2010-10-25 Pics of the Day!

"I'm sooo scared..." (Blair Witch, get it?)

BIG SMILES!

Notice her snaps are un snapped? That's because daddy put her in a size 3 month onsie and it was too small!

2010-10-24 Pic of the Day!

It was my church's annual bazaar this weekend!  Denise and I took the girls down their first slide ride.  The Moms freaked out a bit - it was WAY faster than we thought it would be.  The girls didn't seem to care one way or another!

2010-10-23 Pic of the Day!

I have been trying to get a picture of this for weeks!  This is how she holds her binky sometimes. Upside down with her bottom lip sticking out.  Its flipping adorable :)

2010-10-22 Pic of the Day!

Check out her track suit! HA!! Aunt Nichole bought that for her - its size 12 months!!!  ahhh!!

My sweet neice Aubrey Grace.  This was right before I made her cry... :( (in my defense she was hungry!)

2010-10-21 Pics of the Day!

I haven't taken a picture of Alexsa in her car seat recently.  She's getting so big!!

After her bath, beautiful as ever :)

2010-10-20 Pics of the Day!

Alexsa insists on feeding herself!

Heehee...

2010-10-18 Pic of the Day!

I've finally started bouncing in my bouncer!! (Not that you can tell from the picture, but still...)

2010-10-17 Pics of the Day!

Sunday we had breakfast together before Barry, Alexsa, Grandpa and Abuelita went to MOSI for a bit (again - free with our MOSH passes! yay!)


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Alexsa loves her "Aunt" Rachel!

 This is just one of the hundreds of things for the kids to do. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything for Alexsa to roam free, but the Adults defintitely had a good time! And she enjoyed looking at everything.

2010-10-16 Pics of the Day!

We went to the Pumpkin Patch today!  Alexsa wasn't very interested in the camera at all... I could barely get her to look towards the camera.

Alexsa, Mya & Max

Cousins!
Rachel, Mya, Stephanie, Max, Barry, Mandi, & Alexsa

Happy Halloween from the Swedlows!

2010-10-15 Pics of the Day!

Most of the day today was spent with The Gallers! Have I mentioned that I'm so glad they now live in Florida and are only a few hours away? :) First we went to The Lucky Dill Deli for lunch.  It definitely has Triple D potential.

Alexsa is working on her pincer grip at lunch

Afterwards we went to Great Explorations Children's Museum.  Because we have the year passes to MOSH, we got in for free! YAY!  It was awesome!  They had a fenced in baby area and Alexsa was able to crawl around and explore and socialize with other kids. 

They had a music hour. Alexsa mostly liked to chew the tambourine.

Row Row Row your boat!

Leah's insides!

Adam on stage (I love this picture! :))

She's testing out the "bernoulli effect"

Barry being a good sport so i could get a cute shot of Alexsa :)

It was great to spend some time w/ Angelle, but as always it went by too fast.  Luckily we'll be back in a few weeks for Adam's Bday.  :)

2010-10-14 Pic of the Day!

We travelled to Tampa to visit with friends and family for a long weekend on Thursday!  For some reason, I only took this one picture today. I guess I was so excited to see everyone. :)

On the left is Alexsa's cousin Mya, and "Grandma Sharon" is feeding Alexsa.  Sharon is Barry's Aunt. :)

2010-10-13 Pics of the Day!

Alexsa looks like her Aunt Denise here :)  So pretty!

I gave Alexsa her first puffs today.  she did pretty good with them :)

2010-10-12 Pic of the Day!

Look at how tall she's getting! Remember here when I first caught her standing in her crib?

2010-10-11 Pics of the Day!

Alexsa met a new friend today!  A co-worker's daughter, Sarah, is 11 months old - exactly 3 months older than Alexsa.  We went to lunch then went to a park!

 It was Alexsa's first time in a park swing and she loved it! She laughed and laughed :)

Sarah climbed 1/2 way UP the slide! Go girl!

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It was impossible to get them to BOTH look at the camera.

I really liked the park's "grass". it was some sort of turf w/ small tire pieces.  I was comfortable letting alexsa crawl around on it and not worried about ants.

Thanks, Ashley, for introducing this park to us! We'll be back!

2010-10-10 Pic of the Day!

Unfortunately this was the only picture I took of Alexsa on Sunday!  She has 2 new favorite 'toys'. first - her diapers. She loves them.  and second - plastic bags! She collect them from the floor and carry them arround then sit and shake them like pom-poms!  And yes, I make sure to keep a close eye on her when she plays with them. :)

2010-10-09 Pics of the Day!

Happy 8 months Alexsa!

Waiting for Papa at Cracker Barrel :)

We had lunch with Papa today, back from Bolivia! (Doesn't he look like a mountain man? I like the scruff!)

Sleep Update

I finally thought, with these ear plugs, that if I go lie in bed, maybe I'll not hear her.(I'm farther away)  I crawled into bed and buried my head in the pillow when Barry put his hand on my back.  I lost it. I broke, started crying.  Luckily, shortly after I started talkinig to barry about it, she fell asleep.  It was about 1:30.  We (Barry and I) woke up shortly before 8:30 thinking that we should wake her up when she started waking up. 

I was happy to see when I walked in her room and she was smiling.  She still loves me... that's good. :)

8 Month Sleep Regression

After being an angel sleeper since she was 8 weeks old, Alexsa has decided to rebel at full force.  For about a week now, she's been waking up in the middle of the night. Sometimes its for a few hours at a time, sometimes it was just to be rocked back to sleep.  Some nights are better than others.  Well, I thought the night before last was the worst.  Up from from 11:30 to 1, then from 2-3:30, then again at 5.  The last night was just a play hour from 12-2... Then she slept until 10:30!!!!  So i was afraid tonight would be bad.  Well, here we are, 1:04 AM, and she's only slept in 2 small spurts since 3:00.  She went down at her normal time, around 8:00, but woke up at 8:45.  I decided to take her with me to go to the airport to pick up my Dad (back from Bolivia!) so she was up the whole time, and finally fell asleep on the way home, which was about a 30 minute ride.  We got home at 11:45ish and she's been crying ever since.  I read that this is called Sleep Regression.  They're little bodies and brains are going through such a hugh developmental push that they just can't take it and don't sleep.  So what do they suggest to help? Sleep.  Well no shit. If i could get her to sleep we wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we? 

I'm sitting here with ear plugs in my ears and I still hear my baby wailing.  Its breaking my heart.  I need her to sleep and i can't think of another way except to let her tire herself out - i've tried everything else: We rocked, she won't take a bottle, I gave her teething tablets, we took a lavender bath, I gave her tylenol, i just let her play.... nothing soothed her for more than a few minutes.  She doesn't want to be held, yet she doesn't want to be too far from you...  I feel like a horrible mother with these plugs in my ears, but its the only way i'm not walking in there every 5 minutes.  its now been 13 or so and i think she's finally calming down, then she goes for round 2.  Its a good thing you can't hear this blog...

*sigh*

2010-10-08 Pic of the Day!

The ducks were ready for some bread today!

And one took a nibble of Alexsa's toe!  I screamed a bit, but she didn't even notice. :)

2010-10-07 Pic of the Day!

Thought we'd try out the sippy cup tonight!  She kinda gets it...

But we still have to work out some kinks...

And here's another 'new' outfit from the closet.  I had to get a picture of her little feet and tushy covered in all those hearts. :)