"Sooooo big!"

Soooo big!! For the past few days, we've been working with Molly on "so big". In other words, we ask Molly "how big is Molly?" and then put our hands up in the air and say "so big" or raise her arms up & say "so big". Molly's teachers also do the same with her as a way to get her to put her hands up when putting her tray onto her highchair (i.e. so they don't accidentally pinch her hands with the tray). Here's Molly's progress so far... Not only does she happily raise her hands in the air, but then simultaneously applauds herself for doing so! Not bad for 9 months old!

"Now remember, you two are cousins..."

I'm still sifting through pictures from last weekend's trip to mom mom & pop pop Brooks' house to share with you all, but in the meantime we have a pretty cute video to share of Molly and her cousin Carter. This was the first time we all got to meet Carter, who is a month older than Molly. He is quite a cuddly, little lover! And with his striking blue eyes, is for sure to knock the socks off of the ladies (or boys if he chooses!) when he's older! Molly had a really good time with her cousins, despite recovering from her cocktail of illnesses. Although we tried to reduce the spread of Molly's germs, clearly we didn't do a good job in this video. But it was hard to stop the cute kisses & cuddles...

Can't catch a break....

We've had a lot of excitement the last several days, both good & bad. The good is that we had a fun visit with all the cousins this past weekend & we'll make sure to write about that later once we find some good pictures to share with you all. The bad is that while Molly is on the mend, she hasn't been able to catch a break with being sick.

Started with a double ear infection..

Followed by three days of a high fever & then a nice rash on her face and torso... a.k.a. roseola

Followed by RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) that brought some sleepless nights because of persistent coughing & eventually wheezing and labored breathing. Fortunately, Molly's symptoms weren't as bad as some of the other children in her classroom but she still needed to use a nebulizer for a few days to help clear her lungs. Amazingly she sat pretty well for her treatments. We were supposed to just put the nebulizer up near her mouth to breath in but Molly didn't seem to mind it in her mouth, which was even better.

A day later, Molly seemed much better until she developed, yet another rash! This time it was on her cheeks, arms & legs. We're still not positive what this was from but our best self-diagnosed guesses are a reaction to the antibiotics she was on for the ear infection or fifth disease (another common viral rash).

Fortunately, the rash is starting to clear up and there's only the occasional cough. Molly's starting to seem like her old self & had definitely regained her appetite which is good. Hopefully another day or two and she'll be good as new & with a iron clad immune system!

Ka-ka-ka...

Molly's still recovering from roseola and has a wonderful sounding cough, but has been fever free since Sunday fortunately. However, we're on pins & needles waiting to see if her cough turns into something more serious. Sadly, 75% of the kids in Molly's classroom at daycare have been out with RSV, bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Very scary & we're wishing them all a speedy recovery.

Fortunately, Molly's appetite for solids is recovering & we occasionally get a glimpse of our little chatterbox. Before Molly got sick she was really starting to talk up a storm! She primarily "ka-ka's"over and over again as if she's really trying to tell you about something. Now the ka-ka's are mixed with "ga-ga's". We're pretty sure the "ka-ka" started because of our cat, "Neko". She'd say "ka" whenever Neko would walk by. She'll occasionally say "da", but no "ma-ma" yet... Sigh... Here's a video of Molly's "ka-ka's"...

Fevers are no fun...

Unfortunately, Molly had a rough week this past week. It started with being sent home from daycare on Wednesday with a fever that reached 103.7 by the evening. Thursday the culprit seemed to be a minor ear infection in both ears, but by Friday it was clear the ears weren't the main problem. Rather seems like Molly was/is battling some virus. Three days of 103+ fevers & the cough of a long-time smoker... not sure who they were worse for, Molly or mom's nerves! That was the first time Molly ever had a fever that high and for a few days in a row. For a first time mom, that was kind of scary. Thank goodness for on-call doctors and my good friend & wonderful pediatrician, "Dr. Danielle"! Finally, Sunday morning, Molly woke up fever free. She's still battling a cough & now seems to have a rash of sorts, but is slowly recovering. Our guess now is that she has roseola, which it sounds like all kids get at some point, but still is scary when those high fevers hit. Hoping tomorrow brings another fever free day and the return of our happy little bean! A little glimpse of how Molly spent her time when she wasn't whinny & upset...napping in mom's arms with froggy!

Re-potting plants in the warm sunshine!

Sunday was a really beautiful, sunny day and not too cold. So dad decided to take Molly out on the front porch to help him re-pot some new house and office plants. I think she did a good job supervising! Afterwards we all took a walk down the street to have some ice cream at Jeni's. Well Jeremy & I had ice cream, while Molly watched! Jeni's is Columbus' claim to fame. Incredible, unique hand made ice creams. I had a scoop of gooey buttercake (honeyed ice cream with chunks of sponge cake & caramel) and a scoop of queen city cayenne (dark chocolate with cayenne pepper). Jeremy has a scoop of Bangkok peanut (peanut butter, honey, coconut & cayenne) and their signature flavor salty caramel. While visiting us should be the only reason you'd need to come to Columbus, Jeni's would be another!

Monkey see, monkey do....

For a long time now, anything Molly would pick up she'd either shake or bang on the floor to try and make a noise with it. We've been working with Molly to show her that she can bang two toys together to make a noise & lately she's really started to figure it out. This weekend she started imitating Jeremy tapping two plastic balls together. Of course, she had to go through all the different colors of balls to see how the different combinations sounded! Well maybe it's more like, whatever you have in your hand Molly wants in her hand!

Froggy...

Most nights, Molly is definitely ready for bed by 6:30pm. We go through our bedtime routine of a bath (every other night), followed by getting into our PJs, a bedtime snack (i.e. I nurse her) and then one bedtime story. The past several nights, she's been passed out before we get to our bedtime story, as the picture can attest to!

Still I try to get a short story in so that I can put her in her crib awake so she continues to learn to fall asleep on her own. We've been really fortunate that Molly is a good sleeper overnight (she definitely got the Pintor gene for sleeping!). Well, she became a good sleeper overnight once we took away the pacifier at 5 months old. Typically she's down for the count until ~6am. One VERY important part of Molly's bedtime routine is "froggy". Froggy is Molly's little soft green frog that she cuddles with and chews on (thank you, teething) every night. If Molly does stir overnight, she calms right back down as soon as she touches froggy. Needless to say, we have 2 backup froggies! These days, once morning rolls around, we typically find Molly standing up in her crib ready to go, but not without froggy!