Lexi Turns Two!!!

So....as most of you are well aware, Lexi turned 2 yesterday.  We had a wonderful party for her on Saturday March 14th (Seth's birthday) with all our friends and family.  It was a "Lex-travaganza" as our friend Joshua described.  :-)  The theme was Hello Kitty (Seth had to suck it up) and it was adorable.  Of course Lexi doens't really have any real likes (theme-wise) quite yet, so Hello Kitty was MY idea.  I just couldn't help myself.  I even found a Hello Kitty cake!  It was awesome!  Unfortunately I was unable to find a Hello Kitty pinata, so Elmo had to do....but  no one seemed to mind.  :-) It was great fun!  

Yesterday, I also started a new tradition of taking the day off for Lexi's b-day.  From here on out I vow to take Lexi's birthday off work and we will do whatever her heart desires (within reason).  Since she doesn't quite know exactly what to do yet, I decided to make the decision for her and I took her to the Portland Children's Museum and then out for ice cream.  We had such a nice time.  Lexi ran around the museum like she owned the place and was grinning from ear to ear!  I loved every second of it!  I can only imagine how special this tradition will become as she grows older.  

In addition to summarizing her second birthday, the point of this post is also to recount the many new things that Lexi is doing these days.  It's been about three months since we updated the "Lexi-ism" list so it's long overdue.  

List of Lexi-isms at 24 Months:

• She's now doing this funny little chicken dance (which you can witness by watching her youtube videos).  It's hilarious!  Poor thing, has absolutely no rhythm....just like her mommy and daddy.  The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree.  
• She can now speak in 4 to 6 word sentences.  She says things like "Daddy, sit right there on couch", while pointing where she wants him to sit.  
• She's testing us constantly.  She'll do something that she knows she's not supposed to do, while looking straight at us, just to see what we'll do.  
• She's starting to put herself in time outs.  She'll do something naughty and then walk over to her "time out" spot and sit there looking down and sad until we walk over and look at her.  
• She has memorized her PBS cartoons and now recites them as she watches them.  She has learned so much from watching them too.  The other day we drove by a gas station and she pointed out the window and said "Gas!  Food for your car!".  Isn't that amazing!?  Thank you Caillou.
• She can sing whole verses of songs....today she sang the whole first verse of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in the car on the way home all by herself.
• When she wants something she says "I do!"
• She's in the 'everything is mine' stage so we've been working on the whole concept of sharing with her.  Yesterday at the Children's Museum she would be playing with something and when another child came near her she would get very possessive and would say "Mine!".  I would reprimand her and tell her that the toys belonged to everybody.  By the time we left the museum she would pick something up and say to me "Not Lexi's...everybody's....right mama?".  So cute!  
• She's just recently started to bow when she does something cute.  She leans over and says "see mama?" all the while trying to keep her balance.
• She says "Hi" to everyone we pass at the store.  She's the world's most friendly child!
• When she sees an empty plate she confirms "all done?".  
• She sings the "clean up song" when it's time to pick up her toys.

I can't think of anything else at the moment....but I'll continue to add more Lexi-ism's here as I think about them.  

Until next time......

My Lack of Discipline

I've been very bad about keeping up this blog the past couple of months and I feel badly about it.  I keep intending to update it, but never seem to find the time to sit down and just do it!  I have finally found a few spare moments, thank goodness.  Lexi is in bed and Seth is working so the house is nice and quiet.  

Well, I wanted to share a story which happened about a month ago.  I went to pick up Lexi from her babysitter, Heidi's house, after work.  The first thing Heidi asked me when I entered the door was "what do you and Seth do for discipline at home?".  And do you know what????  Embarrassingly enough I couldn't think of one single thing!  It was a real slap in the face actually.  I realized that up until that point, Seth and I had instilled no discipline upon our child.  

Heidi went on to tell me that Lexi, while sitting in her highchair, had purposely tossed her plate of food on the floor (applesauce and all) all while looking straight at her.  She said she had never misbehaved like the before and she tried to put her in a time out for discipline.  It was at that time that Heidi realized that Lexi had no clue what a time out was.  She said she tried to make her sit down and she kept standing back up.  Well, that would make sense since we have never once tried to put her in a time out before.  

It was a rude awakening for me.  Up until that point I had mistakenly believed that my child was perfect, even though I knew in my heart that she wasn't.  Up until that point we always tried to reason with her or try to give her what she wanted.  Well, I realize that now is the time to set boundaries.  Now is the time to show her who's boss.  The last thing I want is for other parents to dread with Little Miss Lexi Prouser comes over.  

So, we are now implementing time outs when she does something naughty and you know what???  They are incredibly effective.  She doesn't enjoy being in a time out so she now thinks twice about doing naughty things.  It's awesome.  We don't do it often.  I think we've done it maybe 5 times, but that's a start!  Being a new parent really is a learning experience.  Thankfully I have a good support system around to tell me when I need to start stepping up my game.  :-)