21 Months!

Lexi is 21 months! Omg only three more months until she turns 2! How did that happen?! I guess I better get going planning a birthday party! :)

Lexi's speech has continued to improve this month. She's starting to string words together and make little sentences. The other day she said "I brush teeth" and "big puppy tail". It's so cute! She's also using words more to tell me what she wants. Most of the time I can tell what she's saying, even if it's not terribly clear, but sometimes I have no idea. Like today she kept saying "shay". I asked her to show me, but she didn't want to, so I still don't know what she was trying to say.

Tantrums continue to be a challenge.  Sometimes it seems like she gets upset about nothing. Most of the time, though, she gets mad when she doesn't get her way. Last week I tried something new with her. I started giving her stickers every time she did something helpful or was well behaved. It's been working out really well so far! She loves earning them and looks so proud when she gets to pick out a new one. She's earned about five stickers each day (we started this last Monday) and today I let her turn them all in for a special new toy. She was so proud and so excited! I really like this because I'm rewarding her for being good, rather than punishing her for being bad all the time. It's all about positive reinforcement. It hasn't gotten rid of all the tantrums, but it defiantly has decreased the number of them.  

Somethings she does to earn stickers:

Help feed the dogs and cats

Help make dinner

Help do laundry

Help do dishes

Patient and well behaved during outings to the store or at play groups 

Patient when I tell her she needs to wait to do something

Telling me she needs a diaper change 

Listening when I tell her to do something

Cleaning up her toys 

Lexi is currently obsessed with the song "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. She constantly asks throughout the day to listen to "Ja" or Jasmine. I seriously have heard this song more times in the past month than I have my entire life! To put her down for a nap I dance with her around the living room. I have a playlist of princess songs that we listen to and she gets mad when Jasmine ends and the next song ends. I explain to her that "Jasmine will come back around, but that we need to listen to the other songs first." I like that song, but Momma can only listen to it so many times! Haha! I said it once and I'll say it again, they really need to make a Gloworm type toy that you can put your own music on. So that way I can put "A Whole New World" on it and Lexi can play it on repeat for herself to fall asleep to at night and I don't have to sit there with my phone playing it for her. 

Speaking of sleep, we had a couple rough weeks here. At the beginning of the moth Lexi dropped our before bed nursing session. One night she didn't ask to nurse, so I followed her lead and didn't offer. I really wanted it to be her idea to drop these last two nursing sessions, so I was fine with it. The first three nights went really smoothly, no issues at all.  But after that she started to take for ever to fall asleep. Normally she's out by 8:45, but she wasn't falling asleep until 10-10:30. Then she was waking up around 2 or 3am, when she had been STTN for months. She was waking up hungry and wanting to play. So, I started giving her a bedtime snack and than helped put her to sleep quicker. And honestly one night when she woke at 3am, I let her CIO and that seemed to fix that problem. So sleep is back to normal now! Thank goodness!! We're down to BFing 1x a day in the mornings now. She still asks for it, so I still let her. I'm going to give her until her birthday to drop this last one. After that if she's still going strong, I'll wean her down completely. 

We're still working on colors and shapes. She has green down now, but still has trouble with red and yellow. She has circle and oval down, but calls squares rectangles. We're starting on numbers and letters, too. So far she has 1 and A. That's a good start, I guess!

Breakfast of choice: "kotch" & "staw-bees" (cottage cheese and strawberries) 

Lexi can also say her name! It's gone from sounding more like Yahtzee to a discernible "lessie". That X sound is a tough one. At least she doesn't think her name is "you" any more :)

Pretty, pretty baby curls 

Favorite books this month have been The Lion King, Nursery Rhymes, Clifford the Champion, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Movies wise she's still obsessed with 101 Dalmatians and really likes Aladdin. She loves that Lady, Tramp, Jock, and Peg all make cameo appearances in 101.

Lexi has been doing well with her social. She interacts with kids at Kindermusik, and she even danced with some other kids at story time this past week! That was a first! Toddler time play group finally started back up last week, too. She had fun, but she wasn't overly interested in the other kids. It was only the first week, so hopefully she'll warm up more this week. 

As she approaches two, Lexi is more and more a little girl every day. Sometimes I look at her and think, "where did my baby go??"

Lots of Love, 

KJsbabe

Why I hate The Rainbow Fish

Ok, that is probably a strong word. Dislike a lot? Yeah. Have a problem with? Yeah...

At first, I felt really bad not liking this book. We got it as a baby shower gift from my SIL, and she wrote this heartfelt message in it about how it was her favorite book as a child and how you can make the world a more beautiful place if you share what makes you special. It sounds like a really nice book. It's also beautifully illustrated. I seriously wanted to like this book. Ugh! But I just don't! 

So, the book starts out Once Upon A Time there was this really beautiful fish. The other fish of the ocean would occasionally ask him to play, but he preferred to just swim by and let them admire his beautiful rainbow scales. 

So he's a loner. An introvert. So what? There's nothing wrong with that. He didn't say anything mean to the other fish, he just didn't want to play.

So one day, a little blue fish comes up to him and says, "Please give me one of your shiny scales. They are so wonderful, and you have so many."

First of all, the little blue fish doesn't ask for a scale. He demands it! There's no question mark in what he says. He says, "give me one of your scales." Period. That's rude. Period!

Second, he says, "you have so many." So what! It doesn't matter if he has 1 or 100. They're his scales, not yours, little blue fish. I wouldn't walk up to some one I've seen around and say, "Hey, give me your shirt. I really like it, and I know you have a whole closet full of them at home." Again, very rude.

So, the Rainbow Fish says, " 'You want me to give you one of my special scales? Who do you think you are?' cried the Rainbow fish. 'Get away from me!' " 

You tell him Rainbow Fish! Who does that little blue fish think he is??

"Shocked, the little blue fish swam away. He was so upset he told all his friends what had happened. From then on, no one would have anything to do with the Rainbow Fish. They turned away when he swam by." 

Really?? So the little blue fish goes around bad mouthing the Rainbow Fish to all of his friends! What an a-hole! And now no one will even talk to the poor Rainbow Fish because the little blue fish is spreading roomers about him. Very mean-girl-esk! 

So, the poor, lonely Rainbow Fish talks to the starfish, who sends him to the octopus. She tells him, "This is my advice. Give a glittering scale to each of the other fish. You will no longer be the most beautiful fish in the sea, but you will discover how to be happy."

So yeah, you basically need to buy your friends back. 

The Rainbow Fish doesn't think that he can do that. "Give away my scales? My beautiful shining scales? Never. How could I ever be happy without them?" 

Now at this point, I actually had some hope for this book. I thought this might lead into something along the lines of "giving away your material possessions to those less fortunate can make you really happy." But no... 

The little blue fish comes back at that point and says, "Rainbow Fish, please, don't be angry. I just want one little scale."

Again, no actual asking. The little blue fish is only thinking of himself. "I want". "I just want one little scale". Yeah well, there are a lot of things I want too, little blue fish...

But the Rainbow Fish broke down and gave him a scale. "The little blue fish whizzed through the ocean with his scale flashing, so it didn't take long before the Rainbow Fish was surrounded by the other fish. Everyone wanted a glittering scale." 

That sounds menacing to me! They surrounded him! They were all trying to get a glittering scale for themselves! That sounds mob-like to me! What would have happened if the Rainbow Fish said, "Sorry, that was just a one time gift for the little blue fish. My scales aren't up for grabs." What would the mob of fish have done to him?? Take them by force?? Know what that sounds like to me? Bullying! (Oh yeah, I pulled out the B word!)

The Rainbow Fish pretty much had no choice at that point, but to give away all of his beautiful scales. "Finally the the Rainbow Fish had only shining scale left. His most prized possessions had been given away, yet he was very happy. 'Come on Rainbow Fish' they called. 'Come and play with us!' 'Here I come,' said the Rainbow Fish and, happy as a splash, he swam off to join his friends. 

Well sure he's happy now! He bought all the fish off to make them like him again. Of course they want to be friends with him now. What a great lesson to teach kids! "In order to get friends, you need to give them gifts" and "People won't like you if you don't give them what they ask (demand!) for" and "If you say no to people, they won't be your friends any more."

And if you didn't notice, the Rainbow Fish just so happened to have enough scales to give one to all the other fish and still have one left for himself. Let me ask, what would have happened if there had been one extra fish? Would the Rainbow Fish have been left with no pretty scales at all? Or what if he wanted to keep that last scale for himself and not give it to the extra fish? Would that last fish have gotten angry because the Rainbow Fish didn't want to share with him, like the little blue fish did? Would he have gone around and bad mouthed the Rainbow Fish to all of his friends, just like the little blue fish did? Where does it end?? When is it enough?? 

Seriously, that little bluefish needs to mind his own business...

And another rant, on a some what related note, who's bright idea was it to put dust jackets on kids books?? They just end up getting riped off and torn up! Seriously dumb idea...

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

Spring, Where are You?!?

I'm so ready for winter to be over! I know everyone pretty much feels that way around here, but seriously... I want to get my run on and the treadmill doesn't really do it for me. I want to run for miles, not minutes. I also need to loose these 5lbs that are still hanging around after the holidays. I'm not a tall person, so 5lbs on me is the difference between my pants fitting and having to buy new ones. 

On the TTC front, we're on cycle #5. My doctor's app is on the 27th, so I will most likely be on cd4 of cycle #6 by then. My LP's so far have been 5, 7, 8, and 8. If I could just get one more day I would feel so much better. I got pregnant twice with a 9 day LP, so if I could just get that far I feel like my chances of getting pregnant again would be a lot higher. This past 2ww I tortured myself and lurked on the Nov BMB, like, every single day. *sigh* We have one more shot at a 2014 baby, and then it's on to busy, busy 2015 (two big family weddings planed already). But hey, let's stay positive. I'll take what ever baby The Lord wants to give me in His timing.

My sister's pregnancy is going well. She had her anatomy scan a couple weeks ago and everything looked good. What a relief!! She was measuring almost a week ahead (baby had been measuring two weeks behind at her first u/s), so that was good news. Her EDD got moved to 7/14, the day before her birthday, coincidentally. She's having a girl, so that's exciting! A little girl cousin for Lexi to play with :) Lexi and I are going to help her register later this week, fun fun!! And I'm also talking up the cloth diapers to her ;) You know me, I can't resist!

KJ's job is going really well. After him switch around jobs so much in the past two years, it's nice that this one is treating him well. He put in a lot of overtime during the holidays in order to get a big project done and they gave him a nice bonus last week for it! Time to go shopping! Lol No, he did give me a little extra spending cash, but I honestly don't know what to buy with it. I'll probably save it until I find something I want. That would be the responsible thing to do, right? Not waste it on something silly, wait it out until I see something good. 

Ooo, speaking of shopping I found the cutest, sweetest Easter dress for Lexi the other day at Kohls. Omg I just fell in love with it! It's too stinking cute!! We have a couple weddings to go to this spring/ summer, so she can wear it for those, too. I can't wait for spring!

Squee! I'm totally in love with this dress!

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

20 Months

Lexi is officially out of her teens and into her 20's! Haha that was quick! :p She's 20 months today! 

Lots of verbal and learning milestones this month. It's getting really hard to keep up with all if her new words. Here's a list of some, but I know not all. She's well over 50 words by now. Probably more like 75.

Hug

Kiss

Chicken (chick)

Flop 

Tube 

Bear

Pup

Jump

Hop

Pull

Gummies

Kitty (key)

Treat (tree)

Jock (from Lady and the Tramp)

Trusty

Lady (yady)

Peg

Tramp (tamp)

Patients (paish)

Giraffe (jaff)

Simba (simb)

Cracker (Cack)

Peach

Tramp (tam)

Cottage cheese (kotch)

Catch

Pink

Monkey (moky)

Frog

Horse (hos)

Cat

Sheep

Fish

I drop

Picture 

You

Gram

Pop

What

Tasty

Lexi knows some of her colors and shapes already! She knows blue (boo), pink, purple (purp), black (back), and orange (unge). She also knows heart, star, and semi-circle. We're working on square, circle, and triangle. She'll get them right maybe 60% of the time. She also knows animals and what noise they make. She can "read" the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See?" to me.

Elephant (eff) -bbbbuuurrr

Horse - nay

Kitty (key key) - meow

Puppy - roof roof stop bark (staw bawk) haha I don't know where on earth she would have got something like that... 

Cow - moo

Duck - quack (cack cack!)

Chick - peep peep

Sheepy - ba

Goat - ma

Frog (fog) - ribbit (rib rib)

Bear - roar

Bird (bur) - tweet (teet)

Other things Lexi is doing this month are sharing her snacks with her toys and learning how to toss a ball. She also likes to help me cook dinner and wash the dishes. I've found it really helps when I involve her in my daily household activities. (Not so many meltdowns that way!) So, she helps me do the laundry. I'll hand her clothes out of the wash and she puts them in the dryer. When I wash dishes she stands beside me on a chair and plays in the water. When I empty the dish washer she hands me silverware and cups to put away. When I cook dinner she helps measure water, stir things, and sets the table. When I feed the pets she helps dump food in the dog's bowls and carries the cat's bowls over to them. She really is a good helper! 

Helping make pizza

Coloring with Red Panda

Lexi also likes to use her own play kitchen and "cook" KJ and I dinner and desert. She hands out plates to us (sometimes I get three or four servings!) and we say "Yum yum! That's so tasty!" Then she collects them and puts them in her sink and whispers "wash wash". It's adorable! 

Eating has been a bit of a struggle this month. All she wants to eat is cottage cheese (kotch). I ask, "Lexi, what do you want for lunch?" "Kotch!!" I try so hard to get her to eat other things. Nutritious things. She's even refusing PB&J lately! Who doesn't like PB&J?? It's frustrating and I'm praying it's just a phase. I was looking at some old pictures of her the other day, from about 12 months. She was eating all sorts of things... Willingly! Sweet potatoes, spinach, strawberries, chicken, Greek yogurt, corn... She pretty much would eat anything I put in front of her... Now she's this opinionated little person who doesn't like anything. She does like crunchy things, though. Tonight we had a major break through! Lexi was helping me make dinner and I had her dump a bag of baby carrots into a steamer boat. We had a little time before we needed to put them in the microwave, so I started singing Daniel Tiger songs. She was dancing, and then picked up a carrot and started munching on it! She ate 5 freaking baby carrots!!!! Woo hoo!!! And then she ate 2 more at dinner!! Big ol' win!!! I put brown sugar and butter on the steamed carrots and she didn't like those, but I seriously didn't care what else she ate today... She ate 7 carrots total!!!

Not a fan of skirts... "Get this off me!!"

Some of Lexi favorite toys this month are her Little People goat (from the nativity set) and Patch the puppy from a 101 Dalmatians set. The goat and puppy go everywhere together! They have lunch together, they climb tables together, they have conversations, they help Lexi color... They are seriously BFFs! Lol Lexi and I were both sick this past week, so "Lady and the Tramp" and "101 Dalmatians" have been playing pretty much non stop in our house. She is in love with Jock!! Omg it's Jock this and jock that all day long. So, I picked her up a Jock plushy on eBay... and she's scared of the damn thing! Ugh!

Lexi has 15 teeth now. Her top left canine came in this month. Her hair is getting longer. We achieved the long awaited pig-tails a couple weeks ago! So freaking cute! She also loves to dance and can blow kisses (muh muh muh!) She loves the Disney Princesses and Daniel Tiger. Favorite books this month are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See?", "Goodnight Daniel Tiger", "The Rainbow Fish" (I have mixed feelings on this book...), "Corduroy", and "The Cat in the Hat".

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe