Twenty Months

The big 2-0, in months that is! I can't believe how much Alexandra has done in this last month. It has certainly been busy and I am sure that I will leave something out. It is amazing to watch her grow and explore her world. I was looking at some pictures of her from a year ago when she still had those baby cheeks. Now she is a full fledged kid! She has so much fun and is almost always happy. She is becoming quite independent and only gets fussy when we don't let her call the shots - for example, we make her go to bed (I know, how could we?) or get in the stroller when she would rather push it. She thinks shoes are wonderful - a typical girl and really is a girly girl. She loves putting on beads, carrying around her purse and gets so excited when she puts new shoes on for the first time.

Yesterday, Alexandra and I went to Sea World for the special members Christmas unveiling. She had been two times before and only lasted 2 hours each time. Previously she had shown only mild interest in the animals. This time we stayed 4 hours and she was very interested in the animals. She saw both beluga and killer whales, sea turtles, penguins, reindeer, flamingos, fish and dolphins. I think the highlight for both of us was being able to actually touch a dolphin on the nose. Since it was the Christmas celebration, Alexandra also got to meet Mrs. Claus and an elf. She wasn't too sure about them at all!

Earlier in the month, my mom and I had taken her to the Aquarium of the Pacific, which she also seemed to enjoy. It is clear she is an animal lover just like the rest of the family!


On Veteran's Day, I had the opportunity to watch Alexandra's swim lesson since it was a Tuesday. It had been many months since I had been to one and it was amazing to see her improvement. She had a private lesson before the parent-tot class. The big accomplishment of the day was her floating on her back without any support!!! She cried the whole time because she wanted to be in charge, but even her instructor was impressed.

This month we also celebrated Halloween. We went to the pumpkin patch where Alexandra got to see baby chickens. turkeys and pigs. She was more interested in them than the actual pumpkins. A second visit to another pumpkin place proved not as interesting. I think the most fun aspect for her was being able to wander around. Alexandra went trick or treating for the first time, but only to four houses. She went as a lady bug and was so cute. When we got home, she helped pass out candy and thought that was so much fun! She would yell after people she saw outside with a candy in her hands as if to say "Come and get it!" It was the cutest thing. During the day, she went to Dylan's school dressed as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Alexandra continues to be a picky eater around mommy and daddy, but did have some bites of mommy's hamburger on Friday night. She likes egg rolls that Marivel makes and eats all kinds of things with her including soup. There is not a fruit that Alexandra does not like which is a really good thing! Two things that Alexandra absolutely loves are ranch dressing and sour cream. We went out to eat for Grandma Janet's birthday and caught her slurping ranch dressing instead of dipping her pizza into the cup! Then one night at dinner, she saw the sour cream and wanted some. It was near the end of the container, so we let her have it and a spoon. She was so blissfully happy! She also loves ice in her drinks and is not shy at all about walking over to the refrigerator and asking for some!

Alexandra has added more words to her vocabulary and is trying hard to say whole sentences. She
says bye-bye all the time and then adds words such as Dya, which we assume means Dylan (Marivel's son). Sometimes it is bye-bye pane or tane when she sees an airplane.

We have some new favorite books which must be read ALL THE TIME! These include: If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Corduroy (about a bear) and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Alexandra's favorite thing to do at Grandma Janet's house is play in the yard. She enjoys waving at airplanes flying overhead. She also thinks it is so much fun to help grandma get the mail. She knows exactly which mailbox is grandmas! Alexandra also is a great helper around the house for mommy and daddy. She insists on helping with laundry and it
is perfect because she can get things out of the dryer much more easily than either of us. She also likes helping to sweep and clean. I wouldn't be surprised if she asks Santa for cleaning supplies for Christmas!


Today we went to breakfast and then Grandma Sara came over for a visit. She will be taking care of Alexandra tomorrow. Alexandra has had quality time with both grandmas this month. In October, we went to the Queen Mary for brunch to celebrate my mom's birthday and Sara, Lorel and David also joined us. Then one weekend Sara came over and watched Alexandra so that I could get some much needed grading done.

