All part of growing up

1. Asserting her independence...

While I want to encourage this aspect of growing up, sometimes it sure does slow things down. Molly is in that stage where she wants to do practically everything by herself...all I can say is good for her, but it sure is easier to get it done myself!

2. Making fashion choices...
For our morning walk:yellow and pink pajama top, purple leggings, black velvet dress with a snowman theme along the bottom, socks with sandals, Hello Kitty necklace

Playing outside on a Sunday afternoon:pink jacket, red skirt with brown polkadots, brown tights, purple crocs, Hello Kitty necklace
(I did make her take the skirt off...too nice to just play around in outside)

3. Potty training...
She's trained, I'm happy! No more buying diapers (for a couple months at least) and I think I'll take back that box of Pull-Ups to Costco (man, those things are expensive!).

4. Making new discoveries...
Meet her friend, the worm. She named him Bubba and then changed his name to Chloe. He was her constant companion all afternoon.

She even helped him down the slide. Notice the water bottles? They provided just the right amount of wetness to help Bubba/Chloe down the slide.

5. Fun new games...
Yes, that is a baby under her shirt. Hmmm, wonder where she got that idea? She called it "playing prem-mant." (I credit Tiana for teaching her that word.)

6. An obession with anything girly or princess-y...
The first thing she asks in the morning is if she can be a princess. She has no dress-ups so she wears dresses that no longer fit. The only rule is that they can't be worn outside. She prances around all day in a dress waving her wand. And forget about calling her Molly. It's either Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, or Tinkerbelle. The odd part is that she's never seen any of the movies-remember, she won't want TV that long!

7. Bye-bye to naptime...
So sad to see it go, but it was necessary. It's not that she won't take a nap, it's that when she does she doesn't go to bed at night. For example, on Saturday I gave her a nap because I knew we'd be out late. Still, she didn't fall asleep until 11:00! She's just not tired at night when she naps in the afternoon.

Oh, we have so much fun, I can't wait to see what she does next!

Our Dancing Princess

Molly has never been a big TV watcher. Her attention only lasts about 10-15 minutes and then she's done. I suppose I should be happy about this...but sometimes I sure wish I could pop in any old movie and she'd sit and watch it for an hour or so. Never happens. This would be nice now that she is no longer napping (sigh...that's a whole different story to tell). The one thing I have found, though, that she will really sit and watch are some silly movies called Kidsongs (Ali, does that ring a bell?). Okay, so she doesn't actually sit and watch them but at least she stays entertained enough that I get a little break.

Decorating eggs, hunting eggs, a pretty princess, and the true meaning of Easter

We had a great Easter weekend. Molly was sick with RSV last Easter and wasn't able to be around any other kids so this was the first year that she was actually able to participate in all the fun activities. We kicked it off on Saturday morning with coloring eggs. Grandma boiled 4 dozen!!! It probably took the kids about 10 minutes to get them all colored; Molly thought it was great!Molly's not afraid to get dirty and her hands are the proof:I was thinking that the blue hands would go great with her Easter dress the next day, but Grandma used some "magic water" to get all the dye off.

We next moved on to hunting eggs.Molly caught on quick. She ran around picking up eggs and saying, "It's Easter-time, it's Easter-time!"When Justin got home from work we headed to PC for some more fun, fun, fun! Another hunt...More yummy treats and fun toys...Fast forward to Easter Sunday. Molly would have been happy with her Easter dress and that is all. She thought that she was a princess, and she looks like one! She paraded into the chapel when we got to church and if anyone said anything to her about how pretty she looked, she had to stop to show them her dress, the flowers in her hair, and her bracelet. She knew she looked good!The Easter Bunny did come while we were at church and left a very small, modest Easter basket. Molly really had no clue who the Easter Bunny was or what he did and Justin and I weren't in too big of a hurry to tell her. We figured that she'll find out soon enough so we tried not to focus on the Easter Bunny too much. It helped having all the activities the day before and not on Sunday...I was a proud Mommy when after all the hunting, all the candy, and all the toys, Molly actually remembered the reason we really celebrate Easter...
*Don't mind Justin's background noise; he was watching the Master's*

And to end this post, a picture of the cutest 2-year-old out there: