Santa's watching

Recently Alexis has been a bit on the grumpy side, I am not sure if she can feel the tension in the air from all of the holiday shoppers or if the anticipation of her baby sister is just too much. I decided last week after talking with my sister-in-law that I would pull out a very useful mom tool.I told her that Santa is watching and if she wants him to bring her presents she needs to be very well behaved. After about a week of this I realized that my mother and people before her that have used this trick are pure geniuses! It has really worked like a charm, and is a simple enough concept for even my two year old to understand! When things are a little on the crazy side, a quick reminder that Santa is watching whips her right back into my cute, sweet, little girl. I realized that the concept was working quite better than I had noticed, last night when Tim ask her "Alexis were you a good girl today?" she promptly replied "Yes dad, Santa will bring me presents this year". The satisfied look and twinkle in her eye was wonderful. The holidays are the best time of year!

Sidekick

It is really no secret that Tim and Alexis have an amazing bond. She is really a miniature Tim. Almost every night is spent "wrestling" and "chopping" each other. Lexi is also very impressed to show how she can put dad in a "triangle" and how he can return the favor. One of her favorite movies is "Sky-High". A cute movie about a superhero high school that places people into their future roll as either a superhero or a sidekick. In the movie being a sidekick is not at all a good thing and you are placed in "sidekick class" if your powers are not to great. Recently Alexis has decided that Tim should definitely be a sidekick and she should be the superhero.She also now insists to call him this when they are playing. Really it is one of the funniest things, just imagine a 2 year old running across the living room to the couch where her dad is relaxing, with a goofy grin on her face and a little giggle a little hand flies through the air with a direct "chop" into dads thigh. The she scatters and as she is running away states "Come on Sidekick!"

Family names are confusing

Tim and I have been working with Alexis to identify people and our family and how they are related to us. We started this after Lexi got into an argument with Grandpa Doug about how
"Mom is not your daughter she is my daughter"
My Dad then tried to explain to her that he was infact my father, and that I was his daughter, and that Lexi was my daughter. She was not at all convinced, so we decided that now was a good time to start teaching her.
We decided to start working slow so now everytime we refer to an aunt or uncle we call then by name.
"Auntie Morgan" "Aunt Janna" and "Aunt Annie"
She was grasping the aunt and uncles concept very well until last weekend when she insisted calling my sister Raquel "Uncle Kyle" (who is her boyfriend). All weekend we worked on Aunt Raquel on Sunday she did settle on "Uncle ra-Kel"
Raquel not having kids was a little worried that Lexi was convinced that she was a boy lol. So I guess we will have to take baby steps, she told Tim this week that
"He is her daughter" and that "no you don't have parents". For now I think we will stick with the aunts and uncles and move on to parent-daughter comparisons later.

Funny little Lexi moments

As I have said before, I really have to be careful what I say in front of Alexis. In the past my words have gotten me into trouble. So last night when Lexi ask me
"Mom what is your Black name?"
My first thought was oh my goodness what did I say that could have possibly given my child the idea that people have a "black name". After thinking a few moments I realized that there was nothing that I had said that could have made Lexi think this so I ask
"Lexi what is your Black name?" she replied "my black name is Blais mom" with this very confused look on her face. A huge wave of relief came over me when I realized that she was not speaking of her "black name" but her "last name". In recent weeks Tim and I have been teaching her about first and last names. Needless to say she was very pleased to know that we all share the same "Last Name"

Are you having a bad day mom?

Why is it that everything always happens at once? This has been a very eventful week for me...

Here is some background info to help set my story up right!

In the spring Tim and I traded in our Jeep for my dream car. A beautiful blue/green BMW! After this we found out I was pregnant and I began to rethink my car choice. After much discussion we decided that it was a wonderful car and that we got a great deal on it, so we are going to keep it. A few months later by some fluke, one of the brakes went out(yes just one the back right to be exact). I was very bummed especially because even to replace just one break is outrageous! We then decided that since Tim was working from home my poor car could sit in it's parking space until after the holidays and we could make due with one vehicle.

