Happy Harvest Fest!

Yesterday was the Harvest Fest at Molly's daycare. All the kids got decked out in costumes and the parents mingled around for an hour, admiring all the cuteness. The event was a little anticlimactic -- Molly pooped on the bottom half of her monkey suit, so she was a monkey in pink pants instead :) And although Jason and I are both pretty social people, for some reason, neither one of us is very comfortable with 'parent small talk' yet. We were the first to leave the event.

Regardless, it was fun to see all the little kiddos dressed up for Halloween. Check it out:

 

Molly gets to wear her monkey suit again on Sunday at the Ciaglias' Halloween party, so hopefully I will get a few pics of her dressed up and smiling. Until then, here are a few pics of Molly in her new fall jacket. 

This isn't a costume -- her coat just happens to have bear ears :)

Molly also has a little pair of brown boots, courtesy of the 'boys' section at Old Navy

Disappointed, to say the least

Everyone I talked to thought Mondo was going to, and deserved to, win Project Runway. He showed a pretty awesome collection of pieces, but the judges (Nina and Michael) all of the sudden decided, after praising him all season long, that it wasn't 'sophisticated enough.' Instead, they gave the win to evil Gretchen, who showed a pretty boring collection of leopard print dresses, baggy neutrals, crop tops, and knit undies. I'm just not sure that her clothes are particularly 'sophisticated' or 'now.' To me, her stuff is boho 90s. But hey, maybe the 90s are making a comeback.

I could see Donna Martin wearing this on Season 1 of Beverly Hills 90210

I have resisted digging into the blogs until after I wrote my own post, but I did watch a little video of Mondo's reaction to the finale. I thought it was interesting to find out that Gretchen had other people make the jewelry, hats, and knitwear in her collection. I know that others have done this in the past (Jay, the season 1 winner, had someone else produce his knitwear, and I think Jeffery Sebilia had someone do leather work for him). But to outsource jewelry, hats, and knits seems like a lot.

Oh well. Gretchen probably needs the cash the most, so hopefully she will use her winnings to pay off some debt! I think Mondo will probably be just fine, even without the win. He seems pretty ambitious, and I also think he is one of the most popular contestants the show has ever had. I'd love to see him design a line for H&M where I could actually afford to buy a few of his pieces. Go Mondo! Can't wait to see what you do next!

Bad hair day

Molly has always had kind of a crazy lid, but now that her hair is starting to fall out on the sides and in the back, it's looking even crazier. She's got a long tuft on top and then a fringe in the back that covers her neck. Team Coco all the way!

I'm not sure the bow is helping

Interesting move, Don Draper. Interesting move.

Jason and I finally watched the season finale of Mad Men and, although it wasn't what I was expecting at all, I have to say, I really liked the way it ended. After all that SCDP agency drama, to switch things up and end the season with Don falling for (and proposing to!) his secretary was just genius. Who knew all it took to win the heart of Don Draper was the ability to shrug off a spilled milkshake with a smile?

Sniffles and snuggles

It's getting crisp outside and Molly's fighting a cold, so I made sure she was dressed for warmth today in some hand knits. Check out the cuteness:

Pumpkin head -- knit by Grandma Lynette (fuzzy pic, taken in a mirror)

Cuddly sweater -- knit by me!

Sweater from the back. You can see poor Molly is losing her lovely hair :(

Daddy's little girl

I know Molly loves me -- she smiles when she sees me, laughs when I sing goofy songs to her, and looks for me to comfort her when she's upset. We have a very special bond. But even at 3 months, I can already tell that Molly is a daddy's girl. He makes her happy. Very happy. Extremely happy. And that makes me happy!

Our favorite activity (if you can call it an activity) is for me to hold Molly so she can stand up and look over at Jason in his chair. All he has to do is smile at her or stick out his tongue and she goes absolutely wild -- smiling and laughing and shrieking and stomping her feet. It's so cute I can hardly stand it. When we switch and Jason holds Molly, she will smile at me for a few minutes, but eventually, she will lose interest and start to eat her hand.

Our second favorite activity is for Jason to play the "one, two, three" game where on "three," he lifts Molly high up into the air. I play this game with Molly too, and she likes it...but not nearly as much as when Jason does it. I think he may be better at the sound effects :)

I'm only a teensy bit jealous about all of this. As soon as we found out we were having a girl, I knew that she would have Jason wrapped around her little finger and that I would have to be in charge of discipline and spearhead any "not so fun" activities. Tummy time, physical therapy, bath time, and daycare drop offs and pick ups all fall under my jurisdiction. But for now, and for at least a few more months, I do have one trump card. Daddy may bring the fun, but mommy brings the FOOD!

Daddy's lucky charm

Welcome to parenthood

Molly in her first pair of jeans. Adorable!

Jason and I woke up yesterday all excited to show Molly off at Pellikan's chili/Bears party. We dressed her in Bears colors, stocked a cooler full of beer, and drove out to the suburbs thinking life was good. Who could have predicted what was coming? The minute, and I mean the minute, we stepped into the living room, Molly completely lost her shit. I'm not sure I've ever seen her that pissed off. Maybe there were too many people there, too many kids, too many dogs. Or maybe it was too loud or too warm. Whatever it was, she was not having any of it.

Jason and I quickly spirited Molly away to the garage and tried desperately to get a bottle in her and calm her down. It kind of worked...we got her to settle down enough to at least pass out for a half an hour. But then she woke up in a strange place and the meltdown started up all over again. Jason and I kept telling people, "she's not usually like this!" Heh. I'm sure they believed us :)

As soon as the game ended, we loaded our still full cooler into the trunk and our still crying Molly into her car seat, and started the drive home. I think we were in the car for less than 2 minutes before we heard a sound coming from the back seat. I took a peek at my little stinker and she looked back at me, huge smile on her face, and laughed. Welcome to parenthood.

Everybody's working for the weekend

My apologies for taking a little time off between blog posts. Last week was my first full week back at work and, to add to the stress, I was also a single mom from Wed to Fri while Jason was in New York for business. Man, this whole working mom thing is tough! But, I'm taking on my new role with gusto and feel pretty happy about how it's going so far.

If I thought I was good at multitasking before, I'm taking it to a new level now. At work, I'm on the go all day, running from one meeting to the next and then sneaking off to the "mother's room" every 3 hrs to pump for my baby. Then at home, every spare minute is accounted for, playing with Molly, feeding Molly, coaching her through tummy time, scarfing down dinner, picking up around the house, and getting organized for the next day. No time for blog posts!

It feels nice to be back at work though and writing again. And Molly is doing about as well as we could ever expect at daycare. She naps 3 times a day, eats 3 times a day, poops a couple of times a day, and seems generally happy, or at least content, when we pick her up. The teachers are soooo nice and seem to be doing their best to keep her off the back of her head and turned to the left.

Speaking of turning left, Molly has made a ton of progress since we started physical therapy. She can prop herself up on her arms and look around. Sometimes she'll even do this for a few minutes before she starts crying :) And today, she grabbed for a toy while I had her on her tummy! I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's one of those "milestones" we're supposed to look for. Here are a few photos of Molly in action:

Molly doesn't know what's coming up next...

Tummy time!

So strong

Trying to get to Mortimer the Moose

At peace