15 Months and Pictures!

The months are flying by now. Here are my 15 month stats

20.5#
27.25" (when you are below the 1% you count every quarter inch)
teeth- 10 plus 2 more molars coming in
word count- 5. My new words are uh-oh and dah-Gee (doggy with a hard G sound). I also make a great bark sound.
motor skills- running everywhere and starting to jump and stomp
food- Still love it all. Current favorites are blueberries, pears, mango, strawberries, and the quinoa/spinach/pecan/avocado mixture mom and I eat every day for lunch
fav toys- dogs and buckets or purses to put all my favorite rocks in. When I can't find one, I use mom's shoes instead. Rocks fit well in them.
sleeping habits- Mom looks like a zombie because I wake up every 2-3 hours again. When will she learn and give me back my neocate

And I finally have all the pictures from the three cameras. We will start with the Qualls annual crawfish bowl that happened in May and continue to the present.

Creepy little guys. Yes, I am wearing the same 3 month outfit Ms. Traci got for me last year. The new one should be a great fit next year.

Really, I prefer dogs to crawfish

Michael's graduation that I wasn't invited to

But I got a picture and didn't have to sit in through the hot ceremony. Score!

Lots of park days now. Mom rides me up every night and dad joins when he's home

This is my ride. Appropriately called the charriot

Ready to go with mom

Dad drove me once last week. Notice the bottle rack of the bike. In case Ms. Traci showed up at the park he was ready for happy hour

Even Hayley can't turn down the opportunity to hang with me

Just in case you wondered if I could wink

don't I look fast!

mom's favorite park picture to date

The serious look

And my fav... the doggie pictures. I love Sparky

Seeing if she would invite me in

Not sure why she looks scared to see me

Maybe the boys want to play with me

These boys surely do

Or maybe I just need my blankie

So glad mom finally got her act together and got the pictures in order. I was a  little later than I had hoped with this post but hey, life happens. In California now. I hear we may get to see Alcatraz. How cool is that? My 7 year old cousin wants to see real people in the jail. Are you kidding me? I think the historic, old, empty jail sounds perfect.

Hope you are enjoying your first two real days of summer

Cheers!

alexa

Overcomplicated Photography

Mom's goal was to make photography easy and perfect so she could document the cute things I do in an orderly fashion. The real time results, however, have not quite materialized the way she had hoped. This has now led to the problem of how to manage 3 cameras, 3 computers, and 2 cloud storage servers. And the final result of this mess...I can't blog because there are pictures everywhere! Feels better to get that off my chest.  I will now work with what I  have to create this post which is mostly camera phone because they automatically upload. And I have given mom a deadline of June 11 to get her act together and fix this mess. I can't work under these conditions and put out a quality product. 

random easter pic I found

This summer is starting out great. It has been full of weekend trips, lots of family and friends visiting, pool time, and great weather.  I had heard that early summer was the best time of the year and its true. 

Michael graduated on May 14. We have a great photo of it on another camera...go figure. The generic cake shot doesn't have quite the same effect. 

We had family and friends over to celebrate graduation and see Hayley's dance recital. There were 15 people sleeping at our house. No pics of that one but not a hard mental image to compose. 

Other things I have been up to so far include jeeping to the top of the bookcliff mountains

No one trusted me out of my carseat so you have to look hard to find me

amazing view and that tiny line below is I-70

I got to go to my second crawfish boil at Miss Traci's house. Pics to follow in next post- I promise

I have been very busy taking care of bitty baby. Here is her bottle

Putting her in the stroller

Off we go

A few of our neighbors have pools so that is where we spend most hot days

dive practice in case anyone drops goggles

For anyone wondering if Im losing any of my baby fat...ummm, no

You may be wondering why there are no cute close up pictures this time. I mentioned earlier these were the camera phone shots and that camera cannot keep up with me. I am fast and shifts any time my feet are on the ground. Just as soon as I hear the autofocus of any camera set, I run in a different direction- usually laughing. Think Top Gun when the fighter jets try to avoid missile lock from enemy planes in the sky chase. So it now takes a real camera and a photographer ready for action. 

