Little Miss Independence

Elise has always been a fairly independent child - if nothing else she’s always had a mind of her own. Lately, however, she’s been much more forceful about her independence. Of course we love that she wants and likes to do things for herself, but it’s just one more sign that she’s taking yet another step away from babyhood.

Elise wants to do everything for herself these days. The main thing now is that she no longer likes to be carried. This could be seen as a wonderful thing because she is getting quite heavy, but right now it is somewhat problematic in our neighborhood because there is massive construction going on (that will apparently continue for a YEAR) so we have no sidewalks (just mud walks) and there are always tons of cranes and trucks all over the place at all hours day and night, and tons of dangerous looking metal sheets haphazardly strewn overtop of enormous holes. Not exactly a playground for 1.5 year olds. And yet, it’s always “Ellie walk”. The biggest problem with Ellie Walk is that she doesn’t want to hold hands. Most of the time, she down right refuses, which leads to one of us picking her up, which leads to lots of crying and Ellie screaming “NO! WALK! DOWN!”. Then we put her down and she will hold a hand for about 4 seconds, then abruptly refuses and is picked up again - and we repeat the battle all over again.

One of our favorite traditions, reading before bedtime, is also becoming a thing of the past. In the past few weeks Elise has begun pulling the book away from whichever of her naïve parents that is trying to read her a story and say “No, Ellie read” as she proceeds to flip through the pages saying a few words here and there, then the book closes and she’s on to the next book to “read”. This makes story time much less enjoyable for the parents because we aren’t getting any story and she doesn’t want to “read” to us, she likes to sit by herself on the bed, away from us while she’s engaged in her nightly read. Sigh.

In a more bossy expression of her independence, Elise likes to request that you leave the room sometimes so she can play alone. She’ll say “Mommy out” as she ushers me towards the door to the playroom and shuts the door behind me, leaving me standing in the hallway completely bewildered at how I just got dismissed by a one year old. A few weeks ago I was apparently hovering while she was trying to play BY HERSELF in the open field across the street from us. She said “Mommy sit” and once I was sitting in the grass, she went for a little stroll by herself in the field, occasionally turning around to make sure that I was still sitting and not attempting to follow her (and if I did stand, even if not following her, she stopped and reminded “Mommy sit!” with hand motions and all in case I didn’t understand what she’s saying). I am sure that this exercise is just testing to see how far I will let her walk by herself, but still are children usually this bossy at this age?

Oh how I dread the teenage years.

The Moon

So, it turns out, I'm the moon.

The coolest thing is a while back I was walking with Ellie out in our backyard and I asked, where's the moon Ellie, and she looked around the sky and pointed it out. A little after that she'd point and say, 'Moon' and I think that it is cool when she takes something from a book and matches it with the real life thing. The moon comes out at night and often represents the nighttime for children. (See: "Goodnight Moon" and us telling Elise, "The sun is going to sleep and the moon is waking up.") But there is more. I personally really prefer the dark. I would never have any lights on if I could help it and Ellie is like her Daddy in that she is very photosensitive - the child freaks out when bright (and not so bright) light is in her eyes. All this to say, that I want to tell you about Ellie and Daddy's dark mornings on Sundays, or what I call, Moonday.

My favorite time of the week is Sunday Mornings. Meredith and I have this absolutely fabulous arrangement that I recommend for all parents with young children. On Saturdays, Meredith wakes up at the crack of dawn and takes Elise, turning off the monitor and allowing me to sleep in. Fifty years from now, some smarty-pants will ask us the secret to our marriage and I'll respond, 'She let me sleep in'. (Sleepin' in was good when I was a kid and sleepin' in will be good forever!) Sundays of course, Meredith enjoys a little extra pillow time. Now, I'm going to be perfectly honest for the sake of you dads out there, I used to be terrified of the Sunday Morning. First off, I'm not a morning person, and second off, what would we do? What would I feed her, how will I pass the hours besides growing more and more resentful of that mean-spirited woman upstairs who has no clue what I'm dealing with down here! Alas, it turned out that as with all things parenting... I figured it out.

I'd like to share our Sunday morning routine here because, frankly, it rules. So I hear her rumble awake and slowly get up, turning off the monitor and kissing my sweet wife on the cheek or forehead (aawwwww.) Then, I go in and a grab my little girl. She usually is sitting up, but when I pick her up she lays her head on my shoulder and I rock with her for awhile until she sits up in my lap, looks me squarely in the face and says questioningly, 'eat?' I respond in the affirmative, we change the diaper and make our way downstairs in the dark. As I mentioned, I hate the light. During our Sunday morning ritual Elise and I don't turn on any lights unless we absolutely have to. In fact, I lay claim to teaching her to 'cover her eyes' from our mornings when I have to open the refrigerator. So we make our way down stairs and scrounge together some food. She helps me make the coffee and drinks her milk and eats a couple of things while sitting on the counter. All the while we usually talk politics, sports and religion, while we intersperse a negotiation about Elmo that goes something like:
"Elmo?"
"In a little while sweetie...did you know that Daddy thinks the Flyers are the greatest team in history, who do you think is the greatest?"
"Elmo?"
"Elmo doesn't play hockey sweetie"
"Elmo?"
"Well, I suppose they have a sports episode where he might play hockey"
"Elmo."
"Sweetie, Elmo is red. And Red is the color of the Devils and the Red Wings and we hate both of those teams very much. So, when Daddy is talking about hockey, you have forget about Elmo."
"Ernie?"
"Ernie wears Orange and black, just like the Flyers. I love you sweetie."
"I love you Daddy and I love the Philadelphia Flyers!" (Okay, that last part she only kind of tries to say.)

