A Photo a Week in 2015 - #3

This week I have two photos. The first was taken in Tucson, AZ at the University of Arizona (my alma mater). We had a nice visit with two of my former students and got lots of exercise. The second was taken at the General Patton Memorial Museum on the way home from Arizona. She actually thought the tanks were pretty cool and happily posed for this photo. Alexandra now loves posing for the camera as you can clearly see!

Twenty One Months and Twenty Two Months

Alexandra is now 22 months and I haven't written in two months, so I thought I would try something different and just combine them since I can't really remember what happened in each month in many aspects.

Alexandra has added quite a few words to her vocabulary over the last two months including read, go, please, five duck, juice and two. She now brings a book to me and says, "read, read, read." When she sees a picture of a duck, she will say the word and we even managed to get her to respond "ducks" when we asked her who should win the national championship. Too bad that did not happen.

Reading continues to be Alexandra's favorite thing to do and luckily for all of us, she got tons of new books to read at Christmas. This was by design as we were getting tired of reading the same ones over and over. Her favorite ones right now include: Mac and Cheese and the Perfect Plan, Jingle All the Way (that goes with her interactive dog Jingle), all the Biscuit books (she even reads the "woof" when prompted), Corduroy books and the story of the Star Spangled Banner (her history teacher mommy is quite proud of that one)!

In addition to books for Christmas, Santa brought Alexandra several toys, her favorites being a shopping cart and an animal puzzle. Grandma Sara gave her an easel with a dry erase board on one side and chalkboard on the other. Her Grandpa and Nana Kathy gave her a wagon (which she will enjoy immensely once the weather is warmer). Grandma Janet gave her all kinds of books, including one that includes a hand-held piano that can teach her music. She loves to play the piano at her house. Mommy and daddy gave her her very own vacuum cleaner which she thinks is pretty cool! Alexandra loved opening presents on Christmas morning and helping us out was half the fun!

Alexandra had her very own Christmas tree with soft, unbreakable ornaments. She loved taking them off the tree and then putting them back on. While she did not officially visit Santa this year, she did wave at him from a distance. A visit to Tom's Farms (our local farmers market and more) was lots of fun. She and mommy road the little train through the light display and the Merry-Go-Round. She did not want to sit on a horse, but was quite intrigued as we sat on one of the seats.

Prior to Christmas, we held our annual Chili and Cheer Party. Alexandra had a great time playing with the other kids who attended! She also went to a couple of birthday parties in December.

A highlight of the month (at least for mommy) was that it snowed in the Inland Empire. We were able to take Alexandra to the neighborhood right next to ours and let her play in the snow. It wasn't too deep where we took her and she loved it once she realized it was just ice.

Pictures from all of the Christmas activities can be seen in the post of the Shutterfly book that I created.

Prior to Thanksgiving, we spent a few days in Palm Springs with Grandma Janet while daddy went to Cousin Brian's wedding in New York. A highlight was a trip to the Living Desert to see the animals. She even helped mommy feed a giraffe! Pool time, lots of walking and even some shopping were also on the agenda.

Alexandra's swim lessons continue with Grandma Janet taking her every Tuesday.  She now has a private lesson as well as the Parent/To lesson.  The result is a remarkable improvement.  She now turns over on her own and floats without help; launches herself into the water from the side of the pool or the steps also without help, and thoroughly enjoys every minute in the water.  

She loves counting and sorting objects from 1-5.  She knows five very well and cannot be fooled by 4 or 6.  She is very good at picking up her toys and putting them away.  She has her very own bookcases at home and one at Grandma Janet's house, too.  Her favorite thing is to take all the books out at once and then decide which ones she wants read to her. When told to pick them up and put them away, she does so very methodically. She has learned to tell you what sounds a dog, a kitty, a duck, an owl, a horse, a sheep and a lion all make.  

Alexandra loves playing with Dylan (3rd grade) when he comes home from school, as well as Zach (2nd grade) and Zoe (1st grade) at Marivel's in the afternoons.  

In honor of her 22nd month, she took her 14th airplane ride; this time to Phoenix to visit Grandpa and Nana Kathy, see mommy's alma mater (University of Arizona) and more. Next month I will include more from that trip. 

Alexandra is such a sweet little girl who loves learning and is almost always happy (even when she has a cold)! 

Christmas 2014 Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

A Photo a Week in 2015 - #2

This week's photo highlight's Alexandra's silly smile. She loves to scrunch up her face for photos! Also pictured in the photo is her "Jingle," a dog who barks, whimpers and sings as a story is read to him. Alexandra adores her dog and wants to take him everywhere!

A Photo a Week in 2015 - #1

Last year, someone I know did a photo a week as part of their blog. I really liked the idea and resolved that since I will soon be done with "monthly" updates, that would be a nice replacement. I promise I will finish out months 21(behind again)-24!

Photo of the Week - Alexandra got a new wagon from her Grandpa and Nana for Christmas. The weather was so nice on Sunday, that we decided to take it for a test drive!

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!