It's that time of year, so Molly has been helping us get ready for Christmas. Last weekend, after we picked up our tree, Molly helped Mommy put some decorations on the tree.

In the movie clip below, you'll also see that we went to the campus movie theater for a little music and some holiday-themed video shorts - and, surprise, surprise, Santa was there! He joined the band at the front of the theater for a song and spent some time high-fiving all of the kids. Molly made her way up to the front, and, just after the video ends (I didn't want her to get in Santa's way so I stopped filming to go get her), Santa came up to high five her. She completely stiffed him and stared at him instead.

 

Also last weekend, Molly helped Mommy paint some decorations

This weekend, we tried very hard for some good pictures to use on our Christmas cards for this year... here's one attempt, that may or may not make the cut.

Then we decided to go to the Grandview Heights library for the first time to check out some books - and - it just happened to be the day that Santa was visiting, so we decided to make a morning of it. Despite having already met Santa the weekend before, Molly was still a little unsure about what the guy in the red suit was all about. She didn't cry, she just looked a little bit spooked and uncomfortable the whole time. She also didn't seem too keen on being placed in his lap - so this is as close as she got.

But, she's been practicing saying "santa claus" and "frosty snowman" and I'm sure that will continue. She's also been watching old Frosty the Snowman and Suzie Snowflake videos with Mommy, and old California Raisins Claymation Christmas Special clips with Daddy - so she's in the holiday mood.

"Horsey song"

The other week we came into Molly's classroom to find the kids all huddled around the computer in their jackets. They had all just piled in from playing outside and were clearly anxiously awaiting something on the computer. That something turned out to be the William Tell Overture and the image of a horse running. Once the music started all the kids started dancing, bouncing, even galloping around the room. It was pretty darn cute! Since then it's become part of their routine and Molly, in particular, always requests the "horsey song" when them come in from outside. Then when we pick her up she makes sure to tell us "horsey song all done", so that we know she got to listen and see the horsey song!

Here's a little clip I managed to get when we picked Molly up one day. The kids aren't quite as animated, but enough so that you can get the idea. Molly's the one in the purple puffy coat and the monkey hat.

Interest in the potty!

We went up to Chicago for Thanksgiving with grandma & grandpa. Molly had a great time & I think provided tons of entertainment for all! While we were up there, Molly got to check out two of the little potties that my parents had picked up from friends. Molly took a fast interest in checking them out & within a day or so was imitating "making pee-pee on the potty". We were very encouraged, although we're not going to push it with Molly. It's still pretty early. However, after the new year, Molly's teachers are going to open up the bathroom attached to their classroom for the kids to start to explore. Their bathroom is designed with little kids in mind. We're excited to see how the kids take to the bathroom and the idea of going on the potty! We brought back one of the little potties from grandma & grandpa's so we'll be ready in case she decides she's ready to move on from diapers.

Here's a little clip of Molly trying out the potty!

Mom mom and Pop pop's visit

Like Lauren said, we're way behind with blog posts. I got a new camera that shoots HD video and was learning exactly how to edit (shorten) videos, get them downloaded and then post them online. So here's my first attempt. It probably won't look HD because I downloaded it in a lower resolution.

This is from waaaaay back in early November when Mom mom and Pop pop came out to visit.

It's been so long that it's actually hard to remember exactly what we did. I know that Molly had a lot of fun with mom mom while pop pop and daddy were putting together a railing for the front steps!  We also went to the Blendon Woods Metropark and got to see some ducks and other birds. We had fun running through the leaves (as you can see in the video below) and - as always - sitting down to read a book (also in the video below). I hope this works...

Perfect birthday gift...

So I'm way overdue with some posts of Molly! I've got a backlog that I need to write about, but thought I'd quickly share a cute post. Today is my birthday. I've gotten a lot of nice birthday wishes, but none beats this this birthday wish...

The Count....

We just started letting Molly explore some kid's learning apps on our IPad. There are quite a lot of cool and interesting apps out there for kids and I'm starting to see how easy it could be to get hooked on or resort to these sorts of electronic forms of "play" and learning. Not that we think they're "bad", but personally, while we can, we're going to limit her exposure. Still it's been fun & Molly seems to enjoy it.

One of Molly's favorite apps is "I Hear Ewe", which is an app which teaches kids the sounds that different animals or objects makes. So we'll ask Molly "can you tap the X", she taps it and then it makes the sound that the animal or object makes. Interestingly, Molly's favorite objects to identify and hear the sounds of are transportation-related objects, like cars, planes, trains, fire trucks and her favorite, the ambulance. Although we have to correct the app's pronunciation of "ambulance" which they literally pronounce as "ambelance"! When she'd like to play on the IPad, she points to the mantel where we usually keep it and say "woo, woo" or "ambulance" to ask for it.

We recently downloaded an app recommended by Aunt Meg, called Count TV. This is a Sesame Street app with The Count teaching kids the numbers 1 - 10. Not sure Molly's learning the numbers but she has quickly picked up the Count's laugh. Here's a little clip...

Halloween recap!

Molly had a much better Halloween this year than last, which she spent at the doctor's office because of an eye cold. I think I already mentioned that Molly was going to be a kitty cat this year. Fortunately she was agreeable & happy to wear the costume, which kept her nice and warm on this cold and rainy Halloween. We just walked up and down our block so Molly could see the other kids out and about and then hung out in front of our house passing out candy. We actually didn't get many trick-or-treaters, which was a bit disappointing. It suprised us given that there are plenty of kids on our block. However, our neighbor told us that all the kids go over to another part of Grandview where a handful of houses give out full sized candy bars. So the majority of trick-or-treaters we got were those passing through on their way to the "bigger and better" houses and treats. Oh well...

Still we made the best of it & Molly seemed to have a good time. Here are a few pictures.

 Neko, take 2!

Molly & Jeremy...

Our pumpkins all lit up! We especially liked our pumpkin that looked like a toothless old lady, i.e. the pumpkin that must have had a cord wrapped around the middle of it when it was growing.

Molly & mom!

And finally a little video clip of Molly excitedly running up and down the street showing off her kitty costume! Happy Halloween everyone!

Painting & carving pumpkins!

On Sunday, we started to prepare our pumpkins for Halloween. Jeremy worked on carving and Molly helped with scooping out the seeds.

After that Molly worked on painting her own little pumpkin, with her eyes closed! No, not really she just happened to have her eyes closed in the picture. ;)

Here's a little video of Molly painting her pumpkin and also her belly!

Molly's final master piece...

PJ Friday!

Today was "PJ day" at daycare! Very cute to drop Molly off and see all the kids and the teachers in pajamas! One of the many fun and creative things that Molly's teachers do in the classroom. I'm hoping the teachers will send along pictures of the kids, but in case they don't we got a picture of Molly in her owl PJs & mom (for once!) before I dropped her off.

Turn & back it up...

Molly continues to be quite the character, or at least to me she seems like quite the character! For example, last weekend we were playing catch with the ball or maybe it turned into something more like monkey in the middle with Molly running back and forth between Jeremy and I while we tossed the ball. Anyway, all of a sudden Molly started with her backwards walking which she often finds very amusing to do. This time, however, she tossed a spin or turn in the repertoire. I have no idea why! But these are the sorts of quirks about Molly that I just adore; these glimpses of her individuality giving us insights into this amazing little person of ours! Here's a clip of Molly "doing her thing"... To be clear, even though I was narrating her turns in the video, she started doing this all by herself. I was just encouraging her to continue so that I could get it on camera!

Visiting Philly (a while ago)

Hi all - Jeremy is back "guest-blogging". It's been a while since I've posted anything. Lauren has pretty much taken over the reins since Molly was about 3 months old.

We've been a bit busy around the house with work, and doing things around the house, and getting ready for halloween. So, this post is a bit delayed. It's been almost a month since we've been back, but we all went out east to Philly for a wedding for my friend Josh's wedding. The trip included Molly's first trip on an airplane and Molly's first weekend without mommy and daddy, since we decided to go to the wedding childless (which was probably a good idea for everyone involved).

