July/August Take 2

Molly and I getting off the Giant Slide.

Molly's first time down the Giant Slide...a State Fair tradition. Maybe next year she will be old enough for cheese on a stick!!!

July/August

I forget to update the blog since most of my updates on Molly now get put on Facebook. But I believe there are a few dedicated blog followers out there who don't look on Facebook, so for them, here is an update on Molly.

Summer has been busy. Circus parades, state fair, a trip to CT. Lots and lots for a 18 month old. Molly's favorite things to do are dance, listen to music, run, spin, and talk about who knows what. Her vocabulary is expanding day to day with words like "ball", "cookie" and "shoe". Pretty cool.

Here are some pics of Molly in Connecticut for her Uncle Robert's 40th birthday party, at the State Fair and just out and about.

Molly Feeds Herself Yogurt

Here is what happened when I put a bowl of yogurt and a spoon in front of Molly and then walked away.

4th of July

Happy 4th of July and happy birthday Grandma Smoko. We continued our annual traditions this year by going down to the lakefront on the 3rd for the big city fireworks and then riding in the parade and heading to the steinmiller's on the 4th. Everyone was SO well behaved and seemed to have a lot of fun. Alex experienced his first fireworks by cashing out right about the time they started and staying asleep the whole time in his mommy's arms. Charlie sat on Papa and his daddy's laps with his hands over his ears (apparently because they were cold, not because the fireworks were loud). And little Miss Molly...she sat on daddy's lap for about 1/2 hour mezmorized by the lights in the sky...and then she had enough. Up she went...walking around...totally unphased by the loud BOOMS! That a girl Mol. It was a really nice weekend all in all and we are very lucky to have such a great family.

Ring Around the Rosie

We had a visit the other night with our friends the Starks. They have a daughter, CeCe, who is about 4 months older than Molly...just old enough to show her some cool tricks, but close enough to her age that they liked playing together. They were so cute together and CeCe taught Molly how to do Ring Around the Rosie. As you will see in the video, Molly LOVED it and kept acosting CeCe to do it again and again and again. Plus, now, that's all she wants to do with me and Matt. It's pretty cute. Enjoy.

Summer So Far

We were able to get outside and spend some time in the back yard this weekend. Molly's CT grandparents were here and the weather could not have been nicer. We went to the zoo and Molly was great until the end....we cut it too close to nap time. Oh well. She had a great time at her water table in the back yard and in the pool. Molly is doing lots of new stuff. Her words are uh oh, up and hiiiiieeeeee. She also signs more, all done, bird and help. Help, more and all done are very useful...bird...not so much. We can't wait for more summer weather like this and more trips to the zoo, the pool and play time in the back yard!! The picture of her and the band aide was from her first band aide worthy booboo....in which the band aide stayed on for about 17 seconds.

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.