Week 43 –Peek-a-Boo with Dirty Bird

For the first several months, as a first time parent, you are focused – almost obsessed - with the cleanliness of your baby. You bathe her (even though she does nothing but just lie there) everyday, change your baby’s clothes every time there is a drop of anything on it (sometimes like 6 times in one day), you sterilize everything she touches, uses, or goes near and don’t go two steps without wipes, a burp cloth or rag in your hand, at the ready so that your baby will be completely clean at all times. I guess that’s why it’s shocking to realize that we have reached a monumental stage in Elise’s life, and it goes to show that she’s growing up: the dirty stage!

Now that the weather has finally taken a turn for the better, we have been spending a lot more time outside. Last year I spent a LOT of time hanging out on the porch with Elise because she has loved being outdoors from the start. Sometimes we swung on the porch swing, sometimes we watched the cars go by and sometimes we just swayed back and forth on the porch enjoying the fresh air. This year, outside time is distinctly different, and not just because I can’t keep her on my lap for more than three seconds.

With her newfound mobility and endless curiosity comes a new kind of outdoor experience, which consists of grass, dirt, mud, leaves…and a whole lotta fun. Though skeptical at first, Elise loves crawling and walking in the grass, and doesn’t seem to mind dirt squishing between her toes. Another sign that she’s growing up is that she isn’t trying to put every leaf, blade of grass and dirt clump that she picks up (and there are many) directly into her mouth. Instead, she likes to use this time to play the previously mentioned Sharing Game, generously handing all of these treasures to her parents (blade by blade by blade). And now at the end of the day, her bath is not just for show…she seriously needs it! From her dirt covered feet to her grimy hands to her filthy outfit, Elise is a total dirty bird. And it couldn’t be cuter.

Although, she is doing something new that has serious competition for cutest thing ever. Elise has learned how to play peek-a-boo! It started about a week ago, she was lying on the changing table, getting her diaper changed, and I threw her pants over her face. She reached up and grabbed them and pulled them down really quickly, with a very serious look on her face, then bust into a huge grin. Then she pulled them back up over her face, held it there for about five seconds, and pulled them off really quickly again very intensely, then breaking into a grin from ear to ear. The hilarity of it is that she pulls the object off of her face with such force she actually grunts, a la Monica Seles or Maria Sharapova! Maybe she’s a little tennis pro in the making. I am actually surprised that she has not bruised herself with the way she snaps that thing down off of her face.

The cutest thing is when she raises the hiding thing (a pair of pants, a blanket, etc) too high, so it's above her head and isn't actually covering her face (but then pulls it down quickly anyway with a grunt and a smile). She has also learned to play peek a boo by hiding behind something and then poking her head out, then hiding again. The newest trick, which she learned in the past few days, is blowing kisses. She jams her hand in her mouth and then quickly moves it away with a grunt (always grunting! She is so lady like!) in response to us blowing kisses to her.

These are examples of the amazing things that make you realize that she has actually been paying attention to what we’ve been doing all this time! And she might even be learning a thing or two. Guess that means it’s time to really start paying attention and make sure we’re teaching the right things!

Week 42 - Who’d want to be president when you can be dad?

This may not come as a surprise for some of our friends with kids already, but it came as quite a surprise to me. It turns out that I have become THAT guy. Picture if you will, a man half awake holding his child stumbling towards the kitchen, towards the coffee. On the way, he steps on a squeaky toy, stubs his toe on the toy train and almost breaks his neck trying to fumble and stumble to the coffee. How did this once confident and dare I say debonair man become a hardly ever shaven, dare I say, disheveled man? And love it. Once the dream was to become president, now, that same man just dreams to sleep in (past 7 AM that is). Actually, it really is like that, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The reason is quite simple really – Ellie is becoming less like a baby and more like a toddler every day. This basically means that she is more interactive and more fun than ever. Elise is on the verge of walking. She refuses to let you hold both hands while she walks around (only needs one) and she cruises around furniture like it was designed for that purpose. She (finally!) has one tooth – she’s picked up waving bye-bye (mostly) – is totally onto saying mama and dada – she’s climbing the stairs all by herself (and with record speed) - she’s even going to the playground and playing on the swings and slide.

