Not too much new to report. I've added some pictures to her current picture page, and here's a video clip (RealVideo format) of Alexa dancing in the park near Gramma Eve's house out in Oregon (for those who can manage a 6MB download, you can get the avi version here).

Oh, Alexa's going to take her first ski lesson this Friday! I bet she'll have a blast!

Alexa turned three last week. We had a series of parties and present-openings, starting with her party at Gymboree on Saturday (Nov 17th). She and a bunch of her buddies had a great time! Then on that Sunday she got with some of her pals who had a birthday-party-conflict for Sat, and opened some presents with them. And, on Monday, some of her day-care chums who couldn't make it gave her still more presents, so Monday night she was opening yet more gifts.

And of course, her real birth-date is Nov 21st, last Wednesday, so ... you guessed it, Mom and Dad and her grammas and grampa, who'd been holding out, gave her still more presents to open.

Might've set a bad precedent here, Alexa's going to be thinking from now on that her birthday is actually a birthweek! She had a blast. Check out some of her birthday pics at her photo page (Added photos at the end).

Alexa went to her first In-Theater Movie this weekend. We went with her friend Lindsey, Lindsey's mom and dad (Jim and Laura), grampa Arnold, and us, of course. What was Alexa's first movie? "Monster's Inc.". She loved it. Here's her ticket stub from the movie, if you're interested.

Added a few more pictures to her new picture page. Check 'em out.

The rats, btw, are doing well. Alexa decided to rename Alaska to "Bushba," so now we have Treeba, and Bushba. However, it appears that none of us are very good at id'ing the sex of a baby rat, we thought they were both boys, but it now seems that Bushba's a girl! Rats, I'm told, can have litters at five weeks of age, and can have 20 at a time.

We need to do something, fast.

More new pictures of Alexa! See? I told you the new page makes it easy for me to drop in new ones! Now I need to add the ability to toss in some captions with the pics. I will, but first, an announcement.

We have two new "family members." Alexa's class was giving away baby rats.

Yes, rats.

Plural.

Alexa thought they were cute.

Her mom thought one rat, alone, would be lonely.

I just thought they were rats. I still remember seeing "Willard" when I was a kid.

Apparently mom never saw Willard, and I know Alexa hasn't, so ...

Say hello to "Treeba" and "Alaska," Alexa's new pet ... rats. They're both boys, we didn't want to start a rat-breeding service, and they're actually kind of cute. For rats. I'll post some pictures when I take them. (I can say for certain that there's nothing in my past that would have made me predict I'd be promising to post rat pictures on the web, or anywhere. Zip). If you're the kind who sweeps up bits of food from your floor and owns a cat or two, you might not have seen a rat in a while. So, here's a link to some photos of rats if you're curious.

They seem pretty happy in their new cage (Dean at Petco: "Fourty BUCKS for a wire CAGE? I'm in the wrong business". "Huh? TEN BUCKS for a bag of shaved pinewood LITTER! These are woodshaving's, right? Do you soak them in vitamins or something?")

Now, guess who named them? Alexa! I don't know where "Treeba" came from, but "Alaska" came from a book showing where the Big White Bears come from. Not bad names. For rats.

UPDATE (10:00 pm)
I took pictures of Alexa's new pets. Here they are (kinda cute, kinda sweet, actually)...

PetsPets1, Rat-Pets2

Well, these updates need to get a bit more timely... Sorry.

First off, we've added some pictures here! I'll use this page from now on to add new pictures because, simply, it's easier -- I use javascript to let you cycle through new pictures, and all I have to do is drop them into a directory. Simple. Now, using javascript means, of course, that you'll need to have a browser that, uh, ... supports javascript! Any browser written since the internet dark ages ('96 or so) supports javascript. If you're still running IE 2.0 on Win 95, well, unless you're emotionally attached to it ("I did my very first Yahoo search using 2.0!") I'd update to something newer (IE or Netscape).

Alexa's been "promoted" in day-care, from the "Little Lambs" class (under 2 yrs) to the "Shooting Stars" (3 years). While she's still under-age, her verbal and social abilities are pretty advanced, and the school recommended she be moved up to kids more like her. It's her first week, and she's both enjoying it, and seems just a tad timid (the kids in her new class are much more active and loud!). Her mom and I think it's great, it gets her exposed to more kids like her. (Today, however, as I was taking her to school she said "I don't want to go to Shooting Stars". I asked "Why, love?" "Because I miss Teacher Pam" (Her teacher in Little Lambs). Like I said, it's her first week, and once she got there she gave her new teacher, "Teacher Bobby" a big hug).

