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The Adventures of JR, Jenny, Olivia, Molly, Violet, and Red.
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7 Quick Takes (take 9)

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Big news of the week – Violet has plumped up nicely in the last six weeks! You may recall in my last update on Violet we were a little concerned about her weight gain (or lack there of), so we stepped up nursing, added a substantial amount of table food & additionally started offering 4-6 oz. of formula per day and the little peanut gained 2 full pounds in 6 weeks!! Looks like we are in the right groove now and we should be able to coast into her 1-year appointment. For the record books, she weighed 17 lbs. 10 oz. at her 10.5 month weigh-in.

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So last week I wrote about teaching the girls Spanish and we’ve been talking about how to do that. JR has always wanted to learn, too, and even talks about getting a Rosetta Stone program for himself. It’s definitely still on my mind as we’ve had workers here fixing up the house. They are listening to Spanish radio stations and talking amongst themselves in Spanish and I’ve been conversing with them about what we want done and how the work is going. Livy is really intrigued by their Spanish and has shown more interest today in repeating Spanish phrases. In case you were wondering, the work on the house entails replacing some siding and trim that has rotted, followed by painting (we’re sticking with the same colors), and a new roof (thanks to the hail storm in March). After this work is complete, we will start talking about landscaping again, but that project got put on hold when we got substantial hail damage to the roof & both vehicles.

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Every time I go out to chat with the workers, I am shocked at how quickly I start sweating and how unbearable it must be to work outdoors everyday. I mean I’m sure they’ve acclimatized to some extent, but this is the hottest July EVER in Texas with 41 days this summer over 100 degrees and many of those closer to 105. Thank God I was pregnant the last two summers, but not this one!

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Last week I mentioned the 5k I did, but JR noted that I neglected to mention my time. It was 36:11 (just over 11 minute miles, which was my goal). Not bad for the first one. I was happy that I met my goal of not stopping to walk. Speaking of exercise, we toured a Lifetime Fitness just up the road last night and they had a 30-day free trial so we decided to give it a go. We were mainly interested in a place to take the family swimming, a place to work out, and perhaps a place to where I could go to get a little leisure time (put the girls in the kidcenter & lounge by the pool or something). We’ll see, it wasn’t everything we were hoping for, but it could be good. Mostly, we were disappointed that there isn’t really anything that our girls are old enough to do except swim and the pool has a sloped entrance, but not gradual enough that our little ones can play without very close supervision (which is hard for one Mama with a baby, a toddler & a preschooler). They also cannot take any floaty things in the pool so I cannot just put Violet in her water walker and have hands for the other two. The indoor rock climbing wall was really cool and JR could probably really get into that. As for me, the group fitness classes seemed a little intimidating, but are probably really effective. We decided we’d go all out for 30 days and then evaluate how much we really got out of it. The biggest hurdle for me will probably be getting comfortable with the kidcenter (and actually leaving Molly & Violet, which I haven’t done yet). My plan is to go during non-peak times so it is not so busy and they will get more attention and everything will be cleaner. They have a pretty nice toddler area where all three of ours can play nicely (the setup is pretty similar to our living room), but the ratio of kids to adults can reach 12:1 which seems awfully high for my aged children. Any tips for making the most of gym childcare?

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We went to Sea World last weekend and it was HOT (see #2 above) and crowded, but the girls loved it. Molly was especially enchanted this time and learned two key phrases that she has been using ever since – “Mama, look!” and “Did you see that?” Pretty darn cute. Everything Molly says lately is awfully cute, though. My favorite word this week is “boobabies” (blueberries). Even made my first batch of blueberry pancakes with fresh blueberries tonight. I thought they were really good. But back to the girls, I have been asking them every night for awhile now to choose the prayer we sing before bed. Livy always picks the Hail Mary. Just this last week, Molly started saying, “R Fodder, Mama!” And she knows what she’s saying and expects to hear her prayer. Of course, I indulge both of them and we have a lovely little chorus going. And Molly singing is 10 times cuter than Molly talking (if that’s possible). She sings the ABCs (doesn’t miss a letter), Twinkle Twinkle, and several others she has heard enough times on her children’s CDs. Livy is really getting quite good at singing. Yesterday she was singing, “I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream . . .” all in key, all very pretty. Oh yeah, back to Sea World. The cool thing this year is that if you go once, it’s a season pass so it is like half price this year. Livy’s already planning to spend her birthday there (in December – and it’s fabulous in December), so we figured what the heck. Next time we’ll pack swimsuits for the girls because there is a sprinkler park that they can do in the kids’ section. That would’ve really helped to beat the heat (they are too young for everything in the water park). Oh, and Liv rode her first roller coaster – the Shamu Express!

