"Does Jesus get balloons on his birthday?"

We were driving down the road on Christmas Eve, just me and the kids, as Wil had to work at Slaveway - I mean Safeway. I was telling Lola how it was Christmas Eve and we were going to Gramma and Grampa's house to have dinner. She got the concept that Christmas was the next day.

"Lola, do you know whose birthday it is tomorrow?" I asked.

"Jesus!" Lola answered.

"That's right!" I said, shocked. All those Sunday School lessons must have actually made an impression.

"Mom, does Jesus get balloons on his birthday, and cake, and icecream and presents?" Lola asked, excitedly.

"Sure he does" I answered, not wanting to burst her bubble.

A couple minutes passed in silence, and then I heard Lola wimpering from the back seat. She was almost crying.

"What's wrong, Lo?" I asked.

"We can't have a party," Lola said sadly, "Jesus isn't here yet!"

Wow. What do you say to that? Adorable, but sad. I had to do the come-up-with-a-good-answer-for-a-three-year-old thing, making up something about Jesus always being here, even though we can't see him. Lola seemed to accept this answer. Later, she followed this conversation up with "Mom, where did I come from?" Arg. Why is it that her Daddy is never home when these things come up?

Our awesome neighbor lady came over on Christmas Eve day to decorate cookies with Lola and I. While Rowan slept, the three of us happily painted home made frosting on sugar cookies, with Lola taking care of pouring enormous amounts of sprinkles on each one. They turned out great, even though you could tell which ones Lola had made by the large dollops of sprinkle coated frosting!



Christmas this year was great. Lola is finally at the age that she really knows what presents are, and that most of them are usually for her. She was so excited to see that the cookies she had left out for Santa the night before were all gone, with just a few crumbs remaining. She positively glowed when she saw her overstuffed stocking, and she loved opening every gift under the tree. Rowan just ate the paper and tried to strangle in the ribbon.


After spending a lovely and uneventful morning at home, we loaded up and headed back to Gramma and Grampa's for food, wine, and more presents. Poor Rowan fell asleep opening gifts and took a long nap in the crib, while Lola played with toys. After he got up, we went home to play in the snow for awhile. Daddy and Lola shoveled snow off the overloaded deck, and I tried to take pictures of the adorable, but very quick, little birdies eating the seeds around our tree.

Here is a really cute video of my adorable children in the tub. I call it blackmail in about 12 years. I love how Lola is trying to put on some sort of weird magic show for the camera, while Rowan jams a toy in his mouth and splashes happily in the background.

It is now New Year's Eve. What a year it has been! We have completed our little family, fought and won an awful battle with postpartum depression, watched our baby girl turn 3, and built up our successful business. Looking back it has definitely been a rough year, but with God's help, we have survived and come out stronger than ever! Now, if only I could keep my eyes open long enough to watch the ball drop....oh well, we'll will ring in the New Year in the morning, with the kids on our laps and the ball on TIVO. Happy New Year everyone!

"Open Stephanie!!!"

Lola has this little game she loves to play. She pretends that she is a gate, and will dash in front of you (usually when you are trying to get somewhere with a large load of laundry or groceries) and put her arms and legs out to form her gate. She likes to do this in the hallway, saying "I'm a gate, Mommy, say 'open gate'". I always play along, saying "open gate!" and she swings her body out, allowing me to pass. I was getting ready to carry Rowan into the bathroom for a diaper change when Lola suddenly darted out in front of me and spread her arms and legs wide.

"Open Stephanie!" she yelled.

"What?" I said, confused.

"Say 'Open Stephanie' Mommy!"

Ohhhh, my brain had to grind hard to translate Lola-ese into adult English.

"Open Sesame?" I asked her.

"Yeah, Open Stephanie!!!" she squealed, opening her gate and allowing me passage.

Cute!

In other news, we made our annual trip downtown to see Santa. So far Lola has been about 50/50 as far as smiling or crying on Santa's lap. I don't count her first year because she was only 6 weeks old and slept through it. She screamed and struggled her second time, resulting in her picture ending up in the local paper. Last year she reluctantly sat on Santa's lap, and before she could even think about screaming I popped an orange sucker in her mouth and took the picture. This year we couldn't even get close to Santa. She hid behind me, always ducking just out of reach when I tried to capture her. Arg. Rowan, however sat like a little angel on Santa's lap. We'll see about next year.

We had the clinic Christmas party at our house again this year. Everyone had a great time. There was soooo much food. Wow. I think I gained like a bazillion pounds in one night! Even the kids had fun. Rowan is such a ladies man...he immediately glommed onto the girls, reluctantly sharing them with one other boy.

It has been snowing, and snowing, and SNOWING here for the last couple of days. We have about 2 1/2 feet in places, with some drifts almost as tall as me! When it first started, Lola was super excited to go out and play. She was thrilled about making snow angels on the deck! We attempted to make a snowman, but the snow was just too light and fluffy. We pulled the old sled out of the shed, but she is way too big for it now! Her legs hang out the sides of the infant style bucket sled. Oh, well, I pulled her around anyway, and we had lots of fun.

