Wild child

Yikes!! What a weekend. Molly had an attack of the "terrible 2s." Out of nowhere she had fits of throwing things (the laundry I had just folded, blocks, my book), putting things in her mouth (the eraser for her dry erase board, weird stuff off the floor), tantrums over ridiculous things (she wanted to wear my shoes instead of hers) and generally pushing the limits with that look on her face, trying one thing after another until she gets a reaction out of us. She had a stand-off with Jim at the bottom of the stairs Sunday over whether or not she would hang up her coat that lasted at least 20 minutes. (He won).

She's mostly back to her usual self now. Last week we skipped most of our usual activities so she could relax at home and play outside in the beautiful weather. When play group rolled around Monday she was all excited, then abruptly she told me she didn't want to go. I asked why and she said "I don't like my friends." I thought we weren't going to have to deal with that sort of problem until she's a teenager. As she saw the kids got into the house across the street, though, I guess she remembered some of their better qualities because just as abruptly she said, "oh, we better get going."

Here's a little garden we started with sprouted wheat, which was left over from a bread I made. It's so cool!!! I've seen this idea a bunch of places and I followed the instructions here. (I love this new on-line magazine "Rhythm of the Home" -- it's Montessori- and Waldorf-inspired crafts and kid stuff). I want to use this as Molly's Easter basket but I'm not sure how well it will travel. It's already way over the rim now and it's only been a couple days. The little blades of grass always get little drops of water clinging to their tips. So cool.


This is Molly's baby drawing.


And staying warm in Molly's shirt.
I left Molly like this, with the baby in her shirt, when I got in the shower this morning. When I came out she was sitting in my big living room chair under the blanket with baby (a spot we call our "nest") and pretending to read my magazine to her. She told me she also gave her "whispers," which is something she invented involving the tip of a hoodie sweatshirt string or just fingers gentling dragged around a person's face and that now they were snuggling.

Oh, and I had to play nurse this morning to get a splinter out of Molly's finger. It's the first time I've ever had to do something like that and it went better than I expected. Molly was so patient. I had to use a sterilized sewing needle to work the splinter out enough to get it with tweezers. I asked Molly if she could feel it and she said it felt like whispers. Toward the end she told me "be careful with that because it's pointy." That's it! It's so funny that taking a needle to her finger doesn't cause her any sort of stress, yet she lost it yesterday when we were getting our car inspected because she saw the car with the hood up and people looking inside. Something about that totally freaked her out.

Oh, and speaking of things that freak her out, the toilet has moved up way high on the list of fears. She stopped using the potty entirely late last week. All done. Not interested. Diaper, please. She'll run around bare for a while, then feel the need to go and ask urgently for a diaper. Even if we're in the bathroom when this happens, she wants a diaper. No potty. No, thank you. Finally, after a few days of this, she saw a plastic potty just like hers at play group and when we got back home she found hers in the basement (put away because she had already outgrown it!!!) and asked to bring that back upstairs. So now occasionally she'll go in the plastic potty on the floor, which I then have to empty out. That's progress, I guess.

Poor little girl. She's been having a rough time. Of course, she's standing her right now bouncing to "she'll be coming around the mountain" and getting excited to go to Mother Goose on the Loose at the library. Even a troubled Molly is still a pretty happy kid.

Wild weekend

Meeting Lucy's new pet, Franny the donkey.



Riding the horse at the mall carousel.


I'm just realizing that I took hardly any pictures all weekend. Molly and Lucy ran around chasing each other at Oma and Grandpa's house and I didn't get one picture!!! Oh, well.

We're all recovering now. We got only about four hours of sleep Sunday night after a rough drive in the rain and I had foolishly agreed to trade play group dates with a neighbor so I had house full of kids at 9 a.m. (felt like 8 because of the time change). Not surprisingly, my half-asleep self made muffins that overflowed their tin in the oven and the drips burned, making the house smell like burned muffins as people arrived. I can't recall any of the conversations or much of anything that happened. I just remember looking around at the aftermath -- muffins smushed on the kitchen floor, dirty dishes and toys everywhere -- and just crashing in bed with Molly for our nap. I slept for 2 hours. She slept for almost 4!!!

Molly's napping now and I'm surprised she hasn't woken herself up yet in a puddle. She somehow talked me into letting her sleep without a diaper. She's sleeping on an old waterproof crib sheet with a folded up towel on it. She thinks she can keep the towel dry. I seriously doubt it.

Here's just a little silliness from this afternoon.

First flowers

Our first crocuses bloomed yesterday. Yay!!!! Spring is coming!!!

We ate lunch on the deck yesterday (when it was pretty warm) and again today, even though we had our winter coats on. It's just so nice to feel the sunshine. We also went for a walk today and saw a pair of ducks in the little creek down the street. One was a mallard with a shiny green head. They didn't seem afraid of us, even when Molly kept shouting "silly ducks" at them.

Molly's been a little off for the past week or so -- waking up and crying before her sunshine light turns on, needing extra visits at night before going to sleep, waking up early from nap and crying without being able to tell us why. Then the other night I noticed a new tooth poking through. Ah hah!!! I gave her a little Tylenol last night and she slept through without a peep until morning.

More pictures...

from the weekend can be found at Tessa's blog:
http://familyblog.datdec.com/?p=2056

Super fun weekend

It was warm and sunny yesterday and we had a blast playing with Alan and Tessa, Lex and Eve. We went to a playground and goofed around for a while, then played at home. Molly had such a good time rolling around on the floor with Lex and Eve, giving them hugs and kisses, and watching them roll down the big hills at the playground. And the exciting news is that Lex and Eve are going to have a new baby sibling in the fall!!!!! We're so happy for them!!!!

As usual I didn't have my camera with me most of the day, but I did catch a couple shots of Molly and Eve.

Our week

Not much going on around here, just ordinary days. Yesterday Molly told me she was bringing her bath mitt puppets to the puppet store, which turned out to be the hallway linen closet, then shut herself in and freaked herself out. Our toilet overflowed, which set potty training back, oh, four months or so. You never know what's going to terrify Molly -- apparently water flowing out of the toilet is on the list.
We had lunch with our neighbor's house yesterday and Molly went without a diaper and used the potty there, which was a big step toward using the potty in public. Yay!!!
It's fun to watch her become more social with other kids. She's just starting to have conversations with Teddy and interact over toys, rather than just watch him and talk about him. Of course, he hit her once yesterday and I think tackled her once, too. I didn't see either incident, but she cried both times and said "I want to go home." Something about that reaction seems so big-kid to me and I can't quite pinpoint why.
We finished the day with a trip to the playground, where Molly got ordered around by a boy who it turns out is only about 4 weeks older than she is, but referred to her as "Baby." Fortunately she doesn't answer to "baby" anymore (as she's constantly reminding me), so she didn't seem to notice he was telling her what to do.
On the way there I asked her if she wouldn't rather just play outside at home and she said, "The playground is best, home is not best." Then, to herself, said, "I like sponges aaaand ... playgrounds, aaaand ... sweatpants."
Makes me wonder what other silly thoughts are floating through her head.

Overheard

Daddy: "You are too cute."
Molly: "No, four cute! Five cute! Six!"