The latest news, now that she's 2yrs 7mons old is: Alexa's a person. She's not a "baby", nor a "toddler," she's someone we talk to, laugh with, play with, sit with, and argue with ("No, NO! I don't WANT to wash my hair! My hair's not DIRTY!"). I think she's smarter than both her mom and I.

That can't be good.

She's just always happy and excited about everything. It's infectious. She's just simply fun to hang around, always having ideas ("Dad, you come here! No, no, I need you HERE, Dad!").

Well, it's about time for our "Millennial Update"! See a load of new pictures of Alexa including her 2nd birthday and Christmas 2000 here.

Other than that, what's she been up to? Well, she's going to daycare a few days a week (she calls it "school"), and loves to play with the other kids. And, Alexa just keeps getting smarter every day. She can count to, oh, the mid-20's (although she skips 16 most of the time, go figure). She knows her alphabet, and, since her mom's fluent in French, she's been teaching Alexa French! Imagine her dad's surprise when we're at the store and Alexa points to a toy house and says "Chateau". Now, not speaking a lick of French, I don't know "chateau" from "Chattanooga". Here's my two-year old teaching me how to talk! I've got a feeling I'm going to have a humbling few years ahead of me!

Now, on the other hand, some of her dad's skills are rubbing off. She's great with a mouse and keyboard, and loves her computer games! Maybe next year I'll have her throw together a little javascript menu for her webpage...

Goodness, has it been this long since an update? Shame on us!

Added a few new pictures, and I'm going to change the picture layout; those little icons to the left are dandy, but hard to make and (as you know) they take a while to load. Look for a new "Alexa Picture Page" in the near future.

She's just growing and becoming more incredible every day! There's no point in trying to list the words she knows, there's too many. And she's running and climbing like a veteran. Mostly, she's happy and smart. We're lucky

Imagine, Alexa's lived in TWO centuries already!

HEAR Alexa Giggling! Click Here to download an "mp3" of her having a blast. (You'll require an MP3 player such as Winamp to hear her).

Alexa had her 1 year doctor's visit on the 8th, and she's (whaddasooprise!)...perfect!

Her "stats" are:

• 24lb, 9oz (94th percentile)
• 32" tall (100+ percentile)
• Her head's 18 1/2" around (85th percentile)

We don't know why her head's so small, Dad was born with a huge melon, and that hasn't changed a whole lot. She must be taking after mom in this.

And, she's talking up a storm! Her doctor thinks she's very verbal (she said several of the words she knows in front of the doctor, told her "hi", and when asked by mommy what the monkey says she responded "ooh ooh ooh"!). Most of it's still baby talk (right now she's into practicing consonants, which makes for some interesting conversation). But she's also building an "adult" vocabulary that's growing every day. Here's a list of the words she knows now:

• Hi!
• Bye bye
• Night night
• Dog
• Peekaboo!
• No no no no no
• More
• Uh oh! (This is her favorite word)
• Kitty cat
• Nice
• Bear
• Pooh
• Mama
• Dada
• Tree
• Ball
• Woof! (dog sound)
• Oooo Oooo Oooo! (monkey sound)
• Vroom Vroom (car sound)
• Elmo
• Book
• Hat
• Egg
• Tree

Now, some of these might need some slight interpretation, but she's learning to get her thoughts across. It's great.

There's a list too of words she understands but can't (yet) say. Wanna know what they are? Here:

• Fish
• Bird
• Juice
• Milk
• Primordial (no, just kidding)

Just added some new pictures. One of Alexa having fun at the park, here's one of mommy and Alexa enjoying the sun in the backyard; and you need to see Alexa riding Bucky the horse at Uncle Steve and Aunt Connie's house. Or just browse the photos to see them all.

Site News: I reorganized the picture icons to the left, putting the newest pics at the top, with the older ones following, I added several new pictures (some scanned from photos taken earlier this summer), and widened the list from 3 to 4 icons to cram more in. (As the photo list inevitably grows, I'll need to work out another photo scheme).

