'Twas the Night Before Christmas

I can't believe it's almost here. Our first Christmas with our daughter - YAHOO!!

She is quite the champ. We went to a neighbor's party this evening and Molly was a big hit with all of the kids. She had 7 or 8 kids crowded around her all oohing and ahhing and trying to get Molly's attention. She was a big fan of all of the focus being on her.

We put her to bed at the party and she fell asleep like a champ. We have now come home and put her back to bed and it seems she is back asleep and happy as can be.

I am so excited to have our first Christmas as a family. We just realized that we haven't yet wrapped any of her presents. I think this is the only year we will get away with that!

Merry Christmas to All!

Dada!

It's official... she is now, without question, calling Jim "Dada". Hooray! She is quite excited about it as well. She has been working on a lot of "D" sounds and been saying dada for a while, but now it definitely seems deliberate when she sees him. I know my time will come. She so wants to be saying more, but it seems to be a bit slow going for her at the moment.

I have been talking to her about what different animals say and she listens intently, but hasn't been able to produce any of the sounds. I have tried several different sounds for dog and finally tried a dog panting and she latched right on. For the rest of the book she "panted" at each page - adorable!

She continues to progress with her sitting and sat today with nothing to help support her without much trouble. I look forward to her getting to a point where I'm not right there worrying so much.

Happy Times at the Sullivans

We had a nice weekend here with Molly. It is amazing how good things can be when there are two adults to get things ready throughout the day. Thank goodness for weekends! I can only imagine how exhausting it must be to be a single parent.

Molly has started saying "nanana" when she wants something (generally food). She is also demonstrating how much she understands. I can tell her to roll over so I can pick her up and she will. She also smacks her lips if we say eat and can look around in the appropriate location for lots of different things. You can ask her if she wants a particular thing to eat and she will shake her head or not.

She has become even more interested in Howie and he is now allowing her to pat him for a moment or two before he has had enough.

Wrestlemania Here We Come!

Molly has some new tricks up her sleeve these days. She has taken to head bashing me with her forehead. When I say "No" in my sternest voice she laughs. It is so hard to keep myself from laughing, which she has learned rather quickly. Hopefully this will be a short lived phase.

She is getting stronger and is able to sit unassisted for short periods now. She is also rather vocal and is saying a lot of Na na na na and Da da da da. She has said Dada to Jim a few times now and it seems to be deliberate. I can also ask her questions at mealtime and she can answer by shaking her head or giving me the sign for "all done". It is so nice to have some two-way communication happening.

She is getting good at feeding herself and more and more of her food is in the form of finger foods. I'm hoping that we are moving towards a new part of her development that will make life a little bit less challenging.

Sitting and Playing

We have been working on sitting with Molly and she is already close to being able to sit all on her own. She's definitely on the accelerated program!

We are working on hitting more of her milestones. She is a bit delayed, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that she hasn't been sitting, standing or crawling. At least she is happy :).

Molly has been having fun playing peek-a-boo lately and really seems to enjoy the game. You can see her behind the toy delighted with herself and the game and then she energetically pops out from behind - ADORABLE!! Here is a video of her playing peek-a-boo CLICK HERE.

There is also a video of her sitting CLICK HERE.

We seem to be back in the world of separation anxiety, I hope this is another short-lived phase! I can't take more than 3 steps away without her breaking down in hysterics! As my Dad would say... "This too shall pass" :)

She continues to be happy and full of spunk!

Infusion #7 - Mission Accomplished

We are back from Molly's 7th infusion and happy to have it behind us. This one did not go quite as smoothly. We shaved the same spot on her head and they got the IV in. They took too long to get the medication up to us (4+ hours) and the vein blew and we had to do a new IV. We generally have the IV Specialty team put her IV's in, but it was after 5 and they weren't around. Fortunately, we found another vein on the head to work with. We shaved a spot on the other side of the head and they got the vein without a lot of trouble. She was crying so hard that she started sweating and then there was an issue getting the tape to stick to secure the IV. It was a rough few hours watching her get so upset. I was worried she was going to get physically ill from getting so upset. They ended up pulling a bunch of hair out when they removed the IV, so it was upsetting that we had to go through that part twice. Thankfully the second IV worked until 5 am. We had gotten enough of the medicine (we missed 2 hours worth) so we didn't have to go through another stick.

