Back to the basics...

Lo posing in her hat! She loves the pose these days. This is the face we get when we say "CHHHEEEESE!"

Lo and Clay both posing in their hats.

And, now she's ready to go...off to escuela...

Please note, as I write this blog, Lo is whaling upstairs....love the terrible twos so far. We'll get back to this....

We completed Tour de Texas and had a great holiday! Loved spending time with family, the gifts were fabulous, the food was fabulous and the company was fabulous. Even though we were crammed into the Passat like sardines w/ one dog in my lap the drives actually weren't as bad as I had anticipated. Anyway, we're back now and getting geared up for the next holiday....New Year's Eve...Woohoo!!! We have a old friend coming in town from Arizona. We haven't seen him since Clay graduated from Columbia so we're very excited for him to come in town to see what Austin is all about. We're also planning a huge HOORAH at our house on NYE. There will be lots of friends, food, movies, etc. We're renting a huge projector and will be playing great abstract movies for the holidays. I think we'll even have a firework show when the clock strikes 12:00 a.m....we're not messing around! Here's the fun evite:

http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?event=WRRBGBVUKCEFSFCDSQLT&inviteId=MZKHGYFCSIYHIHLFDFDS&showPreview=false&x=671096207

Now, back to the terrible twos thing I mentioned above. I shouldn't say this about Lo as she is actually very good. Every so often she'll throw one of those lovely fits but for the most part, she is great and I have no complaints....except for at night. I titled this blog "Back to the basics" as I feel this is what we'll have to do asap. Lola has started waking up during the night again and I'm EXHAUSTED!!! I think our bodies are cut out for this when you have a newborn but when you have a 2 yr old doing this...not so much!!! I don't know what to do. I mean it's bad when Lola woke up more than Baby Curry (2 1/2 weeks old) at my parents. Basically, she wakes up every night and then wants to come to our bed. At that point, we have me, Clay, Lo, Lady Bird and Bella all in our queen size bed. Lola is usually shouting "Lady Bird, No...get down" as she doesn't like Lady bird to be touching her feet. Last night Clay was getting in bed and he said "It's like freaking Noah's Arc in this bed". I started rolling laughing silently as I was too tired to laugh out loud. But my silent laughter quickly came to a halt once I discovered I would only have about 4 inches of bed and had to roll up in a ball to try to fit on the little space I had. It was unsuccessful! I finally got up and went downstairs to the guest bedroom to sleep.

Before going to bed last night I did my research on this to see if there was any possible hope. Amazingly this is a common problem. But, here's the deal...anytime I would do research when Lo was an infant, there were always several options/solutions for whatever it was I was researching. For a toddler, not so much. I feel like you're basically out there on your own as they all say "each toddler is different". I think the main "solution" that came out of my research is maybe she's ready for a toddler bed. I'm not ready for that and I don't think she is either so we'll have to go to option #2 which is I don't know. Anyway, they did mention the cry-it-out or Ferber method but frankly I feel she is too old for that. I never 100% agreed with these methods in the first place, but I also feel Lo would be very hard to train at this point as she is a lot smarter plus she has some stubbornness in her and she is so sensitive. I thought it was hard and somewhat cruel to do it back in the infant days but it would be REALLY hard now when she would know we were intentionally leaving her there to cry. Oh no...that would be too hard! So, with that, I have NO clue. Goodness gracious!!! For now, if this is what we'll have to deal with, we may have to bite the bullet and get a king bed. This would at least help the excruciating back pain I feel right now. As usual, will keep you posted...

The pics posted today were from a couple weeks ago when I was out of town. Lo wanted to play dress up before school. She pranced around like she was Miss Thing and Clay was able to snap some pictures. Even though we lack in sleep these days, at least she always wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Happy Holidays!!!

Merry Christmas from the Odom's

A day in the life with the Odom's.....

Let there be

PEACE ON EARTH

And let it begin with us!

Merry Christmas to me...

Clay and I don't exchange Christmas presents. We figure what's the point considering it all comes out of the same pocket...right!?!?!? So, since we don't trade gifts, I decided to buy myself a Christmas present. It's time to give up the amateur Jeep jogging stroller and go with the real thing...the original...The Baby Jogger!!! Woohoo!!! I'm so excited to try it out. I pick it up tomorrow. May even take it on the Tour de Tejas trek and use it while on the road. My New Year's goal is for Lola and I (and Clay if he'll join us but he's not feeling it at this point) to run every race Austin has to offer which translates into bookoos of races. Basically, we'll be running a 5K or more just about every weekend. Yea!!! This is the best gift ever!!! Merry Christmas to me! Yea again! (Can you tell I'm excited)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Oh, is this picture a real hoot or what!!! To tell you the truth, I would take this over a huge smile any day. Love it!!! Other than the fact that I semi had to torture the poor baby girl to get this photo. Well...not really....but you know what I mean. And, to make this picture even better, please take a look at the diaper area on Lo...it was a weee bit full with tinkle...oops! Kind of finishes out the picture perfectly though don't you think!

