Happy 4th, 5th and 7th Birthday

Birthday season is fun each year, but it's also a lot of work!  I recognize my limits, which Danny is glad to hear, so I don't plan on ever attempting to throw each of them an elaborate birthday party all the same year.  While they are still young and share so many of the same friends, 

it works out good to have one big party for all three!

Last year, we had Alexandra's party at the beach and it was a hit.  Since we have most of the beach equipment and party supplies we need  from last year, I thought It would be fun (and a little easier and less expensive to plan) to have their joint party this year at the beach. 

It was, once again, a hit!  The girls love being at the beach with all their friends and for the most part, the parents get to sit back and relax! 

So I opened up the camera on my phone and these are what I found.

It seems that little Miss Alexandra got her hands on my phone and then brought daddy into the fun!  

I love my family!

Alexandra and Her Lost Fingernail!

I don't recall ever in my life seeing a finger without a fingernail.  Well, leave it up to Alexandra to show me!  My little accident prone child has done it again!  The first to have an ER visit and the first to lose a whole fingernail.  I'm sure there will be many more accidents and I just pray that the Lord keeps me cool, calm and collected through them all.

Last month, the girls asked Danny to build them a fort.  This is a regular request, but he decided to do it in an open space instead of in their room or over the living room furniture (it is football season and their shall not be any obstruction to the view of the TV at any time on a weekend)!  So to make the fort, he used the high bar stools (along with other things).  The fort was a hit and the girls spent most of the afternoon playing in it.  After they finally moved on to something else, Alexandra thought she would be helpful and take down the fort.  She started pulling on the blankets and before I knew it I heard screaming.  I ran over to her and one of the bar stools had fallen over and somehow landed right in her finger.  I'm thankful it didn't land on her head! 

She cried for quite a while and her fingernail looked a little purple but there was never any dark spots like bleeding under her nail.  She could move her finger so I knew it wasn't broken.  We put a bag of frozen peas on her finger and that seem to fix her right up!

Over the next several days and weeks, I noticed that her whole fingernail was turning white.  I mentioned to Danny and he casually said that she would probably lose her fingernail.  WHAT?  I have never seen a fingernail come completely off!  Granted, I'm the one in the marriage who has never had a broken bone, stitches (from an accident), or been to the ER.  Danny cannot make this claim at all!

Sure enough after another week or so, I could tell that it was starting to come loose and eventually the whole nail came off!  For the first few days, it was very sensitive to her and she kept telling me that it hurt, so we kept a bandaid and some neosporin on it. 

Now, it doesn't seem to bother her at all!  I have no idea how long it will take for it to grow back...but I hope it doesn't take too long! 

She Said...

Today Alexandra told me I was beautiful.  I think she's the beautiful one!

Puzzles, Puzzles, Puzzles!

Aubrey and Anna have always loved putting puzzles together, but not until recently has Alexandra showed an interest in puzzles...and now it's all she wants to do.  It's amazing how a child's confidence boosts when they realize they can do something all by themselves.  Once she realized she could put one of the easier puzzles together by herself, she was determined to do the bigger puzzles by herself.  It may take her a while, but she stays with it!  She will sit there for 30 minutes or more sometimes working on a puzzle.  That doesn't seem like a long time, but in three-year old time, that is no small feat!  Here she is with some of her puzzle accomplishments!

 Then she decided this puzzle was big enough to lay on!

 Well, if she can lay on it, she might as well go ahead and get her pillow and blankie and take a pretend nap!

Caught, Again!

March 2011
I promise, we feed our children!  But Alexandra loves to get in the pantry and eat whenever she can.  This is how I found her not too long ago!  Yep, helping herself to a couple of sleeves of crackers!  She is crazy about her crackers! Can you tell? So, if she's see an opportunity to get into the pantry, you better believe she is going to take advantage!  At least she didn't tried to hoard these and eat them in the dark pantry this time (see previous post)!

 

Alexandra's 18 Month Check-up at 19 Months Old

Yes, that's right.  I was a month and 4 days late for Alexandra's 18 month check-up (do you also see how tardy I am with this post).  That's what a girl gets when she turns 18 months in December (Christmas chaos) and she's the third child!

Anyway, Alexandra had a great appointment!  She is 22.8 pounds and 32" tall.  She is very quickly catching up with Anna!  She is eating like a horse and isn't that picky with her foods (which they all were like this at this age and I'm just not going to kid myself because I know it will come to a screeching halt).  She is talking up a storm and can even put three words together!  I have no idea how many words she is actually saying because she says something new every day!  She is talking non-stop and her favorite things to say are:

• Where my pappy (pacifier)?
• Where Daddy?
• Where Mommy? (I did get confirmation from Danny that she does actually say this.  The reason I asked him was because every time I go to get her out of her crib, the first thing she says is "Where Daddy?"  I finally asked Danny if she asked where I was when he gets her out of the crib?  I just needed to feel her love!)
• Aubee
• Hey (followed by somebody's name...Aubee, mommy, daddy, MeMe, Poppy, YaYa, etc.)
• She's working on saying Anna's name, but it comes out as a very nasal sound long "e" followed by "nna"
• More
• No! (As she points her finger at you...which will have to come to a stop very soon!)
• Go! (As in go away - this is normally directed at one of her sisters!)

Basically anything that you ask her to say, she will repeat.  This morning I told Aubrey, "That's enough."  Alexandra chimed in right behind me with, "Eno Aubee. Eno Aubee"

We have taken her pappy away from her during that day and the transition was much easier than I thought.  Most days, she is very willing to drop her pappy back in her crib once I pick her up.  Every once in a while, I'll see that she has gone into her room, reached in her crib and got a pappy.  Once I see her, I will tell her to go put it back in her bed and she takes off in a run to put her pappy in her bed.

I attempted to get a picture of just Alexandra before her doctor's appointment, but she's not cooperating with the camera these days.  Miraculously, Aubrey and Anna were cooperating, so this is the picture I got.  Don't you just love Alexandra's little personality coming out in this picture?

She can keep up with her older sister with no problems at all.  They all love to play together (with the occasional girl fights, but we're working on that) and Aubrey especially loves pretending that she's Alexandra's little mommy!

Alexandra has the best little personality and keeps us cracking up with her facial expressions and her laugh!

Alexandra's First Bad BooBoo!

Alexandra has had many boo-boos, including a black eye.  She is a Britt girl and it's just going to happen and it's going to happen often.  However, I am so fortunate and blessed that we have not had a hospital visit, stitches, broken limbs, etc.  I really am not sure how I will react if something major does happen to one of the girls, but we will save that worrying for another day.  

I seriously thought we were headed for stitches when this last boo-boo happened.  Danny was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner (I'm not sure if once again I'm very blessed to have a husband that helps me clean up or if I've just trained him very well in the last 8 years!  Ha!  I'm just kidding!  I'm definitely very blessed...I just couldn't help but insert a little humor!)  

Anyway...back to my story...Danny was cleaning in the kitchen, I was at the computer and all the girls were playing happily with each other!  Aubrey and Alexandra started running around after each other and before I knew it they were running around the dining room table.  The next thing I heard was a bump and Danny said, "There went somebody's head."  Sure enough, about 10 seconds later, (after the breath holding) the screaming started.  I scooped Alexandra up and all I saw on her face (and in her hair) was blood!  She had fallen and hit her head on the bottom corner of the china cabinet.

I flipped out!  I ran her into the kitchen, moved the hair away from her face and blood was just pouring out of the whole in her forehead!  I grabbed a kitchen towel and put pressure on it.  It took a good 3-4 minutes to get the bleeding to even slow down, but once it slowed down, I could see that it was not as bad as I thought it was.  It was a deep cut, but it was small.  She let me put a cold pack bag of frozen peas on her head and then she was good!  

She wouldn't really cooperate for a picture, so this is all I got!  It's been almost a month since this happened and she still has a little scar.  I'm hoping that it will go away!

 

Alexandra is a CHAMP!

July 1, 2010

Alexandra got tubes put in her ears and she did so great!  Everything really happened quickly from the time we learned that she was going to need them until she had them put in. 

