Well, head traumas do run in our family...

Before I get into all that...my mom came up last week to hang out and watch Alexa while I was at work. Nick was gone on a guys vacation to a cabin in Georgia with a bunch of well, the guys. They went golfing and white water rafting, drank and played pool. General guy stuff. It was nice for us because Alexa got to spend lots of time with G-ma and I got to hang out with my mom for a few days. Even more exciting is that we are leaving later this morning to visit them for a week. So we get lots of G-ma and Grandpa time (and Uncle Ricky). I know, foreign concept to some people, I actually like my family. My mom took lots of great pictures when she was here (she is not only an awesome photographer, she has a super awesome low light camera which I am totally jealous of that takes fantastic pictures!). Maybe when we get to Hollywood I'll put some up for you to see.

Anyway, back to the head trauma. I was driving to work on Monday night and got a frantic call from Nick (with Alexa screaming in the background) that she had fallen out of her high chair. I guess when he took the tray off and was hooking it onto the back of the chair she leaned forward and the straps unhooked. She fell about three and a half feet onto the wood floor on her head. She never lost consciousness and calmed when Nick picked her up but (after consulting our resident EMT turned RN) I told him to bring her to the ER just to be checked. I have to say, bravo to TMH ER. When I got up to the unit and the day shift nurses found out what happened they called the nursing supervisor who called the ER to let them know that my baby was coming in. At first I didn't want any special treatment for my child, but let me tell you, they were just fantastic! Nick called me when he got into the garage and by the time I got down to the ER, she was already weighed (19.2 lbs), vitals done, history being taken and a minute later we were shown to a room. The charge nurse came and introduced herself, the doctor came in right away, I was impressed. Now, they probably thought we were crazy. Here is this man who is so beside himself with guilt (even though he didn't do anything wrong) that he's not talking, a girl with too-big-for-her scrubs on (they were the only ones I had clean that night) and a baby with a big goose egg on her head and rug burn on her eye who is climbing all over the place laughing and making her hawk cry. That's right, her hawk cry. She was so tired that she was giddy and was hawk crying even with the paci in her mouth. Needless to say, the doc found that she was completely neurologically intact. He offered to do a CT if we wanted but suggested not to so we didn't. He said just to check her periodically through the night to make sure she was still ok. Nick was a little nervous going home with her so they came up to the PICU to hang out with me for awhile. That lasted a whole half hour because Alexa was way to interested in the room decorations and O2 set up to drink a bottle or go to sleep in the hospital crib. Apparently she fell right to sleep in the car on the ride home and when he woke her up at 2am, she was still appropriate. In the morning when I got home the bump on her head was gone and now she just has a black eye with still some nasty scabbed rug burn. So that's the story of Alexa's first (and hopefully last) head trauma/ER visit. Although, as my mom says, "she's a busy girl" so I feel like this is hardly the end of scrapes, bruises and black eyes. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the scabs will be gone by next Tuesday so we can get her nine month pictures taken!

Recital Weekend

So I was reading over my post from last night and I would like to apologize for the mean sarcasm. It was the end of a long shift and my filter was obviously off. To make up for it, here are some pictures of Alexa!!! My recital was last weekend so my parents and Katie came up to see it. These are some random pictures that my mom took.

Alexa picking at the nail in the windowsill. She's kind of obsessed with it.



Nick in the daddy dance. He's the one with the gold shirt on. (They were so funny...and good!!!)



Alexa and I with Hayley and Baye.



Alexa and I outside after the recital. She tried to eat my flowers. In her defense, they were very pretty.



She loves taking a bath and she drinks the water if you put it near her face. Every night we shoot the water at her from the side so she can "practice" drinking out of a water fountain. I can't wait to find a cleanish water fountain for her to try for real!



Minnie and her Grandpa having their special time together. The dogs love it when they come to visit, especially Minnie.



Alexa and Aunt Katie getting into trouble during the recital.



"What? I'm driving here!"