It really wasn't as bad as the picture makes it out to be. As a matter of fact, when we arrived to see Santa Claus, Lola would not stand still in line with me as she wanted to go see him right then. Obviously, she didn't understand the concept of waiting in line...even after I tried to explain it to her over and over. She kept running up to the front, waving and shouting "Hi Santa Claus!". I was really surprised by her intensity to want to see Santa. She would run back to me and say "Mommy, Santa's pretty!". It took everything I had not to crack up by this little comment. Instead I would say "Yes baby he is" and then I would say "Stay in line with Mommy"...didn't work! We had to wait about an hour or so and the entire time she was just elated to go see Santa. Even when we were next in line, she stood right up to the gate waving and yelling "Hi Santa" just as loud as her little voice could go. Of course, this joyous moment would quickly come to an end. As soon as it was time for Lo to sit in Santa's lap, the pic above is what we got. Poor baby girl!!! I hated to walk away with her whaling like that but I had to get the picture...right!?!?!?! Anyway, it was fun and when we walked off to pay, Lola started yelling "Bye Santa". It was good to know she wasn't completely traumatized over it. When we got home I told Lola to go tell her daddy who she saw. She ran up to Clay and said "I sat on Santa's lap....I cried". It was so sweet. I love moments like this!!!

Clay and I are struggling a bit with the holidays. We're about to start Tour de Texas and won't be home for Christmas Day. I'm not sure if we'll always be on the road for Christmas....my vote is to be home on Christmas Day and Clay's vote is to be away...I guess we'll continue to battle this one. It's not that I don't want to be with our family during the holiday...I do and we always will in some sort of way but I struggle with being away on Christmas day.

Growing up my favorite thing about the Christmas holiday was Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our house. I still have clear memories of the excitement I felt Christmas eve. We would bake cookies and leave them out for Santa. Adam and I would usually sleep in the same bed on Christmas Eve and would have a very hard time falling asleep due to our excitement over Santa coming. First thing Christmas morning we would pop up and go grab my mom and dad out of the bed (I have a feeling this was always much earlier than they would have liked). We would have to wait for my dad to set up the video camera (Yes, we have every Christmas on camera and still to this day record them...not as exciting recording full grown adults but we still do it). Once camera was all set up, we would go see what goodies Santa brought us. This is the great whimsical part of Christmas...I just loved it!!!

With our kids, I fear they'll never have these moments if we're always on the road. Right now it's not as big of a deal as Lola doesn't know Christmas Day from today or yesterday but she will next year so we'll have to figure out what our traditions will be. In addition, as we add to our family, I figure this will all become even more difficult. I guess this is a struggle that all families have to go through and we'll figure it all out.

With that, since we'll start the Tour de Texas this week, we decided to go ahead and have Santa Claus come to our house yesterday. I wasn't sure how Lola would react...would she react??? She did and it was simply adorable! Guess what...I have it on video...keeping the tradition going! Lo kept saying "Oh my goodness" and talking about all her little toys. She would say "Santa brought choo choo train". And then we would get another "Oh my goodness!". It was a moment I'll never forget! The good news about Christmas on the road this year is Lola will have at least two more visits from Santa so I'm thrilled to have a couple more breathtaking moments over the holidays!!!

Baby Curry has arrived...

Proud parents of baby Curry!

Baby Curry born 12/8/09 - 8 lbs 9 oz / 20 1/2 inches long

Once again it's been a while! I'm not going to kid myself anymore! Basically, between now and the end of the year it will be very hard to keep the blog updated. Just too much going on!! Mainly with work and trying to get ready for Christmas. The worst part is I'll be traveling to Florida toward the end of this week...ugh!!! Unfortunately, this will set me back a bit on Christmas shopping, getting Lo's pics with Santa Claus and everything else I need to get done. This also includes buying a car before the end of the year (gotta get the good deals...right?!?!!?). Speaking of cars...I rammed the Passat into the Sentra yesterday morning at 5:00 a.m...Nice! Luckily no damage to Passat, however, massive damage to Sentra...Nice again!!! Anyway, as usual, I have so much to catch all my fellow readers up on and I hope to get to it at one point but for now I want to talk about the most important happening lately...Baby Curry!!!

I can hardly believe my baby bro now has a baby! I still remember holding Adam when he was just born...I was 6 yrs old. Crazy! Curry is just adorable! Strangely, she seems to look a bit like Lo when she was born. This is strange as we all thought Lola looked exactly like Clay which she did and still does but I guess she has a little of me in her too. Maybe it's the hair that makes them look alike. Curry has tons of it! It's amazing! On Sunday we pulled out pics of Adam when he was a baby and it seems she looks just like her papa bear when he was born. Of course, a baby's look is constantly evolving so we'll see. She definitely has lots of Brana in her too! So far it seems Curry is a perfect little baby...she doesn't really cry and is very laid back. I wish I could squeeze her little cheeks and give her a big Eskimo kiss now.

Under the circumstances (meaning pushing something out of you that weighs 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 1/2 inches long), Brana had a relatively easy birth. I hate to use the term "easy" b/c lets face it...no birth is easy by any stretch of the imagination but apparently four pushes and she was here. And she's a big girl! As soon as my dad heard the baby crying, he was not afraid to peek his head in to the delivery room and say "Can Paw-Paw come in"...no he didn't!

Overall (you kind of have to use this term when talking about a newborn), Adam and Brana are adjusting well. They both have the natural baby instinct so I guess they have a head start on some of us (like me). It took them a day or two to adjust (like all of us) but it seems they have it all figured out now. Gosh...seeing them go through the newborn stage brings back memories...great memories...hard memories...exhausting memories...irreplaceable memories! Like the first night when the baby comes home. Why do they always scream all night long? Or, the beginnings of breastfeeding. Why does it hurt so much? But then you have those adorable little hands and feet and you can't help but look at this little thing you created and say "Wow...this is amazing!" It's so much fun and has given me massive baby fever!

Oh No!!!

