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:

Week Fifty One

Fifty one weeks! That means that one week from today, Miss Alexandra will celebrate her 1st birthday! How crazy to think that an entire year has gone by and this time last year we were eagerly awaiting her arrival, wondering what she would look like, and planning her first days at home. Now we have watched her grow into an adorable little girl, full of love and personality. She has changed our whole lives for the better.

Enough sappiness (as Dave would say) and time to get to this weeks notes. Alexandra is becoming more proficient with walking and I finally caught her on camera. She takes 4-5 steps before falling. As long as she goes slowly she is fine, but once she gets excited and tries to walk faster, she falls.

Now that she is standing and walking, she is trying to get at things that were onceout of her reach. Last Sunday, she decided it would be fun to take the DVDs out of the bookcase in our media room. She also goes after magazine piles, loves purses and wants the trash can. I can tell that we are going to get quite a workout chasing after her real soon!

Swim lessons continue. We are going twice a week (Tuesday and Saturday). She already was comfortablein the water, just not interested in doing what the instructors wanted her to do. She was more interested in clinging to mommy. On Saturday, she was much better and even let the instructor hold her for a few seconds. Of course her eyes were always on mommy. Daddy goes along to the lessons because four hands are so much easier when trying to get in and out of the pool, change the girl out of her wet suit and plus she has someone to look at when going across the pool. In a few more times, we will switch places and Dave will get in the water with her. I can't wait until it is warmer in our pool to take her swimming each day!

This weekend, Grandma Sara came over for a visit. She spent much of the day watching Alexandra while mommy caught up on grading (especially important since grades are due Monday) and daddy did some cleaning. While I was upstairs on my computer, I could hear lots of laughter and talking from the little girl. She loves to talk! This is of course no surprise considering her parents are both Toastmasters!

Here are some pictures taken this week. Next week will be Miss Alexandra's 1 year update!!!