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I have been reading A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul. There is a lot of good stuff in it. A little overwhelming if you try to do it all at once, but I think little by little we will all be happier if I can get a routine down. This week, my goal was to get comfortable, consistent nap & meal times. Looks like we’re going with naps for Violet at 10 & 2 and Molly at 2 as well. Livy is to the point where she isn’t really sleepy enough to take a nap until 3:30 or 4:00 and by that point if she naps, she won’t fall asleep until 9 or 10 at night. So no more naps for Liv, but I think we will start doing “quiet time” where she sits on the couch reading stories while the babies are napping. We haven’t had overlapping naps for months so it has been heavenly this week to have time to regroup while the babies are BOTH napping! I’m also going to start looking through the on-line resources for the book.

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We are starting to plan a trip to Nebraska in late September. I’ve been thinking about what we kind of fun things we could do with the girls and grandparents, cousins, etc. And that gets me to thinking about weather. Will it be too cool for swimming? Too hot for a full day of fishing? It has been 7 years since we were in Nebraska in September (it was shortly after Sept. 11th for Jane & Drew’s wedding) and despite the fact that we both grew up there and spent 23 Septembers there, I cannot really remember what the weather’s like in September. I have a suspicion that’s because the weather is pretty variable at that point. My friend, Livy, said that one son born in early September needed only onesies and one born in late August needed long sleeved newborn clothes so who knows. For you Huskers, what do you like to do in late September?

Hope you enjoyed my 7 Quick Takes – be sure to visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

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7 Quick Takes (take 8)

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After a long hiatus, something tells me this is the week to jump back into

7 Quick Takes . . .

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Today I hosted our bilingual playgroup. I started hanging out with this group when Olivia was around a year and a half old, I think. She was one of the oldest children, so none of them were talking and it didn’t really matter that the other ladies spoke Spanish almost exclusively to their children and I didn’t use hardly any Spanish with Olivia. We’ve attended sporadically since Molly & Violet came along, but have stayed on the rotation for hosting because I do enjoy visiting in Spanish and there are some really fun gals in the group. I have not, however, taught my girls to speak Spanish and today I realized that I am going to have to re-think things a bit. Livy was excited for her amigos to come (she knows which group it is if we use that one Spanish word), but found it disconcerting that the children were talking to her in a language she found completly foreign. As a result, she took extra long to warm up. When she did, everyone had to play in English to accommodate my girls even though it is supposed to be a playdate in Spanish. No one gave us a hard time or anything, but it made me realize that I haven’t really kept up with what I thought I’d do when I joined the group. It’s not that I don’t want to teach the girls Spanish, it’s just that . . . I haven’t gotten around to it. But I see that with Olivia, my window is closing. In two short years, she will likely head off to school and my ability to influence her on language (and all manner of other things, but that’s another post) will start to diminish. So if this is my goal, I better get on it. “Research shows that children need to hear a language at least 30% of their waking hours to become fluent” (source: WebMD magazine – specific research not cited but it sounds about right). Am I up for speaking solely Spanish to the girls for two full days out of the week? Part of me thinks, wow, that’s all it would take? And part of me thinks, holy cow, that’s how much it would take?! Guess it comes down to how much I really want it . . .

