Miss Molly - eleven months (and one week)

Molly turned eleven months old last Wednesday! I started writing this post last week, and then saved it because I meant to take a couple of pictures to add to it. And then I totally changed my mind about what I was going to say ... so now it's a week late.

We have been in the process of weaning Molly for a few weeks now. When we started she was not nursing particularly well anyway - more interested in everything else going on around her - so I thought she was ready. And we are planning for both Elijah and Molly to stay in Pennsylvania with Patrick's parents for a week while I get some packing done (we're moving this summer - have I said that?). Obviously, she needs to be weaned before then. Molly did fine at first - hardly fussing at all about dropping feedings, and even nursing a little better at the remaining feedings. By last week we had worked our way down to twice a day - first thing in the morning and at bedtime. And she's been drinking water out of a cup for a while now, although she was playing with her cup more than drinking it. But she just didn't want to try drinking milk out of a cup. And then on Friday, after four days on that schedule, she suddenly got very upset and wanted to nurse again in the middle of the day. And we had a couple of difficult days this week when we dropped her morning feeding. But she is finally drinking her milk now, and I think we're through the worst of it.

Last week - "I don't like it!"

Anway, I can't believe how old Miss Molly is now! Those first few months were pretty much a blur, and the last few have gone by in a flash. Molly is cruising around like a pro now, and has gotten brave enough when she's standing and cruising around the furniture to let go of her support for a few seconds at a time. Our little girl has been much more driven about reaching her milestones and has been doing everything much earlier than Elijah did. I guess having a big brother to look up to and chase after is good encouragement to learn quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if she took off walking on her own sometime this month, even though she hasn't been at all interested in walking while holding my hands! I think it's pretty funny, but I don't miss shuffling around all bent over - I remember the constant backaches when Elijah was at this stage.

Playing with Daddy

Molly is babbling a lot now, too. She often looks at me as if I should totally understand what she's saying and she is expecting me to answer. She is eating like a champ most of the time, and continues to try and like new foods, especially things that she can feed herself. Molly also loves to laugh, and to make us laugh. She and Elijah have a lot of fun together. They are starting to play better together, which I love.



Wow, only a few more weeks until Molly turns one!

Summer hats

Just a few pictures of the kids wearing their summer hats. They're so cute!

Snuggles

Gotcha!

Enjoying the sunshine

Singing

Here's a little video of Elijah singing. He usually is too distracted by the camera to sing anything, so I'm surprised I got this much. He is singing the alphabet song and Psalm 23B (yeah, the tune is not easy to recognize - some days he does better than others), and he does know both all the way through, but he's easily distracted. =) Oh, and I'm sorry about the angle!

Family update

Just a quick note to say that we are thankful that Grandpa (my dad) is feeling better today after having a heart attack yesterday afternoon. We're still waiting on some tests today to know how much damage there is, and what recovery is going to be like, but we're just grateful that God provided quick medical help and that he's still here.

On the lighter side, check out these fun pictures of my brother Cameron on my brother John's blog.

Bathing baby beauty

Pictures of Elijah

Elijah loves his bulldozer

Playing with Molly

Playing with water

Diaper change - don't bother me, I'm busy!

Ivy league

More cute baby faces

Singing

Hi, sweetie!

Silly girl!

Catching up - spring, Mother's Day, shoes, and spaghetti

Yes, we've been a little sparse here lately. Patrick had a project going on at work that required the camera for several days, and I have just been slow to download the pictures that I have taken. I'll try to get all caught up over the next few days! We have had a good couple of weeks, other than the fact that it's been raining so often. We have gone to the park most days that it's been dry, but we've still been a little stir crazy on the rainy days! I love spring, but it seems like the season is flying by in a blur of rain this year. We've already missed the daffodils and most of the flowering trees. I haven't found any crabapple trees or lilac bushes in our neighborhood, which makes me sad. It can't be spring unless I get to smell them!

I had a nice Mother's Day last week. On Saturday we took the kids to the outlets in Wrentham, Mass., to get warm weather shoes. Elijah has always had very wide feet, so we have trouble finding shoes to fit him. The Stride Rite outlet saves the day! He's been wearing sneakers that are size 8 1/2 (extra wide) this winter, and I wasn't expecting his feet to be much bigger than that this time - he certainly wasn't complaining that they felt small. Then they measured him, and they were a 10 1/2! The good news is that he only needs a regular wide rather than an extra or double extra wide this year. Hooray! Now that I know that his feet grew so much, I'm nervous that he's going to grow a foot taller over the summer. Yikes.

