Growing Up and Thinking Lots

Molly is doing well and asking LOTS of questions. She has been interested in boys, marriage, babies and how they are born. She has a HUGE crush on her classmate and friend, Victor, and we kept thinking it was going to be short lived, but she is still going strong. The Victor crush started around Valentine's Day and she is making him new valentines everyday. She even found a small toy and wrapped it in tissue paper all by herself for him. She is very interested in marrying Victor and is concerned because he is already supposed to marry another classmate, Helen. She seems OK with the idea of Victor marrying both Helen and her.

She has been asking about babies and where they come from and how they get out and where Jim and I came from etc. Last night Molly was asking Jim again about how the baby comes out and "is there a whole where the baby was? I was pretty small so it was probably a small hole." She was also asking about how Jim and Uncle Mike came out of Gram's tummy and Uncle Tripp and I came out of Mimi's tummy etc. It is fun when she asks questions like this and we get a glimpse of what is going on inside her head. She has had similar questions about death "is everyone going to die at different times?" "then there won't be any people left" and she has briefly asked what happens when you die. Deep questions that I was not prepared for! My parent's cat, Tony, died last year and soon after that my Uncle Tommy died and I think that got her little wheels spinning, but it took almost 6 months for her to ask anything about what she must have been thinking of off and on for a while.

We had our hot tub delivered last Thursday, we filled it on Friday and we have been in it everyday since! Molly seems to be feeling well and has been walking independently off and on in the house. We went to the mall on Monday and she walked the full length of the mall twice with her walker, which I think is the most she has ever walked. This is very promising and wonderful to see. It is hard for me to not think about the fact that walking is something that comes and goes. I am working on enjoying the moment, but it is hard not to prepare for when she is hurt and cannot walk. She seems very pleased with herself, which is wonderful to watch.

We are working on improving Molly's independence and even creating a few chores for her to help out with. Up to this point she has not been independent with anything except feeding herself. Another OI mom suggested having Molly take her dirty laundry in her walker basket and so far that has been a big hit! She clearly feels really good being able to do something all by herself and feeling that sense of contribution. She is now also responsible for feeding Howie, our dog, twice a day and has been another big hit.

We are starting to think about this summer and I am starting to toy with the idea of having my own "camp" here for part of the summer with 3 or 4 other kids to allow Molly to have that experience... we'll see if this is one of those "would be nice" ideas or one that I actually follow through with - I'm hoping to make it work out.

We are also getting excited for the OI conference this summer (July) in Portland, OR. We are really lucky that there is going to be a family OI camp the following week (for free) that will include some water sports and other fun activities for Molly. It is going to be wonderful for Molly and the rest of us to see all of the things kids with OI CAN do rather than seeing what her peers are doing and saying "Molly can't do that". We have already had some wonderful experiences with families with kids just a little bit older.

Off to look into swim lessons...