Hair!

Before

After



So we finally did it. We got Lea her first haircut. It was a bit anti-climactic in that we really just got a trim. In the Before photo above I'm pulling her curls down to show the length. We did not have very much trimmed off at all.
Her pretty girl pose to show off her new hair. Then off to play video games!


The place we went was great for kids. She got to sit in a car and watch cartoons.

We talked alot about getting our hair cut all weekend and not being afraid. And she wasn't shy until it came right down to getting in the car chair with the strange lady. Then she got a bit shy, but she was great!





This morning's review of the haircutter. "She was BUGGING me." Lea said this morning at breakfast wihout provocation. I then got her to repeat it for the camera. After I looked at the pictures, I can kind of see why. She did have the hair over her face for quite a while.


None of us could say, "Cut the curl." Not even Daddy when it came right down to it. The stylist was in awe over her curls too and couldn't bring herself to suggest cutting the curl in front.
Even Daddy from the beginning said things like "I just want it out of her eyes, but NOT the length, don't cut the length"

So our pumpkin only got a trim which will have Grandma & Grandpa breathing a sigh of relief. When I talked to each of them over the weekend I mentioned our plans and got "Are you really going to do it?" comments.

She will still have some hair in her eyes, but not as much because there were some bangs coming in that really got trimmed. And she does love her barrettes.

A quick barrette story... We have a nice little jar of barrettes that Lea loves to open and pick out her barrettes for the day. Well I added two little springy clips to the jar and Lea chose them one morning for Daddy to put in her hair. I asked "Dan, do you know how to use the little clippy thing." He replied "I think I can figure out clips, you just squeeze and..." SPROING out of the bathroom door comes shooting a clippy thing. After we wiped the tears of laughter from our eyes he put barrettes in Lea's hair.

Her hair had gotten a bit crazy. Here is Lea after sliding with some crazy static hair...



The aforementioned slide that produced said static...


So after the haircut we treated ourselves to family time. What a nice evening we had. We went to the indoor playground for a bit until the mall closed and out to dinner. The playground was packed. As Dan said, "Its Sunday, cold outside, what did you expect." Well Lea got pushed over once, but she got right back up. Another mother of a wee tot offered to trip the boy next time so at least there was solidarity! Lea perservered as unofficial king/queen of the bridge ... for about 3 seconds. Then she slid down and tried again.



Crawling with monkeys...


And the morning after the haircut. Big smiles. Showing off her new hair.


So over all a good experience, yes. Until Dan and I really started looking at her hair.

Money well spent? Well we had a wonderful day and her first haircut was not traumatic, so sure. Now that the taboo of cutting her hair has been breached we'll try to be more prepared next time to really do some good for her and her hair.

The Christmas Donkeys

When my mom returned home from her trip to Georgia to see Grampy and Margarete (who seems to be on the mend, she is able to lie down now, after about a month of sleeping in the recliner!)... so when she returned there was a donkey in her back yard. She was thrilled. A couple bought the acre or two behind and next to her trailer, but have no house there for now, just land. And it was the neighbor's father's wish to always have land and a donkey, but never made his dream come true (there are some strange life long dreams in East Texas!) So his wife got him a donkey for Christmas. The donkey shares a little of mom's property because the fence line does not follow the property line.

Mom enjoys watching the donkey and was happy to go out and talk to him while we fed him apples. The donkey is very docile. The neighbors named the donkey Mary (after his mother) and my mom told a story (confirmed by some internet stories) that donkeys have a cross on their back as a symbol of Jesus' ride on palm sunday when he choose a small weak donkey.

The donkey was happy to come to the fence when we had apples to feed her, but was a bit camera shy. Mom wanted to know if Lea wanted to call him Eeyore before we knew he was a she donkey. Lea said "No, his name is Donkey." I explained the Lea was becoming more familiar with Shrek's sidekick Donkey thanks to Sherry.

In a bid for the most co-dependent toy (a close second to Michael's gift of the ABC/Hug Me puppy) Sherry got Lea the Nap & Yap Donkey. He talks in his sleep even! A parent's joy. But Lea loves him because she can lay him down under a pillow or blanket and put him to sleep (one of her favorite games - "You lay down" — as long as its not her parents putting her to sleep!) Donkey is pretty funny. He talks a lot about waffles. In general he talks alot.


Besides the excitement of the donkey, we had a nice quiet weekend at Grandma's. Here are some sweet pictures of the fun Lea has when grandma is in charge of "bath" or sink time. Lea turned around and said "I'm just washing the mirror" like it wasn't her that had smeared shaving cream all over it. Like she was doing Grandma a huge favor! But Grandma seems to love it!

And a big hug for Grandma. So sweet.

The bathroom debut

Dun, da, da dun
So there it is. The photo is a wee bit funky because it is montaged in photoshop... square room flattened and all, but you can see Dan's fantastic handy work on the shelves and the beautiful color! I love this room. I love giving Lea a bath there now. Its just such a happy room. We were worried the dark color would make it a cave, but the white ceiling really helped.

If I may remind anyone who came to our house early on, this is what it looked like when we bought it...


a wee bit 70s eh? We didn't replace the tiny people toilet. It leaked so that got replaced by the time we took ownership of the house, but it completed the vision of yellow stained 70s didn't it.

And this is a reminder of what it looked like for 2 and a half years while we twiddled our thumbs with the nothing but walpaper paste on the walls...



Quite an improvement. Dan worked very hard and it really paid off! Thanks sweetie!