Molly did great on both flights (Lauren was well prepared for any and every occurrence with plenty of food, play dough, markers, books, toys, flash cards, and in case of emergency, her iPhone). Molly also did great over the weekend with mom-mom and pop-pop and their helpers Libby and Carter. She got to go to the Please Touch Museum and Upper Dublin Community Day, and took several trips to the park. Here are some highlights from the trip (courtesy of mom-mom and pop-pop).


Look - I can find my belly-button even when my eyes are closed!

You can't go wrong reading to Molly...

Or feeding her goldfish - thanks Libby

Taking a break from running around the yard

Taking Libby for a ride!

A rare photo with all the kiddos looking at the camera...

It was a great weekend back east - Molly still wakes up asking about mom-mom and pop-pop.

Enjoying Fall!

We've all been enjoying fall... the cooler weather, falling leaves, pumpkin picking, etc. At school the kids have been exploring the fall leaves in their exploratory table; feeling the textures, crumbling them as they dry, looking at the colors, etc. At home, Molly's been exploring the leaves as Jeremy attempts to rake them up in the yard! In other words, she, like most kids, loves running through and jumping in piles of leaves. Here are a few pictures and a couple of videos of Molly playing in the leaves last week.

And some video...

"More leaves" daddy...

inspiration for Halloween...

For the last month, I've been frequently visiting Trader Tot's, our local, second hand kid's clothing shop, in search of a Halloween costume for Molly. Finally, last weekend I found the perfect costume! The idea was inspired by the very friendly and loud stray cat that has moved onto our block. Well more specifically, it seems to have claimed the front porches of our house and our two neighbors. Anyway, as I mentioned this cat has a very loud meow, which Molly LOVES to imitate and actually imitates quite well. So you can probably guess that Molly will be a cat for this Halloween.

Here's a little video of Molly trying very hard to catch up to the kitty to pet her. You can hear Molly imitating the cat as she crawls up the stairs, but you'll have to listen closely. The cat, however, you should hear loud & clear!

Cheers!

A few weekends ago, we were out to dinner with our friends Ted, Sabrina & Ellie where Molly learned how to "cheers" with her sippy cup. Since then, Molly enjoys trying to "cheers" with mom & dad, "cheers" herself with two cups, "cheers" her cup with a fork, etc. I tried to get a little clip of it this morning. The video doesn't do her enthusiasm for "cheers" justice, but you should get the picture.

Names...

Sorry for the delay in posts lately... We were out of town last weekend for a wedding and then have been participating in a conference for most of the week. So we haven't had a ton of time behind our computers. We'll do a proper post on Molly's weekend with mom mom and pop pop Brooks and cousins Libby & Carter soon, but I first need to get the pictures from Jeremy. In the meantime I thought I'd post a little video of Molly "talking" about her other cousin, Hunter!

Molly's been doing really well with names lately. Admittedly, often only we know who's name Molly is actually saying, i.e. we'd need to interpret her words for other people! But still it's fun to watch Molly start to look at pictures of family and say the name of who's in them without us prompting her. It's also fun to ask Molly which friends she's going to see at school and see who she's excited to tell you about. Typically Molly always mentions "Addi" first. "Addi" is Adelaide, who I think is Molly's good buddy in her classroom. After that it's usually "Tom" but I think it's because she likes saying his name, which she says in this low pitched voice.

Yesterday, Molly took her box of pictures, grabbed the one of her and cousin Hunter on the swings and promptly pointed at the picture & said "Hunter"! There was no questioning what she said either. I managed to get her to do it again, although it's a little hard to hear. Just make sure to have your volume turned up!

Molly the nurturer...

Molly's really showing a nurturing side lately! She loves to take her dolls or animals and swaddle them in a blanket and then rock or pat them. She  loves to offer her babies, stuffed animals, lego figurines, etc. some of her milk or food. She also loves to be patted herself or to pat others or even to pat herself! We'll see her on the video monitor in the morning patting her bottom and saying "ahhh, ahhhh...." & apparently she does it at school too. Here's a little clip of Molly patting daddy yesterday morning... very cute!

Daddy's the fun one!

