our little addict

elena of course immitates about everything we say and do. we mistakenly started calling her teething tablets baby crack because she would literally start jonesing for them. and now, sure enough, she calls them "baby crack!" nice.


baby crack from Molly Leone on Vimeo.

sorry for all the videos. it's just so hard to put a one year old into words!

"Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children." ~Mignon McLaughlin

first born

research again and again will suggest that first borns are often over achievers, have higher IQ's, are more confident, determined and eager to please, etc etc etc. most presidents, astronauts, etc are first borns. i could go on and on, but won't as i'm a third born. =P

i'm not sure if this short clip of elena participating in story time is typical of a first born or a striving autonomous toddler. either way, she does this all the time and it cracks me up! please note her bow at the end as well....we're still working on the curtsey.


moo ba lalala from Molly Leone on Vimeo.

"I am convinced all of humanity is born with more gifts than we know. Most are born geniuses and just get de-geniused rapidly." ~Buckminster Fuller

little helper

i've been a little tired lately and am hiring help! she's eager to work, does a great job, AND, she's all i can afford! who else will work for kisses, cuddles and elmo's world?!





she is still a little young to understand we can't feed or pet the dust bunnies though!

"Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy." ~Author Unknown

rise and shine

lanie sleeps from 7pm-7am with no problems (running to knock on wood), so it's always a bit of a surprise when she wakes early. this morning she was awake at 6am. no problem, we just got a little extra cuddle time in and went about our day.

but by lunch.....


rise and shine from Molly Leone on Vimeo.


"A little girl is sugar and spice and everything nice - especially when she's taking a nap." ~Author Unknown

i smell a rat

elena's been putting 3 and 4 words together all the time now. it's the sweetest thing, we love that she's chatty! she's been narrating a lot of what we do, what's going on, etc. well last night she pointed to the bathroom vanity drawer and told daddy, "mommy broke it."

kinda funny, right? well i don't know what's funnier here (or scarier - depending on how you look at it): her ratting out her own mother or the fact that she was the one who actually "broke" it and blamed me??? hmmmm. either way, i think we're dealing with a very smart girl.....and i'm skeered.

"Children seldom misquote. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said." ~Author Unknown

caught red handed?

don't give up...follow elena's tips to go consequence free.

tip 1 - act stupid. place your tongue into the side of your cheek and look away in hopes that the catcher, too, will just look away and not see what you have done/are doing.

tip 2 - make brief eye contact. it's very important that you make this very quick, but you must get a read of the catcher's face.

tip 3 - smile, look cute and (most important) innocent!

tip 4 - say something - anything. it's a must that you talk before they get the chance to ask you what's going on.

tip 5 - distract! distract! distract! pull out all the tricks....

hang upside down to throw them off...

act hurt - no one can punish you when you're already hurt...

act silly - everyone always caves to humor...


unfortunately - she is way too good at this stuff.

"A characteristic of the normal child is he doesn't act that way very often." ~Author Unknown

maniac

as promised, here's a snippet of elena running in place before we lay her down to bed. (there was more, but i had the lights off - whoops!) we of course bust out in, "she's a maniac......" it's too cute! you also hear her, "laa-lu" (aka: love you!)


maniac from Molly Leone on Vimeo.

"Laa-lu!" -Elena Jae

clean up crew

elena empties any cabinets and drawers that she can get to in the kitchen. and for good measure, elena also makes sure that all are empty and clean - ya know just in case we happened to put something away that had left over food and/or drink in it! can't take the chance of that happening now can we?!

"anything?"

"crap, another empty....they'll get lazy one of these days!"


"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance." ~Franklin P. Jones

bathtime transformations

miss bearded lady

miss mohawk

miss horns

miss bedhead

"what?! mommy says everyone does this in the bathtub!"

"Even when freshly washed and relieved of all obvious confections, children tend to be sticky." ~Fran Lebowitz

17 months old!

oh come on!! can these months go by any faster? waaaaaaaahhh.

our 17 month old.....

