There are no words....

Below is Lola's Fall 2010 school picture.

For this, my friends, there are no words...nothing, zilch, nada...I'm flat out speechless! I mean aren't you speechless too?????

When I dropped Lo off at school yesterday morning, I was thrilled to see a sign posted noting "Picture Pick-Up October 18th from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m." As you know, I always look forward to the school pictures as they never seem to let me down on the "how goofy can we get" front. This round of pics definitely kept to the same theme. When I picked up the pictures, I went to Lola's classroom to show her. They were playing outside and her eyes immediately lit up and I could tell she loved them! I was hoping that the flashing of the pictures would get her to skidaddle out of school faster as Gaines was on the verge of a complete hunger melt down...not so much...she proceeded to take the pics all around that school showing them to all "her friends". I mean she went to every class and would flash them up for all the kids to see. Strangely, all the kids would gather to look at the show Lola was putting on...they mostly just stared at the pictures...for several minutes....then some would say they liked them with great excitement...some without excitement...and even one said he didn't like them (obviously he's in his terrible twos). She would then say "Mommy, I want to show them the other ones" and she would once again hold them up for all "her friends" to see the second sheet of pictures. It was really cute! She was obviously VERY proud of these pictures. So, when Clay got home I hesitated to show him the pictures while Lola was still awake but I couldn't wait. Plus, I wanted to see the pure happiness on Lo's face again when showing her father. I had to preface "Lola loves these pictures" trying to give him a HUGE hint not to freak out over them in front of her. He managed not to freak but definitely didn't show much excitement over them...he actually couldn't even fake it this time. Just because I have no words doesn't mean Clay doesn't have something to say about this picture....

Now that Lola has quickly grown into a little toddler she has learned to think on her own more than ever and she has developed strong opinions about what she likes and wants to do. For example, she loves dancing and has now started dance classes which is a complete riot (more on this in a future blog). Clay was initially concerned about the dance classes as he wanted to make sure it was all in fun and not too "serious". His main concern is that Lola is a little girl and he wants to keep her that way. He doesn't want her to grow up too fast or be forced to do so. With this, he wants to make sure all the activities she participates in are for a little girl and not for a teenager for example. He's the same way about the things she wants to play with or how she dresses or even how she wants to dress up during play time. If she wants to dress up like a fairy... well that's fine as it's a little girl's fantasy to be a fairy and involves using her imagination. HOWEVER, if she wants to dress up like a cheerleader (or if she's dressed up like a cheerleader as she was by this photography studio) then that's no good to him as he feels it's taking the little girl out of her and trying to make her into a teenager.

Ok...I get it! I get what he's saying and agree to some extent. But, I think this picture is harmless and is more humorous than anything else. Clay, on the other hand, is highly offended that 1) The photo studio even did this at all as he feels it's completely inappropriate for a 2 1/2 year old and 2) If they were going to dress her up, he feels they should have asked our permission. Again, I get what he's saying but it's a one time thing and really I don't feel it's worth getting all bent out of shape about. I think this is DEFINITELY a father/daughter thing so I also find sweetness in it. BUT, gosh....we're dealing with a 2 1/2 year old here...can you imagine what it will be like at age 10 when she gets into things like High School Musical or whatever the equivalent will be by then (DREAD IT!) or age 12 OR 16 for goodness sake. I'm thinking we have a long battle in front of us with this whole deal. Although I get a bit irritated at times when Clay gets so serious about things like this that seem to be harmless and kind of fun (or funny), I do understand and love that he's so compassionate about Lola and keeping her true to who she is...a little girl.

So, Gainesy is clearly going through a growth spurt allowing me to type two blogs in one week. Woohoo! He's eating non-stop (4 oz every hour to two hours) but also sleeping. This is a first!!! He's actually eating so much that I decided to call the doctor to make sure it's normal. I mean he has literally gone from newborn clothes straight to 3-6 month clothes in a matter of a week and a half. Not even kidding! We completely skipped the 0-3 month size. Craziness!!! The doc seems to think it's fine for now as he's clearly not overweight and is probably just trying to catch up. However, she did note 40 oz a day may be a little much for an 11 week old....you think?!?!?!?! We have a doc appt on Thursday so I'll be interested to see how he's moved up on the growth scale. I would be willing to bet he's now sitting in the 50 - 75th percentile. More to come on our growing little nugget...