Best Friends

The better the friends... the more they act alike. Harley has decided that when Lexi gets a diaper change, she wants one too.

Attention Seeking

Great Grandma and Grandpa Young were able to come and visit Alexis yesterday. We appreciated their willingness to brave the snowy roads - I'm beginning to think that all it does in Utah these days is SNOW! I'm starting to see the many ways that Lex is taking after me - for instance she is not a huge fan of crowds. Poor great grandma Young only got to see a grumpy little girl and the minute there was just the four of us again Lex was all smiles. I must Say, I do hope she turns out more like her Dad in this respect... she's destined to be a social butterfly.

David and Kristen also braved the roads from Provo - they were SO sweet to drive for an hour and a half, chat for a minute, and turn around to drive home. Kristen started her new job today and poor David had to be to work at 2AM - I felt a little selfish having them here, but LOVED every minute we had together.

Lex definitely loves all the attention, but as you can imagine by the end of the night she was quite tuckered out. She slept from 10:30Pm and I had to wake her at 9:00AM... poor kid, that's the life of a super star I guess.

Hi Daddy

Our attempt to let David focus on studying for midterms by going away for a few days may not be as ingenious as I had hoped... I get the feeling poor daddy misses his little girl (the hourly phone calls were the first indication). Don't worry love, she wont forget you... tho, I do get the feeling that after a few days of being pampered by grandma and grandpa she's going to like them better than mom or dad.

Lex's Best Friend

Many things have captured Alexis' attention as of late, sometimes she is able to stare at her hands for hours with a look of such intense concentration that I wonder if she'll be disappointed when she realizes all she's looking at is the squishy wiggly things she tries to shove in her mouth.

Today Alexis has found something new to be intrigued with... Harley. She is very preoccupied with the large furry beast which is always trying to lick her. Harley has learned that grandkids mean dropped food, so she is a bit confused that her 'loyalty' to Lex is not paying off.

Near Death Experience

So this morning my mother invited me to go on a walk with her, and I thought it would be nice to get outside while Dad was available to watch little Lex. Now, anyone who knows my mother knows when she said 'walk', in real translation it's more like 'trek'. I started getting a bit nervous when mom came out with arctic winter wear for me to borrow - where on earth was she taking me!? I tried to play it off by commenting I knew the area so if I got too tired i could find my way home... to which mom replied 'you wont know your way home where I am taking you'.

Well, 6 miles and an hour and a half later I'd never been happier to see Lex. There were a number of times on my 'walk' I never thought I'd see my daughter again. Mom said we should go out again on Thursday after me body has a day to recover... newsflash: it's going to take a whole lot more than one day to recover. I don't even know if I'll recover feeling in my legs.

Surprise

Alexis and I decided that David needed some time to study for midterms, so we thought we'd remove distraction... and go visit Grandma and Grandpa Young in Utah. Sunday night we bought a ticket and Monday morning we were on a plane! Mom and Dad were already planning on driving out to Cali for Lex's baby blessing - so, I bought a one way ticket and will drive back with them this weekend.

Apparently you are supposed to call the airline and inform them you are traveling with a baby, so when I should up with Lex without notifying them it raised major red flags. They must have thought I was trying to hide something, so they searched all my bags, took apart the car seat, and even patted me down. I didn't get the memo that I am the picture of today's modern smuggler.

Lex was great on the plane. She slept through the landing - and behaved better than the stressed out grown adults around me. We arrived just in time to hit a blizzard on the drive home.

Big Brother is Watching

As Alexis becomes more and more aware of her surroundings I have become more self conscious of my daily habits. No matter where I put her - her car seat, bouncing chair, swing, couch - I can feel her watching me. Having her crystal blue eyes watching every move I make is getting a bit unnerving. I can only guess what is running through her head as she watches me:
Another cookie mom, are you serious? That makes what number five for the morning - do you really think that is a good idea - 'baby fat' as an excuse can only go so far.
Having no idea what is really going through her head is enough to drive me crazy, but it has been good motivation to start running again. What does it mean when I can't handle the thought of an infant looking down on me? Jogging with a stroller is a struggle, but I know that one day Lex will return the favor when I am living in her basement and she has to wheel me around in a wheel chair.

Let's Make A Deal

It was nice to have David home for an extra day last weekend; any day that I am not a single parent is a good day. David and I actually had a long chat about how we both thought the other's day-to-day life was more difficult than our own. So, with that in mind, we decided to make a little deal: he'd be Mr. Mom, and I would be an eager - tho, slightly shorter - dental student.

