Fall is in the air

we'll start this post off with a song for you...


is that not adorable?! she learns so many songs at her preschool, and with that amazing, sponge-like brain of hers, she hears it once and boom, she's got it. there's a whole second verse to this that she just sang to me at the park today. too cute!

of course, she also likes to play with it too, she's a bit of remix-er...


so fall is here, i guess, the weather has been pretty much cold and wet most of the summer so it's hard to differentiate seasons anymore. but according to the calendar fall is here. which means, i had a birthday! for my birthday this year, Molly and Zero gave me a hammock and wind chime (that Molly hand-painted!). here is a little slideshow with Molly and Auntie Shani playing in the hammock!
you can see the wind chime hanging from one of the hammock posts. it's like my own little paradise in the backyard!



for my birthday a group of friends came together and after some craziness and tears (on my part) we met up at one of Portland's famous food cart pods in North Portland and had a wonderful time trying all different kinds of food and topping things off with the best salted caramel ice cream, ever! Molly enjoyed the chocolate ice cream herself! i got some delicious homemade beer, a lovely bottle of wine, some handmade note cards and a chance to hang out with my really wonderful friends and family. i'm a very lucky woman!

a week later, a group of us came together for the 1st Annual Birthwich 2010 (a sandwich making birthday party) for myself and friend Scott whose bday is a couple weeks after mine. Scott and i love sandwiches! it was really fun and Auntie Shani made a beautiful cake which Molly helped her decorate.

i should also mention that for my birthday, my mom spoiled me with a flip video camera! which is why this post (and possibly all future posts) is chock full of videos. it's almost too easy to do!!

fall means the days are getting shorter and in the evenings before bed, we read a couple stories out-loud, but we also take some time to read our own books quietly. i instituted this for two reasons, 1) i'm slowing working towards Molly reading herself to sleep in a few years and 2) i needed some time to read myself! plus it's some nice quiet time before we all hit the hay. but on this night, Molly decided she was going to read aloud to me from the book i was currently reading, Discord's Apple. the plot took a real turn on the chapter Molly read!
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notice she can read right-side up and upside down!

so, we all know Molly is very advanced and a genius child, and she amazes us pretty much constantly. but one thing that has really blown my socks off lately is her work with her magna-tiles. first off, huge thanks to Grandma Mike for giving us magna-tiles for xmas last year (i think they were mostly a gift for me, but Molly has really taken to them!). she'll spend long stretches of time completely absorbed by them, building all kinds of different buildings and landscapes. i remember the first time i came home and there was this amazing structure in the middle of the living room. Zero had this goofy grin which i took to mean, "see what i did, isn't it cool?" so i said, "good job honey." and that's when he burst out, "no, it wasn't me! it was all Molly! she built it all by herself!" i didn't believe him really till she did the exact same thing on my watch. here is her giving a little tour of one of her "high-tech" barns (she likes to make things "high-tech" - no idea where she picked up that term).

Hey Papa...i see a future engineer! it just skips a couple generations! ;)

an engineer maybe, but she's still very much a girl. take this picture to the right.
every once in a while she insists on putting on every last piece of jewelry, and every frilly dress-up item she owns. it doesn't last long, but it's fun. i dress up too of course.

so fall means my birthday, but it also means a couple other big events. Zero and i will celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary on October 27 (17th year as a couple was on October 4th) and Harley, our sweet, sweet poochie will turn 16 on Halloween! but another big day happens on October 29th...Molly's Birthday!

every day Molly finds something new she loves to do. she learns a new word or new song. she figures out something she's been struggling with. she acts up in a whole new way. it's wonderful! (and exhausting) i can't believe she turns three on October 29th. how time flies! speaking of which, we have the party of the century next week (i won't even tell you how many people are coming, you wouldn't believe me if i did). and after that BOTH GRANDMAS are coming for our annual bday trip to the beach! what a lucky girl! i'll try and get some pictures and video up in early November from her bday celebrations (plural). in the meantime...

