December Snow

Today we are getting our first snow of the season. Seth woke up at 7:30 am this morning and there was no snow on the ground. When I woke up at 9am the entire street was covered in white and it hasn't stopped snowing ever since. We now have about three inches on the ground and the forecast calls for snow through tomorrow. It should make for an interesting commute tomorrow.

Despite the stress of tomorrow's commute, we so enjoy the snow. It's so clean and white and peaceful. We got Lexi all bundled up and she had a wonderful time marching around it in.

She was impressed with herself for making these tracks.

So much fun!

Who me???

All that marching in the snow made her hungry. The first thing she asked for when she came in the door was "feesh" aka Pepperidge Farm fish crackers. Look at how pink her cheeks are too. They turned bright red in the cold, cold air. It was so adorable.

Lexi, Rowan and Riley

Lexi is now understanding the concept of "friends". Yesterday when I put her down for her nap I told her that when she woke up we would be going to see her friends. She was so excited and remembered when she woke up. On the way to Josh and Trisha's she asked several times about her "friends". Then when we got there she would say "Riley" and "Rowan" when she finally saw her friends.

Here are the three reading a book inside Riley's tent.


Riley, the lady's man. He certainly had their attention.

Okay....Riley made a get away, but Rowan sure has a big cheeky smile on her face.

Okay, time to climb out of the tunnel now. Off to new adventures.

It's so sweet to watch all the little ones play with one another now. There were 7 or 8 kids there last night and most were born within a few months of each other. We have our own little built in play group. It's so great!

Silly Slide

Last night we went to Josh and Trisha's annual holiday party. Josh and Trisha have the perfect house for entertaining kids! They have this great slide which Lexi didn't want to stop playing on the entire night. She would anxiously climb the stairs and then slide down. Her face would change in expression at each stage in the process.

First, she would be all smiles getting ready to come down:

Then she looked like she regretted the decision to let go:

Then, she resolved herself to getting it over with:

Then she braced herself for the crash at the bottom:

Despite the complete look of horror on her face, she continued to want to go down this slide dozens and dozens of times. It was hilarious!

Brockie for Breakfast

Yesterday Lexi woke up and asked for broccolli (brockie) for breakfast. Isn't that both strange and adorable at the same time? Thankfully we had broccolli in the house so I had to make her some. So....there she is at 10am in the morning eating a bowl of warm brockie. Mmmmmm good!

Olive You!

As Lexi grows older and discovers her likes and dislikes she has become more and more finicky about food. But one thing that she continues to love is olives! She really likes putting one on each finger and eating them off one by one. I remember loving this as a child as well. In fact, I still love this. :-)

Mmmmmmm.............

Face Painting

Seth and I took Lexi to the Children's Museum for the second time last Thursday. This time we discovered many things we missed the last time we were there. For one, there were very few children there this time around which made exploring much more enjoyable.

One of the things we missed last time was face painting. Lexi really liked this activity. She especially liked looking at herself in the mirror and trying to color her face.

Our little meow meow....

Little Sweetie

Just some sweet shots of our little angel......

Visit from LIttle Genny

One of my dear childhood friends, Genny, was in town a few weeks ago and she came over for a visit. It was so nice to see her. I hadn't seen her in about 5 years. Genny and I have been friends since I was 9 years old and we've managed to stay in touch despite our distance. Genny is quite the adventurous free spirit. She works all summer long at Yosemite to save enough money to travel the world during the fall and winter months. This winter she is spending the time sailing around the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans in a large sailboat. She truly amazes me with her bravery and adaptability. She's a special person and I'm so glad we are friends.

This was obviously the first time Genny has met Lexi Lu. It was close to Lexi's bedtime when Genny arrived so she wasn't in the best of moods. But there were periods of fun and cuteness.

Lexi showing Genny her hat....over and over again.

Okay Genny....now YOU have to wear one!

Silly faces!

And kisses...........

Zoo LIghts

Auntie Rachel, Nana and I took Lexi to the zoo lights on the first night of opening. It was a mad house and we had to wait in line for about an hour before we could get on the 10 min train ride. But Lexi really seemed to enjoy it....and that's all that matters.

Trying to entertain a 20 month old for an hour while waiting in line is no small feat. Thankfully Auntie Rachel had a lollypop in her purse which kept Lexi busy for about 15 mins. Then we each took turns walking around with her to pass the time.

I decided to buy Lexi a light up snowman to hold her attention while we rode on the train. This is a toy I always wished my parents would buy me when I was little but never would. Isn't if funny what you remember? That light up toy seemed to work rather well....but the flashing was a bit dizzying.

