Just an Ordinary Day

Doesn't it look like Natalie's sketching Mollie in this first photo? :)

Then, Mollie's excited to tell you that she now has a SECOND tooth!

And yes, Natalie IS talking baby-talk to Casey.

All in a day's work around here. :)

If this doesn't make you SMILE . . .

then there is just something wrong with you. :) 'Nough said.

A TOOTH!

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a tooth!! For no particular reason at all, I decided to feel Mollie's gums for any burgeoning buds, and lo and behold, the girl has cut her bottom right middle tooth! And it's like, all the way through! I'd estimate that she's probably had it for close to a week. "It's amazing!" as Natalie loves to say these days. I'm just totally shocked that a child of ours could be capable of cutting a tooth sans constant crying and intermittent medication. Wow. I'm fairly speechless . . . and INCREDIBLY thankful!! Go Mollie! :)

Clever

OK I'm going to brag on Brad again. This time, about how CLEVER he is! Mollie has an ingrown toenail, which we are supposed to treat with warm water soaks and neosporin. We were trying to figure out a way to have her soak her foot without her being submerged in water, so we didn't have to attempt to hold her still in our laps or stand right beside her in the tub for 10-15 minutes, 2-3 times a day. When I got home from work Thursday, I found Mollie jumping in the jumperoo with her feet in . . . her baby bathtub, filled with warm water! How awesome is that? Brad then further improved on his own idea by using a bucket with just enough water to cover her feet - that way she can jump and kick all she wants, but she can't tip over the container and we don't have to use nearly as much water. Genius! Even our pediatrician was impressed with the idea! :)

By the way, Mollie's toe is doing AWESOME! It's almost completely healed, and the doctor says that the great majority of babies who have really curved nailbeds like Mollie's flatten out and they don't have recurring problems. Yay!

A {glimpse} of Spring?

The temperature reached close to 60 degrees here today, so I took advantage of it and took the girls to the park down the street for a bit after naptime. It was pretty windy, and the wind was pretty cold, so we didn't stay too long. I'm not too sure what Mollie thought, but Natalie had a blast going down the slides and climbing around on the "castle." ;) I'm totally bummed that both of the baby swings are broken, but Mollie didn't do much wiggling, so I felt like she was safe with me right there next to her. I hope they fix them before spring really arrives!!

Snowing

Yesterday morning I set out a pair of shoes for Natalie to try on (I've had them a while, but they are still too big!) - they are brown canvas shoes with white & pink polka dots. Natalie saw them, and said, "It's snowing on my shoes!" :) I had totally forgotten about that, and today I set out a light blue shirt with tiny white polka dots, and she said, "Mommy, it's snowing on my shirt!" :) Just shows you what a weird winter we've had - it's pretty amazing that a 2 year old Oklahoma girl is THAT familiar with snow. ;)

Giggles

This morning, Natalie was having a hard time waking up to get ready to go. She does SO much better when she wakes up on her own, but I have to wake her on most workdays, so I deal with the grumpiness. Anyway, she was being slow and grumbling about everything, and Mollie was protesting in the living room (she had been happily jumping in the Jumperoo), so I brought Mollie into the hall and sat her in front of the bathroom door. Natalie (sitting on the potty) brightened a bit and started making faces at Mollie, who was thrilled and giggled. Then Natalie giggled at Mollie, who giggled back again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Voila - happy campers all around! :) I thought it was too cute!

Seven Months!

Mollie Grace is 7 months old today! It's hard to believe she's closer now to her first birthday than - well, her BIRTH day! She's still as sweet and happy as ever! She has decided to give us a hard time lately about drinking her bottles, so I don't know if she'll come around and it will get easier again, or if she'll just move on to a sippy cup sooner than some babies. We'll see! We're trying the sippy cup, and she likes it, but she doesn't hold it herself at all. I'm trying not to stress too much about the bottle thing. She's definitely getting her calories - she still loves baby food. She wasn't too crazy about carrots the first few times she had them, but I think she's totally come around now and at this point, there isn't anything that she refuses. Miss Mollie is sitting up like a champ and is doing really well now at pushing herself up when she's on her tummy. The silly girl still doesn't roll from tummy to back, but since she rolls back to tummy (which is harder) and sits up so well, it doesn't matter. I'm sure she'll do it someday. Everyone is talking about how she'll be crawling before we know it, and I just can't even imagine that! I really wonder what Natalie will think about that move! Mollie and Natalie have been really enjoying playing together, and it just warms my heart to watch. Natalie spent most of the weekend away with grandparents, and on the drive home this afternoon, Brad nudged me, and I looked back and they were holding hands! I WISH I had my camera!!! It snowed again for a bit this morning, and Mollie really enjoyed watching that. It's so funny how interested Mollie is with snow, but we think it's really cute.

Here are some quick pics of Mollie from today. She's wearing a slightly-too-tight bodysuit, but it's the one I bought for Natalie for Valentine's Day, so I had Mollie wear it in honor of the day. :) I think it's fair to say Mollie is officially now in 6-9 month clothes! :)

(Further) Proof

that I have the best hubby ever!

Brad told me on Thursday that he had gone shopping for groceries to make a surprise Valentine's Day dinner for us on Friday night. I was so excited and had no idea what he could be making!

