New escuela pics

As most of you know, Lola has been in daycare since she was 3 months old. With this, about every 6 months, Lola gets the infamous school pics. I've tried to post them along the way but I think I've probably missed some. To me, these pics are absolutely HILARIOUS! Seriously, they never let me down and seem to always make me laugh. I know one day Lola will love love love having these pictures in her collection. I still love going back and looking at all my studio pics.

Lola recently got some updated school pics. I've been in Jacksonville, FL all week and got back late last night. Lola woke me up first thing this morning (6:20 a.m. to be exact) with a funny looking bag on her arm. Although I was exhausted, I couldn't help but laugh hysterically when I saw the bag she brought into me. I said "What is that?" She said "It's my lunch bag!" with great pride. It was a little lunch bag with her most recent school picture on it and this little girl was VERY proud of this bag. Oh how great it was to not only return to Lola and Clay that I missed so much but also new school pictures....YEA....one of my favorite things!

As I was looking at the new pics, I thought "These are pitiful!". I mean seriously...they don't even look like her. You definitely don't see her fun spirit in them. BUT, I still love them because they are just flat out goofy. The poses alone are enough to send me into hysteria. For some reason, this prompted me to start going through all the other school pics too. I don't know...maybe b/c I have a kicking baby in my belly and I can't believe that it was over 2 years ago when Lola was in my belly. I hardly remember being pregnant with Lola anymore. It's like it wasn't a reality. Weird huh? Where does time go? Where is my baby girl? Oh goodness. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to go back and post the pics Lola has had along the way. They are all just too funny in their own way. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Lola's 1st school picture - 9 months

I was traveling and Clay dressed her...can you tell??? What about the hootis hair flailing out on her head? Have you ever seen anything quite like it. Oh goodness...I can hardly take it!

Lola's 2nd school picture - Approximately 13 or 14 months when this was taken.

Again, Daddy dressed her. How pitiful is that little face?!?!?! She's absolutely terrified. I don't blame her....I too would be terrified if I had a weird looking mushroom and scary squirrel lurking around behind me.

Lola's 3rd school picture - Approximately 18 or 19 months

(I can't believe I haven't been writing ages on the pics)

Again, gotta love the background. Seriously, where do they come up with these? The photographer needs to know that we're no longer in the 70s and Olan Mills Photography just isn't cool anymore. Do yall remember Olan Mills??? If you were born in the 70s, we all had pics there at one point. Believe it or not...I think they are still around. I love the hand resting on the pumpkin pose! Definite Olan Mills style. Oh and the leaves...seriously!!!

Lola's most recent school pictures - 2 years old (26 months)

I was in shock when I saw these pics. They don't even look like Lola to me. How did they get her to do this half smile? I've NEVER seen her smile quite like this before. And, how did the photographer manage to make her big beautiful blue eyes look small and gray. Plus, you can't see the fun loving vivacious Lola in these pics. Where is she???? Finally, what in the world are the poses?!?!?!? More Olan Mills style photography. I can't believe they subjected that poor thing to this. OMG...just pitiful! Right?!?!?!? It kind of breaks my heart and makes me giggle all at the same time. I'm almost speechless...

Oh how glad I am that we will always have these pics in our collection. They really show how much she's changed over the past two years. Your really gotta love them! Hope they make your day like they made mine! Happy weekend!

The story of our weekend...

What a weekend! It's been a long time coming but we finally had one of those weekends where we had no plans. This meant we could wake up Saturday morning and do whatever the heck we wanted to do. It also meant we could get a lot done around the house. This type weekend is very far and few in between but it sure is nice to have ever so often.

So, what did we do? Well, we started the weekend off like we do every weekend which is wake up first thing and head to the Farmer's Market downtown. There is nothing better in my opinion. We can enjoy the beautiful weather, enjoy our great town and get all of our local/organic meats and veggies for the week. Not only that but Lola loves going out there. She can run around free and play while we shop.

Lo was walking and swinging all at the same time. We were trying to get her to pose for a pic but that just never happens. One thing I LOVE about pregnancy is you don't have to suck in your stomach. Woohoo!!!

Lola and her daddy going to get some fresh beef.

She's helping us carry the veggies. She walked around with either brussels sprouts or strawberries most of the time.

More fam fun! Lo's new fav thing is to hang out upside down. Strange I know. Not really sure why but she's constantly asking to be in this position.

Now it's fussy time which translates into nap time.

Then, we woke up from our nap and headed down to the the Hot Rod festival on South Congress. This was a blast in an interesting way. There were bands, drinks, food, old time cars everywhere (my fav was the Griswold car in pic below...made me laugh), dancing and GREAT people watching.

We hung out for a few hours and watched a couple rock-a-billy bands. Lola loved them. She danced around everywhere. After that, we went shopping and I found this adorable vintage Born to Dance rockin' dress. Love it! I also loved this "Go to hell" look Lola gave me when I was trying to snap pics of her new dress. I thought it would only be appropriate to end the blog with it.