When I took her in for her 12 month check-up, she had another ear infection and Dr. Connolly explained that the wholes in her ear membranes that act as normal tubes keep closing before the fluid and infection can fully drain out of her ears.  Basically she's had the same infection now for three months!  Dr. Connolly thought it was time for her to see and ENT and he said he would have the referral sent to us the following week.  Once I received the referral, I called to schedule and appt. and was told that she couldn't been seen until Sept.  I thought this was incredible.  I explained to the appt. scheduler that she had an infection that wouldn't clear up and that she couldn't stay on antibiotics for another three months!  I asked her if she had a cancellation list that she could put me on and she told me that she didn't, but I could call back periodically to check for cancellations. 

I made up my mind, that I was going to call and check for a cancellation the next day, but I was also going to call the pediatrician and have them refer us to another ENT that could see her sooner.  I called the ENT office the next day and was able to get a canceled appt. for the following day!  God is so good!  Now she was going to be see within two days of the original appt., instead of three months!

Once we got to the ENT, they performed an auditory test on Alexandra.  I thought she did great on the test, but the nurse told me that she did have some hearing loss from the fluid in her ears. Once we saw the doctor, Gary Josephson, he told me that her hearing should be completely normal again once he sees her six weeks post op.  He went on to explain to me that the two primary reasons for putting tubes in a child's ears were infections that wouldn't clear up and fluid in the ears that was starting to affect the hearing of the child.  In Alexandra's case, she met both criteria. After talking with the doctor and little longer about what the procedure entailed, the scheduling nurse came in.  Once again, God is so good.  She told me they had a cancellation for the following week if we wanted to take it, otherwise it would be 2-3 weeks before they could get her in for the procedure.  Of course, I took the canceled appt!

The day of the procedure arrived and I was really nervous about it.  My mom came down so she could stay with Aubrey and Anna and we checked into the Baptist Outpatient Center at 7:00 a.m. on July 1.  Alexandra was the third child in line for the morning and it seemed like the time was just creeping by so slowly.  After getting all of her vitals taken, talking to the doctor again, meeting and talking to the anesthesiologist, they finally took her back a few minutes before 8:40 a.m.  I had been told over and over, by friends, nurses and doctors how this procedure was very routine and there was nothing to worry about, but from the time they took her out of my arms until the doctor came out to tell us that she was fine, was the longest 10 minutes of my life!

Yes, within 10 minutes or so, the doctor came out and said she did great.  She did have infection in both ears again, which made me even moree thankful that we were able to get her in as quickly as we did for the procedure.  I'm so glad she didn't have to take her 5th round of antibiotics in three months!  They brought her back out to us a few minutes later and she wasn't crying at all (like the other two kids before had been when they were brought back to their parents)!  I asked the nurse if she cried at all and she told me only for  few seconds when she was coming out of the anesthesia.  She is such a champ!

She was doing so good, that we went ahead and got discharged within about 15 or 20 minutes.  she never even got fussy in the car on the way home either.  Keep in mind that she also had not eaten anything since 7:00 the night before!  Once we got home, I gave her some yogurt and then put her to sleep.  She took a three hour nap and then woke up in a great mood.  You would never have known that she's even had tubes put in her ears that day!

Alexandra is her hospital gown before the procedure.  Yes, she had tubes put in her ears with a bow in her hair! 

Alexandra's First Birthday Party

Once again, there was another first birthday party in the Britt family....didn't we just have one of these LAST year?  As has become tradition, we had Alexandra's first birthday party at MeMe and Poppy's pond.

The Birthday Girl!

I think she liked her birthday cake!

Alexandra and Anna

Daddy and his Birthday Girl!  She was too busy stuffing her face with cake to smile for the camera!

Alexandra and Bubba

Aubrey working on her craft project!

Sweet friends, Katie and Heidi!

Alexandra and Aunt Carol.  Alexandra had to change into new clothes after eating her cake!

Daddy and Aubrey riding on the mule.

She's One!

June 10, 2010
Oh, how time flies!  I can't believe my baby girl, Alexandra, turned one!

It's a Britt Family tradition that each girl gets to eat a cupcake for breakfast on the morning of their birthday.  This is the most special...on your first birthday!  Alexandra really wanted to touch that candle, so we sang "Happy Birthday"  really, really fast and then Aubrey helped her blow out her candle.

Before cupcake eating:

After cupcake eating:

I think it's safe to say that she LOVED her birthday cupcake for breakfast!

She was such a mess that I threw her in the bathtub to get her cleaned up!

She's such a clown!  

