Molly is One

We had so much fun celebrating Molly's first birthday this weekend! 

We are just crazy about this little lovey. 

I'll do a separate post about her birthday party, but I wanted to write a little about what Molly is like at a year old (so I can remember). 

The Lord surely knew what I needed in this baby's temperament when he sent me Molly. With Jules being pretty young when Molly was born and still demanding a lot of attention (as most 19-month-olds do), I have been so thankful to have had a baby who just rolls with the punches. You can often find Molly in hers or Juliette's room, playing contentedly with toys, looking through books by herself, or crawling around to find something to get into. She is pretty good at keeping busy by herself, but you better watch her because she loves to put ANY tiny bits of whatever she finds on the floor into her mouth (this includes: crumbs of food, dust bunnies, pieces of paper, bits of leaves or grass, etc.). Yum.

She has been pulling up and cruising for ages, but is just (in the last three-four days) starting to let go more often and take more than a couple of steps on her own. She always does so smiling really big before getting to her destination (me), and falling into my arms. 

Already, she does not like being told no. She will either a) get her feelings hurt and cry giant alligator tears, or b) arch her back and throw her head back and start crying. Eeeesh. Amazing how quickly they can develop little tempers! 

She will eat just about anything. Her favorites are cheese, bananas, cheerios, Lara bars, turkey bacon, eggs, or crackers with hummus. The only things I can think of that she really doesn't like are blackberries or strawberries, sadly. She still nurses in the morning and evening and gets two bottles during the day at school. I'm not sure if I see an immediate end to the morning/evening sessions (which I don't mind in the least). She will only really nap once/day at school unfortunately, but still takes 2 on Saturdays (for the most part). Because of the nap situation, she is tired very early in the evenings and goes to sleep around 6:45 or earlier, and sleeps until around 6/6:30 AM. 

Molly loves to dance to music, clap her hands, and generally be "in" on the party. No one is funnier than her big sissy, who can in fact be (yes, still) pretty rough with her sometimes. This never fazes Molly...I guess because it's been her lifelong trial. She just smiles real big and laughs whenever she gets wrestled to the ground or put in a headlock if we can't get to her rescue fast enough.

She doesn't have many words yet but babbles all the time. "Hi" and "bye" are the main ones, but she says something akin to "Dada," and I think I'm "Baba" for now. She can sign for "please," "more," and "all done" at this point. She wears a size 4 diaper and 12-18m clothes (still working on getting her to keep shoes on!).

Since I really dropped the ball on monthly updates (blah blah second baby), I thought I'd put these photos into a collage, for posterity's sake. My collage skills are lacking as you can see, but I love watching her grow! It went by in the blink of an eye.

She is an easy one to celebrate. I can't wait to watch her little personality develop even more.

Happy birthday sweet Molly!

Thank you to Auntie E for our precious handmade quilt! A treasure indeed.

A 2nd First Birthday

My baby turns one in a couple of days.

When Juliette turned one, I was 10 weeks pregnant with Molly already. This fact (wonderful surprise though it was) really helped me deal with all of the conflicting emotions surrounding Juliette's first birthday. I was mentally relieved somehow that I would get to do this baby thing again...because I wasn't ready for it to be over. Like any first-time mom, I was equal parts bursting with pride and wanting to dissolve in tears over this child whose infancy was ending. It was all very emotional and like I said, I was pregnant (wonder if that had anything to do with it?).

This time is so different! Molly is still such a baby (in the best way!). Jules probably was too at her birthday, but she was the biggest kid I'd ever had when she turned one, and I thought at the time that she was "so big." But hello! Molly still needs me a lot (duh), and her signs of independence are relatively few compared to her very busy and opinionated older sister. Plus, now I know how much FUN comes after the first birthday.

I'm also not quite as wistful for thinking "a year ago, I was still pregnant at this time" blah blah blah. It's still fresh enough in my memory to not quite miss it... yet.  :)

So, we're putting together a little birthday party for little sissy (which I will share, whether or not it comes together as I imagine)..."Molly Madness," if you will.

