Happy brushers

What's better than brushing your teeth with a new toothbrush from the dentist? Brushing with friends!!

The kids ran around all afternoon yesterday but they were too fast for my camera. I think this might have been the only time they stopped moving long enough for photos. :)

Dentist

I finally got around to calling this morning to make Molly's first dentist appointment. Turned out they had an opening this afternoon and Molly was thrilled. She woke up from her nap with a huge grin.

She told me she was going to open her mouth for the dentist but I wasn't sure. When she went with Daddy for his last appointment to see what the dentist is all about, she snapped her mouth shut and refused to let anybody look inside.

Boy did she open her mouth! This hygienist said she might be the most agreeable 3-year-old she's ever worked on. She did absolutely everything the woman asked. She picked mint toothpaste (of all the kid-friendly flavors, including cookie dough -- ick! I think she chose wisely.) She let the woman scrape her teeth, floss, everything. She happened to be sitting on my lap when the dentist finally came in. All he did was look at her and she opened her mouth wide open. It was one of those moments that makes me wonder who this kid is and what she did with the baby I used to know. Could this be the same kid who freaked out at doctors' offices when she was 1 and who would burst into tears whenever a man she didn't know looked at her?

Here she is wearing silly green bug glasses ("Just like Eve wore silly glasses at the dentist," she says -- hooray for the age of blogs!!!)

Showing off her clean teeth while we waited for the dentist. She was so excited she kept showing me again and again. The hygienist brought over a mirror so she could see them herself.

She asked me to take a picture of her new toothbrush. I'm not sure anybody has ever enjoyed the dentist so much -- and that was before they loaded her up with lip balm, silly bands and a tiny toy ninja. Good times.

Night away

Oma and Grandpa came this weekend and sent us out for dinner and an overnight get-away. Woo hoo!!! As we expected, Molly hardly noticed we were gone. From what we hear, she went to bed smoothly and on time, slept in a bit in the morning and showed no signs of missing us whatsoever.

It was the first time Jim and I were both away over night without Molly, so it was a good test. I think we were all ready for it. I certainly didn't spend the evening worrying about Molly (although I did wake up at Molly's usual time -- which turned out to be earlier than even she woke up -- and was showered and ready to go in record time). 

Grandpa reads to Molly.

New babe

So, I've still got 6 weeks until the due date and I'm not sure where this baby's going to go as she keeps growing.

I'm only about 5 pounds heavier than I was at this point in pregnancy with Molly, but then when you consider you gain roughly a pound a week at this point and Molly was almost a week early -- this is about where I was when Molly was born!!!! No wonder I suddenly am having trouble standing in the kitchen for long periods of time. No wonder I can't bend over without grunting. Poor Molly has just reached the point where she finds it uncomfortable to sit on my lap and it's really bothering her. I tell her it's only temporary (while tactfully leaving out the part about how a nursing pillow is probably going to blocking my lap for the indefinite future once the big belly is gone).

This pregnancy has been an entirely different experience than the last in terms of our interaction with the health care system (knock on wood). With Molly, we got caught in a tangle of just-in-case tests and borderline results and a whole bunch of appointments that I still think had more to do with the hospital protecting themselves from malpractice suits than the health of the baby. With this baby, everything has been completely normal. Our appointments last about five minutes and mostly involve chatting with the midwives. I really hope it stays this smooth until the end. Our next appointment is at the beginning of March and then we start going in weekly. Weee!!! It's getting close!!!

Warm day!!

It's almost 60 degrees out!!! Melt, snow, melt!!!



Here's Molly with her Valentine's Day pink milk. The cherry jigglers were the highlight. When she talks about the day, she refers to it as Jiggler Day rather than Valentine's. :)

About a month ago, Molly started drawing real pictures totally out of the blue. One day it's scribbles, the next it's houses and driveways and rainbows and stuff. It's like she got the memo that she's a 3-year-old and *bing* the new skills light up. This is a picture from yesterday. Can you tell what it is? In the middle there's a cat with a tiny eye and smile. To the right is its cup with food, which she's coloring in.

Funny moment of the morning: Molly's in her bedroom chattering away happily to herself about white socks or something when I hear her shout to me down the hall, "Nobody understands me!!! Not even you!!"

Huh. Then I remember this is a line out of Purplicious, which we just got out of the library. Sort of. "Not even you" is purely her own invention. Maybe it's time for another memo reminding her that she's only 3.

Take that, winter!

The snow banks are closing in on us!! I was relatively warm this weekend but the snow hasn't moved. It's no fun to play outside because the snow is still too deep (not to mention crusted over and icy, so no good for making stuff). When Molly ventures in she gets her boots stuck and I have to wade in and rescue her. So we're confined to the driveway and the now super icy path to the front door. Needless to say, she doesn't want to stay outside very long when we do venture out.


So today we're fighting back. I got a bag of potting soil out of the basement and we planted flower seeds. I don't care that they'll never survive more than three months until planting season. These are purely for indoor entertainment.

I've been helping Molly make a list of all the things she comes up with that she wants to do in the summer. So far we have:
-- be inside a bubble,
-- go to the beach,
-- get oranges
-- go to Grandma's house and eat outside at the little picnic table.

At least Molly has been pretty good at entertaining herself indoors for the past month or two. She comes up with the most random stuff when she's playing. Tonight when I was walking on the treadmill (very slowly and pregnant-like, ugh!) Molly came down with a rag from upstairs, lifted the hooves of her ride-on horse (which she recently named Beauty) and rubbed off his feet. I asked about this and she told me Beauty had been eating oatmeal and cherries but he got all messy so she needed to clean the oatmeal and cherries off his feet.

We're excited for Valentine's Day tomorrow. I got a bunch of red and pink foods (red pepper soup, tomato sauce for pasta, etc) and we're going to use food coloring to make Molly's milk pink -- always a treat! But the big event is that today we made cherry Jello jigglers to cut into hearts and eat tomorrow. All day Molly was opening the refrigerator to sniff because it smelled like Jello. She's been saying "I can't WAIT to eat Jello." That's one of her new favorite phrases -- "I can't WAIT for Grandma to get here," "I can't WAIT to have milk at dinner." She says it with such drama I think she honestly means it.