So much excitement

I have so many things to say about Molly, but at the moment all I can think about is how excited we are to find out that Molly's new cousin is going to be a boy! Yay for healthy babies!

So lets see. We had a fabulous weekend with our two special visitors, Molly's Oma and great-grandma. Molly had so much fun playing with them.


Her great-grandmother gave her a curl in her hair.

And we all went to pick out a Halloween costume. Here's a preview.
The other big excitement was that I had play group at my house for the first time. The last hour before it started I ran around the house worrying that I hadn't child-proofed enough, that I had prepared too much food, that I hadn't prepared enough food, that nobody would like the food, that I didn't have enough space, not enough toys, too many toys, not enough dishes, not clean enough, etc. It turned out fine. We had 5 adults and 7 toddlers, plus Molly and me. The kids went nuts with the toys while not breaking anything or getting in any fights -- pretty much the best you can hope for at play group. The adults were fully of flattering things to say. One mom told me she liked the smell of my dish soap. They're very nice people.

After sitting in the middle of the living room with her tongue hanging out for a few minutes, Molly loosened up and jumped right in the middle of the commotion. She snuggled up with one of my neighbors, who she's only met a few times before -- I think it was her long brown hair. She tried to take the glasses off one of the toddles and put her fingers in his mouth while he was drinking his bottle. She banged balls and blocks with the older kids. She seemed lost in the afternoon when the house was quiet again.

She's got some funny new quirks that I'm trying to catch on video. Now that she knows how to use her push toy, she likes to make all kinds of things into push toys. She kneels and pushes over-turned pots around with her hands. Last night she walked across the kitchen floor pushing a tall plastic mailbox toy. Today she even tried to push her big piano toy across the room.

She has also started shaking her head "no." She just does it out of the blue for no apparent reason. It's funny when it seems like she means it, though, like the time she was playing with the mesh walls of her Pack N' Play (which she's still using instead of a crib -- grr!!!) and I asked her if she was sleepy and wanted to take a nap. She shook her head.