The year in review

March 11, 2008

Well, it has been a long time. I had stopped adding to this blog because there are internet sickos out there who might like to kidnap kids whom they find out about on internet blogs. (Although after reading Lola's blog, potential kidnappers might just run the other direction!). Anyway, I have recently discovered that I can make this blog visible to friends only, so I feel much better about writing again.

Update on Lola....she had a very eventful year in 2007, growing, learning, finding out new ways to confuse and bewilder her parents. She can walk, run, and climb stairs or any other vertical surface with frightening skill. I took her to her first horse show last summer, and a friend let her ride her pony. At first she was totally excited about sitting on the tiny pony, but then she looked up at my friend's huge horse, Buck, and decided that bigger must be better. Before I knew it my 15 month old daughter was perched five feet high on Buck. Her little legs were stretched out to either side in a kooky yoga pose, and she was happy as could be! Ever since then she has had "horse fever" just like her mama, and always asks if she can ride the horsey at her friend's house.

We took Lola and some friends to a local theme park. They have lots of kids stuff there, including a water park! She had so much fun. The kiddie rollercoaster was a highlight, and we rode it several times. All fun abruptly ended at naptime, however, when all three children (under the age of 5) simultaneously melted down into little puddles of unhappiness. Needless to say, there was lots of sleeping going on in the car on the way home!

Summer treated us well, and Lola enjoyed the sun. She especially enjoyed playing in her sandbox and tormenting her baby ducks. A side note about sandboxes. They are very cool and can provide hours of entertainment for a kid while you spend some peaceful time gardening, tanning, etc, but be sure to consider your cats! Cats think sandboxes are gigantic kitty public restrooms. We bought the turtle sandbox with the lid, but without placing a brick on it, the cats were still clever enough to open the box and leave their deposits. I guarantee that the first time your kid holds up a cat turd and asks innocently "what's this Mommy?" you will sincerely consider the value of the sandbox vs the cats.

In September we took Lola on her first airplane ride. It was not as nightmarish as it could have been, since we were only flying to San Francisco. Could have been worse...thank God for children's cold and flu remedy. Now before you people get all uppity with me about drugging my kid, in my defense she really did have a cold, was on antibiotics, and needed the meds to keep her ears and sinuses happy on the flight. Just because I enjoyed the side effect of profound sleepiness does not make me a bad parent! What I learned during the trip...there is no such thing as a vacation when you take your kid with you. After that, home seemed like a vacation!

We took Lola to hunt for star garnets at a mine in Idaho. She actually had a blast. She got to dig in the mud and sand, and throw rocks into the water. It was like kiddie heaven. Plus, she actually found a gigantic star garnet that I now wear on a necklace.

October brought the winter holidays. Halloween was fun for Lola. She dressed up as a pink poodle and was high on sugar for about 7 straight days. She asked for it to be Halloween again until about Christmas. November brought her 2nd birthday. We had a big bash with all her little friends. They had a great time eating cake, busting the pinata, opening gifts, and generally destroying the house. Christmas was a very good day for Lola. She got lots of presents, and was doted on by visiting family. Biggest bonus: I finally got a picture of a kid not freaking out on Santa's lap this year. Right before she went up to sit on his lap, I jammed an orange sucker in her mouth. She was so involved in orange sucker bliss that she didn't even notice that she was sitting on the lap of her arch nemesis. I snapped the photo, removed her before she made a scene, and she got a stuffed toy from the volunteer elves. Overall I think that bribery is good if it gets me my coveted scrapbook picture.

January was cold and snowy. We took Lola to Seattle to go to the aquarium and the children's museum, and to get out of town. Words can't describe the fun she had in Seattle. She adored the activities we had planned. Then we got snowed in. The passes closed and we couldn't get home. Several days later we attempted the trip, and after 12 hours trapped in a car with a 2 year old, we made it home. I can't say the trip home was fun, but it could have been much worse. I think she sensed that Daddy might just drive off the mountain if she cried and whined for 12 hours straight, so she played with toys, sang, slept, and hardly complained the entire trip.

And now we are updated. Stay tuned for more.