Dance Class

Well...

The class didn't go as I expected, but I am convinced it will get better. It was the first class after a vacation and the local schools started this week so Alexis was given a private lesson. That would have been great if she were older but when you put a 2 year old out onto a huge dance floor with someone she has never met, you are likely to encounter a few problems.

Alexis was intimidated, to say the least. She followed the directions to the best of her ability but definitely played the shy card. Miss Tiffany was fantastic and tried everything to get her to come out of her shell. She even tried getting the Elmo coloring book out and having Alexis dance for Elmo. In a last ditch effort, she gave her a DumDum, which Alexis devoured, but it did not produce any dance moves.

We are determined to try again and hopefully the next class will have some other monkeys in it so that she won't feel so intimidated. I do think she liked it a little bit, especially since she has mentioned it several times since we left. A glimmer of hope for Mommy who REALLY wants her to dance.

The much anticipated pictures....

Alexis in her pink leotard getting ready for dance class...




Dancing with Miss Tiffany...


Her favorite part of the whole thing...the DumDum...

Twins??

I just looked up a picture of Alexis when she was 11 weeks old.




Here is Hannah at 11 weeks.


Is it just me or are the similarities remarkable?? Note that Hannah is two pounds heavier than Alexis was at two months and she has a darker complexion. Other than that, if I wasn't their mother, I may not be able to tell their pictures apart. How crazy is that, especially after I have been telling people that I don't think they look that much alike. Whichever one of us they resemble (I have been told they look exactly like me OR exactly like Scott) must have some rockin' DNA.

Back to blogging...

It has been almost a year since I have visited my blog. I guess life got busy. Not that it still isn't busy, but I think I will make an effort to keep up this time.

Hannah joined our family on June 18th, 2008 by whirlwind. She came by C-section, at 36 weeks, because she was breech and had low fluid. Wow! She made a dramatic entrance but has been a very easy-going baby. She melts my heart.

This past Sunday, I was in the bathroom at our new house. Scott had come in for something and stepped in front of me and then we he backed up, he stepped on my toes. Ouchie! I yelped in pain and stopped myself from using a few choice words because Alexis was right there. She immediately stopped and said "sorry, Mommy", as if she was taking the blame. Her sweetness instantly took the pain away from my aching toes. She continued on for a minute or so asking if I was OK. I assured her I was and then in a sheer moment of pity, she leaned down and lifted my foot and kissed it, exclaiming. "all better." My eyes welled up with tears. She is such a sensitive soul.

I am having anxiety about Alexis's need to pick up and carry her baby sister. In a controlled environment, it is cute and I smile. I know that is sending the wrong message because when I turn my back for just a moment, she seizes the opportunity. She is so sweet about it though, always bringing her straight to me and saying, "Baby Hannah hun-gree". Instant happiness at the sound of her innocent voice. I hope that someone is watching over my baby Hannah; her overzealous sister may drop her.

We went shopping for ballet shoes today. Her first class is tomorrow. She was smitten with the tiny, baby pink, ballet shoes. She even carried the shopping bag over her shoulder and out to the car. Once safely strapped into her car seat, she got them out, insisted on putting them on, and insisted on wearing them into Costco. I agreed, much to her delight. Besides, you only get your first pair of ballet slippers once. She loves them and I can't wait to see how the class unfolds tomorrow.

I hope to make this blog a regular activity so the rest of the world can hear my constant ramblings. I can hear the excitement.

Ambidextrous??

You have become almost insistent that you feed yourself these days. You are surprisingly good at it. Most of it gets to your mouth. You prefer the double fisted approach where you have a spoon in each hand and you are equally good with both hands. Maybe we have a ambidextrous little girl on our hands. This only adds to the fact that I already think you are a genius. You also love yogurt! You insist on having it for breakfast and at least one other time during the day. You are not happy in the morning until you go to the fridge and pick out your yogurt. You love it and any flavor will do. I think Key Lime Pie was the flavor of the day in this picture.
You also had a well-baby visit on Friday, September 21st. You weighed in at 23lbs 13oz (50th percentile) and you are 32 inches tall (75th percentile). Much to our new doctor's amazement, you also have a head that measures 50cm (above an beyond the 99th percentile) in circumference. He did tell us he was a little concerned with your "proverbial big head" but that he would watch it and see how you do in the coming months. Overall, you are in excellent health and developing beautifully.
You can now say all kinds of words on command and it is so cute! Especially when you say "baby". You do the sign for baby and in a high pitch voice you say "baby" as plain as day. It melts my heart and brings a tear to my eye every time. The list of words include mama, dada, papa, bye-bye, hi, ball, and baby. Her sitter swears she can say pretzel and watermelon but we have yet to hear those come out of her mouth.
Also, I need to edit that you WERE sleeping through the night when I wrote that last post but you have since reverted to your old routine and we are lucky if we get 4-5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I keep telling Daddy that one day you won't want to be in our bed and on that day we will miss you terribly. You are growing so fast and sometimes I wish I could just make time stand still so you could be my baby forever.

Pooping on the Floor…..

