Week 70

Week 70 Updates:

1. Alex loves sitting in little chairs, on the stairs and especially on the coffee table. She will try sitting in her own chair for Church, but that doesn't last long. I guess that we are going to need to get Alex sized chairs here pretty soon.

2. She is learning how to fold her arms when we are praying. Its super cute because she looks at us like she is not sure why she is folding her arms but she knows that she is supposed to. Such a funny girl :)

3. Alex is getting a little bit better about sharing but not much. She will take a toy away from another baby and then a little later, she will give them another one. She will also go and give them a drink of water (usually from someone else's bottle).

4. She loves to color and is starting to get a hang of it. She has colored our walls, doors, and windows. Thankfully she is only using crayons so, its been easy to get out.

5. She knows how to take off her bibs :(

6. Alex is getting so cleaver! I forget that she is not a baby anymore.

Week 69

Week 69 Updates:

1. Alex loves walking around with cloth (towels, blankets, scarves, or sweatshirts) around her neck and shoulders. It cracks me up :).

2. We got to celebrate Mommy and Grandpa Prusso's birthdays this week. It was fun having so much cake and ice cream around. 

3. Alex tried shrimp and guacamole this week and she really seemed to like the guacamole but wasn't quite sure about the shrimp. She does not really care for olives (at least at this point). She dumped out all of the olives we had her try.

4. She loves sitting in little chairs and pushing them around the room. Its probably nice for her to sit in something that she fits in. She also likes sitting in her infant car seat (which we keep around in case Alex and I are getting a ride somewhere). Alex happily sits there and either reads to herself or plays with some mixing bowls. 

5. Alex is starting to attempt to climb up our couches and onto chairs. She hasn't quite been able to get up them yet, but not for a lack of trying. She still loves climbing on top of our headboard and just hanging out.

Week 68

Alex and Cousin Lucy with Grandpa Prusso

Alex and the Pumpkins on Halloween

Week 68 Updates:

1. Alex got to celebrate her 2nd Halloween! This year she dressed up as a skeleton and I think that she had fun. We went to two Trunk-or-Treats and by the second one, Alex was understanding the concept of Trick-or-Treating. She would grab a piece of candy from the bowl and put it in her bag. It was super cute and she scored some good candy...for Alex of course :). On Halloween we had a play date where the kids dressed up in their costumes and they were so cute! We also made a little hand bat craft. Since Chris and I were such slackers this year, we carved our pumpkins on Halloween night. I think that they turned out pretty good. Chris did Lightning McQueen from Cars, I did Rapunzel from Tangled, and Alex had a traditional scary pumpkin. Even though we didn't do much, Halloween was still pretty fun.

2. This weekend we got to see cousin Lucy who was in town for a visit. It was fun to get the girls together and see how much they have grown. They are both getting so big! Grandpa Prusso looks pretty happy to be holding two such beautiful girls :).

3. Alex's 5th tooth is finally starting to cut through (we have been able to see it starting for about a month or so). 

Week 67

Alex getting ready for the ward Trunk or Treat in her Skeleton costume

Alex and Zombie Mommy at the Night of the Running Dead 5k

Climber Alex 

Week 67 Updates:

1. Alex is getting so good at walking! I can't believe how fast she picked it up once she decided that it was a fun thing to do. She almost never crawls anymore and when she falls, she doesn't seem to mind. 

2. She cheered Mommy on at the Nights of the Running Dead race. Alex almost stayed awake to see Mommy cross the finish line, but it was late.

3. Alex has now figured out that climbing is fun. She loves to take my CD case (under the coffee table), bring it to the ground, and then use it to climb up ontop of the coffee table. How did she learn that? What a cleaver girl! She also loves climbing up on the back of Mommy and Daddy's bed. There are all sorts of cool things up there.

4. She had her 15 month appointment this week and she was such a champ! Her stats are:

Weight: 24lbs (65th percentile)

Height: 31in (85th percentile)

The doctor said that she is looking good and that it's alright that she didn't gain as much weight as she has in the past (Alex gained only 1/2 a pound since our last check up). Since Alex is more active now and she may go through some picky stages, she may not gain as much weight which is normal. The doctor gave us a choice of when to see her next (either at 18 months or 2 years) and we chose to make our next appointment for 18 months just in case we have any questions by then. 

4. We went to our ward Trunk or Treat last night. Alex actually got to walk around this year which was fun although she was nearly run over several times by the bigger kids who were REALLY excited for candy. Alex didn't really understand what was going on or why people were giving her candy, but she enjoyed walking around and showing off her new tricks to her friends.

Week 66

Week 66 Updates:

1. Alex took her first solo steps last night. We were totally taken by surprise when she started walking towards Chris. She is not really walking much yet, but it was still a lot of fun to see her walk a couple of steps all by herself. Hopefully she'll start enjoying walking more than she likes to crawl soon.

