we're baaaack!

ha! you thought you'd never hear from me again (heck, i thought you'd never hear from me again), but we were both wrong! (and the crowd goes wild)

i had to make some tough choices in regards to how i spend my awake time, and i decided that a) i needed to get more sleep (of course, after 2+ years of sleep deprivation, i'm finding that no amount of sleep is going to repair all the damage done to my addled brain, but i got to try, right?), b) i needed to spend my time with Molly actually being with Molly and not wondering how i could post about being with Molly, and c) i needed to put the camera down at least once in a while.

but it's hard, this blog is a great way to not only keep everyone informed of her goings-on but to chronicle her milestones - something for her to look back on - which is good because you can't rely on my memory anymore (see Point A above, lack sleep = addled bran). but my hiatus has meant there are some big gaps, which makes me sad. now that Molly is in preschool on Fridays (one of my days off), i've got a bit of free time every week to keep all of her wonderful friends and family up-to-date on her adventures. and it doesn't mean taking time away from her (or sleep) so i don't feel so guilty. a win-win! this post will most likely be epic, as we've months to catch up on, but i will do my best to keep it brief (not my strongest suit, i realize) and you really want to read to the end, cuz there are cute pictures of Molly with an adorable baby! and some priceless videos!

where to begin...

we last left off with Molly's first day of school back in May. she is loving school and starting this month is up to five days a week. it feels like a lot to Zero and i, she's such a little girl still, but she honestly loves it. i went to pick her up early one day and she didn't speak to me for hours (except to say she wanted to go back to school). i watch her with her little friends and she is just so happy and smiley. she talks about them all the time and she's learning so many new things. a couple highlights...one morning, she's sitting on the potty (did i mention we are completely diaper free now and have been for a few months, yippee!) and she starts belting out Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Zero and i look at each other and shrug, neither of us is into Evita. then she starts telling us about Argentina, how it's in South America, she can point to it on her globe, etc. At the end of the week we get her notebook where her teachers let us know what she's been up to and sure enough, the day before, they had had a lesson on Argentina (which included dancing around to the song). hilarious!

also, toward the end of August her whole class had an art show, called ArtFest, to raise money for the school and celebrate the kids who were moving on to Kindergarten. it was a wonderful event that showed off the children's paintings, sculptures and photographs. Molly displayed a couple photographs she had taken at school, a paper towel roll sculpture she did of a blue house with a chimney that she titled "Papa Goof's House" (we have no idea why), and a painting she did of a "dinosaur in a tree house" (in the photo to the left, it's the one on the bottom with the red border!).

also at the event the kids put on a little performance. they sang two songs up on stage. Molly was amazing, she had the biggest smile i've ever seen on her, her eyes lit up, she sang her heart out and did all the movements that went along with the songs, it was wonderful to see! except for that you couldn't. she stood directly behind all the big girls and you couldn't see her at all (see the photo to the right, if you open it up, you'll see i've pointed out Molly - or what you can see of her). she didn't even care that she was completely blocked, she still sang her heart out. our sweet little girl! i tried to get video, but ended up hitting the wrong button (argh!) but i did manage to get this little video ahead of time with all the kids screaming for Annie, one of the big girls who was moving on to Kindergarten. you can sort of see Molly to the right of the girl in pink. Molly is wearing a blue dress.


earlier in the spring and summer we celebrated our friends Adriana and Jasper's 2nd birthdays, partook in the annual St. Johns Parade, saw our friend Jane get married, went on another Sunday Parkways adventure and made our yearly pilgrimage to beautiful Northern Minnesota where we spent time with the Feeney clan (pictured to the right). it was another cold, wet one, but we had tons of fun nonetheless. here is a lengthy slide show of our trip...


upon our return we had our 2nd Annual Charleston Ave Block Party. have i mentioned how much i love our neighborhood? well, i do! the best was when our neighbor Josh got out his guitar and Molly got her harmonica and they jammed together!


and right after that we went to California for my 20-year high school reunion (i'm getting so old!). it was great to hang out with the entire high school crew and all their kids. i made some fantastic forever friendships in middle and high school, i'm so lucky. i can only wish the same for Molly.


this was immediately followed by my first ever triathlon. it was a sprint triathlon, but still kinda tough. and much like not taking time away from Molly to work on the blog (or clean the house, or take showers, etc.) i didn't want to take time away to train. but for a few months before, i was running, biking and swimming twice a week. it meant very early mornings for me, and i've completely fallen off since the event. but hope to get back on that bandwagon soon, because i loved it and plan to do it again next year. the best part, the very best part...was seeing the look on Zero and Molly's faces as i passed by (check out the picture at the very top of this post) and at the finish line (pictured here). you simply couldn't ask for a better cheering section!

so that takes us to August...phew! August was the ArtFest mentioned earlier and washing the very dirty car (i just had to include this shot, look at her getup!) and our neighbor Mishya's 9th birthday party, and tons more stuff i can't even remember. this hasn't been a true summer in Portland, weather-wise, i think we had about 2 weeks of real summer, so we haven't gotten out and done a ton of things.

