Miss Independent

From the day she was born, Molly has had a stubborn streak ("Other babies sleep in their carseats? NOT ME!", "Other babies are soothed by pacifiers? I'd rather scream if that's ok with you", etc...). Well, lately her stubborn nature has taken the shape of fierce independence when it comes to doing things that I used to do for her. For example, Molly has always enjoyed opening and closing doors repeatedly, but needed help because she couldn't reach the doorknob. Well, just recently she has found she can reach the doorknob IF she stands on her tippiest tippy toes and stretches her arm as far as she can above her head (3rd percentile for height, remember?). Since discovering this she absolutely WILL NOT accept help in opening and closing doors. It may take her 12 tries, but she eventually gets the knob turned and will let herself in and out of her bedroom over and over again, everytime running into the livingroom with a "TA-DA!" look on her face, so proud of herself.

Miss Molly Joy likes to assert her independence in many other ways too, such as:

• Brushing her hair. It's much more fun to do it yourself than to calmly sit on Mommy's lap.

However, she also likes to play "mommy" herself and brush Ian's hair, although there's not much to style on his bald little head.

• Dressing herself. This is a particularly fun task if I've just done laundry and there's a big basket of clean clothes to pick from. She'll paw through the basket until she finds the desired item, and pull it out while exclaiming, "DAT!!!" in an excited, sing-song voice. Some days it may be her bathing suit top with a string of "pearls", sans pants.

Other days it may be too-small infant sunglasses with her pajamas.Sometimes it may be a tutu over her play clothes.
Notice anything funny about this picture? Perhaps her shoes? That brings me to...

• ...Putting on her own shoes. This one in particular has become a sticking point recently. She INSISTS on putting on her own shoes. The only problem is that it is a bit beyond her current level of motor skills and she usually can't do it without help. Unfortunately, she won't accept help easily. If she sees one of us coming to help her, she jumps up, runs away and uses her new-found door-closing-skills to close herself in another room, where she'll keep trying. She has experienced a few successes, which is how she ended up with this lovely combination.

As much as her antics can become frustrating at times, they also make me beam with pride at the strong little person she's becoming. Her perseverance amazes me! Most play activities hold her interest for about 2 minutes, but when she has her mind set on accomplishing something, she'll try and try and try until she gets it. We're in the beginning stages of potty-training right now and one of the skills we've been working on is pulling her own shorts on and off...a pretty tough task for a toddler that's not even 2-years-old. Last night, she decided for herself to practice and after a couple of tries she really started to get it. She was so proud of herself and must've pulled her shorts on and off for a good 20 minutes! Obviously, when she's 25 years old, she's not going to be practicing pulling her drawers up and down, but if she applies the same perseverance and resolve to whatever dream she's pursuing, I have no doubt that she'll accomplish whatever she puts her mind to.

Ian - 5 Months

It's hard to believe that my baby boy is now 5 months old. Perhaps it's because he's outgrowing clothing so much faster than Molly ever did (already stretching his 6-9 months duds), or perhaps it's just because he's a second-born and life is that much busier, but his infancy seems to be flying by at lightning speed.

So, what has Ian been up to lately?

• He's been spending a lot more time on his tummy. He started rolling both from back-to-belly and belly-to-back before he was 3 months old, but many times it almost seemed to be by accident. Lately, his rolling adventures have been very purposeful, usually to get closer to a favorite family member, a desired toy, or just to get a better view of the action going on around him. Tummy-sleeping has also become his preferred sleep position. Despite faithfully putting him on his back to sleep as the doctor recommends, I find him on this belly 90% of the time. His new-found mobility has also rendered our beloved bouncy seat and swing obsolete. Being strapped in is way too confining for our active little man, but left unstrapped, he'll roll himself into this position in a matter of moments.

• Toys hold his interest much more than in the past. He has learned to grasp and manipulate many different kinds of toys, but his favorites tend to be any soft toy that he can suck and chew on. However, nothing compares to his all-time favorite---his toes. He's been fascinated by his feet for quite a while, and while he doesn't really suck a pacifier or thumb, he can find that big toe of his rather quickly.

• He is quite strong and surprises us by picking up heavy objects when we are unaware. Often it's when we pick him up from the floor and find that the whole blanket or play-gym has come with him because he has a piece of it in his little kung-fu grip. He also likes to bear his weight on his legs and stand up holding onto your hands.

• He has been sitting supported in his bumbo seat for quite some time, but we've just recently started practicing sitting unsupported. If we make a little tripod by placing his hands outside or between his knees, he can balance himself for a few seconds, but pretty quickly finds himself back in his favorite tummy position.

• Ian is already learning to be a mischievous little boy. He's quite good at reaching for things that seems unreachable with his go-go-gadget arms. Just tonight, he was on the floor in his bumbo when we heard a crash. He had not only lunged out and reached Molly's toy shopping cart that was a good distance away, but he managed to pull it to himself and tip it over. He even seems to have a guilty little look on his sweet face. Molly didn't mind helping to clean up the groceries though.

