Almost Christmas catchup

I'd better post today, otherwise all memories and pictures of the past month will be lost as our Christmas-craziness begins tomorrow!
It's been an entertaining month here at our house. The girls are pretty excited about Christmas- Anna would like some presents, and Maegan wants everything under the sun. It takes every ounce of patience I have to sit and watch TV with her because every show on Nickelodeon is filled with commercials for crap! And she says " i want that mom! can i have that mom???" and then Anna-Kate, Maegan's little parrot, says, "i want that mom! can i have that mom???" And you know we already have a million toys that don't ever get played with. That I get to clean up.
So the girls are stoked for Santa to come, although neither one of them was brave enough to sit on the big guy's lap. Molly did though! It surprised us since Maegan did sit on his lap last year. I love this photo.
2006:


Molly is still doing well. She's much happier now that she's not on any dairy, and I've found I can eat a little here and there without bothering her too much. I will say, though, (and only so that I can remember this when I go back through this blog in a year or two when I get the baby bug) that she is wearing me out! Between being attached to me to eat constantly, to waking up at least 3 or 4 times each night to eat, to not napping well and wanting to be constantly held and having 2 other kids to keep happy while simultaneously taking care of Molly, I'm worn out! It's by the grace of God that I'm able to function on a daily basis and keep a smile on my face- I must be doing something right for Him to be so kind to me. :)
She is becoming more independent by the minute and I know soon I'll be looking at her, begging to have back her newborn days. She loves the exersaucer! She's so strong, just like Maegan was. She watches the tv, watches her sisters run circles around her, and just loves to be awake and alert. She still likes to be attached to Mommy so I get to wear her during Anna's music class (not an easy feat!) and anytime we go shopping.
Oh- her 2 month stats. She weighed 13lbs 4ozs....drumroll.....over the 95th%tile!!! Off the charts! I dont remember her exact length and head circumference but she was 75th%tile for height and 90th%tile for her noggin.

Anna-Kate is the funniest little creature I've ever met. She has turned into a wild woman, jumping off of anthing that is at least a foot off the ground, tackling her sister and parents, and just plain giving us heart attacks every time we turn around. She has quite a bit of sass to her too- she will yell "STOP CRYING MOMMY!" when I mimic her constant whining, and shouts "THAT'S MY FAVORITE COLOR PINK!" whenever she sees something pink. She's our little firecracker, if only she had red hair! It's hard to believe that in just over 2 weeks she'll be 2 years old.

Maegan is growing up so fast. She has changed so much from a year ago, it makes my head spin when I watch old videos of her. She loves to color now and write her letters. She went from this all over the page, scribbling to almost coloring in the lines! It literally happened overnight. She knows all letters of the alphabet and writes them well. Lately she's talked a lot about when she goes to kindergarten that she gets so wear a uniform like the big girls. I'm glad she's already excited about it! :) Love those uniforms. She is very excited for her school program (tomorrow) and her Christmas recital (Saturday.) She loves to perform on stage and talks constantly about it! She's still the same girl that loves to jump and run and do anything physical, but now she's showing more of her quieter side as she colors more, wants to read with me more, and will sit and have a conversation with me. She's retaining a lot more now than she did last year, and tells me all the time what Christmas is really about.
On a funnier note- she's just starting to wrap her head around death (our beloved fish, Golden, died last month,) and we currently have her "kids" (imaginary friends) dropping left and right. Please take note of this so you don't step or sit on one of them when you are with us. :)

Playing beauty shop with Daddy:


Talking to "mama Susie:"


All ready for Nemo on Ice:


Our girls:






Anna ready for Nemo:


Maegan in the same outfit, Christmas 2004:

Oy, soy!

I have a new love- soy! Molly seems to be intolerant of dairy, after a day and a half on soy formula she is a brand new baby! No more fussy, screaming, gassy baby. She's actually pretty content 99% of the time! Now I get the fun challenge of eliminating dairy from my diet....please, wish me luck.
She'll even sit in her swing now!


Ryan celebrated the big 3-0 this week! The girls and I threw him an awesome bulldozer-themed party, made him homemade pizza and a homemade Boston Cream Pie! Thanks to my big helper Maegan! I couldn't have done it without her (or is it that I could have done it faster without her?) Oh, his presents from the girls were a box of Nerds, and a roll of Smarties. They know his favorites (and they happen to be Maegan's favorites. Anna-Kate has no favorites, she lives on anything sugar-based.)


On the bulldozer theme, Maegan caught an episode of "The Doodlebops" where Mo tells Rooney "You look like a bulldozer!" This isn't quite so funny when Maegan tells random people that they look like bulldozers. And it's quite hard to explain.

