This past Sunday, I turned 33! Hard to believe another year has come and gone! Alexa and I enjoyed dinner at Sarducci's in Montpelier on Saturday evening in the company of Minna and Ptah, as well as some new friends (well, an old friend for Minna!), Sandy and her husband. Sandy and my mom went to high school together in Fair Lawn, NJ and Sandy's family have made their home in Plainfield, VT for nearly 40 years!

Following dinner, the staff brought out cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. Alexa began to cry and held tight to Minna until the singing came to an end. Fortunately, the cake made everything better!

Before we left for dinner, Alexa made sure to grab the candles for Mommy's cake...

Sara and Rachel treated Alexa and I to lunch on Sunday. The girls, Anna, Alexa and Charlotte played with Silly Putty and Alexa taught the others about her favorite restaurant activity...shaking the salt and pepper into a napkin/plate to make "pizza." I don't recall exactly when this began, but Alexa seeks out the salt and pepper shakers almost immediately after we are seated and inevitably she sneezes about 3 minutes into her creation!

On Wednesday, Mother Nature decided to remind us it actually is still Winter in Vermont! She did so with upwards of a foot of very wet snow! Alexa, along with her pony, ventured outdoors with me to shovel, eat snow (A LOT of it), and make a snow angel or two with the kids next door.

Take note of the fists full of snow. Alexa seems to enjoy eating lots of it. Too bad there is no nutritional value in it...I'd feed her snow morning, noon and night!

I managed to keep a smile on my face, despite shoveling several inches of heavy, wet snow. Snow that actually had a hint of blue to it because of the water content in it. I really should have taken a minute to put a hat on....

After a long day, sometimes I want to do this too!!

No day would be complete without a bit of silliness...

What a personality this little girl has got! We haven't been up to anything exceptionally exciting in the past few weeks. Keeping busy with our regular routine: daycare, ballet class, swimming class and playdates with good friends from time to time. Alexa is really continuing to demonstrate the indepedent and intelligent little person that she is. She insists on helping in almost all circumstances, from preparing meals, to cleaning up a spill, brushing her own teeth and even driving the car (see previous post, she's not really driving)!

She really has a way with words too! This week as we were finishing up our evening routine, washing hands and face and brushing our teeth, Alexa snuck one last pump of the soap dispenser. I looked at her and firmly said, "No! That's enough soap for tonight." Alexa vehemently stated, "You can't say no to me. I Alexa Paige!" It was hard not to crack a smile. Where did this sassiness come from?

According to Alexa's daycare provider, Tammy, she has been using her words to express herself very effectively "at school." Tammy recently commented on the significant growth in her vocabulary over the few months that she has been attending daycare. Tonight she told me that her friend Rowan had "1,2,3,4,5 blueberries." I said, "Oh yeah. Then what?" She said, "He had a blue poop." I'm not sure that what Tammy meant when she said Alexa's been using her words!

This afternoon, Minna and I were tickling Alexa's belly button and she said, "You gonna poke holes in my belly." We then explored each other's belly buttons and had a really good giggle! We hid from dragons (a.k.a. Riley and Emma) and we got very nexcited over a game of Peek-a-Boo! We spent the evening swimming and had a great time playing horsies in the pool. Alexa likes topretend that we go na-night in the corner of the pool, a.k.a. the barn and then she shouts, "It's sunshine" which means we all wake up!

Alexa continues to develop confidence in the swimming pool. At the start of a recent class, I had just barely gotten the words of warning out of my mouth, "Alexa, you don't have your wings on..." when she dove right in, only to find she was less bouyant than she had anticipated. Needless to say, I was quickly pulling her back to the surface, fully anticipating choking and tears. To my surprise, she emerged just fine. In fact, she didn't appear all that phased by what had just happened. We finished class sans wings and afterward I put them on and we enjoyed about 45 minutes of swimming and playing together.

Alexa is already anticipating her 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe it's only 2 months away! She has been practicing holding three fingers up to indicate her new age. She's also very excited to light candles on her birthday cake! I'm not sure that she understands that I am having a birthday before hers, but I have a good feeling she's going to be really excited about it!