Speaking of grading, I have been so overwhelmed with it that I just finally got around to posting Month 19. Please check it out today as well. I think that is it for this month and I need to get back to my grading.

Nineteen Months

As usual, I am late in posting the blog...a whole month late this time! Miss Alexandra had her 18 month doctor's appointment and weighs 22 pounds. She is 32 1/4 inches tall. She is wearing 18 month tops and some bottoms, but for the most part the 12 month bottoms still fit better.

The big milestone this month is that Miss Alexandra can eat using a fork. She eats strawberries and melon this way. She is also getting more proficient with the spoon and likes to feed herself yogurt. I am sad that all the summer fruits are basically gone because Alexandra has loved eating strawberries, melon, peaches and grapes. She does like apples so that is something she can continue to eat. She has not really added any new foods this month.

Alexandra had her first sleepover with Grandma Sara this month when Dave and I went to the Blake Shelton concert. They had fun together, Grandma Sara has a nice long hallway where she lives and Alexandra had fun running up and down it and pushing her baby doll stroller! The next morning was breakfast at grandma's house along with Grantie Lorel and Uncle David.

Swimming lessons have continued every week and Alexandra has really progressed. She launches herself off steps and swims to whoever now. She has decided the swim instructor, Ginny, is nice and now lets her hold her all the time. Last week she even got an extra half hour of a private lesson.

Grandma Janet's backyard is one of Alexandra's new favorite places. She loves running around, helping grandma clean the spider webs and looking at the flowers.

This month, Temecula was the host to the Moving Wall, a small replica of the Vietnam Wall. It has the same names as the real one, but it is about 1/2 the size and portable. We went to visit and I just love this image of Alexandra touching the names.

Considering how late this post is, I probably have forgotten several things. But for now, I will leave you with this picture of Miss A waving bye to all her loyal readers!

Eighteen Months

A year and a half! How is that possible? It seems like yesterday that she was just turning one year old. And now six months have flown by and she is half way to two!

Alexandra is quite the talker. While there is a lot of babbling, she does use lots of real words,some in the correct format, while others are good attempts. Examples of words she can say include: eye, ice, mom, dada, duck, uh-oh, oops, hi, bye, ball (ba), more (momom), up, down, open (op), close (clo), and oh. She loves to say Hi to people wherever we go. I swear once she said monkey, but she hasn't repeated it. Same with bottle.

She absolutely loves books and is getting better about sitting through an entire story. She has favorite books that she wants read to her over and over again. The current favorites include: The Crack on the Track, Pajama Time, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Good Night Little One and The Cuddliest Cuddle in the World. Often, the first thing that she goes to in a room is her box of books.

She is a good eater. She LOVES fruit and eats strawberries, all kinds of melon, grapes, blueberries and banana. She also likes bread, hot dogs, cheese and her fruit/veggie pouches. She is funny though and picky about eating certain things with certain people. With Marivel, she will eat chicken, but when I offer it to her I get a look like "Mom you can't seriously expect me to eat that?" She is now doing the same thing with her milk and oatmeal....only with Marivel. If Dylan (Marivel's 8 year old son) is having it, Alexandra wants to try it. Thankfully she is getting plenty to eat, but I hope this is just a phase since Dylan can't be with us 24/7!

She knows many parts of the body and can point to them when asked. She knows eyes, nose, cheeks, tummy, foot, chin, bum, mouth and toes. Every night we read Good Night Little One and as I get to the part in the book, she touches the appropriate body part. So cute!

Alexandra is a good sleeper, at night. It is a funny thing that during the week at Marivel's house, Alexandra will point to the pack n play indicating she is tired and go right to sleep for a nice long nap. On the weekends or a day off, she cries and cries and cries if I try to get her to take a nap. It seems my only luck is when she gets really tired and we go for a car ride. Then most times I can bring her into the house and put her in her crib for a nap. But trying to encourage her to nap on her own just isn't happening. Marivel must have a special touch, because she does not want to nap for my mom either. Sometimes she will get so tired that a walk will also do the trick, but often that is later in the day than we would like. She is pretty good about getting to sleep at night, but we have to lie down on the floor with her in her room and transfer her to the crib after she falls asleep.


