Baby Dedication

Today was a special day for Molli.  Special days call for special dresses...ones with velvet, bows, polka-dots AND glitter, not to mention ruffle butt tights!  A baby has never been so glamorous.

We went to church in town this morning, feeling oh so fancy.  A baby dedication was part of the church service and Molli got to participate.  The purpose is to publicly present children to the church and commit to raising them in love and for the church to agree to support parents in this endeavor.  Each of the parents wrote a short statement of blessing for their children, emphasizing characteristics that we would like to instill in our children.  Here is ours:

Lord, grant Molli peace in every circumstance,

strength and wisdom in trying times,

a gentle spirit to bring joy to others

and contentment in you.

We will bring her up in love,

and we pray that she will come to know the depth and fullness of Christ

and will find her identity in Him.

It was a sweet experience, although Myles was unable to be there (he had to preach an hour away).  My Aunt Gail, cousin and grandma came down from Peoria, which was very sweet of them.  Aunt Gail took some pictures with my camera, but they didn't turn out very well.  I'll post them anyway.

One day, Two Odes....Uncle Brian

For the past month, Uncle Brian has been living with us.  It's been super handy for me to have the spare set of hands and eyes to do the Molli thing, while I got to step aside and do the household things.  It made my life easier, heck, I even read a book!  Eventually all good things must come to and end.  In this case, my good thing had to continue on his nomadic trek to hunt down a job and snag a new place to live.  For now it will be with Nate, Tamara and baby J.  (You guys are lucky I trained up such an awesome live-in manny!)
Anyhoo, I figured an ode to my little brother, the helper, was in order. Not to squander the Ode to Mom, but since my rugrat has fallen asleep after a grouchy day, I figured this is the right time for it.

Here are pictures:

While he was here, he mastered the diaper changing (or at least tried his hand at it a couple times) and the baby dressing.  He prefers outfits with snaps on the legs, just FYI. 

All in all, Uncle Brian was excellent company and a huge help.  We will miss having him around.  I do hope, however, that he has a safe journey to Arizona and has no trouble finding a job.  Cause, you know, money has to happen sometimes.  

Love you Brian!

Ode to my mom

Today is the birthday of a very special person.  My mom.  She is my best friend and someone I look forward to talking to everyday. We haven't always been as close as we are now, but I can only hope that when Molli is grown up, she and I have a similar relationship. Mom taught me all I know about being a mother, so I sure hope I am able to follow in her parenting footsteps. It's a big role to fill, with lots of expectations!

One year ago today, Myles and I skyped with Mom and Dad and gave them the big news about Molli.  Of course, at the time, we didn't know it was a "Molli."  It could just as easily have been a "Seth." We hadn't even seen our little bean yet, but we were already in love and I'm pretty sure I will never be able to top that birthday present.  

Growing up, and even still, everyone says how much I look like my dad.  My dad is a handsome man, and all my brothers look like him, so it's not a bad thing, but what a treat it is when people comment that I look like my mom!  These comments are rare, and typically come from people who have only seen my mom and not my dad, but I'll take it.  A couple people have told me that I look like my mom here, but I think it's just because our shirts match.

At any rate, my mom is a wonderful, beautiful woman, and I am happy to have her.  

Mom, have a very happy birthday and know that you are so, so, so loved!

Molli had her four month check-up yesterday and all is well.  She is ahead of the game in some of her developmental milestones, which we already knew. (side note:  Myles and I will not be parents who brag about or expect their children to do things early or consider it anything significant.  We understand that all babies develop at slightly different rates and it doesn't matter to us at what rate Molli develops as long as it is normal and healthy). Molli's pediatrician is really wonderful.  He is a very kind, down to earth man who knows his stuff and is good about sharing information.  The man can talk, but we really enjoy him.  I love that Molli is being taken care of by someone who obviously loves his job and is efficient and relaxed about it. She was a champ throughout the entire doctor visit.  Since she's been on her reflux meds, she's been able to keep a lot more of her food in her body and has gained weight very well!  She was 12lbs 12oz and 24in long!  This puts her at the 32 percentile for weight and length (which is a substantial improvement from being about 32% in length and 13% in weight previously!). We are proud of her growth  =)  She also got shots and only cried for a few seconds.  It was sad, but not as sad as last time.

In about an hour, Molli and I are going to a little coffee shop, The Owl's Roost, to meet up with some of my girlfriends and their kids. It's always nice seeing friends, though the occurrence of such visits are few and far between.  It's a perfect day for such a visit, considering it's good and snowy outside!  Snow just makes cozy happen, and what better place to feel cozy than with friends in a coffee shop with walls lined with books?

We have been working to get back into our routine here at home and it's going well.  Molli has even been compliant to go to bed awake and fall asleep on her own, most of the time without an argument!  It's amazing considering a week ago she required being held and walked around before even considering letting herself sleep.  I think she's already aware that there are things to miss out on when she sleeps!

We have been on the move for a couple weeks now and as wonderful as all our trips and all our company has been, it was nice waking up this morning and spending time relaxing and playing with Molli on my bed.  This is my absolute favorite time of the day with her and I just hope that I never forget how special these moments are.  We don't do anything extraordinary, we just smile, talk and cuddle.  Molli is not a particularly cuddly baby, so these moments are worth savoring!  Sometimes I can't do anything but sit and stare at her, still amazed that she is mine, and I love this opportunity to have her.  I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world!

Recap...finally!

As usual, life is busy and blogging has been put on the back burner, sorry.  What's been going on, you ask?  Well, traveling has been going on, that's what!  Molli and I ventured to Florida from Dec 30-Jan 5. The trip served two very important purposes.  Molli had grandparents to meet and I had pregnant friends to surprise!  

Let me explain more. When my dear friend, Chandra, was pregnant (the first of our close knit college group) the rest of us teamed up with her husband to plan a surprise weekend with her.  It was a beautiful reunion and well worth doing again.  Which is why, this summer, when I was pregnant, the girls teamed up with my husband and planned a surprise trip to Illinois for me!  THEN much to the Sansotta's surprise, the husbands showed up too!  It was the best reunion ever.  I have some very amazing college friends and I love that we can just pick up where we left off every time we get back together.  Which leads me to this Florida trip.  Allison and Amanda are both pregnant now, so as per tradition, a surprise visit was warranted. 

The surprise didn't go down with such a bang as it has in the past, but it was very pleasant, although entirely too short.  We had a delightful breakfast together, then Amanda had to leave to continue her drive with her husband and dogs back to Chicago and I spent that day and the next with Chandra, Cooper (her son), Allison and Molli. It was relaxed and sweet.  We watched the documentary "Babies," ate Chick-fil-a, stayed up till midnight for New Years and experimented with baby cereal for the first time.  All in all, this visit was wonderful, but would have been more wonderful with Amanda there for more of it, and more time in general. 

The trip continued at Papu and Nanette's (Myles' dad and step-mom, Marc and Suzette).  It was such a special moment to observe their first interaction with their granddaughter.  Suzette did very well with Molli and spent some sweet time sitting with one another in their jammies.  I got some very sweet pictures, but I'm not so sure Suzette would love for them to be online =) Marc pretty much had to be scooped up off the floor at first sight.  He basically slopped around in a big melty puddle the entire time we were there.  He spent most of the time marching Molli around the house, filling her sweet baby ego with words like, "pretty," "perfect," "beautiful," and anything equally endearing.  He was like a little boy and Molli was his new favorite toy.  He toted her around and played with her every chance she got.  All in all, our little angel was spoiled with love!  

We have quite a traveled baby now though!  We are currently in Idaho, visiting the rest of Myles's family.  Update on this trip to come!