Molly Mac: "American Girl"?

So I just found out today that there is a Molly McIntire character in the "American Girl" collection. I doubt anyone remembers American Girl books and Dolls since they were just getting started when I was a kid and if you aren't hanging around school aged girls, why would you know? Basically they're historical fiction about little girls in various point in time I did read a few of the "Samantha" (the Victorian era girl) books when I was a kid, but I only vaguely remember that there was a Molly, let alone a Molly McIntire. Molly McIntire (I'm having a really hard time spelling it that way) is their WWII era girl. Part of me thinks it might be fun when she gets older to have a doll and a character that she shares a name with. Part of me is horrified at the idea that my kid, who name is already borderline "too cute" will also have basically a cartoon character with red pigtails, green eyes and glasses that she shares a name with. Granted, its' not like her name is Pipi Longstocking or anything, but still, if her hair comes in red (which is some lights it still kind of looks reddish), and her eyes turn green (a possibility, since her eyes are still pretty blue), I might have to consider changing her name. (Not really) So to end this, Molly Mac: American Girl?

McBurgorris

Well the Burgess clan is making me look bad and already have two installments of their vacation blogs posted. Well I better get to it!
Since Blaine had to work on Wednesday, Ramsey and I drove up with Grayson and Molly earlier in the day. We were lucky to have a fairly uneventful drive. Both babies spent the majority of the drive sleeping which was nice. Grayson was definitely curious about that other car seat and that other baby though. We only had to make one pit stop and it was as much for us as it was for them. Here are Grayson and Molly, planning to run away together. As you can see Grayson is going to drive and Molly is going to ride shotgun.














When we arrived at the cloud nine condo, Michaela and Dustin were already there and the McBurgorris vacation had begun! We pretty much just laid low for the rest of the day and just got take out and wait for Blaine and Jonny to arrive.
The next day was a big first for Molly. She took her first trip to the beach. She seemed to enjoy the sights and sounds, but you know its kind of hard to tell with a four month old. Her only criteria for having a good time are the availability of me (for food) and naps. Although she will admit that singing a few song (particularly the ones about her) do make any situation better. While at the beach I decided that it was time for me to get into the ocean. I hadn't been in, in probably about a decade, so I was due. It showed that I hadn't been in the ocean in quite awhile and I totally biffed it (along with Michaela) in a wave. There were a few seconds where I was pretty sure I might drown. Well maybe not, but I was pretty sure I was going to feel like an ass. Well I survived to swim another day, and in my defense, the wave were pretty large that day. Here are some fun beach pictures.












Here we are getting settled on the beach.



Here are Molly and I after I took my big dip!

















Here are the McBurgorris'











Both Thursday and Friday nights we were lucky enough to be able to play Yahtzee and visit on the deck. Not necessarily an easy task with a 16 month old (Landon) a 10 month old (Grayson) and a 4 month old (Molly). Somehow, all of the kiddies slept peacefully while we loudly played Yahtzee, throwing dice on a glass table. Since Ramsey loves humiliation, she came up with a McBurgorris tradition for losing: The Magic Mullet. The first night Dustin lost so he had to wear the magic mullet. The next night, Jonny lost so he had to wear it. Here are some awesome mullet pictures.



Here's Dustin, Thursday night Yahtzee loser.

Here's Jonny, Friday's loser.



















But I still love him!

Friday night Yahtzee with the girls, getting our Boni.

On Friday, Jonny and I laid low at the condo while the others went to a park to do some fishing. I don't know if Ramsey will post the picture or not, but I heard they caught a fish this time. Maybe you guys should consider finding a new fishing hole. Later that day we headed down to the harbor to walk around and get some drinks and appetizers at Wind and Sea.


Here are Molly & Jonny at Wind & Sea.

Here we all are posing by the boats.

I'd have to say one of the best parts of the trip (aside from actually being able to go outside without dying of heat stroke) was getting together with my brilliant friends, their brilliant husbands and our brilliant children!

Rocky Mountain Molly Part II

Well I had promised more wedding pics and I have them all now so I will post them. I'm not sure if I'll have much to say about them so lets just get started and find out!

Mere took that 1st picture of Stephanie walking down the stairs, it's pretty neat. I also thought the next two were cute, particularly their take on the "American Gothic" painting.

Here we are walking around with Molly after the wedding. Molly was really into the trees. When we held her up by them she would reach for and grab the leaves with her death grip.

Here's Molly in her fancy wedding get up. I know its a lot of hearts, but I think she can pull it off.

Here's Molly doing her new favorite thing, standing. She's getting pretty good at it, which is a little disturbing actually, my take on walking is the later the better.

Here are Molly and daddy lounging around in the morning. They're pretty cute!

Here are Molly Mere and I. I thought it was funny that Molly and I both have similar looks on our faces.

