Whistling?

Lexi has started doing something that I have NEVER heard a baby do before. She is actually whistling. She puckers her lips and blows a soft whistle. The first time I heard it, I thought it was a fluke, but she keeps doing it over and over again. I don't know where she got it. We aren't big whistlers and I can't see her teacher doing it, but you never know. Perhaps, she accidentally discovered it and likes the sound or our reaction.

By the way, her top left tooth finally cut through the day before yesterday. It looks like the other one isn't far behind.

Eight Months Old Today

I am not quite sure how it happened, but Lexi is actually eight months old today. Time flies too quickly. She has changed a lot in the last month. She went from learning how to scoot around the floor to pulling herself up and climbing on everything. This makes Steve very nervous. He is always trying to protect her from falling or banging her head.

Lexi has become really attached to one of the teachers at school (the one that doesn't speak any English). I know because the lady often leaves minutes before I get there in the evening and Lexi is crying every time. When I walk in, she kicks her legs and flaps her arms and looks at me like she wants to say, "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?" I am really relieved to know she feels very comfortable with her.

Verbally, Lexi is still mainly sticking to saying mama, mama, mama, especially when she is trying to crawl after me so I'll picked her up. She plays around with other sounds too and her language comprehension has grown. I still get the feeling that being surrounded with Spanish during the days and English the rest of the time is a little confusing right now. After a while, it will be great for her though.

Unfortunately, she has been sick for about a week and a half, so I am not exactly sure if some of her new characteristics are part of a new phase or just her not feeling well. For instance, she wants to be held more. During her night time wakenings (part of being sick), I find her half asleep holding on to the rail and whimpering. She often cries until I hold her and she can go right back to sleep.

Lexi is also less patient during our long commutes. I completely understand that facing the back seat for 45 minutes in the morning and the evening is grueling. Toys and pacifiers are just not enough to make the trips bearable. The only thing that seems to appease her is me singing acapella. Hopefully, other commuters think I am talking on headphones instead of breaking out in song. Her two favorite seem to be Old MacDonald and The Alphabet. The Wheels on the Bus isn't bad either. There are countless others as well. Good thing I learned a million kids songs in my life.

While I hate to see her grow up so quickly, I love watching her develop. More and more, I see a little girl with a wonderful personality, strong opinions, and a great sense of humor. Her little laugh, always brings a rush of joy to both her parents.

Daddy's Girl

Lexi is on her 8th week of daycare & can you guess how many times she has made it through a full week there? ...the answer is zero. It is always something & usually she is just not feeling well like today. She has been suffering from cold symptoms for a week and a half, so I took her to the doc today. She is suffering from an earache and a cough. Me? I am suffering from sick baby at work. I think mine's worse.

Mini-Toy Room

Lexi has already started getting into everything. She especially likes our closet, but she finds the pantry and other closets interesting too. We have to watch her closely though because she loves to bite shoe laces (yuck). I should probably buy a brand new pair of tennis shoes for her to play with.

Older Man

When I dropped Lexi off at daycare, there was a cute little four year old boy that was very excited to see her. He had dark hair and big beautiful brown eyes. He stood up to greet her and said, "Hello Alexis!" Then he turned to his buddy, and said, "Her name is Alexis." I smiled and walked away thinking her dad is NOT going to like this.

Cranky Pants

Lexi is still recovering from her cold and is moments away from getting her top left tooth. This has caused her mini-tantrums and mood swings to increase, but so has her sense of humor and moments of sheer joy. She laughs and laughs when we play peek-a-boo, but starts flapping her arms, scrunching her brow and shreaking when it is over. That is when I always laugh, which confuses her.

Driving Me Crazy

Last night, Lexi was fighting sleep more than usual. She wasn't feeling well (another cold thanks to daycare). Every time I got her to sleep and laid her in her crib, she would force herself to wake up. After doing this three times, I just left her there for a while. I went in the next room to play on the computer so I could listen to her. At first, she was just babbling. That turned into whining then whimpers. When I went to check on her, the above picture is how I found her. She was standing there with a big smile, so I grabbed the camera.

