And look what I found...

when I went in to get Mollie after her nap!

Big Morning

Was a big morning for Mollie.  For the first time, when her dad went into her room to get her this morning, she was standing at her crib, waiting for him with a big smile.  

And last night, I think she said "mama" and actually knew she was talking to me... I could be crazy, but I'm going to stick with believing that. 

Fun couple days for mom and dad!  

And here is a cute old pic that was just passed on to me...

Mollie's First Memorial Day

As you can see, Mollie was excited about her first trip to the lake this summer for Memorial Day.  We had plans for some big "firsts" for her, including boating and swimming in the lake, but we had a few tears with those activities and were much more excited about playing in her kitchen and riding around in the golf cart.

Cooking in the kitchen with a view, one of the big highlights of the weekend...
Day 1 - Activity #1 - first trip to the lake Kiowa Beach.  She wasn't quite as excited about the sand and water as we had hoped, but we still got some cute pictures of her checking things out... 


Activity #2 - boat trip.  She was loving the boat while it was still parked...

Once we were up an running, the tears came quickly!

When she found the floor, she did much better...

And once she was able to help Dad drive the boat, she even enjoyed the ride...

Day 2, her friend Sofie arrived, so here she is gearing up to go back to the beach.

Activity #1 - Family golf cart ride.  One of Mollie's favorite events of the weekend...
Activity #2 - beach time.  Mollie enjoyed it much better today.  She munched on loads of sand and crawled all over the beach with Sofie.

Mollie as a nine month old

We are having so much fun with our little nine month old.  Her personality continues to develop and she changes almost every day.  We finished our second session of swim lessons last week, and started The Little Gym.  She is in the class above her with the big kids, so I was worried the class would be too advanced for her.  When the class began, everyone was sitting in a big circle.  There were about 25 adults and all of their babies were sitting in their laps.  Mollie crawled off my lap and right into the middle of the circle, then sat down in the middle for everyone to admire...  right away I knew she was going to be just fine in the class!  In addition to loving attention, she has switched from the army crawl to crawling with her tummy off the floor; we are hearing "mama" much more, which is extremely rewarding; she has started to lay her head on the floor when she needs a quick "rest", although it only lasts for maximum 2 seconds; she is eating burgers, brisket, spinach, waffles, and lots and lots of cheese (she has cheesehead in her blood!); she still lights up when she sees Daddy or Charlie, splashes like crazy in the bath, and loves to smile at people we meet on the street.  The standing and walking continue to get more stable and the laughing continues to light up our household.  Here are some bare bottom photos of her doing some of the things I just mentioned, and one of her looking just mischievous!...

Hanging out with Dad

Some more arboretum pictures

Happy girl...

We practiced lots of standing and walking

And she's up on all fours crawling now.  Say goodbye to the army crawl :)

Going to the Chapel...

We had a wonderful afternoon at the Arboretum!  Mollie and Harlan were great sports as we posed for photos all over the park, so when we saw the kiddie chapel, we couldn't resist...

"Hey Mama"

Waking up with my cousin

Madeline, Mollie and their two dolls did some relaxing together this morning after their big sleepover!

A great Saturday

Baby Blue Eyes

It is a bed, right?! So why not sleep on it.

Mollie had  a good time rolling around on Charlie's bed!