"Meet me in St. Louis" overload!

You would not BELIEVE how many times I've had to watch this movie since Lo got it for Christmas. And, you wouldn't believe how many fits we've received for those times when we said "No Lo. You can't watch Meet Me in St. Louis right now". Oh my goodness...it's beyond... Not only do we constantly either have to watch or get requests to watch this movie but Lola is CONSTANTLY in character. Not even kidding. I'll say "Lola, It's time to eat...come on" and she'll look at me like I'm crazy, squint her eyes and in a little high-pitched tone will say "I'm not Lola, I'm Miss Esther"... I say "Oh, ok. Well, Miss Esther...it's time to come eat". And, I'm typically "Miss Rose" (Esther's older sister). Unless I'm cooking of course, then I'm "Miss Katie". Oh, and the acts we have to put on in character. Just about every night, Clay has to play the guitar and we (Miss Esther & Miss Rose) have to dance and sing. I love the times when she requests Miss Rose (that would be me) to go upstairs and play the piano, like Rose does in one of the scenes (please note I'm forced to play Lo's little toddler piano so as you can imagine it's quite a site to see me crouched down playing this piano), and Lola will bend over my shoulders and sing and dances around to act out the scene verbatim....it's really crazy the things she remembers...every single detail!

I've always balked at those people out there who said "...their kids were born to be a performer" but now I take all that balking back b/c I truly believe this child is absolutely born to be a performer. Seriously, most of our evenings consist of us acting out scenes of something. It was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, then Annie and now Meet Me in St. Louis. I'm tempted to reintroduce Sound of Music to give us a little Meet Me In St. Louis break. Anyway, it's pretty much hilarious and very entertaining to say the least....especially her choices of movies...right?!?!?!? Most kids ask to watch Toy Story over and over or Shrek....nope not Lo...in fact she wants nothing to do with them....only Meet Me in St. Louis!

Oh goodness. With the constant performing comes a huge imagination of course! A while ago (actually prior to Gaines arrival) Lola created this imaginary sister named "Ally". Have NO CLUE where she gets this name or how she comes up with the things she says about Ally. Ally is 3 and she lives in Austin and her house is on South Lamar (she points it out every day on the way home from school), etc, etc, etc. But, everyday we hear some story about Ally. Most recently, yesterday when I asked Lo if she wanted spaghetti for dinner her response was "Oh. Ally loves spaghetti. She just went to a restaurant on South Congress to get some the other day". And, this statement is said with muchos enthusiasm....HUH? How does a almost 3 yr old come up with such a sophisticated statement like this about her imaginary sister????? You really wouldn't believe all the things she says about Ally. From what I can tell, she's a pretty neat gal. That Lo...she's something else!!!

Lo also loves to act out "scenes", if you will, from her days at school. So, for example, her music/sign language teacher's name is Ms Wendy. Well, over the holiday, she had my whole family (Clay, me, mom, dad, Adam & Brana) all sitting on the ground in a circle and she was acting the part of Ms Wendy. We all had names of kids from school....I was "Madison", Dad was "James", Adam was "Charlie", etc. She'll teach us a little something and you can tell some of the comments she makes are probably exact comments that came from Ms. Wendy's mouth (again verbetim). She told "Charlie" (Adam) that he was acting up and didn't get a stamp. Of course, everyone else would get an imaginary stamp from Lola...I mean Ms Wendy. This went on for a long time...like at least an hour if not more. We were rolling laughing. My dad made a comment that "...just 30 years ago we were having to do the same thing". Apparently, I too was filled with drama as a child...and still am I guess (not always intentional). My favorite is when Lo plays the role of Ms. Tori (dance teacher)...her requests can be interesting. I'm telling ya...this child is a riot!

On top of all this, Lo loves to sing. Her love for music drove us (Santa) to get Lo a guitar for Christmas. She loves it so far and it plays a key role in many of our "Meet Me in St. Louis" reenactments. That Gainesy...oh Gaines...poor thing....sometimes when we're acting and/or singing I look at him and I'm sure he's thinking "...these crazy people...get me back in the belly asap!" Everything Lo does is big and dramatic...of course with all the acting, singing, imaginating (new word) also comes with dramatic fits...fun fun fun! Anyway, thought I would attach this video of Lo singing the Star Spangled Banner so you can get a little feel of what our mornings, days, evenings and nights consist of.... This was from back in October so I must get new video of some of the new acts asap. Enjoy my friends!

Picture slideshow made with Smilebox

Man I love this little girl and all the drama that comes along with her (even the fits)! Don't you just love the "Nome of the free" line!?!?!? BTW...I'm pret-ty pumped about Lo's new fringed boots (Thanks to one of my fave shopping stops for the kiddos - Mini Boden - www.bodenusa.com) that I got her for Christmas. LOVE!!! You can only imagine how she prances around in these things and the extra drama they bring!