Daddy's definitely the fun parent in our household! I wonder if that's true in most households? But I'm okay with that, especially when I get to watch scenes like these which keep me smiling for days.

Uh-oh... spaghetti-O!

Just a short one today... Molly's been saying "uh-oh" for a few weeks now, which is always funny in my book! We started saying "uh-oh... spaghetti-o" back to her to see if she'd pick that up too, which of course she did. You'll hear her repeat it over and over, but of course, I'm never quick enough to get it on video. Here I managed to catch one clear clip of Molly saying it while getting her hands washed after dinner. Admittedly, it sounds more like "uh-ho... pa deh deh dO" but not bad!

Enjoy!

"Night, night"

One of Molly's favorite games right now is playing "night, night". They've been doing this at school now for a few weeks & Molly loves it. She'll either do "night, night" by laying herself down on a blanket, but more often she plays "night, night" with baby dolls and will rock them to sleep. Apparently, part of this game is to teach kids how to nurture and recognize others' emotions. Here's a little clip of Molly playing "night, night" with grandpa Joe when they were in town two weeks ago.

Grandview Ox Roast

Last weekend we went to the annual Ox Roast in Grandview Heights. It's a three-day community festival run entirely by volunteers to benefit Grandview schools. It's called the "ox roast" not because the park where it's held is on Oxley Road, but rather because they, indeed, roast an ox! On Friday night, after the Grandview High School football game, the team comes to light the bonfire that roasts the ox overnight. Then on Saturday, they serve up ox sandwiches!

We went on Saturday with our friends Ted and Sabrina and their 2 year old daughter, Ellie. We went in time for some live country music and a dinner feast of ox sandwiches! The girls had a great time dancing to the music. Here's a little clip of Molly doing the hokey pokey to some country tunes. Her downward dog pose is Molly actually doing "you put your head in, you put your head out...".

While Molly's dancing is pretty darn cute in my opinion, the cutest and funniest part of the evening was Molly serving as a good luck charm for Ellie and then later a few more kids! I think the video speaks for itself...

visit from grandma & grandpa!

Grandma & grandpa Pintor came for a visit over Labor Day weekend! Molly had a blast & I was very grateful to have them there with Jeremy out of town Fri-Sunday. Molly showed them the in's and out's of COSI on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon grandma and grandpa took Molly for a short walk & discovered a great little hidden playground behind the houses across the street from us. We couldn't believe we never noticed it!

Here's Molly on the swings with grandma...

It was a rainy weekend so there was lots of time spent reading books...

And lots of time looking for grandpa's belly button and tickling him!

When Molly wasn't keeping grandpa busy inside, Molly was directing grandpa on how to properly hang the storm door on the side of the house. "Little Miss Bossy Pants" as grandma started to call her.

Overall, a very fun weekend for all! Thank you grandma & grandpa for coming to visit! Love & miss you...

Peet-a-ba....

Molly's been really trying hard lately to repeat words. Yesterday when we picked her up from school, her teacher Paula said that Molly really loves to name things and people. The words or names don't quite sound the way they should but often over time you figure it out if Molly doesn't simultaneously point to the thing she's trying to say. We, along with her teachers, have been working on two word phrases a bit as well. So instead of just "bye", we'll say "bye Paula". Not there yet, but the one phrase (if you count it as a "phrase") Molly has started saying is "peek-a-boo". However, in Molly-speak it's "peet-a-ba" or "peet-a-boo"! Here's a little clip....

Chase me!

In the past couple of weeks, Molly's been picking up the pace and starting to run from point A to point B. Often her running involves one of us chasing her and the other providing a base of safety, which she'll throw herself into. It also often involves Molly squealing in delight as she's running, which has not been appreciated by Neko who was finally starting to warm up to the idea of being in the same room as Molly. Oh well... Here are two clips of Jeremy chasing Molly with the broom (which she also thinks is great fun!) & Molly running into the safety of mommy's arms. And yes, in the second video she did take a bit more of an unplanned tumble at the end, but was just fine and got up for more chasing.

Down & Dirty!

