Nine Months!

yep, Molly is 9 months old today. can you believe it? i know i can't. and we had quite the weekend leading up to this momentous day!

on friday night we got all dolled up in semi-matching ensembles and went to our friend Emily-Jane's b-day party. Emily-Jane always throws a great party and we had a splendid time meeting new people, visiting with old friends, and nibbling on tasty treats.

saturday morning we went to our swim lesson and that same afternoon (here comes the big news!)...molly officially crawled! for weeks now, you've all heard me say she's on the verge. well saturday afternoon we were hanging out together in the living room - one minute she's doing her usual almost crawling thing of going from sitting, to lunging, to rocking back and forth on her knees - and the next minute, she's crawled 5 feet to her toy box! just like that! no warning, no "hey mom, better get the camera ready cuz i'm about to blow your socks off", she just did it. it was as if she'd been crawling her whole life. it was amazing!

i did manage to calm down enough to grab the camera and shoot some footage and below you have a short clip of her second crawling adventure! after that, she was unstoppable. she crawled to the dog bed. she crawled into the kitchen and pulled the chairs around. she crawled back into the living room and pulled most of her books of the bookshelf. i cannot express in words the pride i felt, but you can kind of hear it in the video clip. in fact, i almost didn't want to post the video because i sound like such a doof with my cheering her on...just flash forward 10 years, molly is playing team sports, basketball perhaps, and there i'll be, the crazy lady in the bleachers screaming her head off. and i will have learned from the best because my own mom was that same "crazy lady". she came to all my games - along with my grandma - and cheered me and my teammates on. we actually have a video somewhere that's from one of my basketball games where you can't see my mom, but boy can you hear her! she's sitting right next to the camera cursing the refs and cheering us on. it's hysterical. heck, at one of my games she almost got into a fist fight with the coach from the rival team. now that's a mom! of course, there is the possibility that molly won't be into athletics, perhaps she'll be on the chess team, or a debater - well i'm here to tell ya i'm gonna be there at every debate, cheering like mad!

so after all the excitement of crawling, we went to the Peninsula Park Rose Garden on saturday evening and saw a friend of ours in a performance of Midsummer Night's Dream. it was an outdoor performance on a lovely summer evening and while there, we bumped into our friends Monica, Rick and Mobius who joined us for a while. molly and Mobius played on the blanket together and were truly adorable.

so as you can see, it was a big weekend, for a big, 9-month old girl!

summer vacation 2008

first off, i am so sorry. i realize i have been very lax lately about getting pictures of molly-moo out to the masses. it's been hectic and we were prepping for our big summer vacation. but i will try not to go so long again. and i plan on making it up to folks with lots of pictures. plus i'm working on a short video that i hope to get up in the next couple of days...of course, with a baby around days can turn into weeks, and even months... :)


so last wednesday we embarked on our journey up into the northwoods of Minnesota, to lovely Lake Vermilion and Camp Feeney. zero has been going to the Feeney family cabin on Ely Island since he was a young boy and i am so excited that molly gets to have this beautiful and magical place be a part of her childhood. this year we were only able to make it for a week, but in the future we are hoping to go for longer. all of her Feeney aunts and uncles and cousins were there, and her grandma Mike.

the adventure started with our first trip the emergency room with molly (all is fine!) and a mad dash to make it to the airport on time, pretty much straight from the ER. none of us had slept and we spent the entire day on a plane (from Portland to Chicago, Chicago to Minneapolis) and then 4 hours in the car up to the lake. molly was amazing, i truly cannot believe what a trooper she was. and once we arrived at at the beautiful lake (see picture above), we all immediately relaxed. and of course, molly slept great that night, so the key to making molly sleep through the night? simple, keep her up the 24 hours prior! on the left is a picture of her the morning after we arrived with most of her Feeney cousins. on the right is the entire Feeney clan!

molly had a wonderful time playing with her cousins and generally being doted upon by the whole family, and who can blame them really!

she took her first dip in the lake on Sunday, and though it was chilly, she didn't make a fuss. here is a picture of her with her dad right before the big event (left), followed by a picture of her shortly after (right). she looks so cool in her wetsuit.











i can't put into words how wonderful being at the lake is, it's all about family and relaxing and the views are spectacular! here is one from the dock...

so suffice it to say we had a wonderful vacation, and one week was not nearly enough time. though my brother-in-law says that 9 weeks isn't enough time either, and i believe him. we wish you all a wonderful summer and hope that you are able to spend some relaxing time with the people you love!