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!

sharing the love

two posts in one night, it's excessive i know, especially when i'm as tired as i am right now, but i was behind on the posting and i just have to share the love. and speaking of love, molly L-O-V-E-S her teething biscuits, as you can see from this series of shots...she gnaws at them, drools all over, and makes a pretty impressive mess. and they are made with maple syrup, so everything smells all maple-y and delicious.

and when she's done, she calls in her buddy harley to help with clean up. this really cracks molly up, and makes harley pretty happy too. and here's a little video of it! (sorry about the high-pitched noise in the background, not sure why our videos are doing that. but hopefully hearing molly chuckle will make it all worth while).
love to everyone!

girls weekend!

molly, shani and i took a trip to the coast this weekend, just us girls, and we had a blast.

we went to Newport, OR and took in the sites. we especially wanted to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium (pictured above)...you see a few weeks ago, when molly and i went to the zoo, the thing she seemed to like best were the fishies - so what better than an aquarium with nothing but fishies. and she really did seem to enjoy it.

she also saw the ocean for the first time (please note that the picture on the right of molly and i at the beach was taken at 5:30 in the morning when molly decided to wake up, so forgive the dishevelment).

she took her first dip in the Pacific Ocean and after a few seconds of her toes being in the chilly water, she quickly pulled up her little legs, sand between her tiny toes...i was very proud!

molly was an excellent travel companion, she flirted with lots of new people, made friends, and besides some screaming through parts of the looong drive to and from Newport, never complained about being dragged from place to place with naps on the fly and food out of jars. i'm betting she'll travel the world someday. and hopefully she'll take shani and i with her!

svimvare!

molly had her first ever swim lesson today and her first dip in a pool. she was, as usual, a complete champ! she was a bit upset by the pre-swim showers, but who could blame her, they were ice cold. once we got out on deck we joined our group of "angelfish" in the water. "angelfish" is what they call the 6-18 month group and on the right there is a picture of all of us in our little circle. one other little girl in the group was wearing the exact same bathing suit molly almost wore - luckily she had pretty much outgrown it so we went with a different one - what a pool time faux pas that would have been! :)

from there we basically had a "book babies", but in the water. we sang the "noble duke of york", and another little tune that played off of "i'm a little teapot" but was about floating on your back. we played with watering cans and splashed water on our heads, we chased balls around in the water (that was molly's favorite...future water polo player? perhaps!) and we practiced our kicks. of course for those who have been with this blog since the beginning, you know molly has excellent kickers!

when the class was done we introduced ourselves to another little boy in the group who was almost 7 months. molly tried to grab his face a couple times, i think the other mom might have been a little freaked, but i found myself thinking about water polo again...man, she's gonna be great at it! and here she is after her first swim lesson with her very proud dad!


after all the excitement we got in the car and miss moo fell sound asleep. all that fun is exhausting!

it really was pretty much the most fun i've ever had. i've been waiting for this moment since molly was born. i'm part fish myself you see, and i really wanted molly to love the water too. if today was any indication, she'll be a lot like her mom in that respect. in a couple weeks, we are going to visit the feeney family in minnesota. they have a cabin, on an island, in the middle of a lake, and in the past i've spent a good deal of my time there in the water. this year, molly can splash around with me!

oh and a few more quick molly announcements. for those i haven't already bragged to about this, molly can now go from sitting, to stretching out completely on her belly to get something, and then back to sitting. pure and utter genius i tell you! she is also cutting her third tooth, this time it's top left. lastly (and you may want to sit down for this one) she seems to now enjoy mangos. i know, i know, it's amazing! they went from being the most evil thing she had ever tasted to "hey, that's pretty darn yummy!" it just goes to show you can't label this girl, she's a mystery! a wonderful, perfect, water-loving mystery!

summer reading

every summer the library hosts a program called summer reading in which tens of thousands of kids participate by reading (or being read to) throughout the summer...the hope being that they will be better prepared for the upcoming school year and, let's face it, for life in general. molly doesn't have to worry about school yet, but we know the importance of reading and fostering a love of books, and we have been reading to her since she was in utero. so suffice it to say, we were super excited to sign her up for her first summer reading this past thursday!

