Change of tune

Lulu informed us yesterday that she is more into "ranch fashion" instead of "fancy dress up fashion."

Hilarious.

Shhh!

Part of growing up is learning hard lessons. Sometimes those lessons come in the form of learning to deal with disappointment and other times it might be one of the dreaded "learning your lesson" kind of moments. You know the ones, they always accompany a bad decision on your part that is further accentuated by those words coming out of a parental units mouth. But, again, these moments are part of growing up.

Neither of us were ready for her to grow up quite yet.

She arrived today, all sparkly and new. The tags that made her a collectible were intact. Lulu asked for them to be removed immediately. She wanted to snuggle her.

**thankfully we were able to find her on ebay for a reasonable price. thanks to everyone for scouring the web to find her, the sympathy emails, and the offers to send others our way.

Have You Seen Me?

Bear Bear 2004-2010

It is the end of an era. Bear bear has disappeared and after several days of searching (and I'm talking serious searching) she has been officially declared lost. I mean really. truly. not gonna find her. sweet mother where did she go. LOST. with a capital L.O.S.T. To say that my sweet Lulu is sad would be a gross misrepresentation of the level of heartache the poor bebe is feeling. The first day she was fine.. "don't worry mom, we will find her tomorrow." But, the next day she was a bit more panicked "mom, I've looked everywhere for her," and the first of many tears surfaced. Today she was inconsolable. Nothing could temper the tears and they have been flowing for most of the day. I think she assumed that since we have found her after being misplaced several times before, that this would be the same. Sadly, there is little hope of finding her.

It breaks my heart. Especially since she has faithfully carried her for years. There are only a few times during the day that she isn't without her. Last week she was asked to fill a sack with 5 things that represented her. She picked: ballet slippers, nail polish, a littlest pet shop, a picture of her family, and a picture of bear bear. We were going to actually put in bear bear, but she was uncomfortable with the possibility that she would have to leave the sack and all its contents in the classroom overnight. Instead we snapped a cute little Polaroid.

I thought I would look and maybe see if I could find a replacement, but evidently bear bear has been "retired" and is fetching quite a price on ebay. Damn.

**are you thinking "man.. didn't this exact same thing happen before?" you can read about it here. Sadly, I don't think we are going to be as lucky this time.

Our own little Knufflebunny

Lulu had a scare.

We went with friends to the arboretum last week and she took her bear bear along. We laughed, we played, we ran, we jumped, and we even threw a few pumpkins.

We left a little early to get her ready for the first of her two Halloween parties.

It wasn't until hours later that we realized- where was bear?

We looked in the car, the bag, the stroller, everywhere it might have been.

She SWORE she gave it to someone, but couldn't recall exactly which someone.


A frantic phone call to friends generated this response:
"No she didn't give it to me. But, when we were walking in Hayden (her daughter) said 'mom look, Lulu has a bear just like that one.'" I got the exact location and prayed it would be there the next day.

Lulu cried herself to sleep. Snuggling a paper cut out of the bear bear she made me days before.

We arose early the next day- armed with donuts, a promise we would "look everywhere we went yesterday" and a heartfelt prayer.

"No we haven't had anything turned in." said the lady at the information booth.

So we started to walk to the exact location bear was spotted the day before. I watched as she ran with high expectations, only to see her shoulders slump in defeat. Bear wasn't perched atop the pumpkin. It broke my heart to see her deflated with sadness.

But.. wait what was that? A small something sitting behind the pumpkins on the ground. Could it be? Could we be so lucky? Why yes, yes we could. Kissed with morning dew sat a much beloved bear.

Note to self- keep better track of bear.

Note to other parents- sure it is darling when your kid gets attached to some special little something and because it warms your heart so, you cultivate the love of this little object. But remember there might come a day when that little something gets lost and unless you had the foresight to purchase the EXACT SAME something you will have many lonely and sad moments. It's cute and all, but could, quite possibly, be the death of you.

Luluisms

She LOVED her first day of school, but refused to tell us anything.

In honor of her first week as a BIG Kindergartner, I thought I'd list some of my most recent favorite things about her.