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That same WebMD magazine had a little blurb about sexual report cards that I found very interesting after working at The Medical Institute for Sexual Health. Apparently, “the San Francisco Department of Public Health and Internet Sexuality Information Services partnered to launch inSPOT.org, a website designed to prevent and control sexually transmitted diseases and to increase the notification of partners. InSPOT’s email service allows users to send e-cards to sexual partners – and even remain anonymous if they prefer. Every e-card includes links to information about how to get tested.” My first thought was holy cow – can you imagine getting one of their e-cards? What does it start with – “Thinking of You”? What kind of artwork do you put on an e-card like that?? But then I got to thinking, you know, it’s not such a bad idea. Knowing that 1 in 4 people over the age of 16 will be infected with a sexually transmitted infection sometime in their lifetime (with two thirds of those infections occurring before they turn 25); and STIs are highly asymptomatic; and people who do know their status are reluctant to admit such infections; it is probably better for the people who were exposed to get an anonymous e-card than to go on unknowingly infecting others (and missing an opportunity for treatment). When I was leaving MI, the doctors on staff were just finishing up what we called The STD Wizard, which was a 5 minute survey people could take to see if they were at risk of infection. Looks like it’s still running! In case there is any question, there are only two primary methods of prevention – abstinence prior to marriage and fidelity within marriage. Period. This is the only method of prevention that is 100% effective. Condoms are really only effective against HIV and even then only reduce the risk of transmission by 85%, which is a significant reduction, but still leaves a fairly large gap for a deadly disease. For other infections like Chlamydia and Gonohrrea, the risk of transmission can be cut in half, but for something like HPV (the most common STI), there is no evidence of risk reduction with condom use. Go read about What Happened in Uganda to learn about what a country can do when they focus on primary prevention – they are the only country to see dramatic reductions in HIV infection and they did it through abstinence & fidelity.

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About a month ago, I ran a 5k. I am not a runner, but two of my brothers were quite successful at Cross Country and with JR training for the marathon, I figured I’d give running a try. JR knew a great trainer who was running a 12-week program to prepare for a 5k, so I signed up and started meeting weekly with other beginning runners. There was a fairly large group with a lot of diversity. Here’s the biggest lesson I learned about running – you cannot make any predictions about how fast someone is by the way they look. There were several people I sized up ahead of time and thought, oh, I’ll be faster than her, only to be humbled shortly thereafter as older, skinny, younger, larger and every other kind of runner ran past me. JR keeps telling me running is an individual thing – you’re just trying to beat yourself. It wasn’t natural for me, but I’ve come to see the benefits in that way of thinking. And to be honest, I actually enjoyed training for something, challenging myself, meeting a goal, celebrating my success. For several weeks after the race, I was “on a break” from running, but have finally decided it’s time to get back on the horse and took Red for a morning run before JR went to work twice this week. Surprisingly, it still feels pretty good.

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JR & I have been talking about going on a vacation. We haven’t been on a real vacation for a couple years now and since our girls are getting older, it seemed like this would be a great time to get out and do something/go somewhere. Afterall, we won’t have a nursing baby and the girls are so much more mobile. So here’s the dilemma – where do you go on vacation with children who are 3, 2, & 1!! It feels like we have reached this great plateau with all toddlers and there should be some magical vacation perfect for us, but when I google vacationing with young children, all I get is where NOT to vacation with young children! So here we are ready for a big vacation and wondering what we could do that would suit our family. Here are my criteria:

be together
change of scenery
relax
have fun
new experiences

Any ideas? We’ve considered the beach, and the mountains, and the staycation. At this point, the staycation might win out as it is easier on the girls to be in their own environment & there are plenty of cool things we could do in Austin that we never seem to get around to doing. I have to admit that the “change of scenery” was highest on my list of criteria, though!

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I’m on a big oatmeal kick lately. I read at KellyMom that oatmeal can help to increase milk supply, so I figured with Violet’s weight gain issues, I might as well give it a try. Don’t really know if it’s helping, but I am realizing that I love oatmeal. Just the little instant flavored packets – super easy, filling & tastey, too! There are all kinds of other things related to nursing that you can find on KellyMom including basically every answer to the most common nursing question – Is this safe while breastfeeding? I highly recommend it. Thanks, Laura, for directing me there.

