the cutest little girl in the world...

yep, it's true, she is. ya'll can't deny it. she's the cutest. and the most brilliant! and she's 5 months old today!

here she is starting to sit up. she loves sitting and playing with her toys. talking to them. it's great fun for everyone. and she's rolling from tummy to back like a pro!

here she is all snugly before a walk yesterday, in a little outfit her friend Beverly gave her. it snowed for us here in Portland yesterday, so she needed to be extra snugly!

Grandma comes for a visit!

we had the best weekend! Grandma May came for a visit and it was awesome. on friday, us ladies went to a late breakfast together at our new favorite place, Little Red Bike Cafe - molly loved watching all the action of people coming and going, as well as the ceiling fan! later in the day molly had a bath, during which there was much splashing and playing - and Grandma caught it all on video. our friends Shani, Sarah and Scott came over for dinner that night which was super fun (by the way i want to make a public congrats to Scott for being accepted into PSU's Masters of English program - wahoo!)

the next day we went to Book Babies at the downtown library and hit the stores. throughout, molly was happy and smiley and fascinated with it all - we are so lucky!

we (i) need to get some video up of molly chatting with her friends (her stuffed animals and other toys) it is really wonderful to listen to. but the best, the very best, is waking up to molly's smile in the morning - what a way to start the day - maybe we can get that on video too so we can share the love!

below is a pic of three generations of may women together. it makes me wish so much that my grandmother was still alive, she would be head-over-heals for molly.

molly's play things

we seem to name all of molly's toys...there's meow meow the cat, hop the bunny, dingolambdog the puppet, el pollo loco the chicken, and el spherico azule the blue ball - just to name a few. all are well loved and well slobbered on.

molly just got a new toy from her friend Kell and it has a name too, one that zero gave it...the "bad boyfriend". why, you might ask? because much like a bad boyfriend molly loves her new toy and whenever she sees it she wants it, but shortly after being with it a while, it makes her cry. she tosses it aside. but almost immediately she wants it again, even though it's bad for her. it's pretty funny. and here she is with "bad boyfriend", looking a little guilty.

right now molly is talking up a storm, which makes us very happy. we love molly speak. she is also dealing with her first ever cold which i think is actually more traumatic for us than for her.

we're also getting ready from Grandma May to come - very exciting!!

coming soon...cuddles-thenics (much like calathenics, but for cuddlers).

happy st. patty's

it all started a year ago today, when zero and i went to our friend Joe's st. patty's party and i celebrated a bit too much. ;) six days later when i still felt hungover, it finally occured to me that it might actually be something else. and so on friday, march 23, during zero's lunch hour, we took the pregnancy test and found out about molly. wow!

and look at us today - our happy, healthy, strawberry blond, at least a quarter Irish, little girl. what a beauty! i wonder if she'll always want to have a party on st. patty's day?...memories from the womb.

oh, and zero called me at work today to tell me some fantastic news...MOLLY ROLLED OVER! she's been trying for days, but that pesky arm kept getting in the way. but this morning (with "a little help from the landscape" zero said), she rolled over all by herself! huzzah!!

so happy st. patty's day. here's to the Irish and here's to rolling over!

when good friends come to visit...

yesterday, our very good friends, Hope, Drew and their son Kell came to visit from Seattle. Hope and Drew have been our friends for many years and some of you may remember when we were able to go visit them in Norway a couple years ago (and while we were there Hope wasn't feeling very well and it turned out she was pregnant)! Kell was born on December 29, 2006 - which makes him around 15 months old - and he is quite the handsome young man! he's walking, signing, feeding himself and has 10 teeth! he is a real joy to be around (as are his parents)! wow...parents...i can't believe we're all parents...how'd that happen?

we had a great time, we all went for a walk together, played with toys, and got a chance to catch up (though we could have used a few more hours, or days even). and as you can see from the picture at the top, molly is a bit smittin' with the young man. i foresee a very good friendship in their future. and at the very least, they dress alike (actually, that was molly's fourth outfit for the day and Kell's second. molly had a lot of blowouts, Kell just got crazy with his pasta and cheese). zero, molly and i are gonna try and make it up to Seattle in the next few months for another visit - maybe we'll take the train!

oh, and speaking of teeth, i can feel one of molly's coming in - not to mention the drool and knuckle-gnawing is out of control - i can't believe our little molly moo is getting teeth. where does the time go?

wearing molly

so last friday, zero, molly and i went to talk to an expert "baby wearer"...baby wearing is huge these days, and basically means using a sling or carrier of some kind to tote your baby around with you.  when you go for walks you can use this rather than a stroller or, if you are home and need to get things done, you can strap them on and do your housework.  this had been in our game plan from the start, but before molly moo was even born we went out and bought slings that never really worked for us once she actually got here - bummer.   so last week we met this expert (Dacia) and she had these long strips of fabric that you wrap around yourself and the baby and voila, you're as one!  i had seen these things on other people before, but it all seemed way too complicated for me - i mean, i'm not nearly coordinated enough...but it worked!  and now i'm on board with the whole wrap thing.  and as you can see from the picture above, molly seems pretty on board too (and check out her new hat!).  watch out world, here we come!

oh, and i should mention, we have a FABULOUS baby carrier (the ErgoBaby, thanks to Auntie Becky) that we will be using in the future, but molly isn't quite big enough for it yet.

what a difference a few months can make...

after watching the video in the post below, and seeing what a very tiny girl miss molly moo was in the beginning, now take a look at the picture above, taken just a couple of weeks ago...molly in her fantastic, yellow leg-warmer ensemble - now those are some thighs! at her dr. appt today, she weighed 16 lbs, 5 oz! 90th percentile baby! booya! we are so proud.

we have lots more video of her, only most of it hasn't been loaded on the computer yet, so while molly works on those thighs (and belly and chins) i will work on getting those ready and up on the blog for your viewing enjoyment!

kickers!

one of the reasons to do this blog is so we can share pictures and videos with folks who don't get to see molly every day. i am giving it a shot with this video - one of molly-moo's very first televised appearances. she was great with her kickers from day one! and speaking of her kickers, check out how skinny those legs were!

and so it begins

everyone said we would start a blog once we had our child, and they were right. it took us 4 months, but here we are...the adventures of miss molly moo. you can visit here to see pix, videos and hear about all the wonderous things molly does as she grows and learns. enjoy!