Oh how I love weekends like this! Can't wait for the next one....

A whole new me!

Baby bump has arrived!

About a week and a half ago I snapped out of my pure hate for pregnancy and decided to change my attitude and start fresh. All of the sudden I started feeling great! Gotta love the 2nd trimester! Plus, my stomach finally popped so I look pregnant vs. fat now. Well, I probably look both pregnant and fat but at least I look pregnant and can use this as an excuse for the fatness. Anyway, with my new attitude I was ready to start the week off with a bang....eat healthy, get back into the exercise routine, love life, etc. I was finally excited about being pregnant! Then, that all changed.....

It was Monday morning, March 29th at about 6:00 a.m. I was at my parents house as I had an early morning meeting in Dallas. I was walking down the stairs. I didn't want to wake anyone up so I didn't turn on the lights. It was dark. When I made it to the bottom of the stairs my foot landed on one of Lola's toys wrong, my ankle twisted, I heard a pop, I went flying and I was down for the count. There I was whimpering in the dark on my own. The pain was excruciating! I was certain I broke my foot. The whole time all I could think was "I can't have a broken foot that would put me down on my rump for the next 8 weeks only to watch the weight pile on and not be able to do anything about it". I finally pulled myself together and went to the meeting in Dallas. Within a couple hours, I could barely walk. Then I couldn't walk at all. Luckily my client meeting was at Baylor medical so I was able to have a nurse check out my foot and get it iced down. To make a very long story short, my ankle was/is not broken (at least I don't think it is) but I have a wicked sprain (so I think). This diagnosis came straight from "Dr." Odom who seems to think he knows anything and everything about ankle injuries. I'm getting better but I'm still experiencing quite a bit of pain. My foot is still pretty swollen and black & blue but I can walk. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll be able to get back into an exercise routine and get excited about this pregnancy again! For now, I remain in pain and have to sit and watch the weight pile on...Yikes!

Good news. I bit the bullet and attended my 16 week doc appt last week. I didn't attend until I was 18 weeks pregnant but at least I attended. I had only gain 2 lbs since my last 12 week appointment. I really haven't been doing real well with exercise and I pretty much eat whatever I want so this was a HUGE shock to me. I confessed to my doc and told her I cancelled the appt 3 times and almost didn't come at all due to the fact that I didn't want to weigh. She looked at me like I was insane (to be expected) and said "You've only gained 4 lbs this entire pregnancy. That is great! Do you know how many woman would love to be in your position right now?".

Dr. Mushtaler was right but she was also wrong. I had to explain this to her. I told her "Yes, I realize since my 8 week appt, I've only gained 4 lbs (in 10 weeks). HOWEVER, at my 8 week appt, I discovered that I had gained 15 lbs since the last time I weighed which was around August/September. I told her this is unacceptable and it WILL be included in my overall pregnancy weight, therefore, I've really gained 19 lbs and that IS NOT great". She kind of looked at me like I was insane again but understood as she has two young girls herself and has been through the pregnancy weight gain blues. She said "Ok...we can work through this. You're doing great and we can still keep the weight under 30 lbs". She also told me the weight seems to come off easier with the second due to the fact that you have have no choice but to bounce back to chase around a toddler. She said she is back her high school weight right now. This all made me feel better as I had always heard the opposite. So, with that, I'm optimistic (other than the ankle sprain that has set me back on exercise for a couple weeks) and feel confident that I can not only keep my weight gain to a minimal but I can also quickly get the weight off. Surely....

In other news, this baby in the belly is very very very active. It's always great to feel the kicks as it makes you realize what this torture is all about. Of course, the amount activity this baby has being doing is a little much. Basically, there seems to be constant swirling around in the belly all day and all night long. Hopefully he'll get it all out now and be ready to sleep through the night starting at day 1 due to all the exhaustion from being so active in the belly. I have to say the kicking not only gets uncomfortable after a while but it also gets a little annoying. However, even though it can be annoying, I'm ok with it b/c it lets me know the baby is doing a-okay. Lola was not much of a mover and groover in the belly so I was always worried something is wrong. Not the case with this baby.

I must end this blog with a confession. I have to say I feel guilty about the things I said earlier this week in the blog about Lola and just the way I've felt in general lately due to all the fits and crying. I took Lo to the doc on Wednesday. It turns out she has a horrible ear infection which obviously could be causing the already terrible twos to be even more terrible and probably kicked those fits up a gear or three. I told the doctor that although I don't want Lola to be in pain, I'm so very relieved. He said "So I guess you're not going to trade her in now?" I said "Absolutely not!" After the doctor appt Clay said to me "I feel guilty b/c I feel like we've been mean to Lola." He continued on to say "We haven't been mean to her face but we have been mean in our hearts." I couldn't believe how perfectly he worded this. I felt the exact same way. I've been so angry with her lately and that just isn't right. She's just trying to figure out who she is and is working through some things right now. This is her only job as a 2 yr old. Getting angry with her only makes everything worse than it has to be. So, we've shifted our hearts back to the place where they should be and I've let the anger, anxiety and stress go. Now it seems she's doing much better and Clay & I are trying to be more patient to help work through some of the other issues. I guess this is what being a parent is all about.