This is Lola's "Oh No" face. Auntie Beans captured this moment of Lo. I post the "Oh No" face because here we are again two weeks later and I have not updated the blog. OH NO!!!!! Seriously, why is everything so hectic during the holidays!?!?!?!? You should see what our house looks like right now. I feel like I can't pull anything together...work, house, parenting, my body (I'm having some "mom-flab" issues), etc. I hate when I feel this way. Anyway, I still wanted to drop a note before I jump on a 9:00 a.m. conference call and have another long hectic day. The problem is I don't even know where to begin...

Lets see....we had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We did what I like to call the "Tour de Texas". Our first stop was Midlothian. We left around 2:00 on Wednesday before Thanksgiving (mistake, mistake, mistake) and it took us 5 1/2 hours for a trip that would typically be 2 1/2 hours. Under the circumstances, Lola did great. But, I felt soooo bad for her as it was pretty torturous....even for us adults! We spent time with the fam (Brana is about to POP) and then on Thanksgiving Day drove to Plano to have lunch with all my dad's sisters and their families. It's been years since we've seen some of the family. I actually think the last time was our wedding. So many of them haven't met Lola or even Brana. It was great to reconnect with everyone. Oh, but here's the great part...they all read the blog! So although we haven't seen each other in years, they all know what's going on in our lives. How great is technology.

After leaving my aunt Linda's/Nani's house, we kicked back at the parental guidance house and watched football. Then, we woke up at the break of dawn and headed to Baird to visit Clay's family. There we had a low-key evening with Clay's Mom & Dad, Molly, Ben, Doss & Guthrie. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time there. We got up on Saturday morning and left to come back to Austin first thing as Kristen & Kevin (our fab neighbors) were getting married. Their wedding was beyond perfect....from the weather, to her breath taking Balenciaga dress, to the ceremony and lovely reading that touch both Clay & I, to the outside venue, to the flowers, to the fab company...man, it was all wonderful! If I had it all to do over again, I would do it exactly as they did. Now they are off for a month to Brazil and Argentina. Must be nice right!!! We will certainly miss them!

So, that was our Thanksgiving week! Oh, I almost forgot. After all of that,on Sunday, I had the honor of flying out to St. Louis, MO for a business trip...UGH!!! Got there and then drove 2 hrs to Springfield, IL - home of Abraham Lincoln. I got back from the trip on Wednesday evening and couldn't wait to see my baby girl. It is so wonderful when they get to the age where they show pure excitement on their face when you get home. When I walked up to the door, I peered through the window and Lola saw me. She started screaming "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" and running to the door. When I walked in she ran up to me and gave me a big huge bear hug. I loved it! I then said "Hello" to the other baby girls in my life. It's funny b/c Lola mocks everything I do so I said "Hi girls" and gave them a big pat on the back and Lola did the exact same thing...she said "Hi girls" in her precious little voice and gave them a big pat too. She's a doll face! Then, yesterday was a catch up day and now here we are today! Gosh time flies when your having fun! I just wonder when I'm going to get Christmas shopping done and possibly even a Christmas tree up?????

For now, this is all I can do. However, I think I'm here next week so I'll be certain to post some updates. Lola is saying so many cute things and I want to make sure to get them all out on the blog at one point. If not this month, surely things will settle down after the holidays!!!!

Cutie pa"tooty"!

Hello all. It's been two weeks since my last post and I can't believe it! I've had many request to hurry up and post another one but as much as I wanted to it just hasn't happen. Work has been very very very very busy and I feel like I can't think straight on a daily basis, therefore, this has affected by blog writing. Not only that, but I've been a under the weather a bit lately or as Lola would put it...I've been "sicky". Enough of my whining about being busy and sick...you certainly don't want to hear about that....blah, blah, blah right?!?!?! Anyway, I'm back and I'm going to try to keep my posts up and going. However, I have a conference call at 8:30 a.m. so I have to hustle. I thought I would quickly tell yall all the new things Lola has been saying. She is a quirky little baby that's for sure....

So, the other night, Lo was squatting and straining her face real intensely as if she was going #2. I asked her "Lo, are you poopying". She turned to me and answered in the sweetest most serious tone "No, I tooting". Hence the title of the blog. I just started rolling laughing! And, it was true....she wasn't poopying....she was just tooting. She's learned the word "toot" through us of course. It all started when Bella or Lady Bird would make a funny noise and Lola would ask "What's that Mommy". I would say "Bella is tooting". Now Lola's learned to put the word "toot" to use...lovely! After that one time, every time Bella or LB make the funny noise Lola will say "Bellas tooting" and I'll just answer "Yes". Oh goodness!

She's also picked up on some of mommy and daddy's bad language. In order to keep this blog family oriented, I'll steer clear from actually typing out the words. And, please don't judge us as parents by this (or do). We realize it's wrong and we're working on it. Anyway, here it goes...I have a tendency to say "Oh Sh!t" fairly often. I try not to use this phrase but at times it seems to accidently pour out of my mouth. Well, one day when we were in the car Lola very clearly blurted out "Oh Sh!t"...nice! I'm not kidding it was loud, clear and alarming. I quickly figured out that we need to watch our language at all times around Lola. One time isn't that bad right!?!?!? I thought we had it under control until my dad came in the other day and said "Amy, guess what Lola said?"....I guessed it right off...she was randomly spouting "Oh Sh!t" over and over...Ooops!

