keeping grandma on her toes!

after our trip to Minnesota, i was out of vacation time and Zero needed to stay behind to help with some things, so Molly and i returned sans Zero and Grandma Nancy came up to help us out for a week and really saved the day. my mom planned it perfectly and we all landed and met at the airport on Friday afternoon and headed home together.

i have to admit, i was a bit concerned that living that crazy toddler lifestyle for five days in a row might be a bit too much for grandma - i mean Molly is the cutest and most precious thing ever, but she's exhausting too! but i misjudged the power of The Grandma, and not only was my mom totally and completely up for it, she was totally and completely awesome too! Molly had the time of her life AND i got updates via text message and pictures (why can't Zero do that?!). it would make my day to get a little picture of Molly in front of the local coffee shop having her milk and muffin with Grandma (left), or eating her Mac & Cheese with hot dogs for lunch, or an her way to the park sporting an adorable ponytail...my favorite pic was the one of her sitting on the potty...did i tell you all how great she is doing on the potty? i don't want to jinx anything, but she's been using the potty for #2 consistently since Minnesota, boo-ya! (another blog comment she's gonna kill me for later in life)

so yes, they had a great time together playing, reading, singing and dancing! not to mention the fashion shows...Molly's never dressed so well as she did during her week with grandma. the poor girl is used to getting thrown into a t-shirt and sweats pretty consistently by her dad...but with grandma it was cute skirts, tops, and sometimes even hats!

but the best was how every morning, Molly would wake up and the first thing she would ask about was Grandma, and then she would run out to see her, and usually crawl under the covers with her. big smiles on both their faces!

on my day off, we all went to the zoo! we mostly went for the train - Molly came back from Minnesota totally into trains - but we also got to see some pretty birds, and feed them, and pray they didn't poop on our heads. and we saw a tiger, and some farm animals, and the elephants (including the new baby, Samudra!) from the train. but other than that, we stood around at exhibits looking for animals that weren't there...we couldn't find a monkey or ape to save our life! ah well. Molly did find a very cute squirrel to pet (right).

the following Friday afternoon, Daddy came back. we all went to the airport to meet him and as soon as he rounded the corner and was within sight, Molly took off like a flash and ran to greet him. i wish i had gotten a little video of it, so fantastic. she so loves her daddy! and he so loves her (it was breaking his heart to be away from her for so long).

and look at the two of them, with their silly faces. this isn't the best quality picture, but you can see how they are two little peas from the very same pod. my family!

minny-sota

molly LOVES minnesota. she loves the water, she loves the boat, she loves the John Deere riding mower, she loves the old school Fisher-Price toys, she loves her aunts and uncle and grandma, and she especially loves, and worships, and copies in every way, her cousins! so lucky for her, she gets to go every summer (and hopefully some occasional winters) for the rest of her life.

we were the last group to make it up this year and just in time to see most of the family before they headed back to their individual necks of the wood. she had so much fun with her cousins. there was lots of legos, trains, pirates and sharks (along with a lot of "no! that's mine!" which ended up being one of Molly's favorite phrases, sigh). Molly has always had this eery ability to balance things on top of each other (except for herself that is, she falls all the time, even when standing on her own two feet on solid ground...ah, like mother like daughter), but she spent some quality time with the blocks and legos making super tall towers.

and there was much dancing and playing of music. her uncle Sean plays guitar which Molly thought was the coolest thing ever, and grandma Mike bought Guitar Hero for the Wii (yes, they have a Wii in the woods) and here is a picture of Molly on drums, cousins Declan on guitar and Ryan on vocals. what a band!

Molly also went a bit more classical and played piano with cousin Sinead (yes, there is also a piano in the woods...i'm telling ya, this place is posh!).


this summer for Molly was all about the hand-me-downs, being the youngest of the grandkids means we pretty much didn't have to bring any clothes for Molly. and her after-shower attire (on the left) was no exception. the Pooh robe has been passed down through the kids from the very first Feeney grandchild (Sara, now 15) and Molly kept the tradition going this year by sporting the cuteness after taking her showers. the cabin has an outdoor shower, which Molly thought was pretty much the best thing since sliced bread, and she asked for a shower almost every day. i got some great pics of her in the shower, but perhaps not appropriate for the blog. but i tell ya, that girl's got a fantastic physique!

