If you're wondering why we've suddenly started posting more frequently, it's a number of things all coming together, but mainly that two different people gave us flack about how they really need something to do while they're eating their lunch at their desks and one post per month just really doesn't cut it. That, and Molly has taken to napping on the sofa in the livingroom, which kinda rules out vacuuming, running the garbage disposal and doing anything productive during naptime.
New stuff going on with us:
Molly loves to go to the playground, asks to go outside all the time, is crazy about chalk and bubbles, and always seems ready to go on "nature walks" on the sidewalks around our neighborhood. She now walks all the way to our neighborhood grocery and back, as long as we sit down and have a snack for a few minutes while we're there. Her longest walk so far is 1 mile, which means she is ready for the airport without a stroller, I hope.
She listens really intently to adult conversations and understands what they're talking about more often than people give her credit for. Yesterday, for example, we went to Parks and Rec to get our pool passes for the summer. I asked when the pools opened and the woman behind the counter said, "They're already open for the summer. They open at noon today." As we were leaving Molly had this to say. "Are we going to the pool today? She said it is open. But it's not just one pool. Its a big pool and a little pool, right Mommy?" Later she said, "what's noon?" And today, she was talking about the flowers and the trees with leaves on them and she said "It's spring. No, it's summer. But spring and summer are the same, right Mom? We really haven't discussed this. I think she's still processing that tiny conversation from yesterday. Amazing.
We spent some time at a neighborhood wading pool and playground and she had a ball filling a bucket and dumping it on herself, climbing on the fountain in the center of the pool and just generally being a kid. Today we went to Raccoon River playground with some of the G.O.L. familes. She played really well with a girl who is six months older than her. They shared and took turns. I was amazed, and really pleased. An older boy with Down's syndrome kept pushing her for no reason. The first time he did it I didn't see it. When she stopped crying, I asked what happened and she said, "a boy pushed me." I thought she was exaggerating and tried to get her to just shake it off as I brushed off the bark mulch. The second time I was standing right there and he really gave her a shove, out of the blue. I told him "No pushing," and he turned and shoved another little girl so hard she went flying forward, feet off the ground, and landed about 5 feet away. He had no caretakers in sight. Molly's reaction to watching this, "He's mean. Let's go to the other playarea." I have no fear that she'll do ok on the playground if I'm not around.
She is observant about things. She can identify many plants in the neighborhood - including dandelions, violets, clover, lilies, hostas (which she calls pastas), peonies, yucca and spider wort. She walks along either singing songs to herself or asking, "What do you see that's new, Mommy?" That's a little game we play - looking for new flowers blooming or new garden Gnomes and the like. She usually wins.
She has also perfected the arms-crossed, "its-not-fair" stinging death-ray scowl, to an alarming degree. She has vaporized me on numerous occaisions, generally related to her pre-breakfast candy habit. She is now a candy fiend thanks to a pinata at a friend's house one evening. Fortunately she can still be held to one piece per day - with supplemental raisins at this point.
I'm thankful for Nature's Candy.
Anyone out there with a heart for praying for kind strangers, please add a few names to your list. Donna, Sheila and Jeremy. They are fighting a beastly cancer in Chicago and need and deserve all the positive energy possible flowing their way.
C
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