Lexi at 8 months

Height: 28 inches
Weight: 21 lbs
Tooth Count: 0
Hair Color: Strawberry Blonde

Mobility: Proficient at the dead man crawl and rolling.  She is a full fledged explorer.  Good at sitting

Sleeping: Likes to take two to three naps.  She is a night owl.  I can sometimes get her to go to bed before 11 about once a week.  She always wakes up at 8 am no matter when she goes to bed.  It isn't too big of a problem except for one week Nicholas decided to get up at 6:30 every morning, which meant I had to be up at 6, and then they wouldn't nap at the same time.

Favorite Things:

• Eating paper, plastic bags, and strings.
• Rolling around on our bed or Nicholas' bed.
• Searching for small objects.
• Rolling around in Nicholas' play food.

Firsts:

• Time on the tramp.  She doesn't really love it unless you are holding her when you jump.  (I don't blame her.  It is also hard for her to keep her last meal down sometimes.)
• Trip to the movies.  (Interested in it.  Didn't sleep a wink.)
• Firework show.  (LOVED IT.)
• Taste of a french fry. (LOVED IT.  I had a hard time prying it back out of her hand.  Sometimes I call her my little french fry because she looks like she has a little ketchup on top with her reddish hair.)
• Near chocking episode.  (She tried to eat a brown fuzzy ball.)
• Ant bites.  (I put her in the bumbo on our driveway and she got bit approximately 10 times on her leg.

Random:

• We are trying to get her to like a binkie.  She is starting to warm up to it, but gets so intrigued by it that she won't go to sleep with it.  She also loves Nicholas' sippy cup and will play with it while we are eating dinner.

Relationship with Nicholas:  Nicholas developed a new game called "bounces" where he throws things at Lexi and tries to get them to bounce off her.  He has played it like three times.  Lexi doesn't cry unless she gets hit in the face.  Poor little thing.  Nicholas gets in a lot of trouble when he plays this game.  He looks at me with these sad eyes and tells me, "Mom.  I was just playing bounces."

Father's Day

We celebrated Papa's Day a week late, due to Joseph's ear surgery.  The dinner he picked included Caprese salad, caramelized green beans with bacon, steak, apple crisp, biscuits, and sherbet.

For gifts he got his stash of car treats restocked.  (A few months ago, Joseph started keeping treats in his car.  He thought it was his secret stash and he felt guilty about this little indulgence.  I totally knew about it and supported this idea.  I thought it was a great way to help him start to unwind after a busy day, and probably would help him face the chaos that would welcome him when he came home.)

Joseph also got a big gift. We will let Nicholas tell you about it.

Nicholas was so sweet.  He really got into the spirit of giving today.  He picked up all his very special blankets from off his bed and brought them to Papa.  He shouted surprise and gave them to him.  Then he went back and got Bark, his pillow pet that he sleeps with EVERY night, and yelled surprise again.  I thought it was so sweet that he was willing to share with Papa his most treasured items.  These are also the only items I tell Nicholas that he doesn't have to share if he doesn't want to share them.  It was a sweet moment.  Soon there after Nicholas decided it was "NOT SUNDAY" and "NOT PAPA'S DAY".  It was just "NICHOLAS' DAY and I can watch Diego RIGHT NOW."

Lexi's Favorite Noise

They Sure Are Cute Troublemakers

My Son the Salesman

We went to In and Out Burger this week.  We all got waters and we got one milkshake to share between us.  About half way through our meal, Nicholas starts saying, "Mom this is really yummy water.  Do you want some?  Do you want my water?"  I told him, "Thank you for offering, but I have my own water.  We both have waters so you can drink from your cup and I can drink from my cup."  He kept saying similar things until I told him I would love to have some of his water.  He passed it over to me and then announced, "Okay Mom.  I will have this cup now."  He then pulled over the milkshake cup and told us, "This is a good trade.  Yeah, this is a good trade.  You have your yummy water and I have this cup."  He had the sliest smile.  He really thought he had pulled one over on us.

Lexi is Mobile

Lexi just got the scoot down about two weeks ago, and now she is an expert dead man crawler/roller.  On Saturday, she crawled the entire length of the house in under five minutes.  Having a super mobile infant is so foreign to Joseph and me.  Nicholas was such a blob and didn't crawl until right before he walked.  It is funny how Lexi and Nicholas are so much alike and yet so different.  Lexi is starting to also be a good sitter. She doesn't enjoy it, but she can do it for about two minutes. The above movie is just one example of how Lexi can entertain herself forever chasing her toys around.

Always Be Prepared

We had between golf ball and softball sized hail on Wednesday.  I HATE hail storms!  They are one of my least favorite things about Texas because I worry about our poor little house.  I had expected rain, but I hadn't expected hail.  We had just got back from a temple trip when it started to rain.  I had been trying to get Nicholas to play outside all day because it had been a cool morning with the incoming rain.  When he got out of the car, he spotted his helmet and determined he wanted to ride his bike out in the rain while wearing his helmet.  He was very determined so I told him if he wanted to do it by himself, he was welcome to go out and ride his bike.  I thought his determination would fizzle, but he still wanted to go out.  I strapped on his helmet and put on his shoes and sent him outside.  It took him a few minutes to get up the courage to go out in the rain and get his bike.  We were watching him kind of proudly that he was playing all by himself, something he RARELY does.  Next thing I know, I hear hail pounding on our back patio roof.  I rushed outside to get Nicholas, but not before a couple had hit his helmet.  I carried the poor confused little man back indoors.  I wonder what the neighbors though about us strapping a helmet on our kid and sending him out to play in a hail storm.  Good thing he was so prepared.