Stay tuned!

The Snow/Ice Cometh

Sunday, the temperature sat at 33 degrees for hours while it poured rain. Overnight, the water turned to ice and was followed by some snow, resulting in slippery roads and cancelled daily activities for all four of us. We loved spending the day at home together.

I love [non-sick] days at home with my girls and their daddy. We made pancakes, played, and enjoyed not having anywhere to be.

Molly is going through a fairly Mommy-loving/clingy phase. Juliette never went through it to this extent, and I can't say I really mind it. You should've seen the look on her face while we were all playing today, climbing into my lap over and over, smiling and just glad to be home.

I haven't had the opportunity to stay home full-time with my kiddos, so when snow days or sick days happen and any cabin fever sets in, I have to remind myself that "being home" every day doesn't look like these days (meaning, you are not homebound daily when it's your norm). They are exceptional days for everyone. 

Sue me, but I love winter. I love how pretty snow is. I love enjoying steamy soup for lunch and dinner. I love crackling fires and decaf coffee. I love that it's March and we [finally] got our snow day. 

FRIDAY EVE

This whole week, I've felt like it was supposed to be the next day (when it was Tuesday, it felt like Wednesday and so on), so I am extra glad to see Friday tomorrow.

One fantastic part of this week was this video... as I've mentioned, Juliette is not much of a TV or movie watcher, but she does love music videos. This is a gem her daddy introduced to her -- I emerged from putting Molly to sleep one night this week, and she did her version of the choreography for me. Classic. It's been forever since I'd seen the Three Amigos, but this is funny even if you don't remember the movie. Envision a two-year-old trying to do these moves ...uh, yeah.

Enjoy:

Waiting

I may be the only one, but I've enjoyed this cold winter.

Winter has been this apt and weird parallel for this season of life we're in right now...waiting.

(If unfamiliar, you can read more about our journey of my husband's schooling here.)

We're on the month countdown to Match Day, that springy, sunny-in-my-mind, vibrant, giddy day (that maybe includes some sort of sundress, because in my mind it's warm and lovely?), where everyone opens their envelope and finds out where they'll be for residency. This winter has brought lots of evenings at home in front of a fire, dreaming and scheming with my dear husband and life partner about what waits for us after graduation.

March 21st - that date that's been on our minds for months now, is now drawing near. Right now is that weird stretch of time right before you find out big news... you can't help your own ignorance, but you know the time of Knowing is drawing near. Like in the weeks when you're pregnant but you don't know yet if it's a girl or a boy... and when you find out it's a girl (in our case), you mentally look back at your unenlightened self and think, how could I ever thought this baby was anything but a girl? (Taking it a step further--then you meet your baby, and you think about how you pictured that baby while she was in utero, and realize that your wildest imaginings, in their ignorance, fell quite short of the real thing. You do this twice.)

So we wait. Less than four weeks until we find out where we'll be living for the next three years. Just like that, we'll open the envelope, and we'll KNOW! Even if we stay here, things will change, which is exciting. Jonathan will change from student to resident (most notably from negative income to positive income). Another step of our journey completed.

Anytime in life I'm asked to wait on something, I think about one of my favorite scriptures--which never really made sense to me until I was an adult going through not only times of waiting expectantly, but also loss.

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have also been fully known" (1 Cor. 13:12, NASB).

My eyes always sting with tears whenever I read this passage, thinking of how we work so hard at living our lives in this world, which is really but a poor, dingy reflection of the glorious time that awaits us with God. (And then I think, with some longing, of all of my loved ones who have gone before me to that place where they see "face to face.")

Please don't misunderstand my serious tone with this--we've really been enjoying life despite these months of waiting/uncertainty. The sweetness of watching our girls grow, time together as a family, deepening in our friendships and learning more about the world and ourselves--it's been a good season. God has really shown kindness in removing a lot of anxiety from this last part of the process for me, for which I am very thankful.

Stay tuned!