Father's Day Posts, facebook style

Yesterday was Father's Day. I suppose Nick had a good day for his first true Father's Day. He went golfing in the morning and Alexa got him a fryer. You know, one with a rectangle basket like a small version of what they use in restaurants. He tried to use our old fry daddy a few weeks ago and got frustrated that it didn't get hot enough so getting a "real" fryer was near the top of his list of things that he wants (along with an ipad and a projector & screen - hopefully he's fully aware of my cheapness and knows that we are going to have to win the lottery for him to get either of those). Did I mention that he has only fried something twice in the past two years? Not relevant and I'm getting off topic. Sorry. So, Father's Day. I appreciate that everyone loves their fathers, etc. But I have a small issue with everyone proclaiming it on facebook. It's annoying. My newsfeed was twice as long yesterday and all full of crap like 'Happy Father's Day to the greatest dad in the world'. First of all, that's very a subjective statement. Obviously all 50 of you who wrote that can't have the single greatest dad in the world. I realize that you might think that, and that's wonderful, but I feel like proclaiming it on facebook is kind of like telling everyone else that they do NOT have the greatest dad in the world. Are you supposed to 'like' these comments? That's just rough, it's like admitting that you think their dad is in fact greater than your own. And is that seriously how you are telling your dads happy Father's Day? By posting it on facebook? You're really not even going to call him? And is your dad even on facebook because mine is not (although my mom is...she's pretty cool, I know. Oh and don't even get me started on posting comments toward random people who are obviously not on facebook...example: 'I love you Alexa!!!' Seriously, my 8 month old is going to read that?). So assuming that your dad is not, in fact, on facebook, you are then just bragging to the rest of us that you have the single greatest dad ever and our dads all suck. First of all, not true. Second, I really want to know what the appropriate response is. Obviously you are looking for some type of response because lets all get real, getting a response is why you post things on facebook to begin with. So what exactly are the rest of us supposed to say? I believe I will write 'Dislike! My dad is totally better then yours!!! Nanny Nanny Boo Boo!!!!!!'

daddy dance video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xC8DnMYiRY

Dancing, Waving and Eating

I missed my Sunday or Monday blog post this week but I suppose Tuesday night is OK. Our recital was this weekend so my parents and Katie came up to see my dances and (more importantly) to see Nick in the daddy dance. My dances looked pretty good. It's interesting to see the difference between girls who perform all the time (competitions, etc) and girls who perform once a year in the recital. You could tell that the girls up here are completely scared being up on stage. Especially the older ones. They all did a good job, though. The daddy dance was fantastic, as usual. I find it hilarious that they are already planning and giving Hayley suggestions for next year. They all teased Nick for being their "super star" but let me tell you, most of those guys could really dance! Someone put the dance on youtube so I'm going to have to find it and try to link it to this page.

Alexa's new thing this week is waving. She is probably going to be super confused because we wave bye bye but we also wave hello. So I'm sure she has no idea what it means. She hasn't figured out that she has to turn her hand around so she waves at herself. It's kind of cute. :) We're still working on clapping hands and next we are going to start blowing kisses.

Did I talk about her eating last week? She is eating some finger foods like those puff things and yogurt bites but other than that I have no idea what to feed her. Obviously she is still eating her baby food but she goes through at least two tubs of those gerber things per meal. My friend at work told me that I can just give her tiny pieces of whatever we're eating but it still makes me nervous. I know I'm going to mess up and have another incident like with the penut butter! I have no problem with any form of baby care other then what to feed them. It confuses the hell out of me. I've tried to look online and in books and stuff but everything is super vauge. Not only that, everything has relatively conflicting advice. Some places say they should eat what we eat, some places say only baby food. It's all very confusing. I need an Alexa meal plan. That would be perfect. Anyone want to jump on that?!?!

Alexa Update

This week's post is going to be about my little Lexi Lynn (that's her country name...obviously). She has been crawling around the house for a few weeks now. The dogs, who once regarded her as something super cool to always be protecting, are now scared shitless. It's actually kind of sad because they still want to be near her but they are scared at the same time. They stay in the room with us when we are playing but they hide behind me the whole time. Of course Alexa wants to be everywhere they are. If they are laying on one of their beds in the family room, that's where she's crawling to. I kind of feel bad for them sometimes (especially Minnie...she's always been my baby) but I guess they have to get used to it. We always have special time with the dogs after Alexa goes to bed to try to make up for them getting chased around all day. It's kind of funny though how Wolfie doesn't really care about Alexa and Alexa doesn't really care about Wolfie. They pretty much leave each other alone.

So Alexa's new thing to do is to pull up on everything. She no longer wants to crawl because she thinks she can walk. She kind of cruises but only a step or two. It's more Alexa pulling up on something, letting go with one hand and smiling, then letting go with the other hand and falling down. Then she cries until I pick her up but as soon as her little body leaves the floor she smiles. Someone is slightly spoiled.

Her other fun and exciting thing to do is to eat more independently. We give her those puff things and baby yogurt melts every day and she just about has it down so that she gets them into her mouth. This is a huge improvement from a week ago when she was grabbing them and then they were getting lost in her fist and eventually ending up on the floor. She has a sippy cup of water that she drinks with lunch and dinner but I still don't see her getting much out of it. Oh, and we got her one of those fruit holder bag things so she can suck on a piece of fruit without us worrying about her choking on it. She's had watermelon and peaches and thinks they are both fantastic!