We had a great day on Saturday with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Mark. The shopping trip was fun. Alexa did very well - only had a couple meltdowns when we tried to take her out of a shop when she wasn't done playing with the jewelry.

Uncle Mark was ready with the M&M's when we arrived so he was a big hit.

Aunt Sandy and Alexa did stroller races while mama tried on some clothes.

Alexa was so exhausted at the end of the day she slept almost the entire way home.

Now I am preparing for Thanksgiving weekend. Friday is the annual Christmas Cookie Bake-a-Thon. I have three kinds of dough stirred up and my cookie sheets are packed. I am ready.

The weather was perfect this afternoon. After Alexa woke up from her nap we headed outside and raked some leaves. Alexa even helped after she emptied the first bag of leaves I had filled! Just click on the arrow to see the video. (So are you impressed I was able to include video in this blog?) Alexa had fun stomping around in the crunchy leaves.

On Saturday we are heading up to Minnesota to do some Christmas shopping with Aunt Sandy. I am really looking forward to it. Alexa is going to love spending some time with her aunt and meeting Uncle Mark.

Sunday Alexa is going to a birthday party - the first she has been invited to. I have a feeling she is going to have a busier social schedule than her mom!

I am getting behind in sharing pictures of my little one. She is constantly amazing me. She has changed so much in just four months.

I introduced Alexa to BowWow.

Alexa decided that BowWow should give Bunny a kiss.

Someone got out a package of macaroni when I was not looking and dumped it out on the floor. I got her a bowl and told her she need to pick it up and she picked up every single piece!

On Tuesday morning we went for her first haircut. Alexa did very well. I think the sucker helped!

And here she is afterward.

We also went and got her flu shot on Thursday. She did very well. As soon as it was over I gave her some M&M's and she was fine. She even used the public toilet before her appointment. Like I said at the beginning she has changed a lot in four months.

No new pictures to show today but I have to share a few things. Yesterday my little girl ate a peanut butter sandwich - not a lot of it but some. I was so excited. Her food selections are so limited that it is hard to figure out what to fix her to eat. I don't want to give her yogurt and cereal bars and tater tots for every meal! And fruit has been pretty much limited to bananas but tonight Alexa ate an eighth of an apple. I had to cut it into very small pieces for her but she liked it. I knew if she would just put some in her mouth she would like it but the hard part is getting her to try it. She also loves orange juice mixed with 7Up.


Her vocabulary is growing. She will now say "dog" when she sees or hears one. She will say "up" when she wants to be picked up. She will point to her eye and say "eye". There are many words she can repeat after someone says it - Twinkle, car, duck, cheek, cow, ball, grandma, grandpa, and cat. She will also point out her nose, eye, cheek, mouth, hair, ear, knee, toes, and fingers if you ask her where they are. And if you ask for a kiss she will give you one.

Alexa picked up a doll the other day and started to rock it like a baby. I started to sing a lullaby and then she "sang a song" to her baby. She then decided to throw herself in my lap so I could rock her like a baby. She did the same thing tonight. I even got her to give the baby doll a kiss before she threw it on the ground!

My little girl is changing so fast. What a difference in four short months!