Cleanliness is an (Overrated) Virtue

I don't have a clean kid. She doesn't really eat with her fingers, it's more of a fist grab and shovel into her mouth. I think I've seen her pincer grasp all of a half dozen times. If her cuffs (despite my best efforts) aren't caked with something at the end of a meal, it's a miracle. Molly was eating breakfast the other morning and in all of two seconds she went from reasonably clean to this blueberry mess. And she absolutely enjoyed it...




and so, it is comical that her new favorite activity is helping me with the dishwasher. She's very good at closing the dishwasher door and likes to hand me silverware to put away. The other day, she even went so far as to help me load the dishwasher. Her attempt was genuine, but I'm not sure the Bare Naked Ladies were all that dirty...

Snacks and Cracks (Ups)

Is there a better snack than Starbucks and anything eaten out of a cup with feet on it?



And then she just wanted to ham it up for the camera after...

Dashing Through the Snow

We had Gerbi family Christmas this weekend and came home with lots of good stuff. Thanks to everyone for the creativity and great gifts - we're excited to try everything out. Molly was lucky enough to get some more cousin time and enjoyed watching her always-entertaining big pals with all their spunk.



In addition to the family meal and gift exchange, we got outside and did some sledding and cross country skiing/snowshoeing. The snow today was beautiful and we got to double our pleasure by shoveling ourselves out in Brunswick AND in Newburyport.

I forgot Molly's snow booties so she borrowed Grammy's to keep her tootsies toastie.

Greg got an expedition sled to tote his stuff around -- including Molly, who benefitted from some modifications on the sled and stayed warm and cozy during our outing.

Molly was tuckered from her tough winter workout. The princess wave is in the works...

Earth, Wind, and Fire... I Mean Ice

We got socked in by the same rain, sleet, and ice that hit most of New England today. We made it out for swimming lessons and a trip to the store but we were happy to play at home most of the day (and Molly thought it was a great day for a long nap -- I totally agree).

Molly spent some time "reading" her books. She's very particular about which books she reads and she chooses her material with great care.

Lots of peek-a-boo and playing with her ball.

Yesterday was a lot nicer and Grammy came for a visit. We had a nice walk and some good rides on the ducky (quack quack).

Toys? What Toys?

Many of Molly's new Christmas toys are either being shipped back or are still wrapped up until Gerbi-family Christmas this weekend. She's found ways to keep busy without them, mostly by keeping up with her phone calls...


and doing her 100 daily strokes on the tresses. She thinks hair brushing (and sometimes head banging) is very important with such long locks.

She is very diligent and makes sure not to shirk on the back of her mullet.

Wild Times

We have returned from our west coast travels and while it was not a hiccup-free trip, we had a great time visiting people and places. Seattle, as most of you know, has been experiencing wacky weather, which naturally derailed holiday travel plans for many folks headed out there (including all Doyles who had planned on making the trip although we all eventually made it). After not making our flight on Monday, and learning that there were virtually no free spots on any flights until after Christmas, we snookered our friends at Southwest into giving us a spot... or maybe we were snookered. Excited to learn that there was a flight that left early Tuesday morning (and thankfully abandoning our plan to fly to San Fran and then drive up), we quickly rebooked on that one and showed up for our "direct" flight to Vegas where we would connect to our "direct" flight to Seattle. It turns out (and I'm sure everyone else knew this) that direct is not the same as non-stop. So, after taking an almost 20 hour tour of this great land of ours, we arrived in Seattle sometime around midnight (Seattle time) on Tuesday. We were greeted by Nana who, after she and Grandpa encountered their own travel tales of woe, was still up making soup and generally being a Christmas elf. Undaunted, the gathered clan Christmas-wrapped our little hearts out on Wednesday and had a great celebration with everyone on Thursday and Friday. Santa (and UPS) found three excited Doyle girls peeking under the tree with lots of presents winking back at them. Christmas is about 1000 times more exciting with little ones around, getting into mischief, emitting high decibal squeals and playing with all their new toys.

