Twelve Month Checkup

Even though she was already thirteen months old, Molly had her twelve month checkup last week and here are the stats. She weighs an impressive 23 lbs, 4 oz. which is in the 75th percentile. She is 29 3/4 inches and her head measures 17 3/4 inches, both in the 50th percentile. The doctor says Molly looks great and is developing beautifully and I couldn't agree more.

She had four shots and took 'em like a champ, she didn't even cry until after the second one and didn't really get upset until the last one which the nurse said was the most painful. She was back to her happy self in no time which was good because she had to get blood drawn. Again, she took it like a champ and recovered quickly. I am so proud of my strong little girl. Keep it up Molly!

Molly is all over the place these days and is super active! Sitting down is not something she does often. In fact, she usually only stops to eat and occasionally to sleep. These days Molly spends most of her time exploring, she also loves to give kisses and hugs to Blue, dig in the dirt (like grandma), taste the dirt every once in a while, (like Aunt Kate!), gather, collect, give away, take back and play with rocks, sit in boxes (extra bonus if she gets to empty them out first), scrunch up her face and laugh showing off her teeth (one of my personal favorites), put things in piles or group items in different areas of the house (missing toys turn up inside pots and pans!), take off her socks and shoes or some combination of socks and shoes, lean back on a pillow with a book and "read" (another one of my personal favorites especially because she sits in the same corner of the couch where John sits to read), grab the fat rolls on her chest and stomach when she's not wearing a shirt (love this too, especially because she usually starts laughing hysterically), begging to get into the shower with mom and dad (she loves it!), carrying around purses or buckets and filling them up/emptying them out at random, feeding herself (for some time now we have only occasionally been permitted to feed her), and generally charming the pants off of everyone we meet.

Molly is such an amazing little girl and I feel happier every day that I get to spend with her. I am left wondering what this year will bring for Molly and look forward to all the new discoveries we will make together each day.

Tamiko's Birthday

So, I watched one too many episodes of Ace of Cakes and volunteered to make a birthday cake for my friends surprise 40th birthday party. Considering I have never done anything like this before, I think it came out pretty good.

For Tamiko, I made a Japanese Green Tea sponge cake with home made whipped cream and fresh strawberry filling. It was delicious! Since Tamiko and Matt met while they were both living in Hawaii I decorated the cake in a Hawaiin theme.

My favorite part of the cake by far was the sugar Tamiko hula dancer on the volcano. It took over three hours to make and I was so proud of how it turned out. Tamiko froze this piece of cake and said she will save it to eat on her 50th birthday!

A close up of some of the sugar work. I think I did a good job replicating the picture I found.

The party was great and Molly had a lot of fun. Thanks to Hannah for being such a great companion and taking such good care of Molly.

Boxes

Molly loves playing with, in, on, or around boxes these days. Here are a few pictures of her latest adventures.

This one was a project as she had to first empty out everything in the bin before she was able to climb in and as you can see, she is quite proud of herself.

She had a lot of fun climbing her way into the box.

Once she got in, she settled in quite nicely.

Getting out was the hard part!

Russian River Valley

John, Molly, Blue and I took a midweek getaway to the beautiful Russian River Valley in Sonoma county last week. We rented a secluded cabin in the woods with a hot tub, a creek in the backyard and beautiful redwoods everywhere.

In the car on the way up, Blue rested his little head on Molly's lap and they both took a nap.

The weather was beautiful and we drove through some cute little towns like Bodega (where "The Birds" was set), Jenner, Monte Vista, Guerneville, Occidental and Sebastapol.

Molly and John also enjoyed the hammock at the cabin.

Molly was so small under all those redwoods.

The view up from the hot tub.

Molly wanted to enjoy some time on the hammock by herself.

Can't really tell, but she has her shoes in her hands in this picture. Wish I had a dollar for every time I had to put the shoes and socks back on!

Molly loves the new game of riding on our shoulders.

Another shot in front of the redwoods.

A parting shot outside before heading home. It was a lovely little last minute trip and just what we needed to finish off the summer.

Shark Week

Molly really got into the spirit of Shark Week last week by sporting her first tattoo.

She thought it was pretty sweet.

Trying to look tough.

She was very proud to show off her new ink!

The Last Round of Catch Up!

Yeah! After this I am caught up on all the pictures that I have downloaded. It was a lot! Molly is doing great and is finally sleeping better which is a huge relief. Molly is such an amazing little person and I am looking forward to all the new changes this next year will bring.

This was at the Giants / Mets game. It was the only one the Mets won in the series to avoid the sweep, but they won based on what was later revealed to be a blatantly blown call. I guess when you're a Mets fan you have to take what you can get!

After every home game on Sunday kids are allowed on the field to run the bases. I've done it before with friends kids so this was John's turn.

Molly walked on every base.

And came in for the game winning run!

We also went to visit John's class in summer school. John's kids loved Molly and she loved the attention of course.

One of John's students had a longboard that caught Molly's attention. She had a great time being pushed slowly back and forth across the classroom. It was pretty exciting.

Molly tried a few different positions on the skateboard and was a natural.

Can't turn my back for a second!

She really has fun taking things out of a clean dishwasher and placing them in random piles.

Molly discovered grapes and will never go back!

Molly loves playing in the corner of the living room where the benches meet. She has been spending more and more time there these days.

A Lot of This and That

Molly is so active these days that it's been hard to keep up. Here are some choice shots from the past few weeks.

She loves playing in the backyard.

And seems to love plants and flowers.

She also loves getting into her sister's room. This days bounty was particularly sweet and she came running out squealing with delight, a trophy clenched in each chubby little fist.

Wonder why this didn't rotate? I think you can see how proud she is, even sideways.

Molly and Blue both like to log time at the front door. They like to check out everything that's going on outside.

Waiting for some action.

In one of the cutest outfits ever! Thank you Patty for the "orange ballerina", it's always a big hit.

On the way back from the dog walk park one day, John, Delaney and Molly saw some wild turkeys wandering around our neighborhood. Luckily Delaney was able to catch them on film.

There was a mother and four babies.

Molly's reading has improved greatly since she was diagnosed with infant astigmatism.

She's not happy about having to wear glasses and says all the other kids call her "four eyes!"

Disclaimer: Attention Rosalie, this is a joke. We merely put John's glasses on Molly one night and snapped some pictures. I assure you, she does not have astigmatism nor does she need glasses.

Molly's First Birthday!

It's still hard to believe that we celebrated Molly's first birthday on July 15th! We decided to kick the party off early and had a bbq the weekend before. Molly had been walking for a few weeks at this point and loved being on the move. She got all dressed up and looked beautiful for her big day.

Absolutely love this dress!

Thanks to The Brights who gave Molly this fun play structure for the back yard that she loves!

She looks like a sumo wrestler swinging back and forth before the pounce!

Pointing is still Molly's number one activity.

Such a sweet baby ... don't let her fool you!

Molly had a great time playing, eating and walking at her party.

A pretty impressive cake if I do say so myself. The inside is a healthy carrot cake recipe and the icing is all cream cheese and sugar! I figured Molly had to splurge for the special occasion. I also thought my cake decorating was pretty good. Apparently, Molly agreed.

Of course her hand was in the cake before anybody noticed so John had to hold her arms back.

Undeterred, she decided to try to get a foot in it, but alas was unsuccessful and not happy about it.

Finally, she just made a wish and blew out the candle (with some help from Dad).

I think it's safe to say she enjoyed her cake. She took an enormous hunk and proceeded to eat it in its entirety.

Then she had a great time opening gifts with some help from Delaney and Dylan.

Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate the day including Patty, Albert, Audrey, Ed, Alyssa, Carl, Rose (in spirit), Joey, Tony, Amy, Dylan, Kelin, Michael, Chris, Johnny, Laura and hopefully I'm not forgetting anyone!