- has a sense of humor!!! she always has, but she's starting to make jokes. she's been able to differentiate between humorous and not (by tone, expression, etc), but now she initiates it all the time. AND she'll sometimes try and get you laughing when she's in trouble or about to get into trouble.
- still gives unprompted hugs and kisses, but requests them now too. so if you're leaving the room she might call you back saying, "hug daddy hug." or "kiss mommy." it's music to our ears of course.
- more music to our ears - replies "laa-luu" everytime you tell her. "i love you!"
- speaks elenaese! she would mumble songs and books and such, but she has full out conversations on the phone and whatever in complete jibberish....hand gestures and nods included.
- knows her colors, but has no clue what "color" means. she will independently point and label, "yellow duck," or "brown bear." but if you point to the duck and say "what color?" the answer is always blue!
- has some of the alphabet memorized. like other songs, she sings along with ABC's and can fill in the blank when you stop singing, etc. but if you point and ask her "what letter?" the answer is always "E.....for elena." lol.
- makes up songs with a word. so she'll sing, "mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mom." it's always to the same tune and i have no idea where she got that tune from.
- is getting better with brushing her teeth. we are now up to 14 teeth....2 more to go - until the second set of molars that is.
- has an amazing memory! often visually triggered, but sometimes she just recalls a past incident. regardless, it's better than mommy's memory!
- sits nicely in time-outs. (yes, the little angel gets time outs.) she's always unhappy about it, but she sits still for her whole minute until we process.
- runs in place for a solid 30 seconds everytime we out her down for a nap or bedtime. it's insanely funny and i will try to get video of it. we have no idea how it started but j and i of course bust out in, "she's a maniac, maniac on the floor. and she's dancing like she's never danced before." (tommyboy, anyone?!) we can't help ourselves.
- politely tells the dogs, "stop please." j and i need to take lessons, we just tell them to stop (barking, jumping, etc). elena imitates us, but adds please. what a sweetie! lesson learned!
- likes to narrate what you're doing. so when i blow my nose it's, "mommy bye bye boogers." this happens while eating, going to the bathroom, etc.
- informs you of when she passes gas by saying, "butt, toot toot, butt, toot toot."
- likes remain: babies, books, dancing, animals, pictures, elmo, bathing, eating, drinking and more babies!
- dislikes remain: getting dressed (unless she does it herself) and getting cleaned up after meals.

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." ~John W. Whitehead

books, babies and boredom...

books....


babies....


and boredom. ok not really, she's waiting for me to be done making her dinner!

patient, isn't she?!!! um, and maybe a tad dramatic? lol.

but books, babies and waiting for food about sums up any one of our days! it's rough being one!

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again." ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

thirty

we've had an eventful weekend....jason turned the big 3-0! elena can say "happy birday!" and when we tell her daddy's thirty, she follows with "ucky!" i don't know if she thinks we're saying daddy's dirty or what, but jason found it appropriate for hitting thirty as well! =P

more thirties...i hit 30 weeks pregnant and bubba's heartrate was 130 at our 30 week appt. i have weekly emails sent to me about how baby's developing, what momma's supposed to be doing or feeling, etc. and this was part of week 30's info for baby....

"It is possible for the baby to cry real tears, even within the womb."

break a momma's heart! my bubba better only have happy tears in there! or maybe s/he was empathizing with daddy today as he hit 30.....and is still recovering from last night!

"happy birday daddy!!" - elena jae

ur doin' it wrong

i've been trying to "belly map" bubba and i strongly believe s/he has been alternating between transverse and breech thus far.




'ideally,' they are supposed to be LOA (left occiput anterior). elena was ROP (right occiput posterior) the entire time. she planted herself and never moved, even after 26 hours of labor....until she had to be manually evicted of course. i'm hoping she didn't leave directions on my uterine wall or anything...."turn here bubba.....psych!"

"Think of stretch marks as pregnancy service stripes." -Joyce Armor

goodbye 2008

pardon the cliche, but seriously - i don't know where the time goes??! last year at this time i was thanking sweet, wonderful, amazing 2007 for the birth of our beautiful and healthy daughter, a rebirth of me and the realization that no year would ever ever be the same! now here 2008 has come and gone and filled us with more blessings....a trazillion firsts for our thriving little girl, another incredible miracle on the way and thousands of memorable times with great friends and family! thank you 2008 and we know, somehow, 2009 will leave us even more blessed!

we had a very low key celebration as a family of three and a half....

"happy new year!!!" (hours and hours before the actual new year, lol)


soberly toasting with our water and milk to a blessed 2008!

j and i were in bed by 12:06am, only cuz it took us that long to turn out the lights and turn down the sheets...quite different from previous years, but just as wonderful!

new year's morning we enjoyed a special breakfast where we toasted to 2009 (although daddy was the only one that got to enjoy a mimosa) and then had a dance party in our pj's. elena inevitably stole the show...

"come on mom and dad, can i get a 'woot woot'..."

"good now, 'slide to the right'..."

"now let me see you 'tootsie roll'..."

"and 'come on, ride that train'..."

"now 'back that azz up'..."

"whew, we made need to take a break..."

"breakdancing, that is..."


happy new year!!


"Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to." ~Bill Vaughn