App- - pull!

Everyday Lexi learns more words and I have to give credit where credit is due and say that Mom teaches Lexi many things. One of those things is the word "apple". I have known that Lexi can say apple for over a week now but not until Sunday when we went grocery shopping and heard her point out the "app-pull's" in the produce section did we really get it. She keep saying it over and over until we finally understood. Then yesterday Lj and I went for a walk after I brought her home. It was the first day in a LONG time that the weather was nice and cool and breezy. We were walking down the street when all of sudden our little girl keeps saying "app-pull!, app-pull!, app-pull!" over and over. I finally figured it out and said "Lexi, Mommy does not have any apples right now (not that she really eats them anyhow!). Well, finally I figured it out. She was seeing a neighbors pumpkins on each side of their driveway. I told her they were pumpkins but then she started to try to repeat "pumpkin" to me.

So today Lexi and I were standing in the kitchen and she asked for an apple. I looked over and handed her one. She took it and just held it. I then took a bite and handed it to her. She then took a bite. We did this over and over and the next thing you know she was eating an apple! The last time she ate an apple was in China. She pretty much teethed on them there and we gave her at least two a day there since they were free at the White Swan. So it was extra special to see her actually like eating one and it was so cute to see that she would NOT share with Sable nor Smokey.

I'll post some pictures soon but for now, here is the video. She actually was so immersed in the apple that she didn't seem to notice me filming it!

Little Miss-Chievious!

This morning, Geoff got up with Lexi and let me lay in bed a few more minutes. I watched them playing on the baby monitor and listened to him talk with her as he changed her diaper. Then he put her down and walked back to the room to ask me what we should eat for breakfast. Well, Little Miss got really quiet and we KNEW what she was doing. Geoff grabbed the camera and caught her in the act! She was busily trying to turn on the tv. When he walked in she jumped up! Then he took it and she immediately made a bee-line for the light switches. This was the beginning of a wild and busy day with Lj!

Sunday Morning Sounds

We have been trying very hard to get some video of Lexi doing some of the cute things she does... but just let me say it is easier said than done. Every time she sees us with the camera she comes running and wants it. She usually ends up crying for the camera and we end up stopping. This morning we managed to get her to say some of her animal sounds before she erupted wanting the camera. She lost interest in showing off during the middle of it but at least we managed to get something. She can tell us the animal sounds for dog, cat, bird, pig, cow, duck. She also will tell us what a train sounds like and it's just too cute. Every time we go over the railroad tracks she now has to say "choooooo-chooooo!" and every time we go over a bump she says "bump!". I'm going to keep trying until I get video of her dancing, hopefully it won't take me too long.

Rewind to Thursday Afternoon 9-24-09

After I picked up Lj last Thursday, we went to her room and went through some of her crates of clothes... looking for things that will fit her now. Her 6-12 months shorts are not getting tight and we were looking to see if we had anything she could now wear. We did find a few long sleeve shirts that she will be able to wear once the weather changes. We also discovered a few for now like the one in the picture. We also made a bag of things she has outgrown to share with a teacher at school. After that, I walked into the kitchen and told her we could go play outside if she would go get her shoes. Well, she disappeared for a long time and finally came back into the kitchen. I was AMAZED to see that she had one shoe on. Of course the other was missing but still... I couldn't believe she had put her shoe on (and on the right foot!) all by herself! We had to go find the other shoe and we headed outside which is her favorite place to be right now. Apparently her Nana has taught her yet another thing while we work. The funny thing is she sits back and waits for us to discover Lexi's new talents. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful my parents are with Lexi. We are so BLESSED to have them watching her while we work. Like I said earlier... Life is Good and God is good to us! I would love to be the one experiencing all Lexi's "firsts" but since we can't be with her 24/7, I just am thankful that we have our parents to take our place while we are away.

Slow-down Saturday

Today we had no plans and decided to lay low around the house. Geoff got up early to do some studying and LJ and I slept in until almost 8:00! Then her Daddy cooked us a really nice breakfast.... skillet potatoes, eggs, and sasauge! When we were cleaning up I gave Lexi some left over potatoes to "pretend" cook. She was using her new kitchen that one of the parapros at my school gave us. (Talk about being in the right place at the right time! She and I were walking to our cars and she happened to ask if I had any need for a play kitchen. Well, of course I said yes and she was thrilled to not have to stop by the Good Will to drop it off. She also had a trash bag and a half of "stuff" to go with it. I'll tell you it was like Christmas at our house that day!) Lexi is great with using her imagination so she quickly took to "cooking" her hashbrowns. Then she ate some before feeding the rest to Sable.

