T minus 10 days

In just 10 short days, my little baby will be ONE! When did that happen?

She will celebrate her second Easter before her first birthday! How quirky is that?

THEN

NOW

Look what else I learned to do...

RSVPs are in. Cake ordered. Venue confirmed. Balloons ordered. Camera was just cleared to make room for all the new pictures. Wow. Just wow.

Hershey's Better Basket Blog Hop!

I LOVE Hershey's chocolate. What better gift to give and receive? OK...so this is a virtual gift. But a gift nonetheless. By giving these virtual baskets you can help raise money for the Children's Miracle Network.

HERSHEY's BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES:

• Copy and paste these rules to your blog post


• Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger - you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.


• Link back to the person who gave you an Easter Basket


• Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket


• Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey's there.


• This started as a meme of Hershey donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children's Miracle Network up to $5000 - but after so many blogger participating, Hershey decided to donate a total of $7000 honoring the kindness of the blogger community.

So I'm leaving a Basket for:

Kimbosue

Photogrl

Jen

Rotten (private)

And YOU!

Lexi's First "Kids" Party

Lexi's cousin invited her to her 7th birthday party today...at an indoor playground. Lexi had a GREAT time, though she really couldn't partake in all the fun the jungle gyms had to offer since she can't climb them yet. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Just chillin in her highchair after the party

WHAT??!!

Sliding down the slides.

She REALLY liked the slide.

Filed

I finally filed our taxes this morning. They were done early in February, but I never got around to efiling them until this morning. We're getting a nice amount back...though not nearly what I thought we would now that Lexi is a dependent. But we made less last year...no bonuses and no overtime. We paid less in mortgage interest due to the refi we did in March...and I changed my W4 from 0 to 1. So taking that all into consideration, it makes sense. It's just disheartening when I hear people who are getting back double digits and I have to wonder how in the world they managed that.

On another note, my cell phone is "broken". I have an LG Rhythm and it SUCKS. The buttons on the front are "stuck" so they don't work. So basically, I can only use my phone for calls and nothing else. I couldn't even hit the snooze on the alarm this morning. When I took it into US Cellular last night, the guy rudely told me that I have a virus and have to get a software upgrade on it...but they can't do it there, I have to take it to a location that has a technician. So I'll be doing that this evening. What a fun way to spend my Thursday night.

Wordless Wednesday

11 months - posted one day early.

Dear Alexis,

You are 11 months old today.  11 months!  I know I say this every month, but where has the time gone?  You're growing up before my eyes and seem to learn something new almost everyday!

Gone are the days of being able to put you in your swing and let you "hang out" while mommy cooks dinner, or uses the potty.  You want to be part of everything we do, and rightly so.  You are an important part of this family.

You are so close to walking.  SO CLOSE!  You will walk along with us, holding just one finger on one of our hands, while your other hand waves proudly at anyone you see.  You are left foot dominant when you walk...stepping forward with your left foot, then bringing up your right.  For that reason, Auntie calls you "Peg Leg".  LOL.

This next month is going to be so fun.  Not only is it a countdown to your first birthday, but you also have some fun things going on. 

You got a spot in swim class again, that starts this Saturday and goes for 8 weeks.  You love the class, and you love being in the water.  We're so happy about that, since Daddy and I love swimming as well. 

On the 20th, you will attend your first ever kids birthday party.  Your cousins, Emily and Sam, invited you!  Such fun!  Emily turns 7 this month, and Sam will be 4, guess when?  That's right!  You and Sam share a birthday! 

On the 27th, you are having breakfast with someone VERY special.  Can you guess who it is?  It's the Easter Bunny!  Mommy and Daddy will take you to the Bird Haven so that we can all have breakfast with this special "friend".  I can't wait.  I hope you are excited and not frightened.  It's hard to believe you will celebrate your second Easter before your first birthday!

I can never tell you enough how much I love you, Peanut.  You make me smile each and every time I see you.  I love how you flap your arms like a bird when you see me, your way of telling me to pick you up.  I love how your face lights up when you look my way.  I love that you started giving kisses, even if they are open mouthed!  I love how you pull on your hair when you're tired.  Or how you rub your whole face, just like mommy does when she's tired.  I love how you snuggle into the corner of your crib, with your head right against the bumper pad, almost as if you're trying to burrow into it.  I love walking into your room, and seeing you standing in your crib, waiting to be picked up.  I love how you love to love on your Tigger.

This blog, this online journal, was started as a means to vent my feelings about our trouble conceiving a baby.  It morphed into a pregnancy journal, and now into a journal of sorts for you, Lexi, my darling daughter.  If I should be gone tomorrow, I can only hope that you can read these words when you're older, and say with 100% certainty, Yes, My mom...she loved me.

