1 Year Old

The month started out rather slow. Alexa recovered from her latest ear infection and returned to her happy self. We spent the weekend doing the usual shopping & playing. Alexa is handling the transition into whole milk with ease. I also continued the use of only sippy cups. Her school finally agreed to warm up the sippy cups for her. So the bottles are still being used to measure the breast milk to whole milk ratio but that not for drinking out of. Alexa's sippy cups are soft tops that are essentially bottles with slightly different shape tops. Hopefully over the next 6 months we can transition into harder tops and then regular cups (looking forward).

On Tuesday we drove down to Children Mercy South in Overland Park, Kansas for Alexa's ENT appointment. Alexa weighed in at 18.3lbs. They put her on the "big kid" scale. She just sat there and looked adorable. The doctor asked many questions about Alexa's medical background as well as her eating habits. They were not concerned with her hearing. Hearing loss can become an issue as a result of frequent ear infections. They did clean out her ears to give themselves a better view of the ear drum. She tolerated the procedure with out any issues. After talking with the doctor she advised me that her recommendation would be for Alexa to get tubes. I went into this appointment fully expecting that recommendation. Fortunately they were able to get us scheduled for Friday. The doctor and I also talked about Alexa's eating habits (or lack there of) in more detail. She mentioned to me that children with ear pain tend to not want to eat. She believes the tubes could bring her appetite back.

The night before surgery was just like any other night for Alexa. We had to wake up earlier than normal for the one hour drive to the hospital. Alexa's surgery was the first of the day. The pre-op room had a small baby gurney, recliner and computer. We spent 30 minutes in there. I changed Alexa into hospital scrubs and we played with the few toys I brought with me. We met with the surgeon and a member of the anesthesia team. At exactly 7:29 they took Alexa back. I walked with her down the hallway until we hit the waiting room. I gave Alexa a kiss and watched her get pushed to the OR. She was sitting up on the gurney with a nurse support her back (as they were pushing the bed). I spent the next few minutes in the bathroom warming up Alexa's sippy cup. At 7:45 the surgeon came out and said they were finished. Alexa did really well. She had a lot of fluid in or behind her ear drum that he cleaned out. About 5 minutes later they took me back to see her. She was a little confused but looked OK. She drank her entire sippy cup & we were released. Alexa did awesome the rest of the day.

Saturday evening Alexa had a low fever and was up several times through out the night. I gave her Tylenol and some TLC. Sunday she was crabby and not eating like her normal self. I was hoping it was just some minor ear pain or teething. Monday morning Alexa went to school. At 1:30pm I had to pick her up after the teacher found her to have a fever. I took her to the doctor's office on Tuesday. They could not find anything that would cause the fever. She had to stay home from school the rest of the day.

The Thursday before Labor Day was Alexa's first occupational therapist meeting to discuss her eating (or lack there of). Maureen is the occupational therapist from TinyK. She came over and watched Alexa eat her lunch. She gave me some great tips but still seemed stumped as to why Alexa refuses table food. She feels Alexa is eating at a 6-7 month old stage and could really benefit from some therapy.

Labor Day weekend we flew to Cincinnati. As always I was very nervous for the traveling portion. We got to the airport on Friday and had no issues getting through security or boarding the plane. The flight was full so we did not have an extra seat. Alexa made a friend with the retired Navy man you unfortunately had to sit next to us. She slept through most of the flight and did not seem bothered with her ears. We spent Friday evening with Grandpa, GB, Maggie & David. Alexa showed them how she says Ut Oh and then drops thing on the floor. David picked up her food cap 3 times and then caught on.

On Saturday we saw Nikki, Ray, Brandon & Lorelai. It was nice to see how big the kids were getting & for them to meet Alexa. In the afternoon Megan, Matthew, Donna, David & Brandon arrived. We all had a good time being entertained with all the babies. I think Alexa enjoyed having other kids around. Each night Alexa was exhausted. She would fall asleep instantly when I would lay her down.

Sunday was Alexa's 1st Birthday party. Alexa received a lot of really nice birthday gifts. Alexa's outfit was designed & picked out by her Daddy. She looked adorable in her tutu. She did become overwhelmed with the amount of people picking her up and had a few minor melt downs. While opening her presents she really wanted to talk to her Daddy so she would not stay focused. Aunt Megan was a HUGE help during that time. Alexa's birthday cake was made by me. I am by no means a baker but I think it turned out alright. Alexa did not want anything to do with it. This was not a surprise to me at all.

Monday morning we had an early flight home. Alexa had a lot of energy and bounced around in her seat for awhile. She feel asleep about 30 minutes into the flight and slept the rest of the way. It turned out to be a relaxing trip after all.

The next two weeks were fairly routine for us. Alexa survived being at school without getting sick. She received birthday packages from lots of family members. She still does not grasp the concept of open a gift. She seemed to like the cards more than the gifts until I put the toy together.

The weekend in between we put together Alexa's wagon. She really enjoyed being pulled around the house. On Saturday we took Ariel on a ride with us. We only made it about three houses before it starting pouring on us. I did not realize it was going to rain. I heard the rain in the trees and ran. We are very fortunate that the wagon has seat belts. I ran as fast as I could down the hill, through the Acred's yard and unloaded the babies as fast as I could. The really were not upset by the ordeal. Ariel wanted to go back out in the rain. After about 30 minutes we were able to finish our walk.

Alexa had her first school therapy session. It started out with Maureen (her therapist), Jody (Training director), the school nurse, multiple teachers & Alexa. I watched on the monitors from the hallway. It was a little traumatic for Alexa. I ended up in the room feeding Alexa. I feel like Maureen had a lot of great suggestions to help the teachers at her school. On her first day after therapy she sucked on crackers until they dissolved and ate a little bit. So progress is being made. I am not going to write much more about the details of Alexa's therapies. Maureen however is coming to the ENT appointment to rule out any physical issues.

Alexa's birthday started out with lots of tears. She woke up at 5:45 (normally I wake her at 6:30). We video chatted with Justin & then did our normal day. It was a cold low 60's day with rain in the morning. At 2pm I arrived at Alexa's school for her party. I brought funfetti cupcakes with pink frosting & silver accents in animal print paper. Alexa was excited to have me there. She ate a few bites of her snack & then it way birthday time. Justin was on speaker phone and sang as well. It was a great moment for us all. When the singing was over Alexa clapped for everyone. She ate a few licks of her cupcake. After her party I took her to work with me. She LOVED all the attention. I wish I could take her everyday. In the evening we had dinner, another cupcake celebration, bath & video chatted with Grandpa & GB.

I cannot believe my baby girl is one. On the other hand I cannot imagine my life without her. She is awesome & I am so blessed that god gave her to me. On a side note I did make a year on breast milk. VERY proud of this accomplishment. Nursing was hard, pumping was way harder.

11 Months Old

The month started out strong. With Alexa's latest sickness behind her, she made it the entire week at school. Alexa and Jerrod continued their super cute relationship. This week they made everyone smile. They sat chris cross apple sauce & leaned towards each other until their foreheads touched. They were just as entertained by this as the teachers were. Sadly, Jerrod will be transitioning in just a few weeks. Alexa's other friends are Olivia & Riley. The three girls are all within a month of age, Alexa being in the middle. They started crawling the exact same week. If they are walking at the same time then their room will be a busy one.

Alexa started climbing the stairs just days after she started walking around furniture. She went from minimal interest in moving to making it her goal each day. She walks around the tables, couches & even her toys. She will take steps between items & stands alone for a few seconds at a time. She does not have the normal fear. At times she just let goes of whatever her support is and tries to go. As a result she has many bruises to show for it. When Alexa climbs the stairs it is terrifying to me. When she is tired she will turn around and want to walk down. I have to keep a close eye on her these days. I have not put up baby gates yet for a few reasons. One reason being that I want her to learn how to use the stairs safely. She has not mastered going down them yet, but we are working on it. When she is upstairs I do not leave her side unless the door is shut.

We had another sleepover with Ariel, but this time Angelina stayed too. We all got a fresh coat of toe nail polish and I also did Angelina's fingers. This was Ariel's first pedicure and she did awesome. Angelina told her she had to sit still and she did. Both of the babies were up later than normal but eventually did get tired. In the morning we all had breakfast around Alexa's new picnic table. It was a very exhausting few hours but definitely worth it.

Alexa had her first big fall this month. She has always believed she can do more than she really can. Walking is no different for Alexa. For awhile she would stand up and just go. Unfortunately her balance does not keep up with her drive. She ended up having a huge wipe out at school. They called me immediately which they are required to do with any head injury. They gave me an update about ten minutes later and I decided to let her stay at school. When I got there they warned me how bad it was going to look. Honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. She did not have any long term effects from the bruise. However she did bump it on things for a few days which upset her off and on.

