Alexis is 18 months

Alexis is 18 months! It's crazy to think that this little peanut (haha, see what I did there?) joined us 1-1/2 year ago.

She is the cuddliest of all my kids. She loves to be in my arms at bedtime or anytime she's not comfortable with a situation, place, or person. Also, her new thing is to stick her hand into my shirt and rub my chest. It sometimes feels weird, especially when there are people around, because it looks like she's feeling me up. It sometimes also drives me crazy because it's the same spot that she rubs over and over. And if there's a mole there, she actually tries to scratch it off. But it's her comfort thing. Some kids have blankies; she has my chest, and her binkie. The funny thing is that she doesn't just do it to me! She has done it to William, Papa, and even my friend Jen, when she babysat her so that I could volunteer at school for the kids' Christmas parties.

And then, she gets comfortable, and starts going around exploring everything. Then, I really feel like my baby isn't a baby anymore- she is a mischievous, super-active toddler. And I'm tired just thinking about chasing her all over the place.

Alexis LOVES coloring. In fact, I have a feeling she'll be my first child, ever, to use the house walls as her canvas. I hope I'm wrong.

She has learned some words lately, and here is the complete list:

- daddy

- mommy

- Gogay (Logan)

- Aya (Taylor)

- Kay (Kendall)

- ball

- puple (purple)

- yeyo (yellow)

- gee (green)

- hot

- code (cold)

- light

- wawa (water)

- boo (book)

- baby

- per (diaper)

- gogo (let's go)

- moo (move)

- no (nose)

- mou (mouth)

- eye

- ea (ear)

- hai (hair)

Alexis also LOVES to dance and sing, and it's the cutest thing, ever! She also loves to snuggle with her siblings, but she leans especially to Logan. I think it's because Taylor doesn't tolerate certain things that she does, like when she plays with his toys. And Kendall can be a little too much- too loud, too aggressively loving, too bossy. But Kendall loves her so much. Sure, she gets mad at Alexis when she rejects her love, but it's all because she wants to feel loved back. Kendall is super helpful with Alexis, sometimes I little too much, maybe. But she does it all out of love, so it's hard to get mad at her. Still, Alexis sometimes just wants a little space.

What else... Alexis is super decisive and persistent. She knows what she wants and will not stop until she gets it. For example, it's super hard to feed her certain types of food because if she has decided that she does not want to eat yogurt, there is no way she'll eat the dang yogurt. I can't distract her or convince her to take "one more bite." Nope. She decided and that's the way it's going to be. I'm sure I'll appreciate that about her some day. But not today. Today I want her to have some dairy and protein.

Oh, we are so blessed to have Alexis in our lives. Everybody loves her so much. She gets the most kisses in the family. Even Logan kisses her, all.the.time, and he doesn't kiss anyone else. And we get stopped so much, everywhere we go, because people want to tell me what a cute baby she is. I don't think I'm biased, because all these people are the proof that she's the cutest baby ever. We seriously get compliments at least 2-5 times a day, depending on how much we're getting around that day. Oh, baby, thanks for being a part of our lives and for bringing us so much joy and so many laughs. We love you!!!

A Blue Moon is when two full moons happen in the same calendar month: lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes into the Earth's shadow; and supermoons happen when the moon's perigee- it's closest approach to Earth in a single orbit- coincides with a full moon. In this case, the supermoon also happens to be the day of the lunar eclipse.
I woke the kids up early that morning to see this spectacular moon. Their first reaction? "Where is it? I don't see it." It was actually harder to see than what the picture shows. The moon was almost invisible, I thought. Still, it was pretty cool to see. I had actually gone outside the evening before, and although the moon looked normal, I remember thinking that it was very bright. Like, the pool side looked lit up, except that the only thing shining down on it was the moon.

I took these other 2 pictures from the Internet. Obviously, my phone camera didn't do it justice.

Family resemblance

The last time Maman and Papa came to visit, Alexis had just turned 1 and we'd just had her 1st year pictures taken. I gave this picture to them, and they hung it up on their wall at home. Then just a couple of weeks before they came to visit, I was on the phone with them when Papa said, "Alexis looks a lot like someone in our family when they were a baby. The other day, I was walking into the family room and noticed something about the picture you gave us of Alexis. The picture has been there for 4-5 months now, but I had never noticed it until just this week. I have this picture of my mom and her sister (my godmother) also hanging in the family room. I looked at the picture of my mom, then back at the picture of Alexis, and back at the picture of my mom, then back again at the picture of Alexis. I don't know if it's the angle at which I was looking at the picture that one time, or Alexis' facial expression in that picture, or the fact that they're both black and white, but the resemblance was undeniable." Maman said she had noticed it long before, but didn't say anything, because it was so obvious, she had assumed Papa had already seen the resemblance. 

