Thursday, December 31, 2009

Toddler bed update

It's Day Five and Molly is currently down for her nap. We haven't had (*knock on wood*) any issues. Other than coming out of her room that first night, she's been staying put. We have heard her get out of her bed a few times, but so far she's been staying in her room when we've put her down. One day she wasn't quite tired enough for nap time and I could hear her playing with her toys. I went back in and told her to get into bed because it was nap time and as far as I can tell she stayed put and was sound asleep 10 minutes later.

In the mornings we tend to wake up to the sounds of Molly talking to herself on the monitor. For the most part she's still in bed when we get to her room. However one morning the very first sound we heard was Molly shutting her bedroom door behind her. I met up with her just as she was passing N's office and coming into the dining room.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Toddler bed, night one

Yesterday we converted Molly's bed from crib to toddler bed. Last night was her first time sleeping in it. I was actually out grocery shopping when N put her down. He said she came out once and he heard her get out of her bed about 3 times, but 20 minutes later all was quiet. When he finally peeked in she was sound asleep in her bed. I kept thinking I was going to wake up to a little person standing next to my bed, but this morning I heard Molly start to babble to herself on the monitor. When I walked into her room she was still laying in her bed. Was perfectly content to wake up slowly as she normally does so I fed the cats.

So far a success.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Eye color

I just read the most recent email from BabyCenter and the first line is, "By now your child's eye color and hair color are probably fixed". This cracks me up. So not true. Molly gets a LOT of commentary about her baby blues. Do you blame them?



Then they look at me:



Then they say, "Oh, she must get them from her father." Mmm, nope.



Yeah, eye color can change a lot later than 2 years old folks. I had pretty blue eyes all the way into Jr. High. It was then that they started to change. I scanned in all my school pics. In 5th grade they were still pretty blue. By the time 10th grade rolled around you can really see the change towards green taking place.

Nothing is ever set in stone.

Although if your kid has brown eyes, they are probably going to stay brown. ;-)

My great nephew, Molly's first cousin once removed

I think I have that right. Anyway, I watched Jonah (my niece's son) on Tuesday. Unfortunately I had woken up that morning with a little bit of pressure in my sinuses and as the day progressed I felt like absolute crap. Plus Molly woke up from nap time with a fever. Not fun. Molly was better by Christmas Eve, but I just started making the turn towards better yesterday. I feel slightly better today, but not back to 100% by any means. At least I was able to sleep last night. The first few nights were rough... very rough.

Luckily all Jonah really needed to be kept entertained was watching Molly. He was in love. Just look how excited he got when she walked by:



I attempted to get a pic of them together, but you can imagine how well that worked. Still, this one puts a smile on my face:



All the Molly excitement led to Jonah taking a 3 hour nap in the morning and almost two hours in the afternoon. Alesha was a little shocked. Jonah is more prone to cat naps. However, the best entertainment for a kid is a slightly older kid to watch.

For more from the day, click here.

New favorite picture.



It makes me laugh. The expression... *sigh* That's my goofy girl.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!



Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Frosty the Snowman



(Stole the pic from Bree)

Molly has a little board book that is basically the Frosty the Snowman song. She loves it. Well, a few days ago I put in the animated Frosty the Snowman tv special. Now she is OBSESSED with it. N let her watch it FOUR times yesterday. We put it on again last night when Logan and his parents came over for the Survivor finale. Hey, it let us eat in peace so....

Molly and I are actually watching it again right now. Usually we watch an episode of Sesame Street first thing in the morning as Molly wakes up slowly, but today Molly was practically yelling, "Frosty the Snowman" until I put it on. I wonder how's she's going to react to the fact that unlike daddy, mommy is only going to let her watch it ONCE. This should be an interesting day.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Sadie, Asher, and robot

Molly decided to hang out with Sadie. Sadie was NOT thrilled:



Sadie would like to let Molly know that she is in no way shape or form a freakin' PILLOW!!!



At this point Sadie is probably wondering if she can get away with casually stretching and booting Molly off her bed... the answer to that is NO Sadie...



This last week Auntie Amy and Asher were in town and we were able to get together a few times. Asher is mesmerized by the flurry of action that is Molly. He didn't care when mommy went out of site, but when Molly disappeared he started bawling. It was super cute. However, Molly refused to sit for any pictures so I don't have one of the two of them together, but here's Asher:



Lastly, my mom got Molly this stroller for her birthday. She also got Molly a baby doll to put in it, but Molly rarely uses the doll. She's more likely to put her oogly eye monster in there. Lately it's been all about her robot. She pats the robot over her shoulder like a baby and is very careful to secure robot in the stroller properly.





