Pool fun in Annapolis

We enjoyed a wonderful day at our friend's home in Annapolis today. Alexa was so excited to see her friend Kaitlyn that she nearly bounded out of my arms to run over to her. We had a little trouble getting Alexa in the pool at first, but when she saw the other kids sitting in their floaties and enjoying the water, she started having fun too! Outside of the pool, she loved Kaitlyn's toys, especially her lawn mower!

In the afternoon, Alexa's older friends Julia and Sara arrived as Alexa ran around in her adorable Kumquat outfit. The outfit was a gift from Grandma's friend Lucille. I'm glad it still fits her, it's a 12-month size!

Alexa's baby brother is 24 weeks!

That's right, I'm a month past halfway! That is, if you consider pregnancy as being 40 weeks long. In any case, this pregnancy is flying by. But before the baby gets here, I really do need to update everyone on the growth of our little boy.

It all started toward the end of January when I started to suspect that something was up. I told Daddy of my suspicions on Tuesday, Feb. 1. He wanted to wait until the weekend, but we ended up testing on Wednesday, Feb. 2. and got two dark lines! At that point, I was 5 weeks, 5 days. (With Alexa, we found out at 5 weeks, 2 days.)

I called my doctor's office the next day and they had me come in on Friday, Feb. 4, for blood work. I took Alexa with me and she charmed all the doctors! I got a phone call on Monday, Feb. 7, and was told that the blood work confirmed I was pregnant! Our next appointment was on Wednesday, Feb. 23. That's when we got to hear his heartbeat! This is what we saw... a little marshmallow! (Alexa looked like a lima bean during her first sonogram, hence the name of this blog.)

We went back on Tuesday, March 22, for the NT Scan sonogram. Here's what I wrote about it at the time: "It was good! Heard heartbeat, saw Marshmallow jumping all over the place and playing with his/her hands in his/her mouth. Crazy. Apparently little critter is 6 cm already. No wonder my pants are tight. ... Looks different than Alexa looked at this stage. Funny how that can be, huh?" (The second sonogram picture is looking down at his face from above.)

Our last appointment was on Monday, May 16. That's when we found out that the little critter who has been kicking me nonstop and who started off looking like a marshmallow, is a .......... BOY! (Alexa at that stage.)

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...

Strawberry picking!

We had a great day today at a Maryland farm picking tons of bright, red, juicy strawberries! The weather was perfect, not too hot. We met up with some friends of ours and their two daughters. Alexa had so much fun running around with Avery, who she knows from daycare. She also was a great helper and picked quite a few strawberries herself! We took home three buckets of strawberries for smoothies!

Fun at another Bethesda festival!

One thing that's great about our new hometown is that they have tons of festivals for kids. We love to walk from home with Alexa in the stroller, especially when the weather is so nice. This festival is called Imagination Bethesda and it featured shows and booths with games and art projects for kids. Alexa is still a little young for most of the activities, but she enjoyed the show and seeing all the other kids!

After Alexa's non-nap, we went for a walk and she had fun picking dandelions and flowers! Ever since I showed her how to blow dandelions, she LOVES to pick them and carry them around. It's so cute!

Who's wearing our shoes?

Alexa has more fun putting on our shoes! She loves to put on my sneakers or Daddy's funny shoes and clomp around. If you recall, she's been doing this for a while now. Here she is wearing cousin Samantha's sneakers and Daddy's shoes. Funny girl!

More fun changing her baby's diaper

Like I said, this is one of Alexa's favorite games of late. She loves to take out my changing mat, grab my bin of wipes and change her baby. So cute! She's also gotten better and letting us know when she's gone "poo poo" or when she's about to go "poo poo." She'll then go get the mat herself and lay down for a change. But I'd better get TWO diapers, so she can change her baby's diaper once I'm done with her!

Alexa helps clean up

Another one of Alexa's favorite things to do is "hulp" me around the house. Whenever I take out the broom, she wants in. It makes it hard for me to sweep, but it's so cute! As I was getting the house ready for our company last Sunday, she grabbed the broom and went to work. Do you think she'd like a toy broom or dust bin and brush?

Train! Fun! Water play!

Alexa had an action-packed Memorial Day holiday. Since it was forecast to be HOT, we headed to the Choo Choo Train early, hoping to get in a ride before the heat set in. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. It was packed! Luckily, we got seats and Alexa enjoyed the ride!

Back home, Alexa played with cousin Samantha, Grandma E and Pop before they left to catch their train home. She was pushing her shopping cart around and cracking up!

The day DID turn out to be super hot, so we decided to use the heat to our advantage. We took Alexa on a walk around the block in her trike, hoping the heat would wear her out and help us put her down for a nap. It worked! She slept 2+ hours!

When she woke up, we had a last-minute play date with Eli from down the street. We broke out the kiddie pool and stacks of cups and the kids dove in. They were dumping water and laughing so hard it was hilarious! At least we all cooled off!

Zoo! And then a BBQ!

We had a busy but fun day today! It started with a trip to the National Zoo. Silly me, I thought everyone left Washington, D.C., during holiday weekends. I was wrong. The Zoo was a zoo! It was also HOT! Still, we enjoyed walking around and seeing the animals. Alexa got to see elephants, pandas, lions, monkeys and donkeys. What could be better? She kept saying "Anna-molls"!

After the zoo, Daddy's friends from his hometown in NJ came over with their kids for a cook out. Alexa had a blast playing with all the older girls! They played bubbles with her and played catch with her soccer ball. And, of course, it all ended with ice cream! Alexa loved the ice cream part.

Park fun with Grandma E and Samantha

Alexa got a treat today -- a visit from her Grandma E, Pop and cousin Samantha! So was so excited that she wouldn't nap. So to tire her out, we took our little monster to the park! She had a blast on the swing and playing with a little toy kitchen. Turns out that cousin Samantha has the SAME kitchen back in New Jersey. If we have room in our car, we might try to bring it home! Do you think Alexa will like it as much if it's in our back yard and not the playground? Hmmmm. I hope so!

Alexa plays catch with her Daddy

One of Alexa's favorite new games to play is "catch." She loves to throw or roll a ball to you and then you throw or roll it back and she giggles as she runs to scoop it up. It's so cute! Daddy has been waiting to play catch with her for a while. He has been teaching her how to throw properly. She's a natural!

King Spring Fling

Every year, my co-worker has a cook-out. I remember years ago, when we lived in the city and didn't own a car, it was a pain to get to. Now, it's five minutes away. Daddy was away this past weekend, so Alexa and I went on our own. Here are some photos from last Saturday evening. She ate some food but mostly enjoyed playing ball and riding a little bus with the big kids. I was very proud of her for being a tough girl when she fell down and sharing the toys! Click here to see photos of last year's Spring Fling!

Photos from Saturday

On the way back home from the Strut your Mutt Parade, Alexa took her time walking. So I broke out my camera and took some pictures. I love the color and light, but I wish she wasn't sucking on her pacifier!