After her nap, Lexi and Geoff headed out front to wash the car. I just knew Lexi would love playing in the water with him but no... she did not like having to walk over the water hose (kind of reminds me of Sable not liking to walk near power cords!) She really did not like it at all until I went out and decided to give Sable a bath on the sidewalk. Lexi loved washing Sable and kept asking for more soap. Sable was thrilled when the whole ordeal was over! I had to then take little Missy inside for a bath of her own!

I love these kinds of days... washing clothes, cleaning floors, preparing easy meals, and just enjoying our life. Life is Good... and at least once today I reminded Geoff that these kinds of days are the days we dreamed of for many years. It's nice to finally have them!

7 Months Ago Today

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Isn't it hard to believe that it's been 7 months since LJ day? It's surreal to think that 7 months ago we laid our eyes on her in person for the first time and that we were in China! It feels as if she has always been a part of us.

So in honor of her 7 months with us, I decided to make a slide show that I have been wanting to do for about a month now. In August, we decided to see how many nights we could go until we ran out of different onsies. It was fun. We took pictures every night. We ended up with 20-something onsies. We had more but some had never been worn and still had tags on them and the pants wouldn't fit so we just stopped at what we had already worn before.

Lexi has had a growth spurt all of a sudden. I don't know exactly how much weight she has gained but I do know that her shorts are all tight. She has been wearing 6-12 months sizes. Well, I think we are at 12-18 months sizes now. 18 months size tops fit her too all of a sudden. The long pants will be the tricky part because she is so short. I'm going to try some 12 months jeans and see how they do. I just doesn't work to buy her "sets" of clothing. It's just amazing how much she has grown in 7 months! In China, she wore size 3 months. It's really great to see our little girl growing and changing but at the same time, it's going by much too fast!

So Sorry... I guess it's the teacher in me but,

I thought it would be a good idea to start preparing Lexi for her first birthday party. Before you judge me... keep in mind, she has never had a birthday party celebration before and when we DO have a party for her I want it to be fun for her! So after thinking about how Brennen still didn't want to blow out his candles (okay... okay... I know he was burning up with fever that day but still...) and about how my friend Sharon has given her daughter Mary Alice a birthday cupcake for months leading up to her 2nd birthday, I decided we should begin preparing Lexi for birthday cake and candles. So I sent Geoff for a cupcake. We forgot yesterday because even though we knew it was her 20th month birthday, we were trying as a family to begin a new YMCA workout plan for me and Geoff. (Needless to say, we still need time management help!) So Geoff went to a cupcake shop in downtown Savannah today and bought Lexi an amazingly beautiful strawberry cupcake with cream cheese frosting... he left it at work! So he ended up bringing home a Kroger cupcake! After dinner we put her in the highchair and brought out the cupcake. Not to interested... until we lit a candle... then with the help of Mom, she blew out the candle and wanted to do it again... then... again... and again. We kept telling her it was hot... she resisted for the most part until finally curiosity won out and in a flash... finger in the flame... tears.... and me blowing out the candle. She cried until I lit the candle again. (the whole time I'm asking Geoff... "are we raising a pyromaniac???" Then she decided to touch the icing... "yuck"... "MOMMY.... where are the baby wipes... clean my fingers PLLEEEAASSSEE!" I swear she cried more over the icing on her fingers than the flame! I am beginning to wonder if she is going to be OCD and be germaphobic? I have to admit, the icing on the cupcake was gross! I hope the other one is much better or our girl will never love cake.

Anyhow, it made for a fun evening for us and just think we have 3 more months to practice!!! LOL!!

20 Months Old Today!

Twenty things that make her adorable...

1. her beautiful smile

2. her silly laugh

3. the way snuggles us when we pick her up in the morning

4. the way she whispers "DaDa" or "Mama" as she signs it

5. the way she dances on her tip toes

6. how she loves to wear hats

7. how she loves to wear sunglasses

8. how she can out walk most of us on any given day

9. her love of Elmo

10. how she likes caterpillars and butterflies like me

11. the inquisitive look she gets when she experiences something new

12. how she blows kisses and catches her own

13. how excited she gets about bath time

14. her sweet hugs

15. how she loves to read books

16. how she gets her own bibs at bottle time

17. how she says "mmmm" when she things something tastes good

18. how she makes a "Sumo-wrestler" face when you ask her to take her picture

19. how she is always excited when we go to pick her up out of the crib

20. she's ours!

It's hard to believe that she is already 20 months. It's really a fun age but I wish I could slow her down. She's beginning to look more like a little girl than a baby and I'm not ready for that yet. We feel so blessed to have her in our lives!

