Killing Time Till 2012

Just got off work and Alexis is taking a nap :)

I'm cleaning up and trying to organize the apartment. It's always nice to start off a new year with a clean house.

I've been organizing Alexis' side of the closet and surprisingly she has a lot. I've retired some of her clothes that she doesn't fit into anymore and other things like bottle sanitizers and BF covers that I don't use anymore. Here is a picture of her side of the closet :)

She's got her clothes, toys, books (along with all my pregnancy books), diapers, wipes and all her necessities. We also have her cute little piggy bank, shoes, and headbands :) Can't wait to go on a winter/spring shopping spree and add some more cuteness.

I wish that Alexis and I could spend time with my family today but sadly they are too far away. So it will just be me and Lexi today. As long as I have my little love bug to bring in the year I'm happy!

I'm Ready For You 2012!

I can't believe it's almost 2012. It feels like just yesterday I was pregnant with Alexis and counting down the days till June. Now she's here and 7 months old; we are more than half way to her birthday! Which by the way I am sooooo excited to plan!

A lot of stuff happened in 2011, some good and some bad. Regardless of the bad though, 2011 will forever be the greatest year of my life because I had the privilege of bringing Alexis into this world and I know this world will be a better place because of her.

Alexis already has her little personality and I love it because it reminds me so much of me. I've been calling her Sass Ass #2, I am Sass Ass (thanks to Rachel's wonderful nickname giving skills). I love that I'm sassy I think it's a characteristic that anyone with a strong personality needs to have, and I think Alexis already has it. Which she is going to need to keep all the boys away, that's if daddy doesn't do it for her already :P

Derek and I love to talk about all the fun things we get to do with her and all the things she'll get to participate in. Derek thinks she's going to be soccer-tennis-basketball player lol. I definitely think she's going to be athletically inclined, she may get this athletic gene that Derek has although only men in his family seem to be getting it but from me she'll definitely get that competitive drive. I played just about everything growing up. I played volleyball and basketball for the city league and I did cheerleading in elementary and middle school and finally decided on tennis during high school. I wish football would have been an option but I did get to do some powder puff junior and senior year which was fun. So I know Alexis will be an athlete and even though she's not a little boy I definitely want her to know football, guys adore girls who know football ;)

Aside from sports we've talked a lot about the other things we want her to participate in. Growing up I did everything from school plays, chorus, science club, and running for student council. I loved being so involved in school. I'm excited to get her into ballet classes and maybe even some drama classes, i've heard that those are very good to help kids develop their imagination. I also definitely have high aspirations for her academically. All through elementary and middle school I was always on the honor roll and in advanced classes and through high school taking advanced classes and participating in clubs and sports was so important to me. I'm glad Alexis will be able to look at me as a role model, hopefully, in every aspect of her life but especially when it comes to academics. I can't wait for Derek to go back to school and finish, I want Alexis to see that we are a family that values academics.

It's also important to me that Alexis have a mind of her own. I think most kids now a days have opinions but they're their parents opinions. I'm sure Alexis will be aware of what mine and Derek's opinions are politically and socially and pretty much about anything but I don't want her to take those opinions as her own unless she believes in them. I find that I have little respect for people who have an opinion and when you ask them why, they don't know, and that's usually because it's something they just picked up, a lot of the time from their parents. I want Alexis to be informed and even if her opinions are not the same as mine, I won't care as long as she has a strong conviction for what she feels. One of my professors at the U told us that he brings home different newspapers with the same stories and let's his kids read all of them and form their own opinions; I thought that was such a genius idea because all papers have their biases and I think hearing a story from different angles is the best way to make an informed decision.

I know, she's only 7 months right? But I am a firm believer that forming (good) habits should be started early.

One of the things I'm most excited for is to give Alexis my ring my parents got me when I was a baby. It probably won't fit her until she's 1 maybe 2, I can't really tell just by looking at it. I'm surprised that I still have it, but I am so excited to give it to her and have her pass it down to her little girl, if and when she has one. The ring is yellow gold and it is in the shape of a heart in the front, that's probably where my love for hearts came from. We're going to get it plated white gold, because I dislike yellow gold, and hopefully I can get something written inside even though the band is so small. Here's a picture of the ring. I'm so excited for 2012 to get all of this started.

25th Birthday Bash?

So I'm turning 25 in June. Growing up I always thought my 25th birthday would be a bigger deal than 18 and 21; Not that I didn't celebrate those birthdays appropriately. But I've always been in love with the idea of being 25. Twenty five just seems like such an accomplished age and I have pretty much accomplished everything I wanted, I graduated college with two degrees, I'm married, I have a gorgeous baby girl and I've done a good amount of traveling. The only things I've fallen short on my personal goals are not finishing law school and not being at a career style job right now, granted my job does involve the field of Psychology. Even without those two things I can't complain, I'm definitely more accomplished than most 25 year olds, and I worked hard to get here.

I definitely think 25 is the year to celebrate. For my 18 birthday I had dinner with a bunch of friends and had a great time. For my 20th Birthday my roomie Chelle and I went to New York :) and we had a blast. For my 21st birthday a ton of my close friends came out to Vegas to celebrate with me and that was an amazing weekend. So in thinking about my 25th birthday of course I would want to out do everything else i've done, but at first we were thinking of taking a trip to Mexico just Derek, me and Alexis. I really want Alexis to go to Mexico and visit, after all she is half Mexican and I want her to be in touch with her Heritage.

Lately though, I have been talking to my best friend about her 25th birthday; which is also in June and she wants to go to Vegas, so I thought how fun it would be to have our 25th birthdays together in Vegas with all our friends. I figure Derek and I can plan a trip to Mexico at the end of the summer for Alexis.