She is still not feeling well today and I can already tell it is going to be one of those days. Between madly cleaning the house for the appraiser (oh yeah - we have a contract!) and taking her to work with some very tight deadlines approaching, I'm sure I'll be pulling my hair out by the end of the day.

Standing Photos

Standing Up In This World

Last night, Steve and I were sitting on the love seat and Lexi was playing on her mat. She scooted over to the edge of the couch between us to see what we were doing. She gracefully reached up and grabbed the cushion with one hand and then the next. Slowly but surely, she pulled herself up to stand. I kept telling myself it was just a fluke, but she did it again five minutes later. What happened to my little baby?

Pile of Pacifiers

For the past few months, Lexi's pacifiers have been disappearing into a black hole. I had no idea where they were going. Between work, the car, my office, and her new found mobility, I thought we would just find them here or there and did not make a huge effort to search. A few times during the night, I would hear what I though was her tossing one out of her crib.

On Saturday, I decided to look around her room for them. The last place I looked was under her crib, figuring that they could have bounced under there. I was surprised to find a pile of about 6 near the post by the wall. The sneaky little devil likes to snuggle her face into the crib bumper in that corner. She probably spits the pacifiers out and then rolls on them until they squeeze between the mattress and the post. Now every night, I put 3 pacifiers in her bed so that when she wakes up, she can quickly put one in and go back to sleep. Guess what... every morning there are at least 2 of them in the pile spot. One black hole mystery has been solved. Next on this list is finding out what happens to the lids of her bottles.

Enjoying the Play Mat

Our tile floor has been a real problem since Lexi got a little more mobile. We hate the idea of her falling and smacking her head or anything else on it. We have been looking for a play mat for a while. It isn't as easy as you would think since the ones in toy stores are too small. While shopping at Walmart in PSL, I checked out the exercise area and found the perfect solution. We bought two sets of these interlocking rubber mats and it took Steve less than 5 minutes to put it together. It encompasses a good portion of our family room, so she has lots of freedom. As you can see from the photos and video, she has really enjoyed playing on it this week.

Dada's Big Feet

While at Cousin Barb's house on Sunday, Lexi crawled over and sat up between Steve's feet. We all laughed when we noticed how big they are compared to her.

Started Puckering for Kisses and Saying Mamama

This weekend, Lexi started puckering up to make kissing sounds. Her face is so cute. Just like everything else, she refuses to do it on cue. When you try to get her to do it or do it yourself, she just smiles. She also started saying Mamama this weekend. I thought it was supposed to be a heartwarming experience. The problem is that she only says it when she is really upset and crying. I would rather see the kisses.

Our Son ...Alex

Steve & Alex

Alex with Party at My Crib Shirt

Cousin Barb & Alex

What a cute boy, right? You caught me, it is Lexi. I dressed her up in her University of Miami Hurricanes' outfit. I don't have a green bow, so she spent the day looking like a boy. When we were out & about, everyone asked questions about him. Two women even called her a future ball player. I just kept saying that she is a Tom Boy. Unfortunately, we put in all that effort to be fans, and the Canes lost to their big rivals, FSU.

Perfect Daycare Mom

After today (probably), Lexi will have exactly 4 full days in daycare in the 4 weeks she has been going there. The first week, I was trying to slowly ease her into it. The second and third weeks, she was ill. This week, there was the so called Tropical Storm.

While, I am happy to keep her out of daycare as much as possible and have to admit that I am lucky to work in a place that loves babies so much. I have been thinking about the fact that I have to pay whether or not she goes. If all of the moms were like me (which I know they aren't), it would be the perfect business to go into. Just think about this: 4 babies, charging $150 every week for each, and only a 20% chance of keeping them all day. If you throw in tax free, benefits, and free toys, I'll quit tomorrow and run my own daycare out of my house! Sounds fun for Lexi and me.