It was working wonderful, until on Wednesday, Tim picked me up from work and we made our way to go and get Alexis from Daycare. Just as we pull into the subdivision the truck will not turn and starts to smoke, it then makes a very strange noise that reminded me of a rocket ship when preparing for take-off. Tim did manage to pull the car over to the side and take a look. An hour later a tow-truck came to pick it up and offered to take it to the shop. We finally got home and found out that the truck would be finished the next day. This was a huge relief since we are now down to NO cars!

My wonderful sister offered to take me to work the next morning, and drop lex off at daycare, then pick me up from work, and pick lex up, and drop us off at the shop. (that was a lot of ands)
She really saved the day! We finally got to the truck (after Tim had called twice to make sure that it was finished) and what do you know it will not be done for at least another hour! Oh my goodness I cannot wait in a repair shop for an hour with my 2 year old...after all things considered I decided it would be best for my sister to just take us home and we would have to come and get it later that evening.

On a side note by some hormonal side effect of pregnancy I have been experiencing unusually frequent and painful migraines.

On the way back home Lexi was being her normal giggly, squeally girl. Some times her shrills of laughter are so high that I am sure the dogs in the cars next to us think she is calling them. As I am sitting there very frustrated that I now have to figure out another way to get to the shop later, which is about 15 miles from our house, and I feel another horrible migraine coming.
I ask Lexi to
"Please keep it down honey, mommy has a headache"
She replies
"You sure are grouchy honey" "I was just playing"
a few minutes later after my sister and I have a good laugh she says
"Could you please keep it down, I have a headache and its freaking me out!"
sometimes I wonder where she hears this stuff from
LOL only my wonderful daughter could make me feel so much better in a bad situation.

Needless to say everything worked out just fine the truck is back and all is well! But thank god for my little girl to always put a smile on my face. :)

little amusements

Isn't it wonderful how children have the ability to be amused by small things? I myself am very happy that Lexi doesn't get bored easily. She has a very vivid imagination and no matter how many times Dora and the snow princess or Sky High come on we have to watch it every time! I honestly believe that with repetition she enjoys her "repeats" more than the first time. Despite all of the activities and cartoons that she looks forward to each day she, more than anything, cannot wait for her favorite song to come on the radio.

Unfortunately she has inherited one of my many odd traits, I really have an unreal obsession with planning out my day, spontaneity rarely enters my day and when it does I am very thrown off. I am hoping she grows out of this. Luckily for both of us her favorite song happens to be the theme song on one of our local radio stations 92.5 the wolf. The theme song is "We got it going on" by Bon Jovi. Everyday at 5 as we make our journey home the song does come on. Since our trip home is fairly similar each day, we will pass a certain part of the interstate and if her song isn't on yet she will remind me that I need to make sure to listen to her favorite song.

This is honestly by far the best part of my day, she will ask me to turn it up and will sing all of the words. Most of them are incorrect which make it just that much better for me. In my opinion her lyrics are much better.

She sings along:
"is there any body out there looking for a part-a, shake it up baby hum hum you got it-t. We just want to have some fun n u don't wanna miss it hum hum hum biss hiss.
We got it going on will be sangin n sangin just like a ROARing stone we are gonna shake it and hum hum your BONES
You gotta kick it to kick I wanna here your scream now because hum hum hum hum HAIR Down
YEah YEah Yeah."
She will then finish the song by humming clapping and dancing usually with a very impressive head bob to the beat.
For those of you who don't know the song I have placed the actual lyrics below. Yet another wonderful day of little amusements!



"We Got It Going On" by Bon Jovi featuring Big and Rich

Is there anybody out there looking for a party? Yeah!!Shake your money maker, baby smoke it if you got it.We just wanna have some fun if you don't wanna kiss this Everybody raise your hands come on I need a witness.We Got It Goin' OnWe'll be banging and singing just like the rolling stonesWe're gonna shake up your sole, we're gonna rattle your bones'Cause We Got It Goin' On.Ah ha ha. Ah ha ha. Yeah Yeah. Ah ha.You got a ticket to kick it, I wanna hear you scream now.'Cause tonight you got the right to let your hair down.Everybody's getting down, we're getting down to businessInsane, freak train, you don't wanna miss this.

