Fighting Fours

About 1 week until Molly's four and I'm hoping that her attitude past week isn't indicative of our next year together.  We actually have pretty similar outlooks on the situation: we're both pretty sure I'm doing something wrong. Mostly kidding.  Some friend had shared that they had read in a parenting book something to the extent of "what you love about your kid today may be gone tomorrow, so don't gloat, and what drives you nuts may be resolved in a week, so don't sell him to the circus".  I may have been guilty of some internal gloating and I'm afraid I may be paying for it now.  A few weeks ago Molly and I were at Target and she was just being fantastic.  She asked for things, I told her "no" and she accepted my answer as if I were an adult in control of the situation.  I even felt particularly proud of myself because I remembered to tell her how great it was that she was being such a good sport about not receiving every Lalaloopsy and Disney Doll that the place had.  Fast Forward to today: When we were walking through the Dream gift shop after leaving Cassie's new Yoga studio, she had a meltdown over some doll she was calling the "tooth fairy".  I had prepped her before we went that we weren't getting anything today and she had confidently told me that she just wanted to look.  When she saw the dolls, she first took the "let's get Maggie something angle".  I don't fall for that though since I know what that looks like...Molly dancing around a screaming Maggie while holding "Maggie's" toy. I  then decide we need to leave as soon as possible and tried to pry her hands off the doll, but her tiny hands were fused onto it. I finally get the doll in one piece back on the shelf.  Then she snatches it off again before I can get her far enough away. Trying not to cause a scene, but she's given me no choice.  I had to carry her screaming to the car and force her into the car seat.  Look away people.  If anyone is shopping at that store for Molly's birthday, DO NOT buy a fairy doll...as far as I'm concerned, that doll is DEAD to her.  Regardless, we're not selling her to the circus just yet. 

Here's the good stuff:

I was super happy that Molly offered to push Maggie in the swing instead of freaking out and insisting that it was her turn.

She even gave her a few spins

Kids always have to involve their toes.  Maybe that's just my kids.

She even shared her bike helmet with Maggie.

She played the game she made up: tree ring toss.

Also nice, was getting the first 7 consecutive hours of sleep that I have had in 4 years (rough estimate).  For whatever reason when Molly came to our room, she settled onto her mat and didn't bother waking us and she even managed to do it on the same night that Maggie didn't wake up.  Amazing for sure! 

Duets

It's still February and I'm actually getting some pictures up!
I was playing the piano the other day and Molly decided to accompany me on her little piano.  It was cracking me up how even though she's pretty much just randomly slamming on the keys, she stayed true to the rhythm of the song.  She really likes this song in particular. She always likes to come over to me when I'm playing it and ask me "Mama, is that 'Weeping Willow'?" even though she already knows the answer.
 
We've come up with a (temporary?) solution to at least one of our sleep problem children.  I bought a little roll up mattress that I keep at the side of our bed.  So far she's been good about using it and hasn't tried to sneak back into our bed.  Most of the time when she comes in at night she doesn't even wake us up anymore which is great.

Just have to fix up that other little one and then maybe we can sleep like normal again.

Maggie and Molly trying out Molly's new "bed".

Molly wanted me to take a picture of her with her friends Dolly and Kitty (kind of unoriginal names).  Of course Maggie had to join in too.  Never mind the dust bunnies in the corner, our Roomba, Pocus, is obviously slacking.  When my Mom got us the Roomba for Christmas, we asked Molly to name it. Her first attempt was "Robot Vacuum Cleaner".  I told her that that wasn't going to cut it and that she needed to try again.  She completely delivered and came up with "Pocus" right there on the spot.

Little Valentine Magnolia.  I didn't get a picture of Molly on Valentine's.  She also had a Hello Kitty outfit.  I'm sure she'll be wearing it until Christmas, she loves it that much.

The Dorman's and the Morris's came over for a visit yesterday.  They all had a great time playing together.  

Boys in the box.

This is truly as good of a picture as we could have asked for.  Take note, there are 7 kids and only 1 is over the age of 4.  The two in the front row were the wild cards and for whatever reason, they cooperated.  The 3 in the middle are being bribed.  They received cookies immediately following the picture.  I wouldn't recommend bribery for everyday things, but for the occasional picture, it's a pretty handy and extremely effective tactic.

First month of the year

I guess I've lost steam in writing this thing.  I feel bad mostly because I like to have our little books to read through.  I also feel guilty because I was much better for Molly's first years than I have been for Maggie's.  I suppose a one year old plus an almost 4 year old is just too much for me to handle in addition to documenting.

So, it rained a few times in January.  Molly found my umbrella and she was in love.  It took awhile, but I did finally get it put back away.  I did have to endure it laying around my house in various inconvenient places for a week or so.

We had the whole gang over for lunch the other day.  Maggie and Colbie have been enjoying mommy and me gymnastics for about a month now.  Ramsey and I haven't managed to bring our cameras yet, so we have no pictures.  There are 3 more classes, so hopefully one of us can manage to bring one before it's over.

Not sure if she made the shot, but she looks like she was about to.

Maggie has this new annoying habit of stripping from the waist down.  I'm sure some people would say this is my opportunity to potty train, but I seriously don't want to put the effort that it would take to potty train an 18 month old.  I did move the potty out, but that's about as far as I've gotten.  I honestly wish she would just keep her clothes on.