Alexandra has finally gotten to the point at swim lessons where she lets the instructor hold her without fussing. She is now the pro in the parent-toddler class. My mom really enjoys taking her for these lessons. I can only imagine how great a swimmer she will be by our next vacation in March.

She also got to spend extra time with Grandma Janet as I unfortunately got a nasty back to school bout of bronchitis. Dave was out of town visiting his dad so he could not help out. We did also spend a Sunday in Redondo, having brunch with Grandma Sara after she got back from her trip to Florida and New York. Grantie

Lorel and Uncle David also came to breakfast so it was fun to see them.

We had a neighborhood watch party at the park near our house and Miss A had fun with the slides. It was so fun to see how excited she got when she saw Dylan. She started shouting and clapping. Marivel tells me that this is the reaction she gives every afternoon when school is out and they go to pick up Dylan. In the morning, she apparently cries when he leaves.

Alexandra loves playing outside and I am looking forward to cooler weather (its been 105 the last few days) so that we can resume

walks in the evening and maybe even go to the park. For now, she really likes the backyard. Since it has been too hot to play outside, Alexandra's days include coloring, dancing (especially to Latin music), reading, playing with her little kitchen and playing with her toys. Some of her favorites right now are her little car, the baby stroller and she still loves all the musical toys. She finds several ways to amuse herself.

Miss Alexandra has decided that she likes to clean. One day, she started pulling out wipes and cleaning our hardwood floors with them. Today, she wanted to sweep the steps at my mom's house. I will have to nurture this love of cleaning, since it is something I definitely do not enjoy!

A few other fun facts about Alexandra at 18 months: She loves sitting in the big chair at the dining room table (although it is only for a short while). Alexandra gets so excited over technology and loved when Grandma Sara let her play with her laptop (it did not matter that it was old and would not turn on). She loves to dance. Her favorite song is a Latin song called "Lento." When she hears it she starts bouncing up and down. And finally, she has started giving kisses to people. She blows kisses to almost anyone, but saves her sweet little kisses for a select few.

Here are some other fun pictures from her 18th month!

Seventeen Months

Alexandra turns 18 months tomorrow, so I am still in the window for the 17 month update. Going back to school has meant less time to get on the computer for anything other than school work. So here is what happened between July 16 and August 16.

Alexandra is a water baby. She continued to have weekly swim lessons, getting better and better each time. She tries to be Miss Independent and does not always want to follow instructions, but likes all the activities and games that they play at swim class. She really loves the water and we spent lots of afternoons at our own pool too.The water table is also a favorite of Miss Alexandra. She had fun on a few different afternoons splashing around. One day she even had the chance to run through the sprinklers and thought that was pretty fun.

Mommy went to seminars for school during the last two weeks in July, so Alexandra got quality time with both grandmas and Marivel during those days. In addition, we spent one night at Grandma Sara's in early August.

Right before I went back to work, we spent a few days with Grandma Janet in Palm Springs. We stayed at the Westin Mission Hills Villas. There was lots of swimming and Alexandra loved seeing the ducks on the property!

On August 9th, we helped Jake Allen celebrate his first birthday. There was a pinata there and while Miss A was too young to help with the breaking of the pinata, she was a great helper cleaning up after all the kids got as much candy as they wanted. It was so cute to watch!

Alexandra has so many great facial expressions. She has even started crossing her arms. At the above mentioned birthday party, she was trying to play with Jake, but he walked right passed her so she crossed her arms and made a look as if to say, "What do you mean you don't want to play?

Here are some favorite photos from Alexandra's 17th month!

Months 13-18 Photo Book

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16 Months

What a busy 16th month it has been for Miss Alexandra as you can see from all the photos! Let me try to cover everything that has happened from June 17th to July 16th.

