Stir crazy

It's been a long, long morning. It's cold and rainy. Molly almost went down for a nap, then decided she'd rather not. That made me pretty cranky. She's been whining "Mommy" a lot, which hasn't helped.

Now I think we've both pushed through to silly. Molly just took her diaper off, ran into the living room and put on her sunglasses upside down. It's hard not to laugh. Eww, I just felt her little baby teeth on my heel. Oooh, and there's the kiss that follows the bite. I need to get this kid something to do!

Magic sleep swing

So this swing under our deck, which Molly has decided to call "weeee," has some creepy magical powers.

Thursday afternoon I was sitting on the picnic table, reading a book and pushing Molly in the swing when I noticed her head flopped to the side. She fell asleep. Silly girl. I stopped the swing and woke her up -- apparently too fast, she threw up all over herself -- motion sickness perhaps? So I gave her a very early bath and she immediately went down for, what appeared to be, a very late nap. I laid her down in our bed around 4:30 p.m. As the hours went by, we realized this was no nap. Around 7:30, her usual bedtime, I moved her to the crib and she stayed asleep. She didn't wake up until around 4:30 a.m.!!! (the usual time, sadly). That's 12 hours of solid sleep for a girl who almost never sleeps more than 9 or 10 a night.

So Friday afternoon we happen to be in the swing again around the same time. Molly falls asleep again. This time I let it come to a stop on its own and gently lift her out. She stays asleep on my shoulder, so I carry her to our bed and lay her down. It's about 4 p.m. She stays asleep again until bedtime, when I move her to the crib. No complaints, no waking up. I even changed her diaper this time and she never opened her eyes. She slept through until (early) morning.

Saturday morning I get home from pilates class and the house is quiet. I find Molly and Daddy napping, which I don't think has happened on a Saturday morning since Molly was a tiny baby. How did he do it? Molly wanted to swing shortly after I left. She fell asleep and allowed him to carry her up into the house and into our bed.

What kind of voodoo swing is this? Molly never cared much for mechanical swings when she was an infant. They certainly never put her to sleep!!!

And she hasn't been missing naps or anything. It's not like she's collapsing from exhaustion.

More likely, she seems to be on a less-than-24-hour daily cycle and trends toward earlier bedtime, wake time and nap time every day if you let her (I say as if I have some control over when she sleeps and doesn't sleep). She's been down to one nap for a while and it used to be an afternoon nap, then it was a late morning nap and now it starts around 8:30 or 9 a.m. most days.

Ugh!! At least she's getting a lot of sleep ... more than she ever has in her life! We were speculating that she's maybe going through some developmental phase that requires more sleep, but at this rate I'm a little worried about what she's developing -- invisibility? clairvoyance?

The interesting thing is that, perhaps because of all this sleep, Molly has cut back dramatically on her nursing in the past few days. On Friday she only nursed three times, and one was really short. Could we be headed toward weaning? Perhaps!

(odd, random photo)

Pigtails

We just got some ponytail holders today and tried this for the first time...


I also got Molly a little potty today ... overly optimistic, I'm sure, but it's exciting anyway. She's been sitting on it just for play and having a good time.

Doctor fears

Last week Molly developed a little goop in the corner of her eye that turned into a yucky infection. I called the doctor for some antibiotics and they took her right in.

Molly has always been really comfortable at the doctor's office, so I was shocked by how badly it went. She started crying when the medical assistant tried to put the thermometer in her arm pit and it spiraled out of control from there. The nurse practitioner just wanted to look in her ears and throat to make sure the infection hadn't spread but Molly didn't want anything to do with her. She screamed and cried. I would almost get her calmed down and she would look at the NP and it would set her off again. The woman left the room a few times to help Molly get a grip, but it didn't help.

The NP said this is typical of 18-month-olds and that she'll be fine with the doctor again in a couple months. Lets hope we don't get sick again for a while.

18 months

Molly turned 1 1/2 on Tuesday. She's growing so fast!

It's funny to think that just a couple weeks ago I was worried about her talking. Some web site said that an typical 18-month-old can say six words, and I was counting up her words to see if she would make it (she had Mommy, Daddy, bye-bye, click, poop and "chssss" for cheese -- an odd selection of first words, don't you think?) Obviously something clicked in her brain because she's picking up new words every day and I can't begin to count them all. Yesterday she started saying work (as in "Daddy's going to work"), walk (as in "Put me down, I want to walk") and ant (she likes to point them out outside whenever she sees them). She's saying "ant" now because I just drew one for her on a piece of scrap paper. She just walked across the room and picked up a little wind-up bee and brought it back, saying "ant." Not quite but close.