I took these picture after she had stripped down and then was walking on the table in the playroom, basically mooning the backyard.  once I was outside though, she was more interested in mashing her face against the window.

Last Friday was western day at Molly's school.  You can't see it here, but the little tiara on the hat lights up.  It was pretty awesome.

Yesterday Meredith, my mom and I went to yoga at Aunt Cassie's new Yoga studio.  When we got back Molly wanted to drag my mat out so she could show off her moves.  Then of course Maggie wanted to show off her moves too.  She was also without pants, as she is known to be lately.

Hopefully I'll be able to pull it together and write before another month has passed, but I kind of doubt it, little kids keep you busy.

Last Month of the Year

Basically, we had a good one.  Christmas was filled with fun this year, since we had tons of good company and the excitement of a 3 year old at Christmas. Mostly this is just going to my mad dash to try and get some pictures up before I print off the hard copy. I suppose I can start with the earliest which was somewhere before Christmas when we went to the Christmas Village with the Morris family.  Grayson and Molly had a good time as always and we even got to watch Grayson sing Christmas carols with his preschool class which was super cute.

Whooping it up on the bounce slide

 I'm sure "Iowan gal" Aunt Stephanie had a good laugh at this, but this was Molly first sledding experience.  She went down twice.  The second time she scratched her hand on the ice and was over it.

 Maggie was a trooper as always.

We had our annual Christmas Eve gathering at our house.  I know so many people always have the dilemma of where to spend holidays so it's really nice that Jonny and I haven't had to deal with that.  For now anyhow, most everyone is close enough that we can all get together.  This year was even better since we had a full compound with Chris and Stephanie and Glen and Margaret.

 Mere and the kiddos

 

Truly a Christmas miracle.  She let Ben hold her and she didn't even scream...until Granny Kathy touched her foot...then she lost it.  She's getting better about the stranger danger screams though. At Christmas dinner at Cassie's I think at some point everyone was allowed to touch her without hysterics.  Ben should even have a picture of Granny holding her, so I guess she's been forgiven for the foot incident.

Santa was good to the girls.  Jonny and I were pretty good to them too.  

Molly and papa got a case of Christmas olives.  She actually ate an entire can of these in one sitting.  I don't really like olives so to me it sound kind of gross, but I guess it's better than cookies.

 She loves her princess dress and has even worn it to farmer's market, the park, and Lute's.  What the hell, you're only 3 once.

 Merry Christmas!

 Dr. Princess Molly

Cowgirl princess Molly riding Rusty

 

I think the full compound was good for Maggie.  By the end of every one's stay, she was giving out hugs to everyone and she had even let Chris and Stephanie babysit her for a bit one day without screaming.

 Hugs for Glen

 Hugs for Margaret

 So now it's time to print this thing off, I can't believe I'm going to have 4 of these things.

Christmastime

I was having a hard time with blogger so I'm even more behind than usual.  Lately we've just been gearing up for Christmas. We're going to pack the compound to maximum capacity for Christmas, so it should be fun.

We had Bill Butler take some pictures for us so those are posted here and there below.  The ones of Maggie, are of her wearing a dress that was my Grandmother's and my mom had pictures of me taken in it when I was a baby too.  I think they turned out pretty cute. 

 

No this is not a joke, or neglecting my children.  It really has been that hot.  It's finally this past week been cool enough that maybe this might be a bad idea, but the first week of December, it was more than warm enough to play in the sprinklers...by the Christmas tree. 

Friday, Molly had her school program.  She did a good job singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town and I've Been Waiting for Christmas (think I've Been Working on the Railroad).  She's been practicing for weeks and I was pretty proud of her memory of the lyrics (I'm a little lyric obsessed).  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised she likes to sing her two favorite songs, Gingerbread, and America all the time.  While they're both pretty funny to hear her sing, America (from West Side Story) is particularly funny.  I think her favorite part is the howling dogs noise part.

On stage with her friends from school.

She even got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus afterwards.

Jonny and I would never have caved and bought something like this.  Aunt Meredith is a whole different story. At least she lives here too, so she gets to "enjoy" it as much as we do.

Where's Maggie?

Peek-a-Boo!

The worst, (or maybe it's the funniest) is when she does this and walks into something.  Babies are crazy.

Looking through pictures of Maggie, I'm surprised that I don't have one of her with only one shoe on, since for some reason she always takes one off.  It's not always the same one either so we don't really know what she's thinking.  She's pretty much in love with shoes.  It's to the point where I think it's stunting her language development.  Sometimes it seems like she can't think about saying anything else but "shoes".  When we pass by shoes in a store, she pretty much looses her mind.

A few more little goofy stories I feel that I should write down so we can remember:

Molly loves to play school and of course she likes to pretend she's Miss Aly, her teacher.  One day she was playing like this, and she needed to blow her nose, so I made her stop and take care of that.  I'm always bothering her to "do it again" "take a deep breathe this time" "ok, this is the last time" "wait one more time" but this day, she was in the position of authority (Miss Aly) so when I started in, she says "alright, that's enough, Miss Aly doesn't have all day"

The other day a little spider was running across the counter and Molly freaked out a little bit so I smashed it.  Afterwards, she started asking questions about the spider: what happened to the spider?  Where is it now?  Deep questions.  I gave her some quick answers and she had this sort of contemplative look on her face.  When the next round of questions didn't come I asked "What are you thinking about?" her answer:  "presents!"