To be honest I am excited to turn 25 but I'm also a little apprehensive. After I turn 25 I'm pretty much on the fast track to 30. I dread getting older. If only I could be 25 forever.

Christmas Come Early...

Christmas came a couple of days early for Alexis.

I asked my dad to buy Alexis a highchair as her Christmas present. We had planned to get her the Graco Blossom but everywhere we looked that design was discontinued so I found a new design I wanted but I found few places that even sold it and those places were out of stock.

We really needed a highchair for Alexis because we want to start her solids and feeding her solids out of a highchair is not fun. So sadly I gave in to buying another highchair for now an then buying her the Blossom once she grows out of this one. So grandpa's gift turned into a highchair a long with other stuff Alexis needed :) since this highchair turned out to be much cheaper.

We let Alexis open her gift early since we want to get her started on her veggies and fruits right away.

Here she is opening up her gift:

Can't wait to feed her some veggies tonight :)))

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is Friday! One more day of working at the school and then I have 2 weeks off :) I'm excited because I am very much looking forward to a break from unruly kids and the slapping craziness; but I am going to miss seeing their cute faces for those 2 weeks.

Today was an eventful day. It was outing day so most of the kids went out to the store and the library, then we had a birthday party for one of the kids and lastly we had two kids graduating from the school today :) Sooo precious!

The only downside to having 2 weeks off, is missing out on the paycheck but I will be picking up some extra shifts at BJ's so that'll help a little. I got a bonus from work which was pretty cool, I didn't think I would get one because i've only been there since September, so that was a nice surprise.

I'm really excited for Alexis' gift from my dad, he's getting her a highchair :) So we'll have that to put under our Christmas tree after this weekend.

Alexis has been so crazy cute lately, not that she isn't always but she's been extra cute lately :) she gets so excited in the mornings when she wakes up and sees me she shakes her whole body smiling like crazy, it's the perfect way to start my day. She's been holding my face lately when I hold her and talk to her and she's also been trying to eat my nose. When I call my mom I put her on speaker so Alexis can hear her and she always tries to eat my phone, if it's anywhere near her mouth. She's definitely into the munching phase.

Last night Derek read to Alexis after her bath,while I sat with her, and after he was done she turned to me, stared into my eyes, smiled and started to "talk" to me, it was soooooo precious.

Everyday I love her just a little bit more.

Baby Hodgepodge

I haven't posted anything in a while and the other day I thought of something I wanted to write about but I was really busy so I never got a chance to blog. So I'm pretty much just going to write about whatever seems to be floating around in my head.

So for the last 2 months or so we've been using Target's diaper brand, Up & Up, to save some money since diapers are pretty expensive, we also tried Walmart's brand. Well I've hated both brands, especially Walmart's, the diapers were very dry and starchy feeling and Alexis has had tons of leaks and blow outs in both brands. Before trying out the store brands we were using Huggies, my mom used Huggies with me and my brothers and I wanted to use them because I fancied them for whatever reason. I love Huggies and especially after using other brands I can't think of using anything else. Well the other day we finally went back to Huggies and I'm so thankful because they are so soft and comfy and fit snug and definitely keep her dry and free of blow outs. Plus I love the rewards codes! I know for some people using the store brands works but for us it definitely was not working.

Alexis is such a champ with her cereal! We've been feeding it to her twice a day and continuing with her formula. Alexis is really into eating the cereal now, she opens her mouth as wide as possible and leans into the spoon sometimes which is so cute she even makes noises as she's eating, she's even grabbing the spoon and wanting to feed herself. We have a ton of baby food, veggies and fruits, that we plan on starting her on possibly next week. Since the baby food is thick I wanted to wait till Alexis was comfortable with the cereal and was actually opening her mouth up wide and having better control of her tongue before we started feeding her the baby food. I think she's pretty much there!

This weekend we're going to buy her ornament and get it engraved!!! I am so excited to put her beautiful "First Christmas Ornament" on our tree. Derek and I are also on the hunt to find purple Avent pacifiers, we've seen them for 0-6 months but for some reason we can only find pacifiers with animals on them that are 6 months and up, we really just want the color ones.

Alexis is going through some serious separation anxiety with me. I feel so bad for Derek because she freaks out while i'm at work and he has a hard time keeping her happy :/ she is such a doll when I'm home which allows for me to get so much done around the house :) I hope for Derek's sake that she gets over her separation anxiety sooner than later.

Alexis loves when I sing to her in Spanish and English :))) and I love singing to her! We're a match made in heaven <3

I have to mention this, even though the situation at first was awkward, I love having these proud mommy moments. When we were in Chico last for Alexis' 6 month appointment, we went to Starbucks to hang out with Derek's friend, well these two ladies, one that was probably around my age and another that was probably around 30 stopped me, which has been happening ever since Alexis was born, people stop to tell me how cute and small she is and it's always been awkward because I'm like "uhhh thank you?"; this time though it was everything but awkward, Alexis was smiling at them and the younger one even came back twice to ask me about her and it was funny to finally hear someone else admit that not all babies are cute, as she mentioned signaling to a baby behind me lol. The other lady was asking me about how early she was and talking to me about statistics about babies that face out being more extroverted, I had Alexis facing out in the Moby; she was so sweet, she said I made her want to have babies. It's nice to have conversations like that with people, even people who don't have their own kids; I definitely hear the mom side of it on The Bump. It's always nice to have a good convo and it's always flattering to hear how cute your baby is :)

I really wish we could spend Christmas with my parents :( My mom really misses Alexis and I was hoping we'd have the money to drive down but I don't think we will; I have the time off too but I know Derek probably won't. Sad Sad Sad.