Our prima ballerina:


Ahhhhh! Those eyes! Ryan and I are both suckers for those eyes.


Maegan's hardcore into dressing up. She changes so many times per day, I can't keep up. Here is her "FAVORITE OUTFIT!" "Isn't it BEAUTIFUL Mommy???"

It's a white undershirt from walmart, that she loves because it has butterflies around the name brand on the INSIDE of the shirt, a pair of bloomers that go to a skirt that is 3 sizes too small for her, and her black mary janes. She has incredible style.

A rare still moment:


She's looking so grown up to me, and you should hear her talk! She's quite the talker now. Lately she loves to talk about panthers, and whether or not they would chase us if we ever make it to a jungle.

A minute with Molly

"Oh hey, there's my Mommy."


"Oh good grief....she has the camera AGAIN."


"Alright, ONE smile. That's it."


"You like my tongue?"


"Okay, that's too close. Please step away. I'm serious."


"ENOUGH!"

Wiggles, content Molly and my favorite helpers

We went to the Wiggles last week! It was Maegan's 2nd time and Anna-Kate's first, and Mommy's first outing without Molly! I have to say this Wiggles show was not as good as the first one but probably mostly because my girls just aren't that into them, not anywhere near how Wiggles-crazy Maegan was at 2.5. It was still fun, and nice to get out! Grandma Susie is taking us to see Nemo on Ice in a few weeks, as part of the girls' Christmas. I hope they enjoy that more!


Molly's gas is bad...really bad. I captured her in a rare content moment:


Pfffft on you tummy gas!


And my two helpers, putting away the silverware:


Rock on, says Maegan:

Professional pictures

Love Molly's face in this one:


Ordered this one for our wall:


My favorite, I wish Anna-Kate's arm wasn't in the way!


Molly's official 1 month pic:


A few more of Molly:

Happy Halloween!

First, our Halloween pictures!

We went to the Bettendorf Halloween parade last Saturday, it was pretty cool! (Coolest part being that it was the FIRST parade we've ever been to that Maegan hasn't cried at! Milestone! lol)


We trick-or-treated last night:




Maegan's school party and parade was today:


We've eaten lots of candy, here's Anna-Kate showing off her candy face!


We had a great Halloween. Both girls are certified candyaholics so I wasn't surprised that Maegan's answer to my question, "Which do you like more, Halloween or Christmas?" was a very definite "HALLOWEEN!!!" Anna-Kate is a pro at saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" now, and she just keeping yelling "I HAVE CANDY!" last night :) She was also very kind to the people handing out candy, making a little small talk with them and always making sure to say good bye to their pets if they were out. And everyone adored her costume, of course.

Miss Molly (most often called "Molls", fyi) is doing well. She had her first bottle last weekend, and she took right to it.


Molly is a gassy baby but the infant gas drops do seem to help. She doesn't sleep very well at night but I do usually get one 3 hour stretch most nights (and I pray daily that I get a consistent four hours soon!) It's hard to do all my Mommy jobs on one 3 hour stretch of sleep :) She's a pretty happy baby when she's not in pain from gas, thank goodness. She's started smiling but I have yet to capture a picture of it.

Pucker up Molls!


Mwah! (Anna-Kate isn't always the most gentle, is she?)


Oh, and Anna-Kate thinks she's ready to use the potty. It started a couple weeks ago when she began asking to use the potty, and peed on the potty a few times. She's now learned how to take her pants and diaper off when Mommy isnt looking...oh this could get messy. Please let us not revisit the removing of pants and smearing of poop on the walls like Maegan did!!!

Busy busy

I added some pictures earlier but didn't have a chance to write anything! Such is the life of a mommy to 3 little ones, huh? Anyway, things are going well. Molly will be a month old tomorrow!!! How can that be?! She's sleeping okay, we've had two nights in a row of 3.5-4 consecutive hours of sleep, so that's better than before and I can live on 4 hours of sleep. She can be quite fussy but is generally content when I'm nursing or holding her, so I just don't accomplish much! :)
Maegan had her school pictures this week, and is very excited for our busy week next week- dance class (which she wears her costume to,) trick or treating, Halloween party at school and then we head to The Wiggles concert on Thursday!!!
Anna-Kate starts her music class in a week and a half! I think she will love it. And it will be a nice activity for she and I to do...hopefully Molly will sleep through class :)
I included some pictures of Maegan and Anna-Kate as babies in the post below, you can see how much Molly resembles Maegan and I can definitely see a bit of Anna-Kate there too! My three beautiful girls <3

The many faces of Molly:



Being adored by big sister:



Happy girl as long as she's in mommy's arms:


Maegan's ready for school pictures!



A couple pictures of Maegan to compare to Molly:






And a few pics of Anna-Kate to compare to Molly: