Whoopsa Daisy

This is what happens when you roughhouse....you gotta expect to get a little dinged up. Molly got a nice shiner today at Dee Dee and Papa's house. It hasn't seemed to affect her at all...she's her same goofy self. Molly loves to pretend to put her shirt/sweatshirt/etc....on. She will also try to put her pants on her head too...she doesn't discriminate. The walking has improved ten fold and she thinks she can run, but really, she can't. She is getting goofier and goofier by the day, I blame Matt.

These Little Piggies....

Out of an attempt to not run away from Molly and her clingly like behavior tonight, I thought I would play around with her hair which is always annoying me. So, we tried pig tails. Once I get some baby sized rubber bands, I think they will look a little better. But for now, this was fun.

Take 2....

More pics from our nice summer day.....

Summer in Milwaukee

The temperature is about 74 degrees outside. So, off went most of the clothes, and out came one happy baby. Enjoy.

We Go To Vegas...Molly Goes To The Zoo!!

Matt and I took a very much needed trip to Vegas over my spring break this past week. Thanks to Dee-Dee and Papa for watching Molly!!! We had a great time despite the weather not being very "Vegas-ie"....in typical Smoko traveling fashion, the days before we got there and the days after we left were all in the 70's and 80's and sunny. While we were there, 50's and 60's and cloudy to partly cloudy. So, despite our desire NOT to, we were forced to gamble as sitting poolside was not an option. We figure we came out about even as Matt won $100 on the slots and when you factor in all the free drinks we got while sitting at the slots waiting for that "big win", like I said, we think we came out about even. We saw the Elton John show while we were there and it was awesome!! He's very fun in person and now we have our sights set on seeing he and Billy Joel in Madison in May....BUT, we don't have $300 to dish out so we might just have to skip that. Coming home, I got to experience Virgin America for the first time and I can saw whole heartedly, it blows Midwest away. The in-seat entertainment rocks!!! The mood lighting is very comforting and while we did have an exit row which provided some extra leg room, I'd say even the regular seats are not as bad as some. So, all in all it was a great trip. Back to reality now and our little walkasaurus. She is EVERYWHERE. Her favorite thing to do is to move furniture around and she gets PISSED when you tell her not to. She also loves shaking her finger "no" to animals....thanks to the constant "No, no, no Gordon" she hears at my parents house. Here's a little video of Molly's first, and hopefully not last, pony ride at the zoo. In the beginning, you see her demonstrate her favorite scolding technique.

And We Have Proof!!

Lord knows how I got her to cooperate and or how I captured this on film WITHOUT Matt, but the stars were alined and I did. Here, after all the talk, is proof that this child can, and someday will even better, walk on her own!!! I know everyone says "Oh, you'll regret it when she does", but I can't wait to find out. Enjoy!

At Home on Sunday with Mom

Here are a couple pics of Molly being silly. She is going to start walking any day now....she has taken a lot of steps on her own and I think she just gets too excited, because when she realizes what she is doing, she falls down. She is so proud of herself when she does it because, of course, I am going CRAZY!!! She knows she's doing something pretty cool. She is also definitely getting a little personality. She gets when she is making you laugh and she purposely does things that she knows are funny. Overall, despite a few ear infections lately, she really has been fun to be around.

No Molly in this one...

She was already asleep with either a tooth coming in or a cold coming on. Either way, she was too cranky to make it through St. Patrick's Day dinner. But Mr. Bo Barley, as Dee-Dee calls him, was up and rearing to go!!!! Case in point....his 2nd spoon hanging moment. First one was when he was about 6 months. But this was, he was aware of and TOTALLY into!!!! It was SO cute!! Next up, napkin hats!!! I'm sure they'll be a picture of that some day and you all will get it.

Catching Up With Molly....

swinging in the park with Alex and Charlie

enjoying the nice spring day

pointing to the wonderful needlepoint my cousin Kristen made for Molly

oui oui pa pa...i'm a little french girl in my beret from paris

It's been a few weeks since our last post so here are some pics from the last couple weeks. Molly continues to practice her walking. She'll get it someday. She points at everything and we are hoping that our continued repetition of saying what it is she is pointing at will help her with her vocabulary. She does saw "mow" which is "meow" when you ask her what a kitty says. It's pretty cute. We've been hoping and hoping for some nice weather and finally got two days of it. Off to the park we went in our wagon with her best buds Charlie and Alex. I think she was a little stunned at being outside for so long. Hasn't been like that since about October. Molly's teeth count is now up to 6 (four top, two bottom) and it seems like she gets about one a week. She is continuing to do really well at her new day care and doesn't even cry when we drop her off anymore. YAH!!! Anyway, enjoy the pics.

Ooohhh....NOT happy!

Well neither was I. It snowed another 5-6 inches today and of course, Matt is out of town. So, I thought I would try and take Molly outside and snap a few pics of her in the snow. Hmm... did not turn out as jolly as I thought. First of all, it was a LOT colder than I thought it was outside and the wind was whipping around. AGH! So, it was a short shoot. And I could not for the life of me get her to smile, but then again, I wasn't smiling either. We're done with winter around here. I don't know what was colder, my fingers, her face or my buttocks that kept dipping into the snow as I bent down to take her picture. Comical now, not so much then.

I Can't Believe We Have a 1 Year Old!!!!

The party was a success. Molly was great. She ate cake just like she was supposed to. She did all her tricks and was pretty happy to have so many people there looking at her. Here is a link to the pictures my cousin Linsey took. Not sure if I will be able to post them to the blog, so I thought I would just put the link here. There are 159 of the, so don't feel like you have to look at them all.

