I Love My One Year Old!

Last night Alexandra woke up in the middle of the night crying. I didn't want to get up so I laid in my bed hoping she would go back to sleep. She kept crying, so I got up and went in her room. The poor little girl was laying in a huddle with no blankets, more than half asleep, crying because she was cold. I felt so bad for her! I picked her up and brought her into my bed to warm her up and help her fall back asleep.

Then it was the usual story. Once she was in my bed she wanted to play. She was climbing all over the place and talking in her little baby chatter. I tried to keep her calmed down so she would sleep. I laid her by me and started rubbing her head and her face, and running my fingers through her hair. My arm started getting tired because I had it arched up in the air so I could reach her head, so I stopped rubbing her head for a minute. I thought it was so super cute because right when I stopped, she felt around for my hand. Then she took my hand and put it back on her head! I rubbed her head a little while longer and then took another rest. She did the same thing, took my had and put it back on her head. After she was in my bed for awhile, I could see she wasn't going to fall asleep with me so I said to her, "Do you want to go night night?" She said, "mHM!" (that means yes, she says it all the time) I put her down and she ran straight to her room. I put her in bed, covered her up, and she went to sleep without any fuss at all.

I was actually glad I took her into bed with me, instead of being frustrated about losing sleep. It was nice to spend some quiet time just with Alexandra. Because she is the last of 4 kids, she doesn't get a lot of attention sometimes. I just love her!

After thinking about last night, I began to think just how grateful I am for my little one-year-old. She is really such a great example to me! She is always happy, jumps into every activity with so much enthusiasm, laughs at the drop of a hat, she is so forgiving, and she shows so much love. She brings a littlle more joy into our home. She is the only kid who hasn't learned to fight yet, she is easy-going and just goes with the flow of the household.

Since I am doing a little ode to Alexandra, I dug up a few pictures to display. Here she is at Seven Peaks. She LOVES to swim and already puts her whole face in the water to blow bubbles. Then she comes up all excited and rubs her little eyes.


Here she is after she played really hard.

Who says clothes don't belong in the bath? I'm having fun!

Peek!

What a happy little girl!


This morning on the way to school I was teasing the kids. While I was driving I was mildly rocking the van back and forth with the steering wheel (don't worry, we weren't in any danger and I was staying inside the lines). Alexandra started laughing up a storm, like she had never experienced anything that was even close to that much fun. She had the whole car laughing. All the kids were asking me to do it again and again so they could hear her laugh about it again.