Alexis is (over) 18 months old now!

I've been thinking that I need to do this for a week or so now - I finally decided that I just need to do it already! Alexis turned 18 months old on December 4th! I can't believe it. Yes, she's now in Nursery! Yea! Not that I want to be rid of my sweet little girl, but it's SO nice to SIT IN CLASS on Sunday! Yea! She's acting and looking SO grown up. I can't even believe it! I will look at her and I seriously go into shock. She's not my baby anymore - she's my little girl. It's crazy!

She is saying more and more all the time. I'm sure I wont remember all the words she can say, but I'll try a list: Along with "singing" (humming) all the Backyardigans songs (and dancing along with each of them), she can say Shoes (of course, her favorite - she actually wakes up every morning pointing to the closet where her shoes are, yelling this word!), Yes, No, Please, Thank you, Doggy, Ducky, Kitty, Monkey, Stitches, Mommy, Daddy, (almost) Grandma/Grandpa - she kinda just says "m-ma" or "m-pa" - Banana, Fish, Ball, Uh-oh, Cheese ... our favorite ones I decided to save for last. There are three favorites right now: 1)Dallon, and 2) Emma, and 3) Jesus. Dallon is Jordan's younger brother that is gone on his mission right now in Argentina. We keep showing lots of pictures of him to Alexis and were trying to teach her his name. Last Sunday (her second time in Nursery, Yea!), she actually was brought to me because she was sick and they didn't want to get the other kids sick ... anyway, we were walking down the hallway and we passed the bulletin board with all the ward's missionaries on it. I hadn't even said anything to Alexis about Dallon that day or showed her his picture on the board. But, there we are, running down the hall and Alexis does a double-take at Dallon's picture, stops running and yells, "DALLON!!!" It was SO cute! Next, Emma is Alexis' only cousin on the Cook side. They live in Minneapolis and actually aren't able to come for Christmas and we are SO sad about that! But we will be stopping at their house for a few days on our way back to Utah, so we're so excited about that. So, since we'll be seeing them in a couple weeks, we've been trying to teach Alexis Emma's name. We have been showing her lots of pictures of Emma, too, and Alexis has said her name a few times ... but this is how Alexis is with words ... she'll say them a couple times and then never say them again! Stinker! :o) The third, Jesus, is my favorite, of course! Grandma Cook got some children's church books out for Alexis and there is one, the Articles of Faith book, that has a picture of Jesus on the front. I told her once that it was Jesus and from that point on, every time we pick up that book I ask her who it is and she proudly says, "Jesus!" It's just so sweet to hear it come from her little mouth in that sweet little voice! The other day, we were looking at another book and I wasn't thinking about it and said, "Lexi, who's this?" and she quickly answered, "Jesus!" I was so sad to have to tell her that she was wrong. :(

So, Alexis got her first haircut two days ago! I was so sad, but I had been told by a few people: You don't want to cut your sweet little girl's hair, but when you look back at pictures, you realize that she had a mullet! Alexis totally had a mullet! But now it's all straight and cute! I love it! We tried to take lots of pictures, but once Alexis sees the camera, she knows that we can show her pictures on the screen if we choose to ... and she gives us no choice. I wasn't about to make her mad while we were cutting her hair, so I gave her the camera instead of insisting on more pictures. Sad! :(

Alexis' favorite things are still Backyardigans and Monkeys, although kitties are starting to make their way quickly up the list. Grandma and Grandpa Cook have a cat, Skookum, that Alexis LOVES! Every time she sees Skooki, she has this high-pitched scream ... usually right into my ear! How fun! :o)

Alexis is also learning a couple colors and how to put things together and stuff. Let me explain that one a little more. :o) There are these cups Grandma has here that stack inside of each other and on top of each other. They are green, yellow, blue and red. Alexis can say Blue and Yellow and has pointed to them while saying those colors, too. Might be coincidence, but I'm claiming other-wise! :o) She's also gotten VERY good at stacking the cups up and especially stacking them inside of each other. At first, she'd be stacking them inside each other and put one out of order and just scream that she couldn't put the next one in! It was so funny! But now she's learned that if she can't fit it in, she needs to take the last one out and try again! What a little smarty-pants! She also loves that ball thing that has all the cut-out shapes in it that you can put the little cube-thingies in ... I don't know if anyone will have any clue what I'm talking about ... just know that Lexi's a little smarty-pants! :o)

Alexis has been so good at going to sleep, too! We decided to let her cry just a few nights in a row ... and she got over it in two nights! Her bedtime has even moved up from 10 to 8:30 ... and she STILL sleeps until 9 the next morning! It's awesome! We have a routine: diaper change, pajamas, brush teeth, prayers and na-night. She actually is starting to like brushing her teeth! She knows where the drawer is that holds her toothbrush and gets it out every morning. She'll bring me the toothbrush and the toothpaste and will brush her own teeth! She actually even did it twice today! What a good girl I have! :o)

Welp, this is gettin' a wee-bit long! Thanks if you actually read the whole thing! :o) Bottom line is - I love my baby girl! She's awesome! I couldn't ask for a better little sweat-heart! :o)

Merry Christmas! Love you all!

~Kristen~