but one thing we were able to do a few times was get to the Portland Beavers baseball games. the Beavers have been around since 1903 and this was their last season here in Portland. the city has let them go in favor of soccer (boo!)...and just when we were getting into it! Molly loved going to the games, she would cheer the team on, enjoyed the popcorn, and most of all, had a huge crush on their mascot, Lucky the Beaver. our very good friend Denise got her a glove (and a hat, and a pennant, and so on) and we were lucky enough to get Lucky to sign her glove (no pun intended). Molly was so thrilled. she asks about Lucky often, not sure how to tell her he's gone for now (hopefully Portland will wise up and get their Beavers back some day). in the meantime, Roosevelt High School's sports teams are playing again, so we'll cheer them on! this year, we're going to check out volleyball. go roughriders!

and that brings us to September. the big news for September? first train ride! we took Amtrak up to see our very good friends in Bellingham, WA. what a great way to go. you can wander up and down the aisles, you don't have to be strapped into a car seat, lots of leg room (for Molly), great scenery, and a bistro car! plus Molly met and totally hit it off with some little girls across the aisle from us who happen to live in St. Johns too - cool. she told everyone she saw on the train she was on her way to Kell's house.

you may remember Kell from earlier this year and back in 2008. well now big Kell (almost 4!) has a little sister, Tessa! Molly fell totally and madly in love with Tessa (as you can see from this picture). Tessa was truly the highlight of this visit, along with getting to see her daddy Drew play with his band, "Assisted Living" at an anniversary party on Lake Whatcom. beautiful view, great music and good fun.

the whole experience did make me a bit nervous about Molly's future however, as she kept attacking Kell (with hugs mind you) and tackling him to the ground with her embrace. may i present Exhibit A, Hope and baby Tessa lead the children in a nice little conga line, and then...

and yes, i think that is the sound of Kell's head hitting the ground, but he popped right back up!

and Exhibit B, everything seems nice, good music, fun times and then...

and by the way, that's Drew singing "Brown Eyed Girl" - isn't he awesome?! he's also obviously great on the guitar and plays a mean harmonica!

so this coupled with the fact that Molly was totally fascinated with and kept running up to this one woman there who was all makeup and tan, with bleached blond hair, wearing jean shorts, doing this odd cowboy-like dance, and being flirty. here she is leading her own conga line (starts about 10 seconds in)...

that lady was a groupie, through and through. and Kell looked appropriately frightened, but Molly looked like she wanted to join right in. but i have to say, the lady was really nice. Molly kept interrupting her conversations with other people and she would stop and talk to her. and she was having a ton of fun, so maybe Molly's on the right track!

many more wonderful pictures here, with lots of baby Tessa!...


which leads us to today, the last day of my 37th year, tomorrow is my birthday. this was my birthday present to myself, taking the time to start up the blog again. i hope to keep it up on my fridays. it may not be as important as sleep, but it's important to me, and that means something. it is my sincere hope that this finds you all well. our love to everyone!

the further adventures

it's been a while since i posted, and of course, a lot has happened in the ongoing adventures of miss molly moo.

we had a really nice memorial day weekend where we got out in the garden and played around. i am (not so successfully) trying to grow some fruits and veggies while molly is trying to get into the garden beds with them (she likes to get in there and say "night, night"). so, there's a lot of dirt flying around and puddles played in. we'll see if we actually grow anything, but i figure that molly seeing us try and watching plants grow even a bit, is good for her. and fun for us all! we also belong to a farm share and hope to make it to the farm soon so molly can see how food really grows! it's just right down the street (more like down the river) on Sauvie Island, and is called Sauvie Island Organics. gotta love Portland!


and we've had some warm days lately - too warm really - but that paired with the fact that miss moo loooooves water meant we got some good playtime out of our new water table. you can see from these pictures how fun it is to get wet! and speaking of wet, last night we went to our first "pool party" right down the street at our friends house. the pool is inflatable, with a slide, and some water fountain action. too cool! i forgot the camera but next time i'm all over it. pool parties rock! [note, when i first typed out that last line i by accident typed poop parties rock - ah motherhood, poop is always on the brain]




our budding artist continues to bloom. she loves drawing - on anything! and you've got to watch her...one moment all is fine, the next she has somehow managed to get into a cupboard, find a pen (that you didn't know was even in there), and start drawing on the bookshelves - all without you knowing (and literally in a matter of seconds). i swear there is a super-power in that somewhere. Pen Girl! She also seems to prefer to draw on very tiny slips of paper, as you can see in these pictures.





weekend before last we had a nice breakfast in the backyard...the whole family! delicious pancakes! and zero rigged up a booster seat for molly (a very comfy one in fact). it was really the perfect way to start the day. and look at how good miss molly is with her fork! yay!







