ALEXA!!!

Time to get back to celebrating the good in life. Alexa has hit a lot of big girl milestones since turning two. The biggest is certainly potty training. I will admit I felt a lot of pressure to have her potty trained by two. However it never became a priority, so we did not give it a good try. After turning two I felt like it was time. We experimented a bit for a week. This included taking her to the potty regularly but still putting her in diapers at school. After a week of the potty introduction we jumped right in. We went to 100% undies when she is awake and never looked back. It took 4 days of home training and a few days at school to get the hang of it. A month later she still has the occasional accident, but overall we are thrilled. I do not miss changing diapers on a 2 year old. Alexa takes great pride in using the potty and seems to enjoy the independence of her personal potty as well.

Alexa has also started singing her ABC's. She has struggled over the last 4-5 months with her verbal skills. Alexa said her first words at 7 months and was way ahead of the charts at a year. For some reason that changed over the last few months. She has been very self conscious about saying things and even frustrated when she does not have the right words to use. I have been working hard at teaching her new words and practicing them with her. I am hoping it is helping. Besides her ABC's she is also now singing, Bringing Home My Baby Bumble Bee, Ba Ba Black Sheep, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

I believe Justin's proudest accomplishment of Alexa is her learning her alphabet. We have been reading B is for Bear for many months straight. She now recognized just about all of her letter, even when they are not in order. I LOVE watching her read different licence plates to us. So far she only recognized capital letters and a few lower case ones.

Alexa's third Halloween was also a success. She had a great time dressing up as Minnie Mouse and eating LOTS of candy. Alexa and I did about an hour of trick or treating. When we got back Justin too her around too. She did not say Trick or Treat but she did say please & thank you.

That's about it on Alexa. No new update on Baby#2. We are still waiting to catch our rainbow. I am doing my best to move forward and focus on the child we do have. It is very difficult to have sooo many pregnant friends. For me I have found the best solution is keeping a little distance from them. Emotionally it is healthier for me & my happiest has certainly increased. Although I really do miss all of these friendships I know there is a time and purpose for everything.