10 Months

Has it really been a month since my last post? Wowzer, I have some catching up to do! One consequence of the kids going to school is that I have to drag myself out of bed at 5:45 am each morning... which means that I must actually go to bed at a decent hour... which has really cut into my late night blogging time.

Lexi's 10th month with us is going to be an exciting one. She became a Terrific Two on September 18th! She loves to watch her brothers play soccer and runs up and down the field sidelines cheering, "Go, Go, Go!" She has figured that running ON the field will quickly result in being buckled into her stroller. She also loves watching Titans and Vols football on TV. I hope to get to take her to a Titans game live this season. We have a big surprise planned in a couple of weeks too!

She enjoys her little "school" and I should do a entire post on that alone. A few other updates include:

Personality: Sparkling, bubbly, almost always happy, affectionate, observant, high energy

Speech: Still not talking as much as I think she should, but she does have too many words to count. She doesn't use sign language anymore because she says all the words she used to sign. This makes me wish I had taught her more signs. She gets frustrated when we can't understand what she wants us to do. Her brothers have done an amazing job at getting her to say new words and pronounce them correctly. Some words have evolved too, like "puppies" are now "dogs" and "kitty cats" are just "cats" unless they are baby kitties. Sometimes she surprises me like when she called out "apples" in the produce section of the grocery store or when she called the deer in our front yard "cows". She may need some speech therapy in the near future. She certainly wants to talk and sometimes just makes up silly words.

Eating: She had become very picky over the summer, but then her school has been able to get her to eat just about anything for lunch or snack, which thankfully has spilled over to home. She could eat her weight in cheese, yogurt, grits or oatmeal. She also started to like cereal with milk. She'll eat most green vegetables and potatoes, but still doesn't like meat in any form or fashion. If I want to get her to eat some meat like chicken, turkey, or beef, I have to finely chop it up and mix it into mashed potatoes. I think it may be the texture because she doesn't seem to have a problem with the actual taste. Or it could be that she is "two". How does a mom know these things? She ate an entire bowl of New England Clam Chowder last night. Go figure!

Sleeping: This has never been an issue for Lexi. She goes right to bed at 8:00 pm every night and sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00 am. She would sleep in until 8:00 if we were quieter about getting the boys ready for school. Every night before bed, she MUST have hugs and kisses from everyone in the house, which we are more than happy to give. She still sleeps in our room, next to my side of the bed. She has started climbing out of bed in the mornings all by herself. Her room is so far from our room that I am going to just move her toddler bed to our room and pack up of the little crib she has been sleeping in since she came home last December. At school, she sleeps on a cot and stays put during nap time, so I am hoping that will hold true at home too.

Motor Skills: Lexi can jump with both feet off the ground, stand on one leg like a pelican, run like the wind, she tries to peddle a trike, she can do forward rolls, swim across the spa tub, climb the rock wall on the play set, hang upside down on monkey bars, and so much more. And she is still the most flexible child I've ever met. I really see gymnastics in her future.

Shoes: This is our biggest challenge bar none. She will only, and I mean ONLY, wear those %@!$ (sorry) pink Mary Jane Crocks. It is getting harder and harder to squeeze her foot in them and it's getting colder outside, and they do not match any of her Fall wardrobe. But to even suggest another pair of shoes results in a full-blown, screaming, crying, rolling on the floor, throw the other pair of shoes across the room, temper tantrum. I only have found one pair of shoes that she will even allow to grace her shoe drawer. But she doesn't want to actually wear them. The one time I managed to wrangle them on her, she walked around the house picking her feet up like a cat wearing socks, crying her eyes out too. Any suggestions out there? Please? Pretty Please?

Misc.: Lexi loves band aides and bugs loves her. Because she is so active and enjoys being outside so much, there is no shortage of bug bites or boo boos to keep up with her bandaide obsession. The current favorite is Hello Kitty, but any type will do, including race cars, soccer balls, Sponge Bob, or just plain old boring brown ones.

She knows all her colors and can say the word for each color pretty clearly. She adores babies and is showing more interest in playing with her dolls. She can count to five, but sometimes skips number four. She can tell you that she is "2" and tries to hold up two fingers. She must have her purse every time she leaves the house. Her favorite finger games are "Where is Thumbkin?" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider". She likes Elmo and Mickey Mouse.

As usual, there is so much more that I could say about our sweet girl, but alas, my blogging time has come to an end. In just two more months, we will celebrate our one year Family Day! After the one year mark, I will be closing this blog and creating a new family blog. Although I have always included the entire family in this blog, it's purpose was to record memories about our journey to Russia for our daughter. For any readers who are just starting the process or are right in the middle of the seemingly never-ending waiting, I just want to remind you that once your child is home, time will go so quickly and all the paperwork and waiting will become a distant memory. Did that even happen? Hasn't Lexi just always been with us from day one? Seriously!

Adoption was just one chapter of our family's life book. The new blog will pick up with the next chapter right where this blog leaves off. I sincerely hope to be able to keep it updated more regularly. I need to figure out how to make it look all cool and trendy and I should probably have a contest for a new name. Hmmm, I'll give that some thought and maybe put up a poll or something.

If any of the "Littlest Tsarina" readers would like to leave a special message for Lexi or the rest of us, I'd really appreciate it. You have until December 10th and then I am going to send this blog to the printer. The new blog will roll out by the New Year!

Happy Fall Ya'll