I walked into the house Friday after work to find it smelling really good - and very familiar, but I couldn't place it. Brad said, "Welcome to The Melting Pot!" He found recipes for all of our favorite things at The Melting Pot and made them from scratch! Once he said that, I knew it smelled EXACTLY like The Melting Pot in our house! :)

We had teriyaki-marinated steak, shrimp, pot-stickers, mushrooms, and red potatoes in Court Boullion with potsticker sauce, red plum sauce, and Green Goddess (my faaaaaaavorite!!). We stuffed ourselves and had so much fun eating! Then later on when we weren't quite so stuffed anymore, we had "The Original" chocolate fondue (made with Ghiradelli chocolate and a little peanut butter) with marshmallows, chocolate cheesecake, plain cheesecake, angel food cake, brownie bites, and strawberries (again, my favorite!!). I cannot tell you how much fun it was and how GOOD everything was - or how stuffed we were! Oh, and for those of you thinking, "yeah, but he probably spent just as much as they would have eating at The Melting Pot . . ." NOT true!! He spent less than half, and we had way more food! :)

Brad rocks (no surprise there though). The End.

Oh - and I really should have taken pics of the main course spread, but I was too busy stuffing my face. Here's just one - and then . . . dessert!!!

A Boy!!

Just wanted to say how excited we are for Lisa & Eric - they will be giving Brad's parents their very first grandson (in a sea of 5 granddaughters) in June!  It's funny, I think we have gotten so used to girls that we just expect that that's all there will be!  Yay for boys though! :)  So glad that their little man looks healthy and all is well with mom & baby!  Can't wait to meet Caleb Stephen and take some photos of him in June! ;) :)

Pigtails, Snow, and Sisters

Yesterday, Brad told Natalie he'd love to see her hair in pigtails, and miracle of miracles, it worked!  She let me brush her hair and put them in, and even asked for bows!  She kept them in for quite a while, even during our trip to Lowe's.  She looked so cute running around in the store with her pigtails flying behind her.

We got a lot of snow (for us!) this morning, and I took a few pictures.  It was insane how HUGE the flakes were and how FAST they were flying down for a while.  It doesn't appear that much of it is going to stick around, which is fine by us!

Also, here are a couple cute pictures of Natalie reading to Mollie before their naps this afternoon. :)

Two Going on Twelve

So Natalie's new thing is really not my favorite so far. Apparently she's getting a really early start on the fine art of the excuse. For EV.E.RY.THING. Seriously:

One:
Me: OK, Natalie, let's go potty and read some books (she knows this means it's naptime).
Natalie: But I awake!

Two:
Natalie is standing on a plastic tote filled with clothes.
Me: Get off of that box.
Natalie: But I jus . . .
Me: No, get off of the box. You could fall.
Natalie: But I jus . . . but I jus . . . (looking around wildly for something, anything that might be a reason to stand there) I nee my crowns (crayons).

Three:
Me: Natalie, put the phone back.
Natalie: But I jus calking (talking).
Me: Put it back please.
Natalie: But I jus calking. I calk a Nonny. I calking.

Four:
Me: Come on, Natalie, eat the oatmeal you wanted.
Natalie: I jus . . . I jus grumping.
Me (trying reeeeeally hard not to laugh): Well, you can eat your oatmeal even if you're grumpy. ;)

I can't even remember all of them, there were SO many yesterday. And she's not quite two and a half. I am afraid to know what the teenage years hold for us.

Sleeping Beauty (but not what you think)

No Disney princesses here, just a sweet little baby girl. We found out yesterday that Mollie and Natalie both have RSV and double ear infections. Fun stuff. We have to do breathing treatments for both girls now, and they are also on antibiotics. It's not a huge deal for toddlers, so we're not especially worried about Natalie (it's just like a bad cold), but it can be bad for babies Mollie's age, so it's a bit disconcerting. She seems to be doing well, though, and is mainly bothered by the congestion. She didn't nap all that well today and this week, she has decided to boycott all naps past 2:30 pm. This does not make for a happy Mollie past, oh, let's say 5:30 pm - and that's being fairly generous. Also, she's become SO easily distracted while drinking her bottles that the best way I've found to get her to take them is to get her alone in her room where it's quiet and the distractions are minimal. This is what happened at 6:45 this evening while drinking her last bottle:
Unfortunately, I had to disturb the sweetness by changing her diaper. She wasn't too happy about that. I didn't document that little mood swing.

An Ordinary Day

Both of the girls are actually sick right now, but we had a brief period this afternoon when they seemed to be feeling pretty good, so I grabbed the camera. Natalie pulled out her flashcards and she had fun telling Mollie what all the things were. Mollie had fun chewing on the cards. Everyone was happy. ;)

LOOOOOOVE this picture of Natalie!!

There's that sweet smile we know and love around here! :)

I thought this was a neat shot of her gorgeous hair, even if it was rather wild today. :)

Mollie's 6 Month Photos

Well, Miss Mollie is actually closer to 7 months now than 6 (EEEK! How is that HAPPENING so QUICKLY?), but here are the rest of the photos from her "Six Month" photo shoot. As you can see, I was kind of in a black & white mood. :) I just loved how they turned out! :)

Photo Shoot Sneak Peek

I haven't taken photos of the girls with my little studio setup in a while, and the snow outside is actually helping to make some pretty decent light in our kitchen, so I took the opportunity to do a little photoshoot. ;) It's seriously hard work getting everything set up all by myself, and then trying to convince Natalie to just LOOK at me, let alone SMILE at the camera. I got a few cute shots - here's just a sneak peek. I have other things I need to do, so I've just worked on a couple so far. And these aren't even the cutest ones. ;)

Natalie just loves to rub Mollie's fuzzy head. It's kind of addictive, actually. ;)