the wonder that is uncle scootie

our good friend Scott (a.k.a. Uncle Scootie) worked his amazing magic again and took these beautiful pictures of molly a few weeks ago (i had to wait to post them because we were using a few of them as a bday present for me mom). but i thought everyone would enjoy! the Easter dress was made for molly by her Grandma Nancy - she looked like a little Alice in Wonderland. so beautiful!


and here are some of the outtakes!

bestest friends!

molly has many friends, she is a very lucky girl, and one of her bestest friends is our neighbor Mishya. Mishya is a bit older than molly (ok, a lot older, she's 7) but she is always super excited to hang out with molly and have play dates. she comes over and helps me give molly a bath. she sings molly songs and makes up games for her. she reads to her. i think it's nice for Mishya because she gets to have a part time little sister. and i know it's fabulous for molly because she worships Mishya and always has a blast with her and she gets to have a big sister influence, which is awesome. Mishya and her brother Keeton are some of the nicest, most respectful, smart, funny, beautiful kids i've met - and they are exactly the kind of folks i want molly to know and look up to. we're very lucky to have them as neighbors! and their parents rock too!

so a few weeks ago now (i'm a bit behind) we met up with them and our other fantabulous neighbors Cosette, James and their daughter Adriana (who turned one on April 9!) at the local McMenamins. and then molly, zero, Mishya and i headed down to Cathedral Park. Here is a slideshow of molly and Mishya playing in the park - this is what fun is all about!

now don't you just want to get outside, pull up some grass, throw it up in the air and run around? i sure do! and the weather has been nice enough to do just that. yay! happy spring!

pigtails

so, i finally managed to get molly's hair into pigtails. it's been long enough for a while now, but she really doesn't go for anyone messing with her hair. well, she let me a few days ago AND they stayed in for about 15 minutes. pretty sweet. i'm pretty darn sure that molly is the cutest human being to ever walk the earth, and i'll think you'll agree after seeing these pictures. (and be sure to check out the t-shirt)

aloha grandma, and mahalo!

zero's cousin Alana recently got married on the beautiful island of Kauai and zero and Grandma Mike went to partake in the festivities (lucky!). Grandma Nancy came up to Portland while zero was gone to help me take care of the wee one (and so i could go to work and not lose any of my precious vacation time which has all been carefully dolled out for 2009 down to the last hour). it had been a while since molly had seen Grandma Nancy (since January) but i think she recognized her pretty quickly, and by the time i saw them together (zero and molly had gone to the airport to pick her up and then swung by work to get me) they were like old friends squealing and laughing and throwing their hands in the air (i had to shush them in the library!)

so that night Grandma Nancy was put on book-reading duty while molly sat in her lap, and she did a very good job! molly was obviously impressed with her talent! I am a bunny by Ole Risom was never so riveting! (see above)

Grandma brought an early Easter basket from some of molly's friends in California and amongst all the wonderful goodies there was a "doodle-pro" that hangs on the fridge and where molly can draw something, erase it, and draw something else. she caught on immediately and she loves it!

we also had a ton of fun playing with the ball while Grandma was here. the ball is indeed one of molly's greatest obsessions. everywhere we go, whenever she sees something that is even remotely ball-like (anything round really) she will shout out, "ball!" and if she can get her hands on it, look out! she's got quite an arm on her! she loves throwing balls to dogs, she loves throwing balls to people, and her latest is kicking balls around too. she likes to watch basketball and kickball and i think we may eventually have a jock on our hands! which would make me proud, being that i was a jock myself. here is a picture of her about to really launch her pink ball!
another thing we did while Grandma was here was go to Kelly Point Park, where the Columbia and Willamette Rivers come together. it was a bit cold and wet, but we had a lovely time. and molly had a reason to wear her super cute yellow rain coveralls! molly of course spotted a "ball" in the water (one of the round floats, this one was bright red) and she had some fun watching a couple dogs chase after a ball. she did a lot of pointing and was fascinated with the birds. here is a slideshow of our time there (most of the pictures are of molly of course!).

we also had a lot of fun eating! we went out some (which is always fun) and Grandma made us some most excellent meals, which we loved! Ollie the duck loved it too!

