Good Golly Miss Molly

Molly is a people person - in a big way. No one is off limits. She will walk up to any stranger that comes across her path and say "Hello!" with increasing obnoxiousness until that stranger is forced to utter an awkward "uh, hi" in reply. She has screamed "Hello Peoples!" from atop Matt's shoulders in the middle of a crowded farmers market. She will sing and dance on anything that looks like a stage in front of any amount of people. She is even adept at cracking jokes when there are lulls in conversation at parties. She is the exact opposite of the person I would be in all of these situations and she is constantly challenging my inner hermit. But there are times when I really appreciate her exuberant personality. She makes me laugh heartily and often. And I have a great example from today's adventures. We were walking in the gardens at the farmers market and made it over to the hands sculpture where another two year old was playing. Molly walked proudly up to the little girl, threw her arm around her and loudly declared that they were friends. I have never seen a two year old look so confused. The girl didn't move but looked at Molly like "what is her deal?" Fast forward a few minutes and, while Molly and I were searching for bugs, the little girl started playing with another girl that she obviously knew. Well Mo turned around, threw her hands on her hips, squinted her eyes, and shook her finger at the girl and said "Hey! You're my friend. I see you over there!." And that poor little two year old girl looked more exasperated than I have ever seen a two year old look. She knew Molly's tone meant she was in trouble, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why she was being scorned by an unfamiliar two year old. And then she looked at the strange girls crazy mother who was laughing heartily at the scene. Poor child. I'm sorry. My child is a quirker. She makes me laugh. Heartily and Often.

Fantastic New Fence!

The fence out front was in need of a makeover. Boards were falling off and cracked in half, and the whole fence was weatherworn. And we realized- in need of an extra access point. People could never figure out how to get into our yard. One gate, on the left side of the driveway, led you into the side yard and garage. The other gate, on the right side of the driveway, actually led to our front door but was often hidden by our cars. So when contemplating a new fence, we decided a gate access smack dab in the middle would be spectacular. Not to mention a new gate would give me access to my front garden. As it was, I was watering my garden through the fence boards and getting millions of tiny splinter in my hands. Not to mention people were laughing at my watering method as they walked by. Soo, River City Fence Co. came last week and tore down/removed the old fence and put up a new fence and gates in 3 days. They are awesome and they did a fantastic job! See what you think.

Old Fence Close Up

Old Fence from Across Street

Old Fence with Homemade Gate

Old Fence and Obnoxious Tree (If that thing ever fell...)

No Fence

New Posts

New Fence Complete!

New Gate for Front Access!

New Front Gate- So Lovely!

New Front Access Gate From the Outside

So Crisp and Clean Looking!

A Bushel and a Peck

I Love

You

A Bushel

And a Peck

You Bet

Your Pretty 

Neck

I

Do!!!

Master Bath Wrath

Lets talk about our master bathroom. The color of the walls almost turned me off from wanting to pursue this house. I would call the offending color urine stain yellow on a paint sample swatch. I have been picking out colors from the paint department every time we visit Ace, trying to find a color to replace the yuck color. I wanted something gray-ish but lovely gray-ish and was having a hard time finding what I wanted until I saw my friends' newly painted wall. I probably over-reacted to the amazing quality of the perfect paint on their wall but being the wonderful friends that they are, Juliana and Ty smiled and gave me a gallon of the elusive perfect paint! But alas, there is never enough time in a day to paint a master bathroom with a "helpful" toddler in tow and the paint just sat there beckoning to be opened. After a week of staring at the unopened can of perfect paint and the urine stain yellow walls, I put Mo to bed while Matt was at work and I began painting at 9pm. I taped and painted and repainted my way all the way around the bathroom. I told myself I would stop painting at 10pm, 11pm, 12pm but alas, watching the urine stain yellow disappear was addictive and I couldn't stop. So I painted the whole bathroom in one night, finally getting into bed amid the paint fumes at 2pm. And I'm so glad I did, because I never would have had the time to paint during the day and I'm no longer grossed out by the bathroom walls. See what you think!

