Swingin' Good Time

We got the official word that we are no longer quarantined, which we are very excited about. This news happened to correspond with Laura's cousin Mary's spring break. So, she and her family came down to St. Louis to spend some time with us and meet Lexi for the first time. Thankfully yesterday was good weather, so we went to the park near our house in the afternoon. After several unsuccessful attempts to fit Lexi into the swing with her cast, we finally figured out that if we put her sideways, she would fit. Leah, Mary's 4-year-old, had fun pushing Lexi in the swing, and Lexi just relaxed and took in the outside world.

Lexi liked the swing, but we didn't get near the smiles that we got when she went down the slide with her cousins. She really thought that was a fun time and had a big smile on her face each time.

We also stopped by the grocery store quickly to pick up two items, as I decided that was my limit for carrying a baby in a cast and buying stuff. Lexi pulled my hair through the entire store, with me telling her to stop, and her laughing about it. All in all, the grocery stop might not have been the best outing, but it did finally make me feel like a somewhat normal parent.

Babe in Toyland

As alluded to previously, the past two weeks that Alexis has spent in her cast have been much more fun than the first two weeks. Lexi has virtually refused to eat a couple days this week, and she continues to send a lot more of her food back where it came from than she used to (just ask our dinner guests last Sat night who witnessed Dad in three different shirts in the first 90 minutes they were at our house.) However, much more importantly, her personality and propensity to smile and laugh have returned. Excluding bottle time and her late afternoon crabby time, she's a complete joy to be around once again.

It probably also doesn't hurt that we've doubled her toy stash in the past month as we've tried to keep her mind occupied on things other than her body cast. New additions include some stacking blocks in the foreground, a penguin which rocks back and forth in the background, and a wheel which emits various animal sounds directly in front of her. The repetitious nature of this last toy has Mom and Dad on the brink of insanity, but spinning the wheel and hearing an alphabet soup of animal names and noises miraculously has been entertaining enough to make Lexi forget how much she hates tummy time. So naturally we're planning to do what most parents would do in this situation -- keep going to the well until it's dry and keep putting Lexi within reach of that toy whenever tummy time rolls around.

Roomies

Lexi got reunited today with one of her NICU roomies. When we were first moved to the South NICU, Lexi roomed with Kerry, and we got to know her and her dad really well. So, when Kerry's dad, Keith, invited us to her baptismal celebration, we took the opportunity to go check up on an old friend and get out of the house. Kerry looks great, and it was fun to catch up with her dad and the rest of their family. Lexi and Kerry were pretty interested in each other. Since they were separated by beds in the NICU (and their monitor cords could only stretch so far), this is the first opportunity they had to get up close and personal. They were fairly nice to each other, although there were a few punches and pinches that got exchanged. What can you expect from a 9 month old and 6 month old?