Busy Busy Toddler

Molly is doing well and keeping us very busy. She is walking extremely well and I am now even "comfortable" letting her walk around the house (with her walker) while I'm in the laundry room - a huge step for us!!

She is definitely a 2 year old and is testing the limits sometimes every few minutes. She has found that hitting me gets my attention, so that tends to be the way that she chooses to act out. I tried doing time-out, but as soon as the time-out was over and I went to talk to her about why she was in time-out she would hit me again and ask for another time out. Clearly, this was not an effective punishment for her!! We have now started putting her toys in time-out for the day, which is working for the moment, but I think it is only a matter of time before she is no longer affected by this.

She is big into being a princess (Tinkerbell and Ariel are her favorite) and/or a ballerina and prefers to wear a tutu everyday. We have been on and off with the potty. She goes when I put her on, but right now she is fighting me when I try to put her on. She is also battling when I try and change her diaper, wash her face, brush her teeth, get her dressed, brush her hair.... you get the idea :).

She is getting more and more comfortable on her feet and is standing without support for 5-30 seconds. She is also starting to try and climb and reach up high for things, which is rather scary.

Big Milestones For Molly

Molly has been making some big advances in the past few days and we are so excited.  We have been working on trying to provide more opportunities for her to use her walker and that seems to have allowed her to build up her stamina quite significantly.  

We went to a  6 year old's birthday party in the neighborhood and they had a pony... I thought we would just have Molly pat or MAYBE sit on the pony, but in the end she not only sat on the pony, but rode it all around their yard.  It was wonderful.  She had a ball and it was great 

We went to our friends party yesterday for the 4th and they have a pool in their neighborhood.  Molly walked all the way there herself (maybe only 50 feet or so, but still).  We put her into a swim suit with flotation on it and within 10 minutes or so she was willing to "swim" by herself by doing a pedaling/walking motion with her legs.  We were so happy that she took to being independent so quickly.  I had tried it the day before and she cried and screamed each time I tried, but then after talked about how she had been swimming by herself.  On the 4th she started off a little unsure, but by the end told Jim not to get too close!  She was low enough in the water that it was regularly splashing her in the mouth, but she just spit the water out and kept at it.  We are hopeful that this will be the new norm.

While we were in the pool and Jim was holding her he said "I lost my balance" as he slipped and Molly said "we can find it, call for it", so the two of them walked around the pool calling "here balance".

Today we went to the mall and Molly walked all around a store and then insisted on walking to the elevator and then down 15 plus stores to get to the Disney store.  I was terrified because it was rather busy, but so excited about the rapid development of her sense of independence and her stamina.

On our way home we talked about Molly being a sister (NO we are not pregnant or trying) and at first she said no, but then said she would like to have a baby girl so that they could be friends - so sweet!