Alexia is 21 Months 02.22.10

I can hardly picture Alexia as a baby anymore. When I look at newborn pictures, it's almost impossible for me to believe she was that little! (And she was little, weighing in at 6 pounds and 1 ounce.) It's so hard to remember back to those days because she has so much personality now, and is running all over the place with her own agenda. Here are the few photos BEFORE I was able to get her to sit still. She loves to draw and color:

Looking oh so studious. But really, she is purposely trying to ignore me:

More often than not, she puts her finger in her mouth for photo opps. Look for it in other pictures, you'll start to notice the trend:

Taking Alexia's picture is becoming quite the challenge. As soon as she sees the camera, she starts pointing and whining at the camera because she wants to look at the pictures. I need to brush up on my paparazzi skills.

Some of the things I see on a daily basis are:

Bedtime Routines:

• she loves books with flaps. She'll actually cry if I try to read a book without flaps. Her two favorites are from Grandma, The Old/New Testament Learning Books (she's so spiritual, I know)
• she will get upset if I don't let her kiss Naiya before I put them to sleep
• she still likes to go over facial features right before I put her in her crib, she recently learned where her heart is
• obsessed with her "bankie" (blanket), it goes with us in the car, and one end of the blanket has a know in it (came like that) and she searches for it and says, "knot?", and when she finds it, instead of using words, she makes a noise that mimics how I say, "here it is!", she sucks her right thumb and rubs the palm of her left hand back and forth over the knot

Playtime:

• now enjoys going straight for the toy basket and dumping out all of the toys at once
• loves playing in puddles
• loves to watch and help us in the kitchen. She'll even haul the step stool in for herself
• likes throwing and kicking soccer balls out back
• when we tell her "we're going to go", she sprints to her room and brings back her coat, and sometimes her shoes and socks

Language (these are all the words she has come up with Alexia-style):

• "mo-mo": another (if she sees a duplicate of something)
• "peeeeee-ease": please (the elongated "e" for "sugar on top" emphasis, I'm sure)
• "bo!": bless you
• "bo": says this whenever she hurts herself or falls (or sees someone else do the same)
• pronounces her f's with a p (true filipino style); so "frog" is "pog"; she even copied Grandma who was trying to get her to pronounce fish with an f, by saying, "fffffffffffffff-pish"
• words that are off limits for us to say to her unless we are ready to follow through at that moment (a.k.a. meltdown triggers): bath, walk, go, cookie, cracker, juice
• "yah-yah": she finally says her own name!
• "tockle": sock

Personality:

• pretty standoff-ish with new people or a crowd
• very skittish, gets scared easily by loud noises, still pretty cautious
• won't let either of us go down the stairs without her, she holds her arms out and runs in place pleading, "Me! Me!"
• cries really easily (Ryan commented the other day that he believes God is going to use Alexia to teach him patience and teach me how silly I look when I'm immature- I might agree with him that she is a taste of my own medicine)

I really look forward to seeing her grow even more into her own. She has an amazing belly laugh, and it's pretty easy to get it out of her.