Get Well Gabbi

Gabbi had her spay & declaw on Wednesday. She came home Thursday evening and she seems to be doing pretty well. She walks a little funny on those paws but she still wants to play so I'm pretty confident that she's hanging in there. Thank you all for your cards, flowers and monetary gifts as Gabbi gets better. For those of you that forgot to send a card, flowers or money it's not too late. We accept personal checks as well. Oh and helium balloons too. Gabbi really likes money & balloons.

Closing with a few cute photos of Lola reading her favorite book (it's about a yellow balloon)

Rowan is a BIG Brother!

Congratulations to Angela, Jeff & Rowan - they welcomed Lydia Rose into the world today! We are so excited and can't wait to meet little Lydia!
Lola is working really hard on saying her new friends name. And in honor of Lydias birthday Lola is wearing her cupcake jammies tonight.

Another Snow Day - party!

I was rushing around trying to get ready for work this morning when I received a text message from Jeff "I guess the base is closed again today" YIPPEEE another snow day! How lucky for us but how extra lucky for Rowan to be able to spend his last day as an only child with a snow day! Tomorrow is a big day for the other Brown family as they are due at the hospital in the early morning for Rowan's sisters arrival. How exciting! I tried to tell Lola that there was a baby in Mrs. Brown's belly today when they came over for a visit but all she really cared about was her balloon. What I should have said was "Lola, Mrs. Brown has a balloon in her belly and inside that balloon is a baby!"
Good Luck tomorrow Brown family, we can't wait to meet Rowan's sister!

Snow Day - wahoooo!

We had the day off of work today due to this crazy snow, ice, snow storm that came through. Being that there were over 500 closings on the news at the crack of dawn today I figured that our vets office would be closed, today is the day Gabbi gets fixed and declawed. I called at 7:45 just to check in and sure enough they were open for business. Luckily the vets office is only down the hill less than 1/2 a mile from the house. It took me about 25 minutes to scrape the ice off of my car. Gabbi and I had a safe trip down the hill and since I was down there I figured I would stop by the supermarket to pick up a few things, including a balloon for Lola. Getting up the hill wasn't as easy. I eventually made it and thank goodness I was able to deliver the balloon to Lola, that's when I instantly became the greatest Mommy ever. You see, it's not the pink retro kitchen or the little people play house or even cash that impresses Lola, it's a frickin sweet mylar balloon! I gave her this balloon at 9am and I am NOT kidding when I tell you that she hasn't put it down except to nap and go outside. Should I be concerned that my daughter wants a mylar balloon as her best friend? Maybe. I guess if we have a funeral and shed some tears when it deflates then I'll worry.
After nap time we went outside for some fun in the snow and then back inside for a hot chocolate party, we are so glad that the balloon was able to join us for that.

more pink retro kitchen shenanigans

for the vegetarians of the family

How to make vegetable soup for Grumpa and Julie...

burrrr...

We took Lola out in the freezing cold last weekend for a ride on the sled and she thought it was hilarious! And what goes best after playtime in the winter? Ice cream, duh! Grumpa & Grandma Joni took us to Graters for a cool treat.



Enjoy the video.

Uncle Jim, Christmas Hero!

The season of receiving gifts is over for most people but lucky for me I received the best gift ever this year when my Uncle Jim practically completed my series of Marilyn Monroe plates by giving me 8 of them! Talk about the gift that keeps on giving! I will proudly display them in my kitchen and look at them every day! I think they will look great next to my Department 56 Graceland. Or maybe next to the porcelain profile of Marilyn's face. Regardless of where I display them they will go fantastically with the rest of the kitschy items I already have on display.
THANK YOU JIM, these are awesome!!!

Lola's first ever haircut! WTF Mommy?

I gave Lola a haircut last night. She sat very well on the kitchen counter while I snipped away and Aaron took photos. I think I did a pretty good job. Now it's even all the way around for a very fashionable do. Of course she will still wear a bow that coordinates with her daily outfit. And yes, I saved the hair for her baby book.

Brody is a big brother!

Mya Renee arrived yesterday at 12:06pm tipping the scales at 8lbs. 10oz, 21 3/4 inches long. Congratulations to Jackie and family! Mya is beautiful and we can't wait to meet her! We love and miss you guys!

Up & Down

Since I'm the chair person on the parent advisory board at Lola's school it's my responsibility to come up with our monthly PAB meeting topics. I've asked some of the other parents what topics they would like to have covered and a couple have suggested having teachers and parents recommend indoor activities for children to do during the winter months so that they can get their exercise without going out in the freezing cold because who wants to do that?
Here's my suggestion: put your kid in front of the TV. I'm telling you, Lola doesn't sit still while Yo Gabba Gabba is on. She turns into a dancing machine and in all honesty so do I. This show is great fun for both of us! It's better than Dance Party USA and they have an awesome super music friend show on almost every episode. Who doesn't want to dance with their kid while cool bands are singing goofy yet catchy tunes? The below video is just 37 seconds of what Lola does for 30 minutes while the show is on. Hello exercise and TV at the same time!


