Dear Lola,

I’m not sure how we got here and I have had more computer problems than one should have in a year to keep me from blogging at appropriate milestones….  but daddy lou is working hard on getting that fixed for this cranky “I hate computers” mama!

On top of all my other “space is full”
problems- you then dropped my computer and it broke. Yup-it’s donzo and I’m only hoping your daddy can save the hard drive to get all your pictures off of there- or i may just die.

Anyway baby girl, this is all paled in comparison to the fact that I’m losing my mind at the fact that Im planning your birthday party which is a short 3 weeks away…. Oh dear.

I remember just the other day coming home from the hospital with you, bringing you up to my bed and laying there feeling like it was the first day of my life.

In a way it was, you opened up a part of life that had never been opened before and we get to experience all of life fully from that point on, with you now and with brand new eyes…. It’s the most beautiful life we have ever seen.

You have learned and changed SO much since my last “dear Lola”(thanks to my computer problems- ok rant ending!) so here is the re-cap .

You are 11 months and on the move!!

Your biggest milestone happened at about 10 in a half months when you started taking your first steps and you get so excited when you do it!

I was sitting on the couch and you walked holding on to the couch towards me and let go for a step.. I screamed to your daddy to come look! he grabbed the camera and I stood you against the ottoman and you walked to me instantly!

We were both so glad we had the day off to be home with you and watch this HUGE milestone! Here’s the video below…  like i said early morning and on our day off- don’t judge me.. I’m aware i look a hot mess!   

 

Other fun new things your doing include:

You have started repeating things that i say like “bye” when i hang up the phone and you repeated “i love you” the other day when i said it before telling you bye for work!

You also ALWAYS pay attention to daddy and I’s body language… you love seeing us hug and kiss which of course makes us want to do it more and more except it’s always overly kid friendly “OHHH can i have a hug daddy? Oh thats so nice, what a nice hug- oh and a kiss too, oh thank you daddy!”

Even tonight we sat on the floor in each others laps watching you play and you couldn’t stand it, you came crawling over to us to get right in the middle!

At ten months you BLOSSOMED in what seemed like one day! Christmas day  you were no longer interested in nursing and weaned yourself almost completely except for our mornings… All of a sudden you were way too busy to sit still and even being interested in your baby food, milk and sippy decreased, you wanted food.

Big girl food!

Your daddy is still a mess watching you eat but mommy is pushing through to make sure your a good eater and try all types of foods!

Your favorite food to snack on is cheetohs! Ok so they aren’t really cheetohs but they are similar… we probably give you more than we should because they are easily dissolved and easy for you to hold with minimal mess! A win for everyone! 

Our favorite time with you is probably when you are your “craziest” which is the 20 minutes we spend in your room before putting you to bed…. You get so tired as we walk up to your room and then slowly get all wound up when we start putting your pajamas on. You love getting nakes and usually take off making circles around the ottoman!

 

Here’s what you love and hate right now:

Loves:

Big girl food that you can eat with your hands!

Anything that we are doing- you are always in our business!

Being carried on mommys hip!

Waving at people when we go to the grocery and head nodding!

You clap now with one fist and one open hand and this is also how you say “more” when your eatting.

You love walking to us and getting excited with us when you make it to us!

You love laying in bed with us in the morning and you have to get out of bed with me or you pitch a fit- i even have to carry you with me to the bathroom in the morning or you cry instantly when i set you down!

You love other babies and new people at restaurants!

You love sharing your food with Milly and pouncing on Tucker!

You love going outside in your wagon or checking the mail!

You love climbing on furniture and riding around in your car at home

You love mickey mouse, sophia the first, Jake,  Peppa and especially the music to all of these!

You hate:

Riding in the car lately, I have to have lots of snacks, books and sit in the back with you whenever possible- even then it’s still pretty stressful!

Being still for a diaper change!

Not getting something you want!

When we eat in front of you and your not eating!

At this point mommy is hoping and praying the hard drive in my old computer isn’t ruined when you helped it take a dive off the end table.. All of your pictures from 9 months old and younger are on there!

