My mom got us a fancy new monitor for when Maggie arrives. It's a video one, but what is most awesome about it is that it actually works in our house. We've had 2 other monitors, one video, one sound and neither of them did very well in our house. Yes, we were probably asking a lot of them, we have brick walls and probably some plaster/lath wall between our room and hers. So even though her room isn't that far away, the signal has a lot to conquer along the way. This monitor works really well though and the signal has yet to cut out on us waking us with loud beeping. It's also nice because we can have two cameras on the system which we're going to want in a few months (if I ever let Maggie sleep in her own room). So far my favorite thing about it is watching Molly when she wakes up, she is so funny. Sometimes she'll sing songs, sometimes she'll play with her animals or read a book. It really cracks me up when she'll wake up and immediately start talking about something she was talking about right before she went to sleep picking up right where she left off. Another feature of the monitor is that we can talk to her through an intercom. We thought this would be hilarious, but mostly she's just terrified by it and I suppose I see her point. We are being kind of creepy and voyeuristic. This past Thursday and Friday we headed to the San Diego area and went to Sea World and visited with some of my relatives. Lots of fun! Checking out a turtle. We fed the Sea Lions this time. This one is begging for more. Sorry buddy, Sea World's expensive! Hanging out in Allison and Pablo's backyard. It was nice to be outside for a change. Now that were home, we're again cooped up avoiding the heat.
Molly's ready for some winter weather! So one more week and Maggie will be full term. Of course I'm sure she'll wait around a little longer than that. I'm simultaneously ready and completely not ready for her to be out and among us. I'm sick of being pregnant, but I know it's not like having a newborn is a piece of cake, especially with a fairly demanding toddler. I'm also really wishing I was one of those "nesting" types. I'm hoping that something kicks in soon, but I have my doubts since I never thought I did that with Molly. I'm sure that eventually I'll get something done, but I'm pretty sure it isn't going to be from some uncontrollable urge to get ready for her. Right now the only uncontrollable urge I've had is to sit on the couch and read.
I'm not sure why, I know a lot of kids hate getting their hair cut, but Molly loves it. I think it's mostly because she loves Susan so much that she will sit happily while she trims her up. It's probably the only time aside from sleep when she will hold still. So far, we've always just done it in the office, but this time, Molly wanted to be in a proper chair out on the floor and part of the action. Afterwards, she made another appointment to see Susan in a month for another trim. Of course she had to talk all about it "I have an appointment with Susan!" and "Susan cuts my bangs!". She's a regular now. In other news, we have finished our first swim lesson session of the summer and we're starting another on Monday. This time we'll have Grayson and Colbie in class with us so that should be fun. I'm thinking she's going to have a hard time focusing on swimming when there's someone as important as Colbie in the pool with her. It's kind of exhausting for both of us (I'm tired from preventing drowning, she's tired from having no concept that she can drown) but it's nice to have an outdoor activity that we can do with out dying from heat stroke. One more random story that cracked Jonny and I up today. We were coming home from the grocery store and decided that we wanted to order something for lunch. I was using my car's hands free to dial by number. I start to say the phone number... "7-8-2" from the back of the car, Molly starts yelling out numbers too..."6-5-8..". I thought there was a chance that since she was in the backseat and I'm in the front that it would disregard her numbers and use my numbers, but no, her numbers made it in there too. I'm not sure why this was so funny to us, but Jonny and I were cracking up so of course Molly starts cracking up too and also continuing to scream random numbers. I guess we're just goofy like that.
