22 months. The countdown begins.

I wrote this on the 13th, so pretend like it is please. 

Today means there are only 2 more months until I have a 2 year old. Molly Grace, where did the time go. Sometimes when you look at me I feel like my little baby is looking up at me needing me and then other times I see you working so independently and you look like a 15 year old. It is crazy, just crazy.

All dressed up for your 22nd birthday.

 Clothes:

  *   You are for the most part graduated out of 18 mo. clothing and are mainly wearing 24 mo. and 2T.

  *   diaper: still size 5 

  *   shoe: 6w 

Sleeping: Same thing. Nap from 1ish-3ish. Go to bed 7:30-7:45pm and wake up around 7:30am. I will add that when you came back from Hawaii you were going to bed at 7:30ish and waking up at 9am! Say what?!? It was glorious. And you took your normal nap. You did that for 4 days. It was a nice recharge because that means that I slept until 9am as well. :)

Eating: Still a good eater. Your fav foods are jellybeans, fruit snacks and lollipops - not in that order. We introduced lollipops on the trip and well, you were hooked with your first lick. I guess that is what I get knowing who your daddy is and the fact that your Pop's nickname is "candy man". I will say in the non candy category you are liking broccoli, mac&cheese, carrots, oranges, edemame, grilled cheese and crackers.

Celebrating with a trip to the bounce house.

New Tricks: I guess the biggest thing here is that you are pretty much potty training yourself. Since we have been back you are obsessed with wearing your big girl panties and going potty on  your big girl potty. You have done it at least 3 times a day. I know I need to jump on your bandwagon and start the training and I will, eventually. :)

Words: This month you have really been using full sentences vs. just 2 to 3 words when you are talking. Pretty much everyday daddy and I looked at you in shock that you knew how to string that sentence together. It is seriously amazing how much you learn everyday. I picked you up the school the other day and you came up to me and said "Mommy, nice to meet you." Umm ok, nice to meet you to Molly. Also, when you are trying to figure something out you are always saying, "let's see" which means I must say that a lot. In new news, you have started to add in 4, 5 and 6 when counting to 10. Way to go M!

Teeth: Your teeth are still good and no new ones yet (you have your back molars that need to come in). You are not a fan of brushing your teeth. Daddy has to hold you in his arms and I somehow have to finagle the toothbrush in your sealed shut mouth.

Just hanging out with mom.

Likes: Anything that has to do with your baby and pushing a stroller. You will push your stroller around and around the house all day long. You also love puzzles. I need to get you some more of these. You LOVE books and now you are trying to use those against us at night. You have always been the easiest baby to put to bed. While you are still pretty easy this past week you have wanted to read books before prayers and you don't want to stop. We say no more and then you give us those puppy dog eyes and we cave in and read one more. I know we need to stop that because, well, we are falling into your traps but we can't seem to resist those eyes and books. Bounce houses and slides. Love them. A lot. Oh, and, anything that has to do with animals you love. Giraffes and elephants in particular. I must mention that you love Harli and Rocki especially chasing them around the house. They are not huge fans.

Dislikes: Well, you don't like when something doesn't happen exactly when you want it to happen.....sound like a diva.....Molly???? Nooooo. Not Molly. ;) Brushing your teeth definitely falls into this category. When we have to take your stroller away we might as well have cut off your arm. You even NEED to sleep with your stroller which you can't do so we "park" it outside your crib so you can watch it as you sleep just to make sure someone doesn't come randomly take it. Heaven forbid!

In my warm tiger jammies.

My little chicken nugget, Molly Grace. You are truly my little buddy. I love hanging out with you. It is so fun to have conversations with you because they are not just one sided anymore. You are constantly cracking everyone up with things you are saying or doing. You are a really happy girl and always smiling. There are some big changes coming up in our future like selling the only house you have known so far in your little life and buying our new house.

Junk

I am still sifting through all the pics and writing the forever long post for Hawaii but I had to post this because I died laughing tonight in a conversation with M. After dinner these days Molly gets all crazy and literally runs around the house doing random things. It is quite entertaining to watch. During most of this run time she is naked because it is after bath and she avoids putting on her pjs. Plus she loves to be naked. During nap time we have learned that we can't just put her in the crib wearing just a diaper because she will take it off and jump around. Naked. So she pretty much always needs to have pants on. Anyway, I digress. In the middle of her naked run tonight she started putting on some of her big girl panties and was having a hard time getting them over her bottom. Here is the convo.

M: "mommy help you"
Me: "You can do it Molly. You are a big girl."
M: "Mommy it's stuck"
Me: "Molly, it looks like you have to much junk in your trunk"
M: craning her neck to try and see the "junk". "mommy, take junk out"

I died. It was hilarious. If you don't find it funny maybe it was a had to be there conversation. Regardless, it was funny.

Fall Festival and "The Stink Eye"

We are back! Back from our glorious 2 week vacation to Hawaii to watch my little sister get married. I have a million photos to sift through so that post will come later. This one will be all about M's school fall festival which was the day before we left. They do this every year and it is so cute! They serve dinner, have all kinds of games and activities for the kids and have a great silent auction for the parents. A lot of the kids come dressed up but we didn't do Halloween costumes this year because we were at my sisters rehearsal dinner on Halloween night so we knew there wasn't going to be any trick or treating. So, she wore her cute pumpkin dress instead.