Lola has been practicing for weeks for the Christmas program at our church. She has been listending to the same three songs every day, until all of us can recite them in our sleep. Finally the day arrived, and I was sure she would either refuse to go up on stage with her little friends, or just stand there stiff and scared, picking her nose or flipping up her dress. Luckily, she chose to bravely walk up with the other 2-4 year olds and sing her little heart out....but only when it was time to make the animal noises!

They were so cute, it brought a little tear to my eye thinking about how fast the kids are growing up. Pretty soon I'll be going to high school sporting events, and waiting up late for her to get home from a date. Yikes! I wish three could last forever.

What is so dang fascinating about nipples??

So I took Lola to Wednesday night swimming lessons, as usual. The other little girl was gone that day so Lola had a private lesson. This is really good for her because she doesn't have any time to screw around and get in trouble with her arch nemesis, "Mean Lifeguard Man". He made her sit in time out once and she has not forgiven him yet.

Anyway, she was right in the middle of her lesson, actually listening to Teacher Ralph, when suddenly she whispers something to him.

Teacher Ralph looks at me and cracks up. This can't be good.

"What did she say?" I ask, tentatively.

"Mommy has those too!" he answered, laughing and pointing at his nipples.

Oh Lord, give me the strength....

Then she proceeded to inform Teacher Ralph not to worry, that she too would one day have big ones like Mommy.

Wow.

Well, except for wanting to shrivel up and die of embarrassment, Lola's lesson went really well. She has officially passed all of the criteria for moving up to the next level, which is great, considering how afraid she was of putting her face in the water in September. I guess suffering through the nipple comments might be worth it after all.

As a reward for listening so well, Teacher Ralph let Lola go in the "Big Pool" and jump off the starting docks that the real swimmers use. She jumped in holding his hand the first time, and came up sputtering "Let's do it again Teacher Ralph!!!"

She then jumped several more times all by herself! Amazing!

Rowan has nearly given up allowing me to feed him baby food from a jar. He wants real food, and lots of it! Here is a picture of him eating my peas from my plate after he had already eaten his own dinner and part of Daddy's. He had crawled up my leg begging for a pea like a little puppy!

Here is my other veggie loving kid (well, depends on the veggie, the bigger and more choke inducing the better as far as she is concerned) devouring an enormous carrot.

We finally had to lower Rowan's crib to the lowest level, since he has decided that standing is cool enough to continue doing. Lola put on her little tool belt and helped Daddy fix the crib. What a help!

Thanksgiving was great. We packed up and drove to the nearby casino Thanksgiving buffet. The food was absolutely wonderful! The best part was the huge and never ending platter of crab claws. Lola thought these made awesome puppets and entertained herself for quite awhile clicking the little claws together.

Now, I just need to find the time to roto rooter Lola's bedroom in preparation for the onslaught of Christmas toys!

A Lola Review

So I realized that there is a large gap in my blogging during Lola's second year of life. Compounded with my inability to post pictures during her first year, this has lead to a horrifying lack of Lola pictures on my blog! To make up for this injustice to the world, I am providing a selection of adorable Lola pictures to catch you all up!

"You have big ones and I have little ones, huh Mama"

I hear all kinds of stories from friends about embarrassing things that their kids have said in public. I haven't been spared from these types of things, but luckily most of the time Lola doesn't pipe up in public. She saves the really good ones for home in most cases, with just a few minor embarrassing outbursts at church or school. I consider myself lucky. Sometimes she picks up weird little things that I know she didn't get from home, and then I am left wondering where the heck it came from. The other day I was changing in the bathroom and Lola burst through the door without knocking, as usual, catching me with no top. Lola has seen boobs before, many times, but this time she looked perplexed. Finally she spoke.

"You have big ones, and I have little ones, huh Mama?" she said.

"Yep." I answered, wondering how she had made that connection, as we had never really talked about her own little chest before.

Lifting up her shirt to inspect her own chest, she announced "When I am big, I will have big ones too!"

Then she ran out the door giggling. Weird.

Well, my computer has survived the wine incident, and we are back on track. Lots has happened since the last time I wrote. Halloween was very exciting for everyone! Lola enjoyed drawing a face (complete with eyes and nose and mouth! Amazing!) on a pumpkin for Daddy to carve for her. She then got to paint it and put a little tea light in. She also painted Rowan's pumpkin for him, after he had rolled, patted, and tasted it thoroughly.

Lola has this weird obsession with octopus, as most of you know. I was amazed to find out that someone has created an octopus Halloween costume. It comes in blue and pink, which was convenient. I have handmade Lola's Halloween costume for the last two years, but this year there was not a snowball's chance of that happening. With what time was that going to get done?
Anyway, the costumes were extremely cute! Lola loved being an octopus, and Rowan really didn't care, he just liked the party.

