Update

Hi to all you loyal blog followers. :) I'm sure I've lost a lot of people since I haven't posted anything in a couple months. I apologize but am realizing that the older Alexa gets, the less free time I have! It's a good thing though. She is doing so much and progressing so well. I do have some videos that I will try to post but the videos take forever to load on here. If you would like to be on the video email list, please email me at ewing1218@sbcglobal.net or leave me a comment on here. Whenever I upload videos to the computer, an email goes out to everyone on the list. It's pretty handy and much much quicker than uploading the videos to the blog.
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So an update ---- Alexa is walking! Full out walking!! It's so amazing! God has given her the ability and the confidence and now she can walk with me when we go places. We are loving every single minute of it!!
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I will try to update more frequently. Hoping to at least post updates even if I don't have time to upload many videos.

More Walking!

Alexa has been much more stable this week in her walking. She's doing so much better. Her big motivation is other kids but since we don't have any of those at home, I had to bribe her with food. :) She does great but then when she gets close to what she wants, she kind of walks and falls into it. However, on Tuesday, which has been her best day yet!, she would just walk right over to what she wanted, very very very stable. She's so close. We're trying to be careful to not push her too hard though. That's difficult on me when I get excited and want to keep practicing with her. We're hoping that if we don't push her too hard (like we might have last time she started), then she'll really get going... Keep praying!
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"Dog Dog Dog"

Alexa LOVES dogs! I've probably said that before. She loves her own dog but she especially loves her grandma and grandpa's dog, Sugar. I think it's because Sugar let Alexa do anything to her. Matty is more particular! This morning during breakfast, Alexa could not concentrate while she's eating. She kept getting so excited, pointing, and talking. It is very uncommon for her to not be interested in eating breakfast! There was a box of doggy treats on the kitchen table and the picture of the dog looked like Sugar. Alexa was so excited and it was really cute so I had to grab the camera.
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Purse

So a few weeks ago, I noticed that Alexa had a fascination with my purse! She kept getting into it all the time. I thought that maybe it was time she had her own purse. My friend Ashley and I looked around for something cute, yet practical. ;) We found a bunch of fancy purses but figured those wouldn't work that well for Alexa to actually use and perhaps carry around. We found this little bag at Target and it's not exactly what I had in mind for a "purse", but it's very cute and we figured that she could actually put stuff in it and carry it around. And boy, does she ever! She loves her purse! The first night I gave it to her, she put it right on her shoulder and knew exactly where it went. When it would start to fall off, she would lift her arm to keep it on. She "walked" all around the house with her purse on her shoulder. And ever since then, she'll be playing and find it and put it on. Here's some pictures from this morning. She was playing and I check on her and she's reading her book with her purse on her arm!
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This was the closest I could get her to look at the camera.
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She loves her books too!
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Alexa and Aunt Kari

Alexa did not want to have her picture taken!
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Still didn't...
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Ok, maybe?
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"hug"
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Ok, I'll sit nice but I'm not going to smile big. ;) Very cute though!
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Happy Friday!

I was looking at the videos I posted yesterday (and most of the videos that I have on my computer) and I realized that Alexa is mainly in her pj's and has crazy hair. I promise you that she does not look like that every day! =) I do comb her hair regularly. This morning I decided to take a couple happy pictures of Alexa with her hair all pretty! Enjoy!
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Big cute smile!! (with graham crackers in her teeth...)

Talking Video

Here Alexa is doing a great job with saying mama and dada! She was having fun with it too. :)
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Laughing Video

Back in January... I got a balloon for my birthday and Alexa LOVED it! She would play and play and laugh and laugh. SO CUTE!
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First Haircut - Feb 2

Alexa had her haircut for the first time in February. I know most of you have probably seen her since then :) but there are some people that haven't been able to yet. So here's some before and after pictures on that day!
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Videos... let's try this!

Ok, we're trying something different now. :) I'd appreciate feedback if you all can get this to work or not. Below is a link that should take you to a flipshare channel that will have videos on it. Right now I have 3 videos. As promised, the 1st good walking video from January. And also a cute one of Alexa laughing and having a blast with a balloon. And the third is Alexa babbling and saying "mama" and "dada". If this link works for everyone, you can bookmark it on your computer and I will also repost it when I add more videos. Anyway, let me know if it does or does not work so I can add more videos or try to do something different!

http://www.flipshare.com/view.aspx?nRecipient=&nFrame=YTk4Njk3YjYtMzBkNS00ZjRhLTkwNWYtNzRhN2U4YTVjYTg3&nMedia=NGI3MTk1MzAtMzhjNi00ODQ2LTgxZDAtNTYwNjFhM2I3Mjhj&nT=2402722020885287

Videos...

So I'm having trouble posting the walking video... I don't know if it's too big or what. I'll try again and see if I can figure something else out...

Update

First of all, thank you to the loyal followers who still check this blog even though I've been terrible at updating it. It seems that the further I get behind, the harder it is to get motivated to catch up. So here's the plan. I'm going to give you an update about the past month. And then I will add some pictures and videos that are worth posting. They may not be in order and they may be only one a day or every other day but I will get some posted. Once they're caught up, hopefully it will be easier to stay on top of things.
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The past month and half have been very busy. Things started back up at church so we're there 4 mornings a week. Alexa's therapy has increased so we have both PT and Speech separate every week. That's what Alexa and mommy are busy doing. Daddy has been very busy at work but we are thankful for the job security!
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Since the last post, Alexa did take about 20 tiny steps while still standing for 4 minutes. I actually got this on video. That will be the first video I get posted! Promise! She hasn't done more walking quite that well but she is consistently taking at least 3-4 steps, 3-4 times a day. She is doing extremely well at walking besides us and only holding onto one hand.
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Alexa seems to be doing more "babbling" and she loves books. She has started pointed at specific things in books and identifying the dogs, babies, etc. She's still doing really well with shape puzzles and getting much better at her animal puzzles. She has started to "color" which means she taps the crayon on the paper. Big improvement! Her problem solving has excelled dramatically. It is very exciting to watch her as I pretend not to be watching her. She does much better when I'm not "paying attention" to her. :)
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Another big accomplishment is that she has started to crawl up stairs. Today was her absolute best. She crawled up the 2 flights of stairs from our downstairs to our kitchen. And she did it 3 times!! What great exercise and very neat to see!
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Thanks again for checking our blog and I will be adding the random videos and pictures soon...

Playing Piano

Alexa loved playing the piano at Grandma and Grandma Munsch's house. We thought she was pretty good for her first time!! And please do ignore her hair. It was terrible when she woke up but we wanted to hurry and get on the road so we didn't even bother with attempting to comb those rats out...
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Christmas

Alexa was so much fun at Christmas this year. She really got into opening the presents. We have several great pictures of opening presents at home before we went to all the Grandparents. Here you go!

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Getting ready to open presents!

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Alexa insisted on sitting in her chair to open presents.

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She LOVES playing with her new kitchen set.

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Alexa loves books!

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The only picture we could get her to show the camera her gift.

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She loves to give all her stuffed animals hugs!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Big exciting news... Alexa is getting closer and closer to walking. She's been standing on her own for longer periods and much more frequently AND she initiates it on her own. She pushes her toy around and just lets go and stands there. She'll stand for at least 2-3 minutes now. It is very exciting. Yesterday, she took 4 good and intentional steps!! She might have gone further if I was further away from her. We worked on it again last night and she took another 3 good steps. Closer and closer!
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I'll try to get Christmas pictures posted soon. Also, we got a video camera for Christmas so we're taking short little videos a lot. I'll post those too. Hopefully next week, we'll be updated again! :)