What a doll!

Yesterday I was updating my mother about what Lexi is doing these days, and I had sent her this picture that I had taken of her, mostly to show Sarah, who is away this week in Johannesburg on business, the new outfit and shoes that I had bought Lexi while Sarah is gone. I noted to my mother that she looks so serious and poised in the picture, wearing those red shoes and holding a book, like I caught her in a studious moment. She never really smiles for pictures and doesn't understand that she should smile when a camera is pointed at her.

I also told my mother that Lexi is just so cute moving around on her feet now. I was sitting on the couch yesterday morning watching the news, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her come running out from behind the couch and circle in front of the coffee table and go around behind the other couch. And then a few seconds later, she made the circuit again. Later I was sitting at the dining room table, eating my lunch, and she seemed so delighted to walk up to me, banana in hand, to just pat my leg. Sometimes, like that, she doesn't need anything, but she just wants to be close to me or Sarah and to get our approval, which she requests with a big grin, and that makes it all worthwhile.

What a doll she is!

My mother told me that this was the most loving, sweetest thing she has ever read about a little girl and that I should print out my e-mail in which I had told her these things and put it in Lexi's baby book. Well, we don't really have a baby book for these sort of things for Lexi. Some parents keep a scrapbook or a journal. Our scrapbook/journal is this, our baby blog, which is our way of recording these sorts of moments and developments. It just happens to be public so you can enjoy them too!

What a crazy kid!

Lexi seems to be exploring a whole range of facial expressions these days – and we think she doesn’t know what most of them mean! Puzzled, quizzical, scowling – all have flitted across her face at times that don’t seem to call for them to her parents.

She is definitely getting the hang of walking though she still doesn’t automatically pull/get herself up to be able to get started. She has new scraps and bumps and falling happens regularly but usually doesn’t upset her.

She also seems moody at times – she will cry for what seems like no reason and then the next thing, she is happy again. Her words are still not understandable by her parents so maybe she is telling us what the problem is and we just don’t get it. Sometimes, she gets in the car seat happily, other times it is like trying to lasso a wild horse.

She is certainly a lot of fun and brings much delight to our days.

Practicing those walking skills

We went away for a long weekend, to Lake Nakuru, north of Nairobi in Kenya. The various places we were - in our hotel, at restaurants - gave Lexi many opportunities to practice her new walking skills. Here she is in our hotel room having a ball walking around:

More updates on what Lexi is doing these days

Updates on Lexi’s development:

• She is getting better at greeting people and saying good-bye. More and more now, she is saying hi when she sees people she knows. But it is done in a funny way and sometimes at funny times. She says it like it’s a question, lifting up her voice at the end: “Hi?” She’ll say it to one of us when we enter her room in the morning or when she sees one of us downstairs in the living room and she’s upstairs in the open area over the living room looking through the railing. And she’s slowly learning to wave bye-bye, but only when prompted, mostly when she hears the word “kwaheri” (“see you later” in KiSwahili). She also somehow learned that “hi” is what you say when you answer the phone. We don’t even have a traditional telephone – what you would use for a land line (with a receiver and a base) – at home. So it came as a surprise a few weeks ago when we had to spend the night in a hotel in downtown Nairobi when our flight to Johannesburg was cancelled that Lexi said “hi” when picking up a phone. We were in the hotel room, and she was crawling around everywhere, playing with everything, including the phone (again, not a cell phone, which is mostly what she has seen us use). It hadn’t rung, but she picked it up and said “hi” in a very high pitch. Every time we pretended to pick up a call on the phone and hold it to her ear, she did this, even at other hotels we were staying at in South Africa. Perhaps Jane has taught her this when they were playing together.
• She is continuing to speak in what sounds like formed phrases and sentences but in her baby babble language. But lately she has added strange facial expressions to her speech. It’s mostly a furrowed brow, so she looks at us with a frown or scowl on her face when we really know she’s not unhappy or mad. It’s just funny to see her try out new facial expressions and not really be aware of what they’re conveying.
• Her two bottom teeth are clearly in, and so are her two top teeth, although not fully. When she smiles, it’s now a different smile. I already miss her old, gummy smile and how goofy she looked like that (and didn’t even know it). Ah, she’s growing up too fast!

Exhausting her parents and a Doctor's visit

Going to church with Lexi has become exhausting! She has so much energy and wants to move around, take everything out of my purse, be picked up, get put down...it just goes on and on. When given the space, she can entertain herself quite nicely. Saturday afternoon, she happily moved around the living room amusing herself. Emptying things - like her toybox-seems to be a lot of fun as well as playing with Mom's keys (which we couldn't find this morning) and trying to eat the remote control.

Yesterday, we took her to a cardiologist to check on her heart murmur. When she was born, she had a small hole in her heart that was about 2mm long. We had it checked at 6 weeks and then had been advised to have it checked again at 1 year. She did very well at the doctor and managed to hold still for the EKG and the ultrasound. You could tell she was thinking 'what is this strange woman doing??' The doctor said that she could still hear the murmur, but had a very hard time finding it on the ultrasound. So it is now very, very tiny and will probably close up naturally as she gains weight (though don't ask me how that fits in). Before she goes to pre-school, we should have it checked again just to see.

More funny things that Lexi is doing these days

Some other updates on funny things Lexi is doing these days:

• She has developed a funny habit of putting things down people’s shirts. She really likes to put objects in things and take them out again (she can be entertained for a good five minutes – a long time for a baby – with the air-sickness bag on an airplane – taking out and putting in a bag of peanuts or her pacifier over and over and over). If someone – especially Sarah – is holding her and she’s playing with something in her hands, she’ll put it down Sarah’s shirt to “store” it there for a minute or two and then reach down to fetch it again.
• She is discovering the power of switches and buttons. We are helping her push light switches, and she is slowly discovering that it causes the lights in a room to go on and off. Also on a plane, she knows that the button above your head turns a light on and off, and she has fun with someone pushing this button with her (again, almost another five minutes of entertainment).

Making great strides

Mark this day, one that will go down in history in the life of Alexandria. She took her first steps on her own today! She has started to walk!

Jane, our house help/nanny, reported the news to us at lunch. Earlier in the morning Jane had taken Lexi down to house #7 in our compound to play with the children in the regular play group that Lexi has been part of. Apparently Lexi took several steps by herself then, and the whole group was full of acclaim for this accomplishment.

So at lunch Sarah and I tried to get Lexi to show us what she has learned, and, sure enough, she is getting more confident on her feet and can take a few steps on her own now.

Of course we are so proud of her and so excited that she has reached this milestone at nearly the 13-month-old mark.



After this type of news, nothing else is quite as exciting, but I've been meaning to report some other updates, so I'll proceed with those anyway:

• Lexi is getting the hang of giving kisses. We can put our cheeks to her mouth, and she will sort of suck our cheek with an open mouth (so it's often kind of slobbery, which is how I remember my maternal grandmother giving me kisses). She usually accompanies the action with a "mmmwaah" sound. It's sweet, of course, but not quite there with the delicateness and grace one usually gives a kiss with.
• She is also still talking quite a bit - with nonsense words, but she is forming this babble into nice phrases and sentences. She has no problem speaking up and chiming in when she sees someone or when she's with Mom and Dad. She's got plenty to say, but we still can't understand what it all means!