So, the infusion was over at 5. The IV was removed at 7 (once she woke up) and the blood work was sent down. It then took them until 11:45 to finally release us. We paged the doctor and she agreed that we could go, but someone in the hospital didn't think we should leave yet, so they kept us there for 4 hours more than we needed to. I was going crazy. I know that there are much worse things, but when you have a baby that needs to nap it is frustrating to be stuck there for no good reason. In the end it all worked out. We got the medicine Molly needed and nothing bad happened. That's about all we can ask for.

We are very fortunate that Molly recovers VERY quickly. Within a few minutes of crying/screaming hysterically she is back to her happy self. She is one happy little girl and NOTHING is going to keep her down for more than a minute or two!

Photos Galore

Here's Molly in the hot tub and having a ball:

Here's Molly covered in food when I let her try and feed herself:

Here is Molly in her "peapod" that we used while in New England instead of a Pack n' Play:

Jim has uploaded a great deal of photos to the Picasa website. CLICK HERE and look at the 9-12 month folder and Thanksgiving Folder to see new photos.

Temper Tantrums Already?!?

We went in to see the dentist today. We didn't learn all that much, but he seems to be knowlegdable. It's another one of those "wait and see" situations. It is hard living in the world of the unknown, but I guess we all live in that place to some extent. Molly has gotten some good naps in today and is HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY as a result :). Hopefully this good mood will come with us to the hospital tomorrow.

She has started to have an opinion of what should be happening (or not happening). If I put her in her high chair and she doesn't want to be there, she lets me know! We have entered a new phase. She has started arching her back and throwing herself backwards or rocking side to side when she is unhappy with something. It is terrifying and exhausting. I hope that this is a short-lived phase. She learned the sign for fan while we were in MA and seems to be working on more now that we're home. I think she showed the sign for drink during lunch today and is eager to communicate every time she sees the dog. I think there is a lot more going on "upstairs" than she is able to communicate at this time. I can't wait until we either get more signs into the mix, or she starts talking!

If all goes well, we will be at the hospital tomorrow for her infusion (I think this is #7). We will be spreading out the infusions to 8 weeks after this, which should be a nice break for all of us.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I can't believe it's going to be December tomorrow. Molly is almost 1 - YIKES!

Home Sweet Home!!

Whew! We have been gone for 10 days and it feels great to be home. Molly was so tired and got a bit cranky on the trip home, but who can blame her! She's upstairs sleeping and hopefully enjoying being back in her crib.

Jim is on his way home with Howie, our pug, and I can't wait to see him!

We had such a great trip. Molly became even more social, if that is possible, on this trip. It has made me realize that I need to create more opportunities for her to be in a social environment with other kids.

I am so glad we made the trip up to New England. We had some nice down time, family time, time with friends and Jim and I went out for dinner one night as well.

We had scheduled Molly's infusion for Wednesday, but after talking with her doctor decided to put it off until Friday. I am so glad we don't have to ship off tomorrow for another night away from home. We have an appointment with a Metabolic Dentist on Thursday to look at Molly's teeth and give us some advice for how to care for brittle teeth. Hopefully we will get more good news than bad. I always dread looking into something new like this, sometimes I find out more than I want. Hopefully we will like the dentist and feel confident with his advice.

I am looking forward to a good night's sleep back in our own bed!

Thanks to everyone who hosted us on our trip. It was nice to see everyone and to spend some time in New England.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

We are having a nice visit here in MA with the family. There were 16 of us for dinner tonight and everything was delicious!! Molly had some butternut squash to celebrate the big day - next year she be able to enjoy it all!

It has been hard to be out of our comfort zone with her. There are so many things to think about when we are in a new place with her. She has loved visiting so many new places and has been very responsive to all of the new stimulus.

It's 10:30 here and it is time to head up to bed. I hope you all had a great holiday. I know Molly had a good first Thanksgiving :).

The Grand Tour

We're here in New England and trying to make the most of our trip - maybe a bit too much!

We flew in on Saturday to Boston and my Mom came and picked us up. Molly was a perfect traveler and we arrived in Maine with very little fussing :). She is quite the little champ! We tried out my parents hot tub with Molly (they dropped it to 96 degrees) and she loved it. She put some pressure on her feet in there for the first time anywhere. A big, but very scary, step!

