Newest Frueh

We just returned yesterday from a wonderful week in Emerald Isle with the Frueh and Smith families. There will be MUCH more to come on that later after we have a chance to unpack, upload the last of our pictures, and get our house back in order after taking nearly everything we own to the beach. It's amazing how much you have to pack for a person as tiny as Molly.

In the meantime, I wanted to share our latest family photo with you. If you look really closely, you may be able to spot the newest member of the Frueh family. He's about an inch tall with a big head, but teeny-tiny arms just barely long enough to meet in front of his chest and little stubby legs with webbed feet. Need a clue? Here, maybe this will help:

That's right! Baby Frueh #2 is due to make his/her debut in February 2011! We're very excited that Molly is going to have a little brother or sister so close in age (they'll be 18 months apart). We're also excited to start this fun and crazy pregnancy/newborn journey once again. Now that Molly's mobile and active and communicative, I was beginning to miss having an itty-bitty infant to snuggle in my arms.

We'll be sure to keep you posted on developments with the newest Baby Frueh and there will be plenty more beach pictures and stories to come...just as soon as I take a nap...and get something to eat...and, oh yeah, unpack from the beach...

11 Months Old!

I feel like I was just writing Molly's 10 month post, but here we are at 11 months old. She is currently 16 lb. 1 oz. and 26.5 inches long (3rd and 5th percentiles, respectively). Her doctor reassured us that we have nothing to worry about, though. She's probably just destined to be a petite little chica, fitting perfectly into the Frank branch of my family tree. But being pint-sized hasn't stopped her from becoming a real spit-fire who loves to get into EVERYTHING. Don't believe me? Check out the evidence:

She loves to crawl, cruise, and climb her way all around the house, exploring every nook and cranny. Sometimes that gets her stuck in some pretty tight places that she needs a little help getting out of.

She looks like a criminal waiting to post bail.

One day, I turned my back on her for a few minutes to get her lunch ready and when I turned back around, she had completely disappeared. After checking her usual hangouts (bathroom, nursery, office) I found her crawling BEHIND the couch in this itty-bitty, skinny space, trying to see out of the window. I helped her out a little bit by pulling out the couch so she could stand up. Adventurous one, aye?

The bathroom is probably Molly's favorite room in the house, mostly because there's a LOT to get into. Since she is my shadow and follows me all over the house, that includes the bathroom at least a few times a day. And the first thing she always goes for is the toilet paper. She's very quick and can have a decent pile on the floor before I have a chance to stop her.

Caught red-handed.

Another one of Molly's new favorite activities is opening and closing doors. She'll crawl to every door in the house and spend at least a few minutes opening and closing each one, although she gets a little frustrated when she pushes it far enough to latch and finds herself stuck once again. I think we'll be in real trouble when she's tall enough to reach the door knobs and locks.

Another new development this month is eating chunky food and table food, especially now that she has FIVE(!) teeth (3 top and 2 bottom). Molly loves to feed herself chunks of bananas, soft pieces of fruit, Cheerios, and strips of toast with tahini spread. Another favorite activity is begging like a little puppy when Mommy or Daddy is trying to eat a meal or snack. I've been trying to eat more baby-friendly food (cheese, bread, soft fruits and vegetables, cereal, etc.) just so I can give her pieces of table food while I'm eating. Otherwise, I'd never make it through a meal or snack.

As you can tell from my last post, reading is a big part of our day. Molly loves all of her books and spends a lot of time flipping through them, even when we're not reading together. One of her favorite reading spots is by the stained glass window where the sun streams in during the afternoon. These are some of my favorite pictures of her, enjoying her "Personal Penguin" book. Isn't she just adorable?

We have many exciting blog posts coming up (our beach trip, 1st birthday party, etc.) so stay tuned for more Frueh family fun in the next few weeks and months.

Our Little Bookworm

Molly has always been a lover of books. We started reading to her in utero months before she ever even laid eyes on a book, and in our arms from the day she was born. Daddy's choices included works such as The Right Stuff and Treasure Island. I usually mix in some lighter fare ;-)

Here's an oldie: a not-quite-3-month old Molly reading Treasure Island with her Daddy.

Lately, reading has been a huge staple in our day simply because she loves it so much. It amazes me how long her attention-span is when it comes to reading, especially when her interest in the average toy lasts for all of 30 seconds. When it comes to books though, she'll sit forever flipping the pages back and forth, back and forth (she LOVES to flip pages). Generally, we'll read a book through front-to-back, and then Molly will go through at least 2-3 more times, flipping back-to-front, or cherry-picking favorite pages to look at. She isn't quite into pointing yet, but she is very into "beating" the pages. When she finds a favorite page or picture, she likes to slap it vigorously with both hands simultaneously while the teacher in me patiently describes the object and repeats its name, usually in a totally dorky sing-song voice. For example, her Peter Rabbit touch-and-feel book has a picture of Benjamin Bunny in a real felt coat. She loves to beat on the poor bunny repeatedly while I sing "Benjamin Bunny, Benjamin Bunny" over and over again.