the only thing that got more requests then the showers were "boat rides" and "jumping in the lake". we took a boat ride pretty much every other night. we would get suited up, to the right is one of the best nightly boat ensembles, with molly in her "boat coat" (aka life preserver), dinasour pjs (more hand-me-downs), skeleton hoodie (again from cousin Ryan) and pink sneakers - oh yeah! this year i got to do a lot of the driving, which was fun, and of course Molly helped. check out what a good boat driver she is!


regarding the "jumping in the lake", this was the coldest July on record in those parts, and the temperature of the lake water proved it! so we only got into the water a couple times, not that Molly didn't try. every time we walked outside she'd start beelining it for the lake, exclaiming "run and jump in the lake!" like all the other clothes she wore while there, her bathing suit was another hand-me-down and it was one of those awesome ones with the flotation device built in, which made her look like super man (picture on the left). look at how happy she is at the prospect of getting in the lake...and it was freezing!

the best day of swimming happened on our very last morning there (of course) and it was also the day my camera ran out of batteries, so we only got a few pictures, but here they are. i especially love the shot of Molly standing by the steps at the end of the dock. i swear that girl has no fear! Molly really loved watching both Zero and i run and jump into the lake. she would even count it down for us, "1, 2, 3, GO!" and off we went, splashing into the cold, cold water! but hey, the view is great!


speaking of great views, here is another slideshow of some of the fantastic scenery there in Minnesota - we took most of these on our boat rides. if you look closely, you'll notice a family of ducks in one of the shots.


and since i'm on a slideshow kick, how about our blueberry hike. first off, molly is a pretty darn good hiker, of course she'd do anything for the promise of blueberries. there are many wild blueberries growing on the island and here's some shots of Molly enjoying the bounty!


i mentioned at the beginning Molly's affection for the John Deere riding mower. well come on, who wouldn't love that?! i myself got to take her for a spin this year and mow the lawn. for those of you who knew him, Tee Feeney, Molly's grandpa, was a man who loved his lawn. i can remember many a time looking out, off the deck, to see him watering away, almost in a zen-like state. and i would wake early to the sound of the riding mower starting up. so i consider it an honor to mow the lawn in Minnesota, and i hope i do him proud. Molly, being the go-getter she is, not only tried her hand at the riding mower, she went old school as well!

Minnesota is a magical place that's all about family. and Molly had a wonderful time with hers!


hopefully everyone got a chance to spend some time in a beautiful place with their loved ones this summer. next up, our week with Grandma Nancy!

i'm so behind...

...and in less than 7 hours we'll be on our way to Northern Minnesota, where there is no Blogger, no Gmail, no Facebook...just a beautiful lake, family and lots of relaxing...not to mention we're getting out right before the triple-digit weather...aaah! but in the meantime, i'm throwing up some pix of Miss Moo from the past few weeks...
this is from when Grandma came to visit 4th of July weekend.
above is a picture of Molly and her friends at our 3rd of July BBQ.

on the 4th, Molly, Grandma and i all went to the Children's Museum and had a blast. here are some pix of that...be sure to check out her super cute 4th of July dress!


and last week our niece Sara came to stay with us for a few days, we all had a great time - Molly really loved having her cousin Sara around! and Sara made her the lovely fairy crown you see in the picture below.
i don't know exactly when these last two pictures were taken, but they are so Molly! here she is jumping and jiving on the slab!


hope everyone finds some time to relax (or jump around if that's their thing) and beat the heat. all our love!

fun in the sun!

our weekend totally rocked! where to begin...

on friday, we started off the day with storytime at the library and picking up our first Summer Reading prize for this year. we got a new book to add to our library!

then in the afternoon, our neighbor friends invited us to join them at the St. Johns Park for some fun time playing in the fountain! so we got Molly in her bathing suit ensemble (see above), we grabbed baby doll (who was naked except for the hat Molly insisted she wear) and we headed out! we met up with our friends (to the right of zero it's Beau, Rachel and Amelia) and had some serious fun! here is a slideshow of the good times!


after the fountain we played on the jungle-gym and at one point Molly and Beau gave each other a big hug, which is of course very sweet, but also hysterically funny - check out the looks on their faces, they're so serious!

so a really fun afternoon! i've said it before and i'll say it again (and probably even a couple more times in this post), i can't believe how lucky we got when we bought our house. we moved into the best block ever! there are five young families living on our block alone with kids aged 9 months to 10 years, most of them being under the age of 2. Molly and Beau get to play together several times a week and it's just so nice! note to neighbors, you can never move!

after we got home from all the fun and frolic, Molly got her hands on the camera and was taking some pictures, mostly of her bangs, and some of her feet. you'll remember from an earlier post that Molly is quite the photographer, and to prove it, she somehow managed to get this shot of herself here on the left! again with the serious face (and kind of caked in snack), but isn't she an absolute beauty! we have titled it "self-portrait".

