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!

1 Year Comparison

Okay.....here is a comparison of Brody and Molly at 1 year. As much as they looked alike when they were born, the older they get, the more they differ to me. What do you think?

Christmas 2010

Before I get into Christmas 2010, I thought I would recap what happened last week after Brody got pneumonia. Well, he didn’t go to school at all the week before last since he still had a fever so his first day back to school was this past Monday. On Sunday, Molly got a fever and was coughing a considerable amount. Then Sunday night, she started wheezing and it sounded like she had a hard time breathing. We almost took her to the ER that night but she fell asleep pretty early and slept good that night. I had already scheduled her 12 month appointment for Tuesday morning but I called Monday morning and they were able to see her right then. Well, guess what? Molly had pneumonia! Really? That is 4 people in my family within the month that had pneumonia! I couldn’t believe it. The only good thing was that her doctor said it was in the beginning stages so she was on an antibiotic and an inhaler like Brody. She seems to be doing much better, but I think the runny nose will be a staple this entire winter season.

So, if you are thinking that was it……..think again! That would be just too easy! On Wednesday night, Brody woke up around 12:00 and Ted went in there. I was still half asleep so I wasn’t sure when he got back to bed. The next time, it was around 1:00 when I heard him crying again. Ted went back in there and all I heard was “…..in the trash can!” I got up and headed towards his room, hoping I didn’t hear what I thought I did. I was hit half way down the hallway with that awful smell and when I got to his room, he had thrown up all over his room. Apparently he hadn’t gotten sick at 12:00 and Ted cleaned it up and then he went back to sleep. I went downstairs and got some pedialyte and he drank two glasses of it. I ended up sleeping with him just in case he got sick again. Luckily, he didn’t. Since he didn’t have a fever, he was acting fine Friday morning so we decided to send him to school. I was on high alert every time my phone rang on Friday, hoping it wasn’t the school calling me to tell me Brody got sick. But, it never happened. He was fine all day on Friday. It took him a couple of days to get his appetite back, but he seems to be much better. I guess he just ate something that didn’t agree with him (atleast that is what I am hoping). At this point, the rest of us seem to be doing fine.

So, anyway……that all happened the week before Christmas! Luckily, everyone was good and healthy for our Christmas celebration. My parents, Christy and the kids all came over Christmas Eve day and spent the night. That is our Christmas tradition so we can all get up in the morning and celebrate Christmas morning together and have our annual Christmas breakfast. As always, it was a great time. The kids of course were extremely excited and it was so much fun watching them open all their presents. Brody did understand Christmas a little more this year than last. Molly, of course, would have been happy with just a box and some paper! But, we all had a good time!

The best part of the day was that Brody did an awesome job of using the potty. We decided since there were many people at the house that we would put him in big boy underwear and get him to use the potty as much as possible. Well, we went through a couple pair of underwear in the morning, but he did a great job in the afternoon and had no accidents. Then today, we did it again and he had no accidents!!! I am so proud of him. I am off work this week since Brody’s school is closed and I am hoping that by the time he goes back, he will close to being potty trained during the day. I can’t even express how proud I am of him. And I love to see how excited he gets when he goes! He is so darn cute!

I am including some pictures from Christmas in another post! I hope everyone had a great weekend!