Big girl stuff

My baby girl is doing all sorts of big girl stuff these days. She is sleeping in a twin size bed now (because she was climbing out of her crib!) And she is going to school (at our church) on Thursdays for 2 hours! She loves loves loves her teacher who happens to be my dear friend. She was a little hesitant the first day but stayed and did well with no tears :) And now, 3 weeks later, she and her teacher are the Best of friends and she lights up at the sight of her!! It is so precious to see their relationship blossom and to see my girl 100% fully trusting someone other than her immediate family. I will be sure to get some photos of her next week before or after school. So far I have had to wake her every morning and getting out the door on time with a little food in her tummy has been tough enough without adding a photo shoot!! But when you are so busy climbing out of your crib after being put to bed 5 times, well... the girl needs to sleep in!
So on to the big girl bed. We planned on keeping Lexi in her crib, well for as long as she fit in it!! Seriously. She is such a great sleeper. She naps 3 hours every day and she sleeps 11-12 hours each night. But for some reason, about 2 weeks ago she decided to climb out of her crib one night and it was history from there. So we debated on what to do. She has a lifetime crib so it does turn in to a toddler bed, a day bed and a full size bed. On the other hand we will still need a crib for Ivy. So we decided to get her a twin size bed. We got way too big of a mattress (double pillow top) so now the bed rail is shorter than the mattress and she falls out of bed. She was afraid of staying in it by herself but she will not go in the crib and well all I can say is she is lucky that she is so darn cute and lucky that she has the sweetest voice and the cutest way of saying mommy pwease and daddy pwease because I am soooo tired!!!! Last night she went down pretty quick but she cried out for me 5 times in the middle of the night!! I almost gave in and stayed with her but I know better and I did not. Lexi is pretty black and white so if you tell her something is supposed to be one way she does not usually try and bend the rules. Tonight she went down in no time at all and I have not heard from her yet. I am pretty sure I won't until she falls off the bed.... probably any time now. Tomorrow Bryan and I are heading to home depot to get some things to make the bed rail taller and hopefully I will start getting to sleep through the night too. Lexi sleeps like a ninja so putting her in a twin bed was probably not the best idea. We should have made her crib a full size bed so she would have room to thrash about. She really is just all over the place all night! But she really wants Ivy in her room (she is so excited for Ivy!!) and we didn't feel there would be enough space for the full bed and the crib and her tea table and chairs and dresser and you get the picture. So it is what it is right now. If things are not working out once Ivy is home, we do still have another bedroom open to move one of the girls in to but for now I am thrilled that I could keep that open for grandma!!!

She is obsessed with her nails. They always have to be painted, new colors regularly. Loves Loves Loves going to the salon to get them done. She can paint her own fingernails with her right hand and does a darn good job. She insists that she NEEDS her toes done by the nice nail lady because she can do a flower and mommy can't. (I'm pretty sure I could!)

                                                    Holding her brothers chameleon, Phil.

She remains the bravest child when it comes to the non human type ha!

And in answer to the emails as to where we are on the road to Ivy,

Our home study is being written and should be completed this week. We are still waiting for Ca clearance and Az clearance. We have our I800 filled out and ready to go but our agency is telling us not to send it until they have the home study in hand and it has been approved :(

We have high hopes of breaking records on our race to bring Ivy home but we will see what God says and we will follow Him. He has held Ivy in the palm of his hand this long and He will continue to do so until we get there!

Cute things:

Tonight Rylee and Lexi were having some special sister time and they they decided to make dirt cups, you know pudding and cool whip with crushed oreos and gummy worms? (Lexi is all about the kitchen!)

So we all sat down at the kitchen table to try her master piece and one chair was empty. Cassidy had gone to a sleep over last minute tonight. So I said to Lexi, Lexi look at the empty chair... Who's missing? And she quickly replied, "Ivy"! We all just melted in our seats. She is so excited for her sister! She talks about them having matching clothes and teaching Ivy to swim and telling Ivy not to climb out of her crib. She tells me the second seat in the Costco shopping cart is for Ivy and that Ivy is going to go to the hospital but she will sing her rock a bye baby on the twee top!

I know that sharing her mommy is going to be tough and I am certainly not expecting the transition to be perfect, but I am thrilled that she is expressing great joy and anticipation for her newest sister! I have all ready started saying "the girls this, and the girls that" as I had done forever with my big girls. I can not wait to see these two Little's grow up together. God is so good!