1. She sings Don't Stop Believing at the TOP OF HER LUNGS. She prefers the Glee version.

2. She is trying to use "big" words. We have recently heard her say appropriate, interrupting, and awesome.




3. Here is an example of her using her "big words" . "Mom, please stop erupting me." Adam and I laughed.

4. She refuses to wear pants, so we had to get crafty. Wednesday is heretofore declared as "pant day". On said day she is required to wear pants. She tried to change it this week, especially when she realized it was the next day.

5. She has asked for the same lunch for the past 4 days: tuna fish sandwich, 3 oreo cookies, Horizon chocolate milk, carrot sticks, and raisins.

6. She looks adorable in her giant backpack.



7. She recently learned to do the monkey bars all by herself.

New Kid At School

Did I tell you?




This one is starting kindergarten tomorrow!

FIVE

We celebrated Lulu's birthday last week. I saw a darling party idea on this great website and decided that we were going to forgo a princess party and instead do something a little different. Although I paired it down a little, I really didn't change much. I owe this girl a huge thank you. She deserves all the credit. I just followed her lead and figured out how to do it on my budget. Everyone loved it and Lulu thought it was the coolest party ever. We played games in our tiny backyard to keep the kids entertained. We flew planes, bobbed for apples, played "pin the apple on the tree" and balanced apples on our heads. We kind of flew through the games, so the kids played a rousing game of duck, duck, goose and freeze tag to end the party. It was pretty awesome.



The bags contained caramel popcorn. We made apple lemonade and had "5" cookies. (The "5" hanging from the chandelier were actually from her actual birthday, but she insisted I leave them up for the party.) We also had a ridiculous number of green apples for all the kids to munch on. I was surprised, but they enjoyed the apples a lot more than the caramel popcorn- go figure?

Isn't this cake amazing? Everyone should have a Central Market in their town. I took a photo of what I wanted the cake to look like, and this is what they did. I was going to make it, but it was a huge relief when I discovered how cheap it was to just buy it instead.

These were the little take home gifts.

Inside each box was a package of apple jelly bellies, a caramel apple sucker (all the way from Boise, ID. Kaycee rocks!!), apple laffy taffy's, an apple air head, and a little wooden apple. Inside the apple we added a little note saying "thank you for coming. love. lulu" We also gave the kids an airplane to take home.

Five for Friday

According to some friends (you know who you are), my posts are a little long winded. I really tried to keep it short, but I have failed. So, for those of you with a short attention span here are the cliff notes.

1. BLATANT plagiarism
2. Catcher in the Rye
3. Tate lecture
4. Lulu's birthday
5. We have lost our prized stuffed animal.

If you are interested in any of the topics, please continue below.





1. You HAVE to read this. Its almost too shocking to even mention, but I have been laughing about it quite a bit today. I would be soo embarrassed.

2. Catcher in the Rye.. CHECK. I'll admit, after posting about my utter disdain for the book, I actually quite enjoyed the last 50 pages. I still think it speaks more to teenagers or people working with teenagers, but in the end I can see it has some redeeming qualities. (I was shocked by how it ended.)




3. We attended our last Tate Lecture Series. After seeing Azar Nafisi and Tony Blair last year, and the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art this year, I didn't think it could get any better. Enter: Her Excellency Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the President of Liberia. Not only is she the President of Liberia, but she is the first female Head of State in Africa. Prior to the lecture we were able to view a documentary made during her first year in office (it was made by a Liberian journalist). It was nice to have a little background going into the lecture. Our seats were immediately next to the section coordined off for the "Members of Liberian Community". This made for an interesting viewing experience, because they were very vocal about certain areas in the movie and weren't afraid to express their opinion. It was rather refreshing. The lecture was AMAZING. I would highly recommend reading about her. She truly is an inspiration.

4. We are getting ready for Lulu's birthday celebration. I cannot believe my baby is going to be 5. I'm completely stealing THIS party idea. My amazing girlfriend made invitation for the party and I found little wooden apples for the kids to take home. (They are actually hollow so you can put trinkets inside the apple.) We are just going to play low key games and maybe do a little apple bobbing. We will see how it all pans out.