Happy Birthday, Alexandra!

My First Oreo!

Alexandra certainly enjoyed her first Oreo!  She eyed it for a couple of milliseconds and then chowed down! 

She is such stinker!

As I was posting this, I remembered taking a picture of Aubrey eating her first Oreo.  Yes, I obviously think that a first Oreo is a major milestone to capture with a photo!

Aubrey was almost 15 months old in this picture.  Lucky Alexandra got her first Oreo at 11 months!  I don't remember Anna's first Oreo or if I got a picture! 

It Won't Be Long

Alexandra is pushing the limits everyday and will be walking soon!  She seems to be right on target with both Aubrey and Anna's walking milestones and will be walking at 11 months!  I'm really not sure if I'm ready for this or not! 

For the time being, she's getting her practice by pushing around any toy that she can find. 

Look at that face!  She is so proud of herself!!!

The Small Milestones are just as Great!

Last night as I was getting ready to put Alexandra down, we did our normal routine of going around, kissing everyone and saying, " I love you."  After all the kisses, we then head to their room, but we always stop and let the girls wave to everyone and say "Nite, nite" before we go into their room.

As we were doing this routine last night, Alexandra stuck out her hand and started moving her fingers in and out to wave to everyone!  It was so cute and Aubrey just loved it!!!

This is the first time I've seen her wave and she waved like she knew exactly what she was doing!  She is growing up so quickly.  In a few months, she will be one and I will have another toddler on my hands instead of a baby!  It makes me sad....but not sad enough to make me want another one!!!!!!

Alexandra's 9 Month Check-up

Alexandra had her 9 month check-up on Monday.  She now weighs 17 lbs 2 oz (Aubrey weighed 19 lbs 14 oz and Anna weighed 19 lbs 8 oz at their 9 month check-ups) and is 26.5 inches long (Aubrey was 28.5 inches and Anna was 27 inches long at their 9 month check-ups).  It's funny how Aubrey was the largest child (although there was a time when Anna was 3-6 months that she did weigh more than Aubrey at that age), Anna is the second largest and Alexandra is the smallest.

Alexandra's hemoglobin level was border line low.  Dr. Connolly wasn't too concerned at this point, but he wants me to start feeding her meats, maybe some citrus (either food or a little orange juice), and he said I could always give her Poly-Vi-Sol, which is an iron supplement.  I gave her some oranges today and she loved them!  Next is to try her on meat.  I looked on the internet today to see how to prepare meat for babies and I think I'm going to cook chicken with broccoli and carrots for her.  We'll see how she likes it!  He plans on rechecking her hemoglobin at her 12 month appt.

As Dr. Connelly looked into Alexandra's ears, he also found infections in both!  I was shocked.  She hasn't been running a fever, hasn't been acting fussy, and hasn't been pulling at her ears.  It's one of those moments where as a mom, you feel like you really haven't been paying enough attention to recognize that your baby has double ear infections.  Dr. Connolly said that the ear infections probably started gradually while Alexandra was fighting her cold for the past two weeks and it's probably uncomfortable for her, but she has just grown used to the feeling so it doesn't bother her as much.  Poor baby!  She's now on antibiotics.

Other than that, she's perfect!

Our Little Pianist!

We got this cute little piano mainly for Aubrey and Anna this past Christmas (did I mention we got it for free from a friend of Danny's sister), but Alexandra seems to enjoy it more than them!  She will crawl into the playroom, pull herself up in front of the piano and bang away!  Music to my ears!

Carrots, Anyone?

There are a lot of lessons learned when you have small (and I'm sure big) kids.  Another lesson learned for me...never leave food on the table unattended!  I was feeding Alexandra her carrots and Aubrey started yelling for me to help her in the bathroom.  I got up to go help Aubrey and when I returned (just a couple of minutes later), this is what I found.

Anna quickly took advantage of the fact that Alexandra's food was on the table and Mommy wasn't there!  Alexandra is normally not a messy eater, so I had not even put a bib on her.  Needless to say, Alexandra won't be wearing this shirt anymore because the carrot stains did not come out!

I think Alexandra enjoyed it as much as Anna!  I didn't get any pictures of Anna because I didn't want her to think what she did was funny or cute.  This would only lead to more attempts to feed Alexandra!