Alexa is 21 Months!

Wow, only three months to go until my little baby is 2! Enjoy these pictures, because the end is near. Daddy joked that I'll go visit her in college to take her Month 215th photo. Ha. Ha. Ha. One thing that is interesting is that Alexa now knows the drill. As soon as she saw this month's sticker, she looked at me and patted her chest and said "Pit-chur?" Yes, my dear, picture time! And check out how cute she is!

All About Alexa at 21 Months: 

• I used to know how many words Alexa knew, but now the list is so long that I can't keep track! And she keeps adding new words every day. 
• In addition to new words, Alexa is now combining them into phrases and sentences. Here are some popular ones: "Mama, walk?" "Beach? Dog? Beach" "More, please" "Dada, shower?" "Shoes! Socks!" "Hi, Mama" "Hi, Dada" "Get up!" "All done" "Animal Cracker?" (sounds like "ani-moll cacker")
• Alexa loves to talk to us when we're in the car. Usually she'll belt out "Hi, Mama!" "Hi, Dada!" And we'll reply, "Hi, Alexa!" She sometimes combines our names too and says, "Mama Dada." And, this is really new... She says "Ma-Meee" (Mommy) and "Da-Deee" (Daddy). So cute!
• Another very new thing is that Alexa can finally say her OWN NAME! She started saying it when we were playing the game where she said "Hi, Dada" "Hi, Mama" and we said back "Hi, Alexa." So she started saying it too! It sounds more like, "Hi, Lexa!"
• One of Alexa's favorite games right now is... Changing her baby's diaper! She likes to get out my changing pad and box of wipes. Her dolls must be pretty messy because it takes A LOT of wipes to change their diapers! She also loves wearing our shoes around the house.
• Another favorite game is playing catch! She will ask us to play "catch" and then throw or roll a ball back and forth. It's hilarious! She's starting to get a really good throw on.
• Finally, she loves to play "Row, Row" as in "Row, Row your boat." The way this game works is you hold her hands and pull her forward and back as you sing the song. When you get to the end and sing "All fall down," you gently lay her down and tickle her! She squeels in delight and cracks up laughing!
• She is also really into BUBBLES! She loves to see bubbles and blow bubbles but most of all, she likes to do it herself, which means spilling the bubble solution all over herself and ending up not blowing any bubbles. Still, she seems to be having fun.
• And, of course, Alexa loves to "pour" anything. This started in Hawaii, when Grandma taught her to pour her milk into her cereal. Now, she love pouring anything: water, bubble solution, it all works!
• Then there's Elmo. Alexa loves Elmo! We've gotten her a stuffed Elmo doll and she'll give him hugs. It's so cute! She also has a growing collection of Elmo books and loves all of them! Her favorite one right now is "Elmo Says." And one of her favorite things to say is "cookie monster."
• On the musical front, Alexa loves to sing and dance. When Daddy plays dance music, she'll twist and dance. It' so cute! She also loves to sing and sometimes we'll hear her singing to herself. Lately, she has been really into "Happy Birthday." She heard it sung at a restaurant when some kids got cupcakes. Later, when she saw cupcakes on TV she looked at me and asked," Happy ... to you?" Yup, that's how she sings it. Forget the word "Birthday," she just says "Happy, to you! Happy, to you! Happy to yooooooou! Happy to you!"
• Other things she does now: Climbs up on the futon; loves to jump on the bed; gives wet sloppy kisses; says "baby bra-ther" but we're not sure if she knows what it means; loves to "hulp" me, including sweeping the floors or cleaning her tray with a wipe; picks her feet up when I take her pants off; knows to take her shoes off when we come inside; picks flowers; loves to pick and blow dandelions; loves having us pat her back, so much so that sometimes she'll reach her hand back and pat her own back to show us what she wants! 
• Also, after her bath, we have a new tradition. She'll look up at me and say: "Duh duh duh." What she means is she wants Daddy to do his Jaws imitation while creeping into the bathroom with her pacifier. She cracks up laughing and usually is laughing to hard she can barely take the pacifier from him!
• As far as new foods... She loves juice, which we mix with water and give to her sparingly. She also loves popsicles! Mostly, she eats chicken nuggets, meatballs, pizza, almond butter sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches or fish sticks. She continues to love muffins and animal crackers. Recently, she discovered the joy of watermelon! Yum! She'll also eat string cheese, gnaw on baby carrots, bite the middle of apples, eat whole pears, bite grapes in half and eat a whole half sweet potato. Oh, and she loves anything bread related.
• For clothes, Alexa mostly wears size 18-24 months. She has a few 2T items that fit. And there are still a few 12-18 month and 12-month outfits that fit as well. For shoes, she's a 5.5 but soon to be a size 6.

Finally, here is a look back at Alexa's last 21 months...