If he gets it fixed i will have to come back and insert some pictures from these milestones but the big ones for  9 months and 10 months were obviously you walking (at 10 months) and you lip smaking!

A 9 months you became really talkative! You also started giving hugs which we obviously love and you lean in for kisses!

For some reason the only thing you actually give kisses too is your baby dolls! 

You went through a stage of smacking your lips and it was hilarious!

You started to love waiving at everyone when we go to the store or to dinner, even out the window when we’re at home..

You love to clap now with one hand in a fist and one hand open- this is also how you sign more!

Then you started “head banging/ nodding” and your still doing it! Typically once you learn how to do something you get a bit obsessed with it and do it again and again for a month or so until you learn something else new and then you completely move on to that…

I’m not sure if head banging is going anywhere because it has probably been the longest “thing” that you do!

Either way we love watching you learn, change and grow and it’s so HARD to believe you are about to turn ONE!

It breaks my heart but it fills my heart at the same time!

Mommy and daddy love you baby girl!

Happy 11 months!

Lola’s First Christmas 2014

Finally, Lola’s Christmas blog and an official-

“ Merry Christmas from The Minnicks crew!”

Alex and I were so thankful for our biggest Christmas present of all this year a side from Lola- getting two weeks off to spend at home with her!

Unfortunately this also meant telling Mrs. Charisa good bye… her due date for her little boy is Jan. 7th and our new nanny starts when we go back to work Jan. 5th. It was honestly one of the hardest things i have had to do since Lola was born… the first hardest thing was leaving her with Charisa at 3 months and 7 short months later it’s telling her good bye…. crazy right!?

Lola and Charisa made this for me on their last day together and i will forever cherish it!

I could not have asked for a better nanny and care taker for Lola while she was a baby, Charisa was so patient with her, so respectful of me and so cautious with every single detail to how much and when she ate, slept and finding the tiniest things on the floor that needed to be picked up for fear Lola would put it in her mouth! Sometimes I felt i needed to live up to her standard because she was SO good with Lola!

Because of her I was able to do the two things i had always dreamed of doing since i was a little girl… I wanted to be a counselor and I wanted to be a mommy….

Charisa essentially gave me both… I had FULLY planned to quit in a heartbeat if things hadn’t gone smoothly! They couldn’t have gone smoother…..we will NEVER forget her and I love being able to tell Lola stories about her and Charisa's time together… it was the sweetest!

We can’t wait to meet little Ethan and hooray for Christmas break!!

Between all the chaos of Christmas shopping, running around and re-modeling our entire downstairs essentially, Lou and I decided to have our own baby sitter free date night at home! 

We are super addicted to these home made pizzas and it’s a super easy date night go-to for us now!

  We spent a couple days at home tying up loose ends before heading south for Christmas!  We didn’t even leave and get on the road until about 9:20 at night and this little girl was no help… we skipped our afternoon nap to finish up errands and she could not have been more “excited” about going home!  I had nothing packed, she was ALL over the place, I was sorting through presents that come home and presents that stay here  and Lola was climbing the stairs, tearing up the pantry and broke a ceramic platter on the floor inches away from her foot.

We hit the road and Lola passed out!

The next morning we were back at it in full Christmas chaos!    Thank God for help when we go home- she is a handful!

The festivities were in full affect the next morning- Merry Christmas Eve with homemade ravioli just like mommom made it and we had our doctor performing surgery on these things~!

There was baking to be done and craft to be made but some littel girl went MIA along with her daddy…..

 

They came back like this…. good thing they clean up nicely!  We stamped the girls feet stealing Mrs. Charisas Mistle toe idea and headed to Hilton Head for Bob and Jane’s Christmas Eve party!

Lola was so excited to see all the pretty colors… AKA things to get into! I remember years ago thinking “God help me when i have to bring a baby to this house”- don’t touch that, don’t touch that, don’t touch that!

Thankfully Lola was quickly taken from me and swooped up by everyone else!

Jammy and I decided to hurry up and do present before most of the other guest arrived since we were all on Lolas time and wouldn’t be staying as long as we usually do on Christmas Eve….

Lucky little  Lola scored a million dollars this year!  I think we took about ten pictures of these three and this was our best one….  