Oh and it gets worse. So, I was traveling most of last week. I left Sunday and didn't get back until late Thursday night. Unfortunately, with Clay's work deadlines, it was a horrible week for me to be gone. On top of the already hectic work schedule, Clay found out on Wednesday morning that Lola's school was closed for Veterans Day. The only choice he had was to take Lola to work with him....I can only imagine how well that went. Anyway, by Wednesday, it's safe to say Clay was at his wits end. Thursday morning Clay called and told me a little story. He said him and Lola were in the car and a truck pulled up beside them and Lola blurted "F#cking truck...F#uck!!!". Ummmm....can you believe it!!!! Do you think she spent too much time with Daddy last week???? CRAZY! When I first heard this I couldn't help but laugh but then I thought "THIS IS HORRIBLE!!!". Needless to say, it's more clear than ever that we have to watch everything we say around Lola. I like to call her our little parrot because she repeats everything...obviously regardless if we want her to or not.

Speaking of parrot. Since Lola prefers to call me Amy over Mommy, I said to her last night if she won't call me Mommy would she please call me "Super Mommy". It worked...she called me "Super Mommy" all night. Kind of funny and obnoxious but sometimes you have to have fun with it. Then as the night proceeded on, I felt like I was getting on Clay's nerves which is nothing out of the ordinary (maybe it was the Super Mommy thing...I don't know). I said to Lola "Lola, I think Mommy is irritating Daddy". She immediately turned to Clay and said "Clay, Is Mommy irritating you?" Thought that was pretty funny and a very quick response from her. He answered "Yes!".

Lo is also going through this phase where she likes things to be real quite. Unfortunately, everything is loud at our house so this isn't working out for her very well. Anyway, if we turn on the TV or radio or anything she'll say "Too loud" and wave her hand basically demanding us to turn whatever it is down and/or off. We hear this "Too loud" term all the time now. Literally, any little noise and she's likely to say "Too loud". Yesterday we went to Target and they were playing music. As expected, Lola said "Too loud!". I explained to her that I don't have the capabilities to turn the music down at Target so she would just have to deal with it. She decided to embrace it and just started dancing around in her basket....the girl has some moves!

Another thing...every day when I pick Lo up from school I'll say "Lola, what did you do today at school?" She ALWAYS answers "Payed ouside with Charlie and Phia (Sophia)". She'll even say this when it's been pouring raining all day and it's clear they didn't play outside. When she says this I'll say "You did? Are you sure? Because it was raining all day today...you must have gotten real wet didn't you???" and she'll give me a real sweet "Yea". However, we had a turning point yesterday...when I asked Lola what she did at school she said "Payed with Charlie and Phia...too cold to pay outside". I was very proud of her for telling the truth. Not that she was intentionally lying before but this is a big step for her to change her story and tell me what she actually did right?!?!?! For some reason, this was a proud moment for me.

Lets see...what else has Lola been saying and doing lately. She can say the months of the year...January all the way to December. She always ends it with a big "AND DEcember!". We were in shock the first time we heard it as we didn't know she knew the months of the year. Once again, Clay and Lola were in the car and apparently she just busted out with them. Clay called and said "Umm, did you know Lola knows the months of the year?". I of course answered "No" and he said "Well, she does". Amazing. I wonder what else she knows that we don't know about. Clay also plays this fun game with Lola and he'll say "Lola, What's the capital of Russia?" She'll yell "Moscow". Then he'll say "Lola, What's the capital of Egypt?" She'll yell "Cairo". Then, he'll say "Lola, What's the capital of Turkey?" and she'll yell "Istinbul" (This actually isn't the capital of Turkey but when we learned the capital is actually Ankara, we figured it would be too confusing to change it all up). Now, I would love to say my child is a walking genius but she clearly has this routine memorized. The reason why I know this is b/c if Clay switches it up and asks the capital of Egypt first, she'll get a little confused and answer "Moscow". That's ok...at least she's still getting some geography lessons. The great part is I've actually learned some capitals myself in the process. Woohoo!!!

I posted this pic today as Lola looks so sweet and innocent in it. Of course, based on some of the stories above (i.e. the cussing), everything that comes out of her mouth isn't always sweet...this is obviously due to her own parents doings/teachings (we're working on it). But, even leaving the cussing behind, Lola has figured things out and at times is intentionally up to no good...you know, testing us. That's ok though...it's all part of the learning process!

Well, I just got yall all caught up in one big post! How about that!!!

Things have been a bit off lately....

Kind of like these pictures, things have been a bit off lately...

I'm not sure if you've noticed but lately all my blogs have been really positive. As you probably remember, between about ages 15 months and 18 months, it seems I was posting blogs where I was constantly complaining about a phase Lola was going through. You would have thought I hated parenting by reading all those blogs which obviously isn't the case but we did have some challenges during that time period. However, since Lo turned 18 months, all the blogs have been uber positive mainly b/c little Miss Lo has been a complete angel face lately. Well, this week, things changed a bit....

One, the time change always throws me off! It gets light and dark too early. Of course, it totally helps me on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays when I wake up at 4:45 a.m. to meet the girls for a workout. I love the fact that when I'm done at 6:30 a.m., it's actually light out. I told the girls this morning that the negative part about it getting light early is they can actually see what I look like in the mornings in the pure daylight...that's not so good.

Another thing that has thrown us off lately is that Lola has started throwing the lovely toddler fits again. The nice part about her being 21 months is I feel I can rationalize with her somewhat. I'll say "Lola, we don't throw fits in this house. If you want something, you tell me. If not, I'm going to walk away" and I walk away. With this, the fits are less painful as she usually realizes fairly quickly that she absolutely won't get what she wants by throwing them. Of course, it's still been a little mind numbing. When she whines and throws the fits it's like fingers scraping on a chalkboard to me. Anyway, I thought maybe it was the time change that could be causing the fits to suddenly reappear. Or, it could just be another phase. Then, last night I discovered that Lola has two new teeth coming in and I immediately thought "Oooohhhhh...this all makes sense now". Once I was able to peg the culprit to the fits, I was able stop it before it started. My solution....Motrin. Yes, this has helped make a huge difference and Lola has been acting much better. Whew...what a relief! I'm not sure if my nerves could have taken much more!

