The Little Princess :)

She's back! The little princess a little bit more grown up then when we saw her last summer (Lo siento... Dad has been busy with other projects - not that any come immediately to mind...). Big thank you to Nana from Molly for the most excellent custom princess dress complete with glittering rhinestones, a tiara (see below) and a wand. Molly spent the first few hours walking all around the house blessing things with her wand. Bless you Mama. Bless you Daddy. Bless you Cleo. Bless you Narwhal. Bless you Ladybug... You get the picture. Of course, now that Halloween has come and gone our little queen insists on wearing the costume constantly even though it is now crusted with food and milk from her eating exploits... no worries. "Put on. Princess dress. Princess Molly. Alright Molly! Put on. Princess dress. Alright Molly!" And repeat...

"Light. In there! Warm..."

Molly, Mama, and Daddy carved the first family pumpkin this year. It was so cute. Daddy and Molly scooping the pumpkin, Molly tracing the design, Daddy carefully guiding the knife as Molly made the delicate incisions of a future brain surgeon. The buttery smell of Mama's famous pumpkin seeds roasting in the oven... Pretty picture? Pure fiction. Molly wanted nothing to do with the "goop" in the pumpkin so Daddy had to do all the scooping. Actually, Molly wanted nothing to do with pumpkin carving all together so Daddy pretty much did it by himself why she played with her farm. And then Daddy cooked the pumpkin seeds... which were actually pretty good :). Yes, this segment is a Daddy pity party.

However, little Lash did like the matches which made the "little BABY fire" inside the pumpkin. She also loved going outside after dark to look at the glowing pumpkin, our neighbors electric bats, and the currently #1 object in Molly's life - the "Big MAMA moon" (read full moon... little lesson in Molly talk: small and large objects are either "little BABY" or "big MAMA"). Anyhow, Molly loves the moon and the stars right now and has to be taken out every night to look at them. Once outside, she commences to running around on the dark lawn yelling, "Jump over moon! Jump over moon! Big MAMA moon. Little BABY moon (crescent moon) at home having dinner. Big MAMA moon OUT. Moon and stars hiding during the daytime. Come OUT at night! Big MAMA moon. Jump over the moon..." And repeat...

The Princess Revisited

Here is the princess in all her glory. This picture was taken at Molly's Auntie Johanna's house where she visited with her dragon cousins and ate pumpkin pie (still on her dress - how do you clean a princess costume with rhinestones?). Anyhow, Molly trick-or-treated for the first time in the neighborhood and collected a good amount of candy which Mom and Dad quickly consumed after she went to bed. They were happy to report that they found no poison or razor blades in it... talk about taking one for the team!

Actually, the funniest thing about the candy was that Molly has a book called "Little Pea" about a pea that is forced by his parents to eat candy, which he hates, so that he can have his favorite food for dessert - spinach. While the pea eats the candy he says stuff like "Pleh, Yuck, and Ugh." So here's Molly, walking down the street looking at her basket of candy going "Candy. Pleh. Yuck. Ugh." Meanwhile, Melissa and I are smiling at each other convinced that we have truly pulled one over on our young daughter. And maybe we have... at least for the time being.

One Tired Little Girl...

All tuckered out. This was the second Halloween in a row that Molly refused to take a nap in preparation for his big night out with the other ghouls (girls - Ha-ha.). Also, probably the most hours she has stayed up straight in her entire life (14 hours). She was so tired by the time we got home that Elmo could have made her cry. She just about blew out her sinus cavity while we tried to bathe her. Regardless, we got her to bed and all lived to tell the tale. Hope everyone had as happy a Halloween as we all did! And to think... the holidays are just beginning!

Summertime in SoCal?

It must be almost summertime in southern California if little Lash is out on the front porch with her shirt off kicking back in her Elmo chair reading her favorite Barney Saltzberg novelette (thanks Jane, she still loves it). So classic... would you believe that Molly sat out there for half an hour perusing her literature until we dragged her inside for lunch :).

Summertime in SoCal (the backstory)!

The pictures don't even do it justice... I'm sitting on the front steps reading a magazine and Molly comes out the door, looks around and then points to her shirt and says "off". She promptly pulls her shirt over her head and tosses it casually to the side. She then goes back inside and drags her Elmo chair out onto the porch. She spends about five minutes positioning it "just right", goes back inside to get her books, and then sits there reading like an old lady for the next thirty minutes... She is so funny and so darn cute. She is such a BIG girl now!

Easter Egg Mania!

Lash had a wonderful Easter! Her friend Leif and parents Jen and Brent spent the night so Molly and her little buddy got to hang out quite a bit. Leif liked Molly's toys and Molly LOVED letting Leif play with them. In fact, she laughed so hard that she cried (and screamed) until little Leif gave them back.

