10 Months of Fun...Now We're Moving!

I know that I say this every month but I really can not believe that Lexie is almost a year old already.  Each day just seems to fly by and sometimes I find it hard to just sit back and take it all in.  Like Mother Like Daughter.

Lexie has been standing for long and longer periods of time and then one day last week while we were in Fort Worth for an AdvoCare event, she just started cruising around the room.  If she got too excited she would fall but with each day her balance got better and better, she had perfected her turning and she is even clapping while walking.  Maybe I am a proud Mama but I think that is absolutely amazing.

Always clowning around

Look I made a frame out of my play mat

Her personality is still continuing to come out in everything that she does.  She loves to imitate people.  She smacks her lips, clicks with her tongue, flicks her lips, and points and chats all day long.  Lately she has really loved the "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" song.  She also laughs at the special sounds that I make.  Her appearance is ever changing also. Her hair is getting thicker and longer on the sides. She now has 4 1/2 teeth and she has 3 more coming in.  She is getting taller by the day.  Lexie is willing to try new foods everyday, much of them she still does not like.  I am starting to think that she prefers pureed food because she is too lazy to chew, I may be wrong.  Some of her favorite table foods right now are goldfish crackers, black beans, green beans, eggs, turkey lunch meat, sweet potatoes, and apples.  I still can not get her to eat fruit cups for the life of me. Patience is key!  I also think that she has mistaken her books as a food group because they are starting to look ragged with all of the chunks taken out of them.

Gimme some more black beans!

She continues to really look forward to pool and bath time. I am glad that her dislike of swimming lessons has not taken that from her.  The other night she put her face underwater to try to blow bubbles.  She would laugh so hard that she would have to stop.  It is so amazing to be there to witness times like those with my baby.  I feel very fortunate.

With the start of football season coming up next weekend, I am sure that I will have some fun experiences to share soon.  Stay tuned!

Our Family Picture from the media guide

It's Not Easy!

So I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up with the blog updates lately, I apologize for that.  It's already that time of the year when training camp has started and this is my first training camp since Lexie was born.  She was born during the season last year and that was a little tough from time to time but her not seeing her Daddy very often is very hard for both of us.  The Kansas weather has been relentless this summer, I don't even think I have ever experienced a summer like we just had so that means that Lexie and I have been inside for hours on end.  Since we have gotten back from our summer vacations the whole routine that Lexie has grown accustomed to have completely thrown her for a loop.  No morning walks with Mom and Dad...too hot.  No going to the swings...too hot for that.  No trips outdoors in general in the afternoon...too hot.  So what is it that we have been doing?  Well for starters, Lexie is still continuing to work on her walking skills.  When she gets up in the morning it is the first thing that she tries to do.  She stands up and before she even gets a step in she is on the ground bottom first.  As the day goes on, her balance improves and sometimes she will get multiple steps (I believe that the most consecutive steps is 5) in before she falls.  Lately, she has been trying really hard to get the walk down in the evenings just before bed time.  I can't quite understand why working on this at the end of the day is so important to her but there is no stopping her.  Each day she is getting better and better and if it takes her longer to get walking down, I am completely fine with this.  Our next obstacle is getting her to wear shoes...she doesn't like them so hopefully we will have enough time to get her used to them.

Aww MOM...Do I really need shoes? These things slow me down.

I also signed her up for some swimming lessons.  Since we spent so much time in the pool over the summer Lexie has no fear of the water.  She is tolerant of her float (The Yacht) for only a short while before she is wanting to go to the zero entry end of the pool and bear-crawl and explore her new surroundings.  I have no problem with that but she tends to want to crawl towards the deep part of the water and if her head happens to go under, she just laughs.  For that reason, I knew it was time to get her some swimming lessons.  I asked a few of my fellow mom-friends to see if they had any suggestions on where I should take Lexie.  It was unanimous...Claudine, they all say!  She uses her home swimming pool and she does private lessons.  Lexie had started her lessons earlier last week.  I must say that it was a little hard watching her cry for an entire 15 minutes.  Pictures to come later.  I know that the lessons will teach her that water is not suppose to be fun at her age!  She was a pro at holding her breath when she was suppose to and she also picked up the underwater kicking very quickly.  We were suppose to go 4 days in a row last week but due to thunderstorms, we will have to finish the lessons this week.

When we are not in the pool or at Target, Lexie enjoys some of her new toys at home.  I recently decided to get rid of her rattles and baby toys and visit Target's End of Summer Sale on toys and got some great and not so great deals.  More importantly, she just needed some new things to pass our days.

Check out my new drums!

A new toy box for my toys!

Of course our day would not be complete without going to visit Daddy at the office.  Since we have been going there almost everyday since she was born, she is really associating the football stadium to Daddy and when we are at the intersection of Maine, right in front of the stadium, she giggles and squeals in excitement.  Once she gets inside, she can't wait to get down on the floor to crawl up and down the hall to see everyone.  It won't be long before she is taking over that place.  Everyone better watch out!

I'm getting too big to get in this basket...I am STUCK!

Before I close, Lexie's latest stats from her 9 month well check.
Weight: 22 lbs (91st percentile)
Height: 29 in (88th percentile)