we woke up saturday and after breakfast we played a bit in the backyard. Molly has a tent we got at Ikea that is super fun to play in, and especially to open and close. here is a slideshow of that, and note the last picture of her and harley pooch. Molly is attempting to give her a smooch. it's so sad, Molly has so much love for harley, and harley wants nothing to do with her. luckily, Molly doesn't seem to notice!


and in St. Johns on Saturday they had the second annual No.Fest bringing music and art to our neighborhood, all day long. so remember how i said we were lucky about our house and our neighbors? well we are also lucky to live in such a kick-butt part of town! every year we have things like the St. Johns Parade, the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival, the Pirate Festival, and No.Fest - all right down the street from us! does it get any better? i think not! (see neighbors, you really don't want to move!)

for this adventure, we grabbed "Shani" doll, who happened to be dressed only in a t-shirt and diaper, and stuck her in our backpack. you should hear Molly say "backpack", it's so cute! and a note about "Shani" doll, she is my doll from when i was a little girl, and i named her Amy. but when Amy passed on to Molly, she renamed her Shani - after her auntie Shani. all on her own and also very cute!

we grabbed our shades and some snacks of course, and put them in our new snack cup (these things are brilliant, and i can't believe we went so long without one) and headed out the door. we went to the St. Johns Booksellers who had a great band called Jelly Jar Productions playing and they were awesome. the music was creative and fun and they included puppets! and we were there for a good hour and Molly was totally enthralled the entire time. it was nap time so we headed home, but got to hear some more great music on the way by a group called the Hemispheric Chamber Orchestra. next year we hope to spend more time at No.Fest!

after nap we got ready to go to our friend Nate's 2nd Birthday party!! we had such a nice time. Molly and Nate are only 5 months apart and played really well together. well, there were a couple tense moments over the animal crackers and Nate's cool cash register he got for a present, but all in all, well done for two toddlers! the sand box was especially fun, and it was very sweet when Nate pushed Molly around on his bicycle. plus the spread was delicious! Nate's mom and dad really know how to host a party! here are some pix...


seriously, this marathon post is almost done! couple things. first, back to the awesome neighbors! on Saturday night the monthly CMG (Charleston Mom's Group) met at a local pub to chat it up a bit. i mentioned the five young families on our block, well here is a picture of the fabulous moms of those families. they are (from left to right) Cosette (mother of Adriana, almost 15 months), Ingrid (mother of Vincent, almost 9 months), me (mother of the amazing Molly, 20 months), Diana (mother of Mishya, 7 and Keeton, 10) and Rachel (mother of Amelia, 6 and Beau, 20 months). i hope i got everyone's ages right! they are a spectacular bunch of ladies!

and then i just had to share this picture of Molly. she's imitating people all the time now, and in some cases, we're not sure where she really gets it from. for instance, lately she likes to sit down, very purposefully, and cross her legs and arms. then, she proceeds to kiss her bicep. what?! where does she get that from? i dunno, but it's pretty funny!




and lastly, here is a little picture of all of us playing around before bed one night! happy family!!

i want to ride my bicycle, i want to ride my bike!

so, you may remember a post i did a long, long time ago on the fact that we blew part of our economic stimulus check on a Burley bike trailer - with the hopes of me getting into shape and biking molly to-and-fro (ha!). well, it only took me a year (and a few days) but i finally managed to take the 10 minutes i needed to get the Burley hitch hooked up to zero's bike and ready to rock-n-roll! molly even helped me (she's quite the handywoman). and on June 13 we strapped on our helmets and went for our maiden voyage! [if you haven't already, check out that first posting of molly in the Burley - scroll to the picture at the bottom - and then check out the picture above, she's getting so big!]

where did we go? we biked around our lovely neighborhood and specifically went to look at a house for sale nearby that i want my mom to buy. i'm trying desperately to convince my mom to leave her family and friends in the lovely, sunny Bay Area where she has lived for 39+ years and move to Portland. a girl can dream, can't she?! :) so here is a slideshow of our trip to see "grandma's house" (you can see it behind zero in the pic with him waving).


this past weekend i took Sunday off (Happy Father's Day to all you guys out there) and the family went to the City of Portland's Sunday Parkways event in North Portland. what a blast! they close off streets to car traffic in between three parks here in NoPo and people can bike, walk, anything but drive between the parks. and at the parks they have music, food, and booths with fun things like, get a free bike tune-up and helmet check (we took advantage of that to get molly's checked out). they even have bike valet parking! it was so much fun - this will definitely be a family tradition!

molly even got a balloon, her current obsession. i myself am not a big fan (too many childhood "traumatic events" around the popping of balloons i think) but while i was down the way getting a delicious mango-on-a-stick (covered in chili powder and lime - it was amazing!), daddy got her a blue balloon. you can see it attached to the Burley on the left. i have to say, getting to ride around on the closed streets was pretty awesome!

and here is molly and daddy playing at the Kenton Park while listening to live music!


a really wonderful Father's Day was had by all!