Molly's 4th of July was extremely eventful this year. It actually started on the 3rd when we went to a BBQ at Cassie and Ben's and she had a blast swimming. Since there were plenty of big kids around doing awesome things like diving or even flipping into the pool, Molly was pretty sure that she needed to get in on that action and I've since noted a definite increase in her daring around the pool...not necessarily a good thing. She calls it doing "tricks", but basically she'll just jump in without any real concern for whose going to be there to catch her. In an effort to try and demonstrate to her that she actually can't swim, I've let her her go without catching her so that she's completely submerged for a least a second but it hasn't really helped any because she just comes up coughing, sputtering and saying "again!". Swim classes should be fun tomorrow. I'm just grateful that we don't have a pool at our house or anywhere around our house for that matter because she freaks me out. After all of that fun, it seemed impossible that any more excitement could be had in one day. However since Paradise Casino puts on a awesome fireworks display every year on the 3rd, more fun is exactly what we had. "Ooh! look at that!" "Look at the colors!"...I think she was impressed and the best part is that we can see it from our roof. She seemed a little disappointed when I told her that she probably wouldn't see fireworks again for another year. At least nothing like that display. All this morning she kept saying "Maybe later we see fireworks". Sorry Molly. Today, after sleeping in, we got up and went to a forth of July parade that runs through Cassie and Ben's neighborhood. Kate and her parents were also there to join in the fun. I almost didn't go because it's pretty hot and I didn't know if I would really be interested in walking around, but I decided that it was cloudy and breezy enough that I could tough it out (Of course it's Yuma, so the clouds were pretty much gone by the time I got there). It was pretty hot and muggy, but Molly had a blast and I managed not to go into labor, so it was worth it. Hanging with Aunt Cassie before the parade. Also with Madeline or "melwon" as Molly has renamed her. They managed to ride together without any wagon turf wars. Success! Thought it was a funny picture, don't know what she's yelling at but I'm going to guess it was a dog since she was pretty into any dog we passed. A HUGE thanks to Cassie for helping me get Molly through the 2nd half of the parade after Kate went home with her wagon. Without her I may well still be wandering the hot streets chasing after Molly. All of her hard work was rewarded with an ice cream cone. "Mmmmmm!" Miss Yuma county walked the parade in red patent heels of a significant height. While I feel that it was a useless show, I have considered how if I were someone who wanted to prove something, I should have walked the parade in heels. That would have been a true spectacle: 8 months pregnant with a two year old. Then I remember that I'm not of a competitive nature and I'm just grateful that I was wearing flip flops. But wait! There's more. Not a lot more, but still... Later in the afternoon (after a nice nap) We went to my mom's house to swim and have dinner. I didn't take any pictures there, but it's just as well because I did manage to snap one before we left and more importantly before she removed the pigtails and the bow. It's so hot now I wish she would keep her hair back to keep cool and to also try and avoid the ragamuffin look she gets. I suppose she's lucky she can pull that look off.
Granted my sort of party is pretty tame (some may call it lame) but I still had a good time last week with all of my parties. It started last Saturday when Ramsey asked me out to lunch for my birthday and instead was throwing me a surprise baby shower. I didn't catch on that it was a baby shower for a few minutes (when I was told) but really it's not fair to do throw a party that close to someones birthday and not expect some confusion. Just ask Ramsey, she's had experience with this. All my glory. Thanks to everyone who came, it was a lot of fun! On Tuesday, I turned 31 (doesn't seem right, but I did confirm this with my mom). Since it coincided with my friend Allysia being in town with her kiddos, we had them and the Morris' over for dinner. It was a total 10 year old birthday party complete with pizza cake and ice cream. All of us, with all of them. Molly would not look at the camera at all, so this was the best we got. Molly with her favorite person, Colbie baby. Obviously she couldn't be trusted, whoops! Jadon stealing some lovin' from Miss Colbie. Okay, I couldn't resist sharing my child's genius. When asked to write her name, she will fairly consistently do something like this. Yes, there's no real "M" (although it should be noted that she does say "M") and yes, there are too many "l"s (they're fun to write I guess) but she's only 2 and I'm impressed. It should be noted that it probably helps to have not only a simple name but also a simple to write name. Poor Maggie will probably not have as easy a time writing her name since she doesn't have any super simple letters like "o" and "l". Although Maggie has not mastered her name yet, she has done me the favor of getting in the correct head down position. On my birthday I had an appointment and she is supposedly head down. Let's just hope she stays that way.
