There's Music in the Air...

After feeling like a neglectful mother for a while, I decided to get off my lazy butt and register Lexi in a class. Doug and I figure that since Lexi is not in daycare, the socialization and the opportunity to meet other children her age will be beneficial for her. I've got 2 mommy friends that have taken a music class with their children before, and after seeing Lexi get her groove on whenever a song comes on the radio, I decided a music class would be great for her (and me, inspired by the new TV show 'Glee', as now I can let the choir nerd I was in junior high resurface).

We went to a free demo class last weekend at Staccato Music Studios called 'Music Together' and Lexi just loved it. The age range was from brand spanking newborn to around 4 years, and they got the chance to use instruments, sing, do actions and dance. I had a blast. We'll be going every Saturday morning before naptime (and Daddy's are always welcome too).

16 Months - A Report Card

With school on the brain, I thought I would provide a copy of Lexi's 16 month "report card:"

Weight - 20 pounds (birth weight 8 pounds)
Height - 77 cm (birth height 52cm)
Head circum - 47 cm (birth head circ 35.5cm)
Teeth - 12
Shoe size - 5
Bed time - 8pm
Wake up time - just after 7am
Nap time - once a day from 12 noon to around 1:30pm

Favorite activities - coloring with (and eating) crayons, reading books (especially about animals), going to the park and picking up sticks and rocks, going for walks in the stroller, terrorizing the "woof woof" at Oma and Grandpa's house, loitering on our balcony, hugging her stuffed animals, watching Big Comfy Couch, causing tidal waves in the bathtub, singing songs and dancing

Favorite foods - peaches, blueberries, bananas, toast, cheese, yogurt, crackers, grapes, oranges, apricots, pears, pancakes, pasta, Oma's cookies

Has a major hate on for - diaper changes, going to bed too early, meat in general, you not doing exactly what she wants when she wants it, strange men, Mommy throwing away her sticks and rocks, getting hands and face washed

Words spoken - Momma, Dadda, down, up, yogurt, bye-bye, hi, night night, juice, that, thank you, two, three (but no "one"), done, nana (banana), uh oh, starting to say milk (just "Mmm" for now)

New tricks - gives high fives, can point to her eyes, nose, ears, hair, mouth and toes, tells you what sound a cat or dog makes, dials random people on Mommy's cell phone, gives kisses (or blows kisses) and hugs, will try to put on own socks and shoes if asked, understands "stop," "no," "sit down," "come here," "are you done?"

Lexi amazes us every day with how much she knows and understands. She continues to make great progress in her fine motor and language skills. We look forward to watching her grow and learn as she sneaks up on the 1.5 year mark. Love you sweet pea!

Adventures in Real Estate

I have been terrible at updating the blog lately - I was really trying hard to enjoy my last days of freedom - I mean summer - and time just slipped away. I am back to work 4 days a week now with Fridays off. I think I will really enjoy my assignments this year and I hope they will turn into permanent positions for me, which they will unless I get laid off for the 4th time at the end of the year.

As most of you know, Doug and I are working with a real estate agent now and have become very serious about buying a home. We are thrilled with our agent - she's a working mom with 2 kids who shares many of our values. If anyone in the Vancouver area needs a referral, let me know!!! We have seen about a dozen or so open houses and have been privately shown about 8 homes now. We saw a wonderful home on Tuesday that backed onto an elementary school that had a great layout for us. It needed some work on a couple of the bathrooms and the kitchen, but we loved it (and mostly loved the neighborhood and proximity to a school). We decided to put in an offer on the home knowing we were going up against some fierce competition. In total, the house was shown 21 times in 2 days, and 11 offers were put in on it. Long story short, they did not accept our offer, however we were called back in and asked if we were willing to pony up more money. Our agent tells us this likely meant that we put in the second highest offer (which I will tell you was over the asking price), but had more attractive components to our offer (ie less subjects) than our competition. In the end, we chose not to offer much more, and we lost.

The competition for an affordable house in this town blows me away. Doug and I will have to be prepared to put on our boxing gloves and get tough if we want to secure the house of our dreams in this crazy Vancouver market.