above and to the left you see her with her summer reading game board, which is how you track the amount of time you've spent reading. she of course thinks it's just another thing to chew on, and during this photo shoot actually took a bite out of the "bonus path" (those in the know, know what i'm talking about...) the deal is you get little incentives along the way, and if you finish the entire game, you get entered to win a trip for 4 to disneyland. well, not molly actually, because she's my daughter and i work for the library...conflict of interest and all...but still, what fun!

molly's current fav books are:

-- Owen and Mzee: Best Friends by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff and Dr. Paula Kahumbu
-- Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boyton
-- Skip to My Lou by Nadine Bernard Westcott
-- and anything in the "urban babies wear black" series by Michelle Sinclair Colman and Nathalie Dion, but especially "Eco Babies Wear Green"

so other than the Urban Babies one, we seem to like books about animals, especially animals coming together and having a little fun! but who doesn't really?!

now molly's idea of reading consists of letting us read to her for a page or two, then demanding the book, possibly flipping through a couple pages, and eventually putting it in her mouth. i am embarrassed to say we have returned many a library board book that were pretty much missing their corners. ah well, i like to say she literally devours books!
and sometimes she eats and reads at the same time, as this last picture shows...


if this little post has got you all wanting to join molly and do a little summer reading yourself, there's a section on my library's website with links to lists of great reads for summertime and i have to recommend the book i'm reading right now. it's called The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber. it's very exciting!

learning to crawl

you can't imagine how utterly complex crawling is until you watch a baby learning how, just as molly is doing right now. she's almost got it, she's right on the verge. just a few more little tweaks, a bit of fine tuning, and we'll be chasing her around the house, baby-proofing like crazy! and in the end, we are pretty sure it's not all of our encouraging words or excited clapping (which actually just makes molly stop what she's doing and clap along with us), but harley the pooch who is the impetus for molly learning to crawl. she loves harley so and wants nothing more than to be near her. so we set up the mat in the living room, position the dog, and know that at any moment she'll stop face planting and move forward. just an inch at first, but then the sky's the limit! very exciting times lay ahead...(though i'm not sure that's how harley would describe them)

and because it is father's day, here are some super cute pictures of molly with her dad...and her brand new sippy cup from IKEA. the sippy cup is meant for someone slightly older than miss moo, but she adores it and with the warmer weather it helps keeps her cool what with all the spilling of water down the front of her. in this series of shots, she ends up lunging for the camera, which is the norm right now. she lunges for everything. the dog, zero's glasses, her toys...


send good crawling thoughts our way!!

dads rule

warning, i'm feeling a little mushy.

so we celebrated father's day today (because i work on sundays) and it was a truly wonderful day. the weather was perfect and we started the day off with a delicious breakfast right after zero opened his father's day presents. one present molly gave him is a mug that says "daddy loves molly". we read early on that it's better not to use pronouns with your baby. they don't get "i" and "you" at first, so zero has always said to her, "daddy loves molly"...and thus the mug was born. and you can tell from the picture how much daddy loves molly (and he seems to care for his mug a great deal too!)

now to the mushy stuff...

i don't know my father, but i am blessed to have the greatest mom in the entire world, who did an unbelievably amazing job raising me and who is one of my very best friends. i am also extremely fortunate that my grandfather and uncle have always been a huge part of my life, helping raise me and making me feel special (that includes you too, uncle Lonny!). and for the past 14 years, long before zero and i were actually married, i had a father-in-law who from day one treated me as if i were one of his own children (i miss you very much Tee). but i didn't grow up with my father around, and so i really didn't know first hand what it was to have a father. and so when i watch zero with molly, and i see the amazing love he has for her, and i feel the pride he has in her, and i know that he will do everything in his power to keep her safe as long as he lives, it truly makes my heart sing. no really...it sings! la-la-la-laaa!

so to all the great dads, uncles, brothers and good guys out there, you rule! and molly and i wish you all a very happy father's day.

gee your butt looks terrific!

just in case you think i've pushed it too far with today's post title, let me explain..."gee your butt looks terrific" is, in fact, an homage to the "Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific" shampoo line i remember from my youth (and according to this website, is back again - oh joy). it's odd to me, an entire product line based on how it makes your hair smell - not whether or not it gets it clean, or makes it healthier - just that it smells good. fascinating.

