Dining Al Fresco

It was such a nice day yesterday that we spent most of our time outside in the yard. Since we were already there, Molly took her meals outside as well. The other day I bought her some of her very own cutlery, and she's been doing pretty well with it. She's always been all about trying to use the spoon herself, but the fork has pretty much blown her mind with the potential it has for not only eating...but destruction.

here's a video of Molly working the fork:

Porch Dining with Molly:

Jonny has his garden in full swing again, we already have squash that's ready to go and we'll soon have other awesome things too. If I remember correctly, the squash will go crazy and that's all we'll eat for like 5 months. Molly used to like veggies and she'll still tolerate them, but slowly she's starting discover all of the awesome things we've been holding out on her and deciding that maybe she'd rather eat those thing instead. She does however like hanging out in the garden since there is plenty of dirt to mess with. Here she is amidst the beans.

Molly is still a "techie" baby and loves anything that has a battery or a cord. Here she is messing with Daddy's headphones.

Now that Molly is a year old, technically she should be chugging down the cow's milk, happily leaving my milk behind. While she has been starting to come around to drinking cow's milk here and there, I have dug us into a hole in that nursing is strongly linked to sleep. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret it at all, and as of now I don't even think we have a seriously weaning issue on our hands. It's just that my mom keeps saying that she remembers just sort of trailing off around a year without any fuss or fanfare. I'm having a hard time seeing how it's going to work like that. Secretly, I do have the fear that this video is going to be us: (warning: this video could be disturbing to some...it's meant to be funny though, so lighten up!)

Well maybe not, Doc says to wrap up nursing and potty training before the prom, so I'm going to try and stick to that schedule!

Easter #2

Molly has survived another Easter, although there were some rough patches for sure. Unfortunately today and yesterday she's been a little out of sorts. Don't know if it's teething, nasty baby shots, or what, but she has been a little moody. To be fair, she did have to keep up with us through 3 separate Easter events. The morning Egg hunt at my parents, an afternoon picnic with the Burgess' and their family and Dinner with Jonny's family. The interesting thing about it though, is that somehow this doesn't seem to come across in the pictures, we actually have some very cute Easter pictures for the books! I have to say that for a one year old, she seemed to have a pretty good concept of Easter Egg hunt. One year olds aren't really famous for their ability to follow directions and maintain interest in one thing for very long, but somehow she was able to pick up eggs and put them in her basket, and then take them out and then put them back in...and then take them out again. You get it.

Putting all her eggs in one basket, tsk tsk!

Yea, I don't feel so hot

These other pictures are just a mish mash of the previous week.

Molly loves her new cubbies in our built in shelving.

Hanging out on the left side:

and on the right side:

Molly loves snack time, and so do the dogs. Molly's take: "one for Molly, 12 for the dogs" Are Kix part of a nutritious canine diet?

We Finally got Molly's birthday swing put up and she LOVES it. Thanks Granny!

I've never been much for school spirit (we have zero UofA paraphernalia) but I have to say I love Molly's little Prin Onsie from Uncle Chris and Aunt Stephanie.

Go Panthers!

Published

I received my hard bound blog book the other day and I am so excited about it! I highly recommend blog2print.com it turned out just as I imagined it. When I first looked into the services a few months ago I was disappointed because they didn't keep the format, so none of my captions were with my pictures, but they have since added the option to "snapshot" the blog and leave the formatting the same (although as you may remember, my formatting was a little "raw" as Michaela called it at the beginning). I also love that it includes all of the comments that everyone has made throughout the year, pretty nifty! I'm so pleased that we will have the blog to thumb through in the years to come.

Front

Back

A peek inside

In other Molly news, Molly had quite the weekend. It started out with a fun birthday party for her new buddy Jadon on Sat. My friend Allysia was in town and had a party for her son at her father's house. It was great to see her and to meet the adorable birthday boy. She also had the opportunity to hang out with her old buddy Grayson, a good time as always!

The 3 of us with the kiddos.

Jadon says "loosen up guys!"

Molly says "Jadon's right! I came to party!"

On Sunday Molly met another new friend, Jaq. My brother's friends Gayle and Cesar were in town and they stopped by to introduce us to Jaq and to meet Molly. Jaq is quite the golfer and gave Molly some tips on how to improve her game. They're pretty cute!

I'll finish with this picture of Molly I took a couple days ago. Molly now has a pretty good understanding of how the world around her works. She may not be able to execute all of the tasks she wants to, but that isn't stopping her from trying. Some examples are, her obsession with shoes and socks (she's been bringing me my slippers and "putting" them on my feet for a couple months now), brushing her hair and teeth, and as this picture shows, using keys to open doors, such a clever girl!

Tee Time!

We bought Molly the clubs at Christmas, but really, what can a baby do with golf clubs if she can't walk yet? Well she's mover now and Dad has been itching to get them out and get her started on her "lessons". She was really into it, and it's kind of funny that when I'm scanning through the pictures I took, it seems as though she kind of knows what she's doing. I didn't get that impression while watching it in real life.

