what have you got in your mouth?!

a few weeks ago a friend of ours, who takes care of children for a living, commented on how molly doesn't try and put everything in her mouth, like some kids do. i was taken aback a bit by this statement, because in my experience molly puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. but upon further reflection, i guess molly is a bit different in that she never, ever wanted a pacifier, nor does she really suck on her fingers or thumb...which some may consider lucky, but i tell ya, a little "self-soothing" wouldn't be such a bad thing now and again.

but the reason i bring this up is because i was looking through some pictures taken fairly recently of the moo and i saw a theme...and the theme was things found in molly's mouth. of course, there were all sorts of pictures i didn't get because i was too busy trying to get them quickly out of her mouth...such as shoes (we are constantly having to hide our shoes because as soon as she sees them, in the mouth they go!), diaper cream tubes (yum, zinc oxide-y goodness), dog hair (eeew!), rocks (really molly? rocks?) and electrical cords (aaaayyy!). but here are some of the less troublesome items, and in most cases, these are even meant to go in the mouth!

for instance, the toothbrush! now that is meant for the mouth, and molly is very good about brushing her teeth every night. she looks forward to it actually, and starts gesturing towards the toothbrush holder in the bathroom. and once we are done brushing, she's very good about rinsing her toothbrush under the faucet. the only problem? at times, she doesn't want to give the toothbrush back...




then there is the teether - another pro-mouth item! i got this particular teether because it's of the safe-plastic variety, which is a pretty big issue in this day and age (for some more information on that read here and here). so this teether is a-okay in the plastics department AND it's very convenient for holding in your mouth as you crawl around! yay!






lastly we have the nasal bulb syringe...okay, so not technically meant for mouths, but we've never used it on her nose and she seems to really enjoy it. it's amazing what parenting does to a person, at one time this may have grossed me out, but no more.

so there you have it, things that go in molly's mouth. i only wish i had a picture of her chewing on her own toes, cuz that's a sight to see!

my mom

a couple posts ago i attached a picture of molly and i being silly (scroll to the bottom to see it). when my mom saw it, the image made her think of another picture taken many years ago, of me and her being just as silly!


i love my mom more than words can say, she's the most fantastic woman i know and she is one of my very best friends. it would be a dream come true if molly and i could be as close as my mom and i are...here's hoping! i love you mom! sa-mooch!

odds and ends and sushi

so, we'll start with the sushi. our friend Scott recently celebrated his birthday and we joined him for sushi on the big day. we went to a great place out in Beaverton...molly enjoyed tofu and rice balls and tried her first sushi! i ordered an avocado roll, and figured, why not?! this is in honor of my uncle Lonny and aunt Ritsu who instilled in me, at a very young age, a love and respect for Japanese cuisine. this may not seem very daring in today's day in age, but when i was young, i was probably the only person on my block to eat tofu. one of molly's first foods was tofu, and now, she can add sushi to the list. yum!

as for "ends", our neighbor is designing a new cloth diaper and molly gets to be a guinea pig. here is a slideshow of molly sporting the new diaper, which is pretty darn awesome. i mean it totally keeps her dry, it's amazing! and tres stylish!

and as for "odd", well that would have to be molly's newest sound added to her repertoire. it's like living with a monster. she likes to constrict her throat and then suck in air, making this super scary noise. it freaks me out, but she seems to be enjoying, so whattaya gonna do? pray it's a phase i guess. this is right up there with her gagging herself. of course i stay up to the wee hours of the morning blogging, so who's really the odd one...:)

take care!

a stroll down memory ave.

maybe it's because molly's first birthday is looming large on the horizon, but i've been waxing very nostalgic lately, and so i'm gonna post a variety of molly pictures, past and present, for your viewing pleasure.

molly's really been working the cuteness factor lately. her fantastic personality is showing through more and more...for instance, she really loves to play. hide and seek being one of her favorites. we take turns hiding from each other, and when the other person finds us, we laugh and squeal with complete abandon. what must the neighbors think?!

tonight we were playing and she went around to the backside of the couch to "hide" and i followed behind, but when i turned the corner she wasn't there (duh, she was hiding!). she had actually crawled under the table that resides behind the couch and into her old bouncy chair. we don't use the chair very much anymore, which is why it lives under the table, but it has been a major part of her young life. she's fallen asleep in that chair, watched mom and dad eat dinner from that chair, and merrily bounced along to some of her favorite tunes in that chair...and obviously she still has a soft spot for it. here you see a picture of her first time ever in her bouncy chair (at day 5) and tonight (day 326). unbelievable...and where did the time go?