2. We went on a witch scavenger hunt with our playgroup on Tuesday which was really fun even though Alex did not want to be in her stroller any more. I think that she got a little sick of it from Disneyland.

3. Her tooth has still not come in. Grrr. It seems that her top teeth like to come in really, really, really, slowly and just hang out at the gum line as long as possible. I feel super bad for Alex and wish that they would just come already!

4. Her sleeping is starting to improve (she hasn't been sleeping well since we got back from California) but it looks like she might start getting back into her rhythm.

Week 65

Beach Baby

Playing in the sand

Disneyland!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Miller with E and Alex at Disneyland

On the Carousal 

Cousins :)

Alex's First Mickey Hat

  Week 65 Updates:

1. This week has seen a lot of firsts for Alex. One first was that we were able to visit the beach in California with Uncle A, Aunt L, Cousin E and Grandma and Grandpa Miller. Alex LOVED it! She loved playing in the water with Daddy,  playing in the sand, and looking at the seagulls. She was so sad when we had to leave. 

2. Disneyland!! Alex had her first trip to Disneyland this week and she did so well. She really seemed to enjoy the whole experience and I was really impressed at how well she did on rides. She would sit perfectly still while on the rides and she was soaking up the lights and sounds of the park. She especially liked walking around the park with the help of Daddy and she would get upset when we stopped. We were so happy to go and play at Disneyland with so many family members. 

3. Visiting Uncle A's, Aunt L's and Cousin E's house. We stayed with A,E, and L's house for a day when we first got to California and we had such a blast. The girls did pretty well playing together (for 14.5&15 month olds). They were so excited to be together, they didn't even take a nap on Friday. Alex and E got to join their Mommy's for a run on Saturday morning and E loved it while Alex wasn't quite too sure and started crying on the way home. We really enjoyed playing in the backyard and visiting with the family! We can't wait for Thanksgiving to see family again!

4. Alex is getting really close to walking and she was lucky enough to get a baby walker this weekend from Aunt L. She loves taking it around the house, especially since it plays music. Maybe Alex will be walking solo before November... maybe.

Week 64

Week 64 Updates:

1. Alex has had a couple of rough days since she is teething (boo). Hopefully the tooth will cut through soon, for all of our sake :)

2. Tonight, we will be driving to California (again) to go to DISNEYLAND!! Alex doesn't quite know what is going on but i'm sure that once we arrive and get to see family, she will be super excited. I think that it is going to be a really fun weekend.

3. Alex is taking some little steps, mainly if I am nearby and she is already standing while holding onto something. She will take two little steps and rush towards me. I'm really hoping that this means that she will be walking on her own soon. 

4. She does this cute thing every once in a while, especially when Chris is around, where she will pretend to put lotion on while we are changing her. She will pat the lotion bottle and then pat her stomach. So cute!

Week 63

Week 63 Updates:

Sorry this is so late! This week has just gotten away from me and before I realized it, I was two days late on Alex's post. Sorry!!

1. Alex is really enjoying pushing our chairs around on the hardwood floor which I've dubbed Alex's Indie 500. She could do it forever! I'm just the one who gets tired of it (since I usually have to help her).

2. She is able to stand for a little bit longer when she doesn't really realize what she's doing. It's really cute and it totally takes me by surprise every time. I'm hoping that this means that she is getting ready to walk and stand on her own. 

3. Poor Alex hasn't been feeling well this weekend :(. I think that she's had a minor fever. She could hardly sleep last night (and subsequently neither did we) but luckily, she is feeling much better and cooler this morning. This is really the first time that she's been pretty sick and we weren't quite sure what to do. 

4. We got to celebrate Uncle Brett's Birthday last night and say hi to cousin Lucy!

Week 61

Week 61 Updates:

1. Alex is getting really good at climbing down the stairs, off the couch, and off our bed. She is becoming a stair pro and can climb up and down the stairs while holding onto objects. She hasn't even had a stair accident for a while.

2. We went to the Zoo on Saturday for Chris' company party and we had a blast. Alex was able to notice the animals more this time and she seemed to really enjoy watching the seals swim around in their tank. She also really liked the carousal.

3. She keeps trying to open the doors. I think that she is looking for her Daddy while he is at work but I guess we'll never know. Its pretty cute though.

4. Alex tries to get into EVERYTHING. She had quite a bit of fun yesterday undoing and playing in a whole roll of toilet paper. She had a lot of fun.

Week 60

Alex and Grandpa Prusso 

Miller Family

One Cool Baby

What is on my feet??