In less than one week, you have pooped on the floor 3 times. We are assuming this is a sign that you are getting ready to be potty-trained. I think I read that somewhere. On Monday you had diarrhea and squirted on the floor at Leigh’s house while we were their Labor Day guests. I thought it was just because your tummy was upset. I was wrong. Way wrong. Thursday night, after your bath, I went to get your PJs and I left you diaper-free. You pooped in the floor. Yep, two little turds. You turned and picked one up. Dad thought it was awesome. I thought it was disgusting and promptly scrubbed you clean. Today, I took your diaper off when we got home and you pooped on the floor, only I didn't know about it until I went to put your diaper on less than 3 minutes later. To my surprise, I laid you down and you had poop all over your legs. Dad was on all fours cleaning up the mess and needless to say, you had your bath early. I think we will dig out the ol’ potty seat and try to teach you what it is for.

In other news, you pretty much know all your body parts. You have some trouble with “eye” but I assume it is because it sounds similar to the others. I caught you on tape yesterday and you did them all. It is so cute to hear you say “belly button”. It is more like “bee-bees”. So cute and very smart for a 15 month old!

We went on our first visit to Sea World today. You were not appreciative of the 45 minute wait to see the Shamu show. You finally settled down and the killer whales kept your attention for about 15 minutes. You seemed to enjoy our picnic lunch more than anything. You conked out after the shark tunnel and we went home. I am sure there will be many more trips to Sea World.

You also love to give kisses. You will pucker up your cute little lips and say “Mmmmma”. You like to gives lots of kisses in succession. It is the sweetest thing and I love being the recipient of those wet kisses.

For the best news of all, you are finally sleeping through the night. Although many parents celebrate this milestone within the first few months, we are excited to finally get a full night sleep. You are also spending the night in your own room, in your own crib. I do miss your snuggles and for a couple of nights I let you sleep next to me but I soon realized that everyone sleeps better in their own bed.

You are growing up too fast and I can’t believe you were once so tiny and new.

Naughty, but Cute...

You have really learned some new things these past few days. You can, without a doubt, say the words "ball" and "ice" and you know what they mean.

You love Mimi's ice machine in the refrigerator and run to watch the ice come out. In the afternoon's when Mimi has a glass of ice water, you run to sit with her so you can have ice. You seem to have an obsession with ice in general. If you are given a sip of any one's drink and it has ice in it, you have to put your hands in the ice. I can give you large chunks of ice and you will happily suck on it till it's gone. You also just learned the word "ball" and you are quite the rebounder when we play with your new basketball set. You look so emphatic when you say it, like your brain is really working hard to make that 'b' sound.

You have also learned more body parts. You know where your nose, ear, and belly button are. It is so cute to ask you where your belly button is. You lift your shirt, point to it, and say "Be-bu-ton", in your own cute way. I must ask you a dozen times a day to show me your bellybutton because it tickles me so much to see you do it.

Daddy taught you where the clouds were yesterday. Now when we ask you where the clouds are, you immediately point to the sky. We give you praise every time and now you will look at us and clap. You are so proud of yourself.

You also can be very naughty. Daddy and I were so embarrassed on Sunday evening because you would not behave in Coco's while we were having pie with Grandpa, Mimi, and their friends. We had to leave - a first for us. You also like to get into cabinets and drawers. You will pull out all of the food from the cabinet and your latest favorite is getting into Mimi's make-up. We are trying to teach you and I keep telling myself that there will be some major "tomato staking" when we get settled.

You also love to go outside. Thanks to Daddy, you actually get to go outside. You pick up all the rocks and run to show us, like it is a treasure. You would spend all day out there if we let you.
We are getting ready to embark on our new journey in a few days. We had to return to Arizona for a couple of weeks to wait on Daddy's company to finish some legalities. We are enjoying Grandpa and Mimi but are anxious to get into our own routine again.

Finally - San Diego - here we come!

Running....

In the last few days you can really get going, You have now figured out how to run and run fast. You run from us and we are trying to nip that in the bud. You think running is the coolest thing and you have the silliest grin on your face as you run across the floor.

Much to my credit, you now know where your nose is. I have been working with you for a couple of weeks but I am sure now that you know. If you say, "Alexis, where is your nose?", you point to your nose, every time, without fail. Most times you stick your finger in your nose. I hope this is not a sign of habits to come.

Today. I was getting ready to go to lunch and I was curling my hair at Mom's vanity. You were being overly whiny (as it seems you are a lot lately) and Mimi tried to distract you by asking you to show her the dog. There was a picture of a dog on an advertisement paper lying on the ground. You looked at her and walked away. You went into the kitchen and found your Touch and Feel book with the dog in it and brought it back to Mimi. She then asked you where the dog was and you opened the book to the dog page. If that wasn't enough, she showed you the picture of the fish and you very clearly said "fish". I was amazed, as was your Mimi.

You seemed to have missed the memo that you aren't supposed to have separation anxiety until 15 months. I can't leave the room without you following me and chanting, "mamamamama", while holding your arms in the air. It is quite a pathetic sight but it is cute enough for me to always pick you up. You seemed to prefer me from birth, literally. The night you were born you would not stay in the bassinet, even when the nurse insisted that you could not sleep with me in my hospital bed. You didn't want Daddy were only satisfied with me and you have continued on that streak everyday for the last 14 months. I really don't mind because I know that one day I won't be your #1 pick to hang out with.

Tomorrow we leave Prescott for California on this new chapter in our lives. Hang on, girl, it's gonna be a wild ride.