Hide the Baby

Well, well look who has outscored me in posting in the past two weeks. Thankfully, the world has been righted again and John is home in Newburyport, where there are no weird cover bands at the Legion Hall (or a Legion Hall, for that matter), no scary signs warning you that your life is effectively over if you continue on the same road at a speed above .3 MPH, and some nice spring weather to boot. In between now and then, however, we spent a wonderful week in Florida with Molly's Nana and Grandpa. Molly has four of the best grandparents in the whole wide world and they all love her (and her nut job antics) so much. Visits are always a great break for us and, I hope, fun for them. I'm always thankful how willingly they all put up with all the disruptions to their routines, their traffic flow (girlfriend needs some gates), and their nicely ordered bookshelves.

We had a thrilling week in gator land filled with H-O-T weather, which meant lots of time in the H-2-O. We were also able to celebrate Mother's Day down there with a wonderful brunch, a very sweet visit to Molly's 92 year old, totally with it, great great aunt Tid, some shopping without the royal antsy pants, and a nice dinner. I think that Nana and Grandpa happily embraced the pitter patter of little feet (and shrieks and non stop commentary) and I know that we really appreciated and reveled in all the help and company.

Because this blog is also the closest thing Molly will get to a baby book (I'm only part-time crafty), I've got to note some of Molly's latest and greatest antics (and to me, they are just plain funny). After a rough couple of months where her desire to do things seemed inversely related to her communication skills, she is thankfully (for all of us) able to use words much more now (and KNOWS, despite what you may think, that "ehhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnn" does NOT mean "up". She can say "up, please" just fine, thankyouverymuch. She can also: say her whole name "Ma-wee Doyle", says "hi dude" without prompting, flirts with waitresses/waiters/hostesses/restaurant goers/airplane passengers/store clerks and will say "hi" and "bye bye" each and every time someone passes her by, will serenade us with Ba Ba Black Sheep, Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC, and some random other songs for as long as you'll sing along (I think the little girl who lives down the lane is her new best friend), count to ten but REFUSES to say the #2. Read into this what you will. I'm sure much of this is unintelligible to many people but you'll rue the day that you don't catch on to what she is saying pretty quickly. She loves to laugh and if you mention that anything is funny, she'll give a big guffaw even though she has no idea what your talking about. Okay, enough blabbering (from me, not her)... here are the pics.

Wait! Vacation hasn't even started. My little dear took some pity on me, though, after mostly solo parenting for a week and a half, and snoozed for much of the trip down to Florida. Lesson learned on this trip: Molly gets her own seat from now on. Unless we want to be human trampolines (or if we can convince her to sleep through every plane ride), we're done snuggling in an airline seat built for one.

Mmmmmhhhh... the beach. Actually, who the heck cares about the "beach" part. This kid would rather get smacked in the face with wave after wave than play for more than 30 seconds out of the water. Every now and again, there is a little flash of me in there (especially because it is well documented that John is not an ocean lover. Hee hee).

Her dudilicious look is complete with shades and a sandy tush.

Nana and Grandpa have some nice open spaces to run around, yell, and dance in. They were also kind enough to put some statues out just for Molly to greet each day (or multiple times a day). She liked to think, I'm sure, that they were there just for her, anyway. Just like the books in Grandpa's office were there just for her to take off a billion times. And Nana's glasses were placed on her head for Molly to remove... ah, how the world revolves around a toddler.

Relishing in a cabinet of toys just for little people (filled with Little People).

Nana taught Molly an oldie "peas porridge hot", and since it involves the clapping of hands, she's clearly game for it.

We spent mucho time in the pool. What else are you going to do in 90 degree heat?

How can you not love big, slobbery, open-mouthed kisses (and these are just for me, everyone else gets nice, dainty pecks)?