In June, one of our neighbor's was moving so we were able to acquire Miss A a toddler picnic table, a slide and a little kitchen. So far, she has really only played with the kitchen and she likes it. It came with tons of plastic food and cookware. She can't reach the top "cupboard" yet, but enjoys opening and closing the bottom portions. She also has a "new" water table thanks to her nanny, Marivel. We played with it the other night and she loved it.

This "month" involved a lot of travel with visits to Northern California and Nevada. We even had several little trips within Southern California.

On June 22nd, we went to visit Grandma Sara after she returned from her cruise to Iceland. We went out to brunch with her and some of her friends who were visiting.

On July 2nd, Alexandra had her 10th flight as we flew to Oakland to meet daddy and Grandma Sara for the beginning of our road trip to Redwoods National Park. For the first time, she had her own seat on the plane as it was not full. She had three more flights before we finally got home on July 11th, each time having her own seat! There is a cool website called Flight Memory that allows you to keep track of flights. By the end of her 13th flight, Miss Alexandra had flown 14,111 miles since she was born. She is definitely on track to becoming a world traveler like much of the rest of her family.

July 3rd to July 6th we were in Arcata, CA for the Troy Family Reunion. Alexandra finally got to meet her cousin Stephen and also saw all of the rest of her cousins, aunts and uncles. Cousin Darren was even there all the way from South Africa. It was a great time. Alexandra loved spending time with Grandma Sara, who rode in the back seat with her all the way to and from Arcata. Cousin Sarah introduced her to a pay phone (it might be the only one she ever sees) and helped her push her stroller around. Everyone enjoyed seeing her and how much she had grown in a year.  Most of the family had not seen her in a year (except on Instagram and Facebook of course). We finally put the baby carrier to use at both airports and in the national park when we went on a short walk through the redwoods. Daddy carried her back pack style and she seemed to enjoy it!

On July 6th, we drove to San Francisco, where we spent two nights. We introduced Miss A to Ghiradelli, although she had strawberry ice cream. She did get a taste of mommy's mint chip sundae and daddy's shake. She loves ice cream!

On July 8th, Alexandra and I flew to Reno, NV to meet up with my mom and see my Uncle Bob and Aunt Sarah. We spent three nights there visiting with them, as well as going to Virginia City and Lake Tahoe. Alexandra LOVED Lake Tahoe. At first she just put her feet in, but soon it became clear she wanted to really go in, so we took off her clothes, put on her rash guard and she had a blast! While in Reno, we did lots of swimming. Alexandra LOVES swimming and is getting very good at it.

Twelve! That is the number of teeth that Miss Alexandra now has since her four 1st molars all came in. Alexandra has added a few more foods to her list including pizza. She loves fresh sliced strawberries and got upset with me the other day when I did not have any more for her.

She is now back to sleeping really well....sometimes almost 12 hours! While on vacation, she was a great sleeper because of the dark rooms. The only challenge was that she did not want to go to sleep until 10:30. We are going to have to fix that when mommy goes back to work.

Favorite things to play with include her musical teapot, credit cards (or any plastic cards in mommy or grandma's wallet for that matter), walking her stroller (so we bought her a baby doll one finally), car keys and as always her stuffed animals. I am so thankful that Alexandra loves books and hope it continues.

Alexandra has several words that she now says besides her favorites up and uh-oh that she was saying a month ago. Last night she said "ice" in context. She also is close to saying bath, dog. She says "mom" for more and "eye" for her ear. I think the letter "r" is a challenge for her. When asked, she can correctly point to her ear and tummy. She touches my eye while saying "eye." She also says "hi" while waving at people.

She is very smart. We have given her some expired cards and call them her "credit cards." The other day when she found her "card," she went and found her purse and put it in. She understood where cards go. She also can find a ball in another room. She also is quite proficient with zippers now, frequently opening both purses and her diaper bag.

Here are several more photos from this month of fun!

15 Months

Since I have failed miserably at getting the blog updated on time for the last two months, I am going to write this one early in the hopes it will actually be posted on June 16th! Since I am finally on summer vacation, it should be easy. Let's go back to about May 25th since the rest was part of the previous blog post.