and whenever dad would call, we'd all say hi and hear about the wonderful time he was having in Hawaii. this is a man who had a pretty extreme dislike for the place, but he really enjoyed Kauai and is already talking about when the whole family can go back and spend the night sleeping in a hammock in the canopy (not sure i'm really down with that, but it's fun to see him so excited!).
after a few days he came home and when molly spied him coming up the driveway, she stopped, pointed right at him, and screamed like the bloody Beatles had come to town. it was hysterical (and i'm sure very reassuring to daddy who was worried she would forget who he was while he was gone - such a silly!).

and, zero and i got to go on a date thanks to Grandma, which was really, really nice. though it is very odd for the two of us to be somewhere together and not have the baby either right with us or asleep in the next room. very, very odd.

below is a picture Grandma got of all of us right after zero came home. we really can't thank Grandma enough for coming up and spending time with us and taking such wonderful care of molly. we had a fantastic time (even with the major bonk on the head and subsequent trip to the doctor) and we ate so well, and things actually stayed clean while she was there. basically, Grandma Nancy ROCKS!

digging in the dirt

so most of you know that one of the reasons we fell in love with our house is that we have this huge lot out back. of course, since we moved in and molly joined us, we have done little or nothing to care for that huge lot. there was a time last spring when we had weeds up to our armpits (and my amazing husband removed them all in one weekend).

we took care of part of the problem when zero had his shed built and laid down a good size cement slab for his Kung Fu practice - no weeds growing there now. and we also made the very attractive move of laying down cardboard to help combat the weeds (the theory being that without sunlight, no weeds). but the laying of the slab left us with a mountain of dirt and now, with spring in the air, no amount of old cardboard is going to keep the weeds from rearing their green little heads.

so this past weekend, the May/Feeney family got in the backyard and started to work. zero and molly did a lot with the giant pile of dirt, spreading it around the yard, with the idea that we are going to rake it out and then lay down some native grass seeds (that will hopefully help keep the weeds at bay, even if just a bit). my job?...to document it all on film! (hey, it's a very important job!) and since we finally got ourselves a brand spankin' new camera, i was up for the challenge. it's like the good ol' days, i think i took 50 some odd pictures that morning! :) here is a slideshow of some of the best. hit the play button and enjoy!

she really enjoyed getting her hands dirty (and her tushy) as she sat in the dirt and played. we definitely have to get molly her own set of garden tools. we did stop for snack breaks, where we all washed up and then molly ferried cheddar bunnies back and forth to dad (sometimes eating them all before she got there). but mostly we all worked hard, and got very dirty! harley had a nice time too, with everyone outside. she may be getting older, but she's still the most beautiful pups around!

i also took some video. we got some great stuff of molly helping daddy out, but that's on the real video camera and hasn't been downloaded. in the meantime, here is a little one taking with the new digital camera we got. not the best quality, but she's still super cute throwing those dirt clumps!

so after a hard day working out in the yard, getting dirty, what's a girl to do? clean up, and put on our cape, that's what!
happy spring to everyone!

baby molly goes to arizona

we just got back from a wonderful weekend with family in Arizona. i did a terrible job taking pictures - we were just having too much fun and the camera kept getting left behind! but here are a few...

we flew into Phoenix on Thursday (it took us three tries but eventually Alaska came through with both a plane that could fly and a pilot that could fly it). molly was amazing seeing that we started at the airport around 3:30 and didn't take off until 8:30. we are so lucky!

but all that airport stress melted away the minute we got to warm, dry Arizona and met up with Aunt Erin. Erin bought a new house right around the same time we did back in 2007 and it was fantastic to see her new pad! we even had our own room (which of course looked like a bomb had dropped on it within 5 minutes of us showing up!)

molly loved seeing her Grandma Mike (who was parked out front in the RV!), Aunt Erin, her cousins Ryan and Sara and New Year, and all the pooches (Lila, Copper and Sammy). she really loved those pooches. it's always nice for her to be around dogs that don't just want to run away from her all the time. she gave them lots of hugs and kisses. our friends Karl and Kristin even stopped by to say hello (molly met them when she was very young and thought they were the cats pj's, and they are!)