I know this is Lexi's story...

but Sable is a part of it too. I wish I could say Lexi loves Sable but she is insanely jealous of her and if the attention is NOT on Lexi, she will often seek out Sable to harass. She hits at her face and hits her bottom and basically terrorizes the dog. Sable is a trouper though and has never reacted aggressively.


Today, Lexi and I had to drive about 30 minutes away to pick up Sable from the vet. Her teeth cleaning and mole removal surgery went great and hopefully once she heals she will for the most part be mole free. (Austin Powers fans are probably thinking "moley, moley, moley, MOLEY!") When I picked her up Lexi was excited to see some horses that were there to visit the vet. Our vet is awesome and took time to meet Lexi and then told me about Sable. The fun part was driving home. Lexi of course was in the backseat in her carseat and Sable took her usual spot in the front seat. Well, every single time I reach over to pet Sable, Lexi would just cut up like crazy. I WISH I could have gotten it on tape. As soon as I removed my hand from Sable, it was like turning "off" Lexi. Boy, this girl is so jealous of Sable! Today when I told her we had to go bye, bye to pick up Sable she said "bad". That's what she calls Sable. "Bad". Good gracious, help us!


But in honor of our special little furbie, I had to point out some of her special quirks that make her Sable. I love how she...

* has to run around the table once before she can go outside.

* loves her toys and has finally learned that Lexi's toys are not hers

* tricks Geoff into thinking that she can't jump on the bed by herself but clearly will do it for me

* lays in the floor like a frog

* loves her toys but not enough to go get them if they fall too close to a cord

* can be so easily fooled into coming back home when she escapes by us just telling her "want to go for a walk" (she comes back to get her leash)

* is such a begger for food that she will chatter her teeth in anticipation

* loves to tear up the wrapping paper that we crush up on birthdays or Christmas (sometimes we make them just to watch her!)

* likes to nap with me on Sunday afternoons

* is patient with Lexi (as much as could caninely be expected!)


on the other hand... she drives me nuts!!!! Especially ...

* when it rains and she romps in the mud and water and then bursts into the house making a huge mess (bless our dear Patches who on the other hand would "tip-toe" delicately only after being VERY encouraged!)

* eats catfood non-stop

* has at least one daily "barkument" with the neighbors 6 dogs

* barks like mad ANYTIME someone comes to the door (except the one night we had a peeping tom, she didn't hear a thing)

* has ruined our French doors pawing to come inside as she is NOT an outside dog

* is the cause of my constant need to vaccum

* likes to rub her stinky self on my clean sheets or will act like she is digging to China on the sheets while she makes this crazy grunting sound (that part does amuse me)


I hate to admit it but our loss of Patches has made me appreciate our time with Sable more. I'm trying harder to teach Lexi to love the animals. Here are some pictures from today...



I gave Lexi some treats to try to make her want to have something to do with Sable.
Sable took one and ran!

"humm.... do I eat it or give it to Sable??"

Logic won... THIS time!

Sable got her treats and then took refuge under the dining room table. SMART DOG!

I really hope we can get Sable to let us brush her more to avoid having to shave her. I'd like to see her hair long and pretty.

Sleeping Beauty

There is nothing more precious than a sleeping child. Lexi is doing great in the nursery now at church. She does cry when we leave her but then she settles down and is happy when we go pick her up. This afternoon after she ate lunch, she let me rock her to sleep. I couldn't resist sneaking back in to take a picture.

Lexi Meets the Rain

These pictures were taken on August 28 as we came home after I got off work. It was raining lightly and Lexi discovered rain. She was so cute looking up trying to figure out where the water was coming from. I ran in and grabbed the camera. We've got to find some rain boots so that we can go puddle jumping and splashing. Seeing the world through the eyes of a child is such a special privilege.

Slow Relaxing Saturday

This morning Geoff got up at the crack of dawn and took Sable to PetSmart to get shaved. On Monday, she is having some moles cut off and her teeth cleaned so we wanted to make sure she was groomed so the vet can find the nastiest of the moles and cut them off. Well, Geoff ended up not getting back until around 3:00. We wanted to do something fun with Lexi but around here things are limited. We ended up taking her for a walk. We started with her in the wagon and when we got back, she cried for more. So I decided we'd go back out for more and take Sable with us this time. Well, this is where Lexi shows her personality. She decided that she didn't want to ride in the wagon anymore and wanted to walk. So we put her down. Well, later she decided that Sable should ride in the wagon. Much to our surprise, Sable consented to this activity. If only we would have brought the camera with us for the second walk! I'm sure it would have made a cute picture of Lexi walking beside the wagon with Sable riding in it.

Lexi still pitched a huge fit when we came back in. I'll tell you, this girl loves to walk and she loves being outside!