SMOOCHES DARLINGS!

breaking news!

obviously, i'm months behind - i've missed telling you all about tea parties and grandma visits and hysterical conversations we've had with our absolutely brilliant daughter. and i do intend to go back and fill you all in, but as for today, we've got some breaking news...


Molly started preschool!

Monday, May 3 was her very first day at the Montessori House of St. Johns. we had originally thought she would start in the fall, but a spot opened up and we jumped at it. she will go three mornings a week for a while, slowly building to five a week around the time she turns 3. we love the school and the program (Zero was a Montessori baby, and look how good he turned out!), we really love the teacher, it's less than a mile from our house and a perfect bike ride. we couldn't be happier! (of course, we're both still complete nervous wrecks about the whole thing, our little girl is growing up too fast!)

above is Molly all ready to go!

school starts at 8:30, Molly used to rarely get up before 8:00, so we've been setting alarms and trying to get up earlier the past couple weeks. we had a rough night, but we did manage to get up on time and we got dressed, got her lunch all packed into her new lunch box, put it into the back of the Burley, got our helmets on and headed off to our first day of school! i took the day off of work, so Daddy and i could both see her to school. to the left is Daddy and Molly riding down the street.

below and to the right you can see Molly bee-lining it up to the school with rain boots in hand. when we got inside, they showed us Molly's spot. she has her own little box for things, she has a place to hang her coat and put her shoes, and one nice little boy showed her where to put her lunchbox. when we came in teacher Megan was reading books to everyone and it was hard to get Molly to concentrate on anything other than going over to hear the stories. it's funny, because just the night before when we were talking about school (and reading for the umpteenth time her current favorite before bed book, Wow School - thank you Angela!) Molly told us she was going to go into school and say "Hello teacher Megan, we should read some books." and teacher Megan would say, "Oh yes Molly, I will read some stories!" and it pretty much happened just that way. we sat for a while and eventually we tried to get her attention and wave goodbye and she was kinda like, "yeah, ok, see ya...i've got stories to listen to!" so off we went.

Zero and i had no idea what to do with ourselves, so we treated ourselves to breakfast out and watched the first half of one of my favorite movies, The Right Stuff. mostly we just watched the clock for it to be time to go back and pick her up. we're pretty pathetic! :)

when we went to pick her up, she was putting on her shoes to go outside and play. we're picking her up a bit early to begin with, so we can be sure she gets her afternoon nap (we've had a couple days recently of her going without a nap...it isn't pretty). i spoke with her teacher who said she did great. about an hour after we left she realized we were gone and became upset and went to the door. but Megan said she was easily redirected and enjoyed the library (of course!), cleaning the chalk board (lots of water involved!), group games (especially when they all sang "Roll Over", which she went on to sing all night long!) and painting. above to the left is Molly's first day of school work of art!

she went again today, and will go on Thursdays too. i hope she loves it. i hope she makes wonderful friends, and explores all sorts of new things, and that this starts a lifetime love of learning. i also hope she stops growing up so dang fast!


love to everyone from our little schoolgirl!

update from Mollyland

things are pretty fun and exciting here in Mollyland. here are some examples of what Mollyland is currently offering...

a phrase we hear often around our house is, "you be Oscar, daddy is Cookie Monster, i'll be Big Bird" or "i'm Mary Ann, you're Mike Mulligan, daddy's Henry B. Swift" (all characters from Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton) or in the case of the picture here, "i'm a princess, mommy's a mommy princess and daddy's a daddy princess". and then we all run around pretending to be princesses which usually involves some flying and using tools to fix things. we are very talented princesses! Molly's imagination is in full swing, and i think we have a little actor here, rather than a little librarian. ah well, i do like theater!

of course she may be destined for a different kind of performance...