she also chased her cousin Ryan (age 4) around the house, giggling away.Ryan was so sweet, giving molly gifts, inviting her to play with him, showing her around. Ryan is the closest in age to molly of all the cousins, and i know there will be a true friendship there in the years to come. just look at the fun they had together on the road trip to Tucson!

but before we left for Tucson, we got to see some very good friends of ours who used to live in Portland. Dan and Mary Jane now live in Phoenix with their adorable daughter Faith, who is 3. we went to their place for dinner and had a really wonderful time. they plan on being there a while, and we plan on seeing them whenever we go.

on Saturday AM we all headed down to Tucson to see Aunt Beth, Uncle Sean, and cousins Sinead and Declan (Declan and molly are in the picture to the left, Declan was making sure molly looked at the camera), plus poochie Dora. Aunt Beth had reserved us a ramada at a nearby park and cousins Jim, Tina, Maggie Rae and Callum came, as did molly's third set of grandparents, Linda and Jerry (Aunt Beth's mom and dad). there was playing on the playground, chasing balls, and snacking galore! [i completely forgot to take any pictures - argh!] and that night we got to celebrate cousin Sinead's 10th bday with delicious ice cream cake. i remember the last time we were in Tucson was the Mother's Day right after Sinead was born, it doesn't seem like it's been that long, but there you go...

the next day we started things off right with the famous Feeney cottage cheese pancakes. molly was extremely enthusiastic about them and polished off quite a few (and mommy was very enthusiastic about her homemade latte from Uncle Sean).

then it was on to dress up fun and pirates on the high seas! Sinead has a wonderful array of dress up clothes and she shared them with all of us. molly got all dressed up in a cape and boa and ran around like there was no tomorrow.

and even though she was pretty fancy, she didn't let that stop her from getting a little work done in the yard. i ask you, who else could mow in a sequinzed purple cape, and get away with it?! see below for the proof.


did i mention that Sinead gave us the cape? so now we can play dress up whenever we want (which will be often!).


another fun dress up item was the merlin hat, and here is a little slideshow of a few of the Feeney's sporting it!


as for the pirates, we all had much fun setting sail and watching Declan's pirate ships sail around the pool. there was Captain Bloodsword (with a name like Bloodsword, you'd kind of have to be a pirate, right?), Soldier Canonball (ditto with that name) and Jake (ah, he could have gone on to do pretty much anything i'd say). and of course, the evil Monkey King. molly very much enjoyed sticking her feet in the pool and splashing around - which caused some rocky seas for those pirates. but Declan was always there to fish out the men (and sometimes women in the case of the princess) overboard.

from Tucson we headed back to Phoenix and left for Portland on Sunday evening. it was whirlwind, but as you can see, we had a fabulous time. molly had her entourage of cousins who played with her, gave her zerberts, read her stories, and made sure she was having fun. everyone calls her "baby molly" and seeing that she is probably the last of this particular generation of Feeney's, i'm guessing its a nickname that will stick. she'll be 30 and her cousin Ryan will ask what "baby molly" wants for dinner.

and just so you know i was serious about the dress up, here is molly helping us unpack (while calling her peeps to let them know she was back in town), all dressed up!

happy, happy, haaaappy birthday, uncle john!

the little video below is in honor of our Uncle John's birthday (which was actually yesterday, March 1).

you see molly has this book titled The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too! (by Mo Willems) and at one point in the story, Pigeon exclaims that he is "happy, happy, haaappy!" and of course, we all get very enthusiastic about it. one day a while back i realized that molly was wandering around chanting, "happy, happy, happy" over and over again. too cute! and here was my attempt to get it on video.

and i figure what could be better than the adorable miss moo wishing her Uncle John a happy, happy, happy day!

i also feel i should apologize as this little clip clearly shows the utter chaos we live in, with piles of laundry and books and toys strewn everywhere...but i'm getting more and more comfortable with the state of our lives right now, and figure we'll a) suddenly have extra money (ha!) and hire a housekeeper, or b) molly will get old enough to help us clean and things will get better or c) we'll just continue to be slobs for the rest of our lives. whichever way it goes, it can't really be all that bad when you've got a beautiful and brilliant baby girl wandering around saying "happy" all the time!

