Random Pictures and a Video of Ms. Dancing Queen

Here are some random pictures from this past weekend.


And here is a video of my tiny dancer. She must have picked this up at school and I am assuming they must be doing some kind of dance. Everytime music comes on, no matter what she is doing, she gets up and dances! I love it!

Molly's 1 Year Stats

So, I am doing this now just so I don't forget. This is really just for me so I can look back and see her 1 year stats

Height - 30 inches (65th percentile)
Weight - 22.3 lbs (60th percentile)
Head - 18 inches (60th percentile)

So, she is a little above average on all fronts. I am not sure how correct her head measurement was though. She was crying when they were doing it so I don't think the nurse was able to get a good measurement. Also, I can't imagine that her head grew enough to go from the 20th percentile at 9 months to the 60th in three months.

I was actually surprised at her length too. She looks so short to me, but again, the only comparison I really have is Brody. At 1 year, Brody was 1.25 inches taller than Molly and 6 lbs. heavier. When I went back and looked at pictures of him from then, he was much bigger than her. I never really noticed his size until now! Pretty funny!

On a side note: Daycare is getting better. She has napped the last couple of days and her crying is a bit less when I leave her in the morning. The ladies there have been really great helping me walk out the door in the morning. I know she is well taken care of! :)

Molly's First Day at School

Well.....the day finally came. Molly started school yesterday. I have dreaded this day for many months, but I knew it would eventually come. First and foremost, I was worried about how she would react. Of course, having experienced this was Brody, I was more prepared, but I wasn't fully prepared for the feelings that came. She has always been such a good baby and I knew she would do just fine, but I never want to feel like I am not there for my kids. Since family members having been watching her up until this point, I always knew that was somewhat of an extension of me. This was going to be a different experience for both of us. With that said, I knew that Brody has thrived at this school and I tried to stay positive. And, of course the cost of having two in daycare was a shock! Whew.....we could own another house for what we are paying for both! But, I know it is a good school and they have a very structured program so it is worth it.

So, I got both kids ready yesterday morning and figured it would be best to drop Brody off in his class first. That of course went fine. (Side note: he has been so good with the potty. He has not had an accident at school yet! I am so proud!) I then went into Molly's class, dropped her stuff off and hung around for a bit. I had an eye doctor appointment after that and knew I had some time to stick around. She immediately went for the toys and I thought, "Wow......this may be easier than I thought!" Well, I went to leave and she turned to watch me and immediately stuck her lip out and started to cry. Of course, that pulled at my heart strings and I picked her up and started to play a little bit more with her. I thought, "maybe she just needs a little more time." Well, that happened a couple more times and eventually, I started running out of time and knew I had to go. I bit the bullet and left her with the teacher. I heard her cry and as I was signing her out, I just lost it! I tried to hold it together until I got into the car, but I couldn't help it!

Now, of course, I called a couple of times throughout the day. The first time I called it was about 9:30. They said she stopped crying about two minutes after I left. She ate her breakfast well (which I was worried about because she still only has two teeth!) and they said she was getting along well. I knew nap time was around 11:00 so I wanted to wait until she was up before I called again. Well, I called at 3:00 and her teacher said she did well at lunch, but she never napped. Huh? What? That's not my kid. She loves sleep and never misses her nap! They said that she just laid there but never fell asleep. (Another side note: When I dropped her off, I asked the teacher where the cribs in the class were. She said they didn't sleep in cribs anymore; they slept on cots on the floor. When Brody was in the same class, they still had cribs. I remember thinking, "How in the heck will that work. She tends to curl up in the corner of her crib when she sleeps.") Anyway, they said she didn't fuss....she just laid there and never fell asleep. They said she had a good rest of the day. I was totally expected to see a fussy baby when I got home from work, but she was just fine! She looked tired, but didn't act like it. She was my normal, happy baby!

So, in conclusion, her first day was great! And her second day was even better! She still cried when I left but they said she was fine soon after I left and even took a nap today! I knew this first week would be hard and even though Brody has been going to school for almost two years, he still has his moments where he doesn't want me to leave! Of course, as a Momma, you hate to see that, but a part of me feels pretty good about it! I would probably wonder about him if he didn't do that sometimes.