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My sister, Rachel, just became a Tupperware dealer (is that how you say it?) Need some tupperware? Go check out her website and order to your heart’s content! I’m excited to host a catalog party soon, so if you want to help me get free tupperware, order through me instead!

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Don’t miss the updates on the girls I wrote over the last couple weeks. Updated photo album coming soon (and I mean it this time!).

Violet

Molly

Olivia

Hope you enjoyed my 7 Quick Takes – be sure to visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

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Our Growing Girls – Olivia (3.5 yrs)

Last, but certainly not least, our sweet little mother hen (following her first hair cut – which was really just a trim).

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Olivia

сын трахает онлайн мулатки порно is already 3.5 and sounding more and more grown up everyday. She has really taken a liking to Sesame Street and especially the sections on the “word of the day” and the different schools that Ovejita (Spanish for little sheep) visits – like karate school, Irish dancing school (my personal favorite), etc. She has been learning to get dressed on her own and the other day she came out beaming and said, “Mama, I struggled and I struggled, but I did it!” Apparently, ’struggle’ was the word of the day recently! She’s also a big fan of all things ‘curly’ and enjoys talking about all the different curly things they had on Sesame Street when curly was the word of the day. She went to Vacation Bible School last month and enjoyed getting away doing big girl things like music & crafts for a week. And last week, we finished up Swim School (we decided to go with the Aquatots class at Emler). It was everyday the last two weeks at 10:30 and I didn’t do the “Small Successes” last week, but we made it on time everyday and that was quite a success for me! Anyway, back to Olivia, she did great at swim lessons. There were four children in her class and they really progressed noticeably everyday. The flier said the goal of her class was for her to “happily move through the water for five (5) feet” and she can do it – in fact, she can stay underwater for 10 seconds, too (with her teacher pulling her by the hands). Before we started lessons, she would put her whole head under the water & blow bubbles, but didn’t like to be free floating with a swim ring or life vest so I was really happy with her progress. They had a special that we could sign up for another 2-week camp in the next month for 50% off so we decided to go ahead with it. We’re going to take a couple weeks off and then she will start a new class (Advanced Aquatots) the first couple weeks of August at 4:30pm. This time, JR will be able to take off early a few times and watch her swim. After this next class she should be able to do something that resembles swimming for 7-10 feet. One random thing I really liked is that they were teaching her to climb out of the pool by herself. This seems an important safety skill that I wouldn’t have thought she could master yet, but I bet after her next class she will have it down.

Livy frequently talks about what she will do when she grows up & is a mother, too – usually that she will help me look after the babies & cook dinner. It’s really sweet to hear her talk about all the things she wants to do, especially since almost all of them involve helping Mama.  Recently, when she was getting ready for Church, she picked out a dress up ring so that she could be married just like Mama & Daddy. And she put makeup on her eyes (I gave her an old makeup brush that she brushes over her eyelids) so she would look pretty for Jesus. :) We haven’t painted her nails yet, but I’m thinking she would probably really enjoy that. A little friend of hers had sticker earrings at a recent playdate and she has talked about those a lot. We also got her first haircut recently (see the picture above). She’s always had such beautiful long hair with a little curl at the end and I was afraid if we cut it, we’d never see those curls again, but her hair was getting awfully long (read: HOT here) and had more & more tangles so we decided it was time for a trim. We didn’t do anything too drastic and the whole thing was a little anticlimactic for me, but she seemed to enjoy herself enough. She sat in a NASCAR chair while she watched Madagascar & even chatted a little with the beautician. Definitely didn’t seem to notice we were crossing a milestone. Olivia is a really sweet little girl and though some might call her shy, I think she is just a bit more introverted and takes awhile to warm up. She loves to be helpful, especially with her younger sisters (sometimes too much!), and enjoys being Daddy’s buddy for a trip to Lowe’s or HEB (our grocery).

Olivia seems to take after me some and wants to know what the rules are (though that doesn’t always mean she follows them) and is very concerned about people not following the rules. For awhile Olivia talked about the “naughty guy” in her book or on a show. Recently, I told her that there are no naughty people; God made all people good, but sometimes people make bad choices. The example that has really stood out is pirates – they frequently make bad choices like taking things that don’t belong to them or threatening other people with a sword. She is really captivated with the idea of bad choices and I think it will help us when it comes to learning from some of her own bad choices! We have also talked about the fact that everyone gets to make their own choices (usually stressing that Molly is not her servant and cannot be ordered around) and then they will have to live with the consequences. We did a privilege chart with Livy for awhile and it was effective, but I fizzled out on it. Lately, it seems best to remind Livy of an upcoming privilege (reading stories, computer time, etc.) and warning her that if she is not behaving well, she will lose that privilege (rather than the preset chart of privileges that she may or may not be interested in at that moment). All in all, she is a pretty obedient child, though, and is really good about saying she’s sorry and forgiving others.

Recently, we started checking out books from the library. I was thrilled to discover that the nearby library has a drive-thru and we can reserve books on-line and then just drive through to pick them up & drop them off. I realize that takes away some of the experience of the library, but for now, with 3 in carseats, it makes it possible for us to actually get books from the library and some day, we will get in there and look at all the books and get the full experience, I promise! So far we have enjoyed the following books:  The Night of Las Posadas, Pascual and the Kitchen Angels, Mary: The Mother of Jesus, and Erandi’s Braids (all by Tomie de Paola who came highly recommended to us). Erandi’s Braids was far & beyond the favorite and quite interesting since Olivia got her first haircut while we had it checked out (it is about a little girl in rural Mexico who sells her long, beautiful braids to support the family)! I was surprised that there were so many Catholic books available at the public library, but I guess we’re part of the community, too. And it seems that when I reserve a book on-line, they can get it from other libraries so that the city shares the collection, which is nice. Right now the librarians are gathering these books for us: The clown of God : an old story,  The weight of a Mass : a tale of faith,  The velveteen rabbit : or, how toys become real, and The bee tree. All of our suggestions have come from this list. So what books do you recommend we check out?

One new thing we started doing with Liv is computer time. She sees both JR & I on the computer and wants to do something, too, so we let her play Sesame Street videos for Molly once to get used to navigating the mouse and she did very well. Next she played some of the Sesame Street games and I was surprised how quickly she figured it all out. I found this list of sites with good preschool games so that she can have another option for big girl time when the babies are sleeping (there I go again calling Molly a baby!). Her favorite is Peep and the Big Wide World. After watching her play the games I realized she knows more than I think – her colors (not just recognizing colors, but mixing them to make other colors), shapes, numbers, letters, and she is really good at sorting, matching & memory, too. We got a really good Gaga Deal on a booster seat for Liv so she is now riding in style in a First Years Compass Booster and it was 50% off (guess that’s another one of my small successes). One of the first days she was in it, we were driving home and JR said, Livy isn’t buckled! He quickly pulled into a nearby parking lot and we had a good talk about the fact that we cannot unbuckle our seatbelts until the car comes to a full & complete stop!! She had unfastened it and was playing peek-a-boo with Violet in the seat in front of her! On Sunday, on the way home from Church, Molly was complaining that her buckles were too tight. JR pulled over and went back to investigate and while adjusting the straps, he discovered that Molly’s carseat was not seatbelted in!! Hence, another discussion about the differences between the carseats and the booster and how it is unsafe for Molly & Violet’s carseats to be unbuckled from the seat! JR did a really good job explaining, though, and I think she gets it – I hope so!

I still get the Baby Center newsletters for Livy once a month and the last one said that most 3-and-a-half-year-olds are fluent in their native tongue. It was funny to read it that way, but it’s quite true. There is pretty much nothing Olivia can’t say now. She says a lot of funny things and I’m going to do a little interview and post the results on-line, but I want to remember some of the most common things she says lately. One is “I have a great idea.” This is how she asks for things she wants – I have a great idea, we should get candy at the store. I have a great idea – we should get out my swimming pool in the backyard, etc. And if she likes what you said, she’ll recognize your great idea, too! She also likes to say, “That’s so silly.” or talk about which of her sisters is the silliest. Molly starting doing it, too, and if she gets her toes stuck while putting on sandals she’ll say, “silly toes!” And Livy will say, “Oh, Molly, you’re so silly. Isn’t that silly, Mama?” Everything around here gets pretty silly. One of my favorite things is to hear myself through Livy (sometimes it’s hilarious, sometimes it’s quite humbling, sometimes both!). The other day Livy was playing tea party with Molly and she had prepared a chicken pot pie. It was done before swim school but it was too hot so we left it here to cool while we went to lessons. When we came back, Molly sat at the table and said, “I don’t like it.” Without skipping a beat, Livy said, “Molly, you haven’t even tried it, how do you know you don’t like it??” I really giggled after hearing that. I guess they are listening!

Well, it seems Olivia doesn’t have many nicknames anymore, except for Livy & Liv which definitely stuck, but no silly names remain – maybe she’s too old for that! And I guess since there is a cartoon pig named Olivia, I don’t need to come up with some variation of that either!

Combo Loco

Our local grocery (HEB) has a weekly Combo Loco where you can purchase one item and receive several others free. I’ve recently started watching the ad to see if it involves something that I normally buy or could make use of. This week’s Combo Loco?

Purchase 4 Lean Cuisine frozen dinners & get the following items free:
*Bag of Salad Mix
*Yogurt
*Tea bags
AND
*8-pack of Nestle candy bars – what a perfect match for the diet meals!!

Needless to say, I took advantage of the Combo Loco – afterall, surely there are no additional calories in FREE candy bars! порно видео беременные

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Overheard…

as Livy was riding her toy broom around like a stick pony.

Livy: “Look mama, I’m a witch.”

Jenny: “That’s not how you do it. Let me show you how.”

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More Milestones – Already!

I just got done with (what I thought were) good summaries of the two little ones and all their latest tricks, so of course, they decided to add some fairly big milestones making those woefully out of date!

Violet ебать в три дырки фото – She’s been cruising along furniture for maybe a week now and last night she walked clear across the room with the aid of her little walker. We haven’t been doing much with walking so I was surprised at the way she just took off. She was chasing her sisters and giggling in the most contagious way. She just crawled over to the open pantry and at this very moment is holding a full can of Pepsi up to her mouth wishing she could get a gulp! She also starting reaching for me every time I walk by her, begging with her big blue eyes to be picked up. Oh, and this morning she waved goodbye when Daddy left for work and again when the girls were playing house and telling her goodbye (they were on their way to Costco). It almost sounded like she said “bye” too, but I couldn’t be sure on that one. Goodness me, this baby is growing up too fast!

Molly – As I said in her update, Molly is doing a lot of big girl things already. Now she can add ‘opens doors’ and ‘goes potty on the potty chair’ to her list. It is startling to hear the door knob to their room and then see little Molly toddling out in the morning. For some reason (a gift from God?), Livy couldn’t open doors until she was around 2 1/2, I think, and even then her bedroom door was the last one she could open so she would have to ask for help to get up in the morning or after nap! And we’re not potty training yet, but Molly has started going potty before bath on a regular basis. She hasn’t shown much interest otherwise. And this time, I’m not going to rush things. I also wanted to jot down some of her cutest sentences lately even though it should be noted that she is talking up a storm and will repeat anything we say and pretty much gets her point across at all times.

“It’s not workin’ a-more (anymore).” (useful whenever she is frustrated with something)

“Here t’is!”

“”Mmmm, baby!” (I don’t remember the context, but this is Livy’s favorite quote from Molly – she laughs a lot whenever she recalls it.)

“It’s my turn!!!!” and “Give it back!!” and “It’s mine!”

“Where’s Wibe (Livy)?” (said in a near panic whenever we leave her at Vacation Bible School or Swim Lessons or she is simply taking a nap)

“That’s funny.”

“It’s ober (over).”

“I want hold you me please.” (yes that’s the order she puts the words in)

Our Growing Girls – Molly (22 months)

Next up – our fun-loving & adorable dare devil!

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Molly is just shy of 2 yrs – already! And Livy asks me on a daily basis – “Is Molly a baby or a big girl?” To which Molly always replies, “I big girl!” And she is, really, but I still refer to my “babies” as it is hard to admit how old Molly’s gotten. And she has grown into a really adorable toddler. In fact, there were so many things I wanted to write down about her right now that this post just kept getting longer and longer and longer! I think it’s partly this age where their little personalities come out and they are so sweet & curious about the world. It’s just priceless. And some of it is just Molly and the beautiful way that God made her.

When JR started redoing Violet’s room, we moved the little white Ikea crib into the big girls’ room and turned it into a toddler bed for Molly. She was so proud! And she’s really doing great with it. It only took her about a week to start taking naps in it and she never had a problem going to sleep in her big girl bed at night. I think she really enjoys having her own space that she can get in and out of all on her own and we find her there reading books or talking to her “Poly” (a little dalmatian puppy named Roly Poly) and other stuffed friends. She is very attached to her pacifier, which she calls “chuch,” “chu chu,” or “chuchi” (Spanish pronunciation on all of the derivations – it comes from the Spanish word for pacifier – chupon). We have decided not to push her to give it up, at least not now. Though I have started telling her I can’t understand her with a chuch in her mouth and she will take it out to repeat what she’s said and in general doesn’t usually ask for it unless she is tired. Molly LOVES reading books and especially enjoys books in Spanish, which has been fun. Even JR can be found reading Pato Esta Sucio!  She is a very independent child and reminds me of stories I’ve heard of JR who could always do things beyond his years. For example, Molly is quite adept at putting on her own sandals, getting into her seat & buckling herself in, and climbing anywhere and everywhere. In fact, Molly’s feet are rarely on the ground these days as she is more often than not hanging from something and swinging wildly! You have no idea how many places there are to hang in your own home, and especially in a store! Molly is definitely adventurous and has convinced us that we need a swing set – ASAP. Twice now, Molly has sat on the potty chair before bath & gone both #1 & #2 so perhaps she will train herself soon. If there’s one thing I learned with Olivia, though, it’s not to make any guesses about how long these things will take! The biggest change with Molly, though, is her blossoming language. She is growing so articulate! I had some notes from a few weeks ago and had listed all the sentences/phrases we’d heard from her at that time (and I will paste them here for posterity’s sake) -

“It is a dog, Mama.”

“Whoa!” (appropriate for falling, being scared, being excited – truly a multipurpose phrase!)

“Mama, I see yellow.”

“Where are you, Mama?”

“I did it, Mama.”

“I love you.” (which she typically said when doing something naughty and/or dangerous)

“Upperballs!” (here she is trying to say SuperBalls, a brand name of tennis shoes)

For awhile, almost everything she said ended with “Mama” and that was very sweet. But now just a few weeks later, she is really talking. I couldn’t possibly list all her sentences anymore. She repeats everything she hears. She is definitely a girl who knows what she wants and we hear “I do dat.” and “I no want.” a lot, but her most frequent question lately is “What do Daddy?” (what are you doing) followed by “Why?” and “Why?” and – well I think you get the idea. She is a very curious little gal and has been known to lay flat on the floor to get a good look at something. JR says she may not be the smartest one, but she will be the most like him – I definitely see a resemblance (and smarts is one of them)! In fact, it is rare that I serve Molly something to eat that I know JR doesn’t like and she actually eats it (and when I’m doing this, JR is usually nowhere around). They have this unspoken understanding about things. Oh, and Molly can sing, too. So far, she’s gotten really good at the ABCs & Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but she will frequently chime in with the last word or two in a phrase when Livy is singing as well. She is also trying to count and just tonight she counted all the way to 10!! That seems pretty advanced to me. She still loves playing with baby dolls & is just adorable when she is shhhing them to sleep and then lying them down in her bed – complete with a blanket to cover them up! Molly LOVES animals, and really enjoys Curious George books – or “Georsh” as she calls him. For now, Molly is mostly just Molly, but we also use Smallz, Mollz, & I’m thinking Molly Jo will eventually take off. I also refer to her as Ms. Piggy to go with my Piglet.