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!!!