On May 27, we took Alexandra to her 1st baseball game. It was a Lake Elsinore Storm game and she had a lot of fun. She loved the mascots most of all, so we made sure she had the chance to meet Thunder, the team mascot.

Now that I am on summer vacation, our days are filled with walks, swimming, playing at the park, naps and even shopping. Miss A is taking swim lesson on Saturday mornings and loves jumping into the pool and using the kick boards. She does not, however, like the idea of floating on her back. We are fortunate that we have several nice parks in our community where she can run around.

Miss Alexandra can express herself even better now, often pointing at things she wants. She says mom, da, uh-oh and up, although not always in context.  She will see Dave either in person or a picture and say da. Sometimes she points to the wrong person in the picture, but I think she understands da is daddy. There are times that she will look directly at me and say mom, but she also says ma for more. Lately when something falls she says uh-oh and on June 11th, she started saying up when she wanted to either go up the stairs or be picked up. She understands even more than these words she expresses. When there is a container, she can follow the directions open and close with the lid. If I mention that we are going upstairs, she will walk towards the stairs. When I say bye-bye, she waves and sometimes even for hello.

The play remote control is still one of her favorite things. It was the best $10 I have spent on her to date. She loves that thing. Of course, real remotes are still even more interesting. The second she sees my cell phone now, she wants it and even throws a mini-tantrum when I won't give it to her. Other things that she loves include stuffed animals, books, her baby laptop and a musical tea pot. She plays the same song over and over, which I sing to her in a British accent (imitating the song). She loves that! She likes when we sing to her, the favorite song being Itsy Bitsy Spider!

Alexandra loves books. She will frequently take every book out of the container where they are kept, flip through the pages and then toss it aside for the next one. Her favorites include the peekaboo books, Sophie the Giraffe books, Penguin Says Please and Itsy Bitsy Spider. She "reads" the peekaboo book over and over. Unfortunately, Miss A also likes the taste of books and has been caught eating them a time or two.

With nine teeth now, Alexandra has become a pretty good eater. She loves cheese puffs and veggie puffs, little owl crackers, strawberries, pancakes, breads of all kinds, Belvita crackers and juice. At Olive Garden the other night we got her a peach-mango smoothie that she loved! Another milestone is that she can drink through a straw and does it all the time with water now.

For Father's Day, we had lunch at Fuddruckers and then Dave went and did a Go Kart race at K1 Speed in Ontario. For dinner, we went to our favorite neighborhood restaurant called Teakwoods. Everyone there loves Alexandra and she loves them. They take the time to say hi, play peekaboo with her and I honestly think they are just happy to see us because we bring her along!!

A few other things: she has started trying to stand on her head, can climb up onto the ottoman in the media room, has her own chair in the living room, and is finally wearing sunglasses (although not all the time). She has the most adorable straw hat that she happily wears when we go outside. Miss A is a total night owl, often staying up until nine and even after ten on nights where she takes a nap too late in the day. Before I go back to school in August, I will have to change this and get her to bed earlier.

Here are some fun photos from Month #15!

14 Months and a Little More

Once again time slipped away from me and since it is almost half way to 15 months. I will update you on Miss Alexandra's adventures through May 18th.

Miss Alexandra is exerting her independence more and more. We were at Michael's one Sunday (near the shirts for decorating) when she decided to go into my wallet, grabbed a dollar bill and started to walk away with it. Then a few minutes later, she took two shirts off the stack and started to walk away with them.

Alexandra has an infectious laugh. One night, we were having dinner at my mom's when she started to play a game with me. She would knock her sippy cup full of water off her high chair tray, I would catch it and place it right back on the tray. She would then knock it off again. This continued for several minutes with her laughing and laughing. I was almost in tears I was laughing so hard at her laughing!

We had the opportunity to spend the first weekend in May in Palm Desert. Daddy was attending a Toastmasters Convention, so Miss A and I had Saturday to ourselves. During that time, Alexandra had a play date with Lisa, whose mom is part of my after loss group. It was fun to catch up with Chelsea and see Alexandra and Lisa play together.