so happy bday Uncle John, we love you!

molly in action

first off, doesn't molly look so jaunty in her new scarf (of friend of ours made it for her, it's soooo soft!)

second, i think i've figured out a better way to upload videos for ya'll, so here are a couple of molly doing her thing. these are a couple weeks old now, but just to give you a sense of the fun we're having around here! the first is of molly going through some of her words, and the second is her pointing out some of her body parts. enjoy!

choo choo

our friend Karen recently gave herself the most wonderful bday present, a trip to Florence, Italy! and while she was there she picked up the sweetest toy for molly, the train you see above! here is a little video of molly playing with her new train. she caught on immediately to "choo choo"! you'll note that most of the video is of her backside, it's because if she sees the camera, all bets are off (as you'll notice at the end). enjoy!

i [heart] molly!

my family has many traditions, many of them are pretty dang wonderful, but one in particular that i really, really love is my mom's valentine's day tradition. when i was growing up i would wake up every valentine's day to a trail of paper hearts that would lead me to my valentine. so cool! and this year, my mom sent me the bag of paper hearts (yep, she still had them!) and we started the tradition for molly. below is a little slide show of molly on the paper heart trail.

so yes, i know i went way overboard with the valentines, but she so deserves it! she got some new bath toys, a fish-shaped wooden castanet, some wonderful new clothes and shoes, a new book, a xylophone (we're all about the music around our house), and the pièce de résistance, a wooden "walk n' roll". wahoo, let the good times roll (and make really cool wooden chime-like sounds all around the house). here is a picture of her playing her new xylophone, be sure to note that she's sporting her first ever, super cute Converse tennies - yay! those are from grandma Nancy.

she LOVED chasing the hearts. she saw the first one and gasped. picked it up, saw the second one, gasped again, ran to it, put the first one down, picked the next one up and then noticed the next in line...gasp! and, as you probably noticed in the slideshow, some just went straight in her mouth (the big shiny ones were her favorite). i think the hearts were definitely the best part for molly!

and because i know you all need more of a molly fix, here are some other nice pictures. here on the left is one of her in her cozy robe, after a bath (with all her new bath toys) and reading with her daddy. they are so beautiful! our friend Jen showed us some new board books from the library, and one - This Little Chick by John Lawrence - is really a hit!



another fun new thing with molly is telling us when she's sleepy. when she looks a little tired we'll ask, "are you sleepy" and she'll just drop whatever she's doing, get down from wherever she's climbed, and lay all the way down on the ground. in this shot, her dad joined her. they were both very sleepy. and check out those curls on the back of her head.

shortly before she was sleepy, she was running around the house like a mad woman having a good ol' time. here she is, all smiles. what a beautiful girl!


and last but not least, our friend Jen gave us a valentine that had a temporary tattoo in it, and here is molly sporting her first tat (red scull and crossbones on her shoulder). like mother like daughter! tee-hee. actually, i told her she could have as many temporary tattoos as she wants, wherever she wants, but for the real thing she has to wait till she's 25, like i did! check her out...what a toughie!
hope everyone had a lovely valentine's day full of love (and at least a little chocolate)!

oh california

last weekend the may/feeney family went for a visit down to California. we were able to see family and friends and molly had a great time meeting folks and playing with everyone. we got in on friday and went straight to uncle John and auntie Laurie's house in Belmont. their house has a spectacular view and they recently finished putting in an amazing deck. the weather was unbelievable (in the 70's!) and we all sat out back enjoying a delish lunch and each other's company. here is a little slideshow of our visit there.


on saturday we lounged around, and had a nice visit from our friend Violet (for those at our wedding, violet was master of ceremony, she married us).

on sunday, we got to see everyone. we started off the day with brunch at our friend Sandra, Jason, Aiden and Zoey's. Vicki, Cameron and Stew came too (I went to high school with Sandra and Vicki). Molly and Cameron (Vicki and Stew's son) are very similar in age, and i must admit i'm hoping for a bit of a love connection there. :) here is a picture of molly playing pirates with Zoey. we really had nice time together and i hope to make that a regular get-together when we are down in Cali.