This girl LOVES a bounce house! L.O.V.E.S.

Sliding requires the right amount of concentration.

"Cheese! Hey, mom, I am riding an elephant!"

Riding the fire truck with daddy.

I will leave you with this video that we took tonight. Singing is the only time she speaks in "toddler". She has also developed this "stink eye" that she so kindly gives me throughout the day.

21 months

Man, I am late again. I mean I was writing the date down today and realized you had your 21st birthday and I didn't even sing happy birthday to you. Sorry girl, but I suppose we sing that song randomly so i guess it really doesn't matter. 

 Clothes:

  *   You are still in 18-24 month clothes but slowly you are getting out of 18 mo. You can wear some 2T.

  *   diaper: size 5 

  *   shoe: 6w 

Sleeping: Same thing. Nap from 1ish-3ish. Go to bed 7:30-7:45pm and wake up around 7:30am.

Eating: You are quite a good eater now. It is nice. Thank you.

New Tricks: Hmmm you do something new everyday multiple times a day. I know, that doesn't give you much.

Words: Girl, your sentences are off the charts. You are saying 3-5 word sentences all day long. You are starting to get your colors now which is good. Not everything is pink anymore. You love to say "what's dis" even if you know what it means. You know and say all the animals you see from doggies to zebras to hippopotamuses. 

Teeth: We saw the dentist this past month and she said your teeth look great! You have 4 more molars left to come in but those don't generally come in until you are around 3.

Likes: Popsicles are definitely still the fav but frozen peas, oh man, they almost beat popsicles, almost. And, you love pickles, like, a lot. You are a baby toting little girl. Always want to play with baby. You have to brush her teeth every night. She has to sit with us at the dinner table, pushed in the stroller and sit in the chair. I have tried to have you name her but you are sticking with baby. You love saying the "lessing" (blessing) before meals. Everyone has to hold hands and we say it at least 3 times. If we forget, you always remember. You like to hold little things. Is that weird? Maybe, but you are always holding something small that fits in your little hand. Oh and last but not least you LOVE your daddy. You have turned a 360 into a little daddy's girl. As soon as you wake up, when i pick you up from school and throughout the day you are always asking about daddy and when daddy comes home your little life is complete. Oh and you love to be naked.

Dislikes: Yeah, you are still not a big fan of sharing. I have a feeling we will be working on this one for a while. You don't love to change your diaper unless you feel like you need to. You are NOT patient although I think that is kind of natural for a toddler. You do not like when you can't have something right away. The number of fit throwing is increasing and some of them are full on fall on the floor and flail but it is hard to believe you when you look up and realize we are not paying attention to you and you just turn it off and move on to something else. I mean.....why even waste your energy girlfriend. Seriously.

Molly Grace, my sweet little girl. You have so much personality. You are not a timid little one at all. You will walk straight up to a stranger and yell "hiiiii" with a little wave. You love to just sit and read books. I hope that continues. You have made my life so much better. I always heard parents say that but never really got it. While sometimes I might think to myself that I need a toddler break but then you run over to me and just give me a big hug out of nowhere. I mean.....it gets me every time. Or randomly the other day I was dropping you off at school and before I could say my goodbyes you looked at me and said "i wove you mommy, bye bye". It brought tears to my eyes right there. 

Molly Quirks

So, M is pretty particular about some things. She needs them just right. Here are those things.

• When reading a book it must be right side up. I mean the kid doesn't know how to read but she sure thinks she does. If it is not right side up she keeps saying "turn around, turn around".
• She needs to have milk as soon as she wakes up in the morning and for the past month I have to bring it with me when I come in and get her and then leave it on her crib so she can get it herself.
• She has learned how to growl. I have no idea where she got this from but she thinks it is HYSTERICAL.

• Wind. She loves it. Since is has been so beautiful this week every time we are in the car I roll down the windows, open the sunroof and M gets quiet, stretches her arms out, closes her eyes and  takes in the wind. 
• When we are done driving and park the car in the garage she loves to come up and sit in my lap and pretend she is driving and of course press all the buttons. Keeps her busy for a good 15-20 minutes or until I get too hot.
• Gum. So, I have a little canister of that hard, chicklet type, eclipse gum and Molly likes it because it makes a lot of noise when shaken and of course it is soooo fun to open and close the top over and over again. I always tell her that it is "daddy's gum", "just for daddy" so she pulls the gum out and just waives it around, picks it up, puts it down, counts them, sneaks in a little taste and then says "daddy's only". Kinda cracks me up but at least she is following directions for now.

