8 months

Molly had her 8 month birthday this past weekend. She is turning into a real mover and shaker - or at least a roller and a muncher.  You can see that, even in her official 8 month photos!

We have been trying to get her to sit up - she just doesn't seem interested in it. We have to work to get her to bend at the waist, and then she flops backwards forcefully as soon as we let go. Sometimes we can prop her up - but she gets mad.

Luckily, a few hugs and kisses, and laying her on her back, gets her lovely smile back.

And then we try again, sometimes with a bit more success. At least for a moment.

hello world - this is a great view!

ahhh, I'm falling!

She 's pushing up well now, and can roll all over the place. She's even starting to use rolling as a means of transportation to get to an object she wants.

rolling, rolling, rolling

 All this activity, means she's getting bigger every day.  She doesn't even fit in her crib anymore!

just kidding! This isn't her crib.

Even though she still isn't regularly sleeping through the night yet, we aren't ready to give up on her yet. Because just when you are tired and grumpy from no sleep, and she spits up on you and/or pulls your hair (or chest hair), she then turns to you and gives you this giant smile that melts your heart.

Yay for 8 months!

Hayden: Budding Photographer

I have a guest blogger today - Hayden! Back in February, we managed to win one of the baskets in the preschool fundraiser, and in our basket was a child camera. Hayden LOVES it - both for taking pictures and playing games on it. She recently filled up the memory card, so we finally took the pictures off. For whatever reason, the camera has dismal resolution - so the pictures are very blurry. (It's not her 'style' or that she's unsteady.) But it's still so fun to see what she wanted to take pictures of. Here are a select few pics (she had 294!), and her commentary captioning the photos. I tried to prompt her by saying "This is...." and "I took this picture because...."

I love my mommy and daddy because I like that picture.

 Notice the camera angle. :)

This is my dog. because I like her.

I took this picture because I like my sister, because she likes me. I like what she's forming.

 The camera adds special borders. I like this one too!

I like this picture because it was you and your mom.

 Hayden likes to tell you to smile so she can take a picture, even if you aren't feeling very photo ready.

I like it because my sister made this picture and I liked it.

 This is a Valentine's Day picture that Eliza made, posted in our "art gallery."

I like this picture because it was part of a toy. and because I like horses, I was going to take a picture of a horse.

 This horse can fit in the palm of her hand.

I like this picture because it's me.

I took this picture because I like my baby sister.

Mommy is feeding Molly. because I like my baby sister and she's cute!

 Look , it's almost in focus! Pretty cute one of Molly.

I like this picture because I like flowers. This is in our front yard.

 The clematis by our mailbox.

I like this picture because I like the colors in it.

 Pansies that we found on our walk.

My gingerbread girl. I like this picture because I like the way I did it.

I helped her make this. She was adament that it needed a skirt, and then a shirt.

Hope you enjoyed Hayden's photos! I might post some other ones at another time, when I'm not "taking too long!" and being watched.

Splashing Around

Today was Molly's first dip in the pool! We decided it was time to make use of our free temporary membership to the Y (long story), and headed downtown to check out the pool. Timing was a bit hard, due to naptime, but enthusiasm was high.

We were very careful to take pictures to document Molly's first time in the water, but we neglected to account for the humidity fogging up the camera lens. So I will only submit one blurry photo for you to see.

 Molly didn't seem too impressed by the pool. She didn't get excited about it, nor did she get mad about it. She stayed open-eyed most of the time and watched everyone and everything going on around her. It was a pretty busy place.

Post swim, the lens was clear!

Hayden and Eliza had a great time, especially Eliza. She was about to explode with excitement over being in the pool. The couple times I needed to get her to stop and focus on me (once when she ran away from me on the pool deck, and another time after she had dunked herself underwater), she simply could not focus. She absolutely loved the little slide they had into the pool - she must have gone down it at least 20 times. We stayed up until closing time (5 pm) and she was just heartbroken to have to get out of the water. In the locker room, she asked over and over again, why is the pool closed? Apparently my alternating answers of, it has to close at night time, it can't stay open all the time, were unacceptable to her.