"Hello customer!" That is the name of Molly's new game. Ever since she saw me painting my toes months ago, Molly has thought that it was the coolest ever. Since I knew using regular nail polish on her would be a disaster I have bought her her own special paints (piggie paints) that are water based and dry faster. It isn't enough though, she still feels like she needs to get in on the action. Since I would rather she didn't ruin everything with nail polish (waterborne or not) I have been on the lookout for play nail polish bottles (empty ones). At first all I could find was "play" nail polish which was actually "real" nail polish with kiddie packaging, but this week I finally found a play set at target that has two little polish bottles as well as a play flat iron, blow dryer (complete with working fan) and various other toiletries that a two year might need. She loves it all and is now really into playing "hello customer". I'm guessing she's picked up this stellar customer service from all the time she spends at the paint store/beauty school...Meredith is known for her service with a smile...wait... Well regardless of where she learned it, this is how it goes. She greets us cheerfully, asks what she can do for us today, and then either paints our nails or straightens/combs our hair depending on what we choose (although we've been known to choose wrong). If we choose nail polish, she even asks us which color we want. Very professional.
Yes this should compliment your coloring nicely. Concentrating hard on daddy's pedicure. Haven't talked about potty training much. That's probably because I feel like a failure at it. I suppose I'm being hard on myself, since when we're at home and she's going commando, she's almost perfect. Unfortunately as soon as you put anything on her, panties, pull-ups, pants she's peeing all over the place (fortunately she's been 100% in the other area for well over a month no matter what she's wearing) This has made staying dry while out and about difficult. I'm too chicken to put her in panties when we're out, so I put pull-ups on her. I try to ask her frequently, but that doesn't seem to work. Also, her new found fear of public restrooms isn't helping matters. Which brings me to my new found hatred of automatic flushing toilets. If I was two I think I would be terrified of those things too. Since she won't wear panties and use the potty we've implemented a strict dress code of dresses minus bloomers. Before bedtime if I'm not interested in seeing her little naked butt running around, I'll put a skirt on her to cover her shame. The only skirt I have that doesn't have some sort of under short attached is pretty fancy, so this is what she looks like before bed, flitting about in her fancy skirt. As I probably mentioned before, we've been going to the summer movie program at Harkins. The first movie went great. Of course Clifford the big red dog has a lot to offer to Molly. We've since gone to Megamind and How to train your dragon. They haven't gone quite as smoothly. She's pretty good for awhile, but maybe 30-40 minutes in, she'll lose interest and say she wants to leave. This would be fine, except that when we start the process of leaving, she freaks out and says she wants to stay. So we go back and forth like that for awhile until I just give up and make her leave. Then the tantrum starts: Super Fun. When we left Megamind she screamed and cried the whole way home: Awesome. This last time was a little better, but not much. I haven't decided whether I'm going put myself through that again. We'll have a two week break from it since we start swim lessons next week. Jonny gave me my birthday present early. He said he thought that I was having a bad day and wanted to cheer me up, but I didn't think I was having that bad of a day. Anyhow, I like my cool new present. It's a little video camera. We have a camcorder, but it's always inconvenient to use, so we don't. This one is tiny, convenient to charge, use and easy to get the videos off of. I'd been reluctant to get one because I hate how dark the videos always end up on those little things when you're taking video inside (at least that's how it seemed on my mom's flip). Jonny did some research and decided this one would work well. So far I like it. You can actually see the picture even if the video was taken in our dimly lit house which is nice since that's where I will use it the majority of the time. Here's a video I took with it. It's of Molly doing probably my favorite thing that she does: reading a book. It's so cute and hilarious. This book is "Hand Hand Fingers Thumb" and in case you don't remember it from your childhood, one of the main phrases in the book is "Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum" which is what she's saying the most. The book that she reads the best is "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back", she reads that to us almost every night. Sorry, the video ends in the beginning of an argument about why she can't use the camera. I turned it off before it got really ugly though.
My new plan for posting videos is to upload them with You Tube and then embed them here. That seems to work way better than directly uploading them. Not sure why blogger's video upload is so difficult, but I always spend hours trying to upload and then give up crying and huddled in the corner.
