Summer Sunday Morning

We're headed to a Christening this morning, so Lola is all dressed up in her Sunday best, ready to celebrate. Of course, she's getting her stroller-nap in first. And because we're headed to a Christening, she's wearing her super special diamond cross earnings from TiTi!

Mirror Images

I hear it all the time, at lease once a week: "She looks just like her Daddy!" And it's true--there is no doubt John is Lola's Daddy. Looking at her face, it's pretty obvious. And I love it. I just remembered I had one of John's baby pictures saved in my old Snapfish account. Look at this picture. It's like you're looking at Lola! Their faces are an exact match. 

St. Louis/Memorial Day Weekend/My 28th Birthday!

We headed down to St. Louis to visit the DiTore's this past weekend and we had a blast! It was so fun to hang out, catch up and see Clark & Lola together. Clark has changed so much since we saw him last (in October!) and he's ready to be a Big Bro for sure!

On Saturday morning (my 28th), we hit the St. Louis Zoo. This was Lola's first trip to a zoo and she seemed to enjoy seeing all the animals. We even got to go in a Penguin House, which was very cool and very welcomed on that hot day! After the Zoo, we lunched at Adrianna's on The Hill and is was sooooo tasty. Then for dinner, they threw me a lil Birthday BBQ, complete with brats, burgers and a yummy cake! After the kiddos went to bed, we relaxed and played Rock Band.

On Sunday, we visited The Magic House, their cool and huge children's museums. Lola enjoyed the mirrors in the tot section and loved playing at the water table. Shockingly, she didn't get soaked. We had awesome St. Louis BBQ (think pulled pork and brisket) for lunch at a place that was featured on the Food Network's Man vs. Food. And later that night, we walked a few blocks down the street for a sweet Italian treat-Gelato! We gave Lola a teenie tiny taste and she enjoyed it! We headed back north early Monday morning, but we packed alot of fun into two short days.

CLICK HERE to see all the pictures from the weekend. Here are just a few!

Clark watching over Lola.

A great family pic at the zoo.
Mommy & Lola checking out the Grizzly Bears.
The whole group (minus the photographer).
Lola's first carousel ride.
Playing Rock Band. Lindsay's dad and friends joined us.
At The Magic House, for her weigh-in.
Mirrors!
Getting creative with chalk.
Water table discovery.

Clark & his Mommy making music.
Seeing "eye to eye" on things.

New Lola Likes

Cottage Cheese & Toast. 

For lunch today, after her carrots, I gave Lola these two new tastes to try and she loved them! And off course she made some hilarious faces while she was consuming them. Those are the best! John and I really get a kick out of some of her expressions.

We're enjoying the adventures of finger foods and self-feeding. She's getting better and better at it each day. 

TiTi comes to town!

Lola's Aunt Renee (TiTi) came to town this past weekend. We all headed down to St. Louis to visit the DiTore's on Friday night, but before we left, Lola, Renee and I headed down to the park to enjoy the sunshine. And of course, so Ren could see how much Lola loves the swing.

God-Mommy & God-Baby

We let her crawl around in the grass. I couldn't resist this shot.

Peas Please

Lola tried whole peas for dinner tonight. She couldn't shovel them in her mouth fast enough! I hoped she'd like them but wouldn't have been shocked if she protested. She tried carrots last week and liked them for a few days, then refused for a few days and is now back to eating those. For now, she's a fan of the lil green guys.

This is how she shows Mommy she's finished. I've tried to teach her the sign for "all done" but I haven't been terribly consistent, so I understand her alternate way of showing me. I loved how her hand is blurry. My shutter speed is pretty fast and still, it's not fast enough for Lola! Things end up on the floor in this house rather quickly these days!

Our lil reader...

We've started to let Lola hang out in the family room a little more, outside of her playroom which has a gate. We have to keep a very close eye on her so we're always right there and don't leave her for a second. One of her favorite new things to do is look at books. She has a little basket of them in the family room--she loves to play with and "read" all the books in there. The ones she keeps in her playroom, she will hold in one hand while she crawls across the room. She'll also do that with her little roll-a-round balls and her lil penguin. I want to tell her, baby, let it go before you start to crawl, but it's just her thing. 