At my last appointment, my metabolic/neurodevelopmental doctor was concerned that I was unusually hyperactive because I did not stop moving/running/jumping the entire time. Although he sees kids 0-3 years old all day long, mom thought he was crazy. Being true American parents, mom and dad like to consider me energetic and free spirited vs out of control.  In the past 3 weeks they have been around multiple kids my age and Dr. E may be on to something. But can you imagine how chubby I would be if I ever sat down??? 

cheers!

alexa

  

14 months

I am finally home from the latest rounds of trips and dr. appointments. And while I was in Indiana, I passed the 14 month mark.  Here is this months summary

• Weight- 19.8#
• Height- 27.0"
• Word Count- 2. I say "ok" and "hi". Nothing that even resembles mom or dad so the contest continues
• New skills- running fast and waving
• favorite food- Everything (even brussel sprouts) except papaya and salmon
• sleeping- The past 3 weeks I have gone from up every 2 hours to every 3-4 hours. Mom says this is a huge improvement and she feels well rested.

While I was in Indiana I got to see my friends Walker, Chase, and Sophia. Walker lives in the house that my siblings grew up in. How cool is that?

It was wet outside (imagine that) and my shoes are designed for non-walkers so I had to ditch the shoes and tights. Thankfully Sophia and I both wear 3-6 mo. so I could borrow a pair of her pants which matched my dress perfectly

wearing my party dress for cinco de mayo

perfect carry-on size

first ring pop- YUM

We made it back home without any travel issues which is such a treat and a rare exception. But makes us appreciate it that much more! 36 hours later we were in the RV headed to Mesa Verde for dad's bike race. Great weather and nice to be camping again.

Here he is finishing the race

Gotta have a camp fire to 

And we are now back at home for a while and enjoying the great weather. I think the cold is finally gone for good. Not a moment too soon. 

Playing at the park with Brandon

Michael graduated high school last night. Somehow mom and dad knew I would not want to sit still in the bleachers so I got to go to a little league game with the Johnson family instead. 

Enjoy the beautiful weather

Cheers

alexa

When life gives you lemons

Eat 'em

At lunch today I had hummus, strawberries, watermelon, grapes, and cantelope. But by far my favorite was the lemon. 

We made it to Indianapolis late last night.  As we landed in Houston for our connection, the pilot told us we were being moved due to a "security breach" in our arrival terminal. I learned that is the politically correct way to say some crazy guy with an AR-15 assault rifle fired shots in the lobby before he was shot to death. After they reopened the terminal 3 hours later and we were walking to our gate I was able to see his truck with yellow police tape around it. Felt like I was a CSI detective. I asked if they wanted my help but they said they had it under control

Mom's adventures in travel delays never disappoint. Too bad she is dragging me down with her.

Have a good weekend

alexa

Spring- Finally

It's here. It's finally here. And hopefully for good this time. I was going to take a picture of the 6 or so inches of snow we had last week but honestly, it was just too depressing and I want to pretend it never happened. So let's talk about happy things. Like sidewalk chalk! With pretty Easter colors it should be the symbol of kids in spring. I love using the living room rocks to draw on the slate and I use the rocks outside to draw on the big boulders. So chalk should be even better, right? Wrong. Its good for eating, throwing, and even putting in the rim of the Suburban wheels but I had no interest in using it as a drawing tool.

tastes delicious

and the perfect size for throwing

And the big news of the week is that I finally say a recognizable word in context. My first word is "OOOO- TAY"who knows why I picked this one as the milestone maker but it takes the bragging rights away from mom and dad for the moment. Mom has been trying to get these impressive verbal skills on video but her timing seems to be off. She did get video of me kissing my stuffed toy with the fake kiss sound. Excuse the bedhead. I had just gotten up. 

I have been very busy playing in boxes. 

Boxes turned into cars...

Cody even drew me a windshield bc it was raining that day

Boxes that act as drawers when I'm not in them

another great hair pic

and boxes that hold cookware

Would have been really funny if I closed the door and Diane couldn't find me

This weekend we were in Denver for Hayley's dance competition and Brandon's tennis tournament. Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Steve met us out there so they got to watch me spend the American Girl giftcard they got me. I love that store.

Then we made it over to Build a Bear to use Aunt Angie's gift card

mom lined them up so I could choose which one I wanted

I picked the dog, of course

helping stuff the dog

Perfect

 Quick trip to Dave and Busters

 Drew won a giant bear for me at "the claw"

and back to a spring day in GJ

We leave Thursday for Indianapolis. Can't wait to see my friends. I have some follow up doctor appointments as well. And we will have time to make my first trip to the best children's museum ever. 

Cheers!

alexa