High-Fives and Kisses

Lola has changed so much lately.  She's not just barely toddling along, she's fast and is a strong willed little girl.  I used to do little updates on Maximo and Lola hasn't had a post of her own since her first birthday, so I'll share all the cute little things she's up to.

She is understanding so much.  It's amazing what she understands.  She likes to help out - she loves throwing things away (but then she sometimes gets distracted by other things in the trash and tries to pull them out).  When she arrives at daycare, she fusses until she can put her washcloth and dirty clothes bag on their proper hooks.  She's definitely a determined one.

Lola is super friendly and often times chooses other people (even strangers) over us!  She throws her hands out to anyone who will coo in her direction.  She has been big on giving kisses lately and smacks her lips to give everyone kisses before leaving for school or going to bed.  She is also very big on high-fives.  At her daycare, they say "touch" (yes, in English) and the kids high-five each other.  It's pretty cute.

She is starting to use a lot of words: Mama (but this also means "I want"), Dada, ball, cracker and the rest is Japanese.  She is definitely speaking more Japanese than English these days.  Unfortunately (fortunate for her), her Japanese has surpassed ours.  The few things I can catch are: koko - here; arigato - thank you; ohayo gozaimas (a muddled version of this but with the right amount of syllables and a deep bow). 

Lola eats just about everything.  She has a voracious appetite, which shows in her thighs.  Whenever she's hungry she slaps her hands together - the gesture used when saying the Japanese equivalent of bon appetit - Itadakemas!  She's eats everything we do and will eat seconds and thirds of rice if you don't mind spoon feeding her sticky rice for an hour.  She, like Maximo did, loves the dried sardine snacks - they are dried little fish that kids eat like chips.  I've never eaten one, all I do know is that she STINKS after she's had that for her snack.  I can barely snuggle up to her when she's eaten them.

Lola loves to be outside and we prefer her to be outside because she constantly destroys the house.  She pulls everything out of everywhere - the trash, cupboards, bedside tables...

Left alone, she climbs up onto the dining room table to play with the coveted trains

She's a lot of fun, but also a ton of work.  Lucky for us, she is an amazing sleeper and sleeps from 6:30 pm to 6:30 am every night.  This makes a tough day with her doable!  It has been a dream and has made the bedroom-sharing easy! 

It's fun to watch how much more "girly" she is than Maximo.  She loves stuffed animals and often carries two under her arms around the house.  She loves to accessorize her hair and loves to wear necklaces - anything round that will fit over her head.  She starts to dance or clap whenever there's music on.


We're excited as always, this time of year as the end of the school year is in sight.  We can't wait to go home and let the kids play with cousins and enjoy all the fun things about our hometowns.

It's amazing how she can look so little and so big all at the same time!

Starbucks with Mommy

  

 Lola and Max have a typical brother-sister relationship.  She adores him and sometimes he plays really nicely with her and is really patient with her.  Other times, he wants his space and doesn't want his toys wreck and she doesn't get it why he doesn't want to share everything with her all the time.

 We're moving over the next two weeks.  I'm not sure what our home internet access is going to be, so as it has been the past few months, my postings may continue to be spotty at best.