Little helper

Sorry I haven't been posting much. The fourth season of Battlestar Galactica just came out on DVD and it's all-consuming. (When you only get an hour or less of free time each evening, it doesn't take much).

We had a visit from my mom and brother last weekend. Molly was a complete goofball, as usual.


She looked at Craig a lot and he watched her play, but she didn't go to him until toward the end when I finally just plopped her in his lap. They sat together for a long time, both looking as if they were afraid to move. It was pretty funny.



In these pictures you see one of Molly's favorite new toys -- her bead necklaces. Last Thursday we were both in a good mood and Molly's nap schedule happened to work so that we could go grocery shopping early in the morning. Things were going so well that I didn't want to go home so instead I took the cash from a scratch ticket (thanks, Grandpa!) and the two of us headed to the mall. We got lunch at Panera, where Molly stared straight-faced at strangers the entire time, then we went to Claire's to buy barrettes. She picked out a princess wand and a pack of beaded necklaces, too, and the necklaces were an instant hit. She's so obsessed with putting them on and wearing them around that the only way I can get her to take a break is to hide them. She wants to wear them constantly!!

Molly is on a helping kick lately. Ever since Tessa showed us the sign for "help," Molly has been using it a lot (tapping her fist into her open palm). The fun thing is that now she uses it to mean not only "help me," but also "let me help you." She makes the sign whenever I sweep the kitchen floor (several times a day, ugh!) and I let her carry the dust pan and then set it down by the pile of dirt. When I take the dust pan to the trash, she pushes the broom around the kitchen for a while, then brings it over to me at the closet to be put away.

Then yesterday I found a puddle of water on the living room carpet where her sippy cup spilled. I grabbed a dish towel off the counter and went over to soak it up. Molly saw what I was doing and, completely on her own, went over to the cupboard under the sink where I keep the clean dish towels, grabbed two towels and brought them over to me. I tried to show her how to pat the water spot but she wanted to rub the carpet where it was dry. Whatever. It was cool anyway.

She did it again this morning, unprompted, when I was cleaning up a big kitchen spill. It was quite helpful to have a dry towel to clean up after my wet cloth. Unfortunately, Molly walked over the wet floor to bring it to me and slipped banana peel-style flat on her back. Ooops.

One more story. Today around 4:30 Molly looked over at me from the kitchen chair she had climbed onto and made a sign that looked like "bath" (rubbing her face with her hands -- not much different from about 5 other signs). I wasn't sure if she meant it, but I followed her down the hall to see what she wanted. She went into her bedroom, opened the bottom dresser drawer, pulled out a couple diapers, then went out into the hallway and banged on the bathroom door. She really did mean bath!! Our bathtime routine starts with going into the bedroom and get a clean diaper and her PJs. I opened the bathroom door for her and she went right to the tub, pushed back the shower curtain and pointed at the faucet with her "eh, eh" sound that means "do it." It was just one of the many little moments when you realize how much this little creature is paying attention to the things around her and remembering things. The other day she made the sign for "turtle" and picked up the turtle in her wooden puzzle. I showed her the sign for turtle maybe once or twice and it must have been weeks ago. How did she remember that?

OK, time for more Battlestar. Here's one last picture. I got out Molly's Tinkerbell wings (thanks, Mema!) for the first time and then followed her around with the camera because they made her so silly.

Sniffles and play

Molly's fever is gone but today she woke up all congested. That didn't stop me from taking her to a new play group in town (her nose wasn't really running yet so that's OK, right?). There were at least a dozen toddlers in a big open room playing with cardboard blocks, crawl tunnels, puppets, balls, scarves, giant foam building blocks and each other. Molly pretty much sat in my lap and hugged me the whole time -- very unlike her. I blame her cold. She kept throwing me the "milk" sign and the "eat" sign. There's no food allowed but it was her snack time, so we huddled by her diaper bag and I snuck Cheerios into her mouth. Everybody was really friendly. I hope we get to go back.

The exciting side note about that trip is it finally gave me the kick in the pants to turn Molly's car seat from rear facing to front facing. My next-door neighbor offered to give us a ride in her van, which involved moving Molly's car seat into a different vehicle -- something we've never done before. Since we were moving it anyway, we installed it facing forward. Molly didn't really react until later in the day, when I put the car seat in my car facing forward. She giggled and seemed pretty excited on her first ride ... at least until we got out of our neighborhood. Then she had the same cranky outbursts she always has in the car.

Here are some random photos of Molly goofing around at home. Molly just figured out how to climb into the kitchen chairs (the trick is to come at them from the side and use the bars underneath as a step). Let the dangerous games begin.

Taking off her sock

Wearing my hat

Being goofy on the floor

Wild weekend

Molly thoroughly enjoyed a visit from Oma and Grandpa this weekend.

She played with the dog, made Grandpa read stories and cuddled up with Oma under a blanket last night when she developed a fever. She's feeling much better today, though she clearly misses everybody. She keeps looking out the deck door and making a panting sound.

The traumatic event, at least for me, is that one of my rabbits died. We lost Fathead, the shy black bunny who never really liked anybody but her bunny companion, Snow Plow. One day she was hopping around and playing with an empty tissue box, the next morning -- dead. I have some guesses about what happened, but I don't really know. I'm trying to give Snow Plow a lot of extra attention. I feel so bad for him. Those two bunnies had been together all their lives. Fortunately Snow Plow is not very bright and he doesn't seem to be spending too much time contemplating the tragedy. With a feverish baby, I haven't had much time to contemplate it yesterday, either. It's probably for the best.

Little toddler

Molly made her first snow angel today. She wasn't too thrilled about it (I had to swish her arms and legs real fast because she was all confused and on the verge of cranky), so it was probably a good thing I didn't have my camera. She's getting a little more comfortable in the snow, though. Today we took a walk down the street on the snowy sidewalks. Molly won't keep mittens on so I've been putting a pair of kid-size Smart socks over her hands and up over her elbows. She hasn't figured out how to get them off ... yet.

Speaking of clothes, Molly is taking a real interest in particular items of clothing. I think it all started with the pair of Ugg boots she got for Christmas. (She's wearing them in this picture).


Until the Uggs, Molly generally disliked having anything on her feet. Then one day she was playing with the Uggs and she held one out to me so I put it on her bare foot. They're all fuzzy inside (yes, I'm jealous). I put the other one on and she toddled around for a while. When they eventually fell off, she picked one up and held it out to me, then held out her foot. She wanted it back on!!

It became a thing, and now she holds out various shoes and boots to me and then holds out her foot. Recently this little routine has extended to other items of clothing and accessories. (In this picture both the headband and the socks were her idea).


In other footwear news, we bought Molly her first hard-soled sneakers a couple weekends ago. Now she can walk around a little more freely when we're out in public -- certainly a mixed blessing.

Another toddler-like development is that Molly shakes her head "no" all the time and there's no doubt anymore that she means it. It has made me realize how many things I phrase as a question: "Are you ready for a diaper change?" "Would you like me to put on your shirt?" "How about we put down that pointy pen?" "Can you wait for me at the bottom of the stairs?" It's definitely time to work on my phrasing.

We had a really fun sponateous visit from Tessa, Lex and Eve last week.



It was also a stellar parenting day for me -- I let Molly tumble down the stairs not once but TWICE!!! Fortunately it was only a few steps and she didn't even seem to realize what happened. I'm still having flashbacks to it in my dreams, though. Ugh!

Snow bunny

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. My computer ran out of disk space so all my photos have been stuck on the camera. Now we're back in business. I've got a lot of catching up to do. Here's another shot from today to hold you over.