Next was the annual leap into Gramma's leaf pile. This year the pile was exceptionally large, and Lola could almost swim in it. Rowan wasn't too sure about the pile, and was a little worried when we put him in for the picture.

Lola's third birthday came and went over about two weeks. She had three parties, and I am soooo done with that until next year! This year we had her "friend party" at Micky D's, which was soooo awesome. We showed up 10 minutes late, handed her off to the party hostess lady, and she entertained 12 three-year-olds for two glorious hours. All I had to do was take pictures and chit chat with the other parents. At the end there was no clean up, I just loaded my exhausted kids into the car and home we went. Awesome.

Finally, with the help of an amazing guy called "Teacher Ralph" we managed to conquer Lola's fear of going underwater. She is taking reall swim lessons at the aquatic center, which has a nice warm therapy pool. There is only one other little girl in her class, so it is almost like private lessons. She goes twice a week and I don't have to subject the pool to this post-baby bod in a bathing suit! Lola can now float on her back for 5 seconds, dive to the bottom of the pool to get a toy, and jump off the side and actually swim several feet to her teacher. We also know that she can tread water for a good 10 seconds, as she was screwing around on the little "dock" and fell off yesterday. Teacher Ralph let her flounder awhile before he rescued her. After a time out for not holding onto the bar, she was right back in the water, doing great.


Rowan started finally getting a real tooth. I can see the little bugger and I really doubt this one is going to go back down into his gum and disappear. I think it is here to stay. He teeths on everything, but his favorite so far is Grampy's extra spicy beef jerky. Weird.

Lola has been in a helpful mood lately. This doesn't mean she is a big help, but she thinks she is. Here she is helping Daddy make applesauce. She was really helpful when the dishwasher broke. Really.

Hopefully my husband won't be dumping anymore food or drink into my computer, so maybe I can actually update a little more often now! Although with the holidays coming.....where does the time go? Probably the same place that socks and barbie shoes end up.....

"Turtles do not need underwear."

Life has been pretty much the usual around here for the past two weeks. Nothing very exciting has happened. Rowan ate Cheerios for the very first time, which was quite exciting to him. He hasn't quite got the whole pincher grasp thing down yet, so he tries to grip as many Cheerios as he can in his little fist and then attempts to cram said Cheerios into his mouth. Sometimes he actually gets one in, but usually they all fall out of his hand and end up on his shirt. He has taken to sticking out his neck and opening his mouth like a little bird, and making "ugh, ugh" noises. Someone usually notices this and will kindly place a Cheerio on his outstretched tongue, which quickly disappears into his happy little mouth.

Lola, too, has experienced a new food for the first time. Wil and I were discussing junk food the other day, and the conversation turned to Twinkies. I haven't had a Twinkie since my college days, when a Twinkie represented a meal on the run. I just don't like to eat something that can outlast cockroaches in the event of nuclear winter. Anyway, Wil bought a pack of Twinkies at Winco, and we decided that it was time for our daughter to experience snack cake nirvana.

Lola was informed that she was about to receive a special treat. She grabbed a towel (she has to have a towel for ice cream, so I assume she was expecting some delicious frozen goodie) and climbed into her chair. Her eyes gleamed with anticipation as Wil made a show of unwrapping the Twinkie, releasing its yellow snack cake goodness. He handed the Twinkie to Lola.

"What IS this?" she asked, clearly dumbfounded, and disappointed that it wasn't ice cream

"It's a Twinkie," Wil answered "it's really good!"

........

"You take a bite" she said.

My daughter thinks that we have poisoned every bit of unfamiliar food we hand to her. The same kid will happily chow down on cat food, but won't eat a Twinkie.

Wil took a bite, showing Lola that no bodily harm would occur upon ingestion of the Twinkie. She stared at it, not quite convinced.

"Look, Lola" I said "It has whipped cream in it!"

Lola is a whipped cream fiend. I poked my finger into the wounded Twinkie and licked off the whipped cream. Finally interested, she tentatively reached out a finger and scooped up a microscopic ammount of Twinkie innerds. She slowly put it in her mouth.

"Mmmmm, I LOVE Twinkies!" Lola declared. She proceeded to happily eat half the Twinkie, generously donating the other half to Daddy.

Tonight I got Lola out of the tub and was drying her off, when she collapsed into a little ball on the bathroom floor. This is a normal routine for her.

"I'm a tiny turtle" she said.

"Ok, tiny turtle, put on your undies" I said, holding out her princess panties.

"Turtles do NOT need underwear." Lola informed me seriously.

"OK" I replied, "Then just pretend that turtles need undies."

"OK" Lola agreed, "but Mommy, turtles really don't wear underwear."

Wow. What a day. What a day. Twinkies and turtles, life doesn't get sweeter than this!