Ellie's first tooth! (Bottom right)

Elise is learning new things and growing older every single day. I think I’m just going to go come home one day and she’s going to be walking, talking, asking her daddy to go to the playground. How idyllic, don’t you think? Oh, but there are more aspects of her personality coming through everyday too. Lately, Ellie has developed the ability to shake her head no. And she has quickly learned what this means. When she no longer wants food, when she’s not ready to get out of the bath…and mostly, when she’s climbing the stairs when she knows she is not supposed to. She’ll start out cautiously, then, when Meredith or myself says, “Elise, you know better, no going up the stairs.” Then, she will turn to us, smile a coy little smile and then shake her head no and proceed up the stairs.

Elise her pal and neighbor Myles (also 9 months old)

Now, at first we found this adoring and cute (still do really) but quickly realized that this is a terrifying glimpse into our future. Elise is going to be 5 years old, about to jump off the top of the jungle gym when one of us will yell, “No, Elise, don’t move!” The next thing we’ll see is the coy smile and a head shaking no and an arm breaking as she hurls from the jungle gym. Rushing to the hospital, Meredith blaming me the whole way, we’ll go back in our minds wondering where we went wrong. Oh, if only we hadn’t thought it was so cute on the stairs when she was little. The humanity!!!

You can see it is causing some great consternation with each new ability comes the greatest excitement and the greatest new worries. With teeth, come biting, with waving bye-bye comes smacking daddy in the face early in the morning (she’s practicing), with saying mama and dada comes NONSTOP talking ("but why, daddy?"), with climbing the stairs comes falling and with playing at the playground comes bullying… most likely from her.

I could’ve been president, but how boring is that?!?

Week 41 – Da Da Day

Another crazy week has come and gone. This one, however, was marked with going back to daycare after a week’s absence, sharing, a day with daddy and perhaps a first step?

Elise went back to daycare on Wednesday and this process is clearly more traumatic for Meredith and I than it is for Elise. I know many of you are tired of hearing about us go on and on about daycare, but the truth of the matter is that there is this ingrained notion that we are doing something wrong by sending our child away with strangers for nine hours a day, three days in a row. Perhaps this ingrained notion gained traction last week when an acquaintance who we referred to our daycare, called Meredith and told her that she had gone to visit and had a bad feeling about the place. Ugh. The guilt cometh and the guilt goeth, but the guilt always returnith. Without getting into specifics (and frankly we don’t know this person all that well) there was nothing that she said that would make us think Elise wasn’t fine. Still, we obviously worry. Couple her concerns with our concerns (Elise doesn’t nap at daycare very well, she always comes home with a new rash or scratch or something and the information we get is sometimes inaccurate about diaper changes, sleep times and activities through the day) and this daycare thing has us stressed out. Plus, did you read the report that kids who spend time in daycare from a young age are destined to become bullies?! Awesome – my daughter will be the one that all the other parent’s kids have to worry about in school. The phone will ring, “Mr. Molloy, I’m sorry to inform you, but Elise beat up her 15th child this month and we have to expel her. Perhaps you should have been a better parent and stayed home with her more often when she was young.”


My fears of her being a menace to society subside somewhat when she discovered a fun and extremely repetitive game this week. It’s called ‘sharing’ and it involves… sharing. The rules are simple. Elise starts by picking something up (usually her rubber duckie in the bath) and holds it up for you to take. Then you’re supposed to say ‘thank you for sharing with Daddy – now Daddy shares with Elise!’ and you hand it back to her. She then smiles broadly, and repeats the process over… and over… and over… it really never ends. I’m glad it’s sharing and not something more bullying like hitting, but after the first 2 to 300 times you play, it gets pretty boring (for us, not her).