for those that didn't know, her father was a dancer before he started acting, and Molly seems to be following in his footsteps there as well. actually, more in the footsteps of one of her favorite books, Josephine Wants to Dance, about a kangaroo who discovers ballet and against all odds, becomes the prima ballerina! and actually, i love to boogie too, so she was destined to have dancin' feet. in the video above (and yes, it does look like maybe she's picking her nose, but what can you expect, she's a toddler!) you'll note that she's wearing a red sock on one hand. she likes to wear it around - a la Michael Jackson - and say she's Santa Claus. we may not stop talking about Santa in this house until next December!


so as you can hear, she can also really belt out the songs. one day, many, many weeks ago now i was home from work, sick in bed, and Molly climbed in with me, stood up and sang in full "abc", "twinkle, twinkle", "baa, baa, black sheep", "farmer in the dell", and "sing, sing a song". she has added many songs to her repertoire since then, including Bruce Springstein's version of Bob Seger's Pay Me My Money Down, almost every song ever sung on Sesame Street, a couple sea shanties, and a few she's made up herself on a variety of topics such as snack time and mommy's boots. singer songwriter? perhaps! here are a couple videos of two songs she made up about Clifford the Big Red Dog after she saw him at the Portland Children's Museum. the first song focused on "Clifford" and is a bit more mellow, the second is more about his coloring..."red"...and gets pretty rock n' roll. you'll note there's even a performance injury at the end!



or maybe a different art medium? like painting! for Christmas her great-grand Papa and auntie Sharon gave her finger paints. we already need to buy more, she wants to paint all the time. and our collection of "masterpieces" is growing on the wall. here is a little video of her painting. you'll note she talks about big bird, and Karl (from the Zen books with Stillwater the Panda). you'll also note that at some point she gets paint on her fingers, tries to shake it off, and then chooses to lick it off (which is where i quickly turn off the camera).


we keep mentioning Sesame Street...we had been reading Elmo books and the like for some time, but when she turned two we started watching a little "tv" (DVDs on the computer) and Sesame Street was one of the first. we instituted popcorn and Sesame Street nights on Sundays and Thursdays. after dinner, when the dishes have been cleared, i make popcorn on the stove, and we all sit down and watch Big Bird and Ernie and Bert and the whole gang. other favorite shows of Molly's are Bob the Builder, Handy Manny and Blue's Clues. Auntie Sarah recently introduced us to Yo Gabba Gabba, that for me feels like what a psycholdelic trip must feel like (and not necessarily a good one), but Molly loves it, of course, so we may need to add it to the rotation. the picture above of Molly and Zero eating popcorn totally cracks me up! check out those silly faces! like father, like daughter!

another current family tradition is going to see high school basketball games at Molly's future high school! those of you who have known me a while know that i played basketball all through high school, and loved it! Molly seems to love it too! she can actually sit through an entire basketball game, we are constantly getting comments from people who are amazed by it. we bring her pom-pom and at half time she runs around and makes friends with other little kids. she yells "Go Riders" and "Go Roosevelt" and claps and talks about the "girls running" and the "girls throwing the ball". and if the concession stand is open, we get popcorn. good times!

Molly's love of reading is still very strong. she picks up books, sits down and reads them to herself! she's memorized them word for word and as i read books to her i watch as her mouth moves along to every word i'm saying. and this is not just one or two books, oh no, this is twenty, thirty or more - she currently has over 50 things checked out from the library, and she reads them all! this very morning we co-read A Wish for Things That Work - i would read a line and then she would say a line - she's brilliant i tell ya! she asks to be read books many times a day, and she takes the stories we read about and uses that amazing imagination of hers and builds on them - it's wonderful! and i think all this reading may be the reason why we can have entire conversations with her already, which i wasn't expecting quite so young. her language ability is quite astounding. at lunch today she said to me, "i am going to walk you to work with mr. ant [an imaginary friend] and he will say 'i want to go back to Molly's house' and i will say, 'no, not yet' and we will walk you to work". wow!

