Molly 7 Months Today!

Molly 7 months:

Crawls like a dolphin.

Eats like a pig.

Sleeps like a bear hibernating in winter.

LOVE this baby!

Speaking of overkill....

...and I quote from the American Academy of Pediatrics' Caring For Your Young Baby and Child, "At each of his three daily meals, your six month old baby should be eating about 4 ounces of strained baby food."

Molly's dinner tonight:

EACH of those containers holds "4 ounces of strained baby food."

We just don't like to do things halfway around here....

Overkill

I don't know what the statistic is, but I am sure it's something like, "it takes one BILLION references before an idea really sinks in with a toddler."

There is a chance, a small chance, that we might have oversold the idea that James "needs to clean up his toys because Molly can't have little things." And yes, we KNOW we already oversold the "say cheese" whenever you see a camera.

one second later - a glimpse at my glamorous life:

and then James' favorite new word to shout at the MOST inappropriate times - also our fault for overselling it during potty training:

and all this before 7am.

Leaky Faucet?

Anyone need a plumber?

Oh, These Kids

They crack me up.

Molly is in a new stage of "sitting" that can only be referred to as "lounging." I don't know if you can make it out in these pictures, but she basically lays on one side, propping herself up on her elbow to check out whatever it is that James is doing.

James had a playdate this week and as his friend (age 3 1/2) was leaving, James followed him down the stairs saying, "Well Joshua, what did you think of our home?"

Seriously. He said that. All on his own.

Oh, these kids.

Greetings From the House of Sick

Brian had a work trip to South Carolina last week and the SECOND his plane started to rise, so did James' internal body temperature. Sorry for the lack in posting, but you know how it is when your kid is sick.... all you can do is just stare at them wishing them to get better.

Monday featured temps of 102-103 and James, not one to do something halfway, really sealed the deal with an overnight temp on Tuesday of 105 and hallucinations about a monster standing behind me that "looks like a skeleton Mommy! RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" I swear, that fever was so convincing, that I really was looking behind me for the rest of the night. I told James that it wasn't real. I told him, "that was just your fever talking, buddy."

So, that little episode landed us in the emergency room on Wednesday. Now, don't panic - a fever of 105 is scary, but the ER visit is just because one can't get an appointment in a clinic in military healthcare without four months notice. My other option was to leave a message with a nurse who would "return my call within 72 hours." THREE. DAYS. Don't get me started.

Here's James in the ER (yes, I always have a camera) where he told the doctor that he was feeling much better because "it was just my fever talking." I am still shocked we didn't get a psych consult after that.

The diagnosis: an unexplained ridiculously high fever and here are some antibiotics to kill whatever it is. (I am paraphrasing).

He was finally feeling good on Sunday. Good enough to figure out how much fun it is to put BOTH of his legs inside one pant leg and run around the house.

Molly was Molly.

Completely unscathed by fever and nighttime fever hallucinations. She just went about her business...

She tried to eat an entire peach:

She worked on crawling:

This is her new approach:

and she tried out some new hair accessories....

Brian drove eight hours home on Friday and guess what he was?

Yup, you guessed it - SICK.

It's OK...

.... just soak up the cuteness. I won't tell.

Sweater, handmade with love, by my mama (Nanet)!

Molly is on the verge of crawling. Really. Any second now, maybe even before you're done reading this, our lives will change drastically. If you don't know what I mean, please revisit the post where we say we live in a FOUR STORY townhouse.

Anyhoo, because we do like to see our kids thrive and grow, we've actually been cheering her on and trying to get her to figure out "forward movement."

Recently, James got into the act by tempting her with a story:

(translation for the whispered part: "A long long time ago...." and then he loses me after that)

and here is his answer to why she's not taking the bait:

Big Sisters

Oh, what this family could do with some big sisters! We would be a force to be reckoned with instead of the three-ring circus we've become. Our friends, the Coddingtons and their SWEET, WELL- BEHAVED, ANGELS of daughters (we call them the curly gurlz) came for dinner last week and we saw what it might be like if both James and Molly had an older sister.

First of all, Molly would get A LOT more attention.

The girls just wanted to hold her the whole time!

They wanted to chat and talk about manicures and stuff...

Second: I would get to eat a meal WHILE IT'S HOT! The girls couldn't wait to feed Molly and took turns with the spoon.

It only hurt my feelings a little when Molly actually OPENED HER MOUTH for them. I have to pry that thing open like I am using the jaws of life.

And third: I would never have to comb James' hair again and that is all I will say about this little episode with the detangler.

We've Got A Floater

I feel like we are coming out of the dark here at Team Coyne. We've just survived 2 weeks of swim classes every day at 11:20am for 30 minutes. When you add a morning nap for Molly into that schedule, you get a homebound family with no groceries because WHEN WOULD WE GO?

Anyway, doesn't matter, because James LOVED it. He smiled ear to ear every day for 30 minutes straight. He even tried to blow bubbles in the water while smiling. He loved everything about it, but mostly he liked....

looking at his belly:

falling in the water:

and, what can only be described as, attacking his teacher:

He cannot, by the way, swim.

After two weeks of classes, he can kind of float on his stomach or on his back if "the sun's not too bright, mommy." He can also REALLY scare the lifeguards with his winning combination of water confidence and lack of actual water skills.

"Good" Eater

We are often asked if James is a good eater and I never know how to respond. If you give him one of the foods that he likes, then yes, James is a good eater. If you give him a food that every other toddler in America likes - a hot dog or macaroni & cheese - then absolutely not. He won't go near it.

And before you all go posting comments about, "if he's hungry enough, he'll eat" - let me assure you, we have tried that. What you get is a very hungry and very cranky James and there is no food in the world that I care enough about to endure that.

So, our new strategy is the "no thank you bite." I thought this was something that everyone did because that's what my mom did with us (thanks Mom!), but apparently not. The basic premise is that you have to at least take a "no thank you bite" and then you can decide if you like it - "more please" or you don't - "no thanks."

Let me remind you, at this point, that all we are trying to get the kid to eat is hamburgers, hot dogs, mac & cheese and spaghetti. It's not like we're trying to force succotash or liver & onions on the boy. Why? Because we travel A LOT and I can count on NO HANDS the number of drive through restaurants that serve hummus, cottage cheese, and pear sticks (James' main food groups of choice).

So, that brings us to last weekend where we really talked up "eating a hamburger." I told James how many of his friends like hamburgers, how yummy they are, and we even took him to the best burger joint in town - 5 Guys.

Here is how that went.

Skeptical:

Suspicious:

Finally, after a promise of ice cream and daddy actually holding the burger.....

one "no thank you bite."

The verdict? "No thanks" (at least he's polite).

One measly bite of burger for one very large ice cream cone.

Portion Control

What is going on with food these days? Look at this tomato we picked up at the Farmer's Market. It's as big as Molly's little 20th percentile head...

And this cookie (a treat from Uncle Kevin who has never put a kid to bed while he's coming down from a sugar high).....

BIGGER than James' 75th percentile head.

I mean, really.

Here to Stay

After six months, I think James finally believes us. Molly is here to stay. Luckily, he's decided to love her. He's been helping me feed her, he "helps" her play with her toys and we've even heard a couple of "I sure do love you little Molly"s....

The feeding...

and "helping" with the toys...

Today he offered to help me squirt some nose drops into her stuffed up little nose, but somehow I didn't think that would turn out well....