The next thing that has been a bit off is Lo's language. She's still talking real well and her language continues to expand on a daily basis but she has decided to add a "y" to the end of many words. So, Doss is now "Doss-y" and toast is now "toast-y". It's pretty cute and funny but I just wonder why in the world has she all of the sudden started this. Maybe the time change? Regardless, I'll enjoy this cute phase while she's in it.

Finally, another "off" is I've actually been getting ready every day. Fully ready! I sit here as I type this blog at 8:00 a.m. and have taken a shower, put on make up, dried my hair, gotten dressed and have even managed to put on accessories and some heels. The solution to this...I just do it! I make a point before Clay and Lola leave make it happen and it's been working. I'll tell ya...it makes me feel a heck of a lot better and I feel so much more productive throughout the day. Nice!

Tomorrow is an exciting day for Lola. I'm sure I've mentioned Lola's fascination with airplanes. This started about 6 months ago. Anytime an airplane would fly by she would get so excited and yell "airpane". My favorite was when she was about 15 months she said "Airpane in water". It took us a minute to figure out what she was saying but we finally realized since the sky was blue she thought it was water and the airplane was flying in the water. Wow. So simple. These kids really are smart little things. I love that everything is so literal to them. Lo continues to have this fascination with airplanes. Last week when I got back from Philadelphia I told Lola that Mommy came home on an airplane and she got this dramatic look of astonishment on her face and said "ooohhhhh". Anyhoo, I have to fly to Dallas tomorrow. Kids under two fly free so I thought how much fun would it be to take Lola on a plane ride. She'll finally be able to experience this thing that is so fascinating to her. Can't wait for the big trip. We've been preparing and talking about it all week...should be fun and I can't wait to fill you in on the experience!

Chickity Chick Chick!

I can't believe Halloween has already come and gone. Now, I go through the stores and see Christmas everywhere. Kind of crazy!!! It's crazy that it's already November (Where does time go?). And, it's crazy that the stores already have Christmas stuff out! Man, I haven't even gotten over the thought of Halloween...how am I suppose to all of the sudden shift my brain to Christmas within 24 hours?!?!?! Craziness!

We had a blast this Halloween season. Over the month of October, Lola learned about the fall season, pUm-kIns and pUm-kIn patches and of course trick or treating. Last year Lola was only 8 months on Halloween so she didn't really know what was going on but I still forced her into a dragonfly costume of course. This year she's 20 months and I'm still not sure she understood exactly what was going on but she certainly did have fun! I guess that's all that counts.

As you see from the pics, Lola was a chick for Halloween. She looked absolutely adorable! She wore her costume to school on Friday for the Halloween party and everyone went nuts. She actually embraced the costume and pranced around with all the other kids as if none of them had on strange outfits. Then on Saturday, it was time to go trick or treating. My parents came in town to enjoy the experience of Lo's first trick or treat. I wasn't sure exactly how this would go but Lola did great! She put on her costume with no complaints and walked through the neighborhood with all the other kids as if she was a 5 yr old. She went up to the neighbor's door no problem and stuck her little bucket out for them to give her candy. The neighborhood was amazing. There were kids everywhere. Overall, I think Lola had a great time. Now, we just have the hide all the candy from both Lola and Mommy!

On another note, I was hoping to get this blog posted last night but we had a bit of a fiasco at the Odom house....imagine that! What we thought was going to be a low-key evening ended up being kind of insane. Around 6:00 pm we discovered Bella was missing in action. We looked everywhere and couldn't find her. Finally, after searching and searching and searching, I was in the back house and heard her little tail wagging. The problem was she actually wasn't in the back house but she was stuck under the back house. Apparently she was going after some little critter and got herself stuck under there and she couldn't get out. Poor baby girl!

The whole time Bells was stuck Lola kept saying "Bellas hiding" and she would squat down and say "Come on Belly Boo...come on" clapping and slapping her little legs trying to help provoke Bella to squirm her way out. Lo was definitely concerned. After hours of digging and calling Bella, we finally rescued her. She seemed a little overwhelmed once we got her out. In the end, it was the hot dog I stuck under the house that gave her enough motivation to push her way out. I also had to squeeze my bod under there and give her a big pull but we did it!!! The funny thing is Clay's dad called to check on the status of Bells about half way through the ordeal. He said to me "You know, Bella is getting old and sometimes dogs go off to hide when it's their time to go". I thought it was quite humorous that he chose that time to tell me this. Of course, it was only funny b/c I knew this wasn't what Bella was doing. Anyway, we're all good now and hope Bella doesn't attempt this little stunt again!

The Super Duper Diva Bachelorette Party

The Girls!

The Wine!

The Fun!

Last weekend was Kristen's Super Duper Diva Bachelorette Party. We rented a limo (it ended up being a massive hummer limo) and we had a fabulous girls day hitting up the South Texas wineries then ended the trip in Fredericksburg for lunch and some quick shopping. The day couldn't have been more perfect!