she is also starting to truly make friends. not that she didn't have friends before, but now at play gym she'll actually walk up to some other little person and ask if they want to play ball with her or run around. she has one little friend named Rowan who she likes very much! due to my work schedule, i rarely make it to play gym, but lately on Fridays we've been going together. i had heard her talk about Rowan, but had never met her, so when Molly introduced me to her it was very exciting. last Friday when we showed up, Rowan ran across the gym yelling "Mollly!" and they gave each other a huge hug. this is a picture of them playing together!

and speaking of friends, last month we were finally able to see our very, very good friends Hope, Drew and Kell. the last time Kell and Molly saw each other, she was only four months old. Kell was the big boy at 15 months, and i remember being so amazed at his ability to walk, and sign, and eat solid food with all of those teeth he had! this time, Kell had just turned 3 and he blew my mind again - he is an amazing little boy! and so are his totally awesome parents - if only we could convince them to move to Portland...ah well! you'll note in the pictures here, compared to the last time they saw each other, they are much closer in size. and they played together quite well! they played with cars, listened to stories together, were thrown dangerously around by their fathers (us mothers couldn't even be in the same room), threw rocks into the water at the park, and took a bath (of which we got the best video ever, but it will forever have to stay within our two families as there is some brief nudity).

so yes, the adventures here are great indeed, and sometimes we even dress the part! especially if there are boots involved. to the left was her get up to go hike around the Columbia Slough last weekend. she's starting to get into clothes, and want to play dress up (as you saw earlier in the post). it does make getting dressed a bit easier, she doesn't always insist on being naked anymore and fighting clothes. you just have to let her pick her own thing out, which can mean you end up with something quite "loud", but hey, i'll take it! sometimes it doesn't work out so well though, as you can see to the right, we only managed to get half-way dressed (and i think those boots might be a bit big for her).

thanks for enduring this super long post - i get to it so rarely anymore and then i have so much to tell you all! and this time, thanks to my new iPod Nano with built in video recorder and my friend Steph's flip video camera, we actually had some video to share, which is nice. for our final shot today, here is Molly and her friends all cozy in bed together.
so long, for now, from Mollyland! take care everyone!

yee-haw! it's Halloween!

last year we couldn't ask Molly what she wanted to be for Halloween (what with the language barrier and all) and it turned out she wasn't so fond of the dog costume. so this year i was determined to dress her up as something she wanted to be. i asked a month or so before Halloween, and because i didn't think she'd understood the concept of all hallows eve, i simply asked her, "if you could dress up as any animal, what would it be?" and without missing a beat, she said "horsey". i was a bit taken aback. we never talk about horses, we don't really have any books with horses in them (except Clip Clop which has gone from being one of her favorites, to the one that causes much drama and tears because the characters fall off the horse into a haystack and she's very worried that they are hurt). we've never even seen a real horse. so it came as a surprise. a few days later, just to test it, i asked again..."horsey, mama". okay, a horse it is!

we decided to go with a simple vest, nice and cozy, that had a hood that looked like the horse's head, and a tail. perfect! here are some pictures of her, ready to giddy-up!


here she is, trick-or-treating for the first time, in downtown St. Johns. the merchants all gave out candy, and we saw kids from all over the niegborhood dressed up and having a great time!
and here are some pictures of Molly's friends dressed up for Halloween. Moebius (with his parents) was some kind of Viking, Barbarian, pillager and was about the cutest thing i'd ever seen. Adriana was a sweet little lamb. Beau (with his mom) was a cozy-looking tiger. the three kids at the door are Amelia (i'm guessing she's a character from High School Musical), Mishya (a clone trooper from Star Wars) and Keeton (a very young Obi-Wan Kenobi).


this is a shot that Moebius's mom took of us when we were trick-or-treating. you'll note that Zero and i dressed up as cowboys, a western-themed Halloween! Grandma Nancy who was also with us, wore a cowboy hat as well!

and because Molly likes to see things from both sides, she donned my cowboy boots and hat after we got home from trick-or-treating. a little big maybe, but i think she makes a great little cowgirl!
YEE HAW!