We went to the local farmers market as a field trip & shopping trip. Alexa made a lot of friends. We ended up getting lots of fruits and veggies for Alexa's meals and some honey butter & homemade bread for me. Alexa did not care for the homemade food as much as her jarred baby food. I did put some of the food I made into a jar and she did not seem to mind it. So maybe I just need to be more creative.

Last Saturday we went to the Carousel Museum here in Leavenworth. It is a hidden treasure around here. I discovered it after getting lost the previous weekend. The carousel seemed to be unusually fast. Alexa did not seem to mind but I felt a little dizzy. The carousel had baby horses for the smaller children. It was a fun experience that I am sure we will do again. We ended the weekend with a visit to the park where we watched the fisherman and then a quick trip to the pool. The baby pool is a little too deep for Alexa and she is not allowed to have her flotation device there. I put her in the infant life jacket, which she did not enjoy. So our pool trip ended up being a short one.

Alexa and I were supposed to have a four week session of parent child swim lessons. We went to the first class and really enjoyed ourselves. The next morning Alexa was not acting like her normal self. I made her a doctor’s appointment on our way to school/work for that afternoon. I thought she would make it the entire day. Not fully to my surprise her school called me at 10:30 to tell me she was sick. I picked her up and found out she had another ear infection. This is her fourth one in 8 weeks. We were given antibiotics and a referral for the ENT. Her ENT appointment is next week. We have heard great things about tubes. Hopefully the doctor is able to get her issues resolved. She will be a much happier girl if she did not get sick so much.

The next day Alexa was feeling a lot better. She returned to school and has slowly started returning to her normal self. One thing I have learned with Alexa is to hide her medicine in her milk. I put her antibiotics in her morning & bed time bottles and Tylenol in the afternoon bottle. She does not seem to notice & it allows me to avoid the struggle of having to give her medicine plain.

Alexa’s eating is still our biggest struggle. Some days she will eat the 6oz jars of baby food at each meal & still want her bottles. Other days she will refuse the solids all together. She has still not fed herself any food. At home and school she is offered finger food but she ends up throwing them on the floor. When I spoon feed her food that has chunks in it, she throws up. I was told the best way to cure this is repeat exposure. So far this has not worked. I do however add oatmeal cereal to most of her foods to thicken them up for her. She does not seem to mind this. Her favorite foods are sweet potatoes, peas & bananas.

I was not in a big rush to take Alexa off the bottle. However I was going to try to introduce the Sippy cup per the schools request. Alexa took to it like a champ. This weekend she went without the bottle completely. However she has trouble holding the Sippy cup. So I do still help her with it. I feel she is on a good track to be 100% bottle free by her first birthday. At school they are still using bottles during the day. Alexa also started whole milk at exactly 11 months. She will be having 1 ounce in each bottle with 5 ounces of breast milk. Each week we will change the ratio to add an additional ounce of whole milk. So far so good! Alexa does not seem to notice the difference & her body seems to be taking to it well. This is another thing we should have mastered by her first birthday.

I am starting to realize there are a lot of big changes happening this month. Her sleeping habits are where I consider ideal. She goes to bed between 7 & 730. I sometimes rock her, but usually just lay her down. She rolls around for a few minutes and then falls asleep. I usually wake her up around 6:30am. For some reason every weekend she wakes up at 6. Not sure why? She takes a nap at school from 1130 to 1 or 130 on the cot and then a short 10 minute nap on the way home. On the weekends she tends to take an hour nap at 9 & then again at 1. She has two very consistent schedules.

Alexa’s vocabulary includes Mama, Dada, Ut-oh, Dat (Cat) & Hi ya. Sometimes she gets creative and combines her vocab. We love when she says “Hi ya Dada” as she waves to Justin. She knows how to shake her head no and tries to sign more if I ask her if she wants milk. She knows Mickey Mouse means TV & when I go to the basement it means dinner for the cats. Instead of following me to the basement she goes to their bowls and waits for me.

This month we are going to be working on her walking, eating & transitioning from bottles to Sippy cups. She will also celebrate her birthday in Cincinnati with all of her Grandparents & most of her aunts & uncles. We are more than 7 months into our year long deployment. I am sure they last few months will go just as quickly as the first have.