The Wizard of Oz

Aaron introduced Lola to the wonderful Wizard of Oz last weekend and we have watched it every day since. I don't mind because I love this movie too.

Here is what I have been waking up to this week:
"Mommy, I need oatmeal"
"I need to watch the lizard of oz"

She seems to really like the ballet dancing munchkins however when I ask her who she likes the best she answers "the witch" and when she talks about the movie she talks about the witch being so mean.
Shouldn't most girls like Dorothy the best? I'm pretty sure I like Dorothy the best and isn't Lola supposed to be exactly like me?

Little Miss Big Girl

I hope I'm not about to jinx myself but this whole potty training thing has been so easy. I assume because 1. Lola is a girl and they say girls are easy to potty train and 2. she strives to be as independent as possible and by using the potty she is one step closer to her goal of total independence.
Last week was her first week at school without diapers and she did excellent, no accidents at school! She is still wearing a diaper at bed time and nap time however today we let her take a nap without a diaper on and she woke up after an hour & half yelling "I need to go potty!"
Not only are we so proud of Lola for all of her efforts to be a big girl, she is also proud of us for using the bathroom and she's sure to let us know upon exiting the bathroom, "I'm so proud of you Mommy" "Thanks Lola, now where are my M&M's?"

Stella's debut

Jenny & Justin welcomed Stella Jane bright and early this morning at 5:59am. Little Stella weighed 6lbs. 13 oz and is 20 inches long. She has beautiful dark hair.
At this point in time Stella has not taken up rubbing her middle finger & thumb together and she appears to be a pretty laid back baby. Looks like she may take after her Dad.
Good Job Jen & Justin!
We love you guys!

Lola explains important stuff

I wasn't right there so I'm not sure how it went down, probably something like this "Thanks for inviting me to your awesome party Rupert but I want to tell you about the princesses. I like to watch Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. The witch in Snow White is mean and scary. Mom let's me have suckers if I'm good at the store. I slept in my big girl bed. I got a new GramMadonna CD. Thanks for the birthday cake and fruit punch. Your mouth is red Rupert"

On Saturday we went to Rupert's birthday party and from here on this will be known as the best birthday party ever!!! It was great fun for everyone! The location: Bounce U . We all participated. I am still sore after carrying Lola through the obstacle course a dozen times. At one point one of the Bounce U instructors teamed up with Ian against Aaron and she threw a ball at him hitting him where boys don't want to be hit. They won.

5 pounds of silly putty

So you want to know what 5 lbs. of silly putty looks like?
THIS


Don't all Grumpas have 5 lbs. of silly putty at their house?
Some people might ask their Dad why they would spend money shipping 5 lbs. of silly putty to their house. I don't ask. Ever.

STOP what you are doing and click on the link below!

The cutest video ever!



!

Parent Teacher Conference

I had my first parent teacher conference since Lola has been in the toddler room.
This is what I learned:
*Lola has excellent verbal communication
*She is a leader
*She uses the potty every 2 hours
*She likes to take toys from her friends
*She is a good eater
*She loves to sing & dance
*She refuses to help during clean up time
Ms. Debbie followed it up by telling me that Lola is a pleasure to have in class and that she always uses her manners. I was very pleased to hear that since we work on manners all the time at home. One thing we don't work on at home is clean up. I do it. ALL of it. I guess it's about time I make her help out around here. I'll train her on kitty litter first and then laundry.

In other Lola news: we've been working on potty training. She is out of her diaper on weekends and after school. She has only had 2 accidents so far and that's when her friend Aila was over playing. Apparently they get distracted and forget they aren't wearing diapers. Who knew? For now Lola is still content wearing diapers to school although she does use the potty there. Her teacher told me this afternoon that Lola didn't wet her morning diaper until after nap time because she used the potty at school all morning! yay Lola! I think we'll give it a little more training time at home before sending her to school, where she is easily distracted, in big girl pants.

3 cute kids and a bunch of bubbles

Lola had her friends Rowan & Addy over to play a couple weeks ago. The kids seemed to do a pretty good job at sharing and taking turns. The play date was going by smoothly and then we broke out the bubble machine. It's pretty clear that bubbles change everything! Lola and Rowan decided to take things to a whole new level. Addy sat back and soaked it all in while Aaron, Angela & Lydia did nothing.

Rowan to Lola "me likey"

Rowan walked over with his family this afternoon so that his Mom could be one of the few people I share my Tiger Bakery with by offering her a sample platter. And by sample I mean a spoon full and she was not allowed seconds.
While Angela's taste buds were on an all expense paid vacation Lola showed off some of her new ballet moves to Rowan. Rowan seemed to enjoy the show, he even tried some of his own moves. I'm pretty sure I heard Lola tell him to stick to mowing lawns.

Jen might be pregnant and other stuff that revolves around food

Lola and I are having such a nice weekend making the rounds visiting family & friends. Since my visits to Toledo revolve around food we started out at Tony Packo's last night where Lola entertained the diners with her yoga moves and some dancing to 80's pop music. We got to see Sam who footed the bill for dinner which makes it extra awesome. Thanks Sam!
This afternoon we had a nice visit with the Bartlett & McGowan's where Lola got to meet her little cousin Cassidy.
Tonight we're having J&G's for dinner and tomorrow we are off to Tiger Bakery for lunch & stocking up on groceries to bring home.
More photos on my FB page.

who would have thought...

...we would ever see Aaron & Dave having tea parties and tagging along to Princess parties?

Congratulations to Marti, Dave & Aila who are expecting another baby this winter! Aila will be a great big sister!

a cute little photo collection

I have a handful of photos from the last month that I've had in my blog file waiting to post. Since I'm behind on blogging I've decided to take the weight off my shoulders and dump them all into this file...

enjoy




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Does not play well with others

While you won't any see photos of Lola taking toys away from Celia or screaming "NO" in Lily's face you will see plenty of other photos from our family filled weekend in Illinois here.

Fan impressed with miniature horse

Lola got to visit with her friends Hal, Becky & Fan over the weekend.
First she fed the fish in the pond. They really like bread crumbs. Who knew?
Second she twirled like a princess on the porch.
Third she showed Fan her farm animals and last she took out all of her medical equipment (Erica's doctors kit) and gave Fan a physical. Lucky for Fan she passed the health exam and didn't need a shot or a follow up appointment. Congrats Fan!

It was great seeing you all! Unfortunately I don't have a photo of Lola & Hal since Lola decided to keep her distance. Hal was lucky he scored a high five on our way out the door.
Poor Hal.

Jen's Baby Shower Extravaganza!

Congratulations again to my pregnant BFF Jenny for being pregnant! Gigi, Lola and I traveled to Ottawa Hills this afternoon to attend her baby shower. While I was disappointed that there weren't live elephants at the event I was pleased nonetheless with the elephant cookies. Lola was also very impressed with the cookies as well as the lemonade. Lola did get some red frosting from the cookie on her perfectly white dress. Gigi has been instructed to use Oxy Clean (RIP Billy Mays) and get that spot out tomorrow. Good luck with your task Gigi.

Jenny's baby shower was magnificently put together by her Mom and sister. Like every party Mrs. L throws it was FAB! Jen used one of her nursery painting as the theme. She special ordered a self portrait of Kong, an elephant in Thailand, who actually used his trunk to paint the masterpiece above. Kong's artwork was put onto the invitation, mugs, tea bags and probably more stuff that I forgot about already. Amy used her letter press to create all of it. She's awesome.
Make sure to check out more photos here.

Now it's time to sit back and wait for little Stella or Caden to make his/her debut!!!!

Love you Jen!