We don't make snowmen around here.

We make snowpirates. Complete with a patch, a hook, and (of course) a plunger peg leg.

She got Daddy's blue eyes. And Mommy's atrocious vision.

The expression on her face kills me.





Oh, that face. Those blue eyes. I just wanna eat her up. (Although I might remove that nasty bib first.)

An Overdue Overview

I love the chaos of the holidays. I love the hustle and bustle, the lights, the music, the shopping, and mostly the time spent with family. Adding physical, occupational, and speech therapy plus doctor appointments into the mix is a bit more that I like. Luckily, I love Lexi's therapists. I've started referring to them as our Dream Team. Having them over is like having friends stop by to visit. Lexi enjoys them as well--when she's not tired or hungry.

My favorite thing that Alexis is learning is her sign language. She's mastered "eat", "more", "milk", "all done", and "dog". She can also sign "no" (which really looks a lot like "milk") and "down", but doesn't initiate these words on her own. I'm still waiting patiently for the day she actually says the word "Mommy" but it melts my heart that she will say "brother" (which sounds more like "bruh-duh") any time she sees a picture of Nick or Blake.

Here is Alexis signing eat:

and dog:

Lexi has been making great strides in physical therapy. She has mastered the steps. Well, going up, anyway. We require an abundance of baby gates because our house is a quad with 3 flights of stairs. It's not always pretty, living in a gated community.

She has also learned to pull herself to standing. We walked into her bedroom a week ago and she was standing at her crib. And she can pull herself to any coffee table. All of a sudden, all the Legos that the boys thought were safe off of the floor are within reach. Things are still slow-going in the eating and sippy cups departments, but we are choosing to just enjoy her gross motor milestones. Next step: she'll be cruising along the furniture. I don't think it will take long before she's there.

Our family got off to a rocky start with the cold and flu season. Within 3 weeks, our family had strep (me), sinus infection (J), flu (Nick), croup, ear infections, and pink eye (Alexis). I don't know how Blake escaped it all. Mr. I-forgot-to-wash-my-hands never had more than a sniffle. Luckily we've all been healthy for several weeks now. (Be right back. I have to go knock on some wood.) We've still been able to still do lots of fun things. The boys went with some of their cousins to meet Santa (shocking to all of you I'm sure, that Blake wants pirates) and we had our annual Christmas cookie making festivities at Jason's parents.

Alexis had an appointment at the Down Syndrome clinic just over a month ago. They were very happy with how healthy she was and the progress she's making, even though she hadn't put on any weight since her last visit. They did discover that she has hypothyroidism and is now on medication for it. We're happy that she doesn't seem to have any side-effects to the medication and she has even put on a bit of weight. At 20 months old, she finally weighs 20 lbs.

Lexi had her first eye doctor appointment a couple of weeks ago. We didn't have any concerns. It was just time for her first routine appointment. So I was surprised when the eye doctor said that she is extremely farsighted. So Alexis now has her first pair of glasses. She's adorable but it's about as easy keeping the glasses on her as it is nailing jello to a tree. It'll definitely take some time.

And ironically, at the same time Alexis had her first eye appointment, Blake was failing the routine eye exam they give to all kindergartners. So yesterday, Blake got his first pair of glasses. He only needs to wear them for school (he too is far-sighted, but only slightly) but as strongly as Alexis wants her glasses off, Blake wants his glasses on. He's very proud of them and wants to show them to everyone.

Nicholas has had the busiest schedule of all. He has been enjoying being a Tiger Scout and just had his first basketball practice this week. I'm so proud of him for wanting to try new things.

Happy Holidays!

Buddies Walked!

Last weekend our family and friends gathered together in Indianapolis for our first ever Buddy Walk.





We were all decked out in our red Lexi Lou's Whos shirts, korker bows, and Seuss paraphernalia.





The weather was perfect, everyone was healthy, and Alexis loved all the attention. Her shirt reads,

I'm Lexi Lou.

These are my Whos.

Having the Seuss theme was great fun (for the kids and me anyway). Lots of people commented and took pictures of Alexis. We were even stopped by people who were not there for the walk. Besides the shirts, we had some hats for the kids to wear, ring pops that looked like Seuss hats, there were stuffed Maxes and a Grinch, the boys had made some red and turquoise bracelets to pass out to our team, and I made a Seuss hat ornament for each family of walkers. (Who left their ornament on my stroller? I have extras!)




