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!