Oh, and she's learned to say her own name. She can't pronounce the L's and I thought she was just saying Mommy, but then I realized it sounds just like how Lucy used to say it: MY-eee. Very cute. (Of course, I'm feeling a little bad that we gave her a name that's too hard to say. Who knew!)

We've been having lots of fun these past few days. Saturday we went out for barbecue and Molly fell asleep in the car on the way. We debated getting take-out and scarfing it down in the front seat, but on a whim I decided to try to move the sleeping girl into a stroller and go in and sit down. She stayed asleep! We got to eat slowly, just like in the newborn days. Weird. I thought she would be cranky when she woke up but instead, when we were just about finished eating, she opened her eyes wide, smiled and started bopping to the music blasting from a speaker over her head. We tossed her into the booth and she ate her weight in pulled pork and sweet potatoes.

It was such a nice day that we decided to go off in search of the Leominster State Forest. We found it and went for an impromtu walk in the woods. I wish I had photos but I have been forgetting the camera a lot lately.

Sunday night we had a yummy dinner with Lex, Eve and family. (See cute photos here).

Yesterday I had Molly back in the woods, this time at the New England Wildflower Society's native plant demonstration garden called Garden in the Woods. It was really a trip for me, but she was cooperative and generally entertained. I enjoyed the dragonflies and damselflies at the lily pond, the "invasive plant jail" and learning the names of things I thought were weeds in my yard. Molly was really into the drinking fountain by the bathrooms.

I have no pictures from any of these adventures, but I can't post without at least one photo so here
No way! Molly was just saying something that sounded like "rock" so I looked over to figure out what she wanted. There she was holding up a rock! (I think it was one of the treasures she picked up in Leominster). That's a new one. This is so much fun!

'Yep'

Molly has become a little parrot in the past week or two. She can't always say the words clearly, but she's trying. She is picking up new words all the time, including "yep." (Now we're trying a little harder to say "yes" around her but it might be too late). She likes words that are sounds, like "click" and "plop." A couple days ago she learned "apple," which was exciting because it's one of the words she's been signing for a long time and she still prefers signs for those words. She's still making up signs, too -- most recently touching the bridge of her nose for "sunglasses" and rubbing her fingers around her neck and collar area for "sunblock" (took me a while to figure out that one).

Friday Molly and I went on a field trip with the Family Partnership, the state-funded organization that runs daily play groups and stuff in town. Their budget's about to be cut, so we're soaking up the free/cheap fun while it lasts.

We went to Davis Farmland, which is a kiddie mega complex with a splash park, playgrounds and tons of farm animals. We were very fortunate to be there early in the season and on a day that started with pouring rain (but then dried out -- yay!), so the place was nearly empty.

I was impressed with how close they let you get to the animals. There were baby goats and sheep walking around freely everywhere. One pooped right in my lap -- awesome. Here's Molly with a couple playful babies.



Feeding some goats.

Driving a tractor.


That's a baby Jacob sheep, for anybody who may be considering starting their own farm in the near future. Hint hint.


Molly liked the animals, but she really got into the place when we went into the toddler play area, which was really just a bunch of little old playground areas with wooden and plastic toys. It's a good thing we didn't pay the full admissions price for that! It's also a good thing Molly had so much fun.

Backyard wonderland

Molly and I went yard sale shopping this morning. Cool!! I've never shopped much at yard sales before, but there's so much stuff I want to get for Molly that she's going to outgrow quickly. Used and cheap seems to be the way to go. We got so much stuff!

Between some good finds today and some hand-me-downs from the neighbors, Molly finally has some entertainment in our own yard.

Here's her favorite toy at the moment:

Molly loves swings. She loves them at playgrounds. She loves the baby swing on the really nice backyard playground next door. Now she has her very own (hand-me-down, sun-faded) swing to love.

Jim just hung it up for her last night. He had her laughing so loud the neighbors were looking over the fence. He'd stand in her path, then dodge out of the way at the last minute (fancy ninja moves). Now every time we come around the corner and she sees the swing, she squeals. When I put her on it and Jim's not there, she says "Daddy" with every push.

I also got her a plastic wagon at a yard sale a few houses down the street this morning, which has already chauffeured the young princess around the yard many times today. We have a hand-me-down turtle sandbox and ride-on rocking dinosaur. We found a toy push mower at another yard sale and a play sprinkler. It's going to be a good summer.