So big and so strong!

"Why don't you improve your lie a little Molly?" "Yes, yes, Winter rules"

"which end do I use?"

Trying to teach her a proper grip...ha!

It seems like Dad's work better

We are now officially living in the new old house which has been fantastic. I'm having a hard time believing I could have lived as long as I did without a dishwasher, so that alone is making my life awesome. I am however hoping that cabinet guy brings doors for the cabinets soon because having a 1 year old and no locked cabinets is like having a tornado blow through your kitchen and bathroom everyday. I keep the really bad stuff out of reach obviously, but it doesn't change that she gets everything out of the cabinets and places it all in various spots around the house. Actually "place" is too delicate a word for what she does. I do want to get up some pictures of the house soon, but I was kind of hoping the cabinets would be completed before I did that, however it's been another week with nothing to show, so I might have to just put up some "so far" pictures. Here is one of Molly taking a bath in her giant tub.

I haven't ever really been able to get Molly to wear bows. I guess it never occurred to me to do it when she was really little since she really didn't have any hair and now that she does she refuses to keep it in for a length of time. Anyhow, she does look pretty cute with a bow and so I attempted to get some bow pictures today. I wish she would wear them, they look pretty cute!

Fast Forward 2 seconds later...ripping it off her head, Oh well!

Party Girl!

Well we capped off the birthday festivities on Sunday with Molly's 1st birthday party! Good times were had by all, especially Molly. She seemed to know that the day was especially for her and embraced it fully :-) She really was in a good mood which was great. She ate her lunch, had her cake and ice cream, opened her presents and even chatted up her guests a little which they all appreciated. The party also gave us a chance to break in the house a little. I was relieved that after some confusion and some severe frustration on my part, the gas guy made it to turn the gas on at the house. I suppose it wouldn't have been a huge deal if it hadn't been on, but it was nice to be able to use the range over the weekend. Now if we could just get the cabinets in, we could fully move in and live happily ever after...right?
Here are some awesome party pictures:
Getting it all in there.

Using her new fancy spoon, Thanks Marylyn!

Opening her gifts. I love how her Dress coordinates with the wrapping, Too stylish!


Wagon ride in the yard.


"I think I can handle this myself"

Cousin Madeline showing her the ropes of the Water Table.

Wearing Dad's garden hat after the guests have gone.

As seen in the previous pictures, we got Molly a little red wagon, and after the party we took her on a little ride down to the courthouse lawn (their lawn is much nicer than ours right now) and let her play around a little.

Walking around with Dad.

Relaxing after a long day in her new rocking chair. Thanks Gran!

I have also captured Molly walking about. I couldn't figure out how to turn it, but you get the idea, she walks!

Well since this is my last post before my hard copy, I feel like I should say something profound about what a year it's been. It has been a pretty special year for sure, but I since there is still so much to come, I'm not sure I have any real words of wisdom yet. Thanks to everyone for tuning in throughout the year and sharing in the life of Molly Mac. Love Ya Molly!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Yesterday was officially Molly's 1st birthday! Although the party isn't until Sunday, we still had a good day. We've been trying to get the house cleaned up for the party. Even though we're not going to be living there yet, we're still hoping to have the party there even if it is a little rough around the edges. The appliances are in and with any luck the gas will be turned on giving me a working kitchen, which will be a nice thing to have. Mostly I need to do some cleaning for the party. Molly has been kind enough to help me out with that. She watches me clean the floor at our house with a paper towel all of the time and she's picked up the technique. It's pretty clever!


Come to think of it, there are probably a lot of things I should be doing for the party, but I really have no concept of how to have a party really (sorry Molly) so I guess I'm just going to clean as best as I can given the slightly unfinished circumstances and hope that people are content just watching Molly do her thing. Oh-yea, and I'm also hoping that somehow food will appear at my house on Sunday. I'm counting on Jonny to do that for me :-) fingers crossed. I'm also hoping that the cupcakes or cake that I bake don't suck too bad. Can you tell that I have sort of low expectations for this party? I apologize to my guests :-)
On to some Molly centric news. Molly is walking! Not just the few steps here and there like she has for the past couple weeks, full on walking. Lengths of rooms, turning corners and sometimes a little too quickly! I don't have a proper video to post, but I'll try for it soon. Life as we know it is over! Really we've gotten used to that concept now, things change so fast these days. I only have a couple pictures this time around, but they're good ones!
Dinkers has warmed up to Molly since she learned how to open the dog biscuits.

Before she throws it on the floor, Molly likes to smash her face against the tray.

Make sure you check back soon for the birthday post. It will be my last post before I get the hard copy printed off! I can't wait to get a hard copy, it's going to fun to thumb through it in the years to come.

Mahotan Molly

Molly got a little early birthday present yesterday! A lovely little hooded jacket from her great great aunt Margaret. Molly's very own Mahota handwoven, woven with care by her cousin Andrea. She looks adorable in it.