A Play Date In The Park

The weather if finally starting to warm up so why wouldn't we get together with some friends and have a play date in the park! I called my friend Tracie, who has a little boy named Josiah, and we met at the park in the neighborhood.

Lexie loves the swings!

Josiah giving us a smile

It's always fun to see two children interact and I am especially curious because Lexie is now old enough to start interacting with other babies/children.  It is also very relaxing to have another mother to talk shop with and to catch up with one another.

Josiah playing in the grass

She loves to be outside.  I can't complain about that!

I wonder what they are saying to each other

My First Easter

The day started out quite simple, Lexie woke us up at 7:30, which I didn't think was bad at all.  She played, was fed.  Mommy and Daddy both took showers and got ready for Church.  The first and preferable service started at 9am...and Lexie decided 15 minutes before we were suppose to be there that she wanted to take a nap.  Everyday continues to be a reminder that she is in charge.  No biggie, we went to the 11am service instead.  She ate lunch and went down for another nap before we headed to Kansas City to spend Easter with The Grant Family and all of Amy's extended family.

She wants to walk so badly

Lexie participated in her first Easter Egg hunt with the help of her Daddy.  She found 5 eggs and in each of them, there was money.  She ended up with 90 cent to put in her piggy bank.  She had such a fun time with everyone.  It was a great way to spend the day even though we were not with our extended families.

Lexie and George putting eggs in her basket

Lexie would rather chew on the basket handle

Are we finished yet?!

I am not sure that she is a fan of her new car seat though, I will have to fix her straps tomorrow and then reassess the situation.

Tomorrow...her 6 month pictures with Andrea Strecker Photography!  I can't wait and hope that the weather is cooperative since the pictures are suppose to be outside!  I found the cutest outfit for her at Baby Gap a couple of weeks ago.  Stay tuned for pictures!

I Love The Swings!

When Lexie woke me up on Friday morning to rain and thunderstorms, I was completely bummed by the fact that this would mean another day cooped up in the house, mainly her play area in the living room...the kitchen...our bedroom...the bathroom...pretty much where ever she could go before I caught her.

Looking at her reflection in the glass

She woke up around 6:30 this morning and was actually ready for a nap around 8:30 so when I put her in her crib and kissed her, I was a bit relieved that I would have some time to get some plans together for how are day was going to go due to the weather.  As I went through my piles of coupons, AdvoCare work, and bills, I came across a "Bag and Stuff" event that starts today at Old Navy.  I hadn't been there in awhile and thought that it would be nice to see what they had on their racks, so at 11:30 when Lexie got up, I loaded her into the car and off to Old Navy we went.  I had the associate scan my postcard to see what my discount would be...20, 30, 40, or 50%.  When she came back with my card she told me that I was eligible for a whopping 50% off my entire shopping trip.  JACKPOT!! I am never that lucky...this was God's sign...on no better day than Good Friday, that I needed to do some major shopping.  I found some cute clothes for Lexie of course and I even found a few things for myself.  One of the great things that I found was $2 flip flops.  Always nice to have a pair of flip-flops in every color imaginable.  I also got a few cute onesies for my soon to be arriving...nephew, Noah.  George called me while I was shopping and I didn't even feel guilty for loading up my cart because I was getting 50% off everything!! WooHoo!


After George got home from work, we decided to head over to Topeka to the Babies R Us to get some essentials for Lexie now that she is mobile.  We thought that we were done with buying all of this baby stuff, but we are just realizing that it is a never ending process.  Now that Lexie is crawling all over the place we need some boundaries and safety regulations set up in the house.  I had no problem picking out gates, they aren't that complicated but I must say that when we went to look at car seats, it took me awhile.  Now don't get me wrong,  I have been doing my research but seeing a picture of them on-line and then seeing them in person makes a huge difference.  George wasn't really much help, he just told me that whatever I thought we needed, we should get.  So I finally had to elicit the help of a complete stranger who was pushing her own baby/toddler along.  It vary helpful to hear another person's perspective.  Then we finished up our shopping with safety latches.  I wish that I would have come up with these handy contraptions...well, I would have been young to do this, but Safety 1st is making a killing on these latches that cost $3-$4 for only a few of them per box.

We ended our perfect day, and Lexie's 6 month birthday with a family walk to the neighborhood park where we were finally able to get Lexie in a bucket swing.  She absolutely LOVED IT!

6 Months...My Oh My How Does The Time Fly

Lexie is going to be 6 months old tomorrow and it still feels like she was born just yesterday.  We have a few friends who are getting ready to have their first bundles of joy, or they just had them.  It's just so hard to believe that with a blink of an eye our little girl is growing up.  Last month she was getting ready to embark on so many milestones such as crawling, sitting, and eating real food and we are happy to say that she has successfully accomplished them all.

Before I felt like I could not leave the room because if she saw me leave, she would freak out.  NOW...she could care less if we leave the room, George and I are the ones that do not want to leave because we never know where we are going to find her when we get back.  Yesterday, for instance, I left briefly to go to the bathroom and then to transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer and when I got back, Lexie had crawled over to her toy basket and dumped it.  Even though I feel like I can never leave her alone, especially now that she is so mobile, I will never forget the other day when she crawled over to me and pulled on my pant legs to get my attention.