While we were out at the outlets, Patrick and the kids took me to Qdoba for dinner (well, we brought dinner for the kids). I was so excited! It's the only Qdoba for hours around here and I had no idea it was on our way - it was a fun surprise. I love their queso dip, and Mexican food reminds me of home. There just isn't much available around here. What a nice Mother's Day present! Patrick also got us some take-out for dinner on Sunday night (hamburgers - yum!) so I didn't have to cook or clean up for two nights in a row. Elijah made me a very nice card with a brown cow in it. (Why? Who knows? That's what happens when you let a 2 year old design his own card.)

My card

Just some cute pictures of the girl:

Eating spaghetti

Molly is so funny!

On the move

Here's a video of our little lady showing off her new skills. (Well, kinda new - I should have taken some video a month ago!) She is so independent now - crawling, pulling up and cruising around the furniture, and even getting her own toys out. She still likes to keep me in sight though, and regularly comes over for a hug or a short stay on my lap.




I didn't remember to write an update for Molly's ten month day, and since she's almost eleven months now (Wow! How did that happen?!?) I'll save the long post for next week, but here's a mini update. Molly has six teeth now. The top four have been working their way in very, very slowly, which has been kinda rough. I spotted the edges starting to show through the gums about two months ago! The middle two finally cut all the way through soon after she started to crawl and pull up - I don't know whether it was the relief of having the teeth in or the freedom to get around on her own better, but she really has been so much happier lately. Molly is still pretty wary of people she doesn't know, but she has recently started to be a little more friendly - as long as she is holding on tight to Mama or Daddy, anyway. She has been looking around and actually smiling at people now - I'm just thankful that she doesn't cry whenever anyone else talks to her anymore! Our baby girl is growing up so fast - she looks more like a little toddler than a baby to me now. Doesn't she look taller and leaner than she did just a couple of months ago?

I heart Miss Molly's faces!

Look at my teeth!

Building castles

Elijah and Daddy built a pretty awesome castle the other day. ("Awesome" is one of Elijah's new words. He's been telling me, "Mama, you're awesome!")

My tower of blocks is very tall, and made of shapes both big and small.

Chicken soup

I made some baby chicken soup this week for Elijah and Molly. Molly loved it! She has really been eating lots of new and different foods lately. She still prefers things to be pretty soft, but she is eating lots of finger foods and is trying lots of things. (We did learn that she doesn't like rice yet, unless it's been through the grinder - she carefully took each individual grain out of her mouth and put it back on the tray.) We are using the baby food grinder so that she can eat more of what we're eating, too.

Here's a long, but sometimes funny, video of Miss Molly eating her soup. Enjoy!





For the soup, I made some adjustments to a couple of Rachel Ray chicken soup recipes that we like (like this one) to make it suitable for baby food. This time, I knew I was going to be putting Molly's into the blender, but soon I'll stop blending it and start dicing the chicken and veggies super small. Right now, I just do a fine chop, small enough for Elijah to get several different things in his spoon. =) Here's my version:


Baby Chicken Noodle Soup

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1 rib celery, finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and diced

[When Molly gets a little older, I'll start adding a half a bay leaf and a little poultry seasoning.]

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

3 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable stock

leftover chicken, diced

[When Molly's older and I'm not putting hers in the blender, I'll add some frozen peas, too.]

Heat a medium soup pot or sauce pan over medium high heat. Add olive oil. Add the onions, celery and carrots, adding them to the pot as you chop them. [Add bay leaf and season with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning], cook 5 to 6 minutes to soften them a bit. Add flour and cook another minute then whisk in 1/2 cup stock and cook off a minute more. Add remaining stock and put a lid on the pan or pot and raise heat to bring to a quick boil. Add chicken [and peas].

I cooked about a cup of tiny pasta shapes [I use either ditalini or the tiny stars or alphabet pasta I found in the Mexican food aisle - I wish I could find some tiny pasta somewhere that was whole wheat, but no luck yet] separately, then added about half of the pasta to the soup. I divided the soup in half - half for Molly and half for Elijah. I added the remaining pasta to Elijah's half, and it was ready. Molly's half I put in the blender on a low setting just until most of the chunks were gone. Then I made some pastina and added it to the blended soup. Done!

It sounds kinda long and involved, but it was actually pretty easy. This recipe made 2 servings of soup for Elijah and 4 for Molly. If you were making it for just one baby you could freeze some for later.