7 Months and Travel!

I wouldn't say that month 7 has been uneventful, as my lack of news suggests. Quite the contrary, in fact. Lola has been quite the traveler this month. Right at the 7 month mark, we headed to Las Cruces to visit Gamma and Gampa because Gampa found himself in the ICU. We were hopful that Lola would be good medicine. Since he got out before we came back to Phoenix, we are assuming that she was!  We are very thankful for Auntie Sherri and her sweet girls, Kayla and Kenzie for helping out with Lola.  We discovered on this trip, to hope for a good diaper change BEFORE we get on a plane. As it is almost a given that one will happen on the plane if not before. And since I was by myself on the plane, it was quite a poopy comedy when we got off. Thank goodness for a roomy sink in the El Paso airport.  We're talking, out the diaper leg (we are switching back to Pampers when this box is empty!), out the onesie, down the leg of the tights and through the diaper cover. Fortunately, we had on lots of layers, or that would have been all over the plane! HA!  Live and learn!
We traveled to Waxahachie to Rodney's aunt's funeral. It was a very sad thing to have to do. Very nice to be able to go and be with family, though we didn't care for the circumstances. We were able to drive by the new Cowboy stadium, Texas stadium, our old house, and a short trip to Sam Moon's.  THAT was a treat! Got me a new purse and a new diaper bag. I could have spent longer in there, but it's not Rodney's thing, so we made it a short trip.
This past weekend was Wayland's homecoming. When I was in school, I LOVED homecoming! Getting all dressed up. It's sad to me that it isn't as big of a deal as it was when I was in school. So we got to see family and some old friends and see how much the campus has grown! WOW! Makes me want to go back to school!
Lola is growing and changing every day and it is such a joy to be able to be a part of her life. I was able to finally get her to laugh long enough to get some good video of it that is posted on the Shutterfly site. It's pretty funny and really makes my heart sing to hear it! She's a tough audience. Fortunately, there aren't video camera's on Rodney and I when we try to make her laugh!

Solid Food and Naps!

What a fun time the six month mark has been! We got the green light from the pediatrician to go ahead and start with the solid food, which we had been making for a few weeks already. We had a stash of green beans, sweet potatoes, peas, squash, carrots, bananas and pumpkin. So far, we have discovered that Lola does NOT like green beans. Rodney also had a bad experience with trying to feed her peas. She seems to be ok with sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas...and yesterday, I fed her some mango and she LOVED them.  It's fun when she actually likes the food! That means that we don't have as much cleaning up when it's over. I'm a little worried about this early dislike for green veggies, though.
She is really changing so much, becoming more and more animated and interactive every day. ...And chatty! She is giving Thomas a run for his money in the verbalization department. Can't wait until we understand what she is saying.

One of the great things about turning six months, the pediatrician said, is that naps will last longer, and it was like a light switch the next day. She is taking two naps a day at three hours each. This is new for her.  Prior to six months, Lola would only go down for 20-30 minutes at a time.
Lola and I have made plans to go see our family in Maryland next month with Gamma. We are super excited about that. Not only do we love to travel East, we love to travel East to see FAMILY. Gamma is flying here and then we are going to travel together, thank goodness, because I cannot imagine going all by myself with a (then 7th) month old even a straight flight. Can't wait!!

Last weekend I had two friends come to visit and to participate in the PF Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon. Now, I'm not what you would call an athlete, but when Tiffanie and Steve came last year, I was a little humbled by the people I saw crossing the finish line, so I decided to give it a try. I was a little late in beginning the training, but I did it.  Anyone following me on Facebook knows that I did this, but for anyone NOT on FB...I walk/ran a 1/2 marathon. And I did it well within my goal time. My goal was to finish in under 4 hours and I finished in 3 hours 45 minutes. Just past mile 13, Rodney and Lola were there cheering me on.  I felt great, except for a throbbing knee which has turned out to be bursitis. Ick. We are planning on making this an annual event.  We were done in time to head across the street to watch the second half of the Cowboy game. However, Rodney's car was towed (along with the whole parking lot) and our friend Robert (who I've known since 2nd grade!) was kind enough to run him to East Mesa to get the car back. THANKS ROBERT!  But that's ok, since it took the waitress 2 and a half hours to get us the food we ordered, so Rodney and Robert didn't have a long wait at all for their food! We were so ready to be home by the time we were done eating. 

