The Old Man is Snoring

Fall has finally arrived in the Okanagan and I can't say that I'm terribly sorry to bid adios to summer and welcome in the cooler weather. It's been gorgeous around here with a few pockets of clouds and rain and, on some days, lots of wind. I LOVE fall (I think I was a pumpkin in a former life) and all that it brings with it, except for the shorter days and apparently a descending gray cloud that occurs around here. We've been warned that because of the lakes sitting right at the base of some decent-sized mountains (4000+ footers right outside our windows), we get a cloud that settles in the early winter and lifts in early spring. Blech. For now, though, we're still enjoying blue blue skies, puffy white clouds, and the occasional fun and blustery rain storm. We had one of those several weeks ago and our presence at some puddles was requested -- strike that, demanded. Despite Molly's ongoing aversion to arts and crafts (I tried again and the only thing she'll do in our class is paint. So many sparkles, so much yarn, and so much tissue paper is beckoning and she ignores it for the bingo markers and the paint. Boo), she and I both get all pumped up for big storms and I was as eager to don my rain boots and jacket and go explore what was in the puddles. Molly just wanted to displace water and then sit in her sandbox.

Geared up to go brave the storm (unfortunately, I don't believe our storms are named anything like a nor'easter, an Alberta Clipper, a winter wallop, etc.). It's just plain old rain and wind.

Big boots are still a little tricky for little feet and that's why they came off once we hit the sandbox.

Listen Lady...

I had a very serious child on my hands this afternoon. Molly woke up from her nap with a few things to get off her mind and this mama was going to listen to what she had to say. Given the amount of squealing that occurred this morning, I was more than happy to listen to a thing or two when it came with calm affect and a lower decibel level. Then, someone had to get on the phone and unload some more important info. I'm not sure who was (supposed to be) on the other end of the line but I was tailed to make sure that I was listening to the convo.

I think I may be in trouble in the future when it comes time to negotiate for a later bedtime, a sleepover, or the family car. Given John's penchant for negotiation, I think I'll be out of my league when someone strikes the pose to work mom over.

This was a very important conversation that needed a witness. Someone was getting an earful...

and there was apparently some rather shocking news. Maybe the listener had some pears on her shirt too, which were the topic du jour.

Here is the belly built for two (me and Doyle 2.0. Just so we're clear -- there are no multiples in there). 37 weeks on Wednesday. I managed to get out for a ladies night with some folks in town tonight, which was a nice break. If anyone has a hankering to see Fame, talk to me first. You may want to bring your own cheese grater because there's plenty of fromage provided.

Perfection

The other night at dinner Molly asked if she could take a bath after dinner. I explained that it was late and she had had a short nap and so we could do a bath on Saturday (she has no idea what the days of the week mean but she likes to hold onto certain things happening on certain days. For instance, Megan, Erin, and Baby Evan came to visit her on a Friday once so now they ALWAYS come on Friday). I expected this to provoke some consternation in our overtired toddler but instead she looked at me with very serious eyes and said "Perfect". Well alrighty then. I'm glad that fits into your schedule, my friend. We do aim to please around here.

Head Case

You know how fashion trends tend to recycle over the decades? Like how we can now safely recreate the fantabulous junior high experience again with leggings and baby doll dresses? Someday, my friend Kate is hoping mustard blazers come back into style so that she can finally get people to stop harassing her about that particular outfit choice. In any event, I know that hats have come in and out of style -- fedoras, newsboy caps, big floppy sun hats -- these trends have all seen the light of day again. Molly has totally bought into the hat craze and enjoys wearing her hats around when they are totally unnecessary. It slowly dawned on me that she was channeling my brother, who, we can all see, also had a predilection for head coverings. I'm sort of hoping the fashion similarities stop here between these two, otherwise I'd better start saving Molly's t-shirts right about now so that she can still wear them fifteen years from now.