Alex Checking Out Emily's Bouquet 

Week 60 Updates:

1. Alex has had a travel intensive week. We drove out to California Thursday night last week to attend a wedding of my friend Emily. Alex did fairly well on the way out even though she did get carsick in the Sierra Nevada's. The wedding was a lot of fun and Alex was pretty good. She tried a lot of new food (there was a traditional Chinese dinner with 8 courses since the groom is Chinese) such as scallops (which she LOVED), duck, and other fun food. She also tried some of Daddy's Sparkling Cider and wasn't quite sure about it. She liked looking at Emily's beautiful bouquet and she even got to dance with the bride.What a lucky girl! It was a really fun (but long) day and we were really glad that we were able to go. Alex did pretty well on the drive home and she didn't get sick which was a huge bonus.

2. Alex has learned how to get down from our bed, our couches, and how to go down the stairs by herself. I am so relieved but we still need to watch her because she has had two little accidents on the stairs.

3. She does this funny thing where when she get's excited, she will bounce up and down while she is on her knees. It looks rather painful to me, but she is usually laughing quite a bit (which is super cute).

4. When she talks, she likes to make a lot of big gestures with her hands as if to emphasize her point. I just wish that she could understand what she was saying, it always looks very important.

Week 59

Week 59 Updates:

1. Alex was such a trooper when we went camping this past weekend. I was nervous about the trip since she (and consequently we) did not sleep well on our last camping trip and this one was several days longer. She did so well! We brought a pack and play with us this time and it made all of the difference. She still got up a couple of times at night (especially during a huge thunder and lightning storm that we had) but overall, she slept pretty well. We also tried to devise things for her to do so that she was not just crawling in the dirt. We brought her pool, put blankets in it, as well as her toys and it was a place where she could crawl around and play without getting too dirty (she liked to lean out of it and grab the dirt and the leaves). My Dad also came up with a brilliant idea to set up a bouncer using a tree branch so that she could bounce, walk,etc. She LOVED it! It would entertain her for hours and it was really funny to watch her have so much fun. Great idea Dad! We also had some kids camping with us and they absolutely loved Alex and tried to play with her as much as possible which was both fun for Alex and for me. Overall, Alex did fantastic on our trip and I was really impressed. 

2. Alex has learned how to get off our bed safely which makes me feel so much better about letting her play on the bed.

3. On Tuesday, we got to go to Uncle Brett and Aunt Lindy's Wedding! Alex's first Wedding and a small trial run for this weekend. Congratulations to Brett and Lindy Prusso!!!

4. We are going on a trip to Northern California this weekend for my friend's wedding and we will be driving...with Alex...for 12+ hours. This could be an interesting trip.

Week 58

Look at that curly hair! So dang cute.

Week 58 Updates:

1. I had to post a picture of the back of Alex's head this week so that everyone can see that her hair is going curly at the back. So cute! I love it and I hope that it all goes curly.

2. Uncle Thomas is in town and at first Alex would start crying every time she looked at him but she has gotten used to him and they play quite happily together. 

3. She is doing this odd thing where she will lay down on her back and push herself around the room with her legs. While doing this, she runs into walls, doors, and just about everything. I think that its super funny to watch and she must enjoy it since she does it quite often.

4. We are doing a three day camping trip this upcoming weekend and it will be interesting to see how she does and especially how she sleeps. Hopefully it will go better than her last camping trip...

5. She is a screamer! She screams when she's upset and when she's happy. It can get kind of confusing sometimes and my poor eardrums are not enjoying this particular phase..it is a phase, right?

Week 57

Camping Expert :)

Alex and Daddy Camping

Playing with the bowls

Week 57 Updates:

1. We went camping over the weekend with our ward. We hadn't taken Alex camping since she was 6 weeks old and we knew that it was going to be interesting. Alex loved it! She had fun looking around, chewing on sticks, and flinging her toys into the dirt. She also had fun crawling around everywhere and tried to crawl into the fire pit a couple of times. We brought her pool so that she could be somewhat contained, and she didn't seem to mind it too bad. Night time was difficult though. She did not want to sleep and she kept crawling over Chris and I all night. She had a blast, but Mommy and Daddy wanted a bit more sleep than they got. Oh well, we now know what not to do for our next camping trip.

2. Alex has learned how to climb on our bed all by herself. Since we have a lower bed, to her, it seems like she is climbing up a giant step. She loves trying to get at Gir and climbing to our headboard to check out the cool things that Mommy and Daddy have. This child has no fear. She will sit right at the edge of the bed and play with no worries that she'll fall off or anything. She just bounces on the bed and has a blast.

3. Her fourth tooth has finally broken through!! This tooth has been so stubborn. Its been coming for over a month but it had just been hanging out right at the tip of the gums. I feel so bad for Alex! It didn't seem to bother her that much, but the times it did, there was not much that we could do to help her. 

4. She loves taking out my cooking bowls, measuring cups, etc and either playing with them or putting them back and taking them down back and forth for a long time! I think its funny when she puts the item she's taken back but then changes her mind and grabs it again. Silly girl.

