Face painting

Lola's daycare is great about incorporating lots of art projects into the kids' daily activities; and on this particular day, when I came to pick her up I found that she was the canvas!

Who's your Papi?

Clementine and Papi. The lovers at play.

First Visit to the Dentist

It seems like only yesterday that Lola had two small teeth emerging from her gums, we marveled over them and realized we'd need to start brushing them soon. Now, after many months of tooth growing and brushing it was finally time to go see the dentist. Lola has always had a spirited relationship with her oral care (it usually involves some restraint and thrashing around) so we weren't sure what to expect.

Lola hanging out in the waiting room with her pal Dora

The dentist asked me to hold Lola in my lap while they checked how many teeth have emerged, cleaned them, and gave us tips on how best to brush her teeth in the future. Here is Lola just after they finished.

Jelly Donut Face

Lola and I went out to get some sunflower seeds for the bird feeders and on our way we may or may not have had a snack. I'll never tell.

It has that new car smell....

After thirteen years and over 167,000 miles of faithful service, the vaunted Green Machine (aka the family mobile) finally told us it was time to move on without her.

The 99 Ford Explorer put out to pasture

We needed another vehicle that had space for dogs, baby, and assorted accoutrement - as well as some kind of better fuel economy. After much research, the result came as a 2011 GMC Terrain. It is a smaller SUV that has enough space and sipped the gas (terrain - 26 mpg) rather than quaffing great super tankers worth of fuel (explorer - 11 mpg).

Behold.....!

2011 GMC Terrain

In spite of the time it took to find it and the resulting time crunch we ended up being in to actually buy it, we came away very pleased. The Terrain has some nice features like satellite radio, OnStar, and a backup camera (very coolamondo, says the daddy.). It has done nicely on the trips up to Massachusetts and daily commutes to work and daycare.

First tricycle ride

We regularly take walks around the block and at first, Lola rode in her stroller, she then graduated to riding in a backpack on my back, and now she's able to ride on a (parent assisted) tricycle. Sing it with me... Boooooooooooooooooorn tooooooooooooooo beeeeeeeeeeeee wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild!!!

Walkies!

Over the past few days Lola has made the move from cruising to walking! She's making such fast progress, you can see the improvement in this video that spans four days.