Well that's it for now. We have a big trip coming up, the McBurgorris family vacation. Also Chris and Stephanie will be in Yuma soon on a honeymoon trip. Wouldn't have been my first choice, but Molly is a pretty big draw. Plus, they're going to Nepal in November, so that should be fun. So to the majority of my readers, I will see you all soon!

Rocky Mountain Molly

Well I've been slacking in the blog department, but I have an excuse; we've been out of town since Thursday. Molly had her first road trip and boy was it a doozy! We drove to Salida, CO for my brother's wedding. It's about a 14 hour drive one way, not counting the frequent stops one has to make when traveling with a 3 month old. Molly wasn't too keen on spending that amount of time in her car seat, she really only has two states of being while she's in it, pissed or asleep. The good news of course was that the time spent out of the car seat was golden. We ate at fast food joints, even went to a grocery store and a sweltering outdoor mall without incident...she was just grateful to not be in her torture chamber.

The weekend was great, the weather was awesome and the wedding was beautiful. Molly seemed glad to be getting a new auntie (aunt Stephanie) and kept quiet during the wedding. I know I mentioned the wedding was beautiful but seriously, Colorado is so amazing and the location in a pasture with great views of the surrounding mountains was just perfect. I also enjoyed their vows here's just a selection: Chris: "I promise to love when you're right, and when you think you're right" Stephanie: "I love you for your philosophical mind, and in spite of your philosophical mind" also perfect. We we are glad to have Stephanie officially in the family and we are all eagerly awaiting the Moore-Young quadruplets! hahaha!

On Sunday I had a great birthday which involved awesome walks with Molly and Jonny that didn't end with us all in a exhausted sweating ball on the floor. That evening my family surprised me with a birthday cake and a hearty singing of "Happy Birthday". I even blew out all 29 candles. I owe a great big thanks to everyone for making my birthday so special.

To finish out the blog, I thought I would share two of my favorite stories from the weekend:

Chris and Stephanie's friends who hosted the wedding have a little boy named Sage. At one point during the reception, I was in their bedroom nursing Molly. Suddenly the door bursts open (I'm covered so I'm not overly concerned) and in walks Sage. He sees me but isn't really phased, so he walks right on over to their bathroom where his potty is waiting for him, strips and then does his business. Then, without putting his pants back on, he picks up his potty and takes it out of the room with a big smile on his face. I guess he then went to show everyone what a good job he had done, too funny.

Here are Molly and the champion of the potty, Sage.

The next story was from today on our way home. We had stopped in Gila Bend at McDonald's to give Molly a break and right after we ordered, a bus load of teenage boys showed up. A group of them sat down by us and immediately started in with the annoying teenage chatter such as the douche on the bus who was reading a book (he had never even finished a book before) a girl with fat tits (or possibly phat tits, I missed the context) and my favorite, a girl who was sexy except that she was missing a tooth. I'm not making this up. So amidst all their chatter I hear one of them talking about about beautiful baby eyes and I realize that he's talking about Molly. I turned around and he repeated to me that my baby has beautiful eyes. He's right of course, but I know it must be true if a teenage boy notices...this probably means future trouble for us, better oil up Jonny's shot gun!

Here are Molly and Jonny enjoying the scenery and great weather before the wedding. I'll probably do a quick post with more wedding pictures soon since I haven't seen my Mom's pictures yet. Mom probably has some good Molly shots since she finds everything that Molly does absolutely adorable, so stay tuned for more exciting Molly Mac!

A rolling Molly gathers no Moss

That's right, Molly has gone Mobile. Yesterday I decided to play a game with her that I call Magic Carpet Ride, where I put her on a blanket on the floor and pull her around. I guess all of that action inspired her roll over, left to right, belly to back. I'm kind of relieved because I hate tummy time almost as much as she does so I was always avoiding it. I was pretty sure that my lack of interest was going to result in her never moving independently...but again I was wrong...thankfully I usually am. As I promised Grandma, here's a rolling stone video...no not that kind, but I will say that as soon as I can, I'm going to teach her how to do the Mick Jagger chicken dance, and there will definitely be a video of that.

On the 11th for her 3 month birthday I took Molly in for another weigh in at Jonny's office. You can really tell that she's chunking up when you compare this picture to the previous weigh in, she takes up the whole scale now, and since then she's gained about 2 lbs, so she's really cruising.

I

also thought I would include an updated video of Molly's motor boating progress. It's funny because when she learns a new sound, that immediately becomes her new communication for everything. Happy...motorboat, Sad...motorboat, Hungry...motorboat. As you can see in this video she's upset about something, and because I'm such a good mother I just take a video of her in hope of a motorboat...I'm awesome!

I thought it would also be worth mentioning that Molly has decided that her thumb is where its at. I like this shot because it look like a classic little kid move, Sucking her thumb while clinging for dear life to the little blanket thing...what the hell are those things supposed to be called anyhow?