Wacko Walker

Steve's boss gave us a walker for Lexi yesterday. I had heard those were dangerous, but we decided to let her only use it in the family room when we are in there. We put her in it last night while we were watching a moive and the boring tropical storm. Lexi doesn't have it figured out yet. She loves playing with the toys on the tray. When she is reaching for the different figures, she pushes off and glides backwards. She was having so much fun that she didn't want to get out to eat, so I handed her the bottle (that lasted a few minutes).

Waiting Game

Tropical Storm Ernesto is still headed towards us and life has become a waiting game. Could there be a better time to take pictures for Lexi's blog?

Funny Photo Day

Since we are busy preparing for Lexi's first tropical storm/hurricane (Ernesto), I'm just going to post photos. Those are better than long winded entries anyway.

7 Months Old Today

I can hardly believe that Lexi was born seven months ago. In some ways, it seems like it was only yesterday. Mainly though, I can't really remember what life was like before she decided to grace us with her presence.

The seventh month has not been easy. Lexi went on her first LONG road trip (Tallahassee) and got really tired of her carseat. She lost her nanny. She started daycare (this one she likes). Plus, her knees are raw with rug burns. Worst of all, she got sick for the first time and it developed into Bronchitis. Perhaps, I'll be responsible in the future if she turns into a hypochondriac.

Despite all that, Lexi has made several advancements including sitting, clapping, London bridges, army style scooting, being able to put her pacifier back in her mouth all by herself, holding her own bottles, name recognition of Dada, mini-tantrums for little or no reason, and alligator death rolls during diaper changes. There are also some things that the daycare ladies find interesting like the fact that she prefers vegetables over fruit (not a picky eater either way) and she is by far the most (hyper)-active baby they have. They left out the hyper part and just called it active, but I can tell that she is wearing them down. That's my girl! I certainly know that wrestling her is tiring.

One other thing, which happened this month, is that I actually left Lexi home alone with Steve (twice). For some strange reason, it hasn't happened before. I think I only left her home with him once for 10 minutes back in February. It has nothing to do with Steve. I guess it is mostly because he is working all the time. When I left for two and a half hours last Saturday (using my gift certificate for a massage), Steve asked if I was worried. I told him that I was more worried about what she would do to him than what would happen to her. In a way, that is true. They were great together though.

Happy 7 Months To Lexi!

First Full Day

Two weeks ago, I started thinking about my new schedule and how tight it was. Being a working mom and all that entails, like taking extra time to go to and from daycare, means that I have to prioritize. I also have to stick to a schedule to make it work. However, even though I have a schedule, it has not worked out even once in three weeks. Why?...

Lexi has not spent an entire day at daycare. Her first week, I focused on transition. Monday I picked her up at 11am and each day after that a little later. The next week, we were going to do full days, but it didn't happen. I called that Monday and she was extra fussy, so I picked her up. She has spent the last 2 weeks in the office (except the day and half I took off) with me suffering from a cold and later Bronchitis. Actually, we were both suffering from being sick and from the crazy situation.

Even though I work with people that are all VERY pro-baby, it is hard for me to deal with the extra stress of having her here. I swear every time someone had an important call; Lexi decided it was time to let out high pitched screams. She also has a 5 minute window of fussiness before falling asleep. That five minutes feels like an hour when you don't want to disturb everyone. Good thing, she is a chipper person, but she lets out a lot of happy shrieks too. On top of trying to do my work, I spend the whole day trying to keep her entertained and moderately happy. It wore me out. She is now feeling back to normal and I am still sick. I would rather have her with me, but it isn't working for either of us. She needs more stimulation than I can provide in the office.

Today, I dropped her off at daycare then went to a meeting several hours away. I stopped by again at lunch to check on her and give her medicine. She was sound asleep. I heard she was having a blast, so she'll stay all day for her first time.