• Her favorite treat, yes treat, is frozen peas. I know you are thinking the same thing as her.....yummmmm! Loves them, can't get enough of them. I like it.
• We have turtles in the creek next to our house and we feed them most days as soon as Danny gets home from work. Well, we take bread and M is very particular on how much she feeds them which means she ends up eating most of the bread and is not happy if she has to share.
• On a random gross note, I had my hand on the door to let the dogs out in the backyard this morning and thank goodness I looked through the windows because there was a dead possum in the grass. I called Danny basically telling him that I needed him to take care of it, he laughed because somehow it was funny, and told me that he couldn't he was already at work. Was it crazy of me to kind of expect him to still do something about it. I am not really sure what I expected him to do, but it had to be something because I for sure was NOT going to do anything about it. After he reiterates that there is nothing he can do and that I had to go get a shovel and "take care of it". It took me about 20 minutes. It was disgusting. It fell off the shovel multiple times. I almost upchucked my coffee but somehow had to keep a smile on my face because I couldn't let M know I was terrified. Yes, terrified, they are called possums for a reason. I kept thinking it was going to jump up and give me rabies. I still get totally grossed out every time I think about it. I am so not a country girl. Yuck!

And in other random news we found a house and are in the buying process. Woohoo.

Life lately.

Oh goodness how I have fallen behind on blogging. Life has been crazy and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. I can say that we have been having some fun being busy though. We took our annual girls (M, my sister, my mom and myself) weekend over Labor Day and decided to visit my grandparents in Fort Worth. It was Molly's second time to go up there. We had a blast making the rounds and just hanging out.

"Hey Granddad"

"Hey Granny"

"Let's do this! I am ready for my car ride."

We celebrated birthdays galore! My dad, my brother, my mom and my father in law. All of them were a good time :)

"Happy dodo Papa."

"Cheeeeeeese"

Just so everyone is aware. I don't make up this sass. This is her new face.

Her favorite thing to do right now.
Blow out the candles (even if it is in a half eaten biscuit)

My mother in law went all our for my father in law's bday. It was the big 6-0 so we had quite a nice, theme party at the ranch.

Celebrating the "candy man"

The 3 sons wrote "60 reasons we love our dad"
and here they are laughing about them.

Of course we had to spend time rocking the baby.

Some of the ladies

Spent a lot of time swinging and laughing.

"Ok dad, here is what we are gonna do."

"BAM! Touchdown!"

The fam

20 Months - Another Friday the 13th

Since you were born on Friday the 13th, I find it to be a lucky day. I mean......4 months Molly, 4 months. I am not ready for that so let me just focus on the here and now. Oh and FYI, just in case anyone was wondering about time out. Well, you still put yourself in time out when you know you did something wrong so clearly that is not going to work with you. Sigh.....

 Clothes:

  *   You are still 18-24 month clothes but slowly you are getting out of 18 mo.

  *   diaper: size 5 - I finally upped this  

  *   shoe: 6w - we finally moved up in shoes and you got your first pair if tennis shoes and oh my you call them your "fast shoes" and you just run all the time while you are wearing them.

Sleeping: Same thing. Nap from 1ish-3ish. Go to bed 7:30-7:45pm and wake up around 7:30am.

Eating: Same thing here. You are starting to eat more veggies and I have definitely started hiding more, even Daddy can't taste it.

New Tricks: I am not even sure what to say here. It is not really a trick but kinda funny. You refer to yourself in the 3rd person all the time and your name is Molly Grace unless you are mad then you just say Molly.

Words: Let's see. You are still saying funny words but I can't remember any new ones that I didn't say last month. Our counting is still a little rough but getting there. It is "one, two, three, seven, eight, nine, ten". You like to count a lot and randomly throughout the day. Oh and regarding colors......yeah.....everything is pink. I was a little nervous you were colorblind for a little bit (you know if you are a mom you would freak out as well, just one of those things....freaking out about everything) but I was assured that you cannot be because it is genetic and she said green the other day when actually talking about green. You are blowing me away with your sentences. I can tell your brain is working much faster than you can form words because you do a lot of "ah,ah,ah,ah" then the rest of the sentence comes out. You are putting 3-5 words together.

Teeth: You have a mouth full of teeth. You hate it when I brush your teeth which is a bit of a challenge for me. I am not sure how to make it fun for you because you can't really brush them yourself. We were supposed to go to your first dentist appt this past week but they called the cancel because a transformer blew and they had no power. I really need to reschedule. Regarding the biting, after you "tasted" everyone in your class you decided you didn't want to bit anymore which makes me really happy but we came home with one too many notes from the teacher.

Likes: Popsicles, no surprise here. Jellybeans are making a comeback. Your stroller is still a big hit and a huge point on contention when other people want to play with it. Looking at pictures on my phone, specifically Teddy and Bentley (my cousin's dogs), Bobby jumping (skydiving) and the video where we are singing happy birthday to Papa. You must be helping me no matter what I am doing. You need to be doing it as well. It makes cooking a messy experience. Oh and dancing! You love it.

Dislikes: Sharing. It's an issue. We are working on it. Brushing your teeth. Coming inside, but that is not really a big surprise. I basically have to bribe you to come back in. You will do the same thing one day MG! It is hot out there!

Oh MG. You make my heart smile. I love hanging out with you. We actually have some really fun/interesting conversation these days since you understand and communicate a crazy amount. You have such a sweet spirit and you make me laugh constantly. I love you little goose.