Babies: Can't sleep with them, can't sleep without them

We had a big week here in the Mac household. On Wednesday and Thursday we hung out with my friend Allysia and her kids. We had a rollicking time at Jump up...Jumping up and generally going crazy with all of the other little ones. On Thursday Ramsey and Grayson joined all of us for a playdate at our house where we pretty much just caught up while we let Anayah chase around the babies :-) Thanks Anayah!

The only thing that this picture accomplishes is that all of the kids are in the same shot. Taking a decent picture of one kid is hard enough...four, with 3 under 2...impossible.

Jadon relaxing in Molly's pink rocker: So Comfy!

Jadon showing Molly how the water bottle works:

This was so cute. When Ramsey and Grayson had to leave, Jadon did not hold back on the hugs. He's a lover!

We had a great time hanging out with her and her family.

On Friday, Jonny decided that he wanted to see what all of the Jumping up was about so we went back to Jump up and Molly and Jonny had a great time pushing the limits of daring. Daddies are always good for a little danger and in a room full of mats and trampolines, the potential is endless.

Saturday brings me to the title. We had our 1st night away from Molly. Mere has offered to take Molly overnight many times, but it never really worked out before (generally my fault). Anyhow I decided "what the hell" and Molly spent the night with Mere last night. Since we had all of this free time on our hands we went out to dinner and a movie with Ramsey and Blaine. We went to Ah-So and had some good food...probably too much of it, and then we went to see Inception which I enjoyed even though it hadn't really been something I thought I wanted to see. When I got home I did have to fight the urge to go busting into Mere's house to check on Molly, but I didn't do it. Despite the title of the blog I did sleep okay, but I did have a little trouble falling asleep thinking about what Molly was doing..."Is she up?, Is she crying?, Is that my problem? Seriously...Is it?" Although I was worried about Molly, I was also worried about Mere and what Molly was doing to her. I know everyone think she looks like an angel, but she can be mean. In the end though, Mere said she did pretty good. Like her mother, she did have trouble falling asleep, but once she fell asleep she did fairly well, so yeah for that! Next time will be easier.

I'll end with one more picture. Molly's hair is getting out of hand, but she won't let me do much to help her out. I tried a goofy little ponytail, but she had none of that. I might have to cave and just cut her bangs. We'll try to stay away from the "dumb and dumber" look that Landon and Grayson have sported from time to time (their words, not mine). I don't think a little girl can pull that look off as well.

Pool Time

I'm sure my parents will appreciate a little Molly fix since they're in MO right now, so I thought I would post a couple pictures from this morning. We got Molly a little inflatable kiddie pool complete with a slide. It's pretty nifty, and Molly had a great time whooping it up this morning. It was a nice distraction since, like Kate, Molly's been teething pretty hard the past couple days. She's working on 3 teeth right now and hasn't been sleeping very well...ugh! Teething for Molly seems to be this SLOW painful process, I'm ready for it to be over. At least you can't tell in the pictures.

Fancy footwork

All smiles for pool time!

The second we turned on the little sprinkler for the pool, she freaked out and booked it. I love the look of concern on her face.

Today was actually overcast, muggy with a slight breeze. Match that with a soaking wet swimsuit and babies get a little chilly. I helped her out and took the top off.

Still a little sleepy since she didn't sleep that well last night.

She thought she was so clever hanging out on the porch with us on the other side.

"Look at me, I'm so cool!"

Happy Birthday Lorelei!

Yesterday we went to a birthday party for Molly's cousin Lorelei. Molly had a great time splashing around in the kiddie pool with her. She had so much fun, I think I may need to go out and get one for ourselves (a pool, not another baby). We have plenty of heat ahead of us, so I'm sure it would get lots of use.

The Birthday Girl:

Slippin' and Slidin'

The 3 cousins: Emmaline, Molly and Lorelei

"Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo"

Jonny is taking a week or so off from work, which really means he'll be working at home for awhile. Except for today (a Saturday mind you), today he's in the Winden, AZ area (nowhere you need to know about) looking at melons. Funny story about that: he was stopped at the Border Patrol checkpoint because the dog thought the truck smelled like drugs. His truck frequently smells, but I've never noticed drugs. The good news is that Jonny isn't secretly doing/selling drugs. I think the border patrol at that checkpoint are bored. I've gone with him before and they always seem to be reaching for something to do and asking way more questions than really necessary.

Okay, enough of that detour back to the important stuff. Jonny was able to pry himself away for one night and we went to San Diego and checked out the zoo. What I had hoped and dreamed would happen was that we would leave, Molly would nap the whole way and then we would have a nice well rested baby at the zoo. Molly didn't nap until we were about 1 1/2 hours into the trip and she was generally fussy for most of that time. The problem was that I had turned her car seat around and she wasn't comfortable in the more upright forward facing position. We actually stopped and turned it around and shortly after that she went to sleep...Thank God! Anyhow she got about an hour nap and then regardless of the lack of sleep she was still able to have a good time at the zoo.

