On the move

Alexis started crawling at the beginning of May and is all over the place now! She's just recently (in the last few days) started venturing off of the carpet. When she first started crawling she wasn't so sure of the wood floors, but now if one of the dogs leaves the room she'll start to follow them until she decides they've gone too far.
She's also becoming more independent. Back at the end of April she started being really clingy and not wanting me to leave the room, ever! Now that she's more mobile I think she doesn't mind me leaving for a few seconds to go get something because she can follow me if she wants to, or she can find some trouble to get in ;)
She still doesn't have any teeth, but she's moving forward with big girl food just gumming it. She now eats table food at most meals (in addition to her formula). For breakfast she usually has a fruit or a waffle with some jelly (she's a fan of the jelly). For lunch she usually has a sandwich (grilled cheese, or some sort of veggie) and dinner a lot of times she just has little pieces of whatever we're having.
She's definitely growing up way too fast... I guess that doesn't stop. She's working on pulling herself all the way up. She's been able to pull herself up to her knees for about 2 months now. I think she's just lazy... she's so tall that she can reach most things just by getting on her knees :) So she stops there instead of working to get taller.

My pregnancy is going well. There are days that I don't even remember I'm pregnant... aside from the big belly. We've decided on a name- Kaitlyn. The middle name is still undecided. I like Grace or Charlotte... Andrew's not a huge fan of either of those, he likes Elizabeth (which is my middle name). I actually like it a lot too, but then her initials would be KEG and I just don't think I can do that.

If you're not friends with me on facebook, you should find me... I post pictures there on a pretty regular basis (at least monthly, but usually more often!)

Here's a couple from this month-

new videos and 9 month stats

Alexis hasn't stopped growing... she's still a big girl!

She had her 9 month check up on Monday, it was my favorite so far- no shots! They just measured her and answered any of my questions.

height- 31 1/4"
weight- 23 1/2 lbs

she's the size of the average 18 month old now :)




Here are a couple videos. The first one we went to the park and she "rode" the slide. She really liked it and did it several times, the last time she rode, we got it on video and she claps at the end!

The second video is her learning how to crawl, she finally figured out how to go forward, and is getting better and better!

March of Dimes- March for Babies

Hey guys, just passing this along for my friend Tina. She's raising money to walk this May. She's raising money in memory of her baby boy, Kevin. He was born in August of last year and died a little less than a month later (9-14-08) after putting up a hell of a fight. He was born with several health problems and God took him home early.

Tina is raising money so that some day soon all babies can live to see their first birthdays.

Please donate if you can, it's a great organization to support!


http://www.marchforbabies.org/tinapenny

Alexis's 6 month check up

Alexis is a big girl!

weight- 18 lbs 7 oz. (90-97th percentile)
length- 28 3/4" (above the 97th percentile)
head- forget the exact measurement, but it was above the 97th percentile

The dr. said she was as tall as the average 12 month old! She also said that Alexis was perfect, besides not wanting to support herself standing up. So I have to work with her on that. But she said that she wasn't worried because she's perfect besides that.
I asked how often she should be eating and the dr. said not to worry too much about that until 9 months. So I'm sticking with 1 meal a day for a little while She said formula was still the main source of nutrition until 9 months, so that's good!
I was also told that we needed to switch out our carseat... Alexis is getting so big!

Other updates- Alexis had a lot of fun on the cruise, she played on the beach and got lots of attention from everybody on the ship. She can almost sit up by herself now and is rolling all the time both ways. She LOVES the dogs and cats... it's funny to watch her interact with them.
Her next doctor's appointment is in April (9 month check up) and she doesn't have to get any shots then! woohoo! Her next set of shots isn't until her 12 month check up :)

The year in review...

I'm sitting watching tv... the ball will be dropping in 40 minutes! I thought I'd give everyone a recap of this year. It's been a great year!

January-
I turned 23 and had my first doctor's appointment. We got to see the little bean and everything started to become real!

February-
Happy Valentine's Day! My last day of work at Walgreens... yay! Went back to American Eagle part time

March-
I started this blog. We had the BIG ultrasound and found out we were having a girl! I started working on our great nursery and we got a fence in our backyard for our puppies :)

April-
I was nesting bad! Cleaned out the garage and completely rearranged so my big belly would fit in the car. Did my glucose test (yuck!). Started my birthing classes. Finished painting the nursery.

May-
Went to Gatlinburg on our babymoon. Finally finished our wedding scrapbook. Traveled down to Florida for my family reunion. It was my first Mother's Day... kinda, I think 2009 will be even better ;)

June-
I had my baby shower. Finished decorating the nursery. It's getting close to d-day! We aquired a new kitten, Butters!

July-
Alexis is here! July 24th 7:05pm 21" 8lbs 7oz. We love her so much! Unfortunately she had to go back to the hospital for jaundice, but she was home in time for August and Andrew's birthday. Andrew took 2 weeks off work, it was great to have him home.

August-
Alexis is one month old. Andrew goes back to work. The animals are adjusting well I think.

September-
Andrew went to play airsoft with some of his friends and I had a girl's weekend with Alexis and my best friend Sarah. It was Alexis's first roadtrip. Alexis started rolling over, holding her head up and smiling! She changes so quickly.

October-
Lots of fall fun and Halloween activities. Alexis is a princess for Halloween. We found a great church. We saw Wicked, leaving Alexis with her grandparents for the first time.

November-
Alexis voted in the election (or at least she helped mommy), we went to Mississippi to visit Andrew's family. Alexis and I went down to FL. for my family's Thanksgiving. Alexis started laughing a lot! Alexis also got RSV and we had to put her on a nebulizer :(

December-
Alexis is 5 months old and had her first Christmas! She had a great time and too many presents. We started Alexis on solids and she loves apple sauce and bananas!
Tonight Alexis is staying awake to ring in the new year with us! Only 15 more minutes :)

Merry Christmas!

and happy 5 months to Alexis! I can't believe Alexis is 5 months old already! CRAZY!!! Tonight we're celebrating Christmas with Andrew's side of the family. We're going out to eat with them to Ted's Montana Grill (yum!) and then going back to their house to open presents.
Tomorrow morning we're just doing our little family. I'm excited about that... I think it's nice now that we're a family to stay at home on Christmas morning.
Unfortunately, Andrew has to work tomorrow night, but he at least gets to be here for Alexis's first Christmas morning :)

Then on Saturday we're celebrating with my side of the family. My sister and her little girls are coming up and staying with my parents for almost a week. I'm going down there Saturday morning and then Andrew is meeting me there when he gets off work.

Alexis is a lucky girl... she gets 3 Christmases! We'll take lots of pictures and I'll probably post them on facebook sometime soon :)

prayer request

A friend of mine that I know through mymommytime.com posted this blog and asked her blog readers to pray... http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/ I thought the least I could do was to do the same.
This family needs your prayers. I can't imagine what they are going through right now. Please keep Kayleigh and her parents in your prayers.