We drove down to my old co-workers on Sunday and met up with Jim's old co-workers for dinner. Molly was a trooper until her bedtime (6 pm) rolled around and we had to pack up and put her down for the night. I had the chance to get together with teachers from my old school for lunch on Monday. It was so nice to be back in Chelmsford. Jim and I drove by our old house - it hasn't changed much. It was half the size of our house now, but we miss it in many ways :).

In some ways it feels like we haven't been away at all and in others we have forgotten a lot. We do love New England. There is a lot that we miss about the area, but there is also a lot that we would miss about North Carolina if we moved as well.

We are now at our cousins and settled in for a couple of days. Molly has done extremely well with all of our location changes and has stayed on her sleep schedule more or less. She is waving at everyone we meet and charming them with her happy and fun personality.

We are really looking forward to the rest of the family arriving and for the big feast. Hooray for pumpkin pie!!

I am glad to have such good stuff to report. We had a busy week last week and are enjoying our vacation thus far.

Videos Galore....

We have had a wonderful weekend with our little cutie. Jim was "Super Dad" and gave me a lot of time out of the house. I love our baby, but it is VERY nice to have a break. I love being able to go to the bathroom when I need to and eat when I'm hungry etc. These are the times when you know you have a great husband!

She is starting to copy our actions more. Yesterday's trick was the tongue. She would stick hers out and move it side to side and wanted us to do the same. She then would stick it out on command - adorable. But, today is a new day and she is no longer doing her tongue tricks - that is SO yesterday Mom...

One of her new favorite activities is to "dance". We hold her facing out and move side to side and she kicks like CRAZY. She has the biggest grin on her face every time - it's adorable!

We had our first water therapy appointment on Friday and had a wonderful time. The pool was 94 degrees and she loved it. We were in there for a full hour and she was happy as can be. It was so nice to get suggestions and to have someone in the pool to do activities with. I am already looking forward to our next visit :)

Guess that's all for now. We will be busy all this week getting ready for our big trip North.

Video #1 - Dee Dee Dee CLICK HERE

Video #2 - Molly Playing with her tray CLICK HERE

Video #3 - Molly Learns to Nod CLICK HERE

Ah-choo!

Sorry I haven't been as active with my posts, but my brother gives me a hard time when I post without new pictures. It is often hard to find time to take pictures and even harder to find time to get them off the camera.

I was feeding Molly dinner tonight, she opened her mouth for the next bite (or so I thought) and just as I brought the spoon of food to her mouth she sneezed and sent food all over me. A nice "dusting" of zucchini, pears, and rice cereal covered most of my front. Too funny.

We went in to see the orthopedist today for a check up and had a great visit. We took X-Rays of her spine and legs and he was happy with what he saw. There is still quite a bit of bowing in her legs, especially her right femur and both tibias, but he thought that some of that might get better as she grows. I always like to hear good news! We also got the go-ahead to start putting her in a more upright position. Yahoo!! The first step towards sitting :).

Lately, my days have been filled with an overwhelmingly long list of "To Do" items, so the visit today was a nice surprise. I had been fretting about today's appointment and what it might reveal, so I'm glad it's over and that the news was good.

We are heading to New England for Thanksgiving this year. I'm getting really excited - we leave on Saturday.

Molly Through The "Years" Photo Collection

Molly is upstairs "sleeping" right now and all I can hear is the sound of her kicking so hard the springs are making noise. She is a character! Molly is a great sleeper at night, but naps have been virtually non-existant these days (30 minutes tops). Oh well, at least she isn't up at night.

Jim's Mom was in town this weekend and got a lot of quality Molly time. Molly has been babbling away and is now making a two sylable sound that sounds like "I do", but I'm not sure what she thinks she is saying.

Jim has created a website with folders for 3 month periods. Enjoy!

She has mastered feeding herself Cheerios and we are going to try giving her a spoon soon - we will of course take pictures...

Splish Splash

Molly and I went to the pool again today and she had a ball. She learned how to splash with her arms and couldn't get enough. There was water all over her face, but she was happy, happy, happy.

I'm so glad it has been working out so well there.

She is continuing to babble up a storm, but so far none of it has meant anything to us yet. Hopefully that breakthrough will happen soon.

She is getting more and more consistent with her waving. She waved to the mother and daughter who were swimming at the pool today. I'm sure in another week or so I won't be able to stop her from waving to everyone!!