I love you Peanut.

Love,

Mommy

Got it

We picked up the playground for Lexi last night!  Woo Hoo!  She's going to LOVE it...well, she will as soon as all the snow melts, we pick up the 500 lbs of dog poop that's in the yard, and we set it up.  For now, it resides in the garage.

After we picked up the set, we went out to dinner.  We were in the neighborhood of a restaurant that I really like...so we went.  Had good food and great conversation.  It was a wonderful impromptu date with the hubs.  We need to do it more often.

Excited

I'm so excited.  And you're going to think I'm nutso when I tell you why.  I believe we are getting Lexi an 8-in-1 climber/playground.

I say "believe" because I'm still waiting on confirmation from the seller that we can pick it up tonight.  I found this on craigs.list for $225.  These things are $500 in the stores!  We've been looking for one for Lexi's birthday and had seen some others being sold on the list but they were already sold.  Keep your fingers crossed that we can get this one!

These are a few of my favorite things...

I've been meaning to do a post about my favorite things that I use daily for Lexi...as in meaning to do it for the last 6 months.  I have a small list of things that I liked and disliked over the last 10.5 months.  So I guess I'll start at the beginning with 2 products.  One that I wanted to love, but didn't love me; and the other that we still use every single day.

When Lexi first came home from the hospital, I had planned on breastfeeding exclusively.  Well, that tanked because she came so early, but we still gave breastfeeding the ole college try.  In preparation for the hours I would spend with her attached to my breast, we purchased a My Breast Friend nursing pillow:

Now, I've not been shy about saying I'm a plus sized momma...while I really thought the concept of this pillow is awesome (allowing mom to move around while baby is nursing, providing almost "hands free" nursing etc), it didn't fit me.  Literally.  I could not get the pillow to comfortably fit around me without feeling like I had a too small ring around my waist.  I tried adjusting it and just couldn't get a comfortable fit.  I was very disappointed to not be able to use it.  I found a regular old pillow from our bed worked to support her, but didn't give me the freedom to really move around. 

Since breastfeeding didn't really work out for me, bottles were, are still are, important to me.  We originally thought we wanted glass bottles...but found that they were heavy to hold, especially at 3am when we were nodding off while feeding her.  Lexi also had issues with reflux, so we didn't want her swallowing more air than she needed to be.  We tried numerous bottles, from Dr Brown's to Avent before finally settling on the Platex Ventaire. 

I loved the curved design of the bottle as well as the venting system, which helps prevent air from mixing in with the milk.  We could actually hear the air escaping from the bottom of the bottle as she drank.  I also liked that they are super easy to clean, and that they are easy to assemble.  I had a problem figuring out the Dr Browns, but these were a snap.  The downfall?  The markings on the outside of the bottles (for the ozs) faded over time with each washing.  We had to take a permanent marker and mark the outside so we would know where the oz markings were.  Now that Lexi is older, she has a very easy time holding these as well.

I have some more favorite things...but I have to save them for another post.  I actually should do some work now!

I should state that I am putting this information out there because it might be useful to someone, NOT because the manufacturer sent me anything or asked me to.

Temper, temper

DH and I got our first look at Lexi's temper this past weekend.  Let me preface this by saying that Lexi is a good natured kid.  She doesn't cry or fuss often and when she does, it's usually because something is wrong, ie...she doesn't feel good, is overtired etc.  Well, the overtiredness played a small role in her display of her temper yesterday.  She had her morning nap...about 2 hours...waking at about 11:15am.  DH and I went to a friend's house to watch the USA v. Canada gold metal hockey game after she got up.  Well, she wouldn't nap at our friend's house.  There was too much going on and being in a strange place, she just didn't want to sleep.  But still, she was good natured.  Only slightly fussy.  We left around 4pm and Lexi was in her crib asleep by 4:15.  She slept until 5:30.  I thought that would have been enough of a nap...apparently, it wasn't. 

DH gives Lexi our remote control to play with on occassion...after removing the batteries.  Well, yesterday, she took it off the table to play with it.  DH took it away from her to remove the batteries...and that's when we got a glimpse of the temper.  Lexi proceeded to flop down on her butt from a kneeling position and started kicking her legs and "yelling".  I won't say crying, because there were no tears.  This was more of a scream/yell.  She did this until DH gave her the remote back.  Then all was peaceful.

I thought about telling DH that he shouldn't have given her the remote at that point, since it was rewarding her behavior, but I think he was as shocked as I was that she did what she did, that he didn't even think about it. 

I hope this doesn't become a regular thing for her.  She's never minded when we've taken something away from her...she usually moves on to something else. 

Any suggestions out there for how to handle this should it occur again?  Who am I kidding, I know it will happen again, it's just a matter of when?!