P.S. - I did mention the leukemia thing to the doc and he looked at me like I was insane. Why am I getting this look so much lately???? Anyway, Dr. Mirrop really didn't know how to react to the question. It was pretty funny and I'm fairly certain it's a story he went home to tell his wife.

My nerves hurt!

Tia Molly, Tio Ben and Doss came in a few weekends ago for SXSW. This is Lola being sweet!

Then, she decided to take her goldfish crackers and dump them all over the stairs. This is Lola being bratty. Doss and Lola were scavenging for the fish. Soon Lady Bird and Bella would join them. Love the on-call vacuum cleaners.

My nerves are in deep deep pain lately. It's kind of gotten insane around here! Miss Lola has REALLY kicked it into HIGH gear now! What am I referring to? The toddler fits, the back talking, the hitting, etc. I think they call this stage the "terrible twos" but in our case it's considered the "TERRIBLE twos". Seriously, I can't put enough emphasis on the "terrible" part to even begin to make you understand what we've been going through over the past several weeks. It seems lately Lola's personality is split 80/20. Meaning she is whining, crying and mostly hysterically screaming 80% of the time and she is an adorable bundle of joy the other 20% of the time. Not even kidding. The worst part is the 20% doesn't come in one big block of time. It's usually sporadically spread out it between little fits. So, this means we're constantly walking on egg shells wondering what the next thing will be that will send Lo in a tailspin. My stomach is constantly full of knots lately. HOW LONG DOES THIS STAGE LAST???????????????????????

The fits....Well, at this point, I feel like I can barely function and I'm always on the verge of massive tears. Literally, I have a permanent migraine headache. The fits are really more than I can handle. The worst part is they can last up to an hour and a half. What are you suppose to do? They say to ignore it so we do. But when you're child is beet red while flailing on the ground and can barely breath, it's kind of hard to do the whole ignoring thing. Of course, when I try to console her, this results in a bunch of exorcist style NOs, kicking and more out of control screaming.

I'm beginning to think things aren't normal. All the books and everyone says it is but this seems really extreme to me. I understand Lola has a very strong personality so the fits may be a little more intense but I'm doubting everything right now. This morning when Lola woke up screaming something horrible crossed my mind....I once heard that when a toddler screams non-stop (80% of the time) this could be a sign of leukemia. Yea. It's so bad that stuff like this is crossing my mind. Crazy and scary. SO, I became one of those psycho moms and I made an appt with Dr. Mirrop for this afternoon. She also has a running nose, runny eyes and a cough so I'll use that as my main excuse for being there and then slip in the leukemia thing in the end so he doesn't think I'm a complete nut. I'm being serious though...something just ain't right with the little girl right now!

It's not just the hysterical fits. It's also the way she acts most of the time in public which translates into HORRIBLE! No need for us to try to go out to eat anymore as we'll be walking out embarrassed without any food. Or, this past weekend for example, we went to a birthday party which was outside where Lola could run around free and do whatever she wanted. Well, we ended up having to make a quick exit with Lola screaming in our arms. What started this fit? She was making a mess with a water jug. I asked her to stop and she wouldn't listen of course (she NEVER does) so I pulled her away. She flipped and that was the end! Pure embarrassment! Oh...have I mentioned that she also tells me to "Shut up" all the time and swats at me. Uh-huh...SERIOUSLY!!! Oh man...I can't even begin to tell you everything else that has come along with this stage.

I always said I never wanted one of those children who threw little fits in public. I've always referred to these kids in the past as "brats". Well now here we are....we have one of them. I tend to look back and put blame on myself. I think "Where did we go wrong here?" - "Have we failed at setting boundaries?". We've always done so good at trying not to be "helicopter" parents. We've tried to let Lola discover herself and things in this world on her own...let her be independent....is this the problem? Of course, Clay keeps saying this is completely normal and we didn't do anything wrong. At this point, I'm doubting everything. Surely it will get better soon.

With this, I thought it would be fitting to post a video of Lola with Doss. She tends to be a little rough with both baby Curry and Doss. With Curry she is soooo sweet . She always wants to rub her or give her a bottle or coddle her or hug her but she doesn't realize that she's a baby and she has to be very careful. She's the same way with Doss but luckily he's a little older and not as breakable. I know her roughness is not at all intentional but sometimes I feel like I'm watching Lennie with the rabbit (or was it a kitten) in Of Mice and Men. I'm really hoping she will get a better understanding of the word "gentle" before baby #2 gets here. Goodness gracious.

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