Great Strides

It's such an exciting time! Alexis seems to be making great strides in so many areas. There are so many little things that Alexis is learning to do that I took for granted when the boys were little. For example, Alexis has been able to bang two objects together for quite a while now, but when it came time to clap, she wasn't able to bring her hands all the way together. She would just kind of flap them in the air. But we've finally made contact!



She still usually only makes the sounds "Dada" and "Uh-Oh" with the occasional "Mamamamama" when she's unhappy (not that it happens very often). But when we tell her something like, "can you say 'ball'?", we will occasionally see her move her lips as if she's practicing.



The only signs I've really done with her so far are the signs for "eat", "more", and "all done", and I believe she has tried to communicate "more" and "all done" a few times. And she now will shake her head "no". I get so excited when she does these things that she usually ends up clapping for herself. And then I get emotional. It's exhausting.



Alexis had an appointment with the audiologist on Friday. The audiologist was pleased. She said she didn't really respond to some of the higher pitched tones, but at this age, that can be normal and not a source of concern. When I mentioned that Alexis is scheduled to start speech therapy in August, the audiologist said that the way Lexi is engaging and babbling and mimicking now, this should be the prime time to start speech. The new ST will be at our house on August 5.



When our friends from Florida were in town a few weeks ago, Alexis started puckering up every time Debbie would blow her kisses. Then Debbie left. And the kisses stopped. Sigh. (Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who she really loves.) But finally, she has started puckering again. LOVE IT! And boy is she good at it.



Really, really good at it.

And Lexi's biggest news is that she can finally sit herself up. There were a couple of times when Alexis would be lying down, we would look away, and when we looked back, she was sitting up. But then finally about a week ago, we witnessed it. It's so exciting...all these things that she's been trying to do in therapy for soooo long... Except now it's a bit harder putting her down for her naps because she wants to sit up in her crib. But I'm not complaining.



And now, she is already so close to crawling. She gets up in the crawling position easily. She can move her arms around, she can move her legs a little bit, but it's just a matter of coordinating the crawling pattern. So close!



The girl has some mad skills! Cuteness being the number 1.