Spoon feeder Molly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaqt-kEKvS8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Coleman: 7 years old!

Coleman turned 7 in January.  He is a perfectly healthy little man.

Stats:
53.8 lbs  (63rd percentile)
48.5 inches (58th percentile)
100/58 bp
20/20 vision and perfect hearing.

I went to eat lunch at school with him on his birthday

Then over the weekend we had a bowling party.  Same place as last year, but he loved it and asked for it again!

This year we scaled back and asked him to choose only 4 friends (and cousin Matthew!) to come.  3 big birthday parties each year will get very costly!  Plus Coleman kind of has a bad end of the deal since his birthday is right after Molly’s birthday and CHRISTMAS!

But he had tons of fun

Buddy is just about to finish up basketball season.  We played in a league where there are 5 teams, and EVERY SINGLE team besides ours brought their entire team to play together.  Which left us with all the 4 and 5 yr olds   But we have an awesome coach, whose son is good at basketball like Coleman, and together they have done REALLY well, especially considering the competition.  He has learned a lot and improved a lot.  They have played zone defense, and actual positions on the court instead of just following the ball.  He’s a good little baller and has had many great games and points this season.  One game he scored 14 points, I think. 

He sure is really growing up and maturing into a very sweet and responsible little man.  This morning he woke up with his own alarm, got dressed, went downstairs and made EVERYONE lunches (4 sandwiches!  4 baggies with apples, oranges, and strawberries! and waters!) then he came up to let us know that he had done that (and wake us up!)  I love it when he’s focused and sweet like that…and it is getting to be more often.  I think it’s a maturity thing, and starting to get over that little boy rough and rowdiness.  He has been going to GT testing at school, but we haven’t received the results from that yet.  He is doing SO WELL in class this year.  He has only had a color change a couple of times, and is just mastering all his school work including math, spelling, reading and writing with little effort.  We are so proud of the boy he is becoming!

 

…but as Jeff was singing all morning in his annoying fake-country-singing-voice…. “Let em laugh, let em giggle, let em sleep in the middle!  Let them be little!” …

Yesterday Coleman was telling me that “it isn’t fair that there are 2 girls and one boy in our family!”  and of course he meant he’d like another boy, but I told him, “Yes you’re right…Poor Molly and Shelby have to share being the favorite girl and favorite sister, but you get to be everyone’s favorite boy and favorite brother!”  He kind of giggled and liked that answer. 

Molly Thirteen Months

Well, Molly has been ONE YEAR OLD for a month now, and she didn’t even get a one year post.  So she will have a 13 month post!

On her first birthday:

We had a family birthday party for Molly in Arkansas.  Of course I have lots of pictures and will have to post about that….one day!

Molly began walking around 10 months, so she is a pro now.  This girl has changed so much in the past 2 months, right around turning 1.  She says a lot of words, and has begun climbing up and down from chairs, couches, and anything else she can.  She is very close to being able to climb out of her crib, as she has her leg hiked up on the rail when we go in to get her these days. She climbs into this baby swing at Nonnie and Poppy’s house:

She LOVES to read books.  When we walk into the house, she starts saying “Book.  Book. Book.” and pointing at our glider and books next to it.  She will sit and read the same 2-3 books (just her favorites- the ones with lots of pictures) over and over for a long time.  She loves the animals in books and can already say some animal sounds: “Moo”, “Meow”, “Arf”, and she tried to make the elephant sound by blowing in her lips.  I also think she’s been trying to say “Baaa”.  She says the words dog and duck.

She is also obsessed with “Bites”…bananas in particular.  She loves most any food we give her, and prefers to eat from the time we get home from school until bedtime!  She is still nursing twice – three times a day.  I want to get her through the flu season.  So far this season, Jeff has had pneumonia, I had the flu, and Shelby and Coleman each ran high fevers for a day (I think they were fighting off the flu) but Molly has hardly even had a runny nose!  She was fussy for a while when her 1 yr molars were coming in, but who wouldn’t be?!  She seems to be better now, they must have stopped hurting so much.

She is so much more aware of everything and is learning every day.  She gives me her feet when I say “Let’s put your shoes on” and she walks over to the glider and climbs up in it when I as her if she wants Milk (where we nurse.)  She is pretty good about stopping whatever she’s doing when told NO, and coming to me when I ask her to.  She will pick up something off the floor to put in her mouth, but if I tell her, “NO, that’s trash.” she will head over and put it in the trash can instead.  However, when she lays on her changing table, she likes to grab the attached mirror and rattle it.  This is an antique furniture piece that probably shouldn’t be rattled.    I have told her no, so now every time she grabs the mirror, looks at me, SMILES, SHAKES HER HEAD NO, and proceeds to shake and rattle it.  Already trying to find out about rules and how far she can go with them!

