Another Day in Parradise: Lola

Showing posts with label Lola. Show all posts

Kindergarten Review and These Kids Got Game

Friends! Family! Whoever you are viewing my blog in Alaska, Germany, and Russia!

We made it! Month One of Kindergarten is in the books for TJ, and likewise for Lola in French Preschool. We have been inundated with requests for updates and questions about how the first days/weeks/months went for the bigs starting school, so I thought the best way to share without overwhelming ourselves with media requests would be to resurrect the ol' blog and start posting some videos. Because I need more things to do ;)

TJ is LOVING kindergarten. His teachers are fantastic and he thoroughly enjoys his classroom environment, he pops right out of bed everyday for his 6:15 wake up call excited to go to his school, and I have not heard one negative story about a classmate yet. When I pick him up everyday it's like walking through the classroom with the Mayor as "Bye TJ!" echoes from every corner, and T points, waves, high fives, and schmoozes his way to the door where Lola is always waiting for a giant hug.

TJ's class is half kindergartners, half first-graders - a unique concept, for sure, but one that we are very happy he has the opportunity to experience. The first-graders and kindergartners are together for activities and learning in the class more often than not, but are separated for subject study like reading, handwriting practice, and math. The first-graders show the kindergartners "the ropes" and it seems everyone gets along famously with more cohesion than separation.

TJ's teachers are absolutely incredible ladies and at the end of each week T brings home a "Weekly Review" where the kids vote and decide on one thing to share about each day in the week, and the class VIP for the day (the line leader) draws a picture of the activity to include in the Weekly Review.

At the end of each month the kids take the time to create an exhaustive list of allllllllll of the things they did and accomplished that month, and the teachers type up the list and send it home. The "September Celebration" or "Giant List of Stuff We Did in September" is what we have prepared in a video for your viewing pleasure today. The first 6 weeks of school revolve around a lot of "getting acclimated" and "getting to know you" activities. You may not understand exactly what the heck he's talking about or referencing in the video, but that's ok - this is the rendition of the most important things that took place during the first month of school according to the kids in the class.

Before you ask, yes TJ is reading! He's been a full-on reader for a little over 6 months now, and he's really enjoying it. He reads chapter books and LOVES bringing home a new book from the school library every week to read us at bedtime every night. The video here is about nine minutes long, so grab a snack, settle in, and without further adieu...TJP...

I make absolutely zero promises that we'll do this every month - but we'll try! I also make no promises I'll get around to updating the blog on a regular basis, but again - the intention is there and I'll do my best to find the time. I highly recommend you follow the blog if you would like to receive any updates I post!

I'll also leave you with these little video nuggets below. The first is what Lola was doing when you heard her yelling at doggies in the background of TJ's video. All I can say is thank Jeebus she was fully clothed...this time. The other video is a glimpse into Saturday mornings in our football-obsessed household. Gameday, baby!

Much Love from the Land of Littles!

Lola is 1! We Made It!

365 days? The days have gone by slowly, but the year has flown - know what I mean?

365 days ago we went from this:

...to this:

...in a matter of 3 hours!

The "Babies for Dummies" websites say not be be offended if your child doesn't smile at you the first few months of her/his life, but Ms. Lolo was having none of that...

...and she has been smiling ever since.

She's pretty much gotten the hang of handling her rambunctious very-soon-to-be 3-year-old brother too. She's learning more everyday when to smile and laugh, when to scream for help, and when to fight back against his antics. I think these two will be the best of friends someday.

And TJ is a fan of anyone who will let him make fart noises on their arm, so Lola is A-ok in his book.

Lola is not quite walking yet, but does pull herself up on anything and everything - including people, dogs and curtains. She's also become quite the adept cruiser along the living room furniture - any day now she will be toddling around the house and life will change just a little bit more.

She still enjoys her bottles (onto whole cow's milk now, and doing great), her baby food (she loves the vegetables!), and oatmeal in the morning and before bed - but with a mouth full of chompers (including 4 molars!), she eats food from our plates at mealtimes and has been downing Cheerios and other kid-diet-staple cereals for months now.

What's that? How's she sleeping? Well...in my humble opinion - like a champion! 10-12 hours a night straight through since she was 8 months old, and she's still taking 4-6 hours of naps everyday. I seriously won the sleepy kid lottery! Maybe that's why she's so happy all the time - she's well rested!

Happy Happy First Birthday to the most cheerful sweetheart of a baby in the universe, we made it a whole year!

Hey! Everybody! Meet Little Lady Lola!

Whelp, it's official, I had a baby.

Miss Lola Ann was born August 7, weighing in at a robust 8 lbs, 9 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. She has a head full of brown hair, and beautiful blue eyes, 10 fingers, 10 toes and quite a pair of lungs. She enjoys eating, sleeping, pooping and being worn in her carrier as mom shops or eats while trying not to drop food on her.

Smiley Little Lady, Two Days Old

What? What's that? You want to hear the story of the day she was born?

OK! And for those of you not in the know, you can read TJ's day-of-my-birth story here.

So it was a Monday like any other. My mom was in town and I had stayed home from work that day, as I was 41 weeks pregnant and no longer amused by schlepping, well, anywhere, but especially to work. We watched the Olympics that evening (what else), I read blogs (what else), peed a lot and did my best to ignore the aches and soreness in my abdominal area that had become routine over the past couple weeks.