So today I get off easy with putting a post together for Molly because I'm just going to steal the little update that Molly's teachers sent around about what they were up to this morning! Before that, I'll just briefly say that Molly seems to be really enjoying her new daycare. Everyday she comes home so chatty and happy! And she always comes home covered in something they've been playing with that day and often having gone through many changes of clothes. Her teachers always say that they like to get "down and dirty" in the classroom. Yesterday, she literally went through four pairs of pant and three shirts! Most often the culprit is playing in muddy puddles, the sprinkler, the sand box, ooblek, marker or paint. The email we got today came complete with pictures that'll give you a little insight into Molly's day to day at OSU's daycare!

Daily Activities...
Early this morning, we continued exploring sand in our sensory table using toy cars and tractors. We also did a collaborative crayon drawing on the table (some of the crayon may have made it on to the walls as well…oops!). We spent the better part of the morning outside. We set up a pastel painting idea on the easel that also turned in to a body painting idea. Then, we rinsed off by running through the sprinkler and stomping in puddles! Before lunch, we sang songs together as a group and read some of our favorite books. Have a great day!

Happy Birthday, Dada!

This past weekend was quite a festive one with a kid's birthday party Saturday morning, a friend's BBQ on Saturday night and daddy/Jeremy's birthday on Sunday! Of course, Molly was most excited about dada's birthday!

Dada's birthday started off with a yummy breakfast at Katalina's Cafe.

Afterwards we headed to the topiary park in downtown Columbus. The park is a topiary interpretation of George Seurat’s famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte. Some of you (like me!) might know this painting best as the painting in Ferris' Bueller's Day Off that Cameron stared into at the Art Institute. It was a pretty cool little park, actually! Here are a few pictures. Hopefully you can see some of the topiaries in the background.

After the topiary park, it was off to the water fountain park in the heart of downtown Columbus along the Scoito River walk. Molly had a blast! We didn't come totally prepared, i.e. we didn't have her bathing suit & it was still a little cool, so she only lasted about 15 minutes or so before she started to get cold. But she loved it! Can't wait to go back. Here are a few pictures & a little video clip.

We ended the day with some Jeni's ice cream. Who needs birthday cake when you can get cantaloupe ice cream! While it didn't compare with daddy's homemade cantaloupe milkshakes, it was still pretty good. Overall, hopefully a good birthday celebration for dada!

Walking the alligator...

It just occurred to me that there are a few toys of Molly's that have been meant for when she's walking that she's only explored really before she started walking. For example, she has a very cute little wooden alligator from mom mom & pop pop Brooks that's a pull toy for kids to pull along side them when they walk. She's really only played with it by pushing it back and forth while she's sitting down. So of course when I showed her she could now hold the string and pull it around with her when she walks, she picked it up right away. But as with many new experiences, Molly took it very seriously and once again, proceeded to pace the floor practicing pulling along her alligator. She had the most serious expression on her face the entire time! Hopefully with more practice she'll see it as a fun activity rather than a task she has to perfect. Funny child!

What do you think... is she ready to walk a dog?? ;) The second really short clip captures her expression a bit better.

Monkey shining...

Not sure if it's vanity or just pure amusement, but Molly enjoys checking herself out in mirrors! I think often she's watching herself doing something new. For example, she's started to realize that she can walk backwards and as with most new things, she likes to practice over and over. The cutest thing about her learning to walk backwards is that she can now backup into your lap, often with a book in hand and the expectation that you'll read to her!

Here are two clips of Molly monkey shining and walking backwards in front of the mirror at the base of our steps.

Another gardener is born...

Molly loves to "help" dada in the garden, especially with the tomatoes! Helping usually involves moving the rocks around, but also picking the grape tomatoes ripe or unripe. Grape tomatoes are a favorite of Molly's. Our larger, heirloom tomatoes are also now in full production, so of course Molly has to help dada harvest them. Unfortunately Molly hasn't been able to taste many of them yet, but hopefully soon. She had a bit of a sour stomach for a few days last week & although she's feeling better, we're staying clear of citrus for another day or two. In the meantime, here are some pictures of Molly the gardener...