Mama and Grandma Peggy are taking her down today to have her 1 year pictures taken, Alexa's all excited that she gets to wear her party dress again! (She was also pretty excited at finding a Cheerio on the floor this morning, it doesn't take much to make her happy). Click here to see the results of the photo session.

I'll add the pics as soon as I can. Also, we should be getting some more birthday photos that I'll scan and post. After all, it's just not possible to have too many pictures of our "little pumpkin!"

Grandma Peggy is visiting and she and Alexa are getting along famously. Alexa loves to sneak into Grandma's room in the morning with a big smile on her face and say "hi".

1st Birthday!
Nov 21, 1999:

Alexa's 1 year old today!

God sent her a message, raining snow on the Boise foothills all morning and into the afternoon. It's a sure sign, she'll be a ski-bunny!

Later, she threw a party, and invited many of her friends (we couldn't invite them all because of local traffic and parking restrictions). She had mom cook some snacks (okay, it was an incredible brunch spread for 16 people!), and dad did the grunt-work to get the house in shape to host it all. It took the weekend, but by Sunday, the cars clustered, and by 12 o'clock the party began!

Alexa was the perfect hostess, decked-out in her Sunday-best, smiling and charming everyone, and graciously relishing in her duties as Princess of the day.

She got SO many presents, and she had dad and mom open them while she looked on with glee (or trotted around giggling, playing with her baby-friends and giving them all hugs).

Everyone sang "Happy Birthdy" while (with some small help from dad) she blew out her candle (that's "candle," not plural) and made her first wish (which she's keeping coyly to herself!) It was her first cake, but she's had ice cream before. She's no rookie.

The party lasted hours, and everyone had a great time. After she waved "bye bye" to everyone, Alexa played with her presents and, later, got mommy to change her from her party-dress into some more "comfortable" clothes.

All throught it all she was soooo happy, and played and giggled until the night. The long day made her sleepy early, and she she went to bed for a long and contented sleep. She woke up the next day later than usual, bright-eyed and grinning, knowing that she's no longer a baby, she's a One Year Old! And a perfect one at that.

Lots of preparation is going on for Alexa's first birthday party this weekend! We've invited some of her friends, (big and little), bought her her first party dress (velvet with a big satin skirt), and are finalizing the menu (brunch topped off with, of course,cake and ice cream).

We're hoping Alexa will have lots of fun. She'll definitely enjoy all her littlest guests. She loves other kids, and will probably give them lots of hugs. She and her mom were at the mall the other evening (shopping for - guess what - clothes! With her growth rate the past year and changes in season every three months, keeping her clothed is no small feat) and she met a kindred spirit. Another little girl about her age shrieked with delight at spying another little one and they promptly gave each other several hugs. You'd have thought they were long lost sisters!

Another one of Alexa's loves is going to "the park". (We actually take her to several). She loves climbing around the equipment (especially the tunnels), playing in the sandbox, swinging, going down the slide (she's recently learned to get herself going at the top so you can be at the bottom to catch her), and most of all, "organizing" and chewing on the woodchips all the parks here seem to use.

She also likes her Gymboree class. Mom takes her every friday morning and for 45 minutes, she gets to sit in a circle and sing songs, climb all over the nifty indoor play equipment, and just play with other kids her age. Even though we sing to her at home, somehow sitting in that circle and clapping along to all those songs has developed her sense of rhythm. Now whenever she hears a catchy tune she get a big smile on her face and starts clapping and dancing.

Fridays are just fun in general because after Gymboree she goes to her play group with Gabby and Grant. Gabby's a few weeks older and Grant's a month younger, and they've been playing together for just under a year now.

Alexas mom took her to see the doctor today, her cold seems a bit better, but she's got a rattle now in her breathing. We wanted to make sure it wasn't pneumonia But, "Saint's be praised," it's just a cold, and she got some new medicine (DimeTapp) that seems to sooth her.

Doing the checkup, the doctor discovered Alexa's teething all four molars right now. That's gotta be tough, but she doesn't seem to mind all that much. She's definitely drooling more, crying a little more, and is easier to upset, but who wouldn't be?

And, while this wasn't an official checkup (she's having one just after her 1st birthday, coming up in one week!) she tips the scales now at 24.5 lbs and still has those wonderful eardrums! (Her doctor is enamored of her ear-health, especially that she's never had an ear infection. Knock on wood).

