Ahhh, good morning!

It's been a tough few weeks, Alexiss hasn't been herself and hasn't been sleeping well. Last Wednesday we found out why, poor lil girl was sick. It's been a year since her and I had that horrible stomach flu so I guess we were due. Mark also caught a touch of it and I've been fighting something off. Let me tell ya, though, our little girl was such a trouper and now she's bounced back and is full of vim and vigor!

The sweetest thing she did was one night while I was trying to put her down to sleep for the night. She took my hand and rubbed her head with it.. of course I took the hint and soothed her as she drifted off.

She's trying to talk again too, mind you ball and bath sound much the same at this point, but it's a start. Sometimes she comes out with some wild sentences that sound like she knows what she's saying, it makes me wonder. A few months ago, on a weekend, I woke up and Mark said "look who's up", I swear she repeated him... and hasn't said it since. She's starting to mimic me for simple words, so it becomes a game of her and I saying things like "bum" and "bed" back and forth as she smirks. Come to think of it "ball", "bath", "bum" and "bed" all sound a lot alike. lol

What a smile on her when she's up to no good, it starts at her mouth but her eyes! they literally shine with her thoughts and I can almost hear her say "watch THIS Momma... I know you're not gonna like it, but I sure am!".

Mark is away in Ontario this weekend, visiting with his terminally ill grandmother. I fought with the feeling that we should all go, but Alexiss is such a little ball of energy and Mark's grandmother is already weakening, I can't imagine adding the stress having Alexiss's non-stop action in the house. Mark comes home on Sunday, and Oma and Opa (Mark's parents) are coming through today and staying a week. It's going to be a houseful since Olive will still be coming to care for Lauren and Mark has Monday off.

Well, it's happened, our little girl is growing up. She's made the transition herself of going to bed in her crib. I still cuddle her and rock her, but she can't get comfy. Some of the best cuddles and conversations happy when she's squirming around, she even stops squirming, looks at me and plants a kiss on my lips. I usually take that as an indication that she's ready for her crib. She still cries a bit when I leave the room, but not for long.

Well, she's up and calling for someone to come get her. Our day starts!

As she sleeps

More videos!

Alexiss is growing and learning more and more everyday!

Dancing with a partner



Downtime on the iPad



Being silly (you can hear my Mom laughing through Skype)

A handful!

Alexiss has been more clingy since returning home from my short trip alone to Ontario, Mark, try as he may, cannot lure her away from wanting to be with me. She's so cute, smiling more and more everyday, and its' getting easier and easier to play and make her laugh. I swear she's on the verge of talking, it seems more and more she's showing that she understands what I ask her and mimics short words back.

We took a few videos and pictures to send to Gramma to help her feel better while eating, cuz that's the only time she stays still, and while out at a nearby out of the way run-down park with a geocache in it!

A handful of laundry. Boy will this video come in handy one day!



A handful of food and a big smile.



on the way to geocaching...



A handful of a geocache container wandering around a nearby out-of-the-way run-down park.



Some random pics, the other little girl is Lauren who comes to our house for care with Olive on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fridays.








Sorry John, she wasn't super picky on the doughnut and chose a cookie instead. We tried.. and hey, I finally got a chance to upload the pics for you!

Hello out there!? I'm still here.

I'm still here, are you still there?


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!

Bringing Joy and Harmony into the house.

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!

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.

Love
Momma

How I spent my winter vacation

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*

Well, off to knit.