The next morning, the MacDonalds hosted an Easter egg hunt for some friends. Lacey, Lucus, and Sienna all joined Molly and Leif for a romp around the yard. The concept of picking up the eggs was pretty much lost on the lot of them but it was pretty classic watching them charge around the lawn with baskets and balloons in their hands. Jesus, of course, was also entertained.

Later, the Macs went to "Ann-Mas", for an early dinner. This picture was taken out on Ann-Ma's patio where Mols has positioned herself with her rocking chair and books. Note that the pigtails are actually starting to look rather like tails. However, we now call them H1N1-tails as we are sympathetic to the plight of the pork industry.

Potty Training?

Molly and Grandpa ("Ann-Pa") review the basics of toilet training in her favorite book "A Potty for Me!". While still not using her Elmo toilet for it's intended purpose, Molly does enjoy dragging it out into Mom and Dad's bedroom where she can sit on it, look at herself in the full length mirror, and giggle. The Big Baby, however, is making progress. This morning she woke up drenched in urine so Mom and Dad promptly changed her PJs. Mols then astutely commented "Agua all gone." What more could we ask for from our little suckerfish?

New Tricks!

Molly showing all her teeth in Catalina!

The little baby is up to lots of new tricks... She has discovered multimedia and now insists that Sesame Street is on 24 hours a day. As you can imagine, her parents are thrilled that they have created a television junkie at such a young age and are currenly putting Molly through a ten step program to wean her off Elmo. Mols has also decided that music must be played when she is riding in the car - her music (which usually makes Dad want to poke his eyes out). Not only that, but she has preferences for certain songs and will tell you after about ten seconds of listening whether or not a song makes the cut (No = "Nah-Nah-Nah"). Such strong opinions at such a young age... I wonder where she gets that Mama?

The Big Race!

The suckerfish (she loves when I call her that) took her first boat trip to Catalina Island to catch Dad finishing the marathon. Mom and Mols were accomplanied by good friends Jen and baby Leif whose Dad Brent ran the race with Dad. After the race, the families cruised around town, smelled the flowers (literally), and ate lots of delicous foods. Later, Dad slept for about two days straight...

The Little Devil!

Here is another shot of the Mols in all her glory! Our little girl is all over the place these days (and quite fashionable too - thanks Mom!). Molly is very into books, her "Neigh-Neigh" (stuffed horse), and stacking empty diaper boxes to incredible heights! She is also picking up new words at an amazing rate. Recent acquisitions include "Abby" (the pink fairy from Sesame Street), "Tie" (Daddy's new uniform), "Easy" and "Avery" (the second being the name of a baby at daycare and the first describing the level of difficultly in getting Mom and Dad to do what she wants), and "Photosynthesis" (the process by which plants use their chloroplasts to convert sunlight into edible fructose).

Thinking About the Potty?

Maybe. Molly is still very interested in her potty and the fact that she has now taken to reading her news (upside down) near the potty seems like a positive sign. However, we still can't get the little thumb sucker to spend any significant amount of time actually sitting on her potty... what a debacle! If you have experience in these critical matters, feel free to offer your feedback!

Life is Good for Lash!

Here is a perfect little slice of Molly's life. Crusin' down the hallway of her new house in her pink convertible with her pigtails blowing in the breeze. She's got her "party shoes" in the trunk (shiny, black Mary Janes) and a pink toothbrush in her hand that she calls "Mimi" because it belongs to Mom and it is currently her favorite object in entire world (the blue toothbrush "Dada" is OK but not even in the same galaxy as "Mimi" - but what else is new?). Little Lash doesn't have a care in the world. She's out way past her curfew (6:30 p.m.) - and she didn't even bother to call ol' Dad. I'm telling you, they grow up too fast...

We Wish...

Not yet, but our little queen is getting ready for a throne of her own. She definitely has an interest and loves to visit the bathroom, point at the toilet, and say "Poop. Poop. Poop." What can I say? She has good role models...

Rockin' New Year

For New Year's (and Dad's 35th birthday - gulp!) the family went to Seattle and stayed with Nana and Jim. Molly loved this rocking chair and spent many long minutes (hey! that's a long time for a baby!) in it. Lash had a great time seeing her Nana, Aunts, and especially her cousins Daisy, Blue, Zoe, and Hank the Tank. Mols didn't quite make it to midnight on the 31st but she was with the family in spirit and the next day she joined the celebration of her Grandpa Dude whom we all miss very much.

Christmas in February?

Yep. It will have to do. With the big move to our first house and the new job the Blog is definitely not riding shotgun at this point. However, seeing as the state and federal government has blessed us with two three day weekends in a row and Molly is asleep (albeit with a low grade fever), it is time to do some updating.

Here is the family at Grandma Baltau's at Christmas. As you can see Mom is beautiful, baby is cute but squirmy, and Dad's collar is emulating it's favorite vampire. All in all, not a bad family photo :).