Fall Planting Day

Saturday was fall planting day. Molly was a huge help! First on the agenda was harvesting our okra. Looking forward to using it in a stew in the near furture. Then, she helped us get the soil ready for planting our new crops. We found a garden rake that was just her size! While she couldn't really do much planting of the new crops, she found other ways to stay busy (and get a little dirty) while daddy did the planting. Looking forward to broccoli, carrots, lettuce & spinach in the fall. Yum!

Helping dad get the soil ready for the plants!

Molly showing off her "green thumb"

Holding the hose to help water our garden

I'll have seconds please!

I made spaghetti for dinner tonight. I knew this was one of Molly's favorites, but she took it to a whole new level. I saw her not only eating the spaghetti, but sucking the sauce off her hands, and digging in her high chair and bib pocket to find MORE spaghetti! She was ready for seconds before I had put the first bite of mine in my mouth. Funny story - when I was young we had spaghetti for dinner one night. I'm pretty sure I ate the meal in just my diaper. I made a MESS with it - I rubbed it on my face, tummy, hair - everywhere I could reach. (Mom & dad, you can confirm...it sounds like I may have eaten less than I played with). Straight to the tub I went, and after the scrub down, there was a large spaghetti grease ring around me! My parents have told that story enough times that I no longer get embarrassed by it. I know there's a picture somewhere...I'll see if I can find and share.

"Molly and the Purple Crayon"

One thing I've learned that's important to do in parenthood is to pick and choose battles. Once I discovered that Mr. Clean magic eraser will wipe off any crayon Molly happens to put on kitchen surfaces (we've yet to try the walls...), I decided to let her go to town. Just like Harold, Molly picked up the purple crayon and started on her masterpiece!

A New Direction

I'm going to try something new with the blog. I think I get overwhelmed with how much I have to share about certain events. I'm going to try minimizing. One of my friends is doing a daily photo blog of sorts. While we all know it won't be daily, I think I'm going to go more in that direction. Here's to hoping a picture is worth a thousand words... :o)

Watch Out World...Here She Comes

The biggest milestone for Molly this spring was learning how to walk. She took her first steps on April 24, but wasn't walking until about a week later. This video is from April 29. She is now walking almost exclusively. Go, Molly!!

Highlights of Spring

SPRING 2011 HIGHLIGHTS. This spring has been a busy time for us. We have attended many events and watched Molly learn many new things. What a whirlwind it's been. Here are some highlights of what we've been up to... End of the year Grad student picnic: Molly really enjoyed not only playing with another child at the picnic, but learning all about the wonders of sidewalk chalk. Here, her and Emma work on a rainbow together. Molly: Mom, are you sure I can eat my first popsicle? Me: Enjoy! Just don't get it all over me, please. (She did a really good job of keeping it in her mouth or on the bib. Way to go, M!)

Easter:

After hunting for eggs at Barbara's, Molly pauses in the shade to check out just what's inside each one. The cutest little Easter Bunny I've ever seen! This is at the egg hunt at church. She was way more interested in playing in the sand then hunting for eggs.

The Dogwood Festival:

The Dogwood Festival is every year in Atlanta. I've always wanted to go, and made it a point this year. My friend Anna, Molly and I went. They had a lawn where they were doing dog tricks. We watched that for a while before going to get something to eat. That was a disaster trying to maneuver the stroller through the crowd...but we found some yummy crepes! The main reason for the festival is to showcase different artists, so after our meal, we wondered to see what there was. It was a lot of very pricey photographs, sculptures, paintings, etc. But I did find a multi-media print for Molly's room. I haven't hung it yet but it's on the to-do list. First, I have to find the right frame for it. A fun afternoon for sure!

Ice cream:

This captures Molly's first ice cream cone. It was at Chick Fil A. She didn't understand that it doesn't go in our mouth - rather we lick the ice cream off. It didn't take her long to figure out how it works. The facial expression shows such anticipation...one of my favorite Molly photos!

Play time at home:

There is obviously a lot of play time at home. I've learned to live with the fact that our living room floor will never be "clean again". Don't waste her nap time cleaning it up, because it will all be brought back out post-nap. She is still learning how to really use crayons. The best way to use them is with a pacifier...or else they end up going into the mouth rather than on the paper. Another goodie...this is one that I couldn't resist taking. Apparently, I was a little older but there was one of me taken while I was playing in the dryer. I don't want Molly to get in the habit of thinking this is a play place, but she was pretty happy to pose for a picture while in there. Just make sure to put it on the delicate cycle. ;o)

Molly Turns ONE

(It hasn't been 6 months...for those of you who are still reading...) Molly turned one on March 11. This is a big milestone and of course, we had a party to celebrate. In fact - two parties. One was the week before with my co-workers. We had brunch at one of our favorites, J. Christophers. Pancakes followed by a red velvet smashed cupcake. Yummmm! Thanks friends for helping celebrate Molly wish us. And a huge thanks for the presents that you gave to the Children's Hospital.

Waiting for guests to arrive at J. Christophers.

She spotted the cupcakes and couldn't wait to get her hands on them.

Birthday Girl

Friends that came to help celebrate Molly's first birthday!

Her actual birthday we had Andrew's parents in town from Waco. My friend Anna also came to the celebration. We had dinner at Folks - good southern food (can you say peach muffins and corn nuggets?!!?).

Waiting for dinner... Granddad, Grammy, Dad, Mom, and Molly

Then we came home and let Molly smaaaaaash her cake. It was so fun, but the poor girl didn't know what to do with a WHOLE cake at first. She needed some "coaching" from mom, but she caught on quickly.

After a bath that turned the water blue, she got to open presents. Molly was such a trooper as it was clearly after her bedtime. But hey, who can say no to presents?

Happy birthday, Molly Marguerite. What a year it's been....I can't wait to see how you'll grow and change in the coming year. I love you.

It's been awhile...

...and life with Molly has been very busy. I could kick myself for not doing better at keeping up with blogging. Since my last post we've been to New Orleans for Andrew's college reunion, Kansas City for my HS reunion and Thanksgiving, and of course Christmas. While I hope to get caught up eventually, I wanted to go ahead and share our trip to Athens, GA last weekend while it's fresh. I can't find the cord to upload pictures to the computer, so those will come later. We've lived in Atlanta for 6 years. Every year I've searched the Baylor athletic schedule in hopes they would come this way. FINALLY, baseball was coming to play UGA in Athens (a little over an hour from us). We've always wanted to head up there. We had heard good things and since it's where REM met, there's some musical interest as well. We headed up Saturday mid-morning. Got there in time to grab a quick lunch at Subway before getting to the game. If you know me, you know my love for all things baseball. There's something I've missed about the "ping" of the metal bats hitting the ball. I hadn't been to a college game since my time in Waco. It was a sunny day, but still a slight chill in the air. It was a fun game - Baylor ended up losing 4-3. I would've liked to see them win, but I'm ok with it since they won Friday and Sunday winning the overall series. After the game, Molly was ready for a nap so we checked into our hotel. We were all pretty tired so took a quick rest before going out to find dinner - ending up at Logan's. Molly's first steak...yum! Sunday was a beautiful day - mid 70's and sunny. We drove to downtown Athens and pulled out the stroller. Time for the "REM walking tour." Perfect day for it! We saw the steeple from the church of their first show, the train trestel bridge from the cover of their first album "Murmur", Weeber D's Soul Food - Automatic for the People, the old & new 40 Watt clubs, and of course - Wuxtry Records - where the band members met. Andrew has turned me on to REM so it was a fun walk for both of us. After all that walking we were ready for some lunch. One of our favorite places in Atlanta, Doc Chey's, has a location in Athens, so we went there. Delicious! It was while we were eating lunch that Molly and I had our first "gut laugh, you-had-to-be-there" moment. I had just put a bite of food in her mouth and she laughed or did something that made it fly back out of her mouth. It startled her and she started laughing, which made me laugh, which made her laugh. We were both belly laughing at each other for the silliest thing. Andrew calmly looked up from the newspaper and asked, "what's so funny?" We both looked at him and I said "You had to be there..." It was a fun mom/daughter moment. Even the little things that seem like nothing are special to share. We had discussed going to Sunday's baseball game, but decided to finish seeing campus, and then head back to Atlanta (with a stop at the outlets first, duh!). It was a wonderful weekend get-away that was much needed. It's amazing what a night away from home will do for the mental state of mind. I promise it will not be another 6 months before I post again. After all - we had Molly's first ONE YEAR OLD birthday celebration today!