What I Did On My Fall Vacation

The weather gods paid us some special attention during our Doyle family week in Chelan. We had beautiful, clear, warm weather almost every day with only one overcast morning. We were all together to celebrate Eric's 30th birthday (or something close to that) and we finally caught up with Auntie Holly, who we had managed to miss this spring and summer. Molly couldn't have been happier to be bunking with Auntie Holly (and I'm sure the reverse is also true, right?) and happily announced her whereabouts and whatsabouts for the entire time she was there. It was great to catch up with everyone and the girls had fun running hither and thither. I didn't capture all the highlights but we did manage to...


squish ourselves onto Auntie Mary's (or Molly's new name for her -- Uncle Harry) lap.

hunt for some fish in the koi pond. Them critters are best seen eye to eye, dontcha know. Going overboard? No problem with the Daddy tether.

become swinging fools. We may have snuck onto a playground at a resort. Then again, maybe we didn't...

wear the back packs that Nana brought for all the girls. Molly only liked to wear her new pack around with nothing in it. I was hoping she volunteer to carry the trail books from now on. I wouldn't even attempt to have her carry food because it would be gone before anyone else could have a nibble. For everyone's safety, packs should be worn at all times when hugging.


laugh our way into the giant tub in Nana and Grandpa's room. Molly wanted to explain to her pigment-blessed cousins just how white one person can be.

consider a career at a drive-up window.

bounce around. Long gone are the days of the jolly jumper. Now this kangaroo is much more into the double bounce with her bouncy ball inside of the bouncy house (sorry for squashing you, Emmy). When Molly falls off (accidentallyonpurpose) her ball, she likes to yell "WHOA! Big one!).

Last day group shot -- minus Holly. I'm sorry if my enormity is blocking everyone else.

Thanks to everyone for a great week and we're looking forward to gathering again as a family of four!

Catch Me If You Can

Miss us? We spent a beautiful week in central Washington with lots of Doyles and Doylettes and I'm gathering pictures from phones and cameras (and maybe even from other people? Nana? Eric?) to document some of our fun from the week. I'll get those pictures up asap.

In the meantime, these are the little ladies from a month or so ago -- not much has changed with these three -- they're still always looking for a good time. Emily and Molly are only about six months apart and they get closer and closer with their fun and funnies (Katy is the older and wiser one but all the girls obviously have plenty of fun together). Molly had lots of fun wearing Emily's blankie on her head this week, they giggled together lots, and shared lots of hugs.

What else... we're pretty much home from now until baby arrival time (I'm hoping that Doyle 2.0 doesn't follow in recent baby trends of our friends and decide to arrive days and days late. Boo). Molly continues to promote the boygirl theory but waffles on daily basis. She has lots of big sister instructions to tell the baby -- mostly things I've tried to tell her that she can repeat clear as day but remains challenged on following the actual directions. The baby will undoubtedly be told not to tip over his/her cup; to clean up, clean up, everybody clean up; monkey see monkey do; and to use her listening ears. I just wonder if Molly will have better success than I have at times...

Streaming Flaxen Waxen

Lookit! Lookit! Not just one hair clip but...

TWO hair clips... they may have had a short life span in the hair but the goods were there to put them in in the first place.

We were all so excited that we put our dancing shoes on... first John and Molly did some boogying to celebrate the milestone (even though the hair was back to its old mullet self)

and then Molly decided that her slippers had their own two step in them and did a stair shimmy.

This Is The Way We Read A Book

This is some serious business, this book reading. If you notice, she has a big collection of books at her feet, so she was doing this for quite some time (especially in Molly-time). Reading with her is pretty fun these days, although sometimes the way you and I would read a book is not the way she wants to read it. We only read each page one time and there are, apparently, some pages that require multiple reads. The really good books should also be read many times in a row (I've had to explain that sometimes gorrillas or doggies or Silly Sally gets tired and needs a break).

We had our 34-week midwife appointment today. Our midwives, like I'm sure many practitioners are, are very good at incorporating Molly into the appointments (where she has promptly repaid them the past two times by pooping at the office and announcing it loudly and insistently). She doesn't really have time in her busy schedule for the talking that happens during the appointments but she is really fascinated by the medical stuff -- taking my blood pressure, measuring and feeling my belly for the baby's position, and hearing the baby's heartbeat. She gets really pumped up because they let her push the button to turn on and off the doppler and it's like she's died and gone to heaven. There is this little trail of commentary following us out of the office and on the way home -- "heard the baby" and "pushed the button" on a loop track. She still thinks we're having a boy and that she'll have a sister but sometimes we're having a straight up boygirl. Whatever it is, there's a lot of love in her heart for the new one... especially when it's nicely contained on the inside.

Vanquishment of Vancouver

We spent the weekend in Vancouver in order to do some baby-related shopping and check out the city a little bit. Outside of some loud neighbors in our hotel, we had fun exploring and were glad that the weather held steady. We went to the aquarium, checked out Stanley Park a little bit, had dinner in Gastown (yes, it's really called Gastown), had a delicious crepe breakfast, walked the Botanical Gardens (for the record, this wasn't even my idea... although I loved that someone else had the idea), went to Ikea, and headed home via the scary mountain roads that we traversed last winter. They weren't as scary as they seemed about seven months ago but they didn't seem like a walk in the park, either.

Molly was pooped from her weekend but managed her wiggly self pretty well. I can always tell when she's overtired because it's directly related to how much she wants to run away in a store. I think we chased her through 3000 aisles at Ikea. Yup, pretty sure that's about the right number. For someone with tiny feet, she can sure put the pedal to the metal when she's in the mood to hightail it somewhere.

I was too busy being happy to be at the aquarium to take any pictures but some highlights for the small set were the orange fishies, the big fishies, and the doggies in the water (these were actually sea lions but someone kept insisting that they were dogs. Silly John). Other things that we enjoyed...

Working hard for that last bite of crepe. To be honest, I'm not sure I could double fork it that well, either.

Mmmmmmh... the look of sweet success.

I think Molly will follow in both her grandmothers' steps and love gardens and flowers...

although maybe not as much as she loves waterfalls.

Daddy Knows Best

I might get in trouble for commenting on the softer side of John but as the weeks go on with Doyle 2.0 on the inside (i.e., I get bigger, more unwieldy and have increased pregnancy brain), more of the keeping up with the little tornado duty falls to John, especially on the weekends. There has been this very nice, very sweet shift of attention that I've noticed in the past few weeks to "DADDY!". About the time I start dinner during the week, she will check the big bay window for the Jeep to pull into the driveway (she's still obsessed with the Jeep, too). In the morning, she likes to keep me posted on Daddy's morning (in the shower, on the potty (hee hee), getting dressed) and then when he's left for work. It's basically a Daddy love-fest and super sweet. Daddy can also pick her up and carry her for longer, jump around, do somersaults -- all some of her favorite things that I can't do as well right now (I'm really not much of a somersaulter ever, actually). It's really special to see this all happen and I think they both are super lucky.

Funny Face

Very likely, Molly was mistakenly born human. She either should have been born a parrot or, if the human piece is correct, a couple centuries earlier as a court jester. The kid will do anything for a laugh (well, these days, she'll do anything for a reaction... she's into that tempting fate phase of toddler-hood that we all know and love, whether it be trying to tip her chair back, climbing like a monkey on anything where she can gain a foothold, or watching for mom or dad's reaction while tiptoeing away with contraband). She's working on a series of faces for her future miming career.


This is her fake "scared" face that she makes when we read Goodnight Gorilla and we get to the page where the zookeeper's wife is surprised to find a bunch of animals in her room. She will gasp every time like it's the newest thing on the block.


Her "mad face" that she can only keep for a second now because she cracks herself up with it.

Happy face that alternates with the mad face. It's a whole sequence. This is also similar to her "cheese" face that she likes to use when taking "pictures". To take a "picture", she finds anything that resembles a camera in her wacky mind and presses it to her eyebrow region like she's doing a mind meld with the device and walks around and says "cheese" to no one in particular (except that someone needs to respond and acknowledge that she's taking a "picture" or the "cheese"es get progressively more urgent).


Her "I cute" face (or post I-just-got-away-with-something-face). Hee hee goes the little one.

In addition to her little faces, she has also taken to calling me by the same names that I call her: sweet pea, sweetie pie, munchkin. It can diffuse some frustration when a little voice calls out "good MORNing, sweetie pie." It's also much easier on the ego than hippo, thankyouverymuch.

I think Doyle 2.0 is trying to keep up with his/her big sister. I wish I could remind her/him that there's really no where to run while in the womb, so he/she could just simmer down in there rather than trying to spring itself out every which way. I've ordered up one of the calm kids this time around so I hope this is just a temporary, 9-month thing.

Cooking With The Cookie Monster

We had a slow day yesterday and played mostly around the house. I don't do enough of these days, although I think that will change with Numero Dos's presence around these parts. In a continuing quest to see if Molly and I are actually related (and that whole pregnancy/labor/delivery thing wasn't just a dream), we worked on baking cookies because that's one of my favorite things to do. Well, I'm happy to report that it was a success and I'm beginning to think that she won't go looking for her real mom any time soon.





Her chef's hat didn't stay on her head for a long time but it did stay on mine... for a good several hours. Every time I took it off, someone kindly brought it back for me to wear. She's not eating cookie dough, by the way, but is sucking on an ice cube. The heat has returned -- blech. Isn't it sad that kids don't get the chance to lick the spoons like we all did as tots? Boo for salmonella.