UPDATE: According to the Dallas Morning News, insurance officials predict that this could be the second-costliest hailstorm in Texas history, with damage estimates ranging from $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion.  The most expensive was $1.6 billion in May 1995. 

Injured Ninja

Thanks for all the prayers and phone calls.  Joseph survived his latest ear surgery this Friday (5th major middle ear reconstruction).  It came with mixed good and bad news.  The good news is everything went well and his doctor thinks he has found the problem and that there is a good chance that Joseph can eventually have decent hearing out of his right ear.  The bad news is that the surgery will have to be done in two parts.  During this first surgery, they fixed his ear drum.  The second surgery will be in six months and they will then fix all the bones in his middle ear.  In the meantime, Joseph will probably have worse hearing, especially until all the packing dissolves.  Just keep praying for him and talk loud when you see him :)

He has been a real trooper with his recovery.  He luckily slept through the worst of it on Friday.  He asked me how his dressing looked and I told him he looked like an awesome injured ninja.  We got him a milkshake to brighten his day.  We rescheduled our Father's Day celebrations for next week, because chewing isn't really fun right now and he wanted to enjoy his special dinner.  I told him once the last year of medical school is done and this second surgery is done I'm going to stop paying exorbitant amounts of money to have people do terrible things to him.  Hopefully, people will start paying me the big bucks for the privilege of torturing him.

Princesses and Firefighters

Nicholas came up with a new game today.  We played princesses and firefighters.  He used the bladder from the camelbak as his hose and wore his fireman hat.  (He always wears it backwards so it is more like a baseball cap.)  He loved to pretend that Mama was on fire and spray me down.  We also practiced our STOP, DROP, and ROLL.  I then tried to make the game a little more exciting and told him that he was on fire and I was going to "put him out."  He started crying, "I don't want to get put out."  I thought our little game had scared him until I realized that he thought I was going to put him outside.**  It took a lot of explaining to calm his sweet heart.

**Nicholas has an irrational fear of our backyard.  He believes that Sir Topham Hat from Thomas the Train lives in our backyard.  I try to tell him that Sir Topham only lives at the train station and that there are no trains in our backyard, but the fear still persists.  How he came up with this theory, I will never know.

On a side note, we were playing letters and he told me he had a special message.  He said, "Mom this means I love you with all my heart with all my friend."  (He got this phrase from one of the books we read about a polar bear who asks all his friend how their mothers love them.)

Lexi at 7 months

Weight: 23 lbs
Height: 28 inches
Tooth Count: 0

Movement:  She can roll around and get whatever she wants.  She can be content for a whole hour if you spread a few toys on the rug.  She does get upset when she roll over into a piece of furniture.  I just drag her back to the center of the rug and she is happy as a clam again.  She is an expert in her walker.  She is an excellent backer and only sometimes gets stuck in the hall and needs a little help.  She will just follow the action.  She is also sitting, but not for very long and she can't compensate and keep her balance when she gets distracted.

Food:  She is not loving solid food.  She spits most of it back out and keeps her tongue stuck out.  I have mainly been trying vegetables and rice cereal, so I may have to switch over to something sweeter to get her interested.

Sleeping:  She takes two short naps and one long nap.  She takes a short nap usually in her stroller during the morning.  Around one or two, she takes a long 2 hour nap.  She then takes a short nap around 7.  She then stays up until 11 or midnight.  She is my little night owl.  She just gets giggly and usually entertains herself at night for the most part.

She is still just a little angel.  She is a good eater and a great smiler.  She is a squishy, chubby, little bundle of goodness.  I LOVE this stage!!  She makes me so happy!!  She is such a bright spot in my day.

Favorite Games:

• Rolling around in all of Nicholas' play food.
• Sticking her hand in Mama and Papa's mouth.
• Getting tossed around on the bed.
• Getting swung around.
• Hide and go seek
• Red light, Green light
• Any game that involves other little children.

Memorial Day Tradition

On Memorial day, the Dallas Symphony has a free concert at Flagpole park followed by fireworks.  We have gone all three years since we have been to Texas.  It is the perfect cultural event for children.  You can fly kites while you wait, eat snacks, watch dogs, and dance along with the music.  If your kid still gets anxious to go, you just remind them we have to stay for the fireworks.

Joseph caught Nicholas dancing on film to the music.  He brought it back and showed it to me and the following is the gist of our conversation:

Me (Sarcastically): "Who do you think Nicholas got his great dance moves from?"
Joseph (COMPLETELY Serious): "Well I had a pretty awesome one legged dance in high school, so I think he got his moves from me."
Me (Laughing Hysterically): "It's a good thing I didn't ever see that one legged dance or I might not have married you."
Joseph: "Yeah.  You would have thought I was too cool for you."

Thanks Joseph for always making me laugh!!!  I love that we have known each other for so long.  I can't believe he married me even after knowing me in high school and vice versa.  In all seriousness, thanks Joseph for loving me despite all you know about me!!  I'm especially glad we got married or the world would be without two seriously awesome kids!