Kristen & Kevin will tie the knot in 1 month. The exact date is November 28th. We really lucked out when we chose to live in the compound and ended up with such fabulous neighbors. We're so happy to meet and get to know all their BFFs too. I really love all these girls! They are all absolutely amazing and such a blast to hang out with! It's people like this who have made the move to Austin a seamless transition. I feel like I've known all of them forever and will continue to get to know them even more over the years to come. Now, that's a good feeling to have!

Speaking of tying the knot....men are funny. Here's an example: Clay said to me last night "Did you notice I came home during lunch and cleaned the kitchen?". I answered "Yes...thank you" but really didn't notice. I quickly realized that his version of "cleaning the kitchen" is to stack all the dishes in the sink and spraying cleaning product on the counter tops and stove. He doesn't even wipe everything down! This is funny to me. How can he think this is cleaning? Amazing.... When I actually cleaned the kitchen last night meaning I washed all the dishes, put them in the dishwasher, sprayed down the counters and actually scrubbed them to make sure they were shiny clean, I wanted to say to Clay "Now, this is how you clean a kitchen" but I didn't...I didn't want to break his spirits as he truly believed he had helped me out by "cleaning the kitchen" during lunch. I guess every little bit helps!

Where have I been this week...

PHILADELPHIA!!!
I woke up Monday morning at 3:30 a.m. and took a quick business trip up to Philadelphia. I have to say, it's absolutely not natural for any human being to wake up at 3:30 a.m. By 4:30 p.m., I was done but still had a long evening in front of me. What a neat town! I actually loved Philadelphia and would love to go back. Wish I could have spent more time there but glad to be home.

Of course, last night when I got home, I could immediately smell the lovely aroma of puke wafting throughout the house. Yuck! I quickly discovered that poor baby Lo had been throwing up....once all over her bed and all over herself. I guess she had a little stomach ache as she wasn't running a fever and seemed to be in good spirits. We gave her a military bath, some juice/water to hydrate her and she was ready to hit the sack. Luckily, she slept like a baby (excuse the pun)! This morning, I gave Lo a bath to wipe all the remaining bits of throw up from her bod and hair and took her to school. I hope that's ok?!?!?!? Although I scrubbed her hard core, she still had the stinch of throw-up in her hair. I really hope they don't smell it at school...that would be a little embarrasing to say the least!

This afternoon, we plan to go back to the pumpkin patch. I'm going to buy a bunch of little pumpkins and let Lola decorate them for all the kids in her class. It will be cute & fun!!!

Toodles...

Cousins...two peas in a pod

How adorable is this???? The babies getting ready for bed. Lola is 20 months and Doss is 10 months and yes they are the same size. He's a big boy!

Now that Doss is a big boy and is crawling, standing and moving around, the dynamic between these two has completely changed. Before Doss was a wee-bit scared of Lola. Any time she would walk in the room his little bottom lip would start puckering. Yes, he was scared of her. For a while, she was a little rough with baby Doss. Of course, she didn't understand this so we couldn't yell at her but she has hit him, pushed him and knocked him down a few times. But, those times are in the past and now the cousins are two peas in a pod. Gotta love it!

Everyone have a wonderful weekend!!!

Gotta love the fall...

Our neighborhood pUm-kIn pAtch!!!

Lo's first pUm-kIn!

She can't get the awe-struck excitement off her face!

Fall is here! YEA!!! Gosh do I ever love the fall! It's by far my fav season. I don't know what it is...maybe the crispness of the air, the trees turning, the thought of the holiday season nearing. Whatever it is...it's all greatness! Time to get out the long sleeves, sweaters, jackets and boots. Unfortunately, I don't think it will get just real chilly in Austin for a while but I still like to dress the part regardless of the temperature.

This month at Lola's school they are learning about pumpkins. So Lo has developed this new fascination with "pUm-kIns". I spell it like this b/c my writing can't quite express the way she says some of her words. She puts the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble. Of course, this is one of the many things that make the toddler stage so absolutely adorable.

Anyway, back to the pUm-kIns....we thought since it's fall and Lo has been learning about pUm-kIns we would head to the pumpkin patch. When we got home yesterday, I told Lola as soon as she eats dinner and Daddy gets home we'll walk down to the pumpkin patch. Her eyes lit up like you've never seen and she shouted pUm-kIn pAtch!!! So we did just that, ate dinner and then waited anxiously outside for Clay to get home. Lola actually waited at the gate down by the driveway (she knows there is an invisible threshold there that she is not allowed to cross without an adult) in anticipation that Clay would arrive any second and we could walk down to the pUm-kIn pAtch. When Kristen pulled up she yelled "Kristen, Daddy home go to pUm-kIn pAtch". I don't think I'd ever heard so much excitement in her voice.

Finally, Clay got home and it was time to head to the pumpkin patch. Well, this child obviously loves her some pUm-kIn pAtches b/c she went BERSERK!!! Basically, regardless of my writing skills (or lack of), there is no way I could ever express to you in writing the experience but it went a little something like this....Lo was frantically running around through the pumpkins shouting "pUm-kIn....pUm-kIn patch...Daddy, pUm-kIn....Mommy, pUm-kIn"...and on and on and on. I don't think I've ever seen her this excited about anything like this before. She didn't even take time out to take a breath. Then it got even better for Lo, the nice gentleman at the pumpkin patch gave her a sticker (which is another fav of hers right now) and this helped kick up the excitement level even more. Wasn't sure this was possible but apparently it was. At one point, our neighbor, Kevin, drove by and stopped for a sec. When Lola saw him, she sprinted to the sidewalk taking her little short steps, kicking her knees up as if she were in a school band, dramatically swinging her arms and she shouted "KEVIN, pUm-kIn pAtch" and pointed behind her as if he couldn't see the sea of orange pumpkins. Oh man...this child!!!

I have to say...it was so great to see Lola this excited about something so simple...a pumpkin. A true memory that will stick with me for a long long long time! Luckily, the pumpkin patch is only 3 blocks from our house. We told Lola we would go back today if she wanted. We plan to buy some more pumpkins and decorate them this week. I'll have to catch this on video so you can truly understand what we witnessed....a VERY cute moment to say the very least!!!

This moment reminded me of another very simple moment where Lola was ecstatic. When we were in South Padre, we went to Ihop. While we were there, we ordered Lola a "special" kids cup that cost us a whopping $1.99. I say this b/c I quickly found out this was the best $1.99 spent in a good while. She LOVED her "special" cup and called it a "cUpcake". We spent the whole trip talking about her cUpcake. She loved it! Here is a pic of her "cUpcake". We've actually had to tuck the cUpcake deep in a cabinet so we don't have to hear about it non-stop.

Mommy pretty!

We had a wedding this past weekend in Aledo for a dear friend of ours. The rehearsal dinner started at 6:00 pm sharp so we picked Lo up early from school on Friday. When I picked her up, I was all dressed up for the rehearsal dinner. When I went into her classroom, Lo jumped up as she was surprised I was there early and then she stopped and looked at me in awe and said "Mommy, you look pretty!". So cute! Then, when we got into the car she said to Clay "Daddy, Mommy pretty!".

I thought this was just adorable until I sat and thought a minute. Lola sees me every day. Why am I so "pretty" today. Well, maybe it's b/c I work from home and never do anything to myself. At most, I'll jump in the shower after my work-out but even then I usually let my hair dry on it's own and I rarely ever put on make-up. I initially stopped putting on make-up over the summer due to the extreme heat, however, I now realize I no longer have this excuse. I would often say to Clay over the summer "Can you believe I've turned into one of those women who never fixes up?" He of course says I always look beautiful regardless of what I'm wearing make-up or not. He actually likes me better without make-up so I guess it all worked out.

Of course, after Lola continued to say how "pretty" I looked, I thought these kids are very perceptive and maybe there is something to what she's saying. Maybe I should actually put more effort into myself during the week and attempt to look "pretty" every once in a while. So now I've decided this will be my new goal. I'm going to get ready every day. Not just t-shirt and shorts or t-shirt and jeans but I'll actually shower, dry my hair, put on make-up and maybe even some accessories.

I know this seems real easy but considering I work from home this will actually be a challenge. On a normal day, as soon as Clay and Lo walk out the door, I immediately sit down at my computer and get started as I want to get as much work done as possible during the work day and I also like to be able to leave a little early to pick up Lo from school. But, even with this, I'm going to focus and make a point to get all fixed up every day. Of course, as I sit here typing this blog, I haven't showered yet and I'm already settled in the office ready to start working. So, I may not start today but I will give it a shot tomorrow!!! Wish me luck on this one...I think I'll need it.

On another note, college football has started. Woohoo!!! As you know, we love, love, love football season. Tech had a rocky start but we're building some confidence in our team after the big win against Nebraska on Saturday. Anyway, since it is football season, I busted out with Lo's Tech cheerleader outfit a few weeks ago hoping it would still fit. Well, it did...kind of. I thought I would post these pics of Lo in her Tech attire last year and this year. Lo would have been 8 months in the pics last year and of course she's 20 months now...Wow...speaking of growing up.

Baby girl at 8 months!

20 months showing her buddha belly! Do you think it fits? I hope so b/c we're not investing in another so we'll have to make this one work.

Our little angel face is growing up so fast...

Can you get over this face??? The baby face is almost completely gone! So scary and sad but another moment in Lo's life I guess...she's growing up! But, wasn't I just in the hospital giving birth to this child yesterday? Where does time go? Before we know it, she'll be 18 and heading off to college. So crazy. Anyway, Lo has been growing like a weed and seems to change every day. Clay took these pictures earlier this week and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them. Where is my baby girl? Her buddha belly is even going away and she's gotten so tall and lanky... I guess she's officially a toddler.

And, here's another baby that's growing fast. Adam & Brana had one of those 3-D sonograms. Kind of crazy and a little weird that you can see the baby chillin' in Brana's belly this clearly. Should we be able to see the baby this well? Technology rocks these days. When they sent these, I couldn't believe that Brana will have this baby in 2 months...2 MONTHS!!! This crazy too as it seems like it was yesterday when she told us she was pregnant. I told Brana that if she were me, she would be having Curry in 5 weeks (that's only 1 month and 1 week). I was 2 1/2 or 3 weeks early with Lo. It's just crazy that this baby will be here soon. We can't wait. Makes me crave a little infant of my own.

Enough talk about me...

Alright, since this is a blog suppose to be about Lola and I've been going on and on about myself the last couple posts, I figure I'll post a fun moment we had with Lola a couple weeks ago. I have lots of updates on what she's doing these days...boy, this child is a real hoot!!!

Lo discovered clothes pins while digging in a kitchen drawer she wasn't suppose to be digging in...imagine that! Luckily, it ended up being cute and fun! She put them all in her hair, my hair, Clay's hair and beard.

Then Lo wanted to put them on her "beard" like her daddy.

Lo's little chin was bright red but she kept wanting us to put the clothes pins on it. Is this child abuse? High pain tolerance I guess...she gets this from me! I have an insane tolerance for pain. I sometimes wonder if I could win a "How much pain can you take" contest (Obviously my confidence has been boosted since winning the KGSR contest).

We were literally cracking up! Gotta love these moments!

Speaking of moments....we had a couple funny ones yesterday.

The first one involved a reptile. I picked Lola up from school and was cruising home on our normal route talking to Lo about her day when all the sudden my foot started tingling. I thought "Why is my foot going numb?" I looked down at my tingly foot which was on the gas petal at the time and saw a large reptile on it. I immediately screamed at the top of my lungs and shook the thing off my foot. All along I'm thinking, was it a lizard or was it a snake? EEEEKKK!!!! It was a HORRIBLE feeling! I proceeded to drive home terrified this thing was going to pop out and crawl on me again. I kept scoping under my feet. Lo was asking "Mommy, what are you doing?". She was confused by my screams and the awe struck panic still on my face. When we got home, the little guy popped out on the passenger side. It was a HUGE lizard! Thank goodness! This was much better than a snake running free in the car...right?!?!? I got Lola out of the car and tried to show her the lizard. Her response was "little alligator". I'm telling ya...the thing was massive. Anyway, I proceeded to scream again when I was trying to get him out of the car...I was unsuccessful. So, a large lizard is still running around free in the Sentra. Nice!

The second moment we had yesterday involved dancing. Last night we were winding down and a Michael Jackson song came on the tube. Lo went nuts! She popped up and started stomping, throwing the hands up, head banging and dancing around the living room. Once the song was over, she wanted more music. She kept saying "music, music, music". So, we changed the channel to one of our favorite music video channels called ME. Lo kept dancing around but this wasn't good enough for her. She wanted me and Clay dancing with her. She kept saying "Amy, dance...Clay, dance" as she was grabbing our hands and pulling us up off the couch to dance with her. Then Clay gradually and nonchalantly slipped away the kitchen to grab something and Lola said "No, Clay...over here...dance!" and she pointed to the area where she demanded Clay dance. So, all three of us were dancing around the living room while the dogs were barking at us. When a song was over she would say "Yea!" and put her hands in the air and clap. Then, she was ready for the next song to start dancing again. This lasted at least 45 minutes. Thank goodness it was finally bedtime b/c Clay & I were exhausted from all the dancing.

Jeff Tweedy, Where are you????

Have I ever told yall about the second man in my life? His name is Jeff Tweedy and he is just fascinating to me. I'm sure many of you out there thinking "Who in the world is this Jeff Tweedy man she's talking about?". Well, Jeff is the lead singer in a fabulous band named Wilco (my all time favorite). Oh, I absolutely love Wilco...I'm actually obsessed with them. Last night we had concert tickets to go see the show. The butterflies started before the band came on as the anticipation was running ramped. To recap, the show was unbelievable...loved it! But, I have even more to this story....

Let me back up a bit....before the show we met up with one of Clay's work colleagues which I was happy to finally meet. I was also glad to meet his wife who I really liked. They have a similar story to us....born & raised in Texas, moved away for several years (them Chicago/us NYC), came back to Texas to be around family and now we all live in one of the best cities in the world... Austin. They also have a 21 month old so we're excited to get the kiddos together soon. Anyway(I digress), they had backstage passes to meet the band after the concert. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! I was very envious until they ever so kindly gave me the best news I've heard in a while (which was last Thursday when we found out we won the ACL tix). They needed to get back to their little one and wouldn't be able to take advantage of the backstage VIP passes. They asked us if we wanted them. UMMMM....YES!!!

I proceeded to tell them that I would marry Jeff Tweedy in a heart beat if he would take me (this is all in good fun b/c of course I would never leave the #1 man in my life). Clay's response to this was "You would go from ugly to uglier". Granted, Jeff Tweedy isn't the best looking man in the world but to me he is b/c he's basically a genius...a poet...I really do love him and he inspires me on a daily basis with the songs he writes and produces. Thanks Jeff.

Well, to make a long story short (or maybe this is making a long story long), we went backstage and met the band. I proceeded to make a fool out of myself and couldn't speak b/c I was so nervous being around my "favorite band"...my "favorite poets". I said stupid things like "I love yall so much" or "I'm your #1 fan". Seriously Amy....is this all you could come up with??? Anyway, this was all great, HOWEVER, Jeff Tweedy was no where to be found. JEFF TWEEDY, WHERE ARE YOU???? We waited and waited and waited until 2:00 a.m. actually. We even stalked the area where the buses were waiting for a glimpse. I asked one band member to please go wake Jeff up as I'm his "#1 fan"...OMG...what an idiot I can be. In summary, I never met the #2 man in my life but I still feel confident the day will come...surely!

As you know, we went to ACL last weekend and have had a week full of music. Thought I would post some pics from the festival. The weekend was one of the best weekends I've ever had...just fabulous....will definitely be on the top of the list in the memory book. I can't imagine how it would have been without Molly & Ben there to experience it with us. We listened to great music the entire weekend. This didn't happen without a car running over my foot though. Yes, I did just slip that in...a story for another time..no fear...I'm ok! Again, thanks to everyone for voting for our rockin' kid. I have to say...life is pretty good and it's all about having fun in the process and you helped us get there with all your votes.

There is nothing better than this festival! So many bands...so little time!

Me & Molly during Avett Brothers....another favorite band.

Clay & Ben before The Wood Brothers...a highlight of the festival.

The ACL gang!

We walked home every night from the festival. This night Clay & Ben decided to stop and sing a tune with our local homeless guy.

There is only one thing to say about this...dirty, dirty feet!!!