Molly’s picture was featured, along with a few other kids, in a display that everyone sees right when they enter the day care. And she is, of course, wearing her signature “HOLA!” T-shirt.
Month: March 2011
Team Tornado
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You can see Claire running quickly, mostly towards the ball, in the middle-right of this picture |
At halftime Claire seemed concerned and a little dismayed, and she sort of wanted to just go home. She said she could never get to the ball. I told her that she was running faster than almost any kid, and if she gets a chance, don’t worry and don’t wait; just kick the ball as hard as she can (I guess nevermind which direction the ball goes). In the second half, I prodded myself to yell out “Kick the ball, Claire!” whenever she was in range. She did get a few kicks on the ball this time around. She even managed to clear the ball from her home team’s goal area a couple of times. This seemed to make her feel marginally better, although she still was not having too much fun. When the final whistle blew, and the game seemed to stop, she ran over to me and said, “Is the game over?” I said, “I think so”, and she replied, “Yeah!!!” I was proud of her for sticking through the whole game and even giving it something extra in the second half. As far as I can tell, the Tornadoes probably lost, but the game’s outcome did not seem to be of any real significance to anyone.
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Pre-game drills |
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Time to cool it off |
Rainbow Star Wars
We made the mistake of recording Star Wars again, this time the whole original trilogy, episodes IV through VI, and letting Claire know about it. She was really excited to get a chance to watch it some more after her initial teaser a few months ago. On the plus side, she finally got to meet Yoda. Her favorite episode is Return of the Jedi, although she can’t tell us why. Maybe the ewoks?
Claire notices a lot of things in the movies like people’s outfits and even the colors of their lightsabers. She says that if she had a lightsaber, it would be rainbow-sparkle colored. She asks a lot of questions about what people are doing and why. She is fascinated with Darth Vader and the idea that he is kind of nice after all. But when Darth is being mean, she calls him ugly names like “mustard syrup” and says that she would poke him in the eye or kick him in the shin to make him go away.
Even though Claire likes Star Wars, she insists that does not mean she likes “boy stuff”. As if to punctuate the point, she sometimes wanders off mid-movie to go play with her My Little Pony toys.
Packing it on (sort of)
Molly had her 18-month well check today. Mainly, we were interested to see if her body was actually growing. Last time we had her weighed at the doctors’ office, during a visit for a cold back in January, she had not put on a single ounce over the few weeks since her 15-month check. She was stuck at 18 pounds. If we did not see any movement on her weight this time, we might have to start with the blood tests, which besides being a troubling sign, might get ugly, based on past experience.
We did not go in with great expectations, either. Molly had been on another “down cycle” with her eating lately, apparently due to a cold and/or teething, both of which seem to badly suppress her appetite. She is often hostile to the very idea of food. Most mornings when I set her down for breakfast, Molly looks like this:
Back to the well check…we had some cautiously good news. Molly now weighed in at 18 pounds and 12 ounces. She’s small, but definitely growing, and the doctor was happy about that. Coupled with a lot of walking and talking, the doctor was pretty encouraged with the way Molly was coming along. After all, Molly also looks like this once we get her away from the high chair:
More Words
- apple – she does not eat a lot of these, but she likes the way they look
- bye bye
- cheese (“chee”) – sometimes used in combination with “muh” (see below)
- doggie
- dada
- ear (“eee”)
- happy
- hi – sometimes said as “hey”, sometimes combined with a person, such as “hida”
- mama
- more (“muh”) – usually accompanied by the “more” hand sign. She seems to think this actually means “I want it”.
- mouth – (“mou”)
- nose (“no”)
- no (“nuh”) – often repeatedly many times for emphasis, ie “nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh”
- yeah – informal affirmative, used in lieu of “yes”
- The annoying Sesame Street character
- Grammy’s dog Emma
- Grammy Joyce