Holistic Mommy

We met Raffi today! My mom is participating in a conference this weekend and Raffi is a keynote speaker. I was with a friend and we happened to walk past where the conference was being held. They were on a lunch break and my mom spotted us from inside. She ran out to stop us and to smother her grandbaby with kisses. She told me, "Raffi is here!" (I told her he was but she didn't believe me). I got maybe a little excited... I started squealing like a pig and jumping up and down -- OK so maybe I didn't squeal like a pig but, I was pretty excited! My friend and I hopped over the banister and went inside for a bite to eat and my mom went to find Raffi. She came back and told me he was just around the corner. So, we grabbed little Molly and off we went to get her autographed. Of course when I met him I turned into SuperDork. It didn't phase me that he looked absolutely exhausted and ready to take a nap on the couch he was sitting on. Instead, I completely bombarded hi...

She's one year old now! Exciting as this is, all I could think yesterday was, "boy, this time last year I was still thinking it was indigestion" or "at this point last year I just lost my mucus plug" mmmm. Now fast forward a year and I'm in much better shape...except when it comes to throwing a birthday party! Planning and baking and playing hostess - it takes a lot out of you! She's had two of three birthday parties so far. The first one was on the weekend with her little toddler friends. It was so much fun. In fact, we were having such a good time that we were in the water for an hour and a half. That's a long time for three under three's! Molly had a blast; I knew she would. She had perma-grin the entire time. She had a huge smile and all we could see were her gums and two bottom teeth flashing from across the pool! Afterwards, we came back to our house for cake. Grammy made a delicious chocolate cake for the party and I made some ...

Kola the dog and Molly have really bonded. They play together so nicely; it's wonderful :) Well, the other day while I was bootin' around downstairs, she and Kola were on the floor hanging out. She has learned that the ball goes in the dog's mouth (such observant little creatures babies are...) so she'll take it and try to shove it right in there -- too cute. Now, the dog on the other hand, is obsessed with her ball. She loves fetch and wants to play it all the time! She will actually throw her ball to you. For real! She actually tosses it out of her mouth, into the air, and it'll land at your feet! So, here we have my baby shoving the ball into the dog's mouth, the dog throwing it into the air, and the baby going to get it to shove back into the dog's mouth... That's right, they were playing fetch. Only, the dog was doing the throwing, and the baby was doing the fetching! I should get it on video; maybe I could win a contest...

I set out the water table for her yesterday and she loved it. She started off splashing with one hand, and then she was splashing with two hands. Then, she crawled her little butt into the tub and gave herself a bath! She had sooo much fun!

Oh my goodness is she ever becoming her own little person now (others may refer to it as " mischievous ")!! Let's see... here are some of the things she has been doing lately: ~ When she has something in her mouth I'll say "open" and she'll stick out her tongue and whatever was in there will pop out. Starting a few days ago however, she'll close her mouth tight and grin while I try to pry it open to get whatever it was out. ~ If she's into something that's not safe I'll say, "uh oh!" and, more times than not, she'll stop. Now though she looks at me, lets out this big squeal of delight, and then keeps going at it. ~ If she's heading towards something and I let her know that it's not OK, she'll look back at me, flash a real big toothless smile and then crawl towards it as fast as she can. ~ If I need to pick her up, or take something from her like, oh I don't know, the dog's gross slimy ball, she'll gru...

She's going to stand any day now! I've started noticing her letting go of whatever she's holding onto and slowly lowering herself to the floor, rather than falling down. Or she'll be booting along the furniture and will let go of one completly to go to the next one :) But, it's only for a fraction of a second so I don't think that counts as standing just yet! Soon! I can feel it!

I took baby out on the deck yesterday for our daily dose of vitamin D. She found a flower pot full of dirt to explore... ...diggin' away, ...puttin' some on the dog, ...and some over there, ...all done!

Holy cow, has she ever just hit a total language growth spurt! OK, so I've been trying to teach her sign language right? She'll let me know she's hungry and I'll sign and say, "hungry!?' And then I'll teach her the food she's eating (OK, so I only know, apple, plum, and banana right now) and other words (ie: "more" "food" "wait" "finished"). Well yesterday, in her highchair, she signed "more"... YAY! And now everytime I need to change her butt, I say "diaper!" and go get her. Yesterday, she relied, "di-pa" in the cutest, sweetest little girlie voice EVER! I thought I was hearing things so I had her say it again... And then again! AND THEN...  When she is getting her butt change and trying to crawl away, I tell her, "stay on your back" and hold her with my hand. So yesterday, I tell her "stay on your back" and what does she do? She mutters something along the lin...

Molly's first birthday is coming up! I just finished making the cutest invitations ever! Yes, I have enough time on my hands these days to enjoy the finer things in life such as arts and crafts... Her party is going to be short and sweet: pool, cake, and goody-bags, yeah! About seven of her closest friends are invited. Yeah I know... At this age 'friend' is a very loosely used term that means any kid under the age of six whose parents are friends with your parents. I've looked up a sugar-free cake recipe. I have yet to do a trial run to see if the cake is any good. I even looked up natural food colouring for the dye because my baby's not getting red die #3 -- no way! And for those of you who are rolling your eyes right now (cuz I know some of you are) check this out: http://www.cspinet.org/new/200808211.html