5. Lulu has misplaced her bear. It has been missing since Easter Sunday. She took it to our Easter dinner at Ms. Carrie's house, but we haven't seen it since. The other day she said

Lulu: "Mom I've got the best idea. Why don't we go back to Ms. Carrie's house and have another Easter dinner and then I will remember exactly where bear-bear."
Me: "Wait, so what you are saying is we should do the whole thing all over again and you think it will help you remember where you put him?"
Lulu: "Yes. That is exactly what I'm saying" (while she gives me the thumbs up sign).

She cracks me up.

Kids These Days

The other day we were driving to the BYU vs. TCU football game (I don't want to EVEN talk about it) and we overheard this little conversation:


Lulu: "Don't worry Teddy Bear it will just take a second."
(sucking sound and Teddy is laughing)
Mom: "Lulu what are you doing?"
Lulu: "Taking out Teddy's gallbladder" (although it was more like gallblodder).

You can only imagine our response- complete and hysterical LAUGHTER. However, she did need a little instruction on proper anatomy. She was actually removing it from his hand. Don't worry, her father QUICKLY corrected her and she now knows how to properly remove a gallbladder. Ahhh- the child of a surgeon.

Adam was of course thrilled. Me, not so much. I think she would make a fantastic VET, as evidenced in the above photo.

Budding Artists

I thought it would be fun to have Lulu do a little painting this week. Her little friend came over and they were each given a canvas and paints. Originally we collected leaves and other "fall items" to paint with, but in the end the girls decided to freely paint. You can tell their paintings had several different looks.










I realize the pictures don't do them justice. I thought they did a great job and seemed to have fun doing it.

5 for Friday.. All Lulu

1. Lulu had the much dreaded dental appointment this week, and everything went well. She was a trooper and was very brave.

2. On the way home from the dentist she kept poking her lips and saying.. mommy my teeth feel funny. She was hysterical!

3. Because one of her cavities was quite large they had to cap her tooth. She is very proud of it and calls it her "special tooth". I've heard her say repeatedly "hey, do you want to see my very special tooth? It is GOLD"(although it is really silver).

4. On Wednesday we went to see Kung Fu Panda and so we stopped at the grocery for some treats. I was in the check out line and did something, which I cannot remember, but Lulu asked me about it and I mentioned it was an accident. She said to me "see mom- accidents happen. Like when I accidentally peed on the floor- it was an accident and we don't need to get mad about it, because it was just an accident." What can I say.. I'm always learning from my baby girl.

5. Lulu did this hysterical Kung Fu Fighting dance the whole way into the theater. She would shake her booty and do Kung Fu hand motions. The people at the mall got a real kick out of her.

1,2,3,4 tell me that you love me more

I thought it was funny Amy did a similar title a couple of days ago. I have actually been singing this song for days and wanted to title a post after this little ditty. Except I actually have 6.

1. A fairy has been to our house. In an effort to make my daughter's childhood magical we have installed our very own fairy door. The always genius Stephanie has her own little Etsy store where she sells her beautiful fairy creations. I actually bought it months ago, but was slow to get the baby installed. We sprinkled fairy dust and told Lulu someone was at the door for her. When she went to see what all the fuss was about she saw the fairy dust and followed the trail. She was excited and confused at the same time. We talked about what kind of fairy is living at our house. I think it is a "cleaning fairy" that will reward Lulu if she keeps her room tidy, but she thinks it is a "dancing fairy". I guess time will tell.

2. I went caucusing the other night. I'm sure that isn't the correct terminology, or rather the correct use of the word, but y'all know what I mean. It was fun and totally annoying at the same time. Evidently Texas is a little behind the times when it comes to running caucuses. I was one of the fortunate voters that had a small precinct, so the turnout wasn't super huge (unlike my poor friend Kathryn), but the whole process took a little over 2 hours. It was sooo cool. Although I'm a political freak I have never had the chance to attend a caucus.

3. After my little experience on Tuesday night I realized that although I claim to be a political freak I am actually a shameful wannabe. It was very humbling for me when I realized that I am pretty lazy and I have lost the vast amount of knowledge I once possessed regarding the political arena. It is rather appalling to me and must be remedied. I think I'll blame pregnancy, however I know it has more to do with Law and Order re-runs. I am turning over a new leaf and pulling out my old political science texts. I vow to know what a super delegate is and why they are important.