Although Ian is growing and changing at lightning speeds, one thing remains the same. He's still the sweet, easy-going, happy baby boy we brought home from the birth center 5 months ago. He still smiles easily, laughs often, and brings such immense joy to our home. I don't know what we'd do without him!

Molly Mayhem

How could this face be responsible for producing mayhem? Never, you say. Well, our little Molly-doodle is not quite 2 years old and has become just a little bit mischievous. Most of the time, she knows exactly what she should be doing, but would prefer to do things her way. I've always known she was going to be a stubborn one, but up until this point she didn't have the power to always do as she pleased. Now that she has the mobility and agility of a toddler, she is able to exercise her will much more powerfully. She has added several new skills to her repertoire lately, such as closing doors (she still can't open closed doors with the doorknob, thank goodness!), moving chairs around the house, reaching into drawers, and climbing. Climbing has become her new favorite pastime. She climbs on the chair in her bedroom to turn on the iPod; she climbs up to the top of the couch to play with the blinds; and her new way of letting us know that she's hungry is to push a chair over to the counter and climb up in search of food. This last one has me the most nervous because the kitchen is filled with plenty of safety hazards. At this point, she'll point to the stove and say "Hot!" and point to knives and say "Harp!" (translation: sharp), both messages we've relayed to her a thousand times. But I've still become ultra-vigilant about washing and putting away knives as soon as they're used instead of leaving them in the sink. Molly's newest climbing venture occurred the other night as I was making dinner, when I turned around to find this:
She was actually IN the exersaucer with Ian (I leave my camera on the counter just for these moments). He looked a little shocked, but didn't put up any protest. He's spent the entire span of his short 4 months here on Earth learning to put up with Molly's antics. If he's in his Bumbo playing with toys, Molly's right there piling more and more toys in his lap. I think the object of the game is to quickly pile as many toys on the tray as possible before Ian knocks them all off. It's actually quite a challenge for her because his wiry little arms are constantly in motion, shoving toys to the floor faster than Molly can replace them.
Ian's thinking, "What is up with this girl??? I was perfectly happy with just the duck."

Or apparently the doll. Notice all the toys knocked to the floor and what remains. Shhh, don't tell Daddy, but I think he likes the doll. Well, actually, he just likes to suck on her hands and feet, which is what he does all day anyway with his own fingers and toes.
Unfortunately, Ian is needing to learn how to deal with some new "Molly antics" recently. Her newest bad behavior has been hitting, scratching, and biting Ian. I know that most older siblings react with jealousy to a new baby at some point, but I was really hoping that we'd skipped over that unfortunate stage because Molly was so sweet and loving to Ian when he was first born. I guess after four months, she's realized that he's really here to stay and her sweet patience has run out. She wants her queen chair back (aka, Mommy's lap)! The thing that frustrates me so much about the situation is that she is so sneaky about it. She'll come up to him so sweetly and act like she's going to kiss him. She'll even look up at me with that precious, loving expression in her eyes. Then, at the last second, she'll bare her teeth and bite him or turn her gentle caresses into scratches. I was hoping to put off the whole sibling-rivalry situation until much later, but I should have known with Molly that it would come early and be fierce!

Molly's antics resulted in our first visit to urgent care this week too with a case of a pulled elbow, or more commonly "Nursemaid's Elbow". I was trying to take her shirt off so I could put her in the tub, but she wanted to continue climbing on the chair in her room so she could turn the iPod on and off (a favorite playtime activity). Per our usual routine, I had her left wrist in my hand and was stretching the armhole of her shirt so I could slip it over her elbow. She suddenly made a mad dash for the door, but her wrist was still in my hand, resulting in the injury. It's the same kind of injury you see when a toddler falls off a curb and the parent holding their hand jerks upward or when a frustrated babysitter drags a toddler (hence the given name). There was no swelling, bruising, or malformation and she only cried out when we tried to move it. She continued to go about her play, but only used her right arm. The doctor did a quick, simple click-click move with her arm and, voila!, all better. Through the whole thing, I learned an awful lot about Nursemaid's Elbow that I did not know before. Interesting reading for anyone with a child between the ages of 1 and 4. You can read about it here. Molly's now as good as new, other than needing to be careful not to re-injure the same elbow in the next few weeks. Interestingly, one of the sites I read was a paper in a medical journal that said the injury is most common in the left arm of girls around the age of 2. Perfect profile for our scenario.
So, life with an almost-two-year-old is turning out to be quite adventurous, but for every moment of fear and frustration she causes, there are plenty of other moments where her sweet preciousness will just take your breath away. After all, she is my Molly Joy and she fills my days with just that.