Poor Rex, Alexiss can now get around using what I've heard mom's call commando style. She pulls herself with her arms. Last night she followed Rex around the living room intent on touching him. Rex got a few licks in himself too.
But Rex is getting compensated with extra rice crackers that Alexiss drops. Nom.
Alexiss is sitting up on her own now too, on the soft cushie bed during change time she rolls around and pulls herself up to a sitting position, it's only a matter of time until she can manage it on the floor.
Two more sleeps til Ontariariaro!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Those beautiful chocolate button eyes
A friend likens Alexiss deep brown eyes to an English chocolate treat called Cadbury Buttons... mmmm...
http://www.atb-bargains.co.uk/cadburys-buttons-33g-2491-p.asp
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Alexiss is...
- Super cute! See!
- A Box Collector
I have fond memories of my doll collection and during our trip to Lake Louise I wanted to start Alexiss collecting something. They still bring a smile to my face and almost bring back a feeling of kid-like awe when I look through them. Among ideas I threw out were gemstones and decorative bottles, or perhaps things with a specific animal on it, none of these ideas stayed since decorative bottles are too fragile, we couldn't decide on an animal, and gemstones are nice but not quite right. We settled on decorative boxes and calendars. Mark and I reasoned that the calendars are a good way to mark the date of the trip, most have many photos and we could even put in our own pictures between the pages. We will be buying Alexiss's boxes from different places when we travel to places, family and friends are welcome to add to her collection too!
- A Rocker
She rocks in her bouncer now when she's tired, it'd be nice if she fell asleep to, but noooo, she still needs Momma's help for that one. First step is to start putting her down for naps without a bottle, which does happen from time to time but needs to start being the norm, then I can transition her to quiet time to fall asleep to, then hopefully we can take the Momma out and have her fall asleep on her own. I know some parents who made this switch by the crying method (let her cry for a period of time, then go in and comfort them..etc and lengthen the time each round) but my stance is that right now when Alexiss is unhappy, I can't reason with her and why would I want her to think she's alone when I'm close by. I want her to trust me, to come to me when she's older, not tough it out on her own while I stand by watching/listening. So that connection and trust starts now...even if other Mom's think it's wrong or I'm "spoiling" her. To me there's no such thing as spoiling her when she doesn't know what that means, all she knows is she's unhappy and she can trust me to try to make her happy or help her on her way. No, this doesn't mean she will get the chocolate bar in the grocery store after I say no and she carries it around not trusting the no, neither does it mean as she gets older that I will give in to tantrums or manipulation or whines. Whines I let go and let her figure it out, what I step in for is cries.
She's been rocking on all fours for a few weeks, no crawling yet but she's definitely getting more mobile scootching around.
- A People Watcher
I've noticed that when Alexiss and I are out and about that many many people stop to talk to her. Now, all Mom's think that their child is special and would probably leave it at that, cooing to people that she's so cute people MUST stop to see her, but me.... I knew either I was making it up or there was a reason over and above how cute she is. During our stay at Lake Louise I mentioned it to Mark and asked him if he noticed that more people seemed to stop us than other parents with babies in tow. To my amazement he agreed that more people talk to Alexiss than other babies, so now I had to figure out why. It came to me while standing at the elevator with Alexiss in her stroller gaping up at the other people, smiling away. Alexiss is a people watcher and is blatantly obvious about it, so her "subjects" say hello and smile at her. I mean really, a baby making eye contact and staring isn't rude, it's a connection with the world. She even has small children come up and touch her and the wonderment and love in their eyes is so powerful I can't help but let it play out instead of being protective and standoffish. They are always supervised and are never rough and I don't get the feeling she is in danger in the least. It's really magical to see.
- Ba-Ba-Babbling
She's usually muttered and mumbled, but her favorite this week is Babababababmmmbabab. I've got to see if I can record video and audio on the computer before she gets too old.
- A Geocacher
- One of the Pack
Rex got protective of Alexiss when Matt's new dog Genghis stopped by to check her out
- Giving Toothy Smiles
In a week Alexiss has managed to cut 4 top teeth! The first was at Lake Louise and I was absolutely shocked yesterday to get a glimpse of 3 more!!! I haven't noticed a huge amount of symptoms from her when she's cutting teeth, she's a tough chicky! But three at the same time have made her a bit crankier than usual. She's been taking lots of little naps and not playing alone as well as she has. Yesterday she bit her teether and there was a little spot of blood, I'm hoping that's the last of the three actually coming through. She's been grinding them together a bit which has me concerned, but I think it's just because they are new and the gums are sensitive.
