Outlook’s new year’s baby celebrates first birthday

It?s been a year since Onaway?s New Year?s baby 2003, Alexis Rei Ballard, was born at Cheboygan Memorial Hospital, but what a year. Her parents, J.R. and Renee (Cavanagh) Ballard, were married in Las Vegas in March and moved to Florida. Alexis learned to walk at nine months. She can do a ?happy dance,? and likes Shania Twain. There?s also an addition to the family expected this year, so Alexis will have a playmate in 2004.

SURROUNDED BY family and friends during the holiday break, including grandma Melody Cavanagh of Onaway, her birthday was celebrated with a ?Dora the Explorer? birthday cake nine days ago. The Wal-Mart in Florida offers free birthday cakes to children celebrating their first birthday, Melody said. Alexis blew out the lone candle without a hitch. ?She?s doing great,? said Melody, back at home in Onaway Wednesday. ?I call her Mini-me, because she looks identical to her mother.?

Alexis can say ?hi? and ?bye,? ?num num,? and has mastered ?mommy.? ?She is constantly talking,? said Melody, reviewing video from her visit to the Sunshine state. In some of the video footage, Alexis sits in her grandmother?s lap, and gives her a kiss on cue, when mother Renee asks her to. It was N

ew Year?s Eve 2002, one day before the expected due date, J.R. and Renee planned on watching rented videos, when the mother-to-be went into labor. Alexis was born at 5:27 a.m. the next morning.

IT?S NOT the first time the family has had a New Year?s baby. Melody says her niece, Shaylee Carpenter, daughter of David Vargas and Beth Carpenter, was born on January 1, 1995. Melody says Alexis? favorite song is ?Forever and Always? from Shania Twain and she has a characteristic ?Genie-blink,? — and grandma believes she knows why she blinks so much. ?Her mother is always taking pictures of her,? said Cavanagh.

This ?Genie-blinking Mini-me? has had a healthy and happy first year, and with plans to move back to the cooler climate of northern Michigan, and a sibling on the way in May, it looks as if a Happy New Year is assured for the Ballard?s.

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