I'm partial to my old childhood favorites, but Molly is very particular and has picked a few new favorites of her own. Here are Molly's current recommendations for the under-3 crowd:

Peter Rabbit, of course. This was an Easter gift from Aunt Jessica and is a daily read because of all the fun textures: Benjamin Bunny's felt jacket, crinkly leaves in Mr. MacGregor's garden, Jemima Puddleduck's fuzzy baby ducklings, and many more. It has really thick, easy-to-turn boardbook pages, a definite plus for Miss Molly's tiny fingers.

This is usually the first book Molly reaches for on the shelf. It's filled with 100 brightly colored photos of everyday objects sorted into categorical pages (Colors, Things-that-Go, Food, Home, Bathtime, Emotions, Wild Animals, Pets, etc.) and labeled with their names. Molly will literally sit for 10 minutes or more (a long stretch in baby-time!) just flipping the pages, "beating" on pictures while I name them for her. Her favorites are the train (because I always make the choo-choo sound), the grass, the fish, and the owl (also probably because I always make a hooting sound). Parenthood really does make you do things you never imagined!

This adorable book is based on the lyrics of a song by Davy Jones and the Monkees, in which a precious penguin befriends an unsuspecting hippo. Super cute. Molly also likes to dance to the song, which I downloaded to my computer to play along with the book.

This is a Molly AND Mommy favorite. It is part of the "touch-the-art" series, which I think is SO cool. You can feel the peachfuzz on Cezanne's Still Life with Cherries and Peaches. You can untie the hairbow on Renoir's A Girl with a Watering Can. Molly's personal favorite is trying to pick the lily flowers on Monet's Water-Lily Pond. I have to restrain myself from rushing out and buying the rest of the books in this series including Feed Matisse's Fish and Pop Warhol's Top.

So, if you have a little bibliophile on your hands, check these out. Molly has personally given them her seal of approval.

Summertime!

I am absolutely LOVING being home for the summer with my little sunshine girl and her Daddy. It is such a blessing that Eric gets to work from home in the evenings. We get to spend all day together as a family hanging out and having fun, and even after Eric goes to work, I know he's right here with us. We still get to eat dinner together and he still gets to kiss Molly goodnight every evening at bedtime. I think it's going to be even harder to go back to school this fall than it ever has been before. But, in the meantime, we're soaking up every drop of summer and having a blast! See what I mean...
So, what's up with the full moon in June? Well, diapering has been quite the acrobatic feat lately. Molly is now extremely mobile and agile. Within milliseconds of being laid on the changing table, she is rolled over and trying to dive-bomb off the edge and onto the floor. I've started just changing her on the floor to prevent any unfortunate mishaps. Well, you can see the problem with that...once the diaper's off, she's already found something more interesting to do than get a clean diaper put on. In this case, whatever Daddy was doing on the computer was much more fascinating than having Mommy snap on a new diaper. I need to grow 3 or 4 more arms in order to succeed at both holding her down AND putting on a diaper at the same time.

We spent last Saturday afternoon at the Hillsborough Hog Days. By the time we got there, they had run out of barbecue, but they still had some fabulous mediterranean food and Greensboro's own Natty Greene's beer. Molly got to try hummus for the first time...

...and she thoroughly enjoyed it! Don't worry, she didn't wash it down with a Southern Pale Ale ;-)

Last Sunday, we celebrated Eric's first Father's Day. Molly was so excited to help Daddy open his gift.

And here's Eric trying to hide his face from the camera so that we can't see his "eyes watering" as he reads the photobook Molly gave him as a Father's Day gift. I used our Shutterfly account to put together a book of pictures that chronicle Eric's journey into and through the first year of fatherhood. It even includes captions written from Molly's perspective as she thanks her Daddy for what a great father he's been. We both love him bunches and I thank God for bringing us together every day.

Since we're going to the beach next month, I thought we should try on Molly's bathing suit to make sure it fit. Well, the bottom's have a built-in diaper, so they're too small to try on over her cloth diaper. I wasn't about to attempt the diaper acrobatics described earlier, so we just tried it on as a hat instead...fit's good, don't you think?

It's been wicked hot here the last few weeks (upper 90s), so we decided to take a short hike along shady Lake Michael and discovered this great little spot to dip our toes in the water.