We had a lot of fun with everyone there (thanks to Eric and Mary for hosting all of us and providing great food and drink) and especially loved watching Katy, Molly, and Emily play with each other. Katy runs a tight ship out there and is full of all sorts of antics and imagination. Just don't try to pull a fast one on her because she will put you back on the straight and narrow before you know what hit you. Emmy is about as cute as can be with her new teeth and sweet-as-anything grin. She's laid back and so full of love that she didn't even mind when Molly patted her head for the 20,000th time. Or sat on her.

Christmas morning and Molly's new seal (currently dressed in a pig costume).

Wee ones in their Christmas finery.

Molly had her first taste of Chinese food on New Year's eve. I'm not sure who won that battle.

After Christmas, before we wore out our welcome at Eric and Mary's too much, we headed up to British Columbia for some job scouting and to get a look at the area. Without reservation, BC has some of the most stunning and gorgeous landscapes around. And they are scary as hell when you're driving through them in a snowstorm and it's getting dark. I've decided that I really, really, really like plowed roads, salt and sand trucks, sunlight, my life, civilization, and benign highway signage. John masterfully piloted our little rental car through some treacherous driving conditions on some pretty high mountain passes. Below is a little taste of what we encountered up there (these aren't my pictures. I couldn't take pictures when I was white-knuckling the door handle). The highway sign shown is one of the nicer ones we encountered. We passed others that wanted us to make sure we had enough gas to get through the next 100+ km, told us that major highways were open (which means they can be closed, which means the weather gets really, really bad), last U-turn for 100+ km, delineated critical accident zones (20km long with no cell service), described something about rapidly changing weather in high mountain passes... in the end, though, if we hadn't gotten out on Tueday, I'm not sure when we would have gotten out. Washington state passes were also intermittently closed throughout the next several days because of avalanches and snow and all that fun stuff.

This sign is really so kind compared to others. In Canada, I think they decided if they put up a sign and warned you then they are off the hook for things like plowing.

This is a good picture of Coquihalla Pass, the easier of the two we encountered, in slightly better weather than when we went through. The roads are clear-ish in this shot. The avalanche slides are ahead but more gut wrenching is the slope of the road. These aren't any wussy American descents, these are "let's save some money and pave straight down the side of a 1200 meter mountain" where breaking is for losers.

In any event, we are back in our little house, happy after a great trip and excited for all that is ahead in the new year. We hope everyone is comfy and warm and had very merry Christmases. I promise that the next post will contain more updates about Molly's new tricks and antics. To preview, she's becoming less hair challenged, she's walking around lots and navigating obstacles well, she's is talking more (it was good that she can say fishies since we went to the aquarium and saw a billion of them. She may have pointed them all out, too. She also loves to say Harry and missed her buddy a lot), has added some new dance moves, and continues to love all the positive reinforcement she can get her mitts on.

Winter Wonderland of Fun

I'm a little late posting these pictures from Molly's actual first birthday last Monday. We celebrated with a play date with Ethan and Adam, a cupcake, and some grouchy pants (which thankfully got put back in the closet after her morning nap).
I think Molly's not so sure about this whole "one year" thing...


but if it involves cupcakes, she's game to try it.

This past week also brought a lot of snow, playtime with Grammy so that I could actually Christmas shop, Molly's one year trip to the pediatrician (she remains tall at 31 inches but, despite her pot belly, is leveling off with her weight at almost 22 lbs), some additional hair on top of her head, Christmas parties, new animal sounds (duck and snake have been added the repertoire. I think John taught her the sound for snake because of the snake that Harry caught and deposited in our dining room. Guess where I was after I found the snake? That's right, on top of a chair) and lots more walking. Today, she made it all the way across the kitchen and out into the living room while only stopping for a knee once.

Navigating some difficult terrain in the kitchen -- sippy cups and maracas offer unprecedented dangers.


Watching the snow start on Friday... and it hasn't stopped yet. We are lucky, however, because we were one of the few areas not to experience any power outages from last week's ice storm. I think our friends the Shippees hold the record at 10 days without power... Good thing they are hearty New Hampshire-ites.


Still snowing at bedtime...



Despite some chilly temps, we got outside to play in the snow for awhile yesterday.