Here I am waving to Rodney and Lola with the mile marker 13 behind me!

It's hard to believe that Lola has been in our home for 6+ months...growing and changing before our eyes. It doesn't seem like we could love her any more than we do, but every day, we love her a little more!

First Christmas and Blessings

What a busy week we have had! Gamma got here on Monday, Gampa got here on Wednesday, and Nana and Papa Jay got here last night. Lola's first Christmas Eve was very eventful! We found a new breakfast place so we all went and had a Christmas Eve Breakfast. Then Gampa and I went Christmas shopping while Rodney and Gamma held the fort down at home. Gampa got Lola the cutest little outfit that says "Team Grandpa." She will enjoy wearing that!
After Nana and Papa Jay got here, we headed to church. Lola was so sweet during church. She was fascinated by the lights, especially when all the lights were turned off and the candle light started. It was so lovely and it was wonderful to introduce our baby girl to this family tradition.
After church we came home and had some dinner. Now in our family, we have a tradition of opening our stockings on Christmas Eve.  This started years ago when my grandmother would do all of our stockings. We were allowed to open one stocking stuffer (or "stuffin' stocker" as my family calls it) on Christmas Eve. Well, my grandmother and mother were like little kids and pretty soon, that ONE present ended up being the whole stocking! And, thus, a tradition was started! (It's a good thing that the tradition of opening other people's gifts to see what they were, then wrapping them back up,  didn't stick! I think when Lola gets a little older, Gamma might be a bad influence!)

Of course we took lots of pictures of our favorite present under the tree.  She even unwrapped one of Gamma's presents. Course she enjoyed the paper much more than anything!  Which I hear will be the case for the next few years. I usually make breakfast on Christmas morning (an easy egg dish) and this year, I decided I'd make some pumpkin pancakes. I had a pumpkin bread mix that I converted to pancake mix. I made the first two and then the pancake master (aka, my dad) came in and kicked me out. I tried to put cranberies in the pancakes, but Mr. Pancake told me I was ruining them, so I got out voted and he took over! I discovered that pancakes and bacon are not prepared as quickly as eggs. When we were finished, Lola and Papa Jay had gone down for a nap! Nana gave us a beautiful "Baby's first Christmas" ornament. We love it! She also brought us a bunch of ornaments that she made when Rodney was growing up. I loved adding those to our tree!  After all our presents were opened, Lola played in the paper.  She was almost buried in it! Gamma got her an exer-saucer, which she seems to like. It will grow with her, and I think she will like being able to turn herself around--that is when her feet finally reach the ground in it!

We did our traditional ham dinner this year and Lola was jealous that she didn't get to have any of it! And of course, we ate way too much! I had forgotten to get rolls, so mom headed out to get some (and the milk I forgot to get) but nothing was open (which was really nice, I think!) so she ended up getting us a loaf of white bread for our dinner. So we had the whole spread...ham, dressing... full setting of china and silver and real napkins with my favorite glittery dragon fly napkin rings...and a loaf of white bread!

We sure missed having Hannah and Jake here (and Kristi and Bob!) This is the first year we've been in this house that they haven't been here with us on Christmas. They have a new baby too, a few months younger than Lola.  I'm so looking foward to Lola having a cousin close in age as it seems all of the people we know actually have lapped us in the children department, so all their children are much older than Lola. So, yay for baby Jaycee...Cousin Lola is looking forward to getting to know you and hopefully they can be together next Christmas!