Tom was working that night and as soon as I talked to him at 10 p.m. when he got off work and he told me he was going out for a drink with some of his co-workers, I just knew our late little bundle of joy would be arriving that night.

And I was right!

I went to bed around 12:30 a.m. and that's when I noticed the achey soreness in my abdominal region had started to come and go in a bit of a pattern. It didn't hurt enough to really bother me so I did my best to relax and rest until Tom got home.

Fast forward to 2 a.m., Tom got home and came to bed.

Me: "Don't get too comfortable."

Tommy: "Why?....Seriously?"

Me: "Yeah buddy, this is definitely happening." <I make large circular motion with my arm over my giant baby bump area>

Tommy: "I knew it! I knew if I went out it would happen today...and I was right!"

Me: "Yeah, I knew it too. Rest while you can, I haven't timed anything but these suckers are definitely getting closer together."

He didn't listen. Tom tried his best to lay down and relax for approximately 3 minutes, before he insisted I call the midwife, then go sit in the tubby, and he began his pacing.

So that's what I did. The midwife (her name is Faith and she's awesome) told me to stay home as long as I was comfortable and to shoot for having my contractions be 5 minutes apart for about an hour before coming in.

Thank Jeebus we didn't listen to her!

I sat in the tub for about 20 minutes, TJ "randomly" woke up (ahem Tom, loudest laugher ever), and my contractions got more intense and closer together. Tom had called his mom to share the news already, and it was at about this time that Tom's stepdad Ken texted and told us to "stop dicking around and get to the hospital."

Sound advice, Ken.

I got dressed, called the midwife to tell her we were on our way, we zipped up our hospital bag (which had been packed for like a month and a half), took one last picture with T as a family of three, and headed out the door.

Headed to the hospital - last photo as a family of three.

I proceeded to have three contractions on the walk to the car, then three more in the car, then three more during the 100 yard walk from the parking garage to the emergency room entrance.

Once in the ER I presented the requisite ID's, as well as my pre-registration paperwork to expedite our check-in (pat on the back, me), hopped in a wheelchair and headed to OB Triage. Once there I changed into my so-stylish hospital gown, got hooked up to some stuff, and was told I was dilated to 6 centimeters. Yeah buddy.

OB Triage

It was about this time that Tom figured out there was a set of numbers on the monitor I was hooked up to that told when I was having a contraction and how strong it was. This was a fun discovery for him. He then provided a running contraction commentary for me for the duration of our stay in OB Triage.

After we had been in OB Triage for about 30 minutes (it was now around 4:45 a.m.), I started to get a little testy, and really hot and sweaty because the contractions were very intense and fast at this point, and all I could do was lay on this stupid gurney waiting for the nurses to complete paperwork and get me admitted. One nurse made me lay on my side, and as soon as she left my curtain cell I literally spit hatred on her name during my next contraction and then figured out a way to stand up with all the stuff still attached to me. This backfired a bit when I discovered all I could do from there was move around like a caged animal in the approximately 2.1 cubic feet of space allowed by all of the wires and cords on my person.

Finally, FINALLY we were ready to move to our delivery room and it was at this point I was basically completely immobilized everytime I had a contraction and they were only about a minute and a half apart.

We got to our delivery room a little after 5 a.m. and Tom immediately started the shower for me as I clumsily tried to put my bathing suit on. All I wanted was to escape to the sweet sweet little sanctuary that had been so comforting when I delivered T. I didn't quite get there, though. Between the nurse putting more stupid monitors on my belly, my ineptness at changing, and the fact that (Whoopsie!) my water finally broke, I didn't actually make it to a real shower until the next day.

As soon as my water broke I told the nurse (between expletives) I needed to start pushing. She ran into the hallway to get my midwife and a team of others, and the real party started. I'll spare you the intimate details, and just skip to the part where a crying baby was placed in my jurisdiction, Tommy cut the cord and at 5:26 a.m., only two hours after we had left our house (thanks again Ken), our second little miracle came to be!

Lola

We took pictures, made phone calls, studied her little face and marveled at how fast it all went down. I, for one, was thanking the HEAVENS that it went so fast, as I opt for the natural childbirth method, I really don't know if I could have handled that intense of contractions for too much longer - it was seriously ridiculous. But, just like our first labor we came through it on the other side with a smile, and a healthy, seemingly content little baby! The rest of our hospital stay was uneventful. And BORING. But this time we came armed with reading material, and the Olympics was on, sooo.

Watching the Olympics, obv.

Tom needed to take a load off after the long night.

Fast forward to now, baby Lola is still a dream. She has assimilated very well into our little family unit so far, sleeps like 20 hours out of 24 and eats like a champion. I'm thinking she just may fulfill her daddy's wishes and become a competitive eater. Of course, he only wants that to keep the boys away, but judging by the way the child eats I would not be surprised if it came to fruition, and the only milkshakes brought to her yard are vanilla, chocolate or strawberry.

TJ is adjusting like a champion too. He came to the hospital to meet Lola that Tuesday afternoon and was more engrossed in pushing the red button on the side of my bed than he was with fawning over his new baby sister. Whatevs, he's 2. Since we brought her home there has been only one incidence of hugging too hard that basically gave me a heart attack, but other than that he's been gentle and loving, and even tries conversating with Lola.