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!