Babysitter

We hired our first paid babysitter yesterday to watch Molly. One of our neighbors has a college-age niece who watches a lot of the neighborhood kids and I've been trying to book her for something, anything, just to test it out and see how Molly would do.

Molly was skeptical -- up until yesterday morning she was saying, "I don't want to play with Meg." But she also told me she didn't want to come with me to my dentist appointment, so I took a gamble.

Right before Meg arrived, I mentioned to Molly that she might want to pick some magazines to show her and pick some CDs in case Meg likes to dance. So Molly went off somewhere to gather stuff and as Meg came in the door Molly brought her a magazine, then brought her over to the window to show her the moon in the sky, then brought her to her bedroom to change into a dress, etc. Good sign.

I hung around washing dishes for a little while just to make sure everything was cool. When I left Molly hardly even noticed. She was rocking out to The Cure, hanging on to her bed rail and swinging her head around with Meg dancing nearby.

I was gone less than two hours and I think they had a good time. Meg said Molly seemed to have everything planned. She wanted to paint, then she wanted to go outside for a walk in the green stroller, then she wanted to go on the swing, then play in the sandbox. Sounds familiar. :)

After Meg left, Molly snuggled with me and her sippy cup and told me bits and pieces about the morning. I said, "so you had a good time?" She said yes, then she said no, a bad time. I asked her what was bad about it and she said she didn't know. I asked her if it was because I wasn't there with her and she said, "yes." So that was her little protest -- she wanted me to know she didn't have a good time.

Also, since Meg left she's been calling me Mom instead of Mommy or Mama. It's a little unsettling but I'm getting used to it. I'm sure she'll revert back to Mommy soon enough.

Beach

So we were sitting around this morning doing the usual stuff -- making breakfast and watching Youtube videos of cats -- when Molly said, "Lets go to the beach," and I said, "Really?" and she said, "Yes." So I hopped in the shower and 20 minutes later we were out the door.

I decided to try the state park at Salisbury Beach. It's only about an hour away, and it turns out the parking's cheap and plentiful and the facilities are clean and nice. Cool!!! The water was only 60 degrees, but Molly didn't want to swim anyway. She kept pointing to boats and saying, "I want to go in that one." I think she's spoiled from being at the lake. ;)

Hot week

We discovered this week that Molly really, really needs to run around outside each morning and afternoon -- even when it's too hot to breathe -- or life is miserable for everybody. SO ...

Here she is in the garden.


Eating grapes and being a ham ...


We had Uncle Craig and Grandma here for a few days. They were good sports about the heat in our sweltering, un-air conditioned house.

Molly ran around and giggled when Craig was here, brought him her newest toys and told him about them, and even threw clothes at him, but she wouldn't sit anywhere near him for a photo.

So this is Molly sitting across the room watching him.

And here's one of the many pictures she took of him.