I thought that Sunday would be a perfect day for the switch, and as David became Mr. Mom I headed off, like any good student on a Sunday, and took a nap. I had a very enjoyable nap until I was suddenly awakened by a scream unlike any I have ever heard before. In my semi-conscious, just waking up state, I ran into the nursery... what I saw there has haunted me ever since. Imagine if you will a young child say 2 months old, we'll call her Alexis; and her father, all 6 feet 5 inches of him standing over her shaking with terror. Let's just say that someone (no need to point fingers) wasn't able to get a new diaper on fast enough. That's right friends, not only did David have to change clothes, but we are still cleaning the carpet and the walls.

After changing his clothes, poor David poured himself a shot of apple juice (straight up) and tried to drown his woes... unfortunately, he missed his mouth and had to change again due to the stream of apple juice down his shirt. If my day as a dental student hadn't been SO grueling, I might have felt sorry for him!

The Grandparents are Great

Over the weekend, we took a little trip down the 405 to visit Grandma and Grandpa Clarke. On a good day without traffic the drive takes about 40 minutes, but when the 405 lives up to its' nickname "the parking lot" it's a whole different story. David and I have often commented on how much we would enjoy living in California if only everyone else would move... you can't beat the weather and the beach!

We had a really nice time with Grandma and Grandpa - they are great with Lex, and she loves having someone besides mom to look at. Grandpa has labeled me as a "stress case mother"... He devised a game of torture where lex was in the other room crying with Grandma and I wasn't allowed to help. He made it very clear that I was more entertaining to watch than the baby. I haven't the faintest idea why he would say that, as I sat there a nervous wreck on the edge of my seat. Luckily, I have David on my side... He's so tall, he can just play leap frog over grandpa and assess the lexicon situation for me.

Deep Thoughts

I find that sitting on the couch all day and having close to no adult interaction is really quite stimulating. In fact, just this morning, as I was burping Lex I found myself sinking deep in thought. As I was pondering, I found myself stuck on one particular quandary... at what age do we stop cheering when a person burps (and farts really)? How often do you go to a restaurant, and if someone burps the entire restaurant stops and in a sing song voice says "good job! Doesn't that feel better? You did so good, do you have another one for me?"

I don't know how many times a day I find myself saying those exact things to my daughter, or even going further and holding her legs up so that her gas will have easier passage. No wonder kids are so messed up these days... One minute their parents are praising them for something as simple as bodily noises, and the next minute they are being reprimanded for the same thing. How are kids supposed to grow up functional and trusting with such a harsh and glaring double standard?!? Seriously, I think this one has noble prize written all over it...

Beauty School Dropout

Yesterday following Alexis' bath, I forgot to brush her hair so it would lay flat; as a result she had a little mohawk form. Well, it was quite cute, so I decided to experiment a little and see if I could help all her hair join in. When we were in Utah for Christmas I remember my mom telling me I could use Karo syrup to make a bow stick in her hair... Now, I don't think my mom meant for the take home message to be "pour Karo syrup all over Lex's head and see what fun you can have"; sadly, tho that's what stuck.

So, I pulled out the Karo, cooed and giggled to Alexis so she wouldn't know she should probably be afraid, and went to work. Before I knew what had happened I had Karo everywhere and my fingered were pretty much glued to my daughters scalp... not really what I was going for.

Even tho it didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, I can say that it did bring Lex and I closer - we were pretty much inseparable until I gave her a second bath...

Medical Mystery

I am pleased to announce that I am no longer the only medical mystery of the family. The other night David said the roof of his mouth was a little sore, and there was some redness starting to show. The ensuing conversation, about what it could possibly be, illustrated the dramatic difference in our intellectual stimulation.

David went through multiple theories involving words like "melanoma" or "mucoepidermoid carcinoma" or "polymorphous adenocarcinoma". After talking through his theories, he turned to me and asked my opinion... well, what could I say? I thought I better give it to him straight - so, I told him I thought one of the tortilla chips he'd eaten in his taco salad scratched the top of his mouth... I sure hope I didn't kill off many neurons with that one; I don't have many to spare these days.

Is it any wonder why he is the one receiving advanced education?

David is doing fine. He visited the oral surgery department yesterday, and they have no idea what it is, but assured his that it wasn't serious. He's going back for a check up next week.

The following picture may be too graphic for some of our younger viewers...

Our Next Heavy Weight Champion

Alexis had her 2 month check up yesterday... She has reached double digits and is weighing in at 10.6 lbs 22 inches. She has gained 4 whole pounds since birth - and ironically still weighs less that her dad when he was born! She is gaining weigh on a normal curve, and surprisingly (to those who have seen the cheeks and the chins) she is still below average compared to other babies her age.