Editors note: Lola is limited to one episode a day. I don't encourage too much television however I can't wait to get home everyday to watch it.

Date Night 2009

Aaron and I had our first date of 2009 tonight. Dinner at McCormick and Schmick's followed by the movie Gran Torino. This movie was excellent! Best film I've seen since Shanghai Surprise starring Madonna & Sean Penn. Just kidding, that movie sucked it. But seriously, Gran Torino is awesome, a must see!
As some of you know my friend Angela (better known as Rowan's Mommy) is due to deliver her baby girl any day now and I'm on call to take care of Rowan when the time comes. I am totally ready for my job and just in case the call came while we were in the movie I put my phone on vibrate and held it through the entire film.
When we arrived home the babysitter was fast asleep on the chair with two kitties. Thank goodness Grandma Joni was here to take charge. I'm not sure if Grumpa was tired from a long drive or if Lola & Ian wore him out?

And since no post is complete without a photo of Lola here she is showing off her fivehead. She doesn't normally have a fivehead unfortunately her hat was back a little too far accentuating this look. She's still pretty frickin cute!


P.S. People aren't as intimidated of dudes with skull tattoos as they used to be. Some suburban Mom parked it in the seat right next to Aaron which limited our movie make out time. Thanks lady.

Gabbi meets her match and Runner gets a break!

New kitty Gabbi has been driving poor Runner crazy. She is full of kitten energy and is always chasing Runner, attacking his tail and jumping on him while he's sleeping. He can't get a break. At least he wasn't able to get a break until now... Lola recently figured out that she can hold the kitty and wants to do this all the time. Gabbi has met her match and Runner finally gets a break! She is a good kitty and very tolerant of Lola. We are lucky that she has fit in so well around here.

And when Lola is not holding Gabbi she's acting like a nut.

Home Sweet Home

Lola and I had a successful journey back to gloomy Ohio on Monday. She did great on the plane and was very entertained by the super cool guitar playing dude seated next to us. Lola stared at him, touched his arm a few times, asked him about the book he was reading (Guitar Weekly or something like that) and wondered about the soda he was drinking. She really seemed to like this guy seated next to us however he was quiet and I could tell that he wanted to kept to himself. The flight was just fine until Lola decided to entertain the cool dude by pulling down my shirt and shoving a cookie in my cleavage. This all happened so fast. I was very embarrassed as I leaned forward to hide myself and get my shirt back in place. Lola thought this was pretty funny and attempted the same trick several more times.
Soon after that she went #2 in her diaper. Oh no! I've never changed a diaper on the plane before... I had to kindly ask the cool dude and the woman in the aisle seat to get up so we could go to the bathroom. I'm sure they didn't mind.
Aside from that all else went well.

Aaron greeted us at baggage claim and Lola was SO HAPPY to see her Daddy! She must have said "daddy" 200 times within that first hour home. It was really sweet to see them back together. 10 days is too long for us to be away from our love.

Aaron took her up to bed that night and she insisted on sleeping with her new alligator that Santa brought. It's like a body pillow for babies. I snapped the above photo that night. Since then she has insisted on sleeping with her alligator every night.

In other news we set Lola up with her very own kitchen space by turning our front closet into her own little room. If she's not sleeping you can find her in her kitchen. I plan on eventually moving her kitchen up to her room but that won't be until I'm comfortable with her going up and down the stairs by herself. Right now we don't spend a lot of time upstairs. It's working out great!

Family Photo

cha⋅os
*a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order
*any confused, disorderly mass

Prior to my flight home we made a pathetic attempt to get a nice family photo of the Grandmothers with their daughters and their grandchildren. What could have been a lovely family photo by the canal turned into complete chaos as Celia decided it was the perfect time to scream so loud I'm sure folks up in the pan handle heard her.

I don't think this one will make the Christmas cards next year.

Beach Day: our last day in sunny FL

We went to the beach today and aside from Lola finding a chewed up piece of gum in the sand and putting it in her mouth it wasn't all that terrible of a time. I'm not a fan of the beach unless I am staying at a resort directly on the beach then I like it. It's just too dirty and then having to get into the car and drive while feeling all yucky, I'm just not that into it, I would so much rather be at the pool. Unless, as already mentioned, I am staying on the beach then I love it. We head home tomorrow and we are pretty excited to see Aaron, Bruce, Ian and the kitties. Yay!!!

Lane family shenanigans

Partly Cloudy Florida: Day 6,Day 7 and part of Day 8

The girls are getting along!
Highlights of Day 6
*The girls discover 2 activities they can do together without fighting (thank you umbrella stroller and YGG)
*Ethan bakes a birthday cake for Chuck
*I fall asleep by 10pm

Highlights of Day 7
*The girls discover that they can both brush Sopie E at the same time without fighting (see first photo of the new year below)
*My BFF Jenny calls to wish me a Happy New Year and to tell me that she is pregnant!!! Yay Jenny and Justin!
*I eat 5 brownies
*We celebrate Chucks birthday!

Highlights so far today (Day 8)
*We go for a morning stroll (see video after all of the photos)

Happy New Year!

and Happy Birthday Chuck!!!