2 Years Old!

Alexis is now officially 2 years old! And she is a MESS :)! She has really grown-up a lot and is truly a big girl now. For us, the "terrible two's" began around 15 months, with the tantrum, kicking, and screaming. I thought I was going to lose my mind and I seriously considered not having any more kids for a couple of months because I couldn't imagine those days times two. My heart goes out to the mom's of multiples. But, those days seem to be coming to an end. Either that or I have just gotten used to them and can handle them now. The tantrums are much fewer and farther in between, and obviously Michael and I still want to have more kids. Alexis has always been very, very independent and wants to do everything herself. This has graduated from doing little things by herself to wanting to do EVERYTHING by herself. Including, taking a bath, brushing teeth, cooking her own food, and wanting to sit in a "big girl chair" (the regular old car seat) in the car. Obviously, I do not let her cook her own food, or sit in the car without her car seat. These are where our tantrum come in...daily. However, once I get her strapped into the car and give her a Barbie or a pony she's fine, and in the kitchen I give her another important job, like stirring air in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon and again she is perfectly content. I try to let her "give herself" a bath and brush her teeth, and then just follow up behind her. She also for a few months now has preferred "big girl showers." She will only take a bath if their are bubbles. If their are no bubbles, she screams for a shower.

She is also talking my ear off. She talks all..day..long. I don't know where she gets that from ;)! She will repeat ANYTHING you say. She has started stringing several audible sentences together. We can communicate very well with her, and she is hardly ever frustrated because she can't convey what she wants to say. She can count to 20 all by herself, and to 10 in Spanish. She can count to 50 by repeating mommy or daddy in English, and to 30 in Spanish. (She gets tired of counting after that) She knows all of her colors, animals, and animal sounds. She can turn anything into a slide. She runs, jumps, and plays hard outside. She loves to sing, and can sing fairly well, "twinkle twinkle" "the itsy bitsy spider" "ABC's", and "fuzzy caterpillar". Oh and she also loves to sing the B-I-B-L-E. And sings it during church service no matter what everyone else is singing, and she sings it at the top of her lungs. When I ask her to pray during prayers at church she says "Dear God, thank you for mommy and daddy Jesus name AMEN!...mommy i prayed okay?" She is SO FUN! We have a blast and I am loving getting to stay home with her for the moment.

We have also delved into the world of potty training. I'm not all for letting them just go when they are "ready". How in the world are they suppose to know what to do?? That's why it's called potty training and not potty do it whenever they want to. She can hold it during naps, and tells me when she's wet and dirty. So we are learning the ins and outs of going potty with lots of reminder charts, going to the potty frequently, and learning how to wipe, flush, and wash hands and such. It's going pretty good. We are on week three. Week one we had one successful trip to the potty, and week two we had 3 successful trips, and this week we already have one! So we will see where this journey takes us.

Here's to my big girl. A 2 year old...I can't believe it....

"Twinkle Twinkle"

Here is a video of Alexis singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Most of the words are there. Oh, and her shushing me....I warn you she starts squealing at the end so turn your volume down a little bit!! You've been warned! Enjoy!! :)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was great! I went to my parent's for the weekend and stayed with them. We had a really great visit, and Alexis loved being spoiled. Michael had to work all weekend so he couldn't come :(. Our drive was LONG....especially with it being just me and Alexis, who is the WORST traveler ever, or pretty close to it. When we got to about Conway on the way up she started yelling from the backseat "I NEED TO WALK MOMMY! I NEED TO WALK NOW!!!" Over and over and over....so finally I told her that if she could wait until Greenbrier she could have some ice cream. So we stopped for gas, and shared a kid's scoop of strawberry ice cream at the Baskin Robbins inside the gas station. Then she was fine, and we made it (3 hours later) to my parents.

The way home did not go so smoothly. I put Alexis in the car, and she immediately fell asleep. Which was good, but we had to stop at Target in Conway to see my brother, and get a few potty training supplies. So we got to Target, found my brother, gave him is party invite, and then headed to the snack bar for hot dogs for dinner. I got Alexis the kid hot dogs with apples and white milk, and I got a hot dog and a soda. When we got out to the car I put everything on the trunk of the car to put Alexis in, and I knocked the soda off the car and it spilled all down my jeans.....Then after I got Alexis in the car I dumped out her sorta old juice to put her milk in her cup (she hadn't had much milk that day) I took the lid off the milk and someone had already opened it, drank about 1/4 of it and put it back in the cooler. (Having my hands full I didn't notice this in the store. So with both of us having no drinks I went across the street to Arby's to get Alexis some milk. I waited 15 minutes to get to the speaker to only find out they had chocolate milk, and were out of juice. I NEVER give her chocolate milk, but at this point I thought it was better than nothing. I'm just afraid she would stop drinking white milk. Anyway, I got the chocolate milk, put it in her cup, gave it to her, and drove off. About 2 minutes later I heard Alexis throw her cup, and yell "I NEED REAL MILK MOMMY! I NEED REAL MILK!" I said, "But it's chocolate milk, it's yummy and special milk." All I got was "I WILL NEVER EVER DRINK CHOCOLATE MILK AGAIN! YUCK!!" And she cried off and on for about 45 minutes for real milk. So, I guess I don't have to worry about her getting addicted to flavored milk. Then we hit a wreck, and rain....I'm glad to be home! :)

Mama's First (Unnecessary) Freakout

My first (unnecessary) ahem...freak out happened about 6 months ago. It was right after we put

Alexis in her toddler bed, and I was always checking on her. Apparently, when I tucked her in for bed I left her light on. (For some unknown reason!) However, I didn't notice this until about midnight as I was ready for bed. Michael and I had been outside on the porch with the dogs,and forgot the baby monitor inside, and when I came in to check on her one last time I noticed the light on through her door. Terrified that I had left the front door unlocked and someone had come in and taken her, and left her light on I threw open her bedroom door and found her tucked in fast asleep, she hadn't moved! (She's such a good sleeper!)

Now I've been very cautious about turning off her light....

Sunday I woke up early and I can see down the hall to Alexis' room. Knowing I did not leave the light on the night before I saw her light on, streaming down the dark hallway. Terrified again that someone had gotten through two locks on the door, a Pomeranian, a German shepherd, the baby monitor, and us, left the light on (my robbers are never courteous apparently!),and taken my child. I ran down the hall (I've never run so fast in my life!) threw open her door and found a panicked little girl wondering why her mommy had bust into her room at an ungodly hour.

It was the sun coming through the window.....and 6:30 am.