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!

the wonder that is uncle scootie

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


and here are some of the outtakes!

harrison ford thinks our baby is cute

ok, in all honesty, he didn't get a chance to actually tell us our baby was cute, but you could tell. and my god, look at this picture, how could someone not think she is the most beautiful baby in the world! she's in her parade outfit!

so here is the story, zero and molly bumped into him as he was coming out of Bombay Cricket Club, where we were having a belated bday celebration for my mom who was in town last weekend. zero and molly had decided to take a walk around the block, as molly was getting a bit antsy, and on their way back in the door, mr. ford was coming out with his take-out. zero said that he looked at molly and as zero tried to be all nonchalant about the fact that Han freakin' Solo was right there, mr. ford hurried to his giant, white, chauffeured Lexis and right before he hopped in, he took a moment to look back at the adorable miss moo! of course!

now that i type this up, i wonder if he was really looking at molly? perhaps he was looking at my fine husband and thinking to himself, hey, that guy has got real hollywood potential! well, mr. ford, my husband is a professional actor and is also free for work! molly on the other hand, is not ready for "the biz", but if you just want to come hang out with her, that's fine by me. she's super fun to play with!!

we had a great weekend with mom that included pedicures, the 74th annual St. Johns parade, and seeing the latest Star Trek movie (which is AWESOME!). molly loves her grandma, who she calls "mama", which can get confusing but you just have to remember that i'm "momm-y". they had a ton of fun reading books, drawing, going to the park, snuggling, cooking up some "stir fry" and so much more! and the weather was perfect! we totally [heart] grandma!

speaking of the parade, here's a slideshow of some of the highlights, including a float for the St. Johns Bachelor Club, the Royal Rosarians, and pirates (cuz what's a parade without pirates!)...

and there are more pictures of here, including some of the Bizarre (yes, they spell it that way on purpose) that takes place with the parade. it's definitely a good time! you should come next year!

our sweet little baby girl...

...is eighteen months old. her half-birthday was this past wednesday, the same day as Grandma May's real birthday. and my what a big girl she's become!

she has so many new words. she can point out a "plane" or "car", "truck" or "train" (and says "choo-choo"). she also shows us "trees" and "birds", "flowers" and the "moon"! she talks about her "diaper", she knows all the parts of her face, and most of the rest of her body. she wants us to sing "e-i, e-i, ooo" and "round and round" (for wheels on the bus). at the doctors today they said she should know between 3 and 50 words. i'd say she's easily pushing 50. and as you can see, she really likes words for things that move (planes, trains and automobiles) and to prove it, here she is in her truck jammies! (thanks Sam!) being able to communicate with her is so much fun, and she is thrilled when mom and dad get what she's talking about it.

she draws now too. she especially loves sidewalk chalk and we head out often to the big slab and draw. here's a slideshow!

she runs and jumps and climbs and swings and slides. speaking of slides, tonight was the first night she climbed all the way up to the slide herself, and came down completely on her own, sitting up the whole way like a big girl! i was so proud! of course all this physical activity also means she falls a lot. i'm not sure if she's got the May-women klutziness, or if it's just because she's a toddler, or both. we get bumps and bruises often, and most recently we scraped the side of our nose off running down the sidewalk (see right). and just when it was almost completely healed, we went to the playground this evening and wham, hit her poor nose again. i could very much do without any bumps, scrapes or blood for a while. i'm not sure how moms survive this, but i suppose we do.

and she's really starting to play with her friends. this i love to see! as you saw in an earlier post, one of her bestest buds is our neighbor Mishya - here's a shot of them hanging out on the back porch together, having a little refreshment after some serious play in the back yard.

and here are videos of some of the shenanigans that go on with molly and Mishya! they're like the human beat-box duo!


so our baby is growing up, faster than i'd like really, but it's also a ton of fun. she is a fantastic and amazing little girl!