of course molly has the best smelling hair ever, and she has yet to use any shampoo, much less stinky ones! take that silly shampoo!

ok, so back to the butt thing and how terrific it looks...

zero and i have been talking about trying a different diaper method for some time now. we knew we couldn't handle cloth diapers (and if you saw the size of our washing machine, you would understand why) so we started with "green" disposable diapers. however the visits from our friend in the military, Major Blowout, were/are frequent and the earth-friendly diapers just can't handle that kind of action. plus they don't seem to help much with keeping the ever-persistent diaper rash at bay. so, we moved to Huggies. and though Huggies better contain the Major (nothing can totally contain him) and help with the rash, they make us feel guilty and we had to find a better (greener) way. so we looked into flushable diapers and found a local Portland company that sells some called (and here is where we get back to the title of this post)...g diapers. get it? g? gee your butt looks terrific? it's all coming together!

we had purchased a starter kit when molly was much smaller but unfortunately never tried it, and soon she grew out of it and we had to give it away. but this weekend we made a real commitment to giving it a shot and here you will see miss molly sporting her very sassy g diaper while playing in her crib. too cute! and so far (only two days mind you) they have held up to the challenge! if you are interested in learning more let me know.

ya know, i wonder if in 10 years, when molly looks back over these blog postings, if she is totally gonna hate me for telling folks pretty consistently about her butt, and all the things that go on and/or come out of it. not to mention the pictures. poor, poor girl. but when you're a baby (or the parent of a baby) it's just a fact of life that much of your world revolves around the butt. and what a perfect little tushy she has!

beyond all that, we had a nice weekend. did some more work in the backyard, saw some friends, decided that Home Depot is hell on earth and will never, EVER go there again, made some brownies, took a couple naps with the current fav toy "mr. blahblah man" (pictured here) and tried avocado for the first time (molly that is, z and i have had it before). and lucky for avocado, it seems to be pretty dang low on the old molly gag-factor. yay!

hope all is well with you and yours!

molly accouterment

babies come with lots of things. we've done pretty good (or at least, i like to think so) staying away from many of the baby accessories, but there are a couple of things that have been really handy. for instance, the food mill! yep, we make our own baby food here at chez may/feeney all thanks to the our food mill and the awesome book our friend Martha gave us, Super Baby Food. stick stuff in, turn the handle, and presto-change-o...molly food! we've done yams, mango, apple, carrots, and tonight, baking potato. i love it! the picture of it is with carrots.

unfortunately for the carrots, molly gave them a gag-factor of 7 (on a scale of 1 to 10) so we're leaving them off the menu for the time being. but hey, they still weren't as bad as mangos (gag-factor 10+)! actually, with the exception of yams, she really does seem to prefer white things (oatmeal and rice), so we hope potatoes are a thumbs up.

next baby gadget...well, let me begin at the beginning. first off, i have high hopes that sometime in the very near future i will stop being a lazy so-and-so and start riding my bike again- which, by the way, is still sitting in the basement at work from the last time i rode it in, somewhere around 12 weeks of pregnancy when i was sicker than a dog. so, once i get my bike back home, and i start riding it all the time to get into super-duper shape, i am of course gonna want molly to tag along with me. and because i could never do one of those seats attached to the bike (because i've been known to fall over just standing with the bike at a stoplight) i decided we needed a trailer. i asked around, got some recommendations and folks said "go Burley"! it was spendy (thank you economic stimulus check) but i have to admit, so far i'm impressed.

side note: what does a sleep deprived mom do in the middle of the night while her husband is in a play and her daughter is sound asleep? sleep herself, right? no, i decided to put the Burley together. the picture of it in the living room was taken at 12:30 AM. what's wrong with me?

but i was able to put it together, which is the first plus. and this was after finding it had a part that broke during shipping, but the Burley folks were super nice and with no questions asked, sent me a replacement. plus they are local (Eugene, OR). so i'm pretty excited about it.

we tried it in stroller mode today (you can add a wheel to the front and use it like a stroller, or attach it directly to your bike). molly enjoyed it for the most part. i think she's gonna end up loving it! plus, it has tons of room, so we can stick groceries in the back and heck, maybe we'll throw harley in there too!) and now, finally, what you've all been waiting for, a cute picture of molly in her new trailer! (also note she is wearing her new leg warmers, they are kinda hard to see, but trust me, super cute!)