It was a really nice night and it was great to spend so much time with Auntie Rachel. It's a treat when we get her all to ourselves!

Lexi Milestones - Nearly 21 Months

Lexi will be 21 months old on the 16th and I've been very bad over the past few months about writing down her milestones. I feel like I must blog about this otherwise I'll lose it and forget when it ever happened. I really wish I were better about writing this stuff down, but hey.....it's hard to do it all. This blog will have to suffice.

COLORS

Lexi now knows many of her colors. She can identify and name the following: beige, white (wyyyyt), black (back), pink (pimk), purple, yellow (yhewo), blue (boo), green (geen), red, brown (bown) and orange (owange). She's been doing this for at least a month now, but just recently cemented pink, white and black. She also knows that red means stop and green means go.

ANIMALS AND THEIR SOUNDS

Lexi now knows many of her animals. She can identify and tell you most of the sounds that the following animals make: cow, bear, snake, dog, cat, sheep, horse, elephant, chicken, rooster, frog, pig. I know I'm leaving some out.....it's late. I'll have to come back to this one.

SINGING

I just realized that Lexi knows the words to all the songs that I've been singing to her since she was born. The other day in the car I was singing to her and I would pause intentionally at places throughout the songs.....she would then chime in on the word that I paused on. I found this amazing and it really showed that she's been listening and retaining things that she hears. She knows:

Row, row, row your boat

I Love You (Barney Song)

Bringing Home a baby bumblebee

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

If you're happy and you know it....

If all the raindrops were lemondrops and gumdrops....

Ring Around the Rosie
The itsy bitsy spider
Old MacDonald
How much is that doggie in the window
Hickory dickory dock
The ABC song
I've been working on the railroad
Little Bow Peep
Sing a song a six pence

COUNTING

Most recently Lexi has been learning to count. We've been working on her counting to 10 in both English and Spanish. She hasn't been able to recite all ten in a row just yet but when you start her off she knows which one comes next. She's getting really good and pronouncing Spanish numbers too. The cutest thing in the world is hearing her say "ocho".

MANNERS

Lexi is getting pretty good about using her manners now too. Lately I've noticed that when she asks for more she says "more please". She also has been consistent in saying thank you without you having to ask her to (about 70% of the time). She still needs reminding but so far so good. We can't complain with her progress.

MISC.

She's starting to say "I do" when you ask who wants....?
She says "luv you" when you put her down to bed or say goodbye when leaving for work in the morning
When Penny barks she says "No, bad"
When you ask her how much she likes something she says "Much This" - this is Seth's favorite

Lexi Visits Mommy's Work...Again

Last week when Nana was watching Lexi the two of them were downtown....and Nana was nice enough to think about bringing Lexi to my work for a visit. As you might imagine my coworkers are always begging me to bring her in, but it's really not all that convenient to do so, so when Nana offered I was really excited.

Lexi is going through this weird shy stage right now. She's never been a shy child, but at my work she wanted me to hold her and whenever anyone can to say hi to her she would bury her head in my neck. I had never seen her do that before. I guess we've entered yet another stage. After about 10 minutes and my coworker Patrick giving her a ball to play with, she opened up and returned to her affable self.

She loves sitting in my work chair and looking around my office. This time she looked at all the photos and pointed out who was in each picture. She even remembered Jaya and Dee from her former babysitter's house. I was shocked!

Cheeky monkey!!!

I had a box of Crispix cereal in my office which she devoured during her visit.

Lexi's 2nd Haircut!!!

Lexi was beginning to look like Cousin It once again and it was becoming more and more difficult to comb her hair. So yesterday while the turkey was cooking we all decided to take a trip down to little clippers to have Lexi's hair cut for the second time. She had a true cheering section....Nana, Bop, Daddy, Mommy and Auntie Rachel. It was her nap time and I wasn't sure how she was going to do, but we got through it. At first she was pretty upset but after much coaxing and a Barney video we managed to get the job done.

Here she is with Auntie Rachel in the car on the way there....both wearing their hats "hahts". Lexi is obsessed with hats right now.

She's not too sure what to think about this hair cutting experience but she has her balloon which is appeasing her....at least for the time being.

Although I would like her hair to grow long someday....right now it's just too hard. And I have to admit....I love the cut bop angled cut on little girls....especially curly haired little girls. So I decided to cut it short again. I'll maybe let her hair grow long when she gets a little older.

So right after her haircut she wanted to put on auntie Rachel's hat. She also got a blue lollipop as a reward for being a good girl....which she LOVED of course.

Who's one? Meeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Blue lips, teeth, tongue..............mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good!

Grumpy faces............

And the finished product....side view.

And the view from the back.............oodles of curls.