The best part of this week came however, when Meredith went to visit friends and left me to care for Elise for the day on Saturday. We had a blast together. I’m fairly certain that as my life someday flashes before my eyes, I will have a very nice collection of memories from this one day alone. The entire day was filled with coming up with new games, exploring the back yard and getting dirty together, and going to the playground to play on the swings, and especially the slide! The slide ruled. I would start her at the top of one of the slides that has a bump in the middle. She’d start her way down with my hands firmly on her back and stomach. As she neared the bottom, I would grasp her even more firmly, and fly her off the bottom of the slide, flipping her upside down in the air over my head. She screamed with delight and her smile reached from ear to ear. Seriously, all I want to do with the rest of my life is send Elise down the slide. If the ‘sharing’ game could be the ‘slide’ game, we’d be all set.

Lastly, both Meredith and I witnessed Elise take her first step on Sunday! She was cruising along the couch, let go for a minute, took a step toward my laptop bag and then grabbed hold of it. Problem was, I don’t think Elise noticed she did it. She is ready to walk - she just doesn’t seem to have the confidence for it yet. It’s an interesting process to watch her develop confidence in this particularly difficult skill. We know she’ll figure it out in time and we’re not pushing. There is no need to rush her through anything – frankly, I am loving the stage she is in.

PS – Elise is firmly saying both dada and mama, which is kind of cool.

Week 40 –Road Trip to Exhaustion: Part Two (aka Wimpin’ Out)

So, we completely wimped out on Road Trip part two. But it was for good reason! As we mentioned last week, we were planning to go to a wedding (Congratulations Jen and Leo!) in North Carolina this weekend. This was going to be the first plane ride and hotel stay for our little one, as well as her first trip to the Tar Heel State (she had her Terps hat all ready to proudly wear in defiance!) Then the week leading up to our road trip went further and further down hill until we realized that there was no possible way this kid was getting on a plane and coming with us.


The projectile vomiting from last weekend that we hypothesized was a nervous reaction or an allergy turned out to be something more substantial. While she wasn’t acting sick or running a fever, she continued to puke every single time she ate any solid food (even one bite) and mid week she starting having the smelliest, most explosive, disgusting diarrhea of all time. Unable to keep anything down (or in), by Wednesday our little girl went from happy-go-lucky puker to weak and sickly sad baby. We are still unsure what the heck it was: bad baby food, allergy, virus, stomach flu…we even discovered the tip of her very first tooth (YAY!) about to poke through and thought that could be the culprit.

But whatever the reason, we went through many, many clothing changes (for her and us), lots of carpet cleaner and a whole lot of air freshener. Marty and I took turns staying home with her all week and while we were of course sad that she wasn’t feeling well, I think we both secretly enjoyed her cuddling with us (she has never been one to sit still).

Ellie and her Gram
Ellie’s Gram and Grandpa generously agreed to watch Ellie while we went to the wedding, so on Saturday morning we jetted off to Raleigh for a whirlwind 24 hour trip. Our loss of Elise was most certainly Gram and Grandpa’s gain. But there was a cost to watching Elise – sure she was feeling better, sure she was ravenous from a week of vomiting and diarrhea and thus a total hoot while eating. The price, however, was two parents desperately worried as this was the first time that they had left her over night. The first call was made shortly after we left, as we sat on the runway. The next call came when we had landed approximately 1.5 hours later. The next call came that afternoon before we left for the wedding. It was after the ceremony, but before the dinner that the next call came from two clearly insane parents. Finally, we called before we went to bed that night. That’s five for those keeping count. We came home the next day and that only entailed two calls – although we debated making a few more, we figured it was getting a bit overbearing at that point.

I must say that there really is nothing worse than being away form your child. You’d kind of think that parents spending a night away from their baby might take a moment to relax and enjoy the silence. And while, we did… Meredith napped in the afternoon and I let my mind veg out, we missed her. My mom used to say that your child is like having your heart walking around outside in the world. Nothing could be more truthful. In this case Elise was safe and sound and having a blast with her grandparents, but our heart was not with us and we felt incomplete. Another thing that I thought of was of our friend’s Bridget and Dan. Dan is in the Coast Guard and spends weeks at a time away from his family. While it sucks for Bridget and their boy, Kyle, that wouldn’t play into our motif here. It really stinks for Dan. There is nothing harder than being away from your heart for a long time.

