"HI"

Trevor was playing with Alexa tonight and I came over to watch. Trevor says "show mommy your new trick" and then he lifted her up by her knees, her head came up, she looked at me and ...

This was no fluke. She did it several times, the above video being about the 4th. Before now she would usually only wave at herself in the mirror. I think she finally figured out what it meant.

Along with this adorable new trick her first tooth finally broke the surface, she started crawling (about 3 weeks ago) and she pulls herself to a standing position anywhere she possibly can (about 1 week ago).

It's hard to believe her first birthday is only 1 month & 5 days away. She has continued to develop & grow normally (she weighs about 14.5 lbs), stay healthy, and make everyone who sees her smile. She has brought joy to our lives that we never knew existed. What a blessing it has been to have such a beautiful, happy, healthy baby despite her rough beginning. She truly is a special daughter of God.

Spring Break - St. George Island, FL

For Spring Break we went to St. George Island, FL with Trevor's family. We had a lot of fun and it was so nice to be out in the sun and on the beach for a week. Alexa didn't know what to think of it all, but she enjoyed jumping on the sand and eating it too (well, she didn't really like that). The water was a little cold so we mostly just put our feet in - a few brave souls jumped in, but after seeing a shark 3 feet from the shore on the first day, most of us enjoyed the ocean from the shore.

While there we: took nightly strolls along the beach, had a picnic on the beach with the seagulls, went on a bike ride through a swamp, did plenty of shell hunting, had fresh fish for dinner (that's another story), drove 1 1/2 hrs to Panama City to go shopping at this dinky mall, and of course spent much of our time relaxing in the sun.

Also during this time Alexa started teething, getting up on her hands and knees and bouncing, willingly eating solid foods, giving kisses when requested, and making fishy faces. So it was an eventful trip with just her.

Alexa did very well on our 16 hour drive there, stopping in Birmingham, AL along the way (we were hoping to hear some really thick southern accents at church, but no such luck). On our way home we took a detour through Destin, FL making it a 17 1/2 hr drive, which didn't go as smoothly, but we made it home in one piece.

I'm really glad we were able to go and spend time with Trevor's family. Lindy and Ryan were able to meet us there which was a lot of fun too.

I'll be posting pictures of our trip in a web album as soon as I figure out how to create one and not delete all the pictures out of it. Here are a few teasers to get you started.

Better Luck Next Year

Well, no one we know made the Top 10 on the Beautiful Baby Contest 2009. In my opinion all our babies were way cuter than the ones they ended up picking. Oh, well, what can a mother do - she's still absolutely adorable to me and everyone who see's her.

This is her newest sleeping spot - I guess all that jumping wore her out.

Alexa is now about 13 pounds and 2 feet tall. Saturday she finally rolled from her back to her tummy all by herself. Now she does it all the time - the only bad thing is she doesn't know she can turn back over when she wants. She's still not sleeping through the night, but I think my body is finally used to it. Solid foods haven't been very successful; however, the last couple of days I've been giving her a little of whatever we're eating and she seems to be liking that. I hope this isn't an indication that she's going to be a picky eater.

The Winner!

Here is the picture that won the blog contest. I submitted it to the GMA Beautiful Baby Contest, now we just have to wait and see. We're not really expecting anything to come of it, but thought it would be fun anyway. We think Alexa's the "Most beautiful baby" and that's what really counts.

Alexa is now at 12 lbs., 24 " tall, and is developing right on schedule. She had her 6 mth development appointment 2 weeks ago and everything went really well. She is a little small (5% at her corrected age of 5 1/2 mths), but the doctor said there's not much we can do about it and she's growing steadily and that is the important thing. We also had a hearing test and her ears are perfect. What a blessing this has all been, after all her little body has gone through since birth and she's turned out to be an extremely healthy and happy baby.

She is now sitting up with just a little help from the Boppy, she absolutely loves her activity jumper (see video posted on web album), eating food is still a hit or miss; which the doctor said he doesn't expect her to be really ready for much of that at this point, so that was a relief. All around she has become a very easy, happy, and fun baby.

Other going on's: I realized a while ago that we never give an update of what Trevor and I are up to (which isn't very exciting), but I thought I'd give just a little summary.

Trevor is staying very busy with his full time job at HE Williams performing his amazingly genius computer skills, which he sometimes gets to expand with a few programming projects, he also just began his final semester of college (Whoooooo!), so that means in May he will officially have a Bachelors degree in Computer Science w/an emphasis in Programming, obviously we are excited. Lately he's also been staying pretty busy with his new calling as Ward Building Coordinator -which is surprisingly more involved than you might think. Between all these responsibilities he does, somehow, find time to go jeepin' - then come home and fix his jeep, search the jeep forums for who knows what, and read his 4WD magazines. Most importantly he also manages to spend some time with me and Alexa. Alexa loves to sit with her daddy and look up jeep stuff.

As for me, obviously Alexa and I spend a lot of time together. We start our day with our morning workout at the Y (well, she watches and sleeps while I work my bum off), then we typically spend our day at home organizing, cleaning, or playing. I do a little bookkeeping from home too, which has helped me keep my sanity along with our occasional "Girls Nights". It doesn't seem like much, but for some reason there still isn't enough time in the day. I love being a "stay-at-home-mom". I have so much fun watching Alexa do new things and just be her adorable self - and of course taking tons of videos and pictures.

Well, I think that about covers the Trevor and Melissa update. Check out the web album for more pictures and videos.

More Voting Options

Okay, so I just had to take more. Now I really can't decide.



Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Cast Your Vote

We're going to enter Alexa in the Good Morning America Beautiful Baby Contest and need some help deciding on a picture to submit. Rules are that it must be a home photo (not professional) and taken within the last month.
Below you will find 3 pictures of our irresistibly adorable Alexa. Please vote on which one you think is the best - if any :D
Thank you for your time. The results will be posted at a later time. (obviously can't say when, b/c it probably won't happen then anyway.)


Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

What have we been up to??

Alexa in her blessing dress (this was taken a few weeks after the fact) but still a little doll.

Alexa and her daddy on our family outing to Roaring River. She wasn't very amused by the fish and you'd think it was freezing by her expressions in some of the pictures. (more are posted on the album) It was actually a really nice day. This was our first attempt to take her out in the Jeep. We didn't end up going on any trails and later decided that was probably a good thing.

Alexa and Grandpa P. playing with the birthday balloons. (Also more pictures and videos on the web album.)

Alexa is 8 lbs. 10 oz. but still pretty little. She looks like a newborn now except that she's really strong and holds her head up really well, smiles, laughs, and coos & jabbers constantly.

Life has been busy as this time of year seems to be. (oh, actually I think that's a year round thing.) We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Trevor's family and spent some quality family time at home over the weekend. It was a very nice change of pace.

Alexa is growing fast. She's now 21" long and has her own height mark on the Petersen family growth chart, found on the back of the kitchen door.

She's starting to grab things but still hasn't quit figured it out yet. She still needs help. Baby Einstein play mat, the swing, and bouncer are mom's new best friends as Alexa has finally starting to enjoy entertaining herself and can be left to jabber for a period of time.

About a week ago she was looking out the window from her swing and she started humming. A few minutes later she was asleep. It was so precious - singing herself to sleep.

We also went to see her Grandma LaRue and Great Grandma Groll a few weeks ago. Grandma Groll had only seen her one other time, very briefly so it was nice to spend some time with her. (more pictures on the web album)

Well, that's all for now. Check out the web album for more pictures and videos and I'm going to try to add more in a week or so. Thanks for checking us out.