I took some pictures and video yesterday, but haven't had the chance to get them on to my computer yet - we'll get them up soon!

Swimming and Talking

Molly continues to get "chattier" by the minute. She has been making lots of different D sounds. We think we have caught her calling Jim Dada, but we'll wait for more consistency before calling it officially.

She is loving her books and flips them over and over and over to look at the front and back and talk to them.

We went to the local pool last week and things went quite well. I tried it once when she was a few months old and things weren't going so well and hadn't wanted to go back. I decided to give it another chance and I'm really glad I did. She had a good time looking at all of the people and enjoyed the warm water. We went straight to pool side and I changed her in an inflatable bathtub, which worked quite well. I'm going to try and make this a weekly activity - it is so good for her muscles and bones. I will try and take some pictures one of these days.

Jim and I carved pumpkins last night and I have included a picture for your entertainment. I hope you all had a great weekend!

Kisses for Mom

Molly had her 9 month check up today and is continuing to hug the third percentile growth chart - hooray for being on the growth chart :) She now is weighing in at 15 lbs. 6 oz. She has been eating more lately, so I think she is starting to hit a little growth spirt... we'll see. The pediatrician noted that all 4 top teeth are almost through - I knew that 2 were on the way, but 4 is even better :)

Molly's new trick is that she has started "kissing" me. I wasn't sure what she was doing last night, but Jim noted that she was trying to give me a kiss. She will now do it on command (if the spirit moves her). It is ADORABLE and definitely a nice milestone for me.

It was nice to get reassurance from the pediatrician that she is on target for her milestones in the verbal/social department.

We will work on downloading the pictures from the pumpkin party.

Pumpkin Party and A New Video

We had a nice weekend here in NC. Yesterday was gorgeous. We went for a nice walk and got the house in order for a party today. We had some neighbors and some of Jim's coworkers over for a pumpkin carving party and it was a big success. I even had time to carve a pumpkin, which is a big accomplishment being the host and having a baby to boot.

It is hard that Molly is, in some ways, a "bubble baby". There needs to be a barrier to prevent kids from getting too close. I know that this is a problem that is going to get worse before it gets better, but hopefully with some direction we will have some kids that will be able to get close without causing harm. I know when Molly and her peers are older this will be less of an issue, but it will be a major challenge in the next few years. We put her in her chair and put her tray in front of her, which worked perfectly to allow kids to get close without being within reach. Molly had a ball at the party and loved having so many kids around, as well as all of the attention she received.

There is a new video of Molly in her seat "chatting" and playing.

A cool new chair

Good morning, I hope you all had a nice weekend. It is finally starting to cool off down here - we are loving the crisp Fall air. :)

Jim's parents picked up a special chair/stroller for us in Kentucky that someone was donating. The seat itself is a lot like that of a wheelchair. It provides great positioning and support for Molly's spine and she seems to be quite happy in it. It also came with a tray that allows her to play with toys and books in a new way. I am very excited about our new gear. It is called a kid-kart and apparently they can run as much as $6,000 new - YIKES!! A vendor came on Thursday and adjusted it to fit her exactly.

There is a new video (CLICK HERE) of Molly up in her crib on her stomach. She is getting to be quite active with her rolling. She rolls/wiggles around to get to various toys on the floor. So much for being able to turn our back for a minute or two!

She is getting more and more "verbal" these days with lots of "dee dee dee" and "da da da" etc. It is adorable. I think we are close to her understanding waving and saying hi. We are having trouble differentiating what she is doing on purpose, vs. what is merely a coincidence. She is getting stronger and "smarter" by the minute. It is fun to show off her new tricks to Jim when he comes home from work :)

Home again, Home Again... Jiggity Jig

We are home and all is well. We had a rather uneventful hospitalization and other than being a bit sleep deprived we are all doing well. Molly was a trooper as usual :). She wore a hat to keep the IV from her busy little hands, which worked quite well.

There are 3 new videos:
Click Here for a video of her on the floor playing,
Click Here for a video of her sitting for the first time,
and Click Here for a video of her in her highchair banging cups.

She is developing so rapidly these days. She is doing something new almost everyday. Such a busy little cutie :). She is now rolling completely over from her back to her stomach, which I have been eagerly waiting for her to do - hooray for Molly!