I've been meaning to post an update forever, but time just keeps getting away from me. Between grading, lesson-planning, and spending time with my babies and sweet husband, the moments in the day fill up quickly. And both Molly and Ian have been growing and changing so much lately, it's hard to keep up. By the way, this will be my 100th post!!! Can't believe it! So I'll try to make it extra-good ;-)
We'll start with Molly. If I could pick one word to describe the last few weeks with Molly, it would be her middle name: JOY! She has been such a joy to spend time with lately. I've been waiting for the "terrible twos" to hit, but we've seen nothing of the sort. I'm hoping we had the the "terrible 18-months" and we've paid our dues, but I'm not holding my breath. Every day when I get home from school, I'm met with a beaming face shouting, "Mommy! Mommy!", running up to me to give me a big hug. If all goes as planned, Ian is taking his second nap, so Molly and I get a little one-on-one time. We share a snack and snuggle up on the couch with a big ol' pile of books. She loves to snuggle and she LOVES to read! Sometimes we work our way through the whole pile of books that she picks out, but more often than not I hear the common refrain, "Iggy! Iggy!" (translation: "Again! Again!"), especially if it's a favorite book like Eric Carle's "Pancakes, Pancakes!" or Sam Lloyd's "Mr. Pusskins". We go to the library ("yabba") once every week or two and the library books she picks out are always at the top of the pile. She loves to learn new stories, songs, and words from her library books.
After listening for months for Molly's first words, we now can't shut her up. She's in the "Polly Parrot" stage of repeating just about every word that we say. It's pretty adorable to hear her attempt crazy big words when she's parroting us, but it's also dangerous. We're trying to be very careful about not saying things that we don't want repeated in public because she has a way of latching on to certain words or phrases and repeating them over and over again. We've stayed safe so far, but I know it's only a matter of time before she shouts out something embarrassing at church or life group.
I have been absolutely amazed at the speed at which Molly has picked up so many things. You always hear that the mind of a child is like a sponge, soaking up everything around them. It is definitely true! I can't believe all the things that she has learned in such a short period of time! Here's a small sampling:
- Her numbers 1 through 5.
- All of the letters A through Z by sight. She has even started picking out favorite letters in the middle of words in the middle of text on a page. Every time we go out for errands, she picks out the letters on the store signs. At Wal-Mart, she excitedly shouts, "Dub-ooo" (W); at Zaxby's, it's "Zeeee!"; at the library, it's "Emmm, Peeee, Ellll!" for Mebane Public Library.
- A few sight words: "No", "Zzzzzz", "Boo", and "Roar". I'm sure that, for the most part, she recognizes them because we read the same books over and over again, but it's a start.
- Most of the colors: pink ("peek"), purple ("purp-pooool"), blue ("boo"), green ("geeen"), yellow ("yeyow"), red ("waaa"), black ("bic") and orange ("orrr").
- A few shapes: heart ("hhhhhart"), star ("saaar"), circle ("cir-cooo"), square ("squa"), triangle ("tra"), and rectangle ("rec").
She also does a bunch of cutesie little things that we've taught her, either purposefully or inadvertently.
- When she hears any kind of rock music, she starts playing her "air guitar" and head-banging.
- When she hears the local news theme music, she immediately starts shouting, "TWO! TWO! TWO!" while holding up 2 fingers (our local news is on Channel Two).
- Anytime Ian is within arm's reach of her, she immediately hugs and kisses him. No exceptions. No questions asked. Just a hug and a kiss, every single time.
- She loves to help feed Ian and really loves to finish his leftovers when he's done. I wonder if she's aware that the pureed peas she finds so fascinating in his bowl are the exact same peas I struggle to get her to eat off her own dinner plate.
- She walks around the house and identifies all the things we've warned her about that can hurt her (pliers, scissors, knives, hot water) by saying and signing "hurt".
- If we're out and about on a walk or errands and Ian starts getting cranky, she points to him and says, "Nap! Home!" (pretty adorable, aye?)
- She loves to help in the kitchen. If I'm cooking, she has to be the one to dump the ingredients into the bowl. If Eric is doing dishes, she wants to be the one putting the rinsed dishes into the other sink.
Another on-going project with Molly has been potty-training. We started this summer with marginal success and we're still working on it. I would not necessarily say that she is "potty trained", but I would say that she is trained to not "go in her pants". During the day, she wears big-girl underpants or goes bottomless with very few accidents. However, she does not use the potty very often. Instead, she waits until naptime or bedtime (when she knows she'll have a diaper and she goes then).
Now it's Ian's turn. If I could pick one word to describe the last few weeks with Ian, it would be MOBILE! This kid wants to move! It started with pushing himself to a sitting position. No big deal, right? Except that it then escalated to crawling...and then pulling up on things...and then to cruising between furniture...and then to standing alone...and then to walking behind supports (like the music table or laundry basket) ALL within a month! He's not even 8 months old yet! This is crazy, right? My mom likes to laugh at our current plight, as she believes I'm being paid back for all the angst I caused her by learning to walk and climb by 9 months. I was under the age of one when she walked into the kitchen to find me trying to climb onto the refrigerator (floor to chair to countertop to microwave to fridge). She likes to remind me that my favorite place to sit was directly in the middle of the kitchen table. What goes around comes around, I suppose. Here's a photo-progression of his mobility over the last few weeks:
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| Sitting himself up. |
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| Climbing. |
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| Really climbing! |
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| Pulling to stand. |
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| Pounding on the music table. |
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| Free-standing!!! |
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| Pushing the bib box across the house. |
Ian is still the cutest little bugger ever. He is just such a happy, smiling, content, cooing, laughing, ticklish, silly little boy. I can't imagine a baby more pleased with just being alive. I think back to my mindset in the month before he was born when Molly was in the midst of one of her "challenging" phases. I believe the correct terminology for what I was experiencing would be "freaking out". I just couldn't imagine parenting Molly AND a newborn. Well, God knows exactly what each person can handle and what will happen in every moment. And He sent me Ian. If anything, Ian has taught me to be more relaxed, loving, mellow, and happy...because that's what he is ALL the time!
Other Ian news:
- He now has 4 teeth (2 bottom and 2 top). He is eating solids like a champ. Favorites seem to be mangoes, peaches, yogurt, asparagus, and potatoes (although the potatoes were perfectly seasoned with oodles of roasted garlic as I pureed them from a dinner Eric prepared for us, so who wouldn't love them :-).
- He has dropped the 2am feeding (finally!), which means we're down to 2 wake-ups per night on a good night (yay!).
- Ian has become very vocal and loves the sound of his own voice. He has lots of adorable cooing sounds, but his favorite syllable to shout is "DaDaDaDa!". (I'm sure we'll get to "MaMa" soon enough).
- He has really started to play with Molly, which is pretty stinkin' adorable. I love to see them sharing toys, wrestling, building (Molly) and knocking down (Ian) towers of blocks, and just being together. Once you add my third child (Eric) to the mix, there's usually a whole lot of fun happening in our house.
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| Do you think Daddy had anything to do with this set-up? If you can't tell, Molly is pants-less, as she often is at home during this potty-training stage. |
I thank God every day for the blessings He has rained down upon us. I feel privileged and blessed to be allowed to enjoy these two amazing little people that He has given us. They are more than I ever could have asked for or imagined. I am trying to soak up every second that we have together and just enjoy the short little stages they seem to be passing through on a weekly (sometimes daily!) basis.
Molly and her "doin' dishes apron".