turning two!

can you believe Molly is two? it's crazy but true! we took a week to celebrate this year, starting with a small bday party with some of the neighborhood families the saturday before her birthday. we've never had that many people in our home - luckily, a lot of them were under 3 feet tall. of course that doesn't include our own daughter who at her 2-year dr. appointment measured in at 37"! check out all the people in our tiny house - wahoo, party!


her auntie Shani made her a beautiful banner and delicious chocolate cupcakes with creamy frosting. throughout her party, Molly would occasionally ask, "cupcakes?" and i would ask her to wait. eventually, it was time. she pulled out a chair, climbed up, looked around at everyone as if to say, "ok, it's time to start singing now", so we did. if there was ever a moment i wish i had on video, it was that moment (thankfully Diana and Denise got some pictures!). she gazed lovingly upon her cupcakes, swaying to and fro to the singing - man that kid LOVES to dance - so beautiful and so happy! once the singing was done, she knew right what to do and blew out her candle. then she grabbed a cupcake, got down off the chair, sat right down and licked off the icing! too cute!! here she is with her cupcakes...


for her actual bday, my mom flew up and we all went to the beach. we went to Long Beach, WA and stayed at our favorite place, the Lighthouse Resort. this is where Zero and i went on our honeymoon (exactly three years before!). they have these lovely condos right on the beach, and they have a salt-water pool and hot tub. it's a great place for families to stay. as we drove into town we stopped by one of the local kite stores and got Molly her first kite. the kite looked like a lovely frog (a poison dart frog i believe, but so pretty!). after we unloaded all of our stuff at the condo, we immediately went down to the beach and flew our kite! we also brought along a bucket and shovel for the beach. the next day we went back to the beach and built more sand castles and Molly ran straight into the water at one point. no fear. and she wasn't bothered by the cold either. amazing! Harley the pooch also had a wonderful time, she ran around like a puppy - and she really wanted to get that kite! we all had so much fun!


and here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the beach. here is Molly and Grandma the first day we got there - Molly still strikes this pose sometimes and says "grandma"!

and here is the whole family at the beach!

on her actual birthday (10/29), we went swimming, we went to the beach, we had all her favorite foods (omelets for breakfast, mac&cheese for lunch, chili for dinner) we opened presents (here is a slideshow of Molly with her new toolkit):


and per Molly's request, Grandma made apple pie for birthday dessert. look how happy she is!

we came home to a box from Grandma Mike and in it was a "very hungry caterpillar" extravaganza. she made Molly a quilt with the hungry caterpillar theme, and she sent the book, a little stuffed caterpillar and a board game (which Molly asks to play with almost every day!). here is Molly in the box everything came in, all cozy with her new quilt!

Molly got tons of wonderful things for her birthday, books that she loves (we all love SkippyJon Jones!), puzzles, a flashing toothbrush (which really helps her with brushing her teeth), a stuffed bison and so much more! but on Halloween we went to see auntie Shani who once again gave Molly the piece de resistance. last year it was baby doll, Molly's constant companion...this year, a stroller for baby doll. i swear she's gonna run those wheels right off of it! and because her imagination is in full force right now, we are constantly putting baby doll (or whoever else she can find) into the stroller and either "going to work" or "going to market" or "going to beach" or "going to airport" and off she goes. a few minutes later, she's back and there is much discussion of how the trip was and how her day was. it's the coolest thing ever! here she is with baby doll in the stroller.

it was an awesome week - i'm thinking "family tradition" myself! this tradition will of course have to include that upon our return to Portland from the beach, Grandma and Molly have a sleepover and Zero and I get to spend an evening together at the Heathman Hotel. Grandma graciously offered to do that for us this time. we ordered room service and watched Terminator! do anniversary celebrations get any better? i don't think so!

