Watermelon Wednesdays

It's been hard finding fruits that Lexie likes to eat and that are easy for me to prepare. So far, she likes bananas and mangos. Lexie does not like avocado, strawberries, papayas, mandarin oranges, or peaches. She still eats pureed fruits just so she can get fruits at every meal. We went to the market and saw that seedless watermelons were on sale. Lexie loved it. She likes to hold it and eat it by herself. Sometimes, we'll cut it into pieces and she likes to eat it that way too.

I thought about trying grapes, but don't really want to peel and cut each grape. She also didn't like blueberries and strawberries in yogurt. Any suggestions on how to get Lexie to eat more fruits.

Spoiled

We finally figured out how to get Lexie in the pool. Eric filled it up with warm water and she loved it.

Come on, Gogo, join me in the pool!

I don't know if I like this or not.

Hey, it's fun! I like floating on my tube.

I even like to slide into the pool. This warm water is awesome! I have the bestest dad in the world!

I love you, Maxx!

Gohan, just get in the pool and stop trying to lick me!


I hope my friends can come to my pool really soon! You don't know what you're missing! And mommy says I'll be getting a swing to play on too!! So it'll be double the fun!!

Playing with the Big Kids

Lexie went to my school to play in the water with the preschoolers. She joined them during circle time and they even sang her favorite song, "Twinkle, Twinkle." While the other children were changing to their bathing suits, Lexie explored the room. She liked the puppets especially the duckie ones. Then she went into the kitchen center and pretended to wash her hands at the sink. When it was time to play in the water, Lexie just followed and went outside. She played with the bubble wands.

Lexie tried to blow some bubbles, but ended up putting her mouth too close and decided to lick it instead. Her mouth was covered in suds.

Lexie didn't like the sprinkler too much because the gopher kept shooting her with water. She stayed on the lanai and played with the tub of water.

Her friend, Maddie, was visiting for the day. Lexie watched Maddie use the tablets to change the color of the water.

Maddie was so cute. When we left, she gave Lexie a big hug and a kiss.

I was surprised how much fun Lexie had. I thought she was going to be an opihi girl. Instead, she was very independent and wanted to go off on her own to play. Only when she was done, then she ran to me. We hope to have some time this summer to visit the preschool again.

Garage Sale

Today we had our garage sale. We've been planning it since we moved back in March and finally got around to it. During the past week, we have been sorting through Lexie's clothes and things around the house that we haven't used. It's really hard keeping everything in order with Lexie running around the house. We had to cover all of the boxes so she wouldn't touch them. Most of the time, she was pretty good about it, but she thought it would be fun to climb on the boxes.

We weren't expecting to make a whole lot of money today. We just wanted to get rid of things that otherwise would just be sitting in our closet or collecting dust. If we didn't sell it, then lots of it would just get thrown away or donated, so whatever we got from the sale, we were more than happy. I think a lot of people were grateful that Lexie had so much clothes, especially ones that weren't worn very much. It makes us feel good knowing that there will be other little girls out there who will be making good use of her clothes. With our profit from the garage sale, we're one step closer to getting Lexie her swing set. We've got one picked out and can't wait to finally get it.

The Duck Goes Cack Cack

While Maxx was getting his hair cut, we took Lexie and Gohan to Hawaii Kai for a picnic and to see the ducks. Lexie loves ducks and that's one of the few animals sounds she will make. Daddy made a delicious lunch of musubis and portuguese sausage. Lexie tried a bite of the musubi and only ate it if she got some nori with it. She was really hungry that day and ate all of her turkey & rice, veggies and fruits. Then she still had room for crackers and was even going into her bag looking for cereal and crunchies.


Now it was time to go feed the ducks. There were only 2 ducks, but lots of pigeons. It was hard to get the food to those ducks because the pigeons were fast. Finally, the pigeons flew away and Lexie got to get up close with the ducks.

Walk with me, Duckie!

Mommy, can I take this duckie home?

That was so much fun! I love duckies!

Time to run!


I'm tired now, I'll just sit here and rest.

I love you Gohan!! And I'm not just saying that because Maxx isn't here.

Get this monkey off my back!! Now give me a cookie!

The things I do for a cookie! When are we going to get Maxx so everyone will stop bothering me?

Maxx always looks so handsome when he gets a hair cut!

I'm a Big Girl Now

One of the suggestions that Easter Seals made was to let Lexie start feeding herself. Since she can be a picky eater, self-feeding might make eating new foods more fun. They warned me that it could get messy which made me cringe, but they don't know our daughter.

Lexie is actually a very neat eater. She doesn't like to get her hands sticky with food and will ask me to wipe them. She loved holding the spoon and scooping up her own food. She just dips the spoon and licks it like a lollipop. The only thing we have to watch for is that when she gets bored, she'll just throw the spoon to the floor, so we cannot take our eyes of her.

So far, Lexie is enjoying being able to feed herself and she is eating a lot, but I doubt she will gain much weight. She is constantly moving around and what goes in her stomach, usually comes out pretty quickly after each meal.

Feeding Time

We can't seem to keep Lexie away from the dog dishes. If the water bowl is out, she will do one of three things: turn the bowl over and sit in the water, wash her hands in it, or dip her hand in it and then lick off the water. It's been very hard at dinner time because as soon as the food dish goes down, she's right there.

Lexie likes to grab the dog food and feed it to Maxx, who enjoys it very much. So far, Lexie hasn't tried to eat the food. Gohan, on the other hand, does not want Lexie anywhere near the food. He will growl at her the whole time she sits there, but Lexie doesn't care. She will just ignore Gohan and keep feeding Maxx.

Sorry, Maxx, mommy says you have to eat by yourself.

One Smart Cookie

We always knew that we would get Lexie tested since she was not with us for her first 8 months and we really didn't know at what age she hit each milestone, like rolling over, sitting up, etc. Hawaii has a 0-3 program run by the Department of Health that is totally free. They provide early intervention services for children before they go to preschool. On the Windward side, Easter Seals conducts the intake meetings and provides social workers, special education teachers, and speech pathologists to work with children who need a little help so they are ready for school. As a teacher, I just needed the peace of mind, that Lexie was doing fine. And if she did need help, I know how important it is to get it early and not be in self denial.

Lexie was a little shy at first when the ladies from Easter Seals came by, but when they started pulling out toys from their huge duffle bag, she became very interested in playing with them. Lexie amazed us because she did things very easily, like put the rings on the pole or stack blocks. She even put puzzle pieces in the right place. She was very compliant and followed directions. We were actually worried that she was going to be stubborn because some of the tests were similar ones that she refused to do with her pediatrician. Eric and I play a lot of these games with Lexie and lots of time, she rather just throw the blocks or suck on things, so when she did everything they asked her too, we knew she would get a big treat when it was over.

Lexie played games for about an hour. During that time, they asked Eric and me questions about Lexie. All I can say is that Lexie came through with flying colors. They tested her on cognitive, fine motor, gross motor, self-help, and speech skills and she falls between the 12-18 month range, which is exactly where she needs to be. I'm just very happy that Lexie has made a lot of gains since she's been with us. I was still worried that she wasn't using words yet, but they assured me that her speaking will come in time since she understands directions and is able to express herself and communicate with us.

Since Lexie was such a good girl and showed how smart she was, we treated her to some Bubbies ice cream. She got to share dark dark chocolate chocolate chip with daddy and mango with mommy. She really enjoyed her special reward!

Even though she got some brain freeze!

Our Skinny Minnie

Lexie is such a skinny Minnie. We've been told by our pediatrician to fatten her up a bit by giving her foods that aren't exactly healthy like gravy and whipped cream. Lexie is addicted to gravy. She will eat almost anything that you put gravy on, so I usually hide a few veggies in it. She also loves to eat anything with cheese. Eric made her cheese quesadillas and she loved it especially since she can hold it and feed herself.

Lexie even liked the steak and mushrooms quesadillas that we were eating.

Yummy, give me some more!

We don't want to give Lexie whipped cream, but we figured a little ice cream wouldn't hurt. Eric wanted to see what she would do if we gave her a fat boy.

She picked up that whopper of an ice cream sandwich and the biggest smile appeared on her face.

Lexie didn't care that it was cold, she took the biggest bite that she could.

She kept gobbling down the ice cream like there was no tomorrow! We couldn't stop laughing!

She didn't want to give the ice cream back to us, but her sweaty hands was melting it so we finally took it away from her. She wasn't too happy about that.

Even though the ice cream was yummy, she wasn't too thrilled about her hands being all dirty.