Popsicles!

Lola had her first taste of a popsicle yesterday and to say she loved it would be an understatement. She was in heaven! It was another beautiful day yesterday, so as soon as I got home from work, we headed down the street to play at Alissa & Ellyana's. Lola loved crawling around in their front yard. Ellyana was enjoying her own popsicle so of course Alissa offered one to Lola. In no time at all, she was licking away on her own. She ate the whole thing, and from the pictures, you could tell it wasn't a small one! She is cutting 4 teeth at the moment so I'm hoping it provided her with a little relief. Our normally perfectly sweet baby has been a tad on the fussy side, but can you blame her?! She was so sticky (even after 4 wipes) that I carried her home instead of putting her in the stroller and promptly started the bath as soon as we walked in the door.

Enjoy these pics. She's going to be doing this all summer long. Lucky gal.

Two peas in a pod. What a fun summer we're going to have together!

Yaba Daba Do!

As part of our 75th Anniversary celebration, St. George sponsored one of the annual Oak Park Avenue benches this year. I was in charge of facilitating this effort. A few months ago, Brittany and I went to the Village Hall to look over the artists design sketches and we thought The Flintstone's bench was the best. The theme for this year's benches is "Classic Television". So on our way to Mass this morning, we stopped by so I could snap some pics for the bulliten and blog. The coolest thing is that when the display is over in October, we get to keep the bench and it will be put on the school grounds. The students will love it!

Lola giving her new friend Pebbles some love!

Grass is cool.
And finally, Daddy is home at last from his two week business trip to Seattle! We missed him so much and having him back home is the absolute best. 

Dancing Baby

Lola loves to babble "ba ba ba ba" so awhile ago when she started that we would sing "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys to her because it kind of sounds like she's singing that. Well this morning, she decided to put a few moves to the song as well. 

More Jr. High Classics

The hits just keep on coming! Here's my 8th grade pic. Not bad..

...but this one. Oh my. Look at those bangs! I decided to play hair stylist one day and cut them WAY to short on my own. This is them some what grown out, so you can only imagine just how awful they were. The girl sitting next to me is a very old friend, Jessica Roche. She and I go way back to 2nd grade. I think we were gathered in the gym for one of our assemblies. Good ol' Grissom Jr. High. Home of the Patriots. Our cheerleading uniforms were red, white and blue. 

Old School

I hope you're all in the mood for a laugh. A friend of mine from junior high posted a bunch of old pictures on Facebook today and included one of yours truly. As you can tell, I really don't look much different from 7th grade, do I?! But the really funny part is the outfit. Come on! I know it was the early '90s, but still--on what Earth is a floral vest EVER a good idea?! I wish I could say this was the only one I had, but I distinctly remember rockin' several vests my 7th & 8th grade years!

Thank goodness for old photos. They really bring you back!

Lola & Alexis

Old Man Weather is winning again today. Darn him! We had planned to meet up with Lou Ann & Alexis at the Oak Forest Trails this morning, but the rain came earlier than the weather man said it would. Like my father says, I wish I could be wrong all the time like the weather man and still make all that money!

So instead, we settled on an indoor playdate, but still had just as much fun. Lola and Alexis are 6 months apart to the day and played great together this morning. We hadn't seen these ladies in a few months, so of course Alexis had changed a ton! She's up and walking with ease and is talking too. I think she has one of the sweetest voices I've ever heard. Makes me all the more excited for when Lola is actually talking rather than babbling "ba ba" and "da da". Yes, still, no "ma ma". I'm patiently waiting. :) And of course I am totally going to melt to mush when she does say it. 

All that playing wears you out!
I had to post this picture, I couldn't resist. But of course I told her Mommy & Daddy wouldn't tolerate such behavior! ;)
Ask her, "How big is Lola?" She'll show you. SO BIG!
Drool baby, drool. More teething has begun.