Molly’s ballet class has been difficult to get good pictures of, so for the last Visitor’s Day of the year I did my best to get a lot of pictures. Molly loves this ballet class. This is one of the highlights of her week every week. She is so animated when she is in this class and it has made her love dancing, classical music, and all the ways she can move. It’s really fun to watch her having so much fun. Here are some snap shots of her class this week.
When the bus drops Tucker off at the mailboxes we have a 5 or more minute walk back to our house. If I ask him about school, I often don’t get very long responses. But recently a troll started living at the top of our driveway. The troll demands that Tucker answer four questions that he asks by the time Tucker reaches the driveway, or the troll will eat Tucker.
Tucker LOVES his troll questions. Each day he wants to know what his troll questions are. Of course, his favorite troll questions are “what did you eat for lunch?” “what did you do in gym?” and “what did you do for recess?”. So the troll usually asks at least one of those questions. But the troll also asks other things, and suddenly I am learning a lot more about what Tucker does all day. The troll has not eaten Tucker yet, incidentally.
Molly: Today we planted flower seeds in school.
Me: What kind of flowers will they be?
Molly: I don’t know. I hope they’re dandelions.
…Is quite a sweetie, but not as easy as she was at one month!
Her favorite activity these days is naked bum time—lying on a mat with her diaper off and wiggling. She looks like she is going to do a back somersault, she waves her legs around so much. She also enjoys baths, being outside and the front pack. She cracks huge grins and loves to be talked to. She also loves to be sung to, especially if you do hand motions. She is getting loved on pretty hard these days by Molly and we are having to teach Molly that babies don’t enjoy fingers poking their face at all times of day.
She is not as interested in eating as either of my older two kiddos. She is really particular about nursing and everything has to be just right or she screams very loudly and gives up. To get her to try again I have to prop her up on a pillow and talk to her until she smiles, then give her a pacifier, then move her back into nursing position, then quickly switch out the pacifier for nursing… and I’m lucky if it works. Nursing her outside the house under a nursing cover is next to impossible. But since she isn’t as interested in eating as my other two, she goes longer outside the house without eating, and will be satisfied by playing with a couple ounces in a bottle. Although she doesn’t seem bothered by not having a full meal and she easily makes it 2 or 3 hours till the next one that just means she’s hungry at night. The best set-up for her and eating is in a dark room with me not reading and no other children around. When does this happen? Yes, night time. Austin commented that he’s more tired with her at two months old than when she was a week old!
At one month she was 11 lbs 8 oz, at two months she is 13 lbs 6 oz which is about the 90th percentile, and same goes for height. (Of course we were ten days late for our 2 month appointment so she’s a bit smaller percentile wise than that…)
Molly: This rug that your grandmother gave you reminds me of heaven because it is just so beautiful!
Molly: When I close my eyes, I can see my heart.
Me: You mean you can feel your heart?
Molly: No. When I close my eyes, I can see my heart. It’s this special glow.
There have been very few awards that have really had meaning in Tucker’s young life. Almost everything is a participation medal/ribbon/certificate. Even “Player of the Game” last year in T-ball was virtually meaningless as everyone had to win it for one game in the season. The track ribbons last summer at the track meet were meaningful, though the amount of time involved in winning one was typically a minute or less.
Anyway, I think it is commendable that there are actually winners and losers in his gym class. It turns out that there is also a real award – the Ninja Duck award – for being a superlative gym participant over a two week period. I’m not exactly sure what distinguishes a kid, but it has to be going above and beyond the call of duty in both performance and citizenship as the award has only been handed out twice this year in his class, and Tucker is the proud recipient of the second award. (The award is a rubber ducky dressed like a ninja which has already gone missing, of course….)
I am proud of my favorite Ninja Duck.
Austin: Molly, do you want to go in front of or behind me?
Molly: I want to be with you. Let’s hold hands!
Planet Molly would have lots of ballerinas, but no snakes, wasps or bees. The weather would always be pretty….
I also think Planet Molly would have lots of love notes all over it, because that’s what I find all over our house.
One reason I am needing to catch up on my blogging is because of how terrible my pregnancy was. Emily darling, you were worth it, but you gave me a run for my money.
Tucker observed that during my pregnancy I was kind of like a dolphin sleeping. Dolphins don’t ever go completely to sleep—they just turn off half of their body at a time. He thought I was a lot like a dolphin that was asleep during my whole pregnancy. I think Tucker is pretty insightful, because that is how my pregnancy felt to me, too. .
A few memories from that time…
Just after I found out I was pregnant (before the kids knew), we were leaving the thrift store and passed a bouncy seat. Molly said “let’s get that for our baby.” And I said, “But Jesus needs to give us a baby first.” So the kids right there both prayed to Jesus for a baby. Actually, Molly had been praying for a baby sister for almost two years by the time Emily was born. When she was in the littlest class in preschool last year, I actually got questions about whether I was pregnant because Molly kept talking about her baby sister because she was so convinced Jesus would give her one.
Telling the kids we were going to have a baby, we decided to play Twenty Questions. We told them we had exciting news and they had to guess what it was. By the end of the twenty questions, Molly was asking questions like: “Is the exciting news a window?” Tucker stayed a little more focused, but they definitely didn’t guess it on their own. When we told them they’d have a baby sibling, the first thing they thought of was that they would get to share a room. They immediately squealed and started moving Molly’s things into Tucker’s room (even though we told them the move was several months away).
Molly and Austin were convinced from the start that Emily would be a girl. Tucker and I thought she’d be a boy. Molly still likes to tell me several times a week that she and Daddy were right.
“Daddy, why did you push me in that store?” Molly asked recently. She was talking about a time she tripped and fell in Lowe’s when she was 2 and got a bloody lip. This event happened at least a year and a half ago.
1) Why does she randomly think of that event two years later at the dinner table with no provocation?
2) Does she really think Austin pushed her???!
The first three comparisons are with Tucker, the last two with Molly.
At first I thought Emily looked a lot like Molly, but I am seeing more of Tucker in the way her nose and eyes and mouth relate to each other now. I think the shape of her face looks more like Molly’s though. Also, looking at the pictures, I think Emily’s eyes are much bluer than either of her siblings at the same age. Molly’s were already brown and Tucker’s were already turning. I wonder when hers will turn? (The likelihood we have a blue eyed child is very small!)
Tucker jam packed his backpack with just the essentials: a ball, lots of mints, a random stuffed person no one ever plays with, several random stuffed animals no one ever plays with, plus everyone’s favorite loveys/stuffed animals. Tucker’s shorts were too loose and falling down so Austin told him to get a belt. So he was sporting a belt as well… unfortunately his shorts didn’t have belt loops.
We came across this carved wood statue randomly in the woods, and Molly took quite a liking to it. She likes to play pretend in the woods so usually the woods is her house and she tells about the different parts of the house as we hike pass (ie a hill is her stairs, a reservoir is her bath tub…).
After passing the statue, she decided that the statue was actually her husband, who was dead. He died because he went into the fireplace when he was trying to catch the fairies. She was originally supposed to be his mom but he was born before her so she instead became his wife. His name was Moses because he has a staff. (I’m sure I’m missing some details of her story, but that was the gist of it.)
Molly: I am going to take my church dress off so I can put on something beautiful for Avrie’s party!
Her resulting outfit: a blue ballerina tutu with a cape, tiara and red sparkly shoes.
On Easter, she took off her church dress to wear something beautiful as well: a Cinderella gown.
Of course, sometimes she is just styling in normal clothes…
If I remember correctly, Tucker cried during his baptism and Molly snorted. Emily gave a little shout when the water hit her head but mostly she spent the baptism smiling at Katy (her godmother).
After the ceremony, Emily was spent and slept most of the rest of the day, though she did wake up long enough to smile at me and Henny and Papa.
We had glorious weather and all had a delightful brunch at Old Trail, with the kids getting to run amock while we leisurely talked and ate.