I found some old photos of Brian and I when we were really little. I often have difficulty seeing any resemblence between Alexa and I despite some that have been pointed out by friends and family. Then I found this picture...

and I thought "That little girl looks familiar!"

Don't know exactly how old I am in this one, maybe 5. Again, I can really see similarities between Alexa and I here!

These days Alexa is curios abot EVERYTHING! This means she will go to great measres to find out what she can about everything and anything. She's quite a dare devil! This week I found her here...

We continue to keep busy with lots of toys and the ocassional art project. We bought these plaster fish figurines several months ago. I found them in the closet and decided that it would make a great Sunday afternoon activity. Alexa had a terrific time coloring them all. I worked primarilly on one, the octopus.

Eva came over to visit one afternoon after school! It's so much fun to listen to them play. Today they spent some time playing hide n' seek. Alexa rode around on her bike yelling, "Eba, where are you?" while Eva found some really good hiding spots, including my shower!

On Thanksgiving morning, Alexa watched some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on tv before playing for the better part of the day. We made a small turkey and some potatoes and veggies for just the three of us.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to Church Street to watch the Santa parade. There were reindeer as well, and a lot of kids eager to get their first glimpse of Santa. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and even our local weatherman, Tom Messner were on hand for the festivities. We didn't do much shopping on this Black Friday, bt it was fn to be out and about for a bit in the crowds! The weather was miserable so we did not stick around for the tree lighting that evening.

Lately, Alexa enjoys being a "puppy." She and Minna made a leash last week and Alexa was thrilled to be taken for a walk and receive a treat when she was a "good boy!" Her puppy name is Grommet! Here she is "sitting like a good boy" waiting patiently for her treat!

On Monday afternoon, we picked up Jailee from daycare while her mom went to some doctor appointments. The girls played with playdoh for a while. Alexa said she was making a tree and Jailee told me she was making a tree house! It's so fun to watch them play together! Unfortunately, as the playdate wore on, Alexa was slightly less happy to share her belongings. Perhaps she was tired, but nonethe less, she responded, "Yes" when I asked her if she needed a time out. Not an easy thing to do, but sometimes it's necessary.

So about 3 weeks ago, the potty training thing just seemed to kick into high gear. Alexa really gets it now and we make several trips to the potty each day. As a mom, this gets exhausting, but without a doubt, this is a major milestone to be celebrated. Alexa really is becoming an independent little girl and I am there to cheer her on with each trip to the potty! On some days she even takes the initiative to pull her step stool to the toilet and climb up onto it all by herself. She knows the routine, pee pee, wipe and wash hands...all culminating with the ever coveted "treat." Yes, the reinforcement part seemed to be the hardest thing. Stickers and high fives only went so far. Then it was an M & M, or M's M's, as Alexa calls them. Then it was, "I want hollipop." All that sugar does not do a toddler well. This week Minna bought Alexa a really cute, Fur Real duck (an electronic duck that quacks and drinks from a bottle). This followed a trip to the potty in a department store. Last week, while traveling to CT, Alexa used the potty at Applebee's and upon exiting the bathroom, she announced to one of the wait staff, "I went pee pee on the potty." She is really proud and others are proud of her as well! Today, Alexa wore her first pair of big girl underpants. She picked them out herelf...Dora! She was so pleased when we put them on...

In addition to the time we spend in the bathroom, we have been busy in other parts of the house as well! I had a major painting project to complete this week. Always the helper, Alexa was quick to grab a roller and get her hands dirty. I was willing to take all the help I could get and as it turned out, Alexa was the only volunteer! She did a great job, but found it less fun then she must have thought it would be because after a few rolls, she was eager to get back to her Thomas train movie!

We also managed to have some fun this week, including a favorite activity...riding the bike in the house! Now that the painting is done and the house is clean and ready to be shown, Alexa and I can concentrate on finding activities outside of the house and getting back to what's really important!