Laughing with Lola

Lola keeps us laughing all the time these days. She is so funny and smart. The girl is constantly surprising us with what she knows or notices. It is hard to remember all the things I want to share when I actually get around to posting here, but I hope you enjoy the following quips as much as I enjoy her.

- Lola was walking around the house the other day yelling, "I'm the king of the castle!" at the top of her lungs. I don't know where she came up with that but she was so confident that I didn't have the heart to tell her she is only the princess.

- She has been really helpful and concerned with me having to prick my finger and take shots so often for diabetes. She always asks to help me with the alcohol wipes and I thank her for being such a great nurse. (She loves the smell of rubbing alcohol; I hope she gets over that.) A few days ago we were working outside and I said something about thinking my blood sugar was crashing. After a while, I came inside to check it and get our lunch ready. After a few minutes, Lola asked Randy where I was. He told her he didn't know. Then she said, "Oh, she's probably just checking her blood sugar."

- Lola's favorite nighttime show is Dancing With The Stars. She always makes one of us get up and dance with her and the other one had better be watching. Honestly, it is quite hard for us to enjoy the show ourselves. Last week, we were watching the results show and one of the exhibition dances when Maksim lifted Karina in the air and spun her around. Lola gasped and exclaimed, "They can't do that!" When I finally figured out why she was so upset, I reassured her that they were not being judged and that it was okay for them to do a lift in this dance. She didn't understand the concept of being judged and just shrugged her shoulders and gave me a look that I'm sure meant, "Mom, you are crazy. They aren't suposed to do lifts." How does a 3.5 year-old understand that lifts are illegal in this competition... especially when she spends more time dancing than watching?

-Lola and I were driving down the road when a weather forecast came on the radio. The forecaster said there was lightning all around us and it would continue to thunder and lightning all evening so be prepared for continued storms. We hadn't seen any lightning all day and the sunset was beautiful through the clouds around us. Lola said, "Mommy, I don't see any lightning anywhere." I told her I didn't either and she said, "But he tells us there is! That's so silly. Why would he say that?" I was surprised that she was listening so closely to the forecaster and that she was so frustrated with him.

- Randy was putting away a couple of loads of laundry (Bless that man!) and Lola said to him, "You don't have a lot of hands so it takes you a long time to put those clothes up." Randy replied, "Yeah." Then Lola said, "Spiders have lots of hands, they could do it really fast."

UFO Heard in The Village!

Yesterday, Lola and I were in the living room when an airplane flew overhead and was quite loud. Lola looked up at me and said, "What's that, an airplane?" I answered her in the affirmative. She cut her eyes to the side, looking at me with a sassy grin, and said in a tone that's hard to describe, "ooorrrrrr... it's a flying saucer!" Which she followed by throwing her head back and giggling. After I stopped laughing I said, "Oh, you think so, huh? Where did you learn about a flying saucer?" To which she replied, "You know Mom, it's on one of my shows." I live with a three-year-old comedienne.

Anatomy 101

Disclaimer: If you are sensitive to anatomy discussions, discontinue reading now. Mother, don't be horrified that I'm actually writing this on the world wide web. It's funny, and Randy keeps telling me I should write with more sarcasm and humor so that I can become some famous blogger who rolls in the advertising bucks. Keep dreaming, Randal, but just in case...

OK, to the point. Today I was putting on my bra when Lola walked in my room and started a nonstop rant that sounded like this and came with wide eyes. "What's that? I don't have one of those. It's for big, BIG boobies. I don't have big boobies. I have itty-bitty boobies. I have to get older to get big, BIG boobies. Mine are just little."

I assured her that if she ate her green beans, her boobies would grow to be as voluptuous as mine.

Cheese Fries & Friends

A couple of weeks ago, some of our very good friends came back to Oklahoma for a visit. Currently they call Colorado home. We took the opportunity to meet them and our other dear friends for cheese fries and more good food at Eskimo Joe's. These girls are Lola's first friends - Bailee held her the night she was born and some of her coolest clothes have come from Ella. Jaxson can thank Bailee for the special hug technique that Lola learned. And the boys... she's pretty smitten with them. Here's a look at how the Bradleys, Walters, Kofahls, and one Riley kid terrorized Joe.

Transformation

Recently I witnessed a transformation... Randy from doting father to proud, puffed-chest, spectator/father. Let me explain. Lola has been taking swim lessons. Actually, let me tell you the whole story.

Most of you know about Lola's social issue with strangers. Our bright, funny, performer daughter turns into a super shy, hands-stuffed-in-mouth toddler whenever forced to interact with strangers. However, if they show her no attention she's yelling for theirs. In addition, she is a very independent chick when it comes to playing. Trying to get her to follow direction is quite difficult, she wants to put her creative spin on everything. I wonder where she gets that? So knowing this, I enrolled Lola in the Mommy & Me swim class. I knew she would be way too advanced and was right at the end of the age limit for the class; but I really didn't think I could get her to participate if I weren't in the class with her.

