Summer Defined by Alexa

I probably could just post this picture below and that would summarize Alexa's summer. Obviously her excitement about her new baby sister is beyond words. When I have time to pump a bottle, she hovers over me asking if she can feed the baby. Her own real baby doll, if you will. As you can see, she beams when she gets to feed Avery. She is so good with the baby, always wanting to help and anxiously awaiting the day she can pick her up and carry her around all by herself.

Coming in with a close second is Mary Kate. As referenced in a previous blog, Mary Kate is the beloved American Girl Bitty Baby she recieved for her birthday. To her credit, this doll has been with us everywhere, and she faithfully dresses it each morning and puts her pj's on at night. Below is the picture of her first recieving her at the party.

In the midst of all the baby excitement, Alexa lost her first tooth. We were actually away up in Maine at a soccer tournament for Dan. I must preface this by saying that this is one of the things in parenting that really gives me the willies. I can handle the barfing and all that, but having dangling teeth just really sceeves me out.

Nevertheless, Alexa's bottom tooth was ready to come out in the hotel. She opened her mouth, I took a look, and told her "this must come out now" - becuase if it didn't she'd probably swallow it in the night it was so loose. Prepping myself for the inevitable, I started to head to get a tissue, planning to get a big pile so I wouldn't really have to feel the tooth coming out and possibly gag. Meanwhile, as I'm starting to panic a bit, Alexa had pulled the tooth out all by herself and was sitting there in shock staring at her little chicklet of a tooth. I was so proud of her, and so releived at the same time. Then we dug around for a dollar and somehow the tooth fairy managed to find her tooth in a hotel in Maine!

Then, about a week ago, tooth number 2 came out. This time Grandma helped with it. Phew, 2 down 30 something to go. At least I dodged the first two. But Alexa is such a champ - and so proud of her toothless smile.
Below is the picture of just the one missing tooth...

The next highlight of Alexa's summer was the giant Nativity scene at Santa's Village. She is especially fond of the idea of the baby Jesus, and her eyes almost popped out of her head when she saw this. She spent some time kneeling by the manger and carefully inspected and felt all the figures in the scene. I don't know. I think I have the next Mother Theresa on my hands.. Moving on with the highlights, one day Alexa announced to me that she wanted to get her ears pierced. I told her that we would wait a week, and if she still wanted them done at the end of the week, we would go and do them. So, we made the trip to the mall and visited Claire's for her to take a look at how it would all go down. She still agreed. So, after about 15 pages of paperwork and signingI noticed that at the top of the page it stated, "getting your ears pierced is a big decision." It is?

Then it hit me. I am piercing her ears and these holes will be there forever. What if they are crooked? What if they are uneven? What if she hates me for allowing her to do this? I'm signing away all these papers and am really making a decision for her. All this piercing was coming a couple weeks after my parents just found out that I had my belly button pierced about 14 years ago. I'm sure there was some kind of connection between allowing Alexa to get her ears pierced and my apparent "rebellious" belly piercing.
Nevertheless, it was time for Alexa to choose the pair she wanted from a small case of various earrings. She pointed at the 3 carat size diamonds. "That's my girl" I thought to myself, and then redirected her to something a little more her size. She picked out little pink diamond daisies. And on the count of three, they were in. You see her smiling in the before pictures. I don't have any after pictures because she started to cry and I had to put the camera down. Then I almost started to cry when we went to pay. $37.50!!! I guess I was expecting to pay about 20 bucks for the procedure, but prices have certainly inflated since I was last pierced.

This summer she has been working on her reading and writing in preparation for kindergarten. She is so proud of her new abilities, and we often find notes all around the house. On this particular humid morning, the door to the house got swollen shut. When we tried to open it, the knob broke and so we were stuck. Alexa immediately got out her paper and writing utensils and left a note for Dan, hanging on the kitchen wall. It says. "no door dad" and signed her name. I love things like that.

Overall, Alexa has had a really fun summer. Below she is having a picnic outside for lunch, and of course, Mary Kate is there in all her picnic-ing glory. She is now looking forward to starting school in just a few short days! My little baby is a big girl now. And she is so beautiful and special.