Happy One-and-a-Half to Mollie!

I'm about 10 days late in posting this, but better late than never, right?! Mollie had her 18 month well-child appointment today, and she's doing great! We are all THRILLED with Mollie's language development over the past month or so. Getting tubes in her ears has been the best decision we've made with her! She is adding new words to her vocabulary all the time, and it's SO much fun to be able to really communicate with her. Natalie asks her things all the time, and for some reason, Mollie ALWAYS either nods yes to Natalie or gives the typical Mollie "Yah." Which prompts Natalie to run in telling me things like, "Mommy! Mollie says she LIKES piders!" or "Mollie says she wants to watch Elmo!" and I'm sure Mollie doesn't have a clue what she's agreeing to half of the time. :)

The girls were apart all day today, and it warms my heart to see how excited they are to see each other at the end of days like that. They were kissing and hugging, which then turned into kissing Mommy forty bazillion times, which I certainly cannot complain about! :) They really seem to be the best of friends already.

Mollie is still a huge fan of baby dolls, and with Natalie's help, she's becoming a big fan of tea parties as well. It's so funny to walk into their playroom and see things like this:





Mollie's also become fairly adept at making funny faces. I wish I could catch the REALLY good ones on camera. Here's one from today when she was being silly:


And I just thought this one was cute:


And finally, here's the obligatory pic in the chair with the pink bear :)


Oh, and I don't want to forget (because I have no clue which box her baby book is in! EEK!) that she weighs 22.8 lbs and is 32 in. tall! That's kinda on the small side for weight, and she just took a pretty good leap length-wise putting right at average. :)

Twelve Months!!!!

OK, I'm a little late on the post, but I've been mulling it over in my mind for a while and just enjoying life with TWO toddlers. How did that happen?

The past month has been a HUGE one for Miss Mollie. It seems like just yesterday (and really, it wasn't that much farther back than that) Katie and I were trying to remember exactly HOW and WHEN our big girls dropped their evening feedings. It just seemed like there wasn't an easy way to do it or to know when the babies were ready for that. Well, fast-forward just a few short weeks, and get a load of this:

- Mollie is 100% on table food, and couldn't be happier about it!
- She hasn't had a bottle in about a week, and hasn't looked back!
- She doesn't have to have any milk before bed.
- The girl is no longer taking a morning nap.
- She sleeps without a sleep sack and uses a light blanket in bed.
- She's got a great nighttime sleep schedule and isn't waking at the crack of dawn anymore!
- She's taking lots of steps!
- She's babbling all the time, and we're starting to recognize more and more words.
- She says "Dada" but it seems to be directed to me or to Brad.
- Last week, she heard Natalie talking in another room, looked at me, and said, "Nan-yee?" I was so excited to hear her using a word for Natalie! Now I think she's been saying "Nana" for Natalie!

Mollie is still just as sweet and joyful as always. We're also seeing more of her stubborn side, though. It can be frustrating, but it's also fun to see her assert herself. I tell Brad that she knows what she wants all the time, we're just lucky that most of the time, it happens to coincide with what we want her to do. :)

Watching Mollie and Natalie together is so much fun. They really enjoy having playmates and spend lots of time playing together! Natalie's excited that Mollie has started calling her "Nana." Mollie is thrilled to go into Natalie's room when she wakes up in the morning. I hope their friendship stays strong! :) Of course, as Mollie gets older, we're starting to see more disagreements too. Natalie's used to Mollie doing whatever Natalie wants her to do, and she's complained to us a few times lately that "Mollie not LISTEN a me!" to which we gently reply that she doesn't have to. ;)

We had Mollie's 12-month doctor visit this morning, and it was great! She weighs alllllmost 20 lbs (19 lbz 13 oz) and is 28.75 inches tall! It's crazy that she seems bigger to me than Natalie was at this age, but Natalie was shorter and weighed just a bit more!

So without further ado, here are a few photos of Mollie (they were actually taken last week, right at 12 months). :)

On her actual birthday, the first time I've had to wake HER up in as long as I can remember! Sleeeeeepy girl!







