Doing the Fair

10/15/2008 11:35:00 PM Edit This 1 Comment »


Ever since I shot a movie in the Seattle area over a dozen years ago and discovered the Puyallup Fair, I love going every year. I've dragged my sister, her kids and husband (sorry Jim) and Mom and whomever else I could get to go with me. And since it's always right around my birthday, I've been able to guilt someone into going if nothing else. Well I've found a kindred spirit in Lexie. From the minute we walked through those golden gates (okay they were yellow but to Lexie and I they glittered like gold) she had a ball! And talk about no fear - that child would have gone on the log ride, the big slide and I think even the bungee chair if I would have let her. For 6 hours she ran Mom and I from one adventure to the next. Rides, games and animals, you named it she wanted to explore it. We even got a little shopping in but I have to say for the first time I didn't really care if I made it to all the shopping booths or not. Lexie was just plain too much fun to watch. She proudly won this dolphin by slamming the dinger with the sledge hammer and hitting the bell - well kinda. But she picked the dolphin over the frog which really surprised me and then she carried it everywhere - until the next ride of course.

Here she is searching for her next adventure. Look at those pink cheeks - did I mention it was really hot, like 85 degrees which was one of our hottest days of the year. Yeah Pacific Northwest!

Driving a ATV or a big yellow dump truck, she was all over it!



You would have thought she was going down a category 5 rapids the way she hung on but she never once wanted out or cried or anything. She just had so much fun. At one point on this "ride" I splashed her so she scooped up some water then put it on her own head. What a mimic. Then she tried to lean over the boat to dunk her head in the water. Luckily the "river" was so narrow she couldn't do it because I don't think I could have gotten to her fast enough to have stopped her from going in head first. My little dare devil!


The animals where another favorite of hers. She had no fear - goats, sheep, lama, pigs, even full grown cows, she would walk right up to them and pet them and say "oh baby...sooooft." It didn't matter how big it was to her right now it's always "oh baby" and then she will pat it. She is one funny little girl.

Yes, this is my pretty little girl next to a sheep's butt. Nice shot GaGa!




I'm not sure who had more fun on the Carousal GaGa (aka - Grandma ) or Lexie. This was her first ride of the day. She saw it and said "me...me go!" So GaGa bought the tickets and off they went. Way cute. It was also the last ride of the day. We dug the last few wrinkled tickets out of our pockets and she was just as excited to ride it again.
I don't have one of those end of the day shots where the baby is asleep on some one's shoulder or in the stroller. Nope, we had to drag her out of there even though it was already past her bedtime. It was the only time she cried all day. She didn't even fall asleep on the drive home however she did pass out the minute I put her in her bed.

Now I have a fair partner for life. Lucky me!!!!

The Rest of the Summer

10/12/2008 11:44:00 PM Edit This 0 Comments »






We went to the local farmers market one Saturday at the boardwalk. That's her smelling the flowers even to the point of getting down to their level to smell them. Then we had to go to the playground - yes she still loves to slide and swing and anything else she finds. Then we were off to a party - that's why I took a two year old to a park in white. I'm not completely nuts. She was surprisingly clean when we showed up to the party where she charmed everyone. She is at such a fun stage even if it's a little exhausting for her dear old Mom!






The rest of the summer was full of fun activities with Lexie growing up very fast. It seems like she went from a baby to a toddler to almost a little girl in the blink of an eye. She loves to play with "babies" now and will cover them with a blankie or hold them in her arms....until she sees something else that interests her and she'll fling the doll away and off she goes on her next adventure. Like checking out the dogs heartbeat. I caught her doing this one morning and it just cracked me up. She still loves hats, shoes and dressing up in whatever comes her way. Hats are still her passion though.




Unfortunately summer wasn't full of only fun times and dress up. Lexie has been having chronic ear infections since her second birthday in May (and the doctor says she could have been having them before that as well but just not having any symptoms - poor baby.) She also failed a hearing test in her right ear in Jan but since she was just finishing up with a cold they thought it might be that so told me to check her again around her birthday. Since she kept having the ear infections I couldn't get her in until early Aug and she failed a second hearing test. On a graph they wanted to see a simple "hill" that goes up to a one and then smoothly comes down. She was a flat line in her right ear and only .5 in her left ear. So off we went to an pediatric ENT. More tests and he said she was already at the beginning stages of another ear infection so I could continue to put her on antibiotics but in his opinion they were not going to stop until she had tubes put in her ears. I hated to hear that but kind of expected it since my niece Brooke had the same problem and had a couple of sets of tubes. My sister, Lynn, said it made a world of difference as well as was very quick. So five days later I found myself handing over my sweet baby to a nurse to have them put her under for the surgery. Luckily they gave her these meds to make her loopy and it certainly did. She was laying in my arms very relaxed looking up at the ceiling going "dot...dot...dot" to the ceiling tiles. It was pretty funny until that nurse came in. She told me it would be about 5 minutes. Well it was the longest five minutes of my life but the surgeon actually came out in just over 5 minutes to tell me she did just fine. He found thick yellow liquid in both ears and he's sure it should help her hearing as well as hopefully stop the ear infections. She was wheeled out on this kid sized gurney twenty minutes later and unlike the other kids that came out before her kicking and screaming and thrashing around like they told us this drug makes them do, Lexie was very still just staring up and when I called her name she looked at me with one big tear rolling down her face. It just broke my heart. I couldn't help thinking maybe she thought she was back at the baby house or that I wasn't there and that she was all alone. Once I held her and talked to her she was fine very quickly and I felt better too. She was up and going by the afternoon and I have to say it has really made a difference in her speech. She chatters away now where as before she was very cautious in her speech.


After her surgery she was back to her old self and then some. We did go to the Blackberry Festival again this year and Lexie went right to her favorite fountain. That's where she met this interesting little boy in disguise. He was so cute in his mask and he decided he had to help Lexie reach the water - Thanks! She was soaked but had a ball. She has fun playing in the sand and getting dirty too.


Oh yeah, did I mention she likes hats...even when she gets out of her bath she has to put a hat on. She is going to be a fashion queen, no doubt!

Freedom Day - One Year Later

10/04/2008 09:17:00 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
JULY 4th



July 4th this year found Lexie, Mom and I at our local little carnival and later on the BIG fireworks show. Lexie jumped right in and went on all the little kiddie rides (there were all of 3) and was a complete dare devil. No fear! Mom & I enjoyed her thrill of it all and it was a nice way to celebrate Lexie's Freedom Day. This time last year I was walking out the door of the baby house with Lexie for the last time and what a great feeling that was. So once again I ordered fireworks for the whole country to enjoy. I hope you had a chance to catch some of them. That's how we finished our day - watching the fireworks and feeling so blessed.














So the rest of the summer was filled with work for me sprinkled with wonderful moments of Lexie. Here she is "helping" me water the plants. Shhhh don't tell her that I unhooked the hose after MY last watering.











Lots of growing from Lexie - almost 2 inches this summer but I still can't get any more weight on her so she's still 27 lbs. The doctors all say she's fine so well just keep doing what we're doing and not worry about it - too much. She still doesn't have all her teeth but two of her back teeth are poking through. She has been teething literally since I meet her. Oh my little drool queen!


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