The rest of the pics can be found in the K - Oct, Nov, Dec 2009 gallery.

Too heavy...

Molly does this hilarious act when something is "too heavy". She uses this old smokers lady voice and says, "Too heavy" while carrying an object she has previously carried many times before without any issues. It's usually when she's bringing something to you and wants to get your attention. I am prompting her to say it in this video, but she does say it several times in the beginning.

A few pics.

Uploaded a handful more pics... here are some of my favs... click on any pic to be taken back to the gallery...






Monday, December 14, 2009

"Quiet Sadie!"

Just pulled into the vet's parking lot so Sadie started to get vocal.
Then Molly gave her the Shhhh and told her to be quiet.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Children's Discovery Museum - video

Children's Discovery Museum

Molly and I went to the Children's Discovery Museum on Thursday with Robert and his B-Ma Bev. Bev's nursing friend also joined us with her son Aiden. The kids had a blast. It was actually a little difficult at times to get them to leave the current exhibit they were enthralled with so they could check out others.

In a shocking turn of events Robert was drawn to the fire truck:



However, I think Molly's pose had a little more pizazz...



Then they were both obsessed with this ball floating exhibit:



BUT the water area reigned supreme once again. Robert had a blast shooting water over EVERYTHING:



Whereas Molly was obsessed with the part of the exhibit that launched balls into a swirling pool of water. Laughed every single time:



You can see the entire gallery here

Some recent pics...

I just uploaded some recent pics into the K - Oct, Nov, Dec 2009 gallery. I absolutely LOVE this one of N and Molly reading:



I also took a few pics of the kids at the Holiday Cookie Exchange my friend Corey arranged last weekend. This one of Grant and Leo is adorable:



It was a nice and relaxing afternoon and I scored some super yummy cookies:



One of my favorites is this one of Molly chillin' in my lap. She looks so relaxed.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Happy Birthday Logan and Julie!

Little Logan turns 2 today. Julie will be a few years older than that. Happy Birthday to both of you!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Holiday Party



The Google Holiday Party was last Friday at San Francisco's City Hall building (which is absolutely stunning). Google had arranged for busses to take us from the campus in Mt. View to the event. This was really nice because we didn't have to deal with the long drive or parking. Plus, designated driver included. Not that we drank much, but still... one less thing to worry about. Molly spent the night with Granny and Grandpa Marsh and I met N at his office.

The theme of this particular event was the "Roaring 20's". Now Google folks tend to go all out when there's a theme so I immediately knew there was no way we were going to win any of the costume contests. I felt lazy and didn't want to attempt to hunt down something 20's specific so we were one of the few that just dressed nice and didn't follow the theme. I'd say about 75% of folks WERE dressed up. Some went all out and then some just made a nice outfit work with a few key accessories. I was wondering to myself if folks had 20's costumes already in their closet or if it really was something readily available in stores. Not two seconds after I said this to N did I see a silver copy of the black and gold dress I had been admiring. So apparently there IS stuff in stores! I also thought I spied an olive version as well later on, but lost it in the crowd.

Since the theme was the Roaring 20's there was a Speakeasy vibe about the place. There were multiple bars and then some casino tables. They had blackjack, a couple roulette wheels, and a few craps tables. We parked ourselves at one of the craps tables. I was on a roll when we had to get going to catch our shuttle back. They were going to give out prizes to the chip winners at the end of the night and since we didn't intend to stay that long I just handed my chips out to my end of the table so some folks could stay in the game a bit longer.

All in all it was a great evening and it was lovely to get out and mingle with other adults.

Click here for pictures taken at the holiday party.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

SF Zoo

Molly and I joined Jenn, Robert, Connor, and Bev at the San Francisco Zoo yesterday morning. I was a little nervous on the drive up as it was seriously foggy. The sides of the road quickly turned into walls of white and I could not see very far down the road in front of me. By the time I drove up the coast to the zoo I was able to see a slight sliver of hope in a small spot of blue sky poking through the white wall. Over the next half an hour it burned off and it turned into an absolutely gorgeous day.

Phew!