On to another year....

Smoko's

http://linkiloo.shutterfly.com

She's got NO time for help!!

Having breakfast the other morning, and apparently I was just NOT dishing out the Cheerio's fast enough. So, Molly took things into her own hands and then dumped them all over her chair. Nice. I guess that's what I get for giving an 11 month old a box of Cheerio's.

Getting older, getting sassier...

Not sure if this is her giving me a fake smile or just squinting because of the flash...probably the later but either way, she thinks she's pretty cool.

I think she knows she is almost one. And I think she knows that by turning one, she is no longer a little baby and is moving into pre-toddler years. And I think she must have been talking with her cousin Charlie about what it means to be a toddler and how much more difficult she can make our lives. While she is still sweet and adorable and we love her, she is really starting to try my patience. Not so much Matt's...it's the benefit of both having the patience of a saint and not being here all the time that keeps him so cool. But this girl has learned how to be fake, how to throw a tantrum, how to SCREAM when she does not want something, but also how to play and make me laugh. So I guess it's not all bad. Here is a glimpse into the life of a pre-toddler. I hve another video that shows the sweet, cute side of Molly, but for some reason, can not download it right now. MATT!!! HELP!!!! Also, sorry about the snot in the first video. I didn't realize how bad it looked until I downloaded it. Gross!

It's currently -6 degrees outside!!!

So this is what you look like when it's this cold. Thank you Charlie for letting Molly borrow your snowsuit!!!

Not much going on.

Just one pic today. Molly has not been doing too many news things. She has stood for a few seconds, however, when I try to encourage her to do it more, she collapses. She took 2 steps the other day and took a few more today at day care, but I was lightly holding her hands while she did it today so not sure that counts. Matt's been working a lot. We're both hoping things calm down after this month. However, he has missed most of the snow and extreme cold so he is probably actually hoping to continue being on reserve in San Francisco.

Molly STILL loves this dang wagon. She sat in it for about a 1/2 hour the other day playing and watching cartoons. She loves giving kisses to her baby doll and we are working on blowing kisses too. Trying to capture that on camera is about as difficult as remembering what hot weather feels like.

It was lovely to have a 2 week break from school over the holidays and getting back to reality has been very difficult for me. Maybe it's the 5:30am wake-up call that I am sick of. Call me crazy, but it sucks!

I am sure there will be tons more pics coming up as this is the birthday season around here. Dad - 1/12, me - 1/24, Charlie - 2/1 and Molly - 2/16. LOTS of opportunity for papparazzi!!

More pictures from Christmas

Christmas eve nap...sleeping on a toy.

The loot at my parent's house...and you can't even SEE the stockings!!

Here are round 2 of the pictures...

The Holiday's Are Over...

Little Alex...just being such a good baby.

Molly trying to play stickers with Charlie.

Nothing better than a Christmas morning bottle in your Christmas PJ's.

Woah! What a mess....who's going to clean this up?

Don't you need these keys for this ride mom?

...And I can't tell if I am sad or happy. While it will be nice to get back to a routine, I know come Monday morning when I have to get up at 5:30 I will be wishing for another two weeks off!! Christmas was great. Despite finding out she had a terrible ear infection, Molly was great. Those antibioctics kicked butt (almost made it a year medication free) and she almost instantly started feeling better. And then, abracadabra, we had a happy baby again. She now has almost 4 teeth, she is cruising around the furniture like she is on a mission, she has stood on her own and she even took TWO steps the other day. Although, I am not sure she meant to do it and has not done it since, they were steps nonetheless.

New Year's was fun. Molly partied with Charlie, Alex, Dee Dee and Papa while Emily Brian and I went to dinner and then out for some drinks. Matt was out in San Diego on one of his first trips for Virgin America and while I am sure he wishes he would have been here, the nice weather probably made it a little easier to deal with. He is learning how to deal with commuting to San Francisco for work as are Molly and I. Hopefully, Molly will show him all her new tricks when he gets home.

All in all Molly's first holiday season was a succesful one. She loves all her new presents and can't wait to go for a ride in her wagon outside of the house! Now it's on to birthday season as we have my dad's, mine, Charlie's and then Molly's all in the next 6 weeks. YIKES!!

Molly's Wagon

A little Christmas video...Molly taking a ride in her FAVORITE present, a wagon from G-ma and G-pa Smoko. Enjoy!

Patience Molly...one more day!

Molly, please stay out of the gifts until Christmas Day! And please leave the bows on the gifts where they belong, not on your head!

Duckie Hat, Part 2

See, I told you one day I would like my duckie hat!!!!

For some reason, Molly thinks that every time you take her picture, she needs to do "So Big". Or maybe she just got that I was trying to capture how big she is getting tonight during this photo session. Molly had ALL big people food tonight for dinner (meat balls, fruit and carrots). It is so funny to see her eat real food, like a big girl! She LOVES to eat and for the most part, will eat anything.

To My Daddy....

Hi Daddy! Thought you would like to hear from me. I love you and I miss you and I can't wait to see you in less than 2 weeks. I don't know how long that is but Mommy says it's not that long. Study hard! Love, Molly

I love my penguin slippers

When Molly was born, her aunt Nancy and uncle Robert sent her these penguin slippers. I laughed and laughed at how cute they were and how I could not believe they would ever fit her. Lo and behold, 9 and a half months later, they fit her like, well, like a slipper! They are so cute and she is so funny trying to walk in them. Inevitably, one always falls off but she thinks they are so funny.