And here with the pink bear. Check out the sweet pigtails! :)






And one sneak peek of some photos yet to come . . . ;)

11 Months!!!

OK I am definitely posting this late, but I only took it a couple days late. WHERE is our baby? Not in this photo!!!

Mollie is still amazing us every day with her new accomplishments! She's a superfast crawler and will get into anything quicker than you could imagine! She is one BUSY baby, it seems like overnight. She's just as strong-willed as her sister, perhaps even a bit moreso! She's started really being pretty ornery from time to time, and is doing that "thing" where she does something she knows she isn't supposed to, and is watching you the whole time to see if you're going to stop her. It's pretty crazy how quickly she's moved from baby baby to almost-toddler!!!!

She's started using the sign for "more," which is really fun. It's helpful when we're feeding her, and occasionally she uses it for something else too. I know I saw her signing "more" to Natalie when they were playing patty cake a few days ago. Last week, I was letting her play with a kleenex, and she was tearing little pieces off and handing them to me. When she got to the last piece, she stuck it in her mouth. I scooped it out quickly, and she immediately looked at me, and signed "more." Kim and I were cracking up!

So here's her pink bear photo, and then one of the girlies together. I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but another thing Mollie's been doing is NOT sleeping through the night along with waking up way.too.stinking.early. Brad and I are both suffering from some sleep deprivation. So anyway, that's what you can partially blame for the lack of updates. But - PRAISE JESUS!! - Mollie has been sleeping through the night the past few nights (three to be exact), and I feel like I have a new lease on life! Let's keep that up, Mollie Grace! :)

TEN Months

I don't know if you're aware, but Mollie is officially TEN months old. Yes, ten. Seriously. I am really planning a birthday party for our BABY! *sigh* She just gets sweeter all the time, and we're thrilled with each new milestone. She crawls like crazy and is completely and totally obsessed with pulling up on things. Not just "things" as in "some things" but "things" as in EV.RY.THING. It's so neat to see her becoming more independent, but we have to watch her like a hawk, especially in the bathtub! Just today, she stood unsupported for about 10 seconds which is seriously a long time for a newbie like Mollie! I kept trying to get her to stand on her own later, and she did, but as soon as she realized it, she dropped herself right back to the ground. She'll get there! I really feel like she'll be walking by her birthday, but you certainly never know! I am not especially in a hurry, but once they start down that road, it's fun to watch their progress. I know Natalie will be more than thrilled when Mollie is walking around!

Mollie started clapping over the past few weeks, and it's just too cute! Forgive me if I've already posted this, but she was clapping at the table on Mother's Day, and she had everyone else clapping too. It was so adorable how proud she was that she had the power to make us all clap! I think she was more excited about that than the clapping itself! I also realized a day or so ago that she will clap on command. I was totally surprised that I asked her to clap - and she DID! Pretty cute! She's also started waving, which is another fun milestone (but aren't they all?). Today when I got home from work, she was sitting on the kitchen floor by Brad, and she started whining, crawling toward me, and waving, but she was kind of waving at the floor. It was like she knew I'd like her to wave, but she didn't quite get the concept.

She's babbling LOTS more these days, and we hear lots of "dadada" so I'm always trying to get her to say "mama," naturally. :) Gotta have equal time, right? Sunday morning she and I were the only ones up, and she was in a sweet mood. I stood her up on my lap and said, "Mollie, can you say 'Mama'?" and she looked at me, then paused and kind of looked away. I figured that was the end, but a few seconds later, she looked right back at me, and in the teeeeeeny tinnnniest sweetest voice, she softly said "ma-ma-ma-ma" while clapping her hands. Melt my heart!

Mollie also LOVES to eat finger foods. She often gets finger foods for breakfast, and pretty much always at dinner. She literally gets upset with us if we are eating and she's not getting what we have, even if she just had her own jar of food before we started! Tonight she chowed down on some pasta and veggies. I'm pretty sure she at more than Natalie. ;) I'm not sure how we were blessed with TWO great eaters, but we're thankful for it!

So here's Mollie's 10-month photo. She's fresh from the tub, smelling yummy and being sweet in her jammies right before bed! :)

9 Months

Well, I was late in taking Miss Mollie's 9 month photo, and now I'm even later in posting it! During the past month, Mollie has started crawling and pulling herself up on things. She LOVES being mobile, especially when it involves chasing Natalie around the house. Natalie's definitely a trooper - getting down on Mollie's level and crawling with her! They are so adorable together!