On another note, Brody has really started to bond with Molly and I love it! Like tonight.....after I gave them both a bath (separately, because together is extremely difficult), after I got them both dressed, Brody was walking with Molly and he just stopped and started tickling her. She was giggling up a storm and so was he! Ahhh........a pretty good end to the day! Then he gave Molly a kiss before she went to bed. These are the moments that melt my heart! I have so much love for my kiddies that I can't even put it into words!

These are a Few of My Favorite Things..........

These are a few of my favorite things right now.......

• the look on Brody and Molly's face when they see me at the end of the day,
• the sound of Brody's laughter,
• the sound of Molly's giggle,
• the smell of the kiddies fresh out of the bath,
• the way Molly snuggles into the nape of my neck right before I put her in her crib,
• the way Brody says "we will read it tomorrow" once we are done with his book at night,
• everytime Ethan comes to visit,
• the way Ethan pats Brody on the head when he comes home,
• the way Molly kisses right now (open mouthed),
• the fact that Brody puts an "s" on underwear,
• the way Brody says "lithen" instead of "listen,"
• the look on Brody's face when Ted comes home after a long weekend away from home,
• when Brody says "I love you Mommy" out of the blue,
• the way Molly shakes her head "no" when you tell her no,
• looking at the monitor and seeing my babies sleeping at night (Brody with his arms wide open and Molly on her belly with her butt in the air),
• the fact that Brody was all about Molly tonight, wanting to be around her, hug her, and feed her,
• when Brody asks me to sit right next to him in the chair to watch a movie,
• the way Brody soothed Ashleigh after she chipped her tooth, rubbing her back and telling her it was going to be okay, and
• that no matter what time they wake up, either by themselves or when we have to wake them up, my kiddies always wake up with a smile!

Oh, there are many more, but these are just a few things I can think of right now!

A New Year

Happy 2011!! I can't believe it is already the new year. This last year has gone by sooooo fast! Today was Brody's first day back at school and I know he was ready. I was home all last week and was able to spend a lot of time with all the kiddies (or as Ethan has corrected me, he is a "smallish" man, not a kiddie) and we had a good time. We were couped up in this house for most of it because the weather was not that great, but the kids had plenty of new toys to keep them occupied.

One good thing to come out of last week is that Brody is pretty much potty-trained during the day! YAY! Since Christmas morning, he had only one accident and wore big boy underwear all day long. We even went out a couple of times and he was so good. I can't even tell you how proud I am of him. I know that everyone said it would happen when he was ready, but I am impatient and of course wasn't so sure. But he has proven me wrong! Today is his first day at school and he has his big boy pants on so I am keeping my fingers crossed that he does good!

Another funny story about Brody last week. After his nap (or what he calls, his "rest time") I went up to go get him and bring him down stairs. When I went into his room, he told me that his lovey was in the corner. I looked over and this is what I saw:

I asked him what happened and he said "I don't think lovey was listening so she is in time out!" It was hilarious! He was so matter of fact about it. He has such a great imagination! Here are a couple of pictures of him playing around with Molly and his cousins over the past week:

I love Brody's look in this picture. Molly was crying because Anthony and Ashleigh were trying to hold her back so we could get a picture of them. Brody looks like "I am not doing anything!"

Molly finally goes for her 12 week check up this week. She had an appointment scheduled last week, but since she still seemed sick, we decided to postpone her well check and get her checked out. Luckily, the antibiotics they had her on for the pneumonia seemed to knock that out, but she was still snotty and coughing. Well, she ended up having an ear infection so they put her on another antiobiotic to knock that out. Luckily, she is feeling much better. The only bad thing is that she hates this new medicine. The video below is how she reacts when she takes her medicine. Ted's mom was trying to feed it to her and take a look at her reaction once she gets some........

The last thing is today is my Dad's birthday. Unfortunately, he is spending it taking care of my Mom, who has gotten the stomach flu from all the rest of us who have been sick. It has gone through our family like crazy. Happy Birthday Dad! We will definitely celebrate this weekend when everyone is better!