oh, and by the way, the crazy bright red Elmo tee meets green polka-dot pants ensemble is all her father. i think he delights in making her clash.


so another thing that totally cracks me up is molly in the bath. boy does she love bath time. she has her friends (froggy, ducky and red boat) with whom she plays and splashes, she stands up and sits down and constantly moves all around the tub, she pushes on the bath mat's suction cup thingies and makes a pbbbtt noise while doing so, and basically has a good ol' time. here is a picture of her first bath, and then a shot of her playing in the bath this week.



similarly, a couple shots of post bath towel time. my mom made these bath hoodies for her - they started out so huge and now they're on their way to being a bit too small (but just a bit!).

so thanks for taking a stroll with me. i have a ton more pictures to post, but it's late and i need to sleep. so hopefully in the next few days. though we have company in town, molly's great-grandpa May is here for a visit and we are beyond excited! we'll try and get some pictures and tell you all about it! in the meantime, a picture of molly and mom being wacky!

going to the dogs

molly LOVES dogs. she sees one on a walk and she squeals with joy. she hears one bark and she barks back. she sees one in a book and sometimes she barks as well. but her own dog, Harley, is a bit aloof, doesn't really want to be touched, and is constantly trying to get away from her (which is why Harley was so great in motivating molly to crawl...must catch poochie!).

when we went to California to visit the May family, molly got to spend some time with friendly, loving pooches and she was a happy girl. and this past Sunday, molly got to spend the day with her auntie Shani and Lucy, Shani's family's golden lab. well, it was love at first site for the both of them, and they'll be fast friends for many years to come, i am sure. here is a little slideshow of molly and Lucy, best buddies (with one slide of molly pounding on the sliding glass door, desperately trying to make friends with Mercer the cat, who was out back and wanting nothing to do with her). in a couple of them you'll note that molly is giving Lucy a stuffed animal, that's Lucy's "baby"...molly didn't want her to be lonely. later in the day you'll see that molly and Lucy went "grocery shopping", and Molly brought along her babies. it was cute, Shani's niece had a bunch of baby dolls, which i wouldn't think molly would be into yet, but sure enough that was the first thing she went for when we got there. guess i'm going to need to get her a baby doll that she can play with...and suck on, and bite, and hold on to by the face (see the photo at the top)...huh, Lucy and molly have a lot in common when it comes to parenting their babies.

monday, molly had to attend a Downtown Portland Neighborhood Association meeting with me (it was for work, i don't just run around attending random neighborhood association meetings) and for the occasion we got dressed up super cute - so once again, a slideshow of the cuteness. i love these slideshows! oh, and molly is now smiling when the camera comes out, what a ham!

hope this finds you all well!

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!

mirror, mirror...

...on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? why molly of course!

here is molly playing in the mirror at great-grandpa's house in California (8/22).

going back to cali

we spent last weekend down in No Cal visiting my family (the May's), and though it was whirlwind and we wish we could have stayed much longer, we had a fabulous time! and once again i am amazed at what a wonderful little person molly is. she handled long plane rides (we had "maintenance issues" and were stuck on the plane for quite a while on our way down), multiple car rides, meeting all sorts of new people, having various dogs lick her face...all with a great big smile! she is so freakin' awesome!!

speaking of dogs, the puppies were definitely her favorite. my mom has two small dogs (matsi and guapo) and every time molly saw one or the other she would let out a squeal of delight. they were the first things she looked for in the morning. at times, my mom and i were a bit envious of all the attention the puppies were getting. :)

on friday, molly and i went and visited my good friend from high school, Sandra, who, along with her husband Jason, is raising two fantastic kids, Aidan and Zoey. we had a lovely time hanging out in their beautiful home, from which we walked to Aidan's kindergarten to pick him up (i can't believe he's in kindergarten already!!) and Zoey was very sweet and shared all her toys with molly. molly immediately hit it off with Sands and even sat with her while she read most of Lyle the Crocodile. with us, a page or two in and she's bored and off exploring.