She LOVES the dogs and leans over to them with an open mouth to give kisses.  This morning she climbed into Mary’s bed with her and hugged her, saying “Daw Daw” (dog)  Last Sunday we took the kids to the zoo, and it was Molly’s first time there.  She walked a lot of the time, and was very good.  No fussing or crying. 

Last night we went to the rodeo, and she was really into watching the horses parade in front of us.  This is a bad picture but I love her cute little profile!  She still has chubby cheeks and dimples!

 

She likes to watch Baby Einstein videos, and smiles, claps, and sits down indian style in front of the tv when I start one.  Or she’ll let me cover her up to cuddle.

She uses the little lovies that are small blankets with heads attached…but they have to be the kind with satin on the edges!  She sleeps with it shoved in her mouth.  (Teeth marks left over from Shelby- Molly did not do those!) 

Molly takes 2 1-1.5 hour naps a day, and still goes to bed very well, by just being put into her bed awake.  She has been an inconsistent through-the-night sleeper, but nothing too bad.  Sometimes she will wake up at 4:00 wanting to nurse, but then goes straight back to bed.  She doesn’t love drinking cow’s milk but seems to be getting a little better about it.

She smiles and waves bye bye when it’s time to leave in the morning, and goes into Theresa’s house with smiles and open arms.  We are starting to teach her about her face (hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth) and she has been coloring at Theresa’s as well.  She loves to go to Sissy to be held, and laughs when her bubba tickles her and chases her.

She loves to sing and dance.  There is just no other way to say it: Molly is a HAPPY GIRL!  And if she’s not, it’s because she wants something, and once she gets it, she is HAPPY once again! haha.

I made a little list of the words I can think of that she says consistently:

Bite
Banana (only says this whole word or Nana sometimes)
Book
Meow
Moo
Elephant sound
Bubba
Nawnaw (Nonnie)
Pop pop (Poppy)
Mama
DaDa
Daw (Dog)
Duck
Hi
Bye
Out
Up
Night night
Shhh (shoe)

Colemanisms

Coleman, instead of saying "Yes Ma'am" one day, said "Yes Ma'ammry" a la "Yes sirree".  I told him maybe he shouldn't say that because Mammaries are breasts, the part that makes milk.  Since then, he has ONLY said, "Yes Mammary!"

Reading a Christmas book:
Coleman: "God is Jesus's father?"
Us: "Yes."
Coleman: "So then he was married to Mary?"
Us: "No."
Coleman: "THEN HOW IS HE HIS FATHER!?!?!"

He got new shoes, so I told him to bring me my phone so I could send a picture to Daddy.  He got my phone then asked me,
"Mom, do I just open the camera?"
M: "Give it to me.  I will do it."
C: "No Mom, I can take a SELFIE!" 

This is an assignment he brought home from school one day:

Girl Time

Daddy and Coleman were gone on Sunday and Molly was napping. So Shelby set us up a picnic spa area in the backyard and we had lunch and painted nails.

Hikin’ in the City

One day when the kids were out of school, Jeff and I were both off in the afternoon to hang with the kids.  We had planned to go on a hike and started heading toward Eagle Mountain Lake, but decided at the last minute to stay super close to home, hang a right on Rufe Snow and head to explore Bear Creek park, which is less than 10 minutes from our house.  It was a great find…a treasure so close to our home!

It was absolutely perfect weather.  Daddy strapped on Molly (in his awesome sleeveless t-shirt) and we headed out to find a non-paved trail.

 

Coleman wasn’t in the greatest mood to start out.  He has been through some allergy issues and in just a couple weeks of staying indoors, got really used to being sedentary and playing video games.  We all do it, ya know…getting out of the habit of exercise/getting out, and think we’d rather just stay in.  But that’s no good!  This was our first time after his allergy episodes to venture back out with him.

…but once we found a good ol’ trail he perked right up.

I think it’s so cool that this “rustic” area is so close to our house.

 

We found a little twig we tried to Tarzan-swing on.

 

Coleman was the only one weighing light enough to actually carry it out.

   

A good ol’ fun family time was had by all!  And they have a really cool playground too!

Sleepy baby

It is very rare that this baby falls asleep in someone's arms.  With the time change she is a sleepy girl at 6:30!  So I am enjoying it.