Cool Weather and Decorations

The weather has finally turned cool in Phoenix. Anyone in a cool climate may be wearing shorts, but today I'm wearing a turtleneck shirt and light sweater. It's in the 60s or 70s.  What that means for Lola is a new coat! She has a favorite blanket that my friend Sherri made her when she was born. She likes that blanket so much, we had Sherri make us two little blankets in the same fabric that we can use for travel and to leave at the baby sitter's house. Anyway, we were at Costco and found these little Minky coats that were zebra on the outside and hot pink on the inside...just like her favorite blanket. So we got it for her. Even before the weather turned colder, she loved putting on this coat. Monday, it was cool enough that we put it on for warmth. The sitter said when she came in, she pranced all around the house like she was walking the runway.

I started looking at all that I have to do before our holiday party on December 4 and figured out that I had to put up my Christmas decorations this past weekend. On a non toddler year, it takes me a while. I figured this year would be crazy.  We had to figure out a way to elevate the tree so that she didn't take a header into it at some point...which, with those huge feet, happens a lot. The nice folks at Home Depot helped me figure out a way to do this pretty easily. I was pleased with the final outcome!  Anyway, for whatever reason, on Saturday, Lola went down for a pretty long power nap! I was able to get the tree up, attached to the tub we elevated it on, and get most of the lights on before she got up. When she stumbled into the living room, she did her classic, "Wooowww" and pointed at the tree.  I had one lit string not on the tree yet and she was fascinated. The bottom third of the tree is non-breakable, and the top 2/3 is all my fragile ornaments. She seems only to be drawn in by the balls.
Having the tree up  required rearranging our living room, but it's pretty Lola friendly.  I also found some musical flashing LED snowflake lights that play "Carol of the Bells" and are voice and motion activated. I hung them on the curtain rod in her room.  Dancer that she is, she thinks they are great. Both for dancing and for going to sleep.

In her swing...and big Uggs

the bear is musical, it scares Lola

Sunday is Lola's "Gotcha" day. It's pretty nice all the National Adoption Day reminders and tweets I get on Twitter, it's as if the whole country is celebrating with us. It's hard to believe a year has gone by since Lola officially became a Sherrard!