The Birthday Girl!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

This past Sunday, February 7th, Lola turned 2. Wow! I can hardly believe it! It really does seem like I was in the hospital giving birth to her just yesterday. As the big birthday approached I started looking back at pictures of Lola at 12 months. Although it was only a year ago, it's really crazy how much she has changed. At 12 months, she was no longer an infant and we thought she was all grown up. But now I compare photos and she actually was still a baby back then. Looking at Lola today, she is no longer a baby, however, I still call her by baby girl and probably always will. And, I love the fact that ever so often she still wants me to hold her in my arms like a baby and sing "Rock-a-bye Baby". It's bitter sweet I have to say. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the toddler stage so far (with an exception of a few things mentioned below) but miss the baby in Lola. Clay said the other day that he's really sad to see Lola grow up so fast. I told him he shouldn't be b/c we've really taken advantage of every moment and stage. I don't feel like we've let time fly by so fast that we've missed out on things and that's a good thing.

Now to the good stuff!!! Lola had an excellent birthday weekend. First, we went to Midlothian to celebrate Lola's birthday with my mom and dad (Mena & Pawpaw), great aunt Bobbie, great grandmother Memaw, Uncle Adam, Beans, baby Curry, great aunt Nancy, cousin Kaylin, Reta, Billy and Jessie. We had a great time and Lola loved all of her gifts. Then, we headed back to Austin and Clay's fam came in town that afternoon. So, Lola had another birthday party with Clay's mom and dad (Dinks & Dad'O), Tia Molly, Tio Ben and cousin Dossy. Our fab neighbors, Kristen, Kevin, Mark & Ari, also came over to sing Happy Birthday to Lola. Again, we had good food, cake and gifts. For the first Happy Birthday song, Lola wasn't real sure about it (see video above). By the second Happy Birthday song, she requested that we sing it over and over. She kept saying "Sing it again". We did and finally called at quits after the fourth time. I don't have a video of this but there is on posted on my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=727906270

It was pretty funny! Anyway, after the big birthday weekend we were pretty birthday 'ed out! I'm telling you, this child is loved by so many and we're grateful for that!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures on my camera from Birthday party #2....totally bummed! Tia Molly will have to send them to me. However, I did get pictures of the cakes. I am obsessed with cakes and truly believe that finding a good bakery is key.

Dallas Affairs cake - They will never let you down!
http://www.dallasaffairescakeco.com/

My new Austin Bakery find - Polkadots Cupcake Factory. So pumped!!! Their cakes, cupcakes, cookies, etc are all fabulous and very reasonably priced. Yea! (Sorry about the blurry pic....Clay had camera on some weird setting as usual - my pet peeve!)
http://www.polkadotscupcakefactory.com/

What are Lola's favorite things at 2 yrs old? Lets see.....choo-choo trains, painting/drawing, chitty chitty bang bang, singing, music, books (fav right now is Head to Toe by Eric Carle), riding in the jogging stroller, going to the playground, her babies and now her new baby stroller. That's all I can think of for now. I wonder what the next year will bring us???? Hopefully it will only bring JOY but I imagine there will be plenty of stressful moments too....