It's so exciting to watch this point in Mollie's life. She's showing more and more personality, and just gets sweeter each day. She seems to be more attached to me than Daddy's Girl Natalie was, which is kind of neat for me, I won't lie. :) We think she may have started giving some "kisses" over the weekend, but it's not especially consistent. I loooooove it when they start doing that, so I seriously can't wait!

It is totally and completely insane to me that Mollie is only 3 months (well, 2.5 at this point) away from her first birthday! I have been planning her party in my head, but I need to start really getting some ideas. The way time flies, it will be here literally before we know it!

Natalie and Mollie are having more fun together than I could have imagined at this point. They play peek-a-boo in the car, and they play a game that Natalie has entitled "Jumperoos," which is basically a type of peek-a-boo where Natalie puts a blanket over Mollie, then pulls it off and says, "Jump-a-roo, Jump-a-roo, Jump-a-ROO!" to the tune of Mollie's giggles.

Last week, they were crawling around in the kitchen, chasing each other and having fun when Natalie disappeared. I knew she'd gone into her room, and after about two minutes, I called her across the house. She said, "I in my roooooom!" I said, "I know, but what are you doing in there?" She replied, "I waiting fa Mollie. She gonna come chatch me." I looked down at Mollie, chewing on a toy she'd just discovered, blissfully unaware that she was part of a game of Hide & Seek. So I scooped her up, and both of us went to "chatch" Natalie.

Sunday evening was the close of a rough day. No one had been sleeping too well the past few nights, Mollie wasn't napping well, and she just didn't seem to be happy. Brad had been playing with the girls, and I started hearing extremely excited giggles and squeals. Eager to see what all the excitement was about, I went into the living room, and to my surprise, I found Brad sitting on the couch - alone. He said that the girls were chasing each other and having THAT much fun going from room to room, all on their own. I had totally assumed that he was tossing them in the air or inventing some super-fun new Daddy game. YAY for sisters having fun with each other!

And here are a few of Natalie with the pink bear, because isn't only fair that they both have a turn? :) I am definitely not turning her down ANY time she WANTS to look into the camera! :)

I know this looks really odd, but she's belting out one of her famous Disney tunes, and it's just classic Natalie. :)

Eight Months

Mollie is EIGHT months old today. That's just so hard to believe. There are only FOUR months until her birthday. It's just not right. I feel like just yesterday, I was still going to the hospital for NSTs, taking Natalie to the splash park, and PRAYING that she would take good naps so that I could too because being pregnant and chasing after a toddler was exhausting. On the other hand, that seems like an entirely different life. It's a little bit hard to remember life without Mollie - and that's just fine with us. It's getting better all the time!

Mollie sits up like a pro, and when she does end up on her tummy, she has started scooting backwards or attempting to get up on her knees, without a whole lot of success at this point. She LOVES sitting up to play and will even play on her own for a nice period of time. She is totally in love with Natalie, who completely shares the devotion. It's wonderful to watch them laugh, giggle, squeal, and just love each other in general. I wonder what Natalie will think when Mollie becomes mobile. It's funny, Mollie will scoot around on her bottom, and reeeeeeach for things she wants, but I don't think she's realized that crawling is an option yet. When she does, look out world! She still only has two teeth, but I think the top two may be on their way. We're still in shock that she cut the bottom two almost without our knowledge!

Mollie's been sick quite a lot in the past two months, but she appears to be over everything for now. It's such a relief to see her feeling better. She's so happy and smiley in general. It's hard to see her upset, whiny, or just lethargic. We know it's just not "her" to act that way. YAY for putting the sick stuff behind us and more Mollie smiles in our future!

I guess not a lot has changed in the past month, other than Mollie just becoming more mature and more of her own person. She does a lot more babbling now, and of course, is saying da-da-da-da-da a lot more than ma-ma-ma. *sigh* She definitely isn't using either as a name, though, she's just making her presence known. :) She loves to eat puffs and baby mum-mums while we eat, then it's her turn for dinner. If you decide that she's more tired than hungry, and try to lay her down for a nap without her solids, she becomes enraged! The photos below are the result of today's lunch. I knew she wouldn't take a nap without eating, even though I don't think she was hungry. Our pediatrician says eating at this age, is such a social thing. They just want to be like us! Today, I had given her blueberry puffs while we ate, and there were a few on her tray still while I was feeding her lunch to her. I think she thought she was pretty stinkin' funny at one point, because she grabbed a puff and jammed it into her mouth when I was headed that way with the spoon. Then she just giggled at me. Anyway, today Mollie also decided she NEEDED to hold the spoon. So I let her help. ;) That resulted with Turkey & veggie dinner alllll over her hands. Then she began rubbing her eyes, and, well, you can see what happened. I was scrubbing veggies out of Miss Mollie's eyelashes for quite some time.

In short, our love affair with Mollie continues to grow daily. :)

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! :)

4 Months!

I'm a little late in posting this, but Mollie Grace is now 4 months old! She's just the sweetest baby and is growing every day! Her 4-month appointment went really well earlier this week, and we found out that she weighs 13.8 pounds and is 24.5 inches! That's right smack in the middle of average for her weight and a bit taller than average for her height!

This isn't the greatest photo of her, but it was the best I could get after trying several days, so we're going with it. :) :) The numerous attempts had more to do with big sister than with Mollie, but that's another story. ;)

2 & 2 with the Pink Bear

Mollie is 2 months old today, and I hadn't had a chance to get Natalie's 2 year picture with the bear yet, so here is one of each girl. :) Unfortunately, Natalie did NOT want to sit still. She wanted to "watch Elmo on TVeeeeeeee."

One Month & More

Miss Mollie Grace is ONE month old today! It's so hard to believe! While there is still lots of adjusting going on, I feel like we are settling in to a new "normal." I took Mollie to her one-month appointment yesterday, and she now weighs 9.02 pounds! That means she's gained almost 2 pounds in 2 weeks! Yay! This means that we have the total OK from the doctor to let her sleep as long as she wants to at night . . . which means our doctor is my new best friend! To make sure she was getting more than enough fluids, the doctor wanted us to wake her after 4-5 hours at night because of some slight jaundice she was still seeing a couple weeks ago. It killed me to wake her every night and then try to feed a sleepy baby. I am so excited to let her sleep now! We were blessed to have a really awesome night last night! This good news totally overshadowed the fact that before they called us back, I got pooped on in the waiting room. Hardly any got on Mollie, and of course I had an extra outfit for her but not for ME! It's the first time that's happened to me with Mollie. Ah, the joys of motherhood. She was pretty fussy for the entire appointment, and I was telling Brad that I must have really mellowed and wizened up or something because if Natalie had pooped all over at an appointment at that age and then been fussy the whole time and I was by myself, I would have been a nervous wreck, but this time, I was like, yeah whatever. It happens! Yay for mellowing! ;) :)

So Mollie is still a great eater and sleeper, and she's finally happy being awake a little more each day. She is another baby who needs to be swaddled, but that's ok. We're used to it from Natalie. Brad's an awesome swaddler, but I am not, so we got a couple cotton SwaddleMe blankets so that helps me a lot! Mollie's got a nice case of baby acne right now, as you can see. It peaks between weeks 4 & 6, so hopefully it won't be around too much longer - and it could get worse before it gets better, but we're hoping it doesn't. It's a purely cosmetic thing though, so it's not like it matters really. She is really starting to "track" objects that you put in front of her, which is neat. It makes me feel like she's more aware of us, which is good! I am so excited to see a smile - hopefully soon!

The last two photos here are of Natalie sleeping. Just thought it was cute how she sleeps with like a million "babies." Her eyes are open in one, but she must have just opened them for a second, because she was totally asleep. And speaking of Natalie and bedtime, I am enjoying this so much more lately. She had been kind of fighting bedtime for a while, but we're back to our usual routine - and it's even more special I think because she likes me to lie in bed with her and she's trying to "read" the books with us. Our favorite one to read together is Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton (LOVE her!). We giggle and read and sing together and it just makes my heart swell. How did I get to be so blessed?!

First, the obligatory "pink bear" photo: