New Look for Spring

As you've probably noticed, my blog has a new look for spring. I've had tons of fun playing around for the last few days here and here, getting new ideas for celebrating the seasons on my blog. Shabby Blogs has so many cute backgrounds and headers. I'm going to have a hard time not changing my backdrop on a weekly basis :-). FotoFlexer is great for customizing headers and add-ons with your photos. I hope all the rest of you blogger novices like me out there have a blast trying out these two gems.

Speaking of a new look for spring, Molly looked so cute all decked out in her "new-to-her" spring jumper and bow for church today. I just couldn't resist grabbing this shot of our "little big girl", as Daddy calls her.

Yard Sale Treasures

The daffodils have bloomed. The trees are budding. Crisp mornings lead the way into sunny afternoons. It can all only mean one thing: yard sale season is upon us!!! When spring cleaning reveals that closets have collected too much junk through the long, cold winter, Americans take part in one of our favorite pastimes...selling our junk to our friends and neighbors. As the saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure".

I don't own enough "stuff" to play the role of seller, but becoming a parent has given me lots of practice playing the role of "buyer". Yesterday was the annual Alamance Mommies yard sale where several area moms get together and sell their maternity and baby clothes, car seats, strollers, toys and lots of other baby-related paraphenalia. Since Molly has recently been getting bored with the same old toys she's been playing with for months, I trekked out at 7am in search of some new and exciting play gear and found some great stuff, all for only $1-$2 each. Molly definitely approves and has been having a blast with her new toys!

I also found some great hand-made hairbows that actually stay attached to the thin hair on Molly's bald head! Maybe now we'll get less "What a cute little boy" comments when we're out in public! No matter how much pink or purple she's wearing, some people still think she's a boy.

7 Months Old Already?!?!

It's hard to believe that less than a month ago, we were taking pictures of our sweet girl out in the snow in her snowsuit and now she's wearing her spring clothes and enjoying the sunshine. It feels like the last month has flown by faster than any other. I'm getting to the super-busy point in the school year where days and weeks seem to fly by and, before you know it, a month has passed and I don't know where the time went. I have to force myself to slow down and savor every single moment I have with Molly, since there are precious few. So, what's Molly been up to this past month?:

• Molly has decided that solid food is not as vile and heinous as she once thought. When we started solid food at 6 months, she would squeeze her lips tight, turn her head, push the spoon away...whatever she could do to keep us from getting it in her mouth. If we did succeed in getting some into her mouth, she'd either spit it back out or just let it sit on her tongue and, when it eventually flowed down her throat, she would scare me to death by choking and gagging until her face turned purple and she coughed it back up. Thankfully, after 3 weeks of persistently offering food and letting Molly play with the spoons and bowls, she has become comfortable with eating something besides breastmilk. I am SO relieved, as pumping 5 times a day to keep up with her increasing demand for milk was beginning to exhaust me!!!
  
• With my Type A personality, I had already worked out a master schedule of introducing solids. Well, as I'm slowing learning, a baby will take any plans you've devised and force you to toss them out the window. So, Molly hasn't exactly followed the food schedule I had planned out, but so far she has tried 5 fruits (bananas, peaches, pears, papaya and avocado), 1 vegetable (sweet potatoes), and 1 grain (brown rice cereal). I don't think we've found a "favorite" food yet, but the one she'll eat the most of in one sitting is avocado. She looks super cute when she squeezes her lips together after taking a bite and inadvertently creates a little green mustache.

• One of Molly's new favorite things to do is to stand up while holding onto something for support. She has not yet tried to pull up on her own, but, if we stand her in front of something, she'll stand for quite a while to play before falling back on her bum. However, she's still not a big fan of tummy time for play. Based on these observations, the scientist in me hypothesizes that Molly will walk or cruise before she crawls and may even skip crawling all together. She just doesn't play on her tummy long enough to figure out that she can push up from this position. Only time will tell.


• Molly celebrated her 7 month birthday with her very first illness, a nasty cold :-( It started with a few sniffles and a little cough, but grew into a congestion monster. Her little nose was so stuffed that nursing was difficult and when she slept, she'd wake herself up coughing every few hours. I felt so awful for her! I wish I could be sick for her, but I know that baby colds are inevitable and it's just something we'll have to deal with from time to time. Thankfully, after a week of Baby Vicks, saline drops and nose suctioning, sleeping with the humidifier, and sitting in the warm shower, the worst of it seems to be over and our little birdie's on the mend. Hopefully, now we can all get back to a normal sleep schedule!


• Even when she's sick, Molly is such a happy girl. She smiles very easily and graces us with lots of coos and laughter. Nothing warms my heart more than walking through the door in the afternoon after a long day at work and being greeted by her enormous smile that lights up her entire face...and mine.
• Her favorite toys are actually not baby toys at all. The toys that get the most play time are things like a Starburst candy wrapper, a ball of aluminum foil, the safety straps on her high chair, or her play cellphone (which is actually a real floor model phone that doesn't work).
  


• Molly's newest physical development is the emergence of her two bottom teeth. She handled the whole process like a little trooper...a tiny bit of fussiness and lots of chewing on stuff. She'll chomp on anything she can get her hands on. Interestingly, teething rings don't hold much interest for her. Rather, she prefers to chew on hard items such as her Baby Bjorn bib or her Bumbo play tray. In fact, she uses the tray more for chewing than playing!

Here are some pictures taken over the last few weeks,including a visit from GG and Pop and some photos of Molly enjoying the sunshine with Mommy and Daddy after a LONG winter.