So when they came to visit, they brought a copy of the picture. It's true. I see it, too. Not when Alexis smiles, but when she does that thing with her eyebrows, I see it. It makes me happy that there is some Hairson in her. It makes me happy that my grandmother is in her, because Alexis will never know her, just like I never did. She died at the age of 49, I think. She was too young to die. Papa was too young to lose his mother. But it makes me so grateful for every day that I spend with Papa and Maman. I feel so grateful that my children know their grandparents. Not only did I never meet Papa's mom, but I also never met his dad. He left Papa and his mom when Papa was only a little boy, age 3, I think, maybe 5. He died after we moved to the United States, but he did not have a relationship with Papa, or us, obviously. I also never met Maman's dad. He also died too young, at 47, if I remember well. My memories of Maman's mom, Meme, are very vague. She died when I was 5. I remember her face, her hands, and her kisses. I remember going over to the house and sitting on her lap. I remember her stroking my hair. But besides that... I don't remember much. I hope that they're looking down on me and are proud of my accomplishments. And I pray that I will see them in Heaven when the time comes, not too soon, I hope.

That last picture is Papa. I remember Ruby telling us she thought Alexis looked like him. It was funny to me because I didn't see it, and I thought she was just saying that because they both had dark hair. But after seeing that picture, I see the resemblance, too. Probably even more so that with my grandmother. It's funny, but I don't even know what to call her, because I never had to call her by anything. I was talking about that with Papa, and we both agreed that she would have liked to be called Mamy. It does seem to fit her. So I guess that's what I'll call her. It only took me 32 years to come up with that. Haha. But really, I think my dad was a dang cute kid. Like seriously, he was adorable. No wonder he won a baby contest, which, by the way, I also never knew until just a few weeks ago! I'm learning all sorts of things lately!

Date with my boys

I have been feeling a little overwhelmed and stressed out lately. Mostly, I get frustrated because I feel like the kids block out the sound of my voice and I have to repeat the same things a billion times before I get an answer or a result. It's been hard to enjoy time together because we end up getting angry at one another. I thought it was time to spend some time just having fun. No deadlines, no responsibilities, no stress. Just fun. I gave the boys a couple of ideas, but all they wanted to do was go to Flipside, then My Pie. You got it! It was fun to play together and enjoy each other's company. And it was actually fun not to worry about chasing a toddler around. Don't get me wrong, Alexis is fun, cute, and loveable, but she's a lot of work, too. She's discovering the world around her and can't stay put. She's also determined and likes to do as she pleases. Anyways... I had a great time with my boys. Hopefully we can do this again soon. Love ya, Logan and Taylor.

Bon-Papa and Bonne-Maman's visit

We look forward to spending time with Bon-Papa and Bonne-Maman each time they come. They're the best grandparents any kid could ever ask for. And this year, with the kids being in school, my parents got to experience the chaos of our scheduled every day life. I have to be honest, though, my days are pretty chill, until 3. Then on Mondays, we have gymnastics and piano lessons. On Tuesdays, we have Boy Scouts and swim lessons. On Wednesdays, we have cheer and basketball practice. On Thursdays, we have Jiu Jitsu. Nothing on Fridays, thank goodness. And on Saturdays, we have basketball games. And of course, we have homework, nighttime reading, and scriptures memorization every night. It was actually great to have my parents here because I actually cooked, even if it meant having dinner at 7:30 instead of a quick fast food pick up at our regular dinner time. It's all crazy, but when there are 4 kids, you can't just drop one activity. They all need to be involved in a sport. It's important, so sacrifices have to be made. On the bright side, piano lessons are at our house, so I don't waste 90 minutes waiting around. And Boy Scouts is practically in our neighborhood, so it's only a 5 minute drive.
Anyways... We went out on walks around the neighborhood almost every day that my parents were here, and when I say around the neighborhood, I mean 45 minutes out and 45 minutes back in.

Bon-Papa celebrated his birthday here, which is the main reason they came when they did. In 61 years, it was the first time he got to have dinner outside (it's usually too cold)! For his special day, Prime Steak, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and for dessert, cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

It's so beautiful right now that we spent as much time outdoors as we could, and that included playing cornhole.

The trip would not have been complete without a little hot-tubbin' and relaxin' by the outdoor fireplace.

Saturday is Farmer's Market and we had to hit it up before the basketball game to get some authentic Belgian Waffles. If our schedule and my diet allowed it, we'd go every week.

Oh my Heavens, everyone looks so good! This has got to be my favorite picture!

Sundays are family days spent playing games, reading, and walking/biking/riding scooters.

Kendall didn't want a picture with her leotard on Monday... *sigh* But I got one of the boys before heading to Boy Scouts. And then I didn't get one at swim lessons, but you can tell that Taylor is wearing his swim trunks with his regular shirt. Oh yeah, and he lost his Boys Scouts shirt, so I went later that week to get him a new one, which I hate, because I also had to sew on the numbers. Ugh.

It's a bummer we live so far apart, but it's a blessing when we get to see each other. The kids love seeing their grandparents and spending time with them. I can see it in their eyes, how much they love them, with every once of their heart. It's a beautiful thing. And vice versa, of course. Family is the best! Thanks for being amazing parents and even better grandparents. Love you, guys!