Overall, a healthy, good-natured baby. Just like we ordered, but she's going through some tough times...

Poor sweetie, she's got a cold... Now, she's had colds before, but this one seems much worse than the others. She's coughing a lot, and you can hear a rattle when she breaths. She's still a trooper, but she doesn't know what's happening to her, and it breaks your heart when she looks up at you, face flushed, and cries, wondering why you won't make it better. Poor baby. We're giving her some baby cold medicine, and lots of hugs. She's been sick for almost a week now, but this morning she seemed much better. I think she's over the worst of it.

She's gotten her eight tooth now. Better to gnaw on everything in site with.

And, her first few steps are history, she's storming around the house like it's normal ("normal" if you walk like a drunken sailor, that is). It's been, oh, maybe two weeks since she's really started to walk (I mean, all the way across the kitchen under her own steam). Anyone who's had a baby can tell you, it's absolutely adorable to watch! And she loves it, oh boy does she love it! She likes both walking all on her own, or holding someone's hand and "guiding" them throughout the house. Of course, that means mommy & daddy are developing permanent "hunches" from walking along with her, either she needs to get taller or we need to get shorter.

Check out the new links (to the left) to Alexa's previous web pages, including her pre-birth page, before we even knew she was a she! When she got this new homepage I dropped the links to her "old" stuff, but I wanted to keep everything intact for "posterity."

She's officially taken her first steps. First few steps, that is -- She'll stand, pick up her leg and step forward, the plop down on her bottom. Sometimes she takes two in a row. Of course, now it won't be long before she's taking endless running steps in a row! She'll spend 20 minutes pushing her toy baby-buggy across the living room; it gives her something to hold onto while she walks back & forth.

She's "reading" now, she'll grab one of her books, sit down, open it, and turn the pages and read aloud! Admittedly, books sound different when she reads them-- she's got to convert it all to baby-talk, after all. And it doesn't bother her one bit if the book's upside down, she still reads it!

Seven teeth, don't know where the eighth one is.

She's usually sleeping through the night (although that varies, a lot). And she's sleeping in later (ditto on the "varies a lot"). This morning I actually woke her up just before her nanny Joy came at 8:30! (Go ahead, ask me why I felt it necessary to wake her up... Here's why, I didn't want to leave without seeing her! Who could blame me?)

We took her to the park the other day, and her personality certainly shows! She loves other kids, and isn't at all shy about meeting them. She'll squeal and crawl over to a new baby or toddler and grab them or just sit down and giggle and laugh at them. A lot of the kids don't know what to make of it, some just stare, and some run off. Alexa doesn't mind.

On the site-side, I need to tweak that javascript app that calculates how old she is, she's going on a year soon, and it's kinda silly to express her age only in weeks and days. Also, we need more pictures, I'm going to steal my digital camera back from some friends and snap a few.

09-03-1999

She's "talking" up a storm these days (baby-talk, of course). Sometimes she'll say "da-da" or "ma-ma," but usually it's more like "ba BA BA BA BA BA BA". She'll go on forever. Cute. She's crawling all the time now, and fast! Climbing the stairs is her favorite thing, and when she gets to the top she squeals and giggles and rushes off for the next set of steps. It's all new to her. She can stand on her own now, without holding onto anything, but only for a few seconds. She looks like a surfer, knees bent, wobbling to and fro before she plops down on her rear. Time to start saving up for baby Nikes!

She still has 6 teeth, and she's become a more blonde strawberry blonde. She just had her 9-month checkup and she's 31" long and weighs 22lbs, 9oz. The doctor said she's the picture of health, and that she has "beautiful" eardrums (I didn't know they had classifications for them). She's still in the 95th-percentile for height and weight.

She has a new nanny, "Joy". (Angie went back to school, though she still comes back from time to time to watch Alexa). Joy took her to the zoo yesterday, and since then Alexa's been "growling" a lot. Must think that's how most creatures talk.

Alexa loves to be read to. She loves to turn the pages, and point to things and have you say what they are (or say something, at any rate), and she laughs when you add lots of variety to your voice. Her favorite part, however, is chewing on the book. (Her mom assumed all kids did that until one of the moms in Alexa's play group brought some books that were months old that didn't have a single tooth mark).