Sorry to throw all these videos out there on one post but here is the blooper reel from Molly's roll over video. It took me all day to get her to do it on film and there was lots of footage that just didn't make the cut. If you listen closely to this, you hear some interesting action from Molly...and then me laughing at her. After this shot, we had to take 5 for a diaper change.

A-Hole&B-Hole

A-hole and B-hole are just the beginning of the blog really, Molly's been up to a lot in the past day! A-hole and B-hole are what we now affectionately call our dogs Riley and Dink. It started because I've always called them "A" and "B" just because when you have to Black Labs who most people view as identical (they're not) you should have a generic nickname for them. Then after Molly was born they were always doing things that made me mad, like barking at inopportune times and shaking with they're loud collars (they don't wear them anymore) so I was always say something to the extent of "You stupid Ass-Hole dogs" Eventually Jonny said we should call them A-hole and B-hole and it has stuck. Well the other day it dawned on me that I haven't really taken any pictures of Molly with her beloved A-hole and B-hole so I decided to attempt it. It was difficult since B-hole (Dink) is not really interested in being anywhere near Molly and A-hole (Riley) is always trying to be near me. This is the best we could do.

Since Kate Monster had a sweet picture of her hanging out in her Baby Bjorn with Mom, I thought I would include some of Molly in her carrier, a baby K'Tan. It's basically just two big loops of fabric kept together with one little loop of fabric. If you're reading this blog and my description isn't sufficient...look it up, you obviously have the Internet. Anyhow, with these loops you can hold your baby in 8 different positions. We've tried 5 of them and of the 3 we haven't tried one of them is on the back (which I'm not ready for) one of them is for twins (No thank-you) and one of them is redundant. Here's Molly with me in her carrier. Jonny won't use it because "It's gay" and he can "carry her just fine without one" . I've tried to show him all of the obviously masculine men using it on the web site's pictures but he stands by his statements~he thinks the pictures reinforce his argument.

Above left we have the "adventure" position, if you face her towards you, its called the "hug" position. on the right the "explore" position. Finally on the bottom left we have the "hip" position. The only one left out is the cradle position which she has out grown.

Lastly, Molly has been tirelessly working on a new skill of blowing a "motorboat" while she hasn't perfected it yet, as this video shows, she's working really hard!

Here's just one more bonus picture of Molly in her swing today. I just thought she had a funny pose going. Jonny says she looks regal.

Bumbo

Since my parents are headed back to MO for a couple weeks, I'm going to have to get back into this and keep them updated on all of Molly's happenings. A couple exciting things have happened in Molly's life lately, believe me I totally understand if you could give a shit because I was there once too. "Oh wow! Little Jenny learned how to pick her nose...amazing!" Now I have a little different perspective. First off, now the babies are my friends babies, not my acquaintance's' babies, babies that I'm not afraid to hold...except maybe Landon, he might break my back...BEEFCAKE! Also think about the hand eye coordination that it takes to pick one's nose...I never considered this before. Yesterday, before she left, my Mom thought Molly was ready for some reaching and grabbing and sure enough she was into it. This morning I took some pictures of her holding a rattle that she had deliberately wanted in her hand...not just accidentally mind you. She immediately shoved it in her mouth...this might have been an accident but who knows? She's also taking something in one hand and then grabbing it with the other as if to give herself some extra control. I know, I know, freaking amazing! But I'm impressed and Gran is impressed and that's what's important. Here's actually some breaking news on this front. I had Molly on her changing table just now and I was talking to her and putting my face down by hers and she reached up and grabbed my glasses off of my face. I was thoroughly impressed. I'm sure this adorable act will become obnoxious shortly. I wonder if you can get a Lenscrafter's account? Watch out Grayson, Molly's getting grabby too. Here are the grabby pictures.

Also as the blog is tittled, I bought Molly a Bumbo. I know that Michaela had graciously offered to give me Landon's old one, and I'm sure it would have been great, but when you're walking through the store and you come across an adorable pink Bumbo how can you resist if you have a little girl. Jonny probably could have...but I couldn't. We didn't know that Molly was a girl until she made her appearance, so now I try to get my hands onto every feminine thing I can afford...damn you Pottery Barn Kids! Anyhow if you don't know what a Bumbo is...just look at the pictures and you'll figure it out pretty quick. Anyhow, she loves it and is happy to sit and hang out with us. These pictures are in Jonny's Garden. Good times!

well, this one's in her Crib, which she enjoys since her dog's can make the floor a dangerous prospect. Our goal is to keep Riley's tail out of Molly's face for as long as possible since I'm pretty sure it could cause irreversible damage.

Incidentally, Molly has taken her first "bad" picture in her Bumbo. Sorry Molly, it was bound to happen with all of the picture's we're snapping.

not to worry, these are better!