5. She loves to horde items. She'll take her toys and put it in one location and then move everything to another. Once, after she made a mess in our bathroom, she actually helped me put the cough drops back into the bag all by herself. I only had to hold the bag open and she would put them back. She didn't try to stick other objects into the bag, just cough drops. What a cleaver girl!

Week 56

Week 56 Updates:

1.  Alex is getting better at climbing down the stairs but she still needs a lot of help and supervision. 

2. Daddy got to watch Alex for most of the day last Friday while I attended a wedding out of town. Both did very well and the house was still mostly intact when I got home. I'm glad that Alex and Daddy were able to have some fun bonding time!

3. Alex is getting much better with other children and does not poke them as often in the eye, mouth, etc. She even was gentle with a younger baby. I was so proud of her! 

4. She loves looking out our windows now that she can stand and she'll let me know what's going on. I have two watch dogs now :)

Week 55

Week 55 Updates:

1. Alex is the stair Master! She gone all the way up the stairs without any help (although a LOT of supervision). She is still having trouble getting back down but, we're working on it.

2. We are off bottles! Our doctor recommended that we get Alex off her bottle before she's 15 month or else it will be really difficult so, I decided that she needed to quite cold turkey. I started giving her milk in her favorite sippy cup and I cleaned the bottles and put them away.  She doesn't seem to notice that they're gone which is nice and the sippy cup doesn't drip as much as the bottle did (when we had milk in it. It was fine with formula). The only difference that I have been able to notice is that she takes a lot longer to finish her milk than she did in her bottle, but that may also be because the milk is colder than formula. Overall, I think that it was pretty easy transition. 

3. Alex is getting pretty good with walking while holding onto furniture and she has even tried to stand without any support but, that usually ends quickly. 

4. Gir is getting more used to mobile Alex and instead of getting instantly upset with her, he will either let her pet him for a minute or will just walk away. I am so relieved that he is getting more used to her! 

Week 54

Week 54 Updates:

1. Alex has learned how to crawl up the stairs! Yesterday evening, Alex was playing while I read my book and when I looked up, I saw that she was climbing the stairs trying to get Gir's water bowl (we had to put it there when she started crawling). I was shocked! She had never really tried to go up the stairs before and there she was, about 3 steps up. I stood at the bottom of the stairs in case she lost her balance but she had no problems. I was impressed although its one more thing to worry about. Plus, we're going to have to find another place for Gir's bowl.

2. Alex had her 12 month check up with the doctor and her stats are:

Height: 31in

Weight: 23.6lbs

She is in the 80th and 90th percentiles for her weight and height. She also got three shots which was no fun, but after a while, they didn't seem to bother her.

3. She is getting so tall that we keep having to move things higher. I'm not sure how much higher we can go.

Alex Turned 1!! Her Birthday and Birthday Party

Birthday:

Alex has sure had a busy week. First on Friday the 20th, she had her 1 year old photo shoot with the amazing Hannah Galli. Then on Saturday July 21st, my little baby turned 1!!! We had a pancake breakfast with Grandpa Prusso and Grandma Miller and then the birthday girl opened some presents (aided by her Mother). Once they were all opened, Alex got dressed in one of her new outfits and we had a relaxing morning while she had fun playing with her new toys. It was nice to be able to catch up with Grandma Miller who happened to be in town! After Alex's nap, we headed off to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. We hadn't taken Alex there before so, we thought that it would be a nice birthday activity. It was pretty hot, and Alex wasn't quite sure what to make of everything at first but, towards the end of the trip, she seemed to understand that we were here to see the animals and she started looking at them. When we got back home, we had dinner and cupcakes. Alex wasn't too sure about her cupcake until she tasted the frosting and then she dug right in. After she got all cleaned up, we opened presents from Grandma Prusso and we just talked and played with Alex for the rest of the evening. I think that it was a fun day and hopefully the birthday girl agreed.

Grandpa Prusso and the Birthday Girl

Daddy and Alex at the Zoo

Her hand is a little bit smaller than a Rhino's hand :)

Alex and Grandma Miller looking for the Polar Bear

Playing in the misters with Daddy

Alex is trying to figure out what we're doing here

Mmmm...Frositng

Alex's Birthday Party:

I wanted to do a pretty low-key birthday party for Alex so, Brittnee, Chris's cousin, made a beautiful cake for the birthday girl and we had more family over to celebrate. We opened more presents (what a lucky girl), ate cupcakes, talked, and watched all of the cute kids play. Alex really liked playing with the big girls Gracie and Chloe. I was really impressed that she stayed entertained and happy for the whole evening. Thank you everyone that was able to come and make this night so special for little Alex.

Brittnee's Masterpiece

Mmmm...cakes and cheese puffs

Having fun with the big girls