Saturday, November 20, 2010

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!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Bumble Bees and Halloween

Our Little Bumble Bee
We weren't going to do much for Halloween, we hadn't planned on doing anything, so we weren't planning on dressing her up. But we had tickets on the 30th to see BFF Katie at her performance in "42nd Street" at Arizona Broadway Theater. (Which was FANTASTIC) so thankfully, other Katie said she would watch Lola. Katie has a son just a couple of months younger than Lola, so we were happy to let Lola meet a new playmate.
See My Wings?
 They were going to a Trunk or Treat at their church, so that afternoon, we found a little bumble bee costume for Pants for $3.50! It wasn't a stellar costume, but at the last minute, it was great! She LOVED that costume, she knew it was something different, and she was pretty darn cute, biased as I may be! Gamma also bought Lola some Uggs, that she spotted and took a liking to. They are a size 6 and way too big, but she LOVES them.
The next morning, she brought me the bumble bee vest and the boots and ran around for a while in the bumble bee vest and Uggs and diaper.
Halloween night, we got dressed up and walked over to visit "Auntie" Marcia and "Uncle" Bo. That was a treat, Bo was dressed up for the trick or treaters as a very strange old lady. I wish we had gotten a picture because Lola just wasn't sure about that...nor was their dog, Daisy, who barked and barked at him!
Such a Big Girl!
We took another trip to Gamma and Honey's to see the Mayfield/Cruces football game. Since they are looking at moving to Phoenix, I thought this might be my last chance to see that game, so we went. I really miss that level of high school spirit! I read two esitmations regarding attendance...anywhere between 22k and 25k people were estimated to attend. That is amazing! And we were there. It was a good game--with the exception of the outcome!
What a Ham!
This is to say, "It wasn't me!"