- Sleeping
....and I've got stuff to do!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
We're back!
We're back! from a family weekend at Lake Louise and we're back online after the computer crashed left us needing to buy a new one.
New MSIFX700 machine is up and running after our computer crashed last week. Thankfully we could get our documents and pictures transferred to this new computer. What a week behind us! The computer crashed just as we were heading out for our first family vacation at Lake Louise and there's so much to tell you!....let's hope I remember it all and Alexiss gives me enough time today to catch up. Here's some pictures to keep you all satisfied for now...
New MSIFX700 machine is up and running after our computer crashed last week. Thankfully we could get our documents and pictures transferred to this new computer. What a week behind us! The computer crashed just as we were heading out for our first family vacation at Lake Louise and there's so much to tell you!....let's hope I remember it all and Alexiss gives me enough time today to catch up. Here's some pictures to keep you all satisfied for now...
Friday, May 20, 2011
Off to Lake Louise tomorrow!
We're off to Lake Louise tomorrow, Alexiss will be sporting a super sweet yellow outfit from Gramma. I've got a tote of stuff and a list going of things I need to grab for Alexiss tomorrow morning. I hope the drive goes well and we can all settle in and have fun!
Alexiss is starting to lose the chubb on her cute lil feet. When I try to take a picture, she gets excited and starts kicking so all attempts to capture them til now are blurry.
She's standing on her toes pretty good, I hold her steady...and am ready when she's not so sturdy to help her out, but overall she's doing it on her own.
No crawl yet, but lots of rocking on all fours and spinning with two hands. To everything..turn, turn, turn..there is a season..turn, turn, turn.
Well, bed for me, tomorrow is gonna be a super whirlwind of activity and I can safely say Alexiss should be asleep for the night.
Alexiss is starting to lose the chubb on her cute lil feet. When I try to take a picture, she gets excited and starts kicking so all attempts to capture them til now are blurry.
She's standing on her toes pretty good, I hold her steady...and am ready when she's not so sturdy to help her out, but overall she's doing it on her own.
No crawl yet, but lots of rocking on all fours and spinning with two hands. To everything..turn, turn, turn..there is a season..turn, turn, turn.
Well, bed for me, tomorrow is gonna be a super whirlwind of activity and I can safely say Alexiss should be asleep for the night.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Do not want!
Alexiss is now starting to push away that what she does not want, including The Momma's hands, her bottle and toys. Mark started giving her the whole bag of small toys and she actually sorts through it for that what she does want, it's so cute to see her riffling through.
I noticed a grinding noise coming from her mouth this morning, so although I cannot see or feel a top tooth all the way through, it must be through enough to produce the annoying grinding noise. I quickly gave her a toy to chew on instead and hope that it's just because it's new.
Today is a rainy chilly kinda day but it's needed, we've had fire bans in effect already, just in time for the May 2.4. weekend and Slave Lake has been whiped out by a fire. Mark is working overtime to get some Atco dorm units built for the weekend for workers in the Slave Lake area. He's got a personal connection to Slave Lake since fighting a forest fire around the town in the past. Yesterday we had to go pick up Debbie since he couldn't give her a ride. Alexiss slept most of the time because she'd not slept the night before.
I was so mad yesterday morning! I had a hard time falling asleep, Mark snoring, me trying to block it out and sleep on the couch. Then the cat decided he wanted to try to sleep with me. Comfortable...NOT! But all I kept thinking was Links's bad week last week and a weekend coming with our trip to Lake Louise. Neighbors taking care of the pets makes me nervous about Links getting out. He's quick and preys on unsuspecting people to let him out. I think it's more the game of getting out than it is about being out, and he doesn't let other people pick him up to retrieve him. How could I not let him cuddle, thinking he may not be here when we get back. I almost resorted to trying to sleep on the loveseat, but Alexiss saved me in her own way..... by not sleeping herself and making me get up. So.. up I was, tending to her from 12 midnight to 2:oo. She settled back in, then woke again at 4:oo. I got her fed and back to sleep just in time for Mark to wake up for work. Instead of "good morning", "If you wake her up, you're staying home from work and taking care of her!" flew out of my mouth before I knew what I'd said. The rest of the sleep didn't go much better, but we made it though.