Alexa's done a lot in the past month. She's standing (with some assistance), and she loves to swim around the tub in her bath! (I let her grab a shampoo bottle off the side of the tub and she popped the top off and chewed some bubbles! She didn't mind, but I don't know why).

She's got 6 teeth now! (And growing more, seemed a little grumpy tonight, teething's tough).

She's crawling now, and we can't say just when that actually happened, it just kind of "evolved". But we don't dare leave her alone for a moment, she'll scurry over and pull down the coffee maker or turn the VCR on. (She loves pushing buttons on things, I'm sure she got that from her dad).

And, taking things into her hands, she's willing and able to hold her own bottle. On the food line, she loves her Cherrios in the morning, and her Graham Crackers for a snack. She just knows, now, how to (almost) feed herself! Smart girl, we love her dearly. (What a surprise!)

Father's day, so we added some more pictures to the left. Check 'em out!

Well, little miss "two-teeth" now has three! We just discovered she popped out a new top tooth. I'll bet its partner isn't far away.

Alexa's sitting up by herself all the time now. She still can't sit up from laying down, but that's going to happen soon (she's been watching "Body Shaping," I think, and she's doing her version of "baby crunches" to get those ripped abs). She's amazingly strong, and still "stomps" all the time, and we think she'll walk before she crawls (she still doesn't like being on her tummy at all).

She had her 6-month checkup, her "stats" were:

• Weight: 20 lbs, 4 oz
• Length: 27 1/4"

And, of course, she's perfectly healthy!

She's always loved people, but more and more she goes all giggly when someone smiles at her, and she just loves crowds, looking at all the people and smiling. Actually, it seems she loves "all living things," the cats can't walk by her without making her laugh and shake her little arms. Pretty cool to see.

And, she's a charter member in good standing with her Baby Group, and mom says she loves to see all her "baby-friends," Gabby, Grant, and Carlie. Maybe she'll be like her mom, and start organizing the group, get them to put out a newsletter, or set up a garage sale ("Mommy doesn't need these shoes," Daddy won't miss these couple watches"...)

Oh, on daddy's birthday (June 18th) she got a new pal! Calvin, Dean's best man, and his wife Carlotta had a son, Cameron Izaiah Zito (He joins his sister Caitlan). Since Alexa's seven months older, I'm sure Cameron'll be looking to her for "worldly advice!"

And, our good friends Pete & Rosalie have a new daughter, Mimi, who's just a month younger than Alexa (well, three weeks, actually -- at this age, a week matters). Mimi's the opposite of Alexa, dark hair and petite (Alexa's still blonde, and Mimi tips the scales at 13 lbs). Sorry, no picture to put up of Mimi right now, but they're sure to be best of friends, so you'll see one of them together soon...

At this rate, Alexa's going to have a gaggle of friends!

Well, she did it, she rolled over on her own for the very first time! Don't believe it? Then check out the photos!

Of course, once she was on her stomach, she was delighted, and daddy told her how special she was, and she giggled and smiled (like always). After a bit, though, she wasn't quite sure what to do next. Gotta work on that roll-back over again.

04/16/99

Some of Alexa's favorite things:

She loves to smile and "talk" and hold things. She has about a million toys we hand her which she grabs and sucks on.

She's trying her darndest to sit up and to roll over (she can sit up for a few seconds unassisted, and is on the brink of turning over).

She loves to stomp her feet and put weight on her legs (she can almost support herself). This part is just adorable, you sit on the floor, and let her straddle your leg, and she just stomps one foot, then the other, for 20 minutes or more, laughing and shrieking the whole time! (back to top)

She also loves to make noise with her toys and has learned how to splash water in the bathtub. (She actually seems to like her bath now, which she used to hate).

She loves being up high in her new backpack (more shrieking and giggling).

She's looking quite fashionable with all of her sun hats. Can't have too much protection from the coming Boise summer sun!

She's spending a lot of time gazing at her hands while slowly twisting them this way and that (is she understanding they're hers and she's the one moving them around? On purpose?!

Lastly, she absolutely adores our two cats, Stripe and Addison. They're a sure fire entertainment source (which we exploit often, of course!) She loves to watch them do whatever they're doing, and they seem to have warmed up a little to her also.