Oh Baby Molly

This post is really about Molly, but first, the zoo.

They have an incredible dinosaur event going on right now, with life-size animatronic dinosaurs all around the zoo. They make noise. One even blows water (Ruth thought it was hilarious that they 'spit'.) Will was enchanted. 

This guy is real. And really tall. 

Remember the lion cubs mom? They are so big now!

There is a cave window you can look through that is directly behind that waterfall. I did not walk into the cave, but Ruthie did. She came running out yelling, "Mom! It looked at me! It turned at looked RIGHT at me! It was RIGHT there!" It was very adorable.

A little too real. 

This was on St. Patty's day. Our stroller was in sync!

Great job, photographer Ruthie!

These guys were Ruthie's favorites. From almost the very beginning Ruth had been begging for the splash pad, and these guys were ALMOST there. But she was so fascinated by them. She kept hanging on the fence and watching them make noise back and forth. It was funny to me that she liked these guys for some reason.

 We moved on to the splash pad after that small portion of the zoo, because 10am is already too hot for comfort these days.

I feel like I have been saying this ever since I had Molly, but she is getting big SO FAST! I didn't feel this way with Ruth or Will. Yeah, they were getting big and it was sad and I didn't want it to happen, but Molly seems to be growing before I can even catch my breath and it is just not ok with me! Not just her, but since she was born they are all sneaking behind my back and getting outrageously huge. I picked Will up from his nap the other day, he always snuggles before he fully wakes up, and it felt really odd. Suddenly I realized it was because I was holding these long, skinny limbs in my arms, instead of a nice little ball of toddler chub. He's lanky! He's skinny and lanky and that is just not ok. I want my baby boy back. Is it weird that one of my favorite things when I'm snuggling him after a nap is his slightly bad sleep breath? It's just a little bad so it's noticeable, but not bad enough to be a deterrent. haha, for some reason I love that. 

These pictures. I just melt inside. Luckily, she likes to be cuddled because she gets so many smooches and hugs and lovin' on all day long!

She officially has five teeth. I am counting my phenomenally wonderful blessings that she doesn't bite while nursing! I have had such a hard time continuing nursing when my kids get teeth and start eating real food. I kind of lost my milk with Ruth (unsurprising since I was working and pumping and that just doesn't quite do it enough for me) and then Will can BITE. He bit and he bit and he bit and I vowed I would teach him not to and work through it. I tried every. single. trick in the book--I begged everyone I knew for ideas. Then we hit the one time too many mark, and I went to a bottle with him. I was still working, so he was used to it and it was just fine, but oh! the agony! Molly tried a couple of times to bite, mostly because she was teething and wanted to alleviate the pain, but after that she has been great! She loves nursing so much that she hates real food and I kind of love it. I love that she is my baby for just a second longer. I love that she snuggles in and looks at me and plays with her feet and my chin and my face. I just love her.

Those eyelashes.

You looking for this?

Those eyes.

Molly is army crawling everywhere, sitting up, moving from a sitting up position to a crawling position all by herself. She doesn't like to be laid down, but has started holding her legs straight and wants to just walk everywhere holding my fingers. She is constantly moving and looking at things and never holds still. She thinks she has to keep up with her brother and sister! She is the best to snuggle up to when she's sleeping. She doesn't like the pool yet (too cold) but loves splashing in the tub. She is just the absolutely cutest, most adorable, lovely little person ever. Oh, how we love our little Molly around these parts!

Rub Dub Dub

This is parenting joy, right here. I have this big picture dream for my kids. That they will love and enjoy and play and be the best of friends with their siblings for their entire life. You can never have too many siblings. My family and my brothers and sisters are my greatest blessings trumped only by my husband my kids :) I have such high hopes that my kids will have that same incredible experience. 

So it makes my mama heart happy when they play together. REALLY playing and enjoying themselves. They also hit and bite (Will!) and scream at each other at times (as I also did with several of my siblings) but lately, they seem to have a lot more times of getting along than not, and it is just so much fun to watch. The tub seems to be a magical place where they focus on a game and play nicely. Usually cooking. This is Will's FAVORITE game right now, and he is always cooking cookies, big surprise. They put water in the ikea stacking cups, cover them up with rags or lids, wait a period of time, pull them off and stir them and eat them, etc. It gets pretty involved, actually. The other day they were cooking a ninja man. Intense, I know. Haha! 

This right here is what I mean. Those faces! That laughter! Aww I just want to bottle that up forever!

Oh my Ruthie-girl, how I LOVE you!

Will's cheese face.

An even more intense cheese face. HAAHAAHAAA! 

I won the golden ticket! This photo!

Will saying "be-bee, kiss. Be-bee kiss."

Awww, sweet kisses.

And that's what Molly had to say about that. Hahaa. She may get mauled by love a little bit too much!

And that is what Will had to say after that. He was actually being really nice and pointing to her ear and saying 'ear, ear' which he does frequently with everyone's body parts lately (at least he's learning, right!?) and then he suddenly snagged her. Poor Molly. She's so loved we have to protect her from it! Haha. 

Don't worry, I put my camera down and saved Molly after that. Will is actually incredibly sweet with Molly and I just adore watching them. He has no patience when Ruth is doing something he doesn't like and he starts to fight right away. But when Molly does something he doesn't like, he just sits there patiently, sometimes softly patting her head saying "No be-bee, No be-bee." Today he was DESPERATE for cookies, and I gave in and we went to the store and picked some out. Sidenote: We got some black and white cookies, all the rage so I hear, and they were pretty good. I thought they were ok, but not worth the swoonings I have heard, but Sterling is in LOVE with them. So, that's our take on the black and white cookie trend. So we were at the store, he picked out some cookies, we got our other groceries and Molly started trying to grab the cookies out of Will's hands (they were side by side in the seats and Ruth was sitting inside the cart). Will is so possessive and was so excited about his cookies, I feared for Molly, but he just sat there, clinging to his cookies, saying "no be-bee, no be-bee." It was the sweetest! Then he put them into the inside of the cart so that she couldn't touch them, and he didn't even mind. Ruth is also really great and loving with Molly, but she wants so badly to be big, it's harder to appreciate her. She does things like trying to pick up Molly by herself and drag her to play and I have to watch her very closely so she doesn't smother her trying to dress her up, etc, etc. Haha. Someday Molly will make a great playmate, but not quite yet! Ruth is an outstanding helper with getting clothes and diapers and wipes whenever I need them and she is a pro cleaner-upper right now. I think she should stay home with me forever! Now, if our washing machine hadn't just stopped mid-cycle without draining, (the day after our landlord finally fixed our stove after four months of waiting!) I would say we are pretty perfect around here. Although, I think we are anyway.