Safety First

The day was cold but sunny so we had to protect our peepers on our walk, right? Captain Safety thought so. She enjoyed wearing her glasses but enjoyed showing off even more than that.


She also had a friend come over (okay, she's my friend but I shared nicely) -- my pal since childhood, Phoebe -- and they had lots of fun. Molly is so lucky to have great people in her life -- people who don't mind when a toddler crawls in their laps, book in hand, just waiting to be read to. Phoebe opens her heart to little tykes and their parents all week so it's extra special that she just rolls right along with small people's wishes without missing a beat on her day off.

Itty Bitty Bites

When you're used to eating by the fistful it can be hard to go backwards and eat one morsel at a time. Molly likes to have utensils in the general area of her food but hasn't really ever used them as a vehicle to get anything into her mouth. She gets an A+ for her efforts the other day, though. In the end, I think she ended up double fisting her way to a full stomach but at least the spoon became more than simply a table-top adornment (or, more likely, something to be "accidentally" dropped on the ground) for a little while.

How come this thing is so small?

I think I can get it on there...

One down, 200 to go.

Pokes, Peers, and Pirouettes

Snow = fluffy white goodness (although I'm beginning to wonder where Mother Earth would like us to put her white powder) but sleet/freezing rain = bad, bad, bad. Our swimming lessons got canceled this morning because of the nasty weather that is high on the stink 'o meter. The silver lining was that Oliver came over to play while his mom got to go enjoy herself for a little while (hey, sometimes going to the eye doctor alone IS enjoyable).

Molly has decided that Oliver is like the Pillsbury Dough Boy and he does give a giggle when he's (gently) poked in the belly.

Molly also tried to entertain him with silly little antics, like peering around at him.

Oliver did give her good smiles but he then moved on to...

eating the baby's head. I think hot dog eating contests are in his future.

In the meantime, Molly entertained herself by, what else?, dancing her little pants off.

Nap Strike

Someone has been questioning the need for naps lately so we've had lots of time for new and exciting activities over the past few days. I think it could have something to do with the spurt of chompers that have slowly been coming through but decided to descend with a vengeance over the weekend.

John was trying to program throughout the weekend but I think he had more success with getting wee ones to laugh. Molly likes to use her dad's keyboard almost as much as he does, which I hear isn't very helpful when trying to get work done.

Last night, in an effort to get dinner on the table, I set up a little water table for Molly. Once again, she missed the point (see here for another time when she didn't really get it) that it's supposed to be for splashing around in not for getting in. She was happy as a lark in there, though, so why fight it?

I think this looks like she's making a really important phone call. "Hello, Mr. President? It's me, Molly. I'd like to discuss some domestic policy. I really think that lunch time should be moved up by about two hours."

Blowing in the Wind

We spent some time up in Maine this week, visiting baby Adam, snowshoeing a couple of times, visiting with Grammy, and running around like crazy ladies. Molly likes going to new places and making them her own -- she enjoyed the little rocking chair that was created sometime when the dinosaurs were still around... I mean, it was Grammy's. She also liked deconstructing the CD collection. Most of all, she liked chasing the kitties around like a bat out of hell yelling "Harry" (in this funny little British-like accent) at anything with four legs and fur. She was very gentle when she managed to get her hands on one of them, which was a miracle.






The wind was blowing some arctic nastiness today so we decided to go to the New Hampshire Children's Museum with Molly's friend Sadie (and her parents). It was a fun little place with lots of good stuff for the miniature set. I'm excited that Molly's getting to the point where we can enjoy some of this stuff; it breaks up the long winter days. Molly's favorite exhibit: a box. She couldn't get enough of the box and just wanted to go in it and sit. Awesome.

Another favorite was the mirror... shocking. The little vanity plate cannot get enough of herself.

John and Molly rang the bell on the trolley. It was no box but it was sort of enjoyable.

John's favorite exhibit -- these twirly things. Sometimes Molly paid attention and other times she wandered around staring at people.

They had a little post office to play in and the ladies liked to ring the bell and see who would come to the window. My favorite, however, was...

the really grumpy woman in back who didn't seem to be having the time of her life. Hellloooo, it's a miniature post office. What could be more fun?

Fresh Pow

We did some extreme skiing yesterday, going for fresh tracks out on Plum Island. So, maybe it wasn't exactly "extreme" but it was gorgeous to be out there after our foot plus of new snow. I have decided that most people look a little silly with action shots of cross country skiing but John disagreed -- this doesn't look silly at all.




Because one can only spend so much time sitting in a sled and since Molly can't really navigate big snow piles well yet, we spent a bunch of time inside this weekend, too. We...

played with slinkies and made funny faces

used Little People as finger puppets

read lots of books


ran away from diaper changes


and learned to do lots with a fork except actually pick up food.

Molly Wants a Cracker

Molly has always been a curious kid. Her giant head leading the way, she rushes headlong into activities and new adventures pretty regularly -- and she's developing some good running commentary to describe it. She has imitated people for awhile but she is becoming a regular parrot now. It's getting to the mission critical point of watching our language around her (not that anyone has a potty mouth around here...). The other day, when she fell and I said "whoopsie daisy", the next thing I heard was "oopsa dais" or whenever I answer the phone there is a volley of "hi" all around. It's pretty funny, if I do say so myself, and we spend a lot of the day laughing.


She is also still bebopping her way through life. At the grocery store the other day, she shimmy-shook her way through entire store. I guess some people DO like muzak.