Molly had a great time splashing and was pretty thoroughly soaked by the time we left.

Eric decided to do a little illegal swimming to capture this shot (shhhh! Don't tell). He wanted to take Molly illegal swimming with him, but I told him that she's too young to be a criminal like her Daddy.

Even without an illegal dip in the lake, our little nature girl had a great time hiking, splashing, and studying the beautiful world around us. Ahhh, gotta love summertime.

In the DOUBLE DIGITS!

Our little MoJo is now 10 months old. She's growing and changing by the day, learning new skills and experiencing new things. So what's Molly up to at 10 months old?

• Molly is still the "girl of a million faces" and has been since she was a newborn. We've discovered the only way to truly capture the full spectrum of Molly-faces for the blog-o-sphere is on video. Enjoy:

• She now waves "Hello" and "Bye-Bye"...well, sort of. It actually looks more like the "Heil Hitler" Nazi salute. She raises her pudgy little arm straight out in front of her like a little German soldier. Oops! We'll have to keep working on that one. She's also very into clapping. Everything deserves a little applause, in Molly's opinion.
(In case you can't tell from this picture, it was really cold in NY when we were there!)


• Molly is now an expert crawler and cruiser. She can get pretty much anywhere she wants to in the house and definitely has her favorite play-places...ususally the exact places we want to keep her away from. She's in love with our entertainment center, even if the TV's not on, which it usually isn't. She likes to push the buttons on the TV, pull all the CDs and DVDs off their shelves (uh-oh!), and push over the Wii (double uh-oh!!). She hasn't tried to stand on her own or walk while holding someone's hands. She seems to be pretty content to crawl and cruise her way around the house.


• We LOVE to read together. Molly now has several favorite board books that she "reads" on a daily basis, especially touch-and-feel books with flaps and textures. She loves to flip the pages really quickly and gets impatient if there are too many words on one page. Her current favorite is a Peter Rabbit touch-and-feel book she got for Easter. She will even point to the fluffy bird on one page if you say, "Molly, where's the BIRD?". She's also very into magazines...not so much for reading, but more for destroying. I apologize to the person who sat in our Southwest airlines seat after we flew to NY. The in-flight magazine may have been missing some pages.

• Molly took her second airplane trip this past week to NY for her Aunt Joy's wedding. The last time we flew, she was one month old and pretty much slept the entire trip. This time was a little different. She's very squirmy and busy. It was definitely a 2-person job to keep her occupied. Thankfully, she had her own seat on two of the flights and did fairly well in her carseat. Overall, she did a great job and charmed all of our flight attendants.
• One of her favorite self-invented games is the Molly-version of "Kick the Can", which she plays with pretty much any toy that she can push, roll, or slide. She'll take a block, car, or ball and push it a few feet in front of her and then crawl after it. She pushes and chases the toy around the entire room, which'll occupy all of 3 minutes before she moves on to something else.

• Molly has recently become a total "mommy's girl". If I'm holding her and someone reaches out their arms for her, she'll turn her head and cling to me for dear life. If someone else is holding her and I walk by, she'll claw her way over their shoulder like a monkey to jump into my arms. I could hardly even take a shower today. As soon as Molly saw me heading for the bathroom, she started crying and crawling after me. As soon as I came out and picked her up, she was fine! I feel bad for poor Eric. He spent WAY more time with her during the school year and now she treats him like chopped liver. Poor Daddy! Consequently, anytime I'm trying to get anything done in the kitchen, I can look down to see this:
  
• She needs to have anything you're drinking. She'll stare at you intently as you pick up your glass and then make a grab for it, but if you offer her a sippy cup, she'll refuse it. She's recently become so obsessed with my travel mug of coffee that I can't even have it out around her. To solve that problem, Molly now has her very own travel mug to pretend with.


• Molly is becoming quite the talker. She talks to us with a series of bwahs, jas, blahs, das, and bas (no "ma-ma" yet). I could just listen to her adorable little voice all day long, couldn't you?
  
  
  

With a trip to Pittsburgh, the end of the school year, and traveling to NY for the wedding, it's been pretty crazy around here (hence the long dry spell on my blog...sorry!). Therefore, we have LOTS of recent pictures that have barely found their way off of our camera. Here's just a few:

Playing it cool with GG.Mmmmm. Blueberry and yogurt smootie!Funny faces with Aunt Jennene.

Balloon fun at Aunt Joy's wedding.

New baby chicks! About 2 seconds after this picture was taken, Molly started beating on the poor little chick's head rather harshly! Guess we need to practice "gentle".