Even outside in the car, her face still looked like this, because she was so sad about the pool.

just so, so sad that the pool closed.

 On the upside, after time in the pool and a shower, her hair looked like this! Love those curls!

our very own goldilocks

She's going to have a blast this summer, as long as I can figure out a way to handle three kids in the pool at one time!

Spring Break at the Zoo!

The week after Easter was Spring Break for Hayden and Eliza. No school for either one of them. We had made plans to go to the Natural Science Museum with Jason on Wednesday in Raleigh but it was closed to get ready for it's grand reopening. (we have great timing for things like that.) So we brainstormed other fun activities, and came up with THE ZOO! We hadn't been yet since we've been back in NC, and figured why not?! Jason took the whole day of work and we headed to the zoo.

FYI: Blogger seems to have updated to a new format, so if things look wonky, I'm still figuring it out. 

Things started off a tad rough, since Molly had a rough night with lots of wakeups. We ended up getting out the door a bit later than anticipated, but we were well packed with lunch and snacks and other necessary supplies. We picked the Africa section to focus on (still makes me laugh to hear Hayden say we went to Africa) and headed on in. First thing we saw - giraffes!

Eliza had the best seat for giraffe viewing!

Now for those of you unfamiliar with the NC Zoo, it is a 'natural habitat' zoo.  This means they try to have the animals in large spaces similar to their original habitats. (not sure how that works with polar bears in NC, but whatever.) Now this is good for animals, but means a LOT of walking for zoo visitors. I saw signs that said 8 minutes between main exhibits. Eight minutes is a long time when you are less than 5 years old so early in the trip, we had some meltdowns about stuff as we started our explorations. (also keep in mind that we have only a single stroller. So Molly rode on me, and only Hayden or Eliza could ride. Taking turns was sometimes tough.)

Eliza was not happy about leaving the chimpanzee area. (or not getting to ride in the stroller, I can't remember which).

They got benched. Time for a little talking-to about good attitudes at the zoo. It went something like, "we're at the zoo! be happy!

Luckily my little pep talk (used to get both them and me calmed down) worked pretty well and we managed a family photo by the lion statues.

We got to see a lot of animals, though I didn't take pictures of every one. we saw. In the first part of our trip, we saw giraffes, chimpanzees, lions, lemurs, warthogs, and gorillas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

this little guy was on the window of the gorilla enclosure

a gorilla for Aunt Katie!

After a wander through the African Pavilion (still not sure the point of it was, or why it was so hard to get to the bathrooms), we headed to the aviary. Outside the aviary, we saw Hayden's favorite animal. Flamingos!

standing like a flamingo!

Once inside, Hayden quickly discovered the best feature of the aviary - the air vents! I remember specifically trying to wear a skirt on zoo field trip day just so I could have a billowy skirt. She loved it too! We also had fun spotting and attempting to identify the various tropical birds.

the bird identifying board - I think we saw at least 7 different kinds

 

 

After the aviary, it was time for some lunch. We headed back to the car to grab our lunch, and picnicked on some benches outside the main gates.  It was a bit chilly that day, especially in the shade but it was a fun picnic. (Jason did a great job packing lunch for us!)

munching lunch - notice the blanket and jackets!

self-timed family photo!

After lunch, we threw caution to the wind and headed back into the zoo (rather than get in the car to do a regular naptime on the drive home).  We took some silly pictures at the entrance to the zoo and then sunbathed on hippo beach.

Elephants were last on our "must-see" list and they were great! The kids loved the safari tent by one of the viewing spots, along with the helicopter and other items. And while I nursed Molly, Jason and the girls went up to the second elephant viewing spot and saw three elephants RIGHT THERE.

resting in the tent

driving the helicopter

 

elephants up close and personal!

 We did manage to see some giraffes and zebras on the way out. (Never did find ostriches in that enclosure.) And then we got a final family shot thanks to a kind passerby on the way out of the zoo. It was a great trip and a perfect little spring break escape!

last picture of the day, and we are STILL smiling. though E looks a little dazed.