Our “Cheesy” 21-month-old

Last week, Alexa crept a little closer to becoming a two-year-old. She now holds the rank of a 21-month-old. She is such a hoot and we truly love to watch her learn and grow everyday. She has a fairly large vocabulary these days. So much so that I can’t keep up very well with the words she knows or the phrases she puts together. I can say all of it is precious. We enjoy listening to her communicate with us. It’s a delight to watch her figure out how this good ol’ world works. Here are just a few things she’s been up to this month . . .

ADVENT SEASON – “Jesus Coming”
Alexa LOVES Advent. When we light the candles, she’ll say “Jesus Coming.” She’ll hold baby Jesus from her Fisher Price Nativity Set and always insists on singing “World” (Joy to the World) when we finish the Advent devotional (or during the devotional). She also enjoys singing Isaiah 9:6 – especially the description of Jesus as “mighty God.” This is a memory verse we’ve worked on all December. As well as quoting Luke 2:11. Her greatest delight is helping snuff out the candles and watch the smoke rise. Then, she immediately runs to our Advent Christmas tree calendar to hang her “ormanent” on the button of her choice. I sort of wonder what we’ll do when Christmas is over because she has truly loved Advent season.


The Advent candles. I will buy an Advent candle ring next year but this works.


Alexa helping Mommy with the scripture reading. She enjoys using her pink Bible.


Helping Daddy snuff out the lights.


Hanging her “ormanent” on the Advent tree. It’s great to watch Alexa’s face when she sees the new ornament every night.


This is the Advent tree Chris had growing up. His mom, Karen, made it for him. Now it will be passed down to Alexa – or I might make her a new one so we can keep Chris’. We’ll see how crafty Mommy can be in the years to come.

ROCKING & BOATING
We brought Daddy’s rocking horse home from CA. Charlie made this horse for Chris when he was a little tike. The horsey suffered a broken leg from the flight home (silly TSA inspectors) but Daddy fixed it. Alexa will say, “Broken. Daddy fix it.” She insists on wearing shoes to ride her horse although these pictures indicate otherwise. And she enjoys feeding her horsey carrots (orange crayons) for breakfast & dinner.


Rocking in her new Christmas dress.


Rocking & howling at the moon. Yeah – I have no idea what she’s doing.


Rocking & watching a video on Daddy’s iPhone.


Rocking & staring off into space.

Aside from trotting around on her horsey, Alexa enjoys boating in her box. She has a sailboat, a large box, and a tug boat, a little tiny box that provides just enough room for her bottom to rest in while her legs & arms plop out.
BEING A SUPER HERO Alexa knows nothing of super heroes but she went to a friend’s birthday party where the theme was Wonder Pets. She received a cute little cape as a party favor, and oh, the power of suggestion. Alexa loves to run around in her cape wearing Daddy’s belt.


Alexa flexes her super hero muscles before saving the world of impending doom.


Just look at that sweet face of anticipation as she gets suited up. Dressing up is so exciting Mommy! Come on Daddy – this girl’s got to get to crime fighting.


Had to share the back of the cape with you – so creative!

READING
Alexa loves her books. In fact, a babysitter mentioned recently how amazed she was by Alexa’s excitement for reading. We’re thrilled she loves her books. I feel like it’s been the key to her vast vocabulary and ability to recognize so many facets of her world and memorize like a champion. She has learned to express phrases with lots of emotion too. The girl’s got drama!

It got quiet one afternoon while I was preparing lunch. I was curious what Alexa was up to when I found her nestled in the big recliner immersed in the wonder of trucks.


Reading her “Thanksgiving” book from Aunt Kay & Uncle Jim. This is Alexa’s new favorite. When we ask Alexa what she wants to read for bedtime, one of the first books on her list is “Giving.” She loves the page where the pilgrims thank God for bringing them safely to America.


I don’t know but it must’ve been a big story.


Umm . . . excuse me. I’m reading a book with Ama right now. No flash photography!


More reading with Ama.


Reading with Opa after bathtime. Who doesn’t like “Winnie the Pooh” after a bath!?


Speaking of baths, I had to share this random pic. Alexa gets a kick out of her spike.

JUST BECAUSE
I could share picture after picture of Alexa simply being Alexa. She’s just a hoot.


Alexa wanted to throw her leaf into the pond just like the rocks the grown-ups were throwing in. As you can imagine, it didn’t work so well.


So, Alexa decided the leaf would look perfect smashed onto Daddy’s head. Yep . . . that’s our sweet lil’ Alexa Hope.

If you’ve made it to the end of this post – you deserve a good laugh. Here are two priceless pics from the family session Shannon, my dear friend & gal I work for, photographed for us (www.shannonho.com). I’ll be posting more pics from our session, but these two are definitely worth sharing when it comes to Alexa being, as we like to call her, a “goose monkey.”



We call this pic Alexa’s Braveheart pose. All she needed was some blue paint on her face and her super hero cape.