Halloween

Halloween was a busy day for us, but somehow we fit it all in. We started off our morning by heading over to Granny Kathy's house, where Jonathan and Madeline were also hanging out. They enjoyed watching the little pink poodle running around, even though she was a little moody (we probably cut it a little close to lunch/nap time).

Jonny really loves those puppy ears.

After nap time, we headed to my mom and dad's house, where my mom had some delicious treats for her. So far, candy isn't a part of her diet. I'm sure at some point I'll lose control over this, but for now I'm still doing good. In Joplin, after a particularly spirited tantrum, my Dad took Molly outside right before dinner. Knowing that Molly would probably throw a fit if I tried to bring her back in for dinner, I decided I needed a bribe to get her back inside. I lured her in for dinner with Broccoli. I'm that awesome.

After enjoying her banana treat, we went over to the Velasquez's house to visit. We missed Danny, but Molly charmed Karen with her puppy impressions.

"woof woof"

Then we headed over to Jonny's Granny and Papa's house to spread some more Halloween cheer.

We ended the night Trick or Treating with the Morris'. Their neighborhood was crazy, but we made it out alive.

Grayson and Molly getting their treats from Blaine.

Molly lasted about 3 minutes in the wagon before she wanted out.

After all of that excitement we hung out and handed out candy.

Grayson didn't want to share his beanbag.

At one point he cornered Molly and gave her a BIG hug which she wasn't able to withstand, and knocked her over. She was pretty upset and she was left with a whisker print on her face. Poor Grayson just wanted a hug.

Here are a couple of Halloween complaints/tips I have.

1) If you are a 60+ year old grandmother taking your grand kids trick or treating, you don't get to trick or treat too. If you absolutely have to because your Dr. said you need more candy in your diet and you can't afford it...at least wear a costume, preferably one that masks that you're too old to be trick or treating...essentially stealing candy from children.

2)If you are driving in a crazy busy neighborhood with all sorts of crazy kids running around, turn off the strobe light in your car, and remove the Scream mask. You already suck and you're going to suck even more if you hit some poor kid because you can't see.

Pumpkin Patch

I apologize for the betrayal Ramsey, but yesterday we went to a pumpkin patch to let Molly pick out a pumpkin. Truly it was just a photo opportunity, but Molly did enjoy running around and picking up, stepping on and sometimes throwing the pumpkins around. Since we've been here, Molly has kind of been a pain in the ass :-) She's constantly throwing tantrums about every little thing. When we're home we go to the grocery store once a week and target once every other week without serious incident. When we tried to take her here, it was a fight! She sat in the cart at target, but she fussed and whined. Then when we went to the grocery store she refused to sit in the cart at all, so I had to carry her. She wanted to walk, but I held my ground on that battle, I really didn't want to chase her around a grocery store while trying to repair all of the damage she created. Then there's eating out. I'm convinced after this trip that I will never do it again. She doesn't want to sit in the high chair, she doesn't want to eat, the only thing she wants to do is scream. I really hate being THOSE people, but lately we have been. Luckily it doesn't really show up in the pictures. When she's crying I'm dealing with that, not taking pictures. I suppose when I find her pain sort of funny, like if she's stuck somewhere, then I might take a picture of her. Little punk deserves it, ha ha ha!

These next three pictures are for Jonny. I thought he might be interested in the many cucurbits that the farm had to offer.

Molly and Me...see, I love her.

Picking out her Pumpkin

Found a winner.

She really liked the little white ones, she kept picking them out of the huge pile of mostly orange ones.

Having a picnic with Papa. When she got home she wanted to stay "AWESIGH". I would have been a hard ass and made her eat in her chair, but papa is a little softer, so he let her eat out.

I will note that this was the 2nd bowl of mac n' cheese, because the 1st one was dropped. The perils of eating outside.

Farmer's Market

Today we went to the Webb city farmer's market. In Yuma, our farmer's market is total bullshit (straight off the truck on the way to the supermarket), so going to a real farmer's market where all of the stuff is from smaller local farms is awesome. We got lots of produce as well as some homemade baked goods, even some pork chops. I'm pretty excited for dinner tonight.

At the market, there was live music that Molly was a big fan of. She started out reserved but captive, but she soon was clapping, slapping and even dancing here and there. It was pretty cute to watch.

Just taking it all in.


Aunt Margaret and Molly listening to the music.


Getting into it.


Really letting loose!



Before we left for the market I snapped a couple pictures. They illustrate a new trend I've noticed with Molly. As soon as she registers that I'm taking her pictures, she starts putting on this really, kind of creepy face. I'm not sure why this is the face she's settled on. It's kind of cute in a funny way, but I don't think I want all of her pictures to end up looking like this

Cute

Creepy

My mom says that it looks like a Jack-o-lantern face. I guess she's practicing for Halloween.

MO Molly

Right now Molly and I are with my parents in Joplin. Most of you know that my parents have an amazing victorian house here that they've been fixing up little by little. the house has come a LONG way and is a great place to hang out for a couple of weeks. I'm particularly glad I'm trading a couple weeks of still warm/hot weather for nice cool weather.

We don't really have an agenda while we're here. My dad has been working on the house and my Mom, Molly and I have been hanging out. Schedules are a little kooky since AZ is two hours earlier, but we're working it out and having a good time.

We drove here, which was a very long drive (2 long days +a couple hours on a 3rd). Molly was actually pretty good considering how long we made her stay in her seat. She watched her DVD's read her books and listened to her "musi"...my ipod. I had hoped she would sleep better in the seat, and she did catch some zzz in there, but mostly her head flopped around so much that it was constantly waking her up. I had a pillow that didn't do much and have now purchased a different one that I'm hoping will work better on the way home, we'll see.





Her 1st order of business after arriving in Joplin was running crazily around and busting her face and shoulder open on the sidewalk. Fortunately her bangs cover the worst of it so people won't think I beat my child. I'm starting to reconsider the toddler helmets I've seen in some catalogs.

On our first evening we went to Glen and Margaret's for dinner (Molly's Great great aunt and uncle...they're very great!) In addition to being great they have a great yard (maybe yard is the wrong word, it's huge) where Molly had a great time running around in the leaves.

We told her that acorn's have little hats and she thought that they might fit her too. You can't really see that in the picture, what you can see if you look closely is her busted face.

Buckling up in Uncle Glen's lawnmower.

Go Fetch!

Molly and Papa taking a walk.

Gran and Papa's kitchen is full of good times:

You can sit under the island and read a book.

you can practice your yoga moves.

When Gran gets you a giant piece of red rosin paper you can go crazy coloring on the floor. Not everything made it onto the paper, whoops!

Last night we went to a park and Molly tried out a slide for the 1st time. She loved it. Can you tell?

She went down so many times that her hair was standing up from the static.

We have one more week here, hopefully I'll take some more pictures to post when I get home.

Running in Circles

We've been outside A LOT lately (the weather has been nicer), mostly because Molly demands it. Every morning it starts with a call for "shoes, shoes, shoes!" then it's followed by "AWWWE-SIGH, AWWWE-SIGH, AWWWE-SIGH" (that's "outside" for those of you not fluent in Toddlerese) I feel bad if I deny her, but sometimes you just have to do the dishes and chasing her around outside doesn't seem to make that happen. It would be awesome if it did.

She's decided that running around in a little circle until she falls over is pretty entertaining especially while laughing maniacally. I tried to teach her "Ring around the rosie" but she didn't think that was as cool as her game. Maybe she doesn't like the dark undertones of the game...or maybe she doesn't want to hold my hands.

Spin spin spin!

Fall fall fall!

Get up and start over!

When we're outside she's also really interested in getting into the parking lot. I'm not as interested in being in the parking lot since to me it's just dirt and mesquite trash full of bugs and other nastiness. I don't understand how we can have such a huge expanse of grass that she has such little interest in.

Trying to escape to the freedom of the parking lot.

Also of interest outside is her wagon, but she's really not interested in riding in it, she really loves to pull it around. She hasn't quite mastered it yet in that she doesn't understand that she can't just manhandle it wherever she wants.

It isn't for lack of effort, but I just don't think she's going to get it up the step.

The other night while Jonny was laying on the floor, Molly decided to bring her blocks out and play with daddy.

Then she decided she was done and started taking them back to the playroom.

Run Molly run!

Don't forget that last one!

Then it was time to play with her animals.

I wish I knew what she was thinking.

Here's another clever trick she has. This is related to her new love of "relaxing". It's only for a few seconds here and there but she loves to pretend to relax like us lazy big people.

I'm hoping that being able to relax will help some on the sleeping front. We did have a pretty awesome milestone just this afternoon. She actually fell asleep for her nap without any help from me. For the past several months she has pretty consistently gone down for her nap by nursing to sleep (which is why the nap time feeding is the last holdout). Lately however she doesn't fall asleep, so I end up rocking her to sleep. Today she kept wanting to get down and play instead of relaxing. So I put her in her crib and left the room. She didn't cry and she played for about 5 minutes with her doll and blanket and then she got very quiet. When I looked in on her she was fast asleep. Unfortunately she had also taken a dump. I was actually able to take her out, change her diaper and put her back without her waking. If you had told me 6 months ago that this would be possible I might not have believed you.

The next three pictures are only here because she just so dang cute.

I'm so sweet.

I'm so thoughtful.

I'm so hilarious.