happy number two my sweet, sweet girl! you are truly the light of our lives. to think a year ago you were barely walking and only saying "daddy". now you run, jump, climb, swim, twirl and dance. you say "may i have pancakes for breakfast, mommy?" and read books to your baby doll. you easily count to ten (and know all the numbers to twenty, they just get rearranged a bit), and remember the words and tunes to songs, and have the best darn rhythm i've ever seen! you make jokes and your laugh is beautiful and contagious. sharing may not yet be your strong-suit, but you are kind and obviously already feel deeply for others (as we witnessed in your concern for the porcupine who was scared by mice in Quiet! There's a Canary in the Library). and the other night, when you walked up to Zero and i, threw open your arms and said, "mommy, daddy...both hug", it was the best moment of my life so far. you rock my world Molly-moo! i love you!!

next up, Halloween cowboys and a trip to the farm with Moe!

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!

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)!

"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!

playing catch up...

i see other moms (or should i say, i read other moms) who are able to post daily to their blogs, getting up fabulous pix of their wee ones, and telling fun and witty stories. why is it so hard for me? it's not like molly doesn't give me a constant stream of wonderful and funny and exciting things to share with everyone...she's so amazing! but at the end of the day, i just wanna hang out with her and play. and once she goes to sleep, well, i just want to snuggle with her. so the blog is getting the short end of the stick. but after the past few days i've had, i need to just dwell in the happy land of molly for a bit and share with you all (in case you are having similarly bad weeks, or even if you're not, it's impossible to get enough molly goodness!)

so to catch you all up...my wondrous mother came to stay with us for a week, to help out around the house, and most importantly, to spend some time with her granddaughter. seeing them together was just beautiful - they love each other very, very much.

while mom was here we were able to go through molly's room and put together three garbage bags full of clothes that molly had outgrown (we are extremely fortunate to have many generous friends who have passed along clothes to molly). here is a shot of molly going through one of the bags, i guess making sure she was okay with everything we had decided to give away to charity. :) we also spent some time baby-proofing, and now all the bookshelves and other big items are bolted to the wall, which is nice. and we have a good start on the kitchen cabinets and such. this is all good because molly is super fast and very curious!

as for fun, grandma got to join us at the pool and watch molly swim around, and she took some really good pictures with her fancy cell phone! here is one of molly playing with a ball in the water.

we also finished Summer Reading the weekend my mom was here, and for her final prize molly was able to put her name in a book (we chose "Frog goes to dinner" by Mercer Mayer) and she won a onesie that says "Read to Me" on it. molly is one of 57,000 kids who participated in Multnomah County Library's Summer Reading program this year - yeehaw!! below is a little slideshow of molly reading in her new "Read to Me" onesie (notice all the books strewn everywhere!). she really does love her books, and you'll note that when we started Summer Reading, it was pretty much all about eating the books. now she spends much more time reading - or in the case of the ones that come with things to touch, feeling - the books. it's very exciting to see her reading to herself, or reading along with us. yay, books and reading!


but eventually, grandma had to go back home to her puppies and her job and her life, and we were all very sad. but she'll come again soon. and we'll visit her and the rest of the May family down in California, and all will be well. the only bad thing about Portland is that all of our families are so far away.

but i don't want to end this post on a sad note, so i'll go ahead and mention one other thing...our good friend Scott took some amazing pictures of miss. moo and i wanted to share a few of them with you. but before that you need to know that in all her 10+ months i don't think Scott (also known as uncle Scott) had ever held molly. molly has always been fascinated (and perhaps a bit smitten) with her uncle Scott. she likes her men tall i think. but alas, it was a love from afar...and then just last week, he and Auntie Sarah stopped by and he actually asked to hold her. i was blown away and immediately went for the camera (if you knew Scott, you'd know this is a pretty big deal). so this is a picture of molly with her uncle Scott (i think he might be a bit smitten as well).

but back to the fantastic pictures Scott took of molly. here is a slideshow of just a few of them, and i think you'll agree they are pretty awesome!


our best to everyone. be safe. tell the people you love that you love them. and last but not least, take a page from molly's book and always take time to have some fun!

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!