"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.