She absolutely loves being on the floor and exploring and sitting.  Bye,bye Jumperoo...it was fun playing with you up until now.

She is also becoming more aware of her own body.  I catch her from time to time checking herself out in the mirror.  She loves to give herself kisses and every once in awhile I will catch her laughing at the person in the mirror.  She is also using her mouth for not only exploring, but also to help her with her teething.  She has her two bottom teeth but is starting to work on her uppers.

Her first time in a high chair

She is also eating so many new foods.  She is on the Stage 2's in baby food since she is sitting up all by herself and with that comes the highchair.  She does well in her booster chair/highchair at home but when we go out to eat and put her in the highchairs there, she is still a little too small for them.  She does okay if we do not keep her in them for long periods of time.

 She loves food but just not real table food quite yet.  I have been trying to get her to eat cut up fruit and some puffs but she is still resisting them at this point.  I'm sure in a few weeks she won't be turning much away.  She is adjusting fine to her sippy cup, I am just filling it with water at this time.  As of now she is 18 lbs but we don't have any of her other stats just yet. Her 6 month well-check isn't for a couple of weeks yet.

Lexie and George

Lexie and Darrell

She loves to go and visit George at practice.  She loves looking at the boys!  When we were at practice last week, one of the old players, Darrell Stuckey, came over and just took her out of George's arms.  I wasn't quite sure how she was going to react but she was fine.  She is starting to have some stranger anxiety, some who have known her but have not spent much time with her, would probably say that she has had stranger anxiety since she was born.

Lexie also experienced the swings...with me in tow of course.  I actually wanted to put her in a bucket swing but when we got to the park, they were all taken so she just sat on my lap.  I also took her down the slide a few times and she loved it.  When it gets warmer outside I will take her to the park and let her play some more.

Lexie and I having fun at South Park

I can't wait to see how much she grows over the next month.  I am sure she will continue to keep me on my toes!

A Tribute To Lexie's First Babysitter

When Lexie was born, it was right smack dab in the middle of George's football season.  Lexie was born on Oct 22, which was a Friday, and George had a game the next evening here in Lawrence against Texas A&M.  That day of his game was the first insight that I had into what it was really going to be like to be a wife of someone who worked in college athletics.  A week later, George was on the road to Iowa State.  I had my friend, Tegan, come and stay with us on Friday evening because I was so tired and didn't want to be alone.  That Saturday, was probably one of the longest days of my life, so I thought.  Lexie was fussy all day and she had wanted to nurse almost all day long.  I couldn't even get a meal in and I was home by myself.  I was reluctant to ask for help from my friends because I thought that I should be able to take care of Lexie on my own.  Well, needless to say by the time George had gotten home that evening, which was around 10:30, I was not sure who was crying more, Lexie or myself.  From that point on, I knew that I had to have some help, so George starting asking around his office and others in the Athletic Department to see if anyone knew of someone who could help me in the coming weeks when he was going to be traveling with football.

I had met Stephanie Patrick when I was still pregnant with Lexie.  She had moved to Lawrence from Chicago to live with her fiance, Tom, who worked with George in the football office.  She had been a nanny for a few families and she was just a natural with Lexie.  From that point on, I could always count on her when I needed help with Lexie.  She quickly turned into a great friend, shopping buddy, road trip buddy to KC, and my running buddy!

She is only moving to Austin, but we will miss her dearly.  You will always be Lexie's first and most favorite babysitter.  We wish you the best of luck in your new journey and hope that it is everything that you want and need!  We will be down to visit, you can count on that!!

A LITTLE OF THIS...A LITTLE OF THAT

So much is going on with Lexie right now.  She is finally at the fun age when she is becoming more active.  She is working very hard on her crawling and although she can get onto all fours in the blink of an eye, she just can't quite perfect the art of crawling.  She can army crawl for objects as well as roll her way to them.  I have to keep my eye on her at all times.  I went into the kitchen this morning to wash her bottles and when I came back in the living room to check on her, she somehow got stuck in the handles of her diaper bag.  She is also trying to get up on her toes when she is on all fours which usually results in her doing a face plant on the ground, followed by some  crying.

She is also working on sitting up.  She doesn't like to practice this as much as she likes to practice her crawling but she is getting better at it.  For now, she is like a tri-pod, meaning she sits and braces with one arm.  I am starting to use the boppy to help her with her sitting.

She is becoming a better sleeper.  She has been doing the "Cry It Out" method for almost 2 weeks now and she is getting better at it everyday.  George still has a hard time listening to her cry from time to time but he is also getting better at it.  She still goes to bed between 7 and 8 and sleeps until 4:30 or 5:00 am.  The hard part is trying to get her to go back to bed for a few hours after she wakes up for a bottle.  I can't complain because at least she is sleeping through the night.  I can also count on two solid naps during the day.  She usually sleeps the longest during her morning nap, around 2-3 hours.  She loves her giraffe Jerry, if you couldn't tell from the picture below.

She has her two bottom teeth coming in.  You can feel them and see them but she is still working hard on getting them all of the way through.  She has been a little fussy because of the teething but she is a trooper.

Now that the weather is getting nicer, I try to get her out for a walk once or twice a day.  She just loves the outdoors and seeing things.  I love the Spring and Fall for this reason.