Our first class proved to be way below Lola's skill level. The class was intended to get kids used to water - splashing, blowing bubbles, lying on their backs, etc. But Lola is a fish! She has no fear of the water and is a great swimmer (with floaties of course). The instructor recommended I send her to the next class; but as she noticed how Lola would freeze whenever she came around she began to understand my dilemma. Skip forward to the next class, Lola is taking off sans floaties with a noodle instead. The new instructor suggests moving Lola up, again I hesitate but Lola proves my point as she resists the new instructor. Class three and Daddy comes with, Lola recognizes the instructor from the last week and she does much better. The teacher suggests we stay for the next class which is more advanced. I slowly slink out of the water and Lola begins the class with resistance. It is hard to get her to cooperate, we even offer her ice cream to which she says no. Finally, after she gets out of the water again, we tell her that we are going home and she could swim more but she chose to leave the class. She decides to try again and to our amazement came out of her shell! I go to change clothes and when I return she is swimming at the other end of the pool. Randy explains that she was swimming so fast she was leaving the instructor and other kids behind. She's just playing, swimming in circles, waiting on them to catch up with her. He tells me about overhearing other parents talking about what a great swimmer Lola is and the teacher telling them that it is her first swim class and calling her a fish. We are both really proud of her.



But here's where the transformation takes place - her second "big kid" class. Lola takes a bit to warm up but finally decides to participate. The class swims to the rope and back and Lola doesn't realize that all of them are supposed to be swimming - usually the teacher only lets them swim one at a time. The teacher calls for Lola to jump in and swim. The other kids who are boys aged four and five are way ahead of her. Randy leans over and says, "Watch it, she's going to beat those kids." I say something like, "No way, Randy. She is starting so far behind them." To which he answers, "She'll be the first one to touch." I can literally hear the wind sucking into Randy's chest as I glance at him, arms crossed, chest out. He's trying so hard to not beam rays of pride. Trying so hard that in fact, he looks quite somber. It's hard to explain. I watch Lola as she laps the boys and reaches out in a Michael Phelps-like moment to touch first. She didn't even know she was racing, but in that moment I think Randy heard a symphony of Olympic medals clanking, anthems ringing, and the roar of pride residing in his chest. I look back over and he's still retaining composure. It was eerie.

These pics are from her third big-kid class.

Ouch!

Lola had an accident with an exercise ball. I think this is going to take a while to heal.

See photo.

She's a Foodie

On Friday, I served Lola her lunch. I'm ashamed to say that I gave her SpaghettiOs or Chef Boyardee (I can't recall which) Shapes & Meatballs. She picked at it for a few minutes and then asked for more meatballs. I obliged and gave her the rest of the meatballs and told her she should eat everything, pasta too. Lola sweetly gave her response, "But Mom, they're not very TASty!"

It makes me think about the time we went to Deep Fork Grill, a very nice upscale restaurant here in OKC. We ordered fries for Lola. Their fries come with a white truffle cream. The waiter was attentive to her age and brought a bottle of ketchup for her instead. We requested he bring the truffle cream because I wanted to taste it. At the time, Lola detested ketchup but she was scarfing the truffle cream. When the waiter came back around and noticed he remarked, "Gosh, that kid has great taste. Super expensive, the truffles are locked in the safe; but great taste."

That's my girl!

The Hair Wars Continue

A couple of days ago, Lola kept asking for Raffi all day. I persisted in telling her that Raffi was probably in her bed and she could go get him. Because she was too lazy to go look for herself, she continued to whine about it and because I was trying to be a good mommy and teach her some responsibility, I continued to stick to my line. For the past couple of weeks, she will state that she wants something but can't find it even before she has looked. She just wants me to be her slave, hence my tough stance. Honestly, she thinks I'm being so mean.

Fast forward to late afternoon. I was working on a big project involving time on the computer. Lola was bored and had decided to climb up beside me and comb my hair. As she was jerking the comb through my hair, I kept at my work trying to meet my self-imposed deadline. We were leaving for Stroud soon and I needed to finish the first round of my project, so I suffered through the hair-pulling and her constant repositioning of my head - much like she must endure from me. She went towards the kitchen and came back carrying something underneath her shirt. I thought it may be Raffi. She carries him like that sometimes and often puts him in her shirt as she is going to sleep at night. She climbed back up beside me. Wanting to prove my point that she was very capable of finding Raffi, I asked her what was in her shirt. She refused to answer and started grabbing the comb to go after my hair again. I noticed her being a bit sneaky and again I asked what was in her shirt. With no answer, I turned and faced her and forced her to show me what she was hiding. She pulled out the craft scissors that cousin Christina had bought her for her birthday. She was going to cut my hair!!! And she knew enough to be sneaky. I lectured her about not cutting hair, about only using scissors on paper that mommy approves and about not climbing on things. I had put the scissors in a plastic box, inside a basket, on top of a chest in the laundry room. I have no idea how she actually climbed up to get them or how she even knew where I had put them.

Disaster avoided this time. Battles won in the Hair Wars: Lola - 1, Mommy-1. Please pray for me. You have probably figured out by now that I really need it!