Her doctor said that she has reached the age where we can let her sleep at night without having to wake her up to eat. I didn't let him in on the secret that we have been doing just that for quite a while now. She falls asleep at about 10:30 PM and wake up sometime between 6 and 7 AM... if she doesn't wake me up, I figure I should give her the same courtesy. Unlike her mom, she is definitely a morning person - it's hard for me to want to smother her with my pillow when she is beaming with smiles - that may be the only thing that has saved her when I have to wake up with a "6" anywhere in the time.

She received her first immunizations... 3 shots and all I could do was watch. David conveniently had to be in school, so mine was the face Alexis saw as the nurse plunged needles into her thighs. Thankfully her next round of shots is not for 2 months, and you can bet that appointment will be one that her dad takes her to.

On The Next Oprah

Last night David and I were chatting about being parents and David asked me why I wanted to be a mother. As I thought about the question, he volunteered reasons he thought I wanted to be a mom... he came up with things involving my eternal perspective and my desire to take the next steps to move forward on the ladder of life. His reasons made me sound very responsible, and as he talked I could almost convince myself that he was on the right track.

However, I realize that one day I will have to tell my daughter that we had kids because our apartment complex wouldn't let me have a puppy... To have a dog, the complex requires a letter from a licenced therapist stating that there is an 'emotional need'... however, there is no documentation required for me to be responsible for an actual little person. Mental note: trying to hide a puppy may have been the easier road in the long run.

I am quite sure that one day the whole family will be on Oprah to discuss how our family dysfunction all started with mom...

What's in a Name

Looking back I can see that I led a pretty charmed life - although, one gaping hole I see in my childhood is the fact that I never had a cool nickname. I don't blame my parent... they did their best, and I think I turned out reasonably functional. I realize mom and dad had a lot to think about as they were raising us three kids, but it's going to take a few more therapy sessions to overcome this tragedy.

In light of this, David and I have taken seriously our responsibility to label Lex as early as possible. We often shorten Alexis' name to Lexi and her middle name is Dawn; we often put the two together as Lexi Dawn which sounds a lot like lexicon.

the dictionary defines a lexicon as:

1603, "a dictionary," from Gk. lexikon (biblion) "word (book)," from neut. of lexikos "pertaining to words," from lexis "word," from legein "say" (see lecture).

Not only is this a cool nickname, we hope it is a self fulfilling prophecy. It gets very tedious having to pause the DVR to physically look up the words we don't understand - I can't wait till we have our own walking and talking dictionary... our own little lexicon.

Welcome to Venice

This morning we decided to take Lexi to the beach for a Saturday morning walk. This was her first experience with the beach and we were a little nervous taking her to Venice because it, more than any other beach, brings out the "freak" in people. Those of you who have had the delight of walking the Venice boardwalk know what I am talking about.
Sure enough, it only took a few minutes of the beach to awaken the wild side of our little girl. She spent most of the walk practicing for her audition to be a member of KISS. That, or she is completely antisocial and was maliciously sticking her tongue out at everyone.
Tho, David and I felt a little out of place because we weren't members of a running group. The most interesting part to me, was the fact that all the groups had to wear t-shirts declaring their identity... there were the LAWalkers or the RoadRunners etc. I think they do this to make sure they don't fraternize with those who run 6 minutes miles versus those who take 10 minutes... there is no such thing as equl opportunity these days. I decided I'm going to make my own shirt - Memory Joggers - to signify that the days of jogging are a distant memory for me.
Before we decide to venture to the beach again, I think we'll have to wait until Lexi's dread locks come in, and I have enough confidence to be around joggers and not feel guilty.

We decided to finish off the day a little closer to home and visited Manhatten Beach. Lex seemed to enjoy Manhatten a bit more than Venice - I don't think this is anything personal against Italy... could have been the jet lag.

Yes, it is true - Lexi has already mastered "the look". We're both trying to figure out exactly what is going through her head - I think it sounds something like this, "Daddy! I want a pony!

Standing at 2 months?!?! This has to be some kind of a record...

Feller Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family history

One Day My Daughter Will Kill Me

These days it is not a good thing to have nude pictures of yourself on the Internet, so I have no doubt that years from now when Alexis realizes that her cute naked butt was plastered all over the family blog I'm sure law suits will arise (it's a good thing we have so many lawyers on David's side... guess we better start kissing up now, so they take our side).

Lexi will be 2 months old next week, and I can't believe how big she continues to get. It seems like everyday brings new changes... we are not ready for her to grow so quickly!We get very bored sitting home all day staring at each other, so we pull out the camera. Lex hasn't really mastered holding up the camera - heck she just started holding up her head - so you'll have to live with pictures of her instead of by her. For these pictures I had her dig deep - bet you can't guess her motivation... I'll give you a hint: one was taken before a visit to the changing pad, and the other after...