ok, i really should try sleeping. until next time...

catchin'-up up on the cuteness

so last we heard from our great adventurer miss molly moo, she was off to the zoo - and she had filled up the hard drive on her mom's computer with her amazing cuteness! but then grandma May came to town, with external hard drive in hand, and voila, we're back in the game! (thank you grandma!) so now we need to catch up all the fans on molly's goings-on...

so yes, the zoo. we put on our sun screen and our shades, packed our water, and met up with our friends Terri, Jim, Paige and Skylar on what managed to be one of the hottest days of the year. so we didn't stay very long. but it was great to see our friends and we want to send a special shout out to Skylar and Paige who turned 1 year old yesterday - wahooo!! happy birthday sweeties!










on the food front, she hates mango. zero says the look on her face when mango gets anywhere near her lips says, "ah, so this is what evil tastes like." alas, mango is off the menu for the time being. as are apples. but oatmeal, that's definitely on the nummy-yummy list! we love oatmeal! next up, carrots!


in other news, molly had her first babysitters on the 18th...her aunties Sarah and Shani. as you can imagine, molly was a dream babysittee - doling out smiles and giggles and love - not to mention feeding herself.

and then this past weekend grandma May came to town and babysat twice for us (so i could go see zero in his play, and so that the two of us could go on a date! our first solo date in 6 months, wow! thank you again grandma!)

and beyond just the babysitting, it was great to have my mom here. molly could show off her almost crawling (she is so close), her almost clapping (a clap without a sound), and of course her expert raspberries (i joke that our house is full of spit...spit and love).

molly also sported a new hairdo while mom was here (the bathtime faux-hawk) and a new hat (no elephants were harmed in the making of this hat). for some reason, beyond the obvious uber-cuteness, this "hat" had grandma and i laughing so hard we were crying.







and working together we all got zero's shed (a.k.a. headquarters) painted and ready for move-in and planted a raised veggie garden in the backyard. so it was quite the successful memorial day weekend. hope you all had a lovely time as well!

what's new?

there's been a lot of "new" in molly's life as of late. everyone already knows about the food, but she also got a brand new car seat (because she totally outgrew the old one!) this one is good for up to 50 lbs., so hopefully we're set for a while. she seems to like this one a whole lot better too, maybe because she can really spread out. it's like her throne in the back seat - all hail queen Molly!


next came her new bouncy chair. now what's important to know about this particular "new" thing, was that it was mine first. this chair is at least 35 years old! check out the craftsmanship! she loves it (just as i loved it). like mother, like daughter i guess. i am including a picture of me in the exact same bouncy seat from when i was 5 months old (check out all the hair). i guess us May girls are made for bouncing!

however with molly, she also likes to lean over and lick the metal parts. this, of course, totally freaks me out because who knows what licking metal will do to her, and in 18 years if she doesn't score high enough on the SATs to get into that college she wants to go to, i'm going to blame myself for letting her lick the metal on the bouncy chair. what makes it funny is that (and anyone who knows us, knows this already) her "big sister" harley ALSO likes to lick metal. so it looks like they really are related...

the next new thing for molly was HEAT! the hottest day of the year so far was yesterday - it got up to 97 they say. phew! and our house heats up like an oven (this is our first summer here). here is molly playing with her new wood dinosaur toys, practically in the buff. a good way to stay cool.

another good way is with some cool refreshing water! like her dad, molly seems to like water, but only when she can drink it out of our glass.







lastly, i got her some sunglasses. i know, i know...they will never stay on, it's a waste of money. but for the pictures alone it was worth it! and they are 100 UV, so if they do stay on, they will be helpful. check out the glamorous miss molly moo!

we are heading to the zoo today - another new adventure! - and meeting up with our friends Terri, Jim, Paige and Skylar. Paige and Skylar turn 1 year old on the 27th of this month!

one other quick note...i've basically filled up the hard drive on this computer with all the pictures and videos (and our music) so until i get an external hard drive, this blog is probably not going to get updated very often. i don't think i can fit one more picture on the computer!