on saturday we met up with my friend Jen who i haven't seen in years but who is the friend i've known the longest - since we were five! we lost track of each other for a while, but after molly was born i got to thinking about being a young girl and how important my friends were - especially Jen, who was my very best friend growing up - and i decided to find her again. thankfully her mom kept her old telephone number so i was able to get in touch with her and we've vowed to never lose track again. she looks exactly the same, as gorgeous as ever! (i can't believe i didn't get a picture) and she's is also still as kind and funny as i remember. so Jen, along with Molly, my mom and i, all headed off to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk (just like the good ol' days!), where my mom's company was having a picnic. it was wild with all the people and sounds...molly was fascinated with it all! and we got to meet Angela, who works with my mom, and her son Anthony. Angela has been so sweet to molly and i, sending presents and good wishes, though she had never met us. and i know my mom loves working with her. so it was great to finally meet her, and her son, who was awesome! molly played with them and had a good ol' time.



after the beach we went to my Papa's house and visited with the family. we had a great time catching up, playing with dogs, and eating delicious food. oh, and playing with mirrors. molly LOVED their closet in the spare bedroom which is basically one big mirror. here are some pictures from her time playing at the mirror (and i have a great video i hope to get up soon). she would talk to herself, and give herself smooches. it was kind of weird to watch, it was like i suddenly had twins! she also got a new teddy bear from her aunt Ritsu that she loves very much!


the next day we visited some more friends and went and hung out with uncle John and Laurie before heading to the airport. again, the dogs stole the show. molly just loves 'em! this picture is actually from the night before, but it is of molly's feet and mo's feet (mo being my uncle John's lab Matomo). so cute!

thankfully, my mom came back up to Portland with us and is helping zero, molly and i get done some of the projects that have been on our list since we bought the house last October. she is amazing to have around and i can't thank her enough for all her love and support. what she doesn't know is that i'm planning on holding her hostage here and never letting her go!

a cavalcade of cuteness!

the problem with not getting to post to this blog as often as i'd like is that i end up with a bazillion pictures and little stories i want to share and it makes for a unwieldy posting. but here goes...let the cavalcade of cuteness begin!

so molly, as all good children do, L.O.V.E, loves cheerios (or in her case, "Purley Os" the "healthy" whole grain alternative). and what's not to love, you can pick them up all by yourself, pop 'em in, mush 'em up and then on to the next one. she also wants to share her new found love and offers them to her dad, me and, of course, to harley. we all enjoy them as well. all in all, she is getting really good with the eating and now enjoys three good meals a day. and it's hard to find foods she doesn't like, though spinach does seem to be on the "no" list. at the very bottom is a super cute video of her first experience with cheerios. something odd is happening when i compress these videos so that i can actually upload them to the blog, and none of them have sound, but that's probably good cuz all you would hear is me being a goof. :)

a very good friend of mine (since junior high) sent her the most adorable t-shirt ever and here she is modeling it (on the hottest day of the year, so that's what all the sweat is about). in case you can't read it, it says "future librarian" - awesome! she'll probably think libraries and librarians are totally lame because i'm so jazzed about them, and i am her mom, but one can hope. maybe she'll follow in her father's footsteps and become a performer. or maybe she'll show us all and be an electrical engineer or a mathematician. who knows? and the sky's the limit. it's all so exciting!

back to the hottest day of the year, actually, the hottest three days of the year happened this past weekend and once again our house heated up like an easy bake oven. this next shot of molly has her donning a new do - no product needed - just good ol' sweat. poor girl. but she took it all like a champ. she does much better in the heat than her mom and dad, that's for sure (just look at that smile on her face).

on saturday we hit the pool again for our lesson and this was our best session yet. she laughed and clapped and kicked and splashed. we had so much fun! and our instructor did some safety drills with us where i had to tread water while holding molly. now many, many years ago i played water polo, where i learned the most efficient way to tread water, but even so, that's tough work! i'm glad i got to practice it in a non-emergency situation. afterward i mentioned how hard it was and that i wasn't sure how long i could have done it. the instructor looked at me and smiled and said, you could do it as long as was needed, and you know what, he's probably right. there's something about being a parent that can pretty much make you into a superhero in the right circumstances. anything to protect your child...

but back to the cuteness. the heat meant wearing as few clothes as possible and there were many times when molly found herself bottomless (and topless too). here is a shot showing off her magnificent legs! take a look at those rolls around the knees...is there anything cuter? well, maybe this smile...

and besides crawling like she's be doing it for years, standing up and "walking" around the furniture, eating like a champ, and many other amazing things, molly is also pointing and waving now. actually, she's communicating really well. she understands us more and more and is figuring out ways to tell us what she thinks. tonight in fact, i said "where's harley" and she turned around and pointed at the pooch! i know you're getting sick of hearing this, but you have to admit...genius! directly below is a little video of her in her crib, bouncing up and down and pointing and waving. bye for now!

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!