So, what have we learned from this weekend? We learned that Ellie loves spending time with her grandparents and can sleep and be put down anywhere by anyone. We learned that Ellie doesn’t really seem to miss us like we miss her – and we wouldn’t want it any other way. We also learned that we are slightly crazy, a touch neurotic, and a whole heap of worry when it comes to leaving our baby. And we wouldn't want it any other way.

Week 39 - Road Trip To Exhaustion: Part One

Look who can climb stairs (while holding tupperware!)
Like most babies, Elise thrives on her routine. She likes her room, her toys, her stuff, and knowing that her car trips will be limited and her bedtime ritual will be conducted in the same way and at the same time every night. Therefore, a weekend away from home throws all that is comforting and reliable out of the window and, inevitably, insanity ensues. Back in the old days, we dreaded going anywhere further than twenty minutes away because she just screamed her lungs out the entire time we were in the car. She has slowly gotten better over the past few months, usually tolerating the car more and more. However, we rarely go somewhere in the car more than once a day – one outing, to our destination and back – is what she is used to. Ellie has only spent the night away from home a handful of times, and considering her love of routine, it is stressful and exhausting for all involved.

Elise with her second cousins, Cory and Emma
This past weekend we went down to Maryland for our friends' Kenny and Catherine’s wedding. Because we don’t get down there very often, we ambitiously packed in lots of other stuff, making the whirlwind weekend hectic for all of us (but especially Elise). We drove down on Saturday morning and stopped at my aunt and uncles house for a brunch with my grandparents and other family. My cousins’ daughters were there (ages 2 and 6) too and the three girls spent the morning bouncing around, getting into things and making lots of noise. Elise handled the chaos well (she was gladly a part of it!), but it was an exhausting way to start out a crazy weekend!
Uncle Wolfe feeding Ellie with "Aunt" Christy watching
After brunch, we drove to my parents’ house for a brief visit with Christy before driving to the wedding. Elise did well during the ceremony, but I kept giving her Cheerios to make sure she wouldn't start chattering loudly and interrupt things. When the ceremony was almost over, she coughed a little like a Cheerio got caught in her throat, and then projectile vomited, Exorcist-style, all over the place! She didn't actually get any puke on herself (because of the projectile), but got Marty's knee and the floor pretty good. She didn't make any noise (thankfully) but it was still embarrassing and gross! Only the people directly next to us noticed, luckily, and they all thought it was hilarious.

Ellie and her Oma at the wedding
The wedding was at 6pm (Elise is usually in bed asleep at 7) so it was a late night for her. My parents took Ellie back to their place after the dinner, so it was nearly 9pm when she got to bed. Sunday morning Ellie got up at 5:30am because she needed a diaper change, and I also fed her which led to projectile vomit #2. After cleaning myself up, she went back to sleep just after 6 and didn't get up until nearly 9:30. 9:30 may not seem very late, but it felt like 3 in the afternoon to us. I actually got up before her! That never happens!


Meredith, Ellie, "Aunt" Shoshana, Lauren and Regan
On the way back home, we decided to pop in for a visit with Shoshana and Jon to meet their new baby. On the way over to there, Elise projectile vomited YET AGAIN - this time covering herself because of the angle of the car seat. It was a mess. But once we got there, Ellie played and smiled like nothing ever happened. We finally got home from our crazy weekend around 3pm and Elise ate and then…you guessed it…threw up AGAIN, and then a few hours later one more time for good measure. So we were officially worried that something was wrong. She continued to act normal all evening, and didn't have a fever, so we don’t think that she is actually sick. We consulted with the pediatrician who said that as long as she didn’t have a fever, was acting normally and had wet diapers, everything was probably fine.

Ellie with her Uncle Kevin
We think maybe it was an allergic reaction to something I ate that I don't usually eat or maybe a nervous reaction to her stressful weekend. The only thing that I ate that she could have had a reaction to was cashews. So for the time being, I am not going to eat cashews anymore and hope that that was it! Next weekend, we are going to another wedding, this one in Raleigh, NC. It will be Ellie's first plane ride and hotel stay, so I am very nervous about that. Especially if it turns out that this whole vomit thing is not an allergic reaction, but a way that she deals with stress (much like her Mama). I can only imagine how thrilled the plane passengers will be if Pukey-McPukerson projectile vomits all over the plane!