And it's a true friend that will rock a Seuss hat for you!

And before we headed off to walk along the canal, a good luck kiss from Grandma Connie...

The kids took turns carrying the Lexi Lou's Whos sign. They held the sign with pride, and with some impressive height, considering all the kids were, well, short.

And my favorite pic (besides the ones of my 3 shorties of course) is the trio of wagons.

Good ole Pop Pop Tom got some great shots of the group walking the canal. He would run ahead to a bridge and get some pictures from a distance. Wonder how many miles he ended up walking that day...

Nicholas asked to pull his sister, and did so for quite a while. Max the dog helped guide the sleigh wagon.

...until Nick got tired and hitched a ride with his cousins. And the Grinch.

Can you spot our team?

Blake hitched a ride on the Grinch Jason. (I think J's heart has grown 2 sizes with each kid we've had.)

Lexi loves the Grinch. Both the daddy kind and the plush kind.

It was a great day. Last I heard, there were over 3500 walkers and over $160,000 was raised for DSI. I'm so grateful for all those that donated to the Lexi Lou's Whos! Our team raised over $1500 and we had 28 walkers! Thank you to all who donated, who supported us, were with us in spirit, or walked on our team:

Grandma Connie and Pop Pop Jim

Jo Jo and Pop Pop Tom

Uncle Ron and Aunt Paula

Aunt Conya, Uncle Marc, Caden, Caylee, Conner, and Caitlin

Uncle Brent, Aunt Dizzy, Layla and Marley

Tanya, Gabriel, and Mia

Scott, Melissa, Kinsey, and Joslyn

and my littlest Who, a couple of Things, a Grinch, and me!

Our team of 28. Our incredible family. (And our friends are our family.)

An extra special thank you goes out to Jo Jo, Paula, and Elizabeth for your fundraising efforts!! Thank you so much!!! Thank you also to Pop Pop, Jo Jo, and E. for taking all of these pictures!

After the walk was over, we relaxed and had some lunch...

And enjoyed the entertainment...it's CORKY!

It was a fantastic day! Mark your calendars, because next year's walk has been scheduled for October 8, 2011.

We returned to our home for a 7th birthday party. We slept well that night.

Gearin' up!

The Indianapolis Buddy Walk is only a week away! Lexi Lou and her Whos are getting ready for our first ever walk. We could have attended last year's but I don't think I was ready yet. And at that time, Alexis had been out of the hospital for less than a month following her heart surgery, which was my excuse not to go. This year however, we are going all out!



We've got hats! We've got banners! We've got shirts--sort of. I know they pass out Buddy Walk shirts at the walk, but I'm making some Lexi Lou's Whos shirts for my family and anyone else that wants one (just let me know!). In the attempt to save money, I'm printing off my own transfers. It's not perfect. But it will work for us.

We even have the Grinch and Max the Dog to accompany little Lexi Lou Who on the walk. Wonder if I should have registered them...

And little Lexi Lou herself is ready as well.

It's not too late to make a donation! www.firstgiving.com/lexilou

Get that book an antibiotic!

Blake came home from kindergarten today and told me what he learned. Turn up your volume so you can really hear what he says.

In case you didn't catch that, instead of fiction/nonfiction, he calls them "infection/not infection". Precious boy. Leave it to Nicholas to correct him.

By the way, if you are wondering what Nick is doing in the video, he's playing a bowling game on my new Droid. He got a spare.

18 months old!

Alexis has a new physical therapist. We love her! We've always had Alexis stand up by leaning forward on something, but this time, she had Lexi stand up while leaning back against the couch.



It took a minute to get her footing.

But she got it. And she stayed up.

And she liked it!

And I think she was as proud of herself as I was of her!

Happy 18 month birthday (yesterday!) Alexis!

Stand Up!

We suited her up. First with socks, then the short little orthotics. Then the bigger orthotics over the short ones. Then the fancy new kicks. On a side note, she seems to have had a significant weight gain. ;-)

Then I propped up a mirror, just out of reach. The girl loves looking at herself in a mirror. Just like her daddy.

Then a boost.

And I let go.

Standing. All by herself.