November

Between two trips to Southern California (one for a work-related conference and the other for my high school reunion), a hearing, Thanksgiving, a car that refuses to pass its smog test, a cold and an ear infection, lots of sleepless nights, and a very stressful brief, I am still recovering from the whirlwind that was November.

I imagine that my only remaining readers are people related to Lola.

Thus, I bring you Thanksgiving photos.



Lola refused to let me get a good photo of her cute Thanksgiving shirt. Rest assured you traditionalists, it reads, "Baby's First Thanksgiving."



Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of Italian turkey, jalapeno cornbread stuffing, cheesy garlic mashed potatoes, bacon green beans, and cranberry orange chutney. Oh yeah, and I made bread and a pumpkin cheesecake. Everything turned out great, except for the bread.

I swear that I must have pissed off a bread baker in a former life or something because I am absolutely incapable of making decent bread. I'm pretty sure my issue has to do with sensitive yeast (and my inability to add water at the correct temperature) because my yeast never bubbles. And yet, I always continue with the recipe in hope that the final product will rise. (It never does.) I'm sure at this point Ann Stice has already started an email to me with tips on how to fix my bread and so let me take a moment to give and advance THANK YOU because all the women in the Stice family (and Grandma Bergseid) make darn good bread.

Josh, the good guy that he is, was oblivious to our flat bread.



Later on, Lola decided to work on checking off another milestone. I'm not quite sure what it is about holidays, but Lola likes to accomplish milestones on them. Remember, how she started crawling on Halloween? Well, Thanksgiving was no different.



Over the last two weeks, Lola has pulled herself on just about anything that she can wrap her tiny baby fingers around. Her favorite objects are the couch and the kitchen chairs. On Thanksgiving, she upped the difficulty level and started pull herself up on walls and the sliding glass door.

The sliding glass door became an instant favorite because, to an almost ten month old, there are many exciting things that go on in our backyard: swaying trees, tweeting birds, and racing squirrels. Also, the dogs often congregate at the sliding glass door anxious to chase squirrels, bark at the neighboring dogs, and poop. And, you KNOW how much Lola loves the dogs. Unfortunately, they (and by this I mean, Archie) still do not love her. Lola, in her tenancious (and stubborn) nature, chose to hang out at the back door, knowing that Archie would eventually show up.



At that moment, Lola saw her chance to meet a new milestone. She let go of the door, turned and took a step toward Archie.



Then, she latched onto his back. He looked at me like he was going to throw up. I dropped the camera and grabbed her because, while Archie is pretty trustworthy, he's also barely tolerate of Lola and I didn't want to spend the rest of Thanksgiving in the ER.

So, there you have it. Lola took a step toward Arch. It was impressive. Well, at least, I was impressed.

Joyride

Halloween Photos

Finally, I know.

But first, a little background. Last year, the day after Halloween, when I was nearly seven months pregnant, I did some post-holiday shopping. Because you know, you get the best deals on Halloween costumes after Halloween.

And, while I knew we were having a baby girl, I also knew that I would dress her up as anything but a Disney princess.

From the moment I found this turtle costume, I knew I had struck gold.



Lola wasn't quite as sure.



But, once she realized, "Hey, I'm wearing a turtle shell,"

she started playing the part.

She slowly started to inch her way across the grass,

and, she even had a few moments of, "ooooohhh no, I might roll over and get stuck....!"

For the most part, I believe the turtle costume was a success.

However, our day would have been incomplete without a group photo of all of our costumed babies.

It took a little coaxing, and half a box of peanut butter dog treats, to get the three of them within a single frame.

This was the result of our efforts. True to form, Archie is anxiety-ridden, Lola is laughing, and Gizmo is waiting for the next treat.

Sadly, our photo session ended quickly, as Gizmo ran off into the grass to relieve herself and consequently peed all over her costume.

Happy Halloween. :)

Halloween (and books)

I found the cord.

:)

We were pretty low-key on Halloween. We got up early because someone in our family is an early riser (I'll give you one guess as to who that person is), and Lola spent the morning doing what she does every morning: reading her books.



I dressed her in Halloween outfit numero uno. (She had two Halloween outfits and this count did not include actual her costume.) She spent some more time reading her books, leisurely turning the pages.

Even though I know everyone is DYING to see L in her cute Halloween costume, I feel the need to talk about how happy it makes me to see Lola pour over her books each day. I mean, this kid can't even read, and she loves looking at the pictures, turning the pages, and listening to us make goofy sounds when we pretend to be "fluting like a flamingo" or "roaring like a lion."

Before she was born, I remember sitting on the couch with Josh and talking about all of our Lola hopes and dreams. One of those included the hope that she would love books. Josh and I LOVE books. We're the type of people that mark the date of the community book sale on our calendar MONTHS in advance. We go to our local library 3 to 4 times A WEEK. We even go to the neighboring library, knowing full well that we could just order a book through the inter-library system, but we choose to drive to the neighboring library anyway just because we LOVE libraries. I consider an hour in Borders alone with a cappuccino in hand to be a pure slice of heaven. Oh, and local independent bookstores? Don't even tell us where they are because the bookshelves in our home (as well as all the other random places in our home where the books live: under the bed, on top of the nightstand, the kitchen counter) are filled to capacity.

Yes, we are those people.

While it is certainly too early to know whether she will LOVE books as much as we do, I definitely think we are off to a good start.

Halloween postponed

I have photos of a cute baby in an adorable costume...but, I can't find the cord that connects the camera to the computer. ARGH.