How do you like that Tracy? I named the whole post after you! Unfortunately though, I'm probably going to expand to topics other than Tracy. Sorry Tracy. Somehow, Tracy has avoided the typical military family life of moving every few years, and has managed to stay in Yuma for the better part of the past 16 years. Sadly her luck has run out and she and her family are off to Fl. Yesterday Molly and I went to a farewell BBQ and Molly had a blast swimming, socializing with the many youngsters in attendance, and even playing a little tailgate toss with her new buddy Tracy. In case you've never seen tailgate toss I'll describe it. You may have played a more complicated version in kindergarten on "brag day", it's basically a board with a hole and some beanbags, you can figure out the rest. Molly is an expert at it...as long as she's cheating. I should have taken pictures, but I've been really bad at taking pictures this week. It's just as well though, because Tracy informed me that she didn't think I needed to post any other pictures. Good Luck in Fl, we'll miss you! So since I've been terrible with the pictures lately, I'm just stuck with stories. I'll start with the ones that I left out of the last post. While we were hanging out with Michaela last week, Molly was full of antics. The first one involves her obsession with all things canine. She was so in love with Steve and Rachael's dog Cash that at times it got a little out of hand and she had to be reminded to tone it down a bit. At one point Michaela sat her down and told her that maybe it would be better it she just petted Cash with her eyes. So Molly took the literal meaning of this, and started rubbing her face all over Cash. I was laughing so hard I was crying. The second involves contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I left Molly sitting on a chair while I went to get a glass of water and when I got back, I was informed that Molly had found an abandoned cup of sangria and helped herself. I'm guessing she had a pretty small amount since she didn't seem to have any ill-effects as a result. She did however inform me that it was yummy. Yikes. Then there's Sea World or as Molly has been calling it Sea Horse, not sure why. Last Thursday, Ramsey and I took Grayson and Molly and met up with the Burgess' and Steve and Rachael for Sea World fun day. Of course I have no record of it, because I forgot to put the memory card back into my camera. I'm the worst. I'm guess though that soon enough if you check the Morris blog or the Burgess blog, there will be some Molly Sea World pictures. Sea World was super fun though and I got a huge kick out of how excited Molly was to see all the animals. The 1st show we went to was the Orca one and when they jumped out of the water, she squealed with delight. It was so funny. She was also a huge fan of the sea lion and otter show (who isn't). I'm hoping that Jonny and I can make it back really soon, like, before late July/ early August. Lastly, this weekend Mere's friend Trish and her family were staying in the guest cottage. Molly thought this was great because she's completely enthralled with Trish and Dave's Daughter's Laurel and Kendal (I believe they're about 9 and 7). When she was first introduced to them, she was told that they were sisters. Since her only concept of "sister" is "baby sister", she named them the baby sisters. She loved the baby sisters and I loved that they would hang out and play with her. I'm starting to think I messed up this age distance for siblings. I can see how having a little helper might have been good idea. Wish I had thought of that 8 years ago. Oh-well!
In Maggie Mac news, I had an appointment yesterday and although Maggie is fine, she isn't head down yet which kind of has me freaking out. I'm 31 weeks today, so we still have time, but I really really really need her to turn turn turn. The sooner the better. In fantastic news, the Burgess clan was in town for a few days. Molly had a great time running around and playing with Landon's "guys" although I think Landon and Captain America might have wished she hadn't. Sorry about your guy Landon. In case you were wondering how this picture was taken, it should be known that there were bribes involved. Also, this is pre Molly taking Captain America for a swim. Although the Morris' were busy running around in the mud, they were able to make it for a couple visits, and we even snapped a quick picture of the kiddos. I didn't get one of all of them looking at the camera, so I included the two best ones. Relaxing on the lawn with a frosty beverage. Also thrown in our week was some sprinkler time. Some puppy time at Granny's. Molly's loves Dixie because she's just her size. She even loved carrying her around, which wasn't always in Dixie's best interest, but it was kind of funny. We even got in some Chicken time at Poppie (Cassie and Jonny can correct my spelling later) Shawn's house. I have desperately wanted to get a picture of Molly with the Chickens, but it has never worked out. One time my camera battery was dead, another time I forgot to put the card back in my camera, plenty of times I've just plain forgotten my camera. This time I wasn't able to because Molly was just plain scared of the chickens. She's always been so fearless, but lately she's starting to catch on to the idea of what it means to be scared. The past two weeks or so have been filled with all sorts of scary things as far she's concerned. Some of the things I'll give her. Chickens can be sort of scary (the chicken pictured below scared me when I was trying to get her to move so I could get the eggs she was sitting on), but I'm not buying that she's afraid to watch the Baby Einstein movie that she pulled out the other day and decided that she had to watch. Still, she insists on feigning fright and letting me know how scary it is. After it's over, she screams "Again! Again!". Watch out! She's mean! Stay tuned for more McBurgorris fun!