Alexiss continues to give me insight into personal behavior. It always amazes me when I see a new understanding for behavior that I think most take for granted and learned early through their parents behavior, not understanding why a certain behavior is "expected" in society. The first time I saw it was when I made Mark start calling home when he expected to be late, or the odd phone call during the day "just because". Mark and I had never done either of these in the past, living more like roommates and bachelors...and liking who we were. Now I see the purpose of a man "taking care of" a women. Little things that used to rile me, damn, I can take care of myself.. Thank YOU! But something as simple as booking time at the spa in Lake Louise took a conscious effort to not keep putting aside. I finally got it done, but I pictured those old boyfriends, trying to be helpful and nice "booking me a spa day" and me being irked by it rather than feeling like they were being my "knight in shining armor". I hated to be taken care of in the past, but again, now I understand where it comes from..... because now I'm the last person I take care of, sometimes to the result of not taking care of me at all.
How many behaviors are ingrained into society with a purpose that we just think is just the way we do things? Very interesting to see and be aware of these behaviors and I'm glad I'm getting to see it. It always amazes me when I have an "a-ha" moment of self discovery of behavior driven by having a child that I used to look at society and shake my head at.
I noticed a grinding noise coming from her mouth this morning, so although I cannot see or feel a top tooth all the way through, it must be through enough to produce the annoying grinding noise. I quickly gave her a toy to chew on instead and hope that it's just because it's new.
Today is a rainy chilly kinda day but it's needed, we've had fire bans in effect already, just in time for the May 2.4. weekend and Slave Lake has been whiped out by a fire. Mark is working overtime to get some Atco dorm units built for the weekend for workers in the Slave Lake area. He's got a personal connection to Slave Lake since fighting a forest fire around the town in the past. Yesterday we had to go pick up Debbie since he couldn't give her a ride. Alexiss slept most of the time because she'd not slept the night before.
I was so mad yesterday morning! I had a hard time falling asleep, Mark snoring, me trying to block it out and sleep on the couch. Then the cat decided he wanted to try to sleep with me. Comfortable...NOT! But all I kept thinking was Links's bad week last week and a weekend coming with our trip to Lake Louise. Neighbors taking care of the pets makes me nervous about Links getting out. He's quick and preys on unsuspecting people to let him out. I think it's more the game of getting out than it is about being out, and he doesn't let other people pick him up to retrieve him. How could I not let him cuddle, thinking he may not be here when we get back. I almost resorted to trying to sleep on the loveseat, but Alexiss saved me in her own way..... by not sleeping herself and making me get up. So.. up I was, tending to her from 12 midnight to 2:oo. She settled back in, then woke again at 4:oo. I got her fed and back to sleep just in time for Mark to wake up for work. Instead of "good morning", "If you wake her up, you're staying home from work and taking care of her!" flew out of my mouth before I knew what I'd said. The rest of the sleep didn't go much better, but we made it though.
Alexiss continues to give me insight into personal behavior. It always amazes me when I see a new understanding for behavior that I think most take for granted and learned early through their parents behavior, not understanding why a certain behavior is "expected" in society. The first time I saw it was when I made Mark start calling home when he expected to be late, or the odd phone call during the day "just because". Mark and I had never done either of these in the past, living more like roommates and bachelors...and liking who we were. Now I see the purpose of a man "taking care of" a women. Little things that used to rile me, damn, I can take care of myself.. Thank YOU! But something as simple as booking time at the spa in Lake Louise took a conscious effort to not keep putting aside. I finally got it done, but I pictured those old boyfriends, trying to be helpful and nice "booking me a spa day" and me being irked by it rather than feeling like they were being my "knight in shining armor". I hated to be taken care of in the past, but again, now I understand where it comes from..... because now I'm the last person I take care of, sometimes to the result of not taking care of me at all.
How many behaviors are ingrained into society with a purpose that we just think is just the way we do things? Very interesting to see and be aware of these behaviors and I'm glad I'm getting to see it. It always amazes me when I have an "a-ha" moment of self discovery of behavior driven by having a child that I used to look at society and shake my head at.
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