that afternoon uncle John and auntie Laurie came down, as did uncle Lonny and aunt Ritsu. my very good friend from elementary school - also named Jen - came by as well. there is a really nice park down the street from my mom's (it wasn't there when i was growing up, but i'm trying hard not to be bitter about that) so we went down there and got to meet up with molly's very good friends Angela and Anthony who came by to play. we also got to meet Geeta and Sasha finally, which was wonderful. by the way, molly's new backpack, was actually a party favor from Sasha's bday party, so we have her to thank for that!

grandma made us all a wonderful dinner and the best darn apple pie you have ever eaten, and there was celebration all around.

that same night zero and uncle John got the baby piano down from grandma's attic and molly had a blast pumping out the tunes! here some pictures of our little Amadeus (with some accompaniment by Holly the poochie)...


molly had such a wonderful time with her grandma (including getting to organize her cupboards), getting to see all her family and friends, chasing bubbles, and perhaps most of all, getting to play with the puppies. especially getting to throw the ball for Guapo, her new best friend (the poochie in the last picture of this slideshow).

it all went way too fast, and we are definitely going to stay longer the next time we go. our family ROCKS!

actual, honest-to-goodness hope

so molly got to watch mom and dad approved "television" for the first time last night. we decided that the swearing in of President Obama was just too historical for the moo to miss. so we all sat down at the dining room table and brought up both his oath of office and his inaugural speech on good ol' youtube. i had a feeling molly would like it. even in utero she appreciated good orators. when we would go see a play, or listen to someone give a presentation, a good heart-felt monologue would always get her kicking and squirming. and Obama being the guy he is, i thought he might capture her attention. i was right. and it was more than just the flashing lights, she was paying attention as she sat back and nibbled on her salad roll. and the best, the very best, was that when people clapped, she clapped right along with them. and she smiled the biggest smile. it was like she new something good was happening. i wish i had gotten a picture, but alas, we were all too wrapped up in the moment. and what a lovely moment it was. hope is a very good thing.

work is play, play is work

we work/play a lot around the ol' May/Feeney home front. you already know about all the book reading, playing with baby doll, and climbing fun. we also have a wonderful tunnel to crawl through (and play peek-a-boo with).

and we really like to dance around to disco hits of the 70's (i promise at some point to get a video up of that). this is a shot of moo in mid-disco, showing off her belly! [hey Papa, does that remind you of anyone?!]
and sometimes we give our peeps a call and set up some play dates. [Grandma Mike, bet you weren't expecting that combo when you sent all those lovely duds for molly at xmas!].
and sometimes we just get super silly!

hope you all are having fun too!

molly's backpack

molly got a wonderful present in the mail today, a backpack her Grandma May made for her! and doesn't she look jaunty with her new backpack on! we even got all bundled up to visit friends and had to put it on for the road!

i have a feeling this is going to become a common molly accessory! and handy, cuz now we can make molly carry stuff for us. kidding! (sort of)

"peek-a-boo puppy"...again?

our daughter has become a complete bibliophile. it was bound to happen. we've been reading to her since she was in utero. she sees her mom reading. and her dad...well her dad is found quite often with a book in hand, reading a snippet here and a snippet there between diaper changes, fixing lunch, and playing hide-and-go-seek.

so molly's absolute favorite thing (along with anything that gets her outside and, of course, the dog) is reading books. she brings them over and places them on your lap, or in your hand, or drops them on your foot - whatever necessary action to ensure you know it's time to read. she'll sometimes stand next to you, and sometimes she'll sit in your lap to read (my favorite of course).

for some of her favorite books, she knows what's coming and will prepare in some way. the book that has the little boy blowing out a candle, the page before she starts pursing her lips and blowing. the book where the piggy munches his lunch (and mom and dad "munch" molly whenever we get to that part), she starts giggling the closer you get to the page. and in her current fav book, called Dogs, a present from Grandma Mike, she knows what's coming on every page and finds the whole thing very exciting!