4. I think I have completely sent my father into a tail spin. I spoke with him tonight and he just kept saying.. "I had no idea you voted Democrat. I mean- I know you worked for D'Arcy and Frank Pignanelli, but I just assumed it was because you liked them, not necessarily their politics." No Dad it is true (although I do think several friends would say I'm really a Republican), when I looked at the issues I was much closer to Hillary and Barak. I'm sure he is still a bit shell shocked, but he'll get over it.

5. I joined a gym. I can't walk tonight, but I feel great after working out. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum (I guess I should give full disclosure that it was my first visit to the gym).

6. I saw Tony tonight. Yep, Tony Blair. He was dreamy. I now understand my girlfriend's inappropriate love affair with him. Really D.R.E.A.M.Y. I'm not exaggerating. The thing that sold me on him- he is funny. I mean.. really FUNNY. He had several entertaining and hysterical stories that cracked me up. He also touched on so many ideas and beliefs that were fascinating and insightful. When asked how he would solve child poverty he spoke about the importance of families. He said that although the idea of a loving family or a loving home is one of those ideas that is quickly mocked it is actually an important part to solving poverty. My take was that he understand that in order to fix a problem you have to find the root cause. He also spoke about terrorism, freedom, kissing the queen's hand, and an unfortunate comment he made to the French President.

He was inspiring.

Ramblings

I guess I've become somewhat of a reluctant blogger. I have been rather busy the last few weeks though.

We had a fabulous Easter, but it was so cold Lulu had to wear an altered version of her Easter Dress. I would show you a picture, but we have somehow lost our camera. We wanted Lulu to have a small amount of candy, so instead of candy we got her a couple of other fun items: a new dress for her cabbage patch doll (it is actually my cabbage patch doll from when I was a child), a pez dispenser, two wind up toys, a couple little pets, and a chocolate Easter bunny. She loved everything and really enjoyed dying eggs. We weren't able to incorporate any of the Easter traditions from the book, but luckily they talked a lot about Jesus at school so we were able to talk about what the angel told Mary at the tomb. She also learned this new song:
(waving her palm leaf singing)

Hosanna, Hosanna hear the children sing,
Hosanna, Hosanna to Jesus Christ the King

You will also ask her what the angel said and she will say:

"Jesus is Not Here.
Jesus is Alive."

I love her school and love that it is Presbyterian. I know that sounds weird, but I feel like she gets a really great education with a religious twist.

She loved the Easter program and kept asking me where Jesus was- she wanted to see him. It was so tender.

We went and drove through the Bluebonnets. You can see a history here. It was FREEZING so we were all bundled up. Lulu was a little under the weather so she wasn't fully cooperating. Again- no photos.

The weather finally warmed up and we have had several park outings and enjoyed not being cooped up anymore. My mom flew in for an extended stay this past week. I've enjoyed having her around. We went down to see the Bluebonnets again. Luckily my mom had her camera!






I'm getting bigger and bigger. A little shocking to me, because it has been different from Lulu. I did the dumb triple screen test and of course it came back abnormal, so it has been a little crazy the past few days. I'm sure everything will be okay and whatever happens- happens, but I'm such a stress case I've now added another thing to worry about for the next 6 months, when there might not be anything to worry about. Really-I should have NEVER agreed. Kicking myself now. I go for a high level ultrasound on Tuesday and I'm hoping we will know more. I'm nervous, but know everything will be alright.

I'm also getting my plans finalized for my trip to Rome. I'm joining my best friend for a week of relaxing. I was going to be in SLC watching her kids for two weeks while she went to Africa on a Humanitarian Mission with this side trip to Italy, but now I'll watch them for a week, leave Lulu in SLC and head out to meet her. Really- I know what you are thinking... I have literally the best husband in the world. India and now this. He has been so supportive and really encouraged me to go. I will be almost 7 months pregnant, but I'm excited to have the time with her seeing such an AMAZING place. I guess I better find my camera.