Day at the beach

Yesterday we met our friends at Wallis Sands beach in NH. It was Kate's first trip to the ocean. The waves were a little high from the hurricane and there was lots of seaweed on the beach but it was super fun anyway.

Molly silliness

I hate to put up two posts on one day but I just got a bunch of videos up today and wanted to share.

This is just random Molly-ness from a week or two ago when we went to the library to see a school bus. They let us climb on and then the driver took us for a ride. Pretty exciting!

Anyway, on our way to the car after the library trip Molly ran off into the lawn to play. Rather than nag her to hurry up I decided to stand there and watch for a few minutes. She just kept going. Eventually I got the camera out.

scooter

Somehow we managed not to go totally insane yesterday, stuck in the house all day waiting for hurricane Irene to pass. We got rain all day and some strong winds but nothing remarkable. The biggest challenge was keeping Hurricane Molly from tearing the place apart.

Kate decided yesterday was a good time to work on moving around. First we noticed she was scooting backward. We knew that if you put her on a blanket she would, after immediately rolling onto her tummy, eventually scoot back a little. Yesterday she was doing it much faster -- as we watched!

Then I saw her rediscover rolling from tummy to back, something she did weeks ago and then seemed to forget (how many times have I had to get up in the night to find her crying because she's stuck on her tummy?). And she even rolled a little distance, back to tummy to back to tummy, across the exercise mat in the basement.

And finally, we saw her lift her whole torso off the floor (just for a second or two at a time). This is totally pre-crawling stuff. Yay!!!

Here's a somewhat long and boring video of me trying to catch her lifting her tummy off the floor.



Kate is also learning to sit a little bit. She'll sit unsupported for a while if she's on a soft surface (like a blanket in the grass) and if she's in the mood.

I just had to look up some of Molly's baby milestones for one of her preschool forms and I was surprised to find that Molly sat long before she rolled. So funny how babies tackle these early steps at different times. I have to say, even on the second time around, it's so amazing to watch a baby grow from floppy and immobile into a moving critter. This is really, really fun!

Molly trying baby shoes on her little sister.

Update

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We've got a nasty cold running through the house (Kate's first, poor baby) so we're kind of just getting by without a lot of extra time.

Our excitement for the weekend was that Molly got a 2-wheeler (with training wheels) and has been practicing up and down the street.

Must have tired Kate out. We set her down in the lawn and a few minutes later she was asleep.

We've got some videos to post, just need to work out the kinks. We haven't been doing much because of illness, but things still seem busy. Molly has only one more gymnastics class before the summer is over (she says she'll be sad but not too sad because preschool is starting). We both got our hair chopped short today. I'll try to get photos tomorrow.

Today was one of those days that seem like an interrogation, when Molly wants to know everything. "Why is there a picture of a credit card on that window?" "Why is there a phone on that?" "Where does the guy sit in that cement mixer truck?" "Why did you say 'hmmpf'?" "When can Kate go in that toy?" "When can I play with other kids?" "When can I see Teddy again?" "What is that dark sound?" ????

The best one all day was when we were in the car and I noticed her looking at me in the rearview mirror.

Me: Hi.

Molly: Why did you say that?

Me: I don't know.

Molly: What?

Me: I don't know.

Molly: Why did you don't know? (pause) I thought you said, 'what?'

It's dizzying.

 

Back to school?

Or is it just "to school" if this is your baby's first time?

I realize this isn't kindergarten so I'll try not to be too dramatic. We got the info packet from Molly's preschool on Friday, though, and it's launched us into full-on school prep mode. I still have such mixed emotions about it. I'm excited for Molly, who is begging me every day to find kids for her to play with. And I'm excited for me. Despite the fact that I've witnessed several moms fail to suddenly have oodles of time to read magazines, get pedicures and buy groceries leisurely once their child starts preschool, the fantasy persists. It seems impossible that having somebody else watch your 3-year-old a few mornings a week doesn't somehow make life easier. It clearly hasn't for so many of my friends and neighbors, but I have that foolish first-timer optimism that, like everything in parenting, my experience will be different.

Anywho, my calendar is now full of appointments for things like parent orientation and form day. I just signed my first permission slip. That made me feel old in a whole new way.

Mostly, I just can't imagine my days without Molly. It's so abstract and depressing I refuse to think about it.  The parent handbook warns that a couple weeks in most kids go through a phase where the realize preschool goes on and on -- it's not just a one-time thing -- and they want to stop going. I'm afraid I'm going to go through that, too.

So far Molly's nothing but excited. She has already told me she doesn't want me hanging around at all, even for the first two days when parents come in with the kids. We'll see. I may be the only mom banished to the lobby while the rest of the moms try to pry their little children off their bodies and escape.

Anyway, here are some scenes from our week.

It's been raining a lot and Molly likes to play on the deck in the rain. She's been into doing grown-up chores lately, too, and on this particular day she decided to wash the deck windows from the outside.

Ah, the plight of the second child. I assure you, Molly never would have been allowed to roll around on the bathroom floor sucking on old bath toys while Mommy gave somebody else a bath. :)

Sisters hanging out. Molly has been "reading" her books to Kate lately. Kate is the perfect audience for anything Molly wants to show her or perform for her. Turns out the repetitious nature of 3-year-old antics are a perfect match for a baby who can't get around yet and is desperate to be entertained.

This is a school bus. Molly unloaded all the critters at school (aka a book shelf) last night and this morning returned each one to its seat on the bus.

Totally unrelated to children, we made chocolate-covered frozen bananas yesterday while the kids napped and then ate the first sample after the kids went to bed. (Not intentionally, that's just how the timing worked out) Yum!!!

The trip

We're back!!!

Here are some of the photo highlights of our trip to Rochester.

Taken before the trip but I couldn't resist. Little baby had her first mouthful of grass. :)

We had lots of fun at Oma and Grandpa's house, swimming ...

Off-roading in the Gator (alpacas in the background, of course)

Eating raw tomatoes picked fresh from the garden.

and more swimming.

Molly and Kate also played at Grandma's house...

And spent lots of time with family ...

The two babies, just 4 months apart. Welcome, little Henry!!!!

I snuck into the living room to eaves drop on Lucy reading a Highlights High Five to Molly. Last night before bed Molly pulled out the same issue at our house and told me that Lucy has a magazine with the same pictures but different words. :)

We had a great time visiting. Kate learned to roll the other way -- from her tummy to her back -- sometime during the week, but she can't always do it. She also discovered that she can function just fine on WAY less sleep. We're now in the process of convincing her to go back to her super sleeper ways. That's easy, right?

As always, Molly was sad to leave. We were barely on the road (at the first of many, many rest stops) when she seemed a little weepy. I started telling her how soon we'd be home in our own beds with our own toys, etc., thinking that would help. It made her cry. She said she wanted to stay in Rochester longer.