Then my second round of baby sitter arrived! Lolas cousins- Julian and Avery!   Lola turned the party into a pajama party and at this point we were all pretty jealous!

Speaking of jealous… Andrew loves to steal our Daddy Lou!   At Jammy request.. all her grandbabies!

We headed home to put Lola to bed and wrap more presents… this was our first time playing “santa”!

  Well…. at least i played Santa…. I lost the boys along the way, somewhere around 2 am!

The next morning Lola was pretty much clueless to the  mounds of toys set out for her! Even her unwrapped car I put her next to she didn’t even look twice at!

Stimulus overload much!   The girl knows what she wants these days…. her mama! I can’t lie and say I mind,  THANK YOU JESUS!

All I have to say is THANK YUOU LORD for Billy and Angela… they got Tucker and Milly 3 new babies this year and if there was ever a year to go overboard for them, this was it!

Naturally I forgot and left their presents at home in Atlanta.. mom of the year i know!

I told Billy he had to let me pretend i got the new babies for them or Mildred would use it against me for years and years!  

Merry Christmas all, Love Lola!

Christmas is so magical and with Tuck it’s always so sweet, he typically stays out of the way but he always knows when it’s Christmas- he is right on top of Alex and I and sweet and lovey all day!

Lola loved he rnew chair from Aunt Taytay, she prefers standing on it over sitting in it so when i sat her in it she did this with her foot, every time. Not sure why but to each their own!  Then I marched everyone outside with a bribe- pics with Lola!!  Ah hem. priorities people… Milly had to test out the lighting.  Then Lou and I decided to start making some money off of our child- $5 for a picture with Lola ;)   

Want to know our behind the scenes magic???

The little penguin on the piano Lou is holding sings and plays music- One, two, three, turn it on!     

  Little did we know she would be walking on her own in less than a week!Then daddy said the N word… “No”…. i know he is the worst Lola.. mommy would have let you eat that leaf you just remember that! ;)   We’re on her good side! 

Are these two not the cutest- no offense Aunt Tay Tay but sometimes i think Lola and TJ are just two peas in a pod!

They have come SUCH a long way and Alex and I could not be more pleased or proud of them both in their own ways!!

Back inside for presents round two, happy hour cranberry punch and Christmas dinner!

I thought this picture was just priceless , I’m assuming I took something from her or out of her mouth that she more than likely wasn’t supposed to have….

Paci’s fix EVERYTHING!

On to presents round two! Who knew the banana toothbrush would be such a good teething toy!?!? 

Happy hour and a concoction by your truly…

Mom has successfully done it again- catered to us all and made a delicious Christmas dinner!    

Notice the little beggar and the huge mess we still have to clean up behind the little beggar!

Lola actually sat in her chair so content while we ate… she tried homemade macaroni for the first time and LOVED it!   Oh the days when we used to sit and talk for hours after dinner.. now it’s a race to leave the table and find a new activity for Lola!    Well we made it! Put our baby to bed after our first Christmas as a family of three! WHEW!  The next day was essentially Christmas round two since Tara left all my shipped presents at her house- errrr!!!!

That's okay though it was a good excuse for an El Som date on Lola and a chance to see our Ney ney since we wouldn’t get to see her the rest of the week!   Lola learned all about selfies with the selfie queen!

Then we headed home for a nap and golf cart rides- Lolas favorite!

Girl pic!

Daddy missed out on our first golf cart ride since he was completing his moms honey do list so we took him and Lolas  Grama Karen on a round two trip when they came over! 

Lola was napping so TJ got to be mommy's lap dog and he couldn’t be more happy!  

Lola woke up a bit pissed she had missed all the fun so she was ready to make up for it- she was SO cuddly our last day home and got to spend the day with both grandparents!

So much Lola loving and being passed around but thankfully she saved the best for last! Just before we packed up to hit the road and leave Alex’s moms house someone got super cuddly and even let me hold her inward on the bjorn which she NEVER does….     I was in heaven! It was all the Christmas present i needed!

Thank you sweet girl, you will forever and always be the best present  I ever received!