Dear Molly

My dearest Miss Molly Jane,

Thank you for waking up in the midst of a poo-splosion at 4:00am. One that required changing your clothes AND your sheets. Thank you for then deciding that you would need a little somthing in your tummy before you would even consider going back to sleep. And finally, thank you for laying in your bed and having a VERY LOUD conversation with yourself until approximately 5:25am, (not that I was watching the clock praying for sleep or anything). I'm sure whatever it was you were discussing, (most likely railing at the injustice of being put back to bed) was extremely important. I was especially thankful when my alarm went off at 5:45.
I'm sure that when you are 13 and want nothing to do with me I'll yearn for the days when you were completely dependent on me, so this morning I am choosing to be thankful.
Love,
Mommy
p.s. This post was written without an ounce of sarcasm.

Almost 8 Months

Hello there! So it's been a while since I got around to posting an update, but things have been quite busy around here. Molly got tubes put into her ears, then she got really sick with a respiratory infection, then we had some major ice damming and our house has been under construction for 2 weeks.

I'll post a more detailed update on what's going on with Molly these days when she turns 8 months next weeks, but for now here are some pictures I've taken recently. Oh yeah, and she's still really flippin' cute!

Finally, a good shot of those pearly whites.

Daddy picked out her St. Patrick's Day outfit, it says I'm a McCutie.

She has lots of fancy toys, but really likes tupperware lids.

Important talks with Daddy.

She's big enough to hold her own bottle, and will stop mid meal to smile for the camera.

Yucky breathing treatments!

Excuse me Molly, you're supposed to be sleeping!

Watching Harvey provides hours of entertainment. No one can get her to giggle quite like he can.

The little monkey likes to climb on everything.

My fancy Juicy Couture outfit from Uncle Tom.

Cool Cousin Stephanie

These pictures are a few weeks old, but too cute not to share. Mike's niece Stephanie came over a few weeks ago to visit while her Mommy was getting a hair cut. Molly loves watching Stephanie and Steph was is patient and sweet to her. She may not be as patient when Molly is old enough to follow her around and really be a pest.

Steph learned the hard way about Molly's fascination with hair.


Excuse us, we're trying to watch cartoons!

There, that's better.

Our Weekend

We had a nice weekend, didn't get a whole lot accomplished but we had some fun family time. Yesterday we did some shopping and Molly had a great time because she is now big enough to sit in the cart. She loved being able to look around and smile at anyone who would give her the time of day. She also like chewing on the cart, but that's something we don't talk about as it grossed her germ-o-phobe Dad out!

After shopping we headed over to the Y for open swim time. This was Molly's 2nd time in a pool (the 1st was in Jamaica) and she LOVED it! She showed no fear and had so much fun splashing and kicking. At one point Mommy accidently dropped her little face in the water and she just looked at me like, "That was great, lets do it again!" I think we may have a little fish in our midst.

Don't you think her horizontal stripes are slimming?

We were so surprised to run into my cousin John and his wife Lindsay and their baby Jack at the pool. The kids aren't quite old enough to care about each other yet, but it won't be long until they are chasing each other around.

One unfortunate side effect of our trip to the pool yesterday was that in her bath tonight Molly remembered how to splash and made a huge mess in the kitchen. I think it may be time to move her into the bathtub!

Happy Girl

Miss Molly has been so much fun lately. She loves to laugh and smile and play with her toys. We went to the ENT this week and found out that she will be getting tubes in her ears on Feb. 22. The doctor said her ears are full of fluid and if we don't get the tubes put in it could affect her hearing and speech. So, even though we aren't thrilled with the idea of anesthesia, we decided this would be the best course of action. And hopefully this will stop the ear infections (She's had 6 rounds since October!).

Here are some recent videos that show some of this little lady's personality.

Mike turns 30

This post is a little late, but Mike turned 30 on January 10th and I just wanted to say that I am so grateful to be his wife. He is the greatest Daddy and I love to watch Molly light up when he enters a room.
He didn't have the most fun birthday ever because both he and Molly were sick and he had hurt his back, but we managed to get a little rock band in with the Gilberts. I have a pretty great video, but I am afraid of Carrie! Anyway, Happy Birthday Mikey, I love you tons!

He got a Wii for his birthday and he has done a good job of not letting it get in the way of quality time with Molly.

Baseball

"I can't look, did we win?"

Happy Half Birthday!

Can you believe this girl is 6 months old already!?! It seems like she is growing up so fast, but at the same time I can't remember what life was like without her. She is a very happy baby and her giggle is the best sound in the world (I realize I may be a little impartial).

Here are some Molly facts at 6 months:

Weight: 17.5 pounds

Eating: 6 oz. bottles every 3-4 hours. Absolutely REFUSES any type of cereal (rice, oatmeal, etc). Likes green beans, peas, and carrots but is very finicky about eating and some days will clamp her little mouth shut for anything but the bottle. We are going to work on introduing fruit during the next few weeks.

Likes: Harvey! She loves watching him and when we go anywhere away from home she will lean down and look around the floor for him. Daddy! Molly loves Daddy a lot and he can always get a smile out of her. When she is tired or cranky she prefers Mommy, but for entertainment purposes it's all Daddy. Baths. We are still using the baby bathtub in the sink, but she will outgrow that soon and I'm sure will love transitioning to the big tub.

Dislikes: Getting strapped into anything, particularly the car seat. She is fine once we get going, but the strapping in is torture. Her high chair. I think this is because of the whole strapping in thing, but we have only had success feeding her if we are holding her. Little turkey! Getting dressed. Our little girl prefers to be naked and wrangling her into clothes can sometimes be an adventure.

Activity: Molly is rolling from back to tummy easily, but hasn't quite figured out how to go from tummy to back. She is sitting up pretty well on her own, but can tip over when she chews on her feet (yes, she's very intelligent). She isn't crawling yet, when she lays on her tummy she looks like she's swimming with her arms and legs moving, but she hasn't learned to lift that little midsection yet.

Health: She still takes Prilosec twice a day for her reflux. We thought about trying to ween her off because our doctor said that they sometimes will outgrow reflux, but after 2 days without the medicine it became apparent she definitely hasn't outgrown it yet. Molly has had several colds this winter and 5 ear infections. If she gets one more we go to see the ENT to see about tubes. She is finally getting over the cold that started the week before Christmas and we are hopeful that she will stay healthy!

Sorry this is kind of lengthy, but I want to be sure I remember all this stuff! All in all, she is the greatest gift we could ask for and we are proud to be her Mommy and Daddy.

Daddy kisses always make me giggle!

I love my exer-saucer!