"Come on Mom!! Let's go!!"
Is this really our Sable?? Poor thing! She's naked!

6 Months Post Adoption Visit

Exactly a week ago we had our 6 months post adoption social worker visit. Our agency has to send a report to China and along with that we have to send a photo collage of at least 4 pictures. Needless to say, coming up with a group of pictures was hard because we have so many. They wanted a picture of us as a family and at least one of Lexi in her room. I used the first one of her because it is one of my all time favorites. Seeing this just shows how much our beautiful girl has changed in the last 6 months! (I removed all last names as well as Lexi's Chinese names for safety reasons.) I'd love to have given them a whole album full of her as she is such a joy and we so proud to be her Mommy and Daddy!

By the way, this social worker visit was SOOOO different than the ones prior to adoption. I stressed NONE whatsoever over the condition of the house. I figured anyone with a spotless house that has a toddler either spends no time with the kids, or has a maid. As she was interviewing us she asked what Lexi's hobbies were. (Inside I was chuckling as how many hobbies can a 19 month old have??) But she looked around and before I could answer said, "I can tell she loves to read from all the books you have for her.". I was so glad because the only other answer I had for her was looking for caterpillars with her Mommy or doing her best to get ALL the attention she can from us. LOL! It was painless and now after another 6 months, we'll finally finish up the paperwork required for China.

I think when they see our pictures of Lexi they are going to think "my we sure gave this couple a beautiful little girl and what a happy family they make!".

Splish Splash!

Look at all that hair! Lexi's hair is growing like crazy. This girl loves her bath!

Halloween Sneak Peek!

Now we have to begin working on saying "bzzzzzz" on command!

Our Silly Girl

These pictures were actually taken on Sept. 7th. I don't even remember what I was doing but I came inside and Geoff pointed out that our little darling was up to some silly ways so I started paying attention. I kept hearing her cry and then she would stop. So I began to observe. She had her baby doll's sippy cup and had taken the top off. She had discovered that if she sucked in the air out of the cup she could make it stick to her face. So every now and then when the cup would lose the suction and fall off, she would cry and cry and then begin again. These pictures just crack me up and capture some of the mischievousness of our little Lexi.

When we finally got the cup from her and got her to move on to dinner time, her little face was red all around where the cup was. The things this child does is priceless!

Labor Day Last Minute Trip

I know I'm behind ... it's been hard to keep up with the blog since school started. By the time I get Lexi home from Mom's and play with her and then cook dinner, play with her some more, get her night night bottle and read books to her and get her to bed, we are just exhausted! Lately, I've not even turned on my computer at home. So I'm trying to do some catching up. I have a few hours to kill between school and tonight's Open House so I thought I'd try to get some blogging done. I decided to leave Lexi with Mom until Geoff gets her to keep from picking her up and then dropping her right back off again.

So... Labor Day weekend we decided to try our luck on Priceline and find a hotel on Hilton Head for one night. We lucked out and got a great hotel at a great rate. Our biggest regret was not staying two night because we had so much fun! This was our first "trip" by ourselves since we came home from China in March. We took our time and got to Hilton Head about 3 in the afternoon. We headed down to check out the beach and it was just PERFECT! I had forgotten how beautiful the beach is on Hilton Head and the weather was just fantastic. It was not too hot, too humid or too cool.

This is Lexi in the hallway as we waited for Daddy to go get them to fix the key to the door so we could get in. She was not very thrilled as you can see for Daddy to leave us with all our stuff in the floor.
But eventually her "inner-Diva" took over when she realized she could run up and down the hallway.

Along with some special friends....

These are some of my favorites from our walk on the beach...

"Daddy, my Mommy would like to retire and live in one of those houses right behind me."

" Peek-a-Boo!"

"Come on Daddy... go this way!"

Perfect pair!

Beautiful girl...

Later we went to Carrabba's for dinner. Lexi usually is a charmer when we go out to dinner and that night was no exception. She didn't eat enough to fill up a baby bird but at least she was well behaved! While Daddy was paying, she and I went outside and walked around the restaurant.


This girl LOVES her hats!

"How about I wear it this way Mommy??"

"What?? Did you guys just say that it was time to go?? Back to the carseat????"


"Say it isn't sooooooo!!!!!!"

"OH NO!! They won again!"

And then on Sunday morning, we got up and took Lexi to breakfast and then headed to the beach for some fun.

Doesn't she look like a little Asian Betty Boop?

"Daddy, that's a really big bath tub!"

"Thanks for the trip Daddy!"

On the way home, we stopped at the Wild Wing Cafe'. It is here that Lexi discovered that she likes a little chicken with her Ranch dressing!.