A very merry half birthday!

Molly is one and a half years old today. I was laying out her clothes as N gave her a bath and her little outfits crack me up. She's such a little person in her tiny jeans and new summer shoes. Although these days we've had a helluva time keeping her shoes and socks on. Good thing it's never too cold because she loves to go around barefoot. She also takes her shoes off the second she's strapped into her car seat. By the time I get the stroller and/or bags in the back I am greeted by a shoe or two in the front seat.

Molly also seems a lot taller these days. Things we thought were off limits are no longer out of reach. Actually nothing is out of reach these days as she has quickly learned to manipulate furniture to grant her access to whatever she spies and decides she must immediately inspect. I feel like I spend my day following her around and putting stuff away while telling her what's off limits... and what's really off limits.

Molly definitely likes to figure out how things work. Any new button, lever, switch or knob will catch her eye and she will fiddle with it until she figured out which ones produce the most bang for their buck. And she remembers! She will come back days/weeks later and immediately zone in on the one or two items that produce the most immediate and satisfying results.

However, as active as she can be she also enjoys her chill time. She'll be content to cuddle up next to me on the couch and half watch tv while playing with the holes in her blanket. She's also letting us read more and more of a book to her. One day we might even get through a whole one before she's offering a different book or taking off completely.

Molly continues to be a great eater. This last week or so she's been all about kidney beans of all things. She still prefers veggies to fruit, but lately has been enjoying grapes. Pasta tends to be a full contact eating experience, but she hasn't been rubbing grilled cheese in her hair as often. I'll take what I can get. In the mornings she'll usually spoon feed herself most of a yogurt before handing it to me to finish it off or making it into a finger (or hand) food experience. She rarely lets you keep a bib on her, but she's not too much of a messy eater. When she's done with something she'll quickly wipe it away or toss it on the floor. We're working on her handing it back to me when she's done, but I really have to be paying attention because I don't get much warning before it's on the floor. Not that the dogs mind.

Molly hasn't added too many words to her vocabulary, but she can definitely communicate with you what she wants. I think the fact that she's extremely patient when trying to explain what she's babbling on about helps. If you don't get what she's trying to tell you to do or what she's pointing at she'll just try again until you get it. A lot of the sounds she comes up with are hilarious so we tend to mimic them back to her which I'm afraid is just reinforcing her own made up language. We really need to be better about saying the correct word for things or she'll never learn!

Molly is definitely testing her boundaries these days. When I let the dogs out back she'll go running to the edge of the deck and stop just short of walking off the thing. She'll look back at me to make sure I'm watching and then inch forward just a little bit closer to the edge before carrying on. She knows what she can and can't get away with, but that doesn't mean she won't try again just to make sure the answer is still the same. Luckily when it comes to safety restrictions she tends to get it a lot quicker and doesn't test those boundaries as much. For example in a park she'll immediately try to wiggle loose of my hand to go explore, but in a parking lot she's holding on tight.



All in all I'd say we got pretty damn lucky!

(click here for more pics)