We started to make our way to the Family Farm and attempted to get some pictures of Robert and Molly together. It didn't work out so much, but I was able to get some cute shots of them individually.





At the Family Farm Molly was completely obsessed with this little red tractor and almost missed the last half of the animals.



After the kids got their fill petting all the animals we headed over to the playground so they could burn off some energy. They were both complete monkeys!





We grabbed some lunch and tried to fit a few more animals in before leaving. However, I knew it was time to call it a day when both kids ran around a tunnel screaming their heads off. Molly and I headed back to the car and she sucked down a bottle of milk in record time. Less than three minutes after she handed me back an empty bottle I could hear her snoring and she was OUT. She slept through the entire drive home and transfer from car to her bed. Excellent!



Full gallery from the day can be found here.

Pockets!

Molly has recently discovered her pockets. It's adorable. Yes, I cut off her head, but I had to be quick about it.



Once she realized the camera was out she immediately started to take her hands OUT of her pockets because she knows when I want a specific picture and refuses to cooperate. See?



Grandpa Marsh would also like to have it noted that this behavior started after they went on a walk and Molly copied him with HIS hands in HIS pockets.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Product Endorsement

N was kind enough to set up Molly's project table in the kitchen and I've slowly been stocking it with art supplies. However, one of her favorite activities is to move the crayons from one cup to the top shelf back to the cup again. In this process crayons were getting broken and it was getting hard to keep track of all the pieces. Then I discovered the BEST. PRODUCT. EVER.

Crayola TWISTABLE Crayons

Twist up the fun! Crayola Classic Twistables require no peeling or sharpening. When the tips get worn down, just twist them up and you're ready to keep on coloring. The clear plastic barrels keep them from breaking and make it easy to see how much color is left.

LOVE them!

swim class

I've mentioned before that Molly HATES the monkey walk in swim class. Today's class was no different... at first. The set up was to jump off the underwater bench thing and swim to the wall. Then the kids had to monkey walk down the wall to the step at the end and get a toy to play with. Well, the first two rounds were a battle. She screamed the ENTIRE monkey walk. After the second trip she picked up a little airplane toy. Well, on the third round I took the airplane toy from her and tossed it to the very end rather than holding it just out of reach. Apparently that was the magic trick as Molly screamed out, "I'LL GET IT!!!" and monkey walked ALL. BY. HERSELF. She did this three more times. I literally stood behind her and made sure she could get to the wall, tossed the toy to the end, and then it was all Molly. The last time she didn't even have a toy and just did the monkey walk without any prompting. The instructor was just as surprised as I was.

Play dates

I need to be careful when I tell Molly that she is going to see one of her friends. Especially when those plans change. The week before Thanksgiving we had an evening play date scheduled with Logan. Then the next morning we were going to get together with Robert and baby Connor. I told Molly that after nap time she would see Logan and then after she went nighty night she would see Robert and baby Connor. Well, when she woke up from her nap she said, "See Logan now. Robert Baby Connor sooooon." The next morning she woke up asking for Robert and baby Connor, but the play date had been pushed to the next day. Little chicky does not miss a thing. When I told her tomorrow she gave me a look that said, "I do not think that word means what you think it means" as I had told her tomorrow the day before too.

Since Jenn is home on maternity leave right now we have been trying to get the kids together as much as possible. It's a great way to tire them out! Yesterday Molly and I headed over there and we hit the park for a bit. Once again I forgot my camera, but Jenn took a few. I did take a couple pictures from a play date at Memorial Park with Robert a few weeks back. It is definitely MUCH easier to get pictures taken when both parents are there. One to make sure the kid doesn't fall and the other to get a shot all lined up.



The rest can be found in the K - Oct, Nov, Dec 2009 gallery.

I also love this one of Molly and N:


"That's my daddy... you got a problem with that?!?"

Molly's camera

Grandpa Hickson gave Molly some money to spend for her birthday so we picked up Fisher Price's Kid-Tough Digital Camera. Molly LOVES it! She has been obsessed with cameras ever since our trip to Kauai. She would pick up anything that even remotely resembled a rectangular object (lego, block, etc) and would hold it up and say, "Smile. Click!"

Adorable.

I'd say 99% of her pictures are either completely dark or so blurry you can't tell what she's taking a picture of, but she has managed to get a few good shots in. I uploaded the best of the bunch here.

The very first picture:



First one of daddy:



First one of mommy: