We've had a crazy few weeks. A missing cat, a returned cat, a day of rest, then a travel day to Ontario to help out Gramma and Papa. Mom is doing much better and our lil Alexiss and Mark did amazing without me, a dare-say they had fun together!
Two weekends ago, Alexiss and I were treated to sighting of a deer tromping through the back yard! What a sight!
K, I'm going to get myself situated for a day of home life with Alexiss. Love to you all!
Sure our lil angel brings joy into our lives, but last weekend while in town I bought something I've wanted to for a long time, a Build-A-Bear... well, two of them. One for the Momma and one for the Bubba!
If you've never been, I highly recommend preparing for a high energy super happy place, bless the people who work there and spend a larger amount of time than I did simply purchasing the bears. It's a great place to visit.. in short stints. So, I picked out a silver ear and foot lined bear carcass for Alexiss and a Canadian flat bear for me, or rather, for my car, onto the stuffing and outfits goes I. Shoes, jackets, backpacks, and yes, even pjs and boxer gitch for these lil darlings! I stayed cool and managed to limit myself to one outfit, one pair of shoes and one jacket for each, but you bet your sweet bippy I'll be heading in again for PJs and gitch in the next few months. The line up to stuff said flat carcasses was full of excited lil kidlets just waiting to bring their bears to life. I watched as each one went up to the stuffing machine employee, flat bears in their arms and big smiles on their faces, I'm sure some of them were not first timers, like me. In goes the stuffing, it's the magic that happens after that makes these bears sooo special. Build-A-Bear employees ask the future owner and best friend of the bear to go and pick out a little felt stuffy heart from the front of the machine. When the child returns they are asked to man handle the heart, rub it on their ears so their new friend will always hear them, rub it on their heart so they know they are loved, rub it on their tummy so they don't get hungry and close to last, jump up and down to get it's heart pumpin! And last but not least, close their eyes and make a wish. Oh yes, my dear friends and family, this old Momma, with no kid present.. went through the same ritual and you know, it did lift my heart a little and it DID make the bear just that much more special (just ask Alexiss). My wish as I closed both eyes and held both hearts tighter was simple, "Love Always, Always Love".
As soon as I got home, Alexiss and Joy were inseparable....and then she spotted Harmony and now they are a threesome. Needless to say, Harmony never made it to my car and is still keeping bearable warm in the house.
We have another child from the neighborhood coming over for home care with Olive, Lauren. Lauren is a few months older than Alexiss. It's all going well, poor Olive, and Alexiss is learning to share her toys and her "Olive". I really think it's good for her, although she's still not totally settled with the whole concept in just one week, but Lauren has gone as far as to brush Alexiss's hair, to which Alexiss was totally perplexed, but didn't get up and move away.
We almost have "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" nailed down. Alexiss surprised us by showing us her head a little while back, she quickly mastered "toes" like a natural. Knees was a little more abstract for her, but it still only took a few days. This weekend we start "shoulders". Pretty soon we'll be a'singin and a'dancin the famous song complete with actions!
Last weekend Alexiss pointed to an apple in the fruit bowl, not thinking anything of it besides exploring, gave it to her. Alexiss proceeded to start chomping on the apple! It was still round enough that her teeth scrapped off more than allowing her to bite chunks of, so have-at-her!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Dear Alexiss
You are doing so well! After being sick for a week, you're finally getting some much needed sleep. Boy did we all get a bit cranky, eh? I'm sorry I get impatient sometimes. I have a hard time keeping up to you some days, so full of life and wonder, while I'm old and sometimes too set in my ways. From the time you were born, our lives have drastically changed from acting like an old retired couple, almost boring in our contentment, to spending our time caring, sharing and playing, laughing and exploring the world again.
This is a good time to remind you to take care of yourself when caring for others. Don't use me for an example right now. The healthier you are in mind, heart and spirit, the more you can selfishly give to others in their times of need without burning yourself out. You also provide better care when you're in top shape yourself. And you never know when someone will need you to care for them, hopefully it's not your old parents too often.
The speed that you learn amazes me, and you surprise us every day. It reminds me of a quote I found online some time ago:
Don't worry that children never listen to you, worry that they are always watching you. Robert Fulghum
This week you patted your head when Daddy asked you about your bed head, who knew! But we're onto you now that we know you're starting to understand things! I can't help but laugh when you bring me your bottle and iTouch to tell me you want to take a nap. At this rate, you won't need to talk for a long time. Today you pointed to an apple, and when I gave it to you, you munched on it whole! Later in the day you picked up something you thought was garbage and brought it to the cupboard, opened the cupboard and put the garbage in the garbage can! Not to mention how much you're liking using the potty, even if it only is playing sometimes.
Keep learning kiddo, you're doing great, you will do great, no matter what you end up doing in life. You are you, and that's good enough for me.
It all started with a light bouncy step as I left work to pick up Mark's Christmas present, I was looking forward to some good food, laughs and...extra sleep. Boy did I get that all wrong! Alexiss came down with a fever on Christmas Eve day and company had to almost fend for themselves, it's a good thing I managed to get the lasagna made and oven ready or they'd only have tons of garlic bread and salad to muster up.
For Christmas dinner we ended up with ham and eggs cooked by Matt, super yummy and super appropriate, since the crock pot with the turkey cooked cycled off sometime during the day and wasn't cooked in the least. Whoops. It's something to add to the turkey dinner stories at least, everyone's got one. :)
Well, it's now the 30th and Alexiss is still sick, temperature is gone, rash been and gone, now it's the residual runny nose and coughing keeping us all on edge. She's finally getting her appetite back too, I think me chasing her around with food and pedialyte annoyed her and Mark enough for her to concede.
Poor girl, I remember getting sick often on holiday's as well, it's no fun at all. New great toys and no energy to really play, the fun and games the past few days has been all about shoes.. putting on our shoes, on her, on us.. walking around, taking them off. Oh yes, a real barrel of laughs, even better after she figured out today how to open the front shoe closet, uh-huh.. no hiding away her favorite plaything of the week.. *sigh*
As Mark puts Alexiss down for bed, I'm finally getting a chance to update the blog again. These past few months have left little time and I think Alexiss is actually giving me ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). I can't seem to concentrate and sit still for too long. I think part of that is because when I do seem to settle in, something happens to make me change focus all to often, so that the concept of sitting still for to long has become so foreign and fleeting that I don't trust my opportunities enough, and sit and wait for something to happen to tear me away... never really giving the real opportunities a chance to flourish due to anticipation of what may happen.
She's changing in so many ways, from temper tantrums to dancing to actually pooping on the potty! This weekend I thought I'd try the potty and what a success it was, I don't expect her to wander that way when she needs to, but she gives enough hints that there's enough time to get her there. It's gotta be so much easier than trying to stand and poop in a diaper!
Getting pictures and videos is becoming harder as well, since Alexiss is way to interested in technology to stand and smile, instead she wants to play and put the lens cap on, unless there's something else to keep her challenged, it doesn't take long for the camera to become much more interesting. We did manage to catch her dancing this weekend, she has a few books that play music when you press a button, she got so good that she knew when the song would stop and stopped twirling enough to press another button. Dancing has been keeping her more busy than her toys, and pulling the chain to turn the night light on and off... and doing up her seat belt.. and pressing buttons on just about anything... and turning the dial on the humidifier.
Alexiss loves the outdoors so much so that, since picking up a few words and forgetting them at around 8 months, that she now says her version of "outside" as she brings us her shoes, our shoes, jackets and points to the door. Last night we went out, I couldn't resist her, and she was content to stay in my embrace and look at all the Christmas lights in the night.
Well! Mark is back out, tonight's bedtime was a bigger success than the two hours it took me last night. I guess I can do some dishes and call it a night. Maybe I'll get some time to read! Still no time to knit yet though. lol.
Today on my way home, I heard this Christmas song, and thought Alexiss would love it. I was right, she twirled and twirled!
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem The Judds
O beautiful star of Bethlehem Shining far through shadows dim Giving the light for those who long have gone Guiding the wise men on their way Unto the place where Jesus lay O beautiful star of Bethlehem Shine on
O beautiful star the hope of life Guiding the pilgrims through the night Over the mountains 'til the break of dawn Into the land of perfect day It will give out a lovely ray O beautiful star of Bethlehem Shine on
O beautiful star of Bethlehem Shine upon us until the glory dawns Give us a lamp to light the way Unto the land of perfect day O beautiful star of Bethlehem Shine on
O beautiful star the hope of grace For the redeemed, the good and the blessed Yonder in glory when the crown is won Jesus is now the star divine Brighter and brighter He will shine O beautiful star of Bethlehem Shine on
O beautiful star of Bethlehem Shine upon us until the glory dawns Give us a lamp to light the way Unto the land of perfect day O beautiful star of Bethlehem Shine on
I hope this is one of many letters I write to you over the years. I'm writing because time passes so quickly and there's always going to be things I forget to say, or things that I don't have time to say, or even times I say it and you aren't in the mind frame to take it all in. So I'm using your blog as a place to leave little notes to you that can be looked at in the years and decades to come.
There's lots to say already, so much advice, words of love and a need to protect you, but one day those words will come, today all I want you to know is that, no matter what.. I love you. I've been saying it to your Dad for years and meant it, and the same goes for you. As you grow, explore and make decisions, know that I'll be standing behind you, giving you strength to make those decisions the best you can at the time and trusting each decision will bring you to where you need to be in life. Through watching other moms with older children it looks to me like a mother's love is sometimes hard to show because of our hopes and dreams for our little ones, but no matter what my first reaction is to anything that happens. Know that, no matter what... I love you.
You'll find people who may try to steer you certain ways out of love, my love has always been and always will be different. I will listen, I will ask question and I'll try to guide you to finding your own answers before telling you what I think those answers should be. It's just the way I'm made, and doesn't mean that either way of loving is wrong, it just is.
Hello, me.. again, second year in a row, pretty impressive, eh? I don't really want anything this year since 1) I have fun playing with stuff like diapers, humidifiers and anything else that doesn't fit the "toy" description and b) there's nothing I really really want... well, except for the Baby Einstein CDs Momma lost a month or so ago.
It's been a good year overall, lots of learning and getting frustrated, and oh, those teeth! But these days I'm dancing, doing my own seat belts up and sleeping (most nights). That's being good, right? Can I still be on your "nice" list if I'm not asking for anything?
Travel safe, I'm sure I'll have a list for you next year! Oh, and tell the Reindeer they can have my carrots... uck.