This month we also celebrated Mother's Day in Redondo Beach. Alexandra's uncles Alex and Fernando came all the way from Hong Kong. Also at brunch were Grandma Sara, Grantie Lorel and Great Uncle David. Grandma Janet was traveling in Asia for a school accreditation, but we spoke with her on the phone.

As a teacher, Sea World gave me a free pass for the year. So Miss Alexandra and I went for a couple of hours. Daddy dropped us off and went shopping. We started out in the Wild Arctic display, but the polar bears were on loan to another zoo. We will be going back to visit them another time as Miss A loves polar bear stuffed animals. Next we saw the walrus. At first she was intrigued, but then decided he was just too big and got vocal when he would swim nearby. The penguins were interesting, but the puffins were definitely her favorite! She was in my arms at the time so that she could see and started kicking her legs when she saw them paddling their feet! It was adorable!!! We also visited the sea turtles and fish, the sea lions (whom she was not at all interested in) and the dolphins. We will be going back once I am out for summer vacation. Here are a couple more fun photos from that day. After Sea World, we all went to Coronado for dinner and Alexandra's first visit to the Hotel Del. And we should mention that she loved the MooTime Ice Cream!

Here are some fun pictures from Month #14!

Cancun 2014

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13 Months and a Few Weeks

I planned on doing this blog update on Easter, which was exactly 400 days since Alexandra was born, but time slipped away from me. I wrote this weeks ago, but now here we are one week from 14 months and I am finally ready to post it. There is a lot to report since Alexandra's last update on her 1st birthday, but I will save some for next week. Here is what happened during her 13th month.

Alexandra loves climbing up the stairs. If left to herself, she would spend all of her time doing this, but it is quite tiring for the adults to chase after her. She is very comfortable walking now, although she still falls often. The first time that I put shoes on her, she cried and cried. Soon she became comfortable with them and now puts out her foot to help me put them on her. She has really cute sandals that she wears most of the time.

We had quite a few nights where we were up with her a few times a night, but that was because several teeth were coming in at once. Alexandra now has 8 total and is back to sleeping well most nights.

Alexandra earned the first stamp in her passport on March 28th when we arrived in Cancun, Mexico. We spent a week at the Westin Lagunamar in a great room that overlooked the pool and ocean. She enjoyed being able to look out the window at the view. Her favorite activity was definitely swimming, which she got to do every day but one. She really had picked up a lot at the swim lessons and would kick a lot when we tried to get her to float on her back. She also was really good with getting her face wet and even started using her arms to swim.

One of her favorites was the fountain in the lobby of our resort. Every time we would walk by it, she would get excited. She really liked being able to reach out and touch the water. It became a daily activity for her.

While in Mexico, Alexandra discovered that she likes bread. At a couple of different restaurants we gave her a small slice of bread which she ate. In addition, she loved re-fried beans! She is not really into finger foods yet, but has sampled string cheese, pasta, cucumber and melon. We give her little samples for her to try, but she still really likes her purees! In Mexico, we were able to expose her to lots of tropical juices including mango, which she really liked. She seems to like all juices. However, when we got home, I bought some pineapple, orange, guava juice which she refused to drink. Both daddy and I thought it was wonderful. And yet she drinks prune juice. She can be a silly girl sometimes!

We ate at Hooters a couple of times. And even though I am not normally a fan, I have to admit the food was good and the service was very good. The second time was for lunch and one of the waitresses was Alejandra. She was quite excited to meet Alexandra (whom we had been calling Alejandra all week) and not only took photos with her, but let her wear her name tag. It was very cute. All of the wait staff oohed and aahed over her. She was quite the center of attention!

Here are more photos from Mexico:

Alexandra attended her first Easter Egg Hunt when my mom's neighbors hosted one for all the kids on the cul-de-sac. She loved the eggs with money in them more than candy because of the noise they made when she shook them. She mostly seemed to enjoy watching the other kids. When we got home, I put cheerios inside them and now it is fun to shake them. She loves to grab them all out of the basket!

That is all I can remember from month 13. I promise to be more timely in the month 14 update! Here are more photos from this month: