"Critical Mass!!" or "Dressing Up!"

Ok, let me preface this by explaining.. To make the most of end-of-season sales, i have a stash of clothes for alexis to grow into.

which she discovered today...

Dressing Up Time!!

She started the day off wearing a skivvy and a t-shirt, which progressed into...

Her best strongman impression!

So on top of her skivvy & t-shirt, she added (with my help, but she did insist..)
a white t-shirt
a pink hooded jumper
another white t-shirt
a pink Tweety & Sylvester singlet
a dark blue t-shirt
a light blue t-shirt
a white muscle tee
and a pink long-sleeved tee...
thats when we couldn't fit any more over the top! lol (and you can't even see her hunchback caused by the hoodie getting crammed in there!)

so i stripped them all back off her, but now she's just brought me 3 new ones so that she can start again!!

oops!

ok, fair enough dad, it has been awhile!


Well alexis is now 22 months old, and is doing great!

important stuff first, she now has 12 teeth, all her incisors, and one full set of molars.. there is a tiny hint of a single canine, but it's taking its time!

She is using lots of words now, and is starting to join words together too! She particularly likes learning the names body parts at the moment, she's mastered (sort of ;-) ) "eye" "no(se)" "mou(th)" "chick" (cheek), and can point to heaps of others if you ask her... today she asked for "peeech" (peaches!) and "bread" (toast) for lunch :-) and we hear far too much of "dohwadoo!" (say it fast & grumpily and you should be able to work it out!) but it is constantly amazing us how well she picks up new words & sounds!

As far as fun goes, she is really keen on books still, most days we have to read "Fox In Socks" "Mr Brown Can Moo" "Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now!" "Seahorse's Wild Ride" "Funnybones" "How Does Your Garden Grow" "Caterwaul Caper" "Hairy Maclary's Bone" "Five Useful Engines" "Meg On The Moon", at least once each, plus a good smattering of others! We hear "book? book? book?" all through the day :-) and when we aren't reading to her, she reads her books out loud to herself, which is very funny to listen to!

Apart from books, she likes carrying her babies around & giving them cuddles, prompting us to go to sleep (by very pointedly shutting her eyes!) then shouting at us to wake up, tearing around on her little ride-on car, picking flowers in the garden, dancing & playing Ring-a-rosy, and throwing all the cushions off the couch then stage-diving off onto them!


And last night we discovered a local school was having a fireworks show, alexis' first fireworks experience, since paul has always been working instead.. so after dinner we walked around to see it! There were *heaps* of little kids running around & squealing, which alexis found very exciting, and she played on the playground, which was also exciting. She also had undoubtedly too much candyfloss! Starting to get a bit of a picture forming here?
yup, over-excited, sugar-fuelled toddler up past her bedtime... :-o
then throw some very loud noises, lots of bright lights, and lots of people shouting & clapping...

oh my gosh the tears!!

She screamed, and she howled, and she wailed, and she buried her head into our shoulders, and tried to get away! :-(

After a little while we realised that she was *not* going to warm to the fireworks whatsoever, so had to leave... as we walked home we tried turning round, several times, to watch from further away, but every time she would burst straight back into tears! So home we went...

Of course now if we say fireworks to her, she gets a big grin on her face, points outside, and says "boom!" while making boom type actions with her arms! She likes the fireworks now! a *wee* bit late now baby! ;-) maybe next year huh?

Boo!

Or as Alexis would say- "bee!" ;-)

Tomorrow my baby girl will be 18 months old! And it is plainly obvious to see, as she alternates between tiny bubba & boisterous toddler!

She has just gotten her 7th tooth (now four on top, three on the bottom) and her hair is slowly getting longer... She's around 11.5kg and 81cm tall :-)

Her favourite thing at the moment is Hairy Maclary - we have the books of "Hairy Maclary's Bone" and "Caterwaul Caper" and a dvd of the animated stories - and she can't get enough of them! She is bringing us the books to read dozens of times a day! She especially likes the dogs licking their chops in hairy maclary's bone (she likes anything with tongues sticking out) and when Scarface Claw chases all the dogs on the dvd.. She has suddenly become really interested in books, she spends ages looking through them & 'reading' them out loud to herself, and bringing them to us to read...

dancing!

Her favourite games at the moment are peekaboo (including pinching your eyelid, opening it & saying "bee!" lol), playing with balloons, dressing up (she's working out how to dress herself at the mo), helping me with things like putting the dishes away & sweeping the floor, drawing, playing with playdoh, dancing, and pretending to have lunch! She's gotten quite good at throwing things (including in a huff!) and is getting the hang of catching a balloon too... She tries to help me with my sewing too ;-)


We've been busy in the garden recently & she has enjoyed romping around outside too, and of course getting daddy to push her around on the old scooter he found! (we've got the kids a little 3-wheeled one for xmas.. shhh!)


Her talking has really come along too... she now says-
"budda" - brother
"up" - up ;-)
"up/tup/pup" - cup (she's working on the C sound)
"why, t, free..!" - one, two, three..! (followed by a jump or throw)
"pu-y-dat" - pussycat
"mmmMMM!" - mmmoooo! lol
"yuh" - yes
"nuh" or "nononononono" - no ;-)
"ta-da" - thankyou
"birdie" - birdie
"wada" - water
"eye" - fly
"bee!" - boo!
"budun" - button (belly button)
"ohky" - okay
"ta-di" - teddy
"heyo" - hello
"ey-ya!" - seeya!
"shus" - shoes
"ba!" - bath
"bo" - boat
"ree!" - read
i think thats everything so far...? well there are plenty more, but those are the ones used regularly in context that we can understand! ;-D

overdue for an update!

Aww i'n'it cute!

She's now 14.5 months old, and has suddenly turned into a toddler!
She has just got her fifth tooth, on the top on her left side...
She waves and says "He-o", she says "ta-da" for thankyou, and "DA!" if she wants something. She is getting quite good at copying specific sounds we say too...
Today she was learning to blow kisses!

And yes, the tantrums are developing nicely...

baby you can drive my car..

Alexis has just learnt how to push herself on her ride-on! Well really her legs have only just gotten long enough for her to be able to get some traction.. She can climb onto it easily too, but the dismount leaves a little to be desired ;-)

Her first top front tooth has popped out now & the second is very close behind.. and she has started saying "muh-mi?" (which is sooo cute!) "ta!" and "ya" and nodding :-D i'm very proud!