaned you from bottles.
Daddy was gone for a week, which made childcare tricky!
We’re working on keeping a regular bed time routine—jammies, brush teeth, hugs and kisses to dada and read stories.
We visited Choo Choo Bobs for music and story time. There were a lot of people there and you were TERRIFIED! You had a death grip on my neck and just sat on my lap for the first 30 minutes, but you did eventually play!
Words: mama, dada, oh-oh, up, all done, num-a-num-a-num, nigh-nigh, no-no-no-no, on, hot, papa, two and attempts: thank you, milk, Lexi
Signs: hi, bye, more, all done, train, please, thank you, frog, bunny, cat, dog, airplane, elephant, bird, night-time, monkey, stars, light
Noises: dog, wind, snake, pig, bee, owl and attempts: turkey, cat, goat, cow, choo choo, airplane sounds
You are the light of everyday sweet girl and am so eager to get home and see you each day. It is so fun to watch you grow, learn and discover new things everyday.
Love,
Mama
Peanut Smiles 