last weekend molly and i drove to Eugene for a birthday part for our friends Paige and Skylar - they turned two! we had a wonderful time visiting with old friends and meeting new ones. and Paige and Skylar have such fun toys! swings, slides, and play houses! oh my! and let us not forget the bubbles, which molly LOVED! here are some shots, and the girls at the table with her blowing bubbles are Paige and Skylar!

last but not least, some video. but first, the disclaimer! these were all taken last thursday evening. it was just molly and i - zero had the play - we were both tired, and dirty, and the house was a mess. why i thought it was the best time to capture us on video, i couldn't tell you. but it's done. and getting to hear molly's perfect little voice makes it all worthwhile! the first was when i tried to get her to say hi to some of her friends (because i love hearing her say her friends' names) but she just wanted to say was "hi"...


take 2 was when i would say some of her friends names and she would repeat them. i have to say, the way she says Jasper and Ava just kill me!

so a note on the video above...i wanted to do this because every night for the past few weeks molly has gone through her list of friends, all on her own with no prompting from me, and says "Beau" and i say "Beau is at home going night-night" and she moves on to "Amelia" and i say "Amelia is at home going night-night" and so on until she is satisfied that everyone else is going night-night, so she can too. and this all came from molly, she started this little tradition all on her own. it actually heralded in the no-more-nursing-to-go-to-bed...which she decided on all on her own too. she's growing up so fast! another new thing at bedtime is that she likes you to sing to her. her favorite is "old macdonald" which i was kind of against at first, because it's not really a bedtime song, but turns out you can make anything into a lullaby if you sing it right. and she loves it! speaking of singing, the next videos coming will be of molly singing along to the ABCs and eensy, weensy spider. get ready for some serious cuteness!

ok, now that i'm all verklempt, one more video...for 3 we expanded out to other fun words! every day she's added a handful more to her repertoire, just last night she pointed to a sun in one of her books and very clearly said "sunshine!" this morning she said "thank you" (she's been signing thank you for some time, but this was the first time i'd hear the words). i may have trouble with the constant climbing and falling, but boy do i love the talking part! here you go...


"bye, bye" says bunny girl!

once upon a time...

...there was a beautiful little girl who didn't sleep.

sleep is one of those big controversies in the baby world, right up there with breast vs. bottle, and everyone has an opinion. most people we come in contact with strongly believe children should be put on a schedule as soon as possible and that bedtime should be early. and this makes tons of sense for a variety of reasons, so we tried hard to make it happen. for a while, it worked great. molly wanted to go to sleep around 7:00p.m. and so that's what we did. then right around the time she started to crawl, she also seemed to stop sleeping all-together. it was a battle every night to try and get her down. our normal bedtime routine wasn't working anymore and we tried every trick up our sleeves...we nursed, we rocked, we took baths, we read quiet stories about other babies sleeping, we walked the neighborhood until late at night...but her eyes stayed open and her body kept moving. then when she did finally fall asleep, it wasn't for long. she'd be up again a short time later...and again, and again.

and then by chance we just let her stay up one night, and at around 10:30 - 11:00p.m. she fell asleep on her own. and she pretty much stayed asleep. heaven! so we tried it again- ditto! and even though i desperately miss the time i had in the evening to get a few things done after she went to sleep (i.e. blogging), it's no fun struggling with molly to get her to sleep before she's ready.

i have to remind myself that she's not even one yet, so trying to reason with her is near impossible and we can't make her understand bedtimes or have her read quietly in her bed till she falls asleep. so i am coming to peace with the fact that molly's got her own schedule going on here, and it may very well change again in the future. but for now, we're good. thanks for letting me vent about that, it's been on my mind as of late...

and now on to much more interesting things! molly officially has six teeth (4 on top, 2 on the bottom). she is eating more and more things and sharing many of our meals with us now, in fact last weekend the entire family had pancakes with fresh berries together, it was awesome. she has two freckles (one on her neck, one on her thigh). she is still swimming up a storm (look out Summer Olympics 2024!) and here are a couple pictures of her during her swim class last weekend. the one on the left is her whole class lined up to do "humpty dumpty sat on a wall" after which they all jump in the water. she's in pink, holding the yellow ball.

on dry land, she has moved on to a three-point crawl (both arms in motion, one leg tucked under while the other pushes her around). and when she crawls, she's lightening fast and heads straight for the things you don't want her to touch (dog bowl, phone cord, small sharp thing that came out of nowhere). zero has been doing a major purge around the house, anything he doesn't want her near he just gets rid of, so the house is starting to look a bit sparse, which is actually really nice. and she's pulling herself up to standing with much regularity and is actually playing around with "look ma, no hands!", though it usually ends with her taking a very quick seat.

and after being shamed by the pediatrician for not yet lowering the crib, we managed to do that last weekend and like the picture at the top, here is another shot of her in the crib after pulling herself up to standing. that's our girl!