Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there. There are many wonderful dads (and dads-to-be) in our family; I am especially appreciative to Jim (my baby’s daddy) and my dad.

My dad has always been a man of few words, but I have never doubted his love for me. Now, as an adult and parent myself, his devotion to us is even more evident. I love to see him with Molly and Jackson, Benjamin and Addison! He is super handy and if I ever have a question, he’s usually the first person I call.

Jim has proved to be an equally wonderful father to our daughter. He works hard to provide for her {in fact, he’s had to work all weekend and oh, how we have missed him around here!} and he always makes her laugh. In addition to being in charge of bath time most nights, he also gets up with her most mornings and makes her lunch for school. I mean, what else can I ask for?! I remember before we had kids that he was worried about what kind of father he would be, but I knew we had nothing to worry about.

The other day, I asked Molly a few questions about her dad. See our unedited interview below. This kid loves her daddy {and she cracks me up!}.

An Interview with Molly, two years and 10 months

Father’s Day, June 2012

Mommy: What is your daddy’s name?

Molly: He’s a boy. {grins} Jim.

How old is Daddy?

I’m two.

Yes, you are. But how old is Daddy?

I can’t know.

Where does Daddy go each day?

In the dark woods or work or the swimming pool.

What do you like best about Daddy?

Playing and taking a bath.

Where do you like to go with Daddy?

The golf course. The pool. Those places.

What does Daddy like to eat?

Chicken and some French fries.

What makes Daddy mad?

When I cry. Or if I hurt him.

What makes Daddy happy?

If I don’t hurt anything.

Read Full Post »

Spring Break 2012

Spring break, 2012…that phrase has a different meaning for a preschooler, although I’m pretty sure Molly had a blast!

I still had to work, so Renee and my mom helped out on the days that I taught, but Molly and I were both super excited that Jim was able to take some time off last week so we could have a fun family day! I’m not sure if Jim was more motivated by the idea of an easy, fun-filled day or by the fact that Molly and I don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on well, anything. I think he was secretly worried about Molly and me surviving the week!

Tuesday, we stayed in our pj’s until late that morning, then headed to Freedom Park, which is a park my parents used to take me when I was growing up. We took a bag of bread to feed the ducks and proceeded to ignore the warnings that it was against the law to feed the waterfowl. Molly was *so* excited as we were walking to the pond. She could see the geese and ducks in the water and she yelled out, “I’m coming to FEED you!” After walking her all over the park, we went to get bbq for lunch and headed back to the house for naps. Unfortunately, Jim was the only one who got a nap that day.

Seriously, who is this kid in my pictures? If I hadn’t been AT the park with them, I would have sworn Jim took pictures of a five year old instead of our two-and-a-half year old.

I can’t remember what we did the rest of that day…the no-nap situation kind of makes me lose my marbles everyday.

But on Thursday, we went to Mandy and Devin’s to dye Easter eggs and Molly thought that was so cool. Guess what color *all* of hers were?

Yep, pink.

So on Friday, we dyed some more eggs and Jim managed to break  more of them than Molly.

Saturday night, Molly attended a private party in her crib that lasted until 11 p.m. so Easter Sunday was an awesomely fun time. She bawled pretty much the entire time in the nursery at church {but later when we asked her about church, she said it was fun. Weird.}. Then we went to Beverly’s for lunch and hung out on her beautiful porch to watch the Masters. We tried without success to get Molly to take a nap, but she didn’t. Jim and I didn’t take any pictures with our camera during the day, but all the cousins had a great time together. It’s so fun to watch them interact with each other and to see Jackson and Benjamin’s reactions to the girls.

Molly and Addison had the most adorable conversation before lunch about their {matching} dresses and their boo-boos. They had their own special table at lunch which Beverly had bravely set with flowers. Addison kept touching the flowers and Molly would shout “No ma’am!” Just watching them run and hop and roll around, sometimes laughing and sometimes arguing made us think about twins. It’s like they’re siblings when they’re together. Then we chuckled and thought of my friend Julia who actually has twins and we determined we probably had no idea!

The Easter bunny was super generous to Molly and visited multiple times. Between us, the grandparents and Bev & Ben, Molly is set for spring and summer!

She’s trying to decide if she’s going to share a jelly bean with me or not…she’s such a sweet girl that she did decide to share one of her prized jelly beans.

I enjoyed the week with Molly and our extra time with Jim, too. It was nice to not have to rush out the door every day and just let our moods dictate our activities!

Read Full Post »

Easter dresses, and recognizing peaches

Molly is super excited about Easter this year. We have several Easter books, and I’ve tried to read the Easter story to her from her Bible, but it’s a tough one to wrap one’s head around. I’m not stressing too much on the meaning of Easter yet – just hoping she’ll realize that it’s a holiday and we’ll be with family!

She wore her smocked chocolate bunny dress to school today. I cringed a bit when she picked it out (it’s white, after all!) but then figured why have the clothes in the closet if she can’t wear them? She’s only going to be this size for a little while!

Of course she lost one of the bunny’s cotton tails at school, but that’s ok. At least it was the middle one, so it kind of looks balanced.

Just for fun, this is Molly a year ago tomorrow at Graham’s Easter party:

Holy cow, she is such a KID now. There was still some baby in her this time last year, wasn’t there?

—————————-

This afternoon before nap, Molly and I were reading the book Meredith gave Molly for her birthday – I Like Fruit. It’s one of Molly’s favorite, because well, she loves fruit. And she feels like *she* is reading it because she recognizes all the fruits and tells us what they are. Every once in a while, she’ll forget what one of the fruits are, like the cantaloupe or the plums. Today, she pointed to a picture in the book and said, “What’s that, Mama?”

I asked her, “What do I call you?”

She thought for a minute and said, “I love you?”

Read Full Post »