Bye bye MO

I tried to get tricky with the blog because the dates were messed up on my posts and now I'm regretting it because I deleted a whole post somehow...whoops. I've learned my lesson. Now I'm stuck trying to recreate the post. We'll see how I do
We left Missouri on the 28th in order to get home in time for Halloween. It was an extremely long trip and has cemented with me, that when we go to Joplin for Christmas, we will be flying. She was a trooper, but in the end I think one long day is better than 3 long days, even if it does involve possible tantrums in front of strangers.
Here are some pictures from our last days in Joplin.

Obligatory Porch pictures

She learned quickly that her buddy "Gen" was the one to go to if you needed something.

It was fun how quickly she learned to say Margaret and Glen's names, or at least her version: "Mar-gee, and "Gen". She LOVED hanging out at their house and talked about them constantly.

Glen reading his little varmint buddy a story.

Playing in the leave on the deck.

While there, Molly lived it up in Gran's claw foot. I suppose I could give her baths in ours, but she has her own bathroom, so we might as well use that.

On our way home, our biggest struggle was sleep. While other kids seem to pass out in the car and never wake up. Molly cannot stay asleep in her car seat. As soon as her head bobs, she's up. We tried some fancy pillowing to try and keep her asleep, but nothing worked long enough to get a good nap in.

Molly and her pillows

Since this was a problem, on the way home, one day we stopped in Albuquerque to let her get a decent nap in the stroller. While she slept, we walked around old town and eventually ended up in the natural history museum where, when Molly woke up, she had a grand time running around checking out the Dyn-Saws. I think she appreciated the break.

Pushing her stroller around was her favorite activity.

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.