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!!!!