and the minute your done, she eagerly signs "more, more" and you start all over again! here is a slideshow of her reading Dogs with her dad.



happy reading everyone!

warning: will climb anything

so, it looks like we gave birth to a climber (and a percher, see above). she will attempt to climb anything...chairs, stairs, couches, beds, cupboards, walls...you name it. the other day, she was in our bedroom when zero stepped out for a matter of seconds and came back to the picture below. she had climbed the bed, grabbed mom's book of the bedside table and sat down next to harley to give her some pets and do a little light reading. how cute is that?!
so yes, she spends much time now toddling off to our bedroom, and then you hear, "grunt, grunt, grunt" as she climbs up onto the bed. and so far, only one spill. but yikes, my heart does race as i flutter around behind her, arms outstretched, in fear that she might fall. i try to keep smiling because i don't want her to be fearful, but i can't help but cringe sometimes as i watch her grunting her way to the top of the bed. our bed is pretty high, i mean, it would be like you and i climbing something that came up to our necks. not easy!

she also has a toddler chair that her friend Barbara made for her (along with her daughter Katherine) which molly loves to climb, or at least attempt to climb. she hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. but with our assistance she gets up to the top and sits back with a look of triumph.

our little climber! we've got some fun times (and possibly some big bruises) ahead!

argh, happy holidays, matey!

happy holidays from the may/feeney clan! what a wonderful (and white) christmas we had this year! we didn't have any travel plans, no one was coming to visit, so we hunkered down and enjoyed some delicious food, more snow than portland has seen in 40 years, and the best company anyone could ask for!
xmas eve morning we got all dressed up and went to Sarah and Scott's for xmas brunch. it was a very snowy morning, so we had to do some extra bundling, load molly into the backpack (care of the Hare's, thanks you guys!) and we made our way through the winter wonderland! molly looked beautiful in her dress and stripy tights, and had a lot of fun playing with Audrey, Sarah's niece.

because of all the snow, we didn't really get going on the xmas decorating until xmas eve. i went into downtown St. Johns and found a tree for us (actually, the nice man on the lot lopped off the top of much taller tree, so that we could have a tiny one to fit into our tiny home). i dragged it back and zero prepped if for the tree stand. molly helped me get out the xmas decorations and start setting up!


zero and i went very light on the prezzies for molly, but there were still mountains of them by xmas morning! here is what it looked like after Santa had come by...check out all those presents tucked behind the tree!
and here is molly xmas morning, seeing the tree decorated for the first time and getting her stocking! she was fascinated by the ornaments, but was also very gentle with them. it was really the cow bell that she liked the most, which i figured and purposefully stuck on the bottom for her to play with.

and then it was time for the present extravaganza, and here is a little slideshow of that! we started with stockings for her and Harley (yay, molly got her own set of keys - maybe mine won't get lost so often!) and then dove into the wrapped presents from friends and family. people were so generous and lovely. she got balls, and books, and booties, and beads, and baby dolls! in fact, the baby doll was my old baby doll, 'Amy' that my mom had cleaned up and sent for molly - that brought a tear to my eye!

she also got many new clothes and her own camera! shakers and puzzles and bath toys too! we were opening presents all day long (notice the many different outfits throughout the slideshow). and the last present she opened, right before bed, was the first present she got actually, from her Aunt Erin and cousins Sarah, New Year and Ryan.

other fun things we did that day, we had a xmas bath and played with our new bath toy. check out that xmas spirit diaper!
we also watched the snow fall, and in this shot you can kind of see it. the flakes were as big as silver dollars, and it was beautiful.
and we tried to take another family xmas picture, much like the one we did last year. check out the tiny tree and tiny baby, all bundled up in her daddy's arms. but for this year's shot, we had a mover! so a couple of the shots were just of her blazing through. our favorite blurry molly shot is below!
but in the end, we got one that worked!

we made up a big dinner (thanksgiving, part deux) and had an impromptu potluck dinner with our wonderful neighbors (who made fresh raviolis - yum!). and so we bundled up the miss again (in her xmas dress, xmas booties, and pixie hat!) and headed next door.
it really was a spectacular day. from our family to yours, happy holidays and a merry new year to you all!