Nineteen Month and Twenty Month Snapshot: Alexandra

by biscuitsspace on March 16, 2020

I completed the monthly snapshots of our beloved Alex during her first year. Here is the snapshot of Alex’s nineteenth month and twentieth month! (You can view Alex’s thirteenth and fourteenth months here; Alex’s fifteenth and sixteenth months here; and Alex’s seventeenth and eighteenth months here). Alex is changing all of the time and she is still growing like a weed!

How is our little girl already twenty months old! The time continues to fly by very quickly! I cannot believe we will have a two-year-old in short order! This is such a sweet time, and there has been so much change in these last two months. Alex is finally sleeping consistently throughout the night and it has really made a difference. Since birth, Alex has not been the best sleeper at night. Right now, her sleep is consistent and predictable, and I am honestly getting the best sleep since before she was born. Her hair is getting longer, and she still has her lovely curls. We can even do little pigtails now! She is not a picky eater, and she is willing to try anything. She is also working on getting her two-year molars.

Alex is quite outgoing, she has a sense of humor, and she is fun and adventurous! She has the cutest laugh and giggle! She is dancing up a storm and she loves to dance (she makes up her own dances) on the hardwood floors at home! She loves music and she makes up her own songs, which she sings, and it is so endearing. She still loves her bath time and she loves practicing going under water and blowing bubbles during this time! She has even started to take a few showers with me, and she loves it! She also is really into balls right now — she loves to throw them and play with them! Alex is also captivated by her Daddy’s trains, shown below! She still loves to read her books, she loves for us to read to her, and she enjoys going to the library and bookstore. A favorite book right now, is the “I spy” books! She loves looking at her books, and she frequently says, “What’s that?” She is spending more time on her own reading her books and playing, which is great! She also loves coloring. She made the cutest Valentine for us at school and we gave the girls Valentine gifts, which they loved! Alex loves going to school and she enjoys learning and being with her friends at school. Alex is learning to count numbers and she is saying more words and she seems to comprehend and understand more and more each day. Her favorite that phrase is, “What’s that?” Alex still loves to be outside and go to the play grounds. She is quite curious; and, she never forgets anything!

However, it has been a tough winter filled with sickness here. Alex missed at least a week of school as she had fevers, a double ear infection, and bad cold. It took multiple rounds of antibiotics to kick the infection. I then got run down taking care of Alex, and I got strep, the flu, pink eye, and a bad cold all in quick succession. Then, Doug got a bad cold. This all happened over a six week stretch. We just cannot wait for spring to come fast enough, and it’s almost here, technically! Victory and Alex bonded during all of this sickness, as she is so attentive to everyone in our home. As a result, there are not as many photos taken during this time, as I did not feel well.

Once everyone felt better, we took Alex to the train store to get a few things for Doug’s train set up. After much work, Doug has nearly finished his train set up, a passion of his, and he can run three trains simultaneously! And, it is so sweet, because each night, Alex asks to go up and have Doug run the trains! The trains have never been run so much, ever! It is so nice Doug can share his passion with Alex! (A brief video is shown below). Doug even got Alex a girl’s conductor’s hat, and Alex loves to conduct in only her diaper, of course! We are working on getting Victory to come up during this train time, but she is not yet comfortable. So, we bring Victory up during this time, only to have her leave! So, we are working on it! For Valentine’s Day, Doug got Alex an Ikea train, which she loves and she is pretty good putting the track together and ‘running her own train’ liker her Daddy!

We also took Alex to Port Discovery, a children’s museum, with her little friend from school. Alex had a great time. It is one of the neatest and most interactive places that I have been to for kids. As you will see in the images below, there was a large slide, four stories high, and one had to be five years in order to go down the slide. So Doug broke the rules, and they climbed up to the top together, as he knew Alex would love it. They reached the top, and Alex sat right down on the slide; and, thankfully, the museum worker let them go down the slide even though Alex is clearly not five-years-old. It was neat to watch them go down together! Alex still seems to have no fear and she is pretty adventurous! There were so many activities for the children, and Alex really enjoyed pretending to be a cashier and pressing all of the buttons on the cash register checking people out with their food!

We were finally recently able to get Alex back into swimming lessons after everyone got over being sick! She still loves it! Doug and I take turns going in the pool with her! And, we now have Alex on a wait list for a gymnastics class since she is so active and loves to climb! That should be fun as well!

We also went with Alex on a school field trip to the Maryland Science Center, where she had a wonderful time with her class! Alex loved the Kid’s Room and she especially loved the dinosaur exhibit! She had a great time exploring, as always!

We were fortunate to get some fun outings in, described above, before things really changed out here late last week due to the COVID-19. We hope you are all staying safe. It is a really crazy time, isn’t it? We will have to be really creative to keep Alex occupied, while finding safe ways for her to burn her energy! Most everything is cancelled out here and work schedules have been modified greatly for many people.

Alex still cuddles with me for a little bit before bed and sits with me in the glider. She no longer falls asleep in my arms outside of her being really sick. It is a reminder that everything is always changing and it is all so fleeting. What I will remember from these months is how she wakes up talking to herself in her crib, and it is so captivating. She is entertaining herself more in the mornings, which buys us a little time! However, she loves to and prefers to play with us! How she greets Victory in the morning with a big smile and wave, whereby Alex says, “Hi Tory!” I always love her big smile, which melts our hearts. Alex also loves to run up to us, and she gives us hugs on our legs, while we are standing. It is so sweet. And, she is always up for an outing and adventure! She is becoming her own little person right before our very eyes! I feel so fortunate. It has been such as journey. We are doing our best to embrace the now, the present. We are so grateful!