GRRRR is for Government

At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I have to say that few things frustrate me more than trying to "do things the government's way". In no way am I saying that I don't love living in the US and being a proud American - I mean, I love apple pie as much as the next person (unless we're talking about my Mom's home aid apple pie, then I love it MORE than the next person).
But after spending more than a few hours at the Department of Human and Social Services building yesterday to apply for Medi-cal my patience was worn very thin. Now that I am officially unemployed and David and I are living completely off government loans; we are trying to avoid having to increase our loans, and end up owing $1,001,000 rather than a nice round $1,000,000.
Needless to say after waiting in various waiting rooms for hour after hour praying that Alexis would sleep - I was finally able to meet with a case worker who told me that we would need everything short of blood tests and a polygraph before anything could be approved. I, like any self respecting person, could not believe that I had spent my entire morning waiting and waiting to hear that nothing could be accomplished, so I decided to give the case worker a piece of my mind... and bravely I... thanked her and made an appointment to return next Monday. Yup, I sure made her sorry she came to work...
I'm not sure how exactly she would like us to prove that we have no money; I'm just dieing to hear what she says next week.

Say It Like It Is

As each day passes we are noticing lots of changes with Alexis - lately she is making more and more noise (course not all of the noise comes out of her mouth). lexi has reached the stage of "cooing" - and, she has decided that she should have a say in everything. The poor girl is stuck with her mom all day - who's better at nonverbal communication - and, I'm afraid that she is beginning to get a complex. For some odd reason Lex doesn't understand that my not talking to her translates to "I love you" not "It's easier for me to ignore you if you are quiet".

As you can imagine, when 6PM hits and dad walks through the door Lex is overjoyed to have someone to chat with. Last night David gave up on teaching Lex english and he decided to learn her language. Their conversation went something like this:

Lex: ahhhhh [translation: Welcome home father. I trust that you had an enjoyable day.]

David: ahhhhh-ahhhh [translation: ahhhh-ahhhh]

Lex: ohhh grrrrrrrr [translation: Father it is very difficult to have a civilized conversation with you when you make such strange noises. I had a very intellectually stimulating day - I decided to reformulate a hypothesis on genetic transference of dominant verses recessive traits.]

David: urrrrrrrr mmm [translation: urrrrrrr mmm]

As you can imagine, they were inspiring to watch. I learned so much from watching David have such quality bonding time, I decided to give it a go this morning... Sadly, all I got was sour milk spit up. Being a mother is so thankless...

David's Dental Guinea Pigs

Over Christmas David offered to provide a bit of free dental treatment... The curriculum for UCLA has expanded to include dental 'grillz'. We're not sure if other dental schools feel this is important - could just be a California thing.
Much to my grandmother's dismay it was right before our family pictures.

Dental School Delight

David recently discovered that he has once again passed all of his classes. He is now well into his second year of dental school. And, not only is he surviving, but he is excelling. UCLA is on a pass/fail grading system, and thus far David has received all passing grades - that could of course have something to do with his many hours of practice and study. We are very glad that he loves what he is doing.

This upcoming year will be the most difficult - as he will be taking the dental boards in July.

He still is looking into Orthodontics as a specialty, and the board scores have a large influence on getting accepted to specialty schools. He has already begun studying, and Lex and I have already begun preparing ourselves for a few months of bonding time just the two of us. \I promised David I would show Lex pictures of him everyday so that she would recognize him come July...

Under New Management

David is back in school, and has given me (Jennifer - he offered the position to Alexis first, but she declined stating that her schedule wouldn't allow it) the awesome power of maintaining the family blog. However, after looking over a few of my revisions and reading my first post, he wanted me to make sure that a disclaimer was added which clearly stated that he no longer has control.

DISCLAIMER:
--David no longer has control. Parental discretion is advised--

It will be clean - but I can't promise it will be serious...

Alexis Visits Primary Childrens

Following the new year, Alexis had her first visit to the plastic surgeon; David and I felt one can never start too early when looking into finding the perfect doctor for a nose job...
So, on January 3rd David and I along with my parents went down to Primary Children's hospital for a meeting with Dr. Hutchinson - he is a hand specialist. He gave us the shocking news that Lex is going to need surgery... wow, they sure don't give out medical degrees to just anyone these days. Anyway, he said we should probably plan on 2 total surgeries (that would be doing both hands at the same time), the first surgery would be sometime close to her first birthday.
As you can imagine we had a lot of questions, and I had power struggles with the Dr because I have been on the receiving end of hand surgeries. But, we both came away from the appointment comforted to have Dr. Hutchinson's input. He referred us to a Dr at UCLA - Dr Jones, whom we already have an appointment with in April for a 6 month checkup.
We'll keep you posted...