Urine Stain yellow and Test Colors

More Not-so-Lovely Yellow

During Paint Night

                           

Much Better!

After!

She Went Poopy in the Potty! Hallelujah!

She went poopy! In the potty! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

P.S. Sorry teenage Molly coming across this :)

Super Mom!...Fail

Today, while battling a cold, I thought I would be an amazing mom and entertain Mo with my amazing Pinterest finds. Pinterest told me my toddler would love these rainy day activities and would look back on these wonderful mother/daughter bonding activities with joy and amazement at how fantastic her mother was. So instead of crashing on the couch to watch a Shaun the Sheep marathon we made toilet paper bird feeders. You take a toilet paper roll, right? And you smear peanut butter all over it and then roll it in bird seed. This is what I spent all my days' allotment of energy on. Anybody with a "real" job still want to complain? Soooo. We get all set up and Mo is looking at me with death eyes, mumbling "Shaun the Sheep, TV on?" Should have turned the darn TV on. But no. I get her all hyped up for our amazing feed the birds activity!

Looks fun, right?

So she dumps the bird seed into the peanut butter, shoves her hand in the mixture and proceeds to wipe the goop all over herself and the kitchen as I am trying to quickly get her to the sink. Fail. After scrubbing toddler, I finish making the now not so appealing bird feeders and we go outside to hang them up. "Birds!!, Birds?, Huh, no birds," Molly points out as I roll my eyes. We masterfully hang sustenance for our wild feathered friends. Even though we are probably just feeding the darn squirrels that like to pee on me from the branches overhead...sigh.

Finished Product - You're welcome Birds

Anyways, we turn to head back inside when... Mo trips and lands in a giant pile of dog poo from Bella's recent visit. And it was everywhere!!! It even managed to seep into the pockets of her shirt. Why do I try to do fun activities with my child?! Tilly took one look at my face and ran for it. Pinterest said nothing about scrubbing dog excrement off my child at the end of this activity. SO GROSS!!! It is freezing and I am scrubbing my toddler in the back yard with hose water. FAIL!

3...

2...

1...POO!

We then go inside to take a nice warm bath. Which is great, I think to myself, because that is where pinterest activity number two comes in. We never learn, do we? It was supposed to be sensory shaving cream play but because of the chemicals in shaving cream, I decided to use whipping cream. Sooo, I spray whipped cream all over the shower (that thank God, I just scrubbed) and called Mo in. She leaped into the tub and frantically began to lick the walls. It's a good thing I didn't use shaving cream!!! There was no stopping her, no chance to get a word in like "hey, that is for your hands, not your tongue!"All I could do was spray down the wall treat as quickly as possible. And then a memory started flashing in my wee little brain, of Matt spraying whipped cream from the can onto Mo's finger for her to enjoy. Super Fail! I hate you Pinterest. You are a jerk. What do people do with Toddlers all day? After school, a nap, lunch, reading books, an art project, princess castle play, music time, dance party, leave them to play on their own while you do something elsewhere, more books, and puzzles it is only 4pm. What do you do for 2 more hours, before you have an excuse to make dinner?! Besides Shaun the Sheep marathons of course ;) P.S. If you have not watched Shaun the Sheep, do it now. It is awesome.

Remembering Summer Days When, Baby, It's Cold Outside

Molly's last day of the 2011/2012 school year was in early June. As we looked back on a year of mornings packed full of activities created by college students who still have energy, we wondered what we would do with Molly for 3 whole summer months. For the most part we spent the cooler morning hours at different parks around Davis and the sweltering hot afternoons in the public pools. Would you believe I forgot to take a single picture of Mo at the pool :( Molly found a passion for the pool that is still going strong. The girl loves pools and takes to the water like a fish that doesn't know how to swim. Imagine a lot of gleeful splashing, sputtering, and gasping for air. There were a lot of summer groundhog days in which we park played, ate lunch, napped, pool played, ate dinner, slept, repeat...

Swinging the Day Away

             

Feeding Our Chicken Littles

                                                                               

Chicken Chasing was a Popular Activity

         

As was Tomato Picking...

And Hose Play

But there were a few days that stood out and a few vacations/getaways that were memorable. The 4th of July was HOT but Matt was home (although I have no photographic proof) and we spent the day with good friends and good food. We lazed about, shooing those nasty Davis flies off food while kiddos played in the shade. After snacking and lazing we got Molly to bed before the fireworks' booms could frighten her. Luckily we could see the show from our driveway while she slept. Not a bad little driveway date night.

Grand Ole Flag

Hey Friend

We also drove to the coast to escape the heat and ended up tent camping at a lovely little place called Costanoa in Pescadero. The tent cabins were lovely, with electric blankets to keep you warm at night. It was a great way to ease Molly into the world of camping. There was lots of open space so Molly got to help Matt drive the car around the campground and we were able to enjoy a campfire dinner while she collected pine cones and chased birds around the tent cabin. At sunset we all went to bed together, warm and snug under the heated blankets. I love that you can go from sweltering hot to freezing cold in the span of a 2 hour California drive. And the best part was that the beach was right across the road and we were able to explore the sand and surf, and make sea-star discoveries. At this point Molly was not yet terrified of the ocean...more on that to come (Matt!). All in all it was a lovely little get away! And highly recommended!

Don't Mind Me...Just Driving the Car

Our Tent Cabin Crew

Cozy Huh?

Headed for the Beach

Sand...

And Surf...

And Sea Stars!

Our big get away came in July when we got on a plane to visit Grammy, Poppy, and of course, Comicon. My mom and Brian spoiled us big time and got us a condo on the beach! It was really lovely and we would have spent all our time playing at the beach if Molly hadn't been ROLLED big time in the ocean night 1. Matt was wading with Molly in the surf and failed to notice a giant wave that took Molly down and rolled her around to the point of sand filled ears. I was just a little upset (just a teeny weeny bit) and of course Molly freaked out every time we tried to go to the beach from that point on. But we were able to sneak in a few trips and the ocean was amazingly alive. Day 2  I waded in and almost immediately felt something hefty brush up against my legs. I looked down and, in between waves, I could see giant silver fish and gorgeous leopard (I think) sharks. It was a really neat experience. And luckily our days were filled, with or without tons of time in the sand. Molly got to visit the San Diego zoo with Pearl (one of our most favorite people and my mom's high school Chemistry professor). And she got to see the sea life up close at the Birch Aquarium. We had a blast scooting around San Diego and Matt loved  every minute of Comicon. He got to spend lots of time with good friends Jay, Mike and Deb and even got to do a zombie escape obstacle course. He loved it. I rolled my eyes. We loved our week in San Diego!

Molly Meeting Pearl

San Diego Zoo Bus Ride

Beginning of Bus Ride...

End of Bus Ride

Some Cheesiness

What's in There?

Oooh Sea Anemones!

My mom followed us home from San Diego so that Matt could work overtime and Molly got some extended Grammy time, which she loved (and not just because Grammy brought her Ipad). We explored the farmers markets, brunched at High Hand Nursery and went to the California State Fair to pet the animals. And yes there was some pie pad (what Molly calls the iPad) time involved.

Pie Pad Time!

Goat Love

High Hand Brunch

Feeding the Fish

My Loves

Farmers Market Bound

Famers Market Escape Artists!

Goofing Around with Patrick

And More Pie Pad of Course!

After Grammy left we went back to lazy summer life but we did make it to the UC Davis Band-Uh practice and had a blast drumming and kazooing and recordering along with the band.

See...Lazy!

Our Summer Fairy

Giant Pop!

What to do...What to do?

I'm Bored Mom...

So Bored...

See how Bored I am?

So Bored I'm Going to Fake Pout!

Rockin Out with the Band-Uh!

Little Drummer Girl

All in all it was a pretty lazy summer but it went by quickly, as seasons always do, and by the end we had most definitely made a change from an infant to a toddler child. I welcomed cooler weather and back to school with open arms but now that I am looking at the foggy, chilly weather outside and my cooped up/bouncing off the walls child inside, I am starting to appreciate Summer months more than I ever have before. Here's to future Summer adventures!