Forward Facing Verdict: Fun Perspective, but no good for sleeping.

Not so sure about goats

Animal statues are great for climbing

Walking about with Daddy

We saw lots of animals, but none of them resembled this one that we weren't supposed to be feeding.

We did see an animal that resembled dink after she's gorged herself on food or biscuits. Some sort of Tapir.

Checking out some birds with Daddy.

The next day before we left for home, we went and took a quick walk on the beach. The weather had been a little warmer than I had hoped for, but the weather on the beach was perfect. Too bad we had to leave.

"Look! Look! Look!"

The water was a little colder than she was accustomed to. She freaked out when she got her feet wet.

In other news, Molly has been officially moved into her bedroom. It's pretty nice.

When we moved the crib, we put the mattress as low as it could go. Molly made sure we knew that she's would be working on conquering it:

Her very own bathroom:

And my favorite, her very own closet. It's been awesome to have her clothes organized and not just crammed into a drawer.

Moving her into her room has freed up her old room to become a playroom

What a lucky little girl!

This cracked me up. Annette had said Kate has been getting into TV a little lately. When you see this happen, you know it's gone too far. Slovenly laying on the floor, mesmerized by it. Might be time to set some limits.

Busy Bee

As I said we would, we had a lot going on in the past week. Molly "graduated" from swim class, we had Uncle Chris and Aunt Stephanie visiting, and we had two parties! Needless to say there are way too many pictures and everyone of them has Molly's little mug in it. Of course there was also the day to day drudgery...eating, sleeping (or not), and bathing. I have to say it was nice to have a distraction from the day to day stuff and today I'm feeling a little abandoned. Chris and Stephanie left as well as my parents (they're in MO for two weeks) Jonny's back at work again and Mere never stops working, so it's just me and Molly left to fend for ourselves. I'm being dramatic of course. It really isn't that bad, actually maybe if I'm not constantly seeking out time with my family, I can get something done...or maybe I'll just go Netflix on demand crazy, it could go either way.

Here's Molly enjoying her celebratory Popsicle after completing swim class. She wasn't ever able to conquer the frog slide fearlessly, but she did blow bubbles in the bathtub last night, so I guess swim classes were worth it, especially since she got a Popsicle

Getting dressed after swim.

On Saturday we had a little get together for the combined celebration of Chris and Stephanie's 1st wedding anniversary, my birthday and my mom's birthday. In the end it was mostly about Molly though.

Showing aunt Cassie her frog.

Aunt Stephanie, Molly and her frog. She REALLY love that frog. It sings all sorts of songs that all seem to blow her mind and get her dancing. My favorite to watch is the "Twist" because she actually does a little twist action, it's pretty funny.

Mere's friend Carrie came over with her family and Madison and Elyse helped out Molly with the sit 'n' spin. Molly usually has a little warming up period with adults, but it was fun to see that for kids she was willing to override it. I guess that it's important to make exceptions when there is vital information like how to use a sit 'n' spin at stake.

After the party My parents, Karen and Danny, and Chris and Stephanie stuck around and we watched the casino fireworks on our balcony/roof thingy. It's kind of fun that we can see them from our house. The show they put on is way better than anything I remember seeing here in Yuma, so it's pretty cool.

On Sunday we went to my mom's for a 4th of July BBQ. Molly had her obligatory 4th of July watermelon and made her obligatory mess with it.

signature Molly Mac eye squint.

She had a good time playing with the toys Gran and Billy keep for her, some of which were mine once. Or in the case of this bunny, Christopher's and mine. But really the most important thing that you should take away from this picture is that her shoes match her outfit. Super cool!

I love the bow that Annette made for Molly, I wish Molly felt the same way about it. I'll save it for next year I guess. She did look super cute with it in for about 2 seconds.

After playing and eating we threw caution to the wind and went swimming without waiting 30 minutes. Somehow we all survived. Molly favorite things about the pool time were "jumping in" and the water feature. She still isn't sure about swimming, but I'm sure like any other child that has grown up in Yuma, she'll learn to love it.

After swimming she had a bath and then whooped it up with everyone. Doing a little baby workout, muscling chairs around.

Here she is playing a little tag with uncle Chris

"Gotcha!"

Drag the baby:

I don't usually post pictures of food, but I thought my 4th of July cookies turned out pretty cute. At least this one did:

We of course finished them before the 4th. Whoops.

In other general Molly news, I've started giving her bubble baths instead of the ordinary ones I had been giving her. I'm not sure why I held out on her, but anyhow she's getting them now.

little bubble head.

After her nap yesterday, Jonny found her looking like this:

I had left some short in the crib and she decided that her head was where they went. Pretty cute.

This is a typical scene at our place lately. She loves purses, (real or imagined) and sunglasses.

She prances around telling us that she's going "bye-bye". So "bye-bye" from Molly Mac!