Our Picasso

Today Lexie is 28 months. She has a love for art so we decided to get messy (which if you know me very well is not something I enjoy doing). Lexie was excited and could not wait to start painting.

Lexie totally enjoyed painting and even though it started raining for a bit, she made sure that did not interfere with her creating a masterpiece. Her attention span is quite long and took her time when deciding what colors to use and whether to go with the paintbrush or her hands.

This past month Lexie has gone from a baby into a full-blown toddler. It just amazes us how much she has changed and grown in such a short time.

Her potty training is coming along. She stays dry for the entire day, will say "no, not yet" if she doesn't have to go, and will come running to you when it's time. She is doing great using the portable potty when we go out and rarely has an accident when we are on the go.

Lexie still refuses to make #2 in the potty. We're taking baby steps on that one. I try to get her to sit on the potty with diapers just so she knows she can sit there to poop. Then she flushes it down the toilet. We're still working on sleeping through the night without a diaper.

Lexie loves to sing. When we're in the car, she'll hum to songs on the radio. She sings them in gibberish but you can actually recognize the tune that she's singing. Lexie will even hold these really long notes and makes these faces as she sings. It's really hilarious!

She is beginning to learn the words to songs that we sing a lot. She can sing the beginning of "Twinkle, Twinkle" and it was so cute because she used to say "triangle, triangle". She sings parts of "Eensy Weensy Spider." And she knows the words to a Japanese song that Eric sings to her and she sings that song to her dolls. I really need to get that on video!

Now that Lexie is talking, she has an opinion about everything and isn't afraid to share it.

Whenever I say that we're going to eat a meal, Lexie gives me a list of things that she would like to eat. The other day at lunch, I asked her if she wanted some chili. She told me, "Yes, no beans."

Lexie continues to be a great eater. She wants to try anything that we're eating. She will either say "Mmmm, I tasted it and I like it." or "Don't like it" and spit it out.

Lexie loves to eat fish, chicken, kalua pork, spam musubi, hot dogs, scrambled eggs, bacon, portuguese sausage, rice with furikake, miso soup with tofu, green bean tempura, Jamba Juice, yogurt with granola, blueberries, strawberries, apples, chips and salsa, chili and rice and corned beef hash and any kind of bread or soup. She is starting to eat peas and will taste a little of the broccoli.

When Lexie is looking for someone, she'll say, "Oh, Daddy, where are you?" And she cups her mouth and raises her head as she says it. Very cute!

Lexie always has been choosy about what she wears, but now will tell me "don't like it" if she doesn't want to wear something. So, when I ask her what she wants to wear, she will usually tell me a color and I have to find something that's her color preference and then she'll put it on.

We went shopping and there was a huge sale, so I wanted to stock up on some summer clothes. I showed Lexie several outfits and her response was, "No, thank you." or "Don't like it." Then she went and picked out something she liked and hung it on the stroller for us to buy.

Lexie is loving her toddler bed. She just crawls into it at night and squeezes one of her dolls and goes to sleep. We were wondering when she would realize that she could get out of the bed in the morning. For one week, she sat in her bed until I came to wake her up in the morning. Then one morning, I hear her yelling, "Mommy, where are you?" and I heard her run into our bedroom and then run to the living room. We may have to put a gate by her door and we'll see how long before she climbs over it. Does anyone want to take any bets?

Speaking of climbing, Lexie amazed us by climbing on this huge ladder at the park. Eric said it was funny because there was another girl playing there and her mom said that she was a climber, yet she couldn't even climb the small ladder and here was Lexie, who was much smaller, climbing a ladder that was probably not meant for two year olds.

This girl has an amazing memory. I think this is what convinced Eric that she was ready for Disneyland. He didn't want to take her until she could actually have memories of our trip.

She yells out "Costco" when we get into the parking lot. We took Gohan to the vet to get his teeth cleaned and I told her that a vet is a doggie doctor. Later at Nana's, she was saying "Gogo went vet" even though I only said the word "vet" that one time.

Lexie likes to ask questions now. She'll ask "Where is Gogo?" or "Where is Daddy?" Even when she watches a tv show, if a character hasn't come on the screen yet, she'll ask, "Where is Rintoo?" She even asked me, "Why Maxx smell drawers?"

Lexie is learning her letters and we play games to help her recognize the letters. She's also saying some of the sounds and recognizing the numbers. She's starting to draw shapes and when she wants to, she can write the letters in her name. Right now, she likes to draw turtles, frogs and leaves. And when you ask her about it, she says they are swimming.

Lexie loves to dance. Anytime she hears music, her arms and legs start moving and she starts swaying to the beat. She definitely has rhythm because she changes her dance moves to every song that she hears. She even claps to the rhythm.

Lexie loves the water. Everytime we're driving, she gets excited when she sees the "blue ocean". We were sad that Lexie's swim class ended especially since we missed a lot of classes due to her surgery and the bad weather. So if anyone has a pool that Lexie can use, let us know because her mommy doesn't really like going to the beach and dealing with all of that sand!

Lexie loves to help around the house. She picks up rubbish and throws it in the trash can. She likes to help me when I'm folding laundry. She tries to carry the laundry for me. She still needs lots of reminders to clean up her toys, but will put them away when she's told to. And will even sing the "Clean Up" song.

Lexie loves being in the yard. She loves running, jumping and skipping on the grass. She's a big helper to Daddy because she knows what are weeds and will pull them out for him. She likes picking up leaves to keep the yard clean.

Lexie's hair is finally growing. I can make 2 pigtails. Lexie loves wearing her hair up and will always tell me to put 2 ribbons. After I'm done making her hair, she says, "I'm pretty!" She was very excited when I ordered her a bunch of bows for her hair.

The best part of Lexie talking is that she says the sweetest things. We can be playing together and she'll just hug me and say, "I love you, mommy!" One night at dinner, she looked at me and said, "You're beautiful." I just wanted to cry when she did that because those are words that I never thought I would ever hear from my child.

We are so excited that in a month we will be going to Dallas for the first ever Taiwan ROCks reunion. When you ask Lexie where she is from, she will tell you, "Taiwan." It will be so much fun to meet other families and children from Taiwan who have shared our experiences.