The Number Nine

Thankfully, despite the Barenaked Ladies song, seven didn't actually eat nine, which allows us to have celebrated NINE years of marriage and NINE months of Molly in the past week. Hayden was kind enough to take our picture on our anniversary.

I was kind enough to take LOTS of pictures to celebrate Molly turning nine months.

who you talking about? It's me!

funny face!

did someone say nine months?

 She's sitting up now, completely steady. She's starting to push up onto her hands and knees. She's eating solids (more on that in a different post) and loves to be included in the "conversation" at the dinner table. She has taken to sticking her tongue out - curled - in the past week or so. Slightly odd and absolutely adorable.

silly tongue curl

can you see the space between the bed and the belly? she's getting ready to crawl!

She also has this funny sniff/snort laugh, and blows raspberries. She grins this big open-mouthed grin. She laughs and shrieks and babbles - dah, dah, dah (usually staccato), and bah, bah, bah. She continues to be wonderfully entertained by her older sisters and loves to watch them be silly.  Mommy and Daddy are pretty awesome too.

whassup?!!!

tongue out at daddy

Mommy and Molly

  In short, she is terrific! Can't wait to see what she'll learn next!

Nine Months!

Preschool Graduation

Last week, Hayden "graduated" from preschool. Her school did not do anything too crazy or elaborate. The parents were invited to the classroom about 20 min before the end of school. Each child was given a superlative, hugs, and a bag full of stuff from the year. Hayden got "classroom manager" because over the last few weeks of school had really started helping keep the other kids in line, making sure they knew the rules and such. That sounds like class bossypants to me but the teachers assured me that the other kids didn't mind. Hayden does keep track of what people are doing and should be doing, even if she doesn't always do the right thing! She loved getting a hug from her teachers and all the kids had fun listening to the teachers talk about them.

getting a hug from her teacher

listening attentively to what the teachers had to say

After class was over, some of the families stuck around and had a little picnic out by the playground. I made dessert - a cookie cake which was delicious! It was fun to see Hayden interacting with her friends.

Molly and Daddy enjoyed the picnic!

It's hard to believe she's all done with preschool and heading off to kindergarten in the fall! She's growing up so fast!

playing dress up in my shirt - somehow it makes her look cute and grownup!

doing some sort of silly dance in the grass in her new twirly dress

Under the Sea

You might think that because she is the third child, Molly didn't get a snazzy nursery. Especially if you remember that she came early, thereby cutting into our nursery decorating time. If you are thinking this (which I'm sure you are, that it keeps you awake at night), you are partially right. Molly did come early and curtail our nursery decorating. In fact, this is what her room (well, the wall) looked like when she arrived.

Sky and sand painted, just waiting on the wave. It is laid out with painters tape to give us an idea how it would look; we actually used a homemade stencil for the real thing. 

Molly in her crib, which was in the middle of the room when she arrived. Notice the paint cloths on the floor!

But somehow, because we had a vision, we managed to scrap together time to pull the room together. And we even did it by the time she turned 6 months - I just haven't had the time to take pictures and blog about it. Of course, since she is actually living in the room, and has two wonderful, and yet ridiculously messy older sisters, it never really got staged perfectly for photos. So just pretend that happened - look past the clutter on the bookshelves and the stuff on the side table. Just focus on how cute all the fish are!

See! Cute Fish! (wall decals on our wave)

   Thus I now (finally!) present you with Molly's room!

A big picture view. Look at the lovely wave.

The nursing corner, big sister not normally included!

The changing corner - where the magic happens! Ha!

Close up of changing table art (plus more decals).  I just didn't have the patience to get a picture without glare. Sorry!

The adorable mobile near the changing pad. Thanks grammy and granddad!

A view of the valences and the awesome art (by awesome Sarah!).

Didn't Sarah do a lovely job?! Thanks so much!

And the pictures don't even show you the super cute crib sheets we have, the dust ruffle, and the footstool that Jason made (when Hayden was born) and painted to match the wave. Many thanks to all who contributed to helping the room come together. I had always wanted to do an "ocean" room and I think it turned out splendidly! Molly seems to like it too; she tries to roll over to grab the fish on the wall when she gets her diaper changed.

Mother's Day

We had a lovely Mother's Day. Molly was kind enough to wake me up early (around 6) so that she could nurse, and then we went for a long walk because I wasn't able to go back to sleep. Then we made pancakes, which we ate with strawberries we'd picked the day before.

Hayden was a great strawberry picker. She dutifully asked if each berry was okay, and regularly reported how many she had in her bucket!

Eliza was better at eating than picking. But that is an important job when many of the strawberries have a tiny bit of water damage - too soft to pick and save, but perfect for eating right away!

Then for lunch we had a fun picnic at the park, followed by free yogurt (for mom's) at TCBY. Even Grandma and Popop joined us for that! Eliza and Hayden both got the rainbow vanilla with ridiculous amounts of color in it.

my favorite crew at the park!

Hayden took this picture, capturing a daily occurring, but seldom photographed Molly and me pose.

ice cream face!

more ice cream face!

Molly enjoyed her spoon for lunch.

 After a lovely dinner of pasta, sausage and veggies (trying to use up CSA veggies) that Jason prepared while I played Wii with the kids (which I never get to do!), we had a little photo op on the back deck, in the drizzle. I love my girls!

Happy Mother's Day!

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.