Red Light, Green Light

Lexi's new favorite game in the car is to tell me when I can go at the light.

Any time a light turns red and we stop she will say
"Tell me when it turns green OK" really meaning "Mom when it turns green I will let you know to go"
I will then reply
"Lexi are you going to tell me when the light turns green" She will then look at me with her very Lexi expression that says
"duh mom that's what I just told you"

We will both patiently wait (sometimes a little longer than normal, if she doesn't see it right away) until the light turns green. She will then squeal and scream "it turned green, it turned green we meed to go" (she usually says meed instead of need which I think is adorable but do correct her)

After she is most satisfied she will then say
"Tell me when it turns yellow OK"

It certainly does make the car ride home more fun!

Why is it so much easier to listen to dad then mom?? Another story in the view point of my two year old.

Not that it has ever been a secret who Alexis thinks is the best person in the world...lately her view point has expanded to the idea that it is much easier to do things when dad asks then when mom does. (Although most moms would be sad or their feelings would be hurt I am very thankful that Alexis has such a strong bond with dad, some of my best times come from just watching them interact. They really are two peas in a pod)

I can ask Alexis to do certain things and she will just completely look past me as if I said nothing at all. Yet Tim will ask the same question a minute later and she is so excited to give a prompt answer. Most recently she informed me that
"my name is Lexi Blais you spell it L-E-X-I"

(both our families call her Lexi, but Tim and I have always preferred Alexis). I told her that Lexi was her nick name but her real name is Alexis, not really caring what my point was she continually insisted that her name was Lexi and that is what I should call her. So for weeks now I have been forced to call her Lexi because otherwise she doesn't answer lol.

Come to find out on Sunday at church when we were making her a name tag and signing her into Sunday school class she has no problem with Tim calling her Alexis just no one else :).
I guess sometimes it is just easier to accept the fact that it is indeed easier for her to listen to Tim than me.

Morning Battle at the Blais Home

Lexi has recently figured out that Dad works from home now. She doesn't understand that although he is home he actually does have to work...every morning since she has figured this out it has been a battle to get her in the car in the morning to take her to daycare. Most mornings she crawls into our bed around 5 and squirms in between us and whispers:
"Dad, you hold me"
Half a sleep Tim will always open up the covers and pulls her in...they will both be back asleep with in seconds.

I will then get up an hour later and begin to get ready for work. When I am almost finished I will wake Lexi up so we can get dressed and ready to go. This is normally a fairly effortless feat. She is usually pleased to get up and have breakfast and is thrilled to go play in the sand box with her friends.

Lately however she has figured out that dad stays home and therefore thinks she too should stay. So now my normal happy giggly morning girl has been replaced...

This morning for instance when I woke her with a pat on the back and a kiss her response was
"Get away from me I am sleeping with Dad"
I then explained that it was time to get up and get ready so we could go play in the sand box, but the next response was
"I am staying home with my dad today" and I then calmly told her "Dad has to work today sweet girl and you cannot stay here today, sorry" After a half hour of this I finally drug her out of bed and carried her downstairs where she cried for about a half an hour. Eventually we did make it out the door, but I am hoping the battle doesn't reoccur yet again tomorrow.

Inside the mind of a two and a half year old

Sometimes I wonder why Alexis has a better memory than I do. Lately I have to be very careful on how I react to some of the things she says to me, or she will use my own words against me in the future. Most recently we have been trying to teach her not to interrupt us when having a conversation and that it is polite to wait until the conversation is finished before she starts a new one.

The best way that I thought to put it was by telling her:
"Lexi when mom and dad are talking you need to be patient and wait until we are finished"
I thought that this was very clever on my part, especially because she wasn't interrupting as much and lets face it in the mind of a two year old it is very hard to be patient. However, my method has backfired and now little Lexi thinks that if she should have to be patient so should mom and dad...

Like when I ask her to help me pick up her toys...the response I got was:
"Be patient mom I am busy and you will have to wait" she finished with a huge huff as if to say "Come on mom can't you see that I was about to sing the Mail Time song with Steve on Blue's Clues"