Bye Bye Blueberry

Last week we lost Blueberry The Fish to the great fishy spot in the sky... or well the toilet, whatever. We received Blueberry from Judy for a birthday present for Lea and he'd forged a place in our house and at least Lea & my hearts. We had even gotten Blueberry a Christmas present. An air bubbler that made a dinosaur raise up. Blueberry would spend his day fighting with it so its possible that he had a fishy aneurism due to the stress of an invincible opponent... or Dan didn't let the water sit long enough... the world will never know.

The debate rages in the house whether to get a new aquatic friend. We enjoyed Blueberry, but in truth Dan did all the work so we'll discuss a bit more. Lea asks where Blueberry is or "Where did my fish go?" Answers range (depending on the time of day and humor of the adult) from "Well, he died," or "He went to fishy heaven," to "He's gone, he couldn't make it in our world." Blueberry... you were a fine fish and a good friend, or at least a conversational item at breakfast. Good night Blueberry, wherever you are.

"It's Perfect" The Perfect Christmas... at least for us

"It's Perfect" is what Lea said when she saw the tricycle Santa had brought. We all got up at 7am with Lea, bleary eyed, but excited to see Lea's first reaction to Santa. She wasn't so much surprised, as I think I've said before, because she had no doubt Santa was brining her a tricycle. But her eyes still lit up with joy and she was on it immediately riding it around the living room. It has a light up bell and she got John Deer pads and helmet from Grandpa to go with it.
We left a note to Santa and he wrote back (as well as ate half of Lea's cookie and drank all him milk — 4 days later Lea said happily "Santa ate my cookie." "Yes, sweetie he had a bite and you got to eat the rest.")

Lea got lots of little stuff in her stocking. We all got fun stuff.

She got a hat so she can be a cowgirl and ride her horse.

The best camper set ever. 3 girl campers, a pop up camper, plastic fire, sleeping bags and plastic camp chairs. Its adorable. Lea has named the girls "Lea, Mommy and Grandma" there was no figures left so the toy dog got named "Daddy." At lease everyone was included.

Lea talks well on the phone and here is a photo of her talking to Aunt Kaitlin. I think this is such a beautiful photo of Lea for some reason. Just so bright and expressive.

Then finally after nap Lea got to go outside and really try out her tricycle. She can push the pedals, but its hard for her to keep them going. She stradles it and walks it along more than she rides it, but she enjoys herself. She'll get stronger and stronger the more she plays.




I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!
Here are the 21 videos from all of Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Christmas was fantastic. A lovely 4 day weekend with lots of family. Christmas Eve we went to Tuba Christmas in the middle of the day. We rode the DART train downtown to watch 200 tubas play Christmas carols. One tends to think, "200 Tubas, hmm.. umpa and really loud!" Well, it was beautiful. All the carols they did were magnificant and beautiful.

We had cocoa with Able, Mia, Leo and Donna (Ann's mother) and Ann showed up near the end, getting off work early. Then train ride home and a nap before our big day.
Christmas eve evening was our big dinner and family day. Grandpa Dan, Aunt Teresa and Robert came over about 3 to a groggy, freshly napped, but excited Lea. We put on our Christmas dress and had a wonderful pork dinner.


Then went straight into opening presents, and its a good thing we started early because we weren't done until like 8pm!
It was so much fun. Everyone took turns opening presents and I think we were all very pleased, I know I was was thrilled with all my wonderful presents.
I got a rug for the kitchen that brightens up the whole house! I got many other wonderful things too and I appreciate them all, but this one got a photo taken.

And Lea was sweet, she was as interested in running around helping everyone else open their present as opening her own. Here is Lea helping Teresa with Teresa's new lip gloss.

Lea got some great toys and treats and clothes. The cutest bunny slippers in the whole world from Grandpa!

And I showed my love for Dan by getting him 5 lbs of Chinese BarBQ sauce. He had fun putting it in the squeeze bottles! Odd present, but he seemed to love it!



A set of tools and a tool bench were one of the big hit presents. I was very pleased with my well rounded child who got tools, cars and a tea set! Here is Lea and her tool bench...

Early Christmas Present

Last weekend we went out to Grandma's house to decorate her tree. Lea had fun decorating. She put the star on top of the small tree and got her own snow globe with a bumble from the Rudolf cartoon. She loved her ornament and has been carrying it around with her, instead of leaving it on the tree.



But one of the main reasons we went out to Grandma's is for a big present. We were supposed to be out there for Christmas Eve and Christmas day when we thought we had more family coming, but it wasn't to be. Margarte had a fall and turns out she's broken her pelvis. She is doing well, but in a lot of pain and its hard for her to get around, so they've post poned their trip here. So with all that going on we decided it would be easier to have Chistmas at the Neal household. BUT... what to do with the big present that was to stay at grandma's house? Well why not open it early. Lea got a train table with a train that goes round and round the track. It stops at the station if you lift a lever and you can fill it with logs. It has trees and signs to move around. It is very cool. Lea loved it. She'd just jump up and down watching it and stop the train occasionally. The logs caused some problems because they are a bit akward, but they didn't slow her down. She also calls the logs "bricks" for some reason. Load up the "bricks." We figured out what she was talking about and had fun with it!





So now we wait for the big day and more presents, but I don't know if anything can top the train table! I'm surprised Lea let us take her home she was having so much fun. Merry Christmas to everyone! I'll have lots to post after Christmas. Love to everyone too!