You get the idea. After the coffee is made and waffles or toast are ready we take our breakfast downstairs and to (yeah, I'm a sucker) watch some Elmo. Then we play for a while usually on the big exercise ball, and with her dolls and stuffed animals. Then we make our way back to the kitchen for my favorite time of Sunday Morning... Pancake time. We go through all the ingredients we need and Ellie has gotten quite good at cracking the eggs, and pouring the milk, but nobody stirs as well as she does. Making pancakes with her takes about twice as long, and certainly makes twice the mess, but it is ten times the fun. Then, we go surprise mommy. We creep up the stairs and into the room all the while, we are putting our fingers to our mouths and going, "ssshhhhh." Then after waking mommy with our incredibly loud, "ssshhhhh-ing" we pounce! Then come the kisses on Mommy and of course Ellie tells her everything important that she missed, all succinctly stated in one word - "Elmo!"

The morning progresses with play upstairs and I'm definitely the A #1 parent until the morning fades into afternoon and the planets realign back around the sun, which is of course Mommy. Moonday rules!

An Expensive Chatterbox

Now that Elise has more than 60 words under her belt, she has become a regular chatterbox (and it’s completely amazing how much can be conveyed in daily life with such a short list of real words and a bunch of fake words - though we still only understand about 30% of what she's saying). At least once a day, she says something that is absolutely hysterical leaving Marty and I in complete stitches. I wish that I could get all of these things on video because it’s not just what she says, but the way she says it – always so serious, with her head nodding, craning her neck around in your face so she’s sure you are listening to her, like she trying to hypnotize you (“Elmo?” she often says, her eyes an inch from yours, head nodding back and forth in more than just a suggestions – it’s as though she’s willing you to agree).

Anyway, I think that I am going to start doing my version of Kids Say the Darnedest Things (or whatever the heck that Bill Cosby show was) here on the blog periodically. I am going to launch this new initiative with a little conversation we had on the way home from day care last Friday.

To set the stage, Elise was whining and cranky and we were trying to figure out why.

Meredith: "Do you want Mommy to take off your hat?"
Elise: "Nooo" (her voice goes up at the end, turning no into a two syllable word)

Meredith: "Do you want Mommy to take off your shoes?"

Elise: "Nooo"

Meredith: "Do you want Mommy to tickle your belly?"

Elise: "No!"

Marty: "Do you want Mommy to cook you lasagna?"

Elise: "Noooo"

Meredith: "Do you want Mommy to throw you a party with clowns?"

Elise: "Um, nope"

Meredith: "Do you want Mommy to kiss your cheek?"

Elise: "Nooo"

Marty: "Do you want Mommy to pay for your college education?"

Elise: "Ummm.....Alright." (and she stops whining)

Um, ok. The girl drives a hard bargain. I guess we'd better start saving.

Breaking News...This Just In

Our child - you know the one that has not eaten any vegetable other than green beans (which she also stopped eating about two weeks ago) in literally months bringing her mother to the brink of insanity - ate broccoli tonight. Broccoli. I kid you not. She ate broccoli, then asked for more. Then ate that, and asked for more. Repeat, repeat. Prepare yourself. I believe this may be the sign of a Apocalypse. And if it is, I - for one - will go out with a smile on my face while nonsensically murmuring the word "broccoli".


Thanks Meredith. In other news, Mother and Father find themselves delirious and giddy with delight after their child eats broccoli (this in the same week where Elise pooped on the potty TWICE) that they randomly put bowls on their heads in celebration!

Complete news at eleven.

An Aquatic Adventure

Last weekend, for the first time in what felt like forever, the Molloy family had absolutely no plans. On Saturday, it was lovely to just hang out in the house and play at the playground, without any kind of time restraints or car trips. By Sunday, however, we were all a little restless and ready to do something more adventurous than our living room. After experiencing Ellie’s enthusiasm over seeing real live horses for the first time over the holidays (see previous blog), we thought it would be a good time to go see some other live animals. The weather was actually really nice last weekend, so the zoo would’ve been bearable, but we opted instead to go to the aquarium, where most of the action is warmly indoors.

We decided to go ahead and get a family season pass, as you only have to go twice in one year to cover the cost, and we thought it was another fun family outing option (we also have a season pass to the Please Touch Museum, which we have used in abundance and definitely gotten our money’s worth!). Ellie’s reaction to seeing real live fish was not quite the same as with the horses. She certainly didn’t dislike it, but she didn’t jump for joy and beg people to show her more, either.

The whole atmosphere of the aquarium is actually a little intimidating, and I can see why she was a little standoffish about it. First of all, it is dark in there. Not mood-lighting kind of dark, but more like I-have-to-hold-her-hand-at-all-times-because-if-she-takes-a-few- steps-I-won’t-be-able-to-see-her-anymore dark. And there was this creepy instrumental music playing that made the atmosphere eerie and a little scary. It wasn’t the theme to Jaws or anything, but it still felt like the fish could at any moment jump out of the glass and eat you.

Despite the initial intimidation of the experience, there were many things that Ellie really enjoyed about our visit. She loved the seals and the penguins, and we got to see both of them being fed and doing tricks, which was really fun. She also liked the big tank that had lots of various kinds of (enormous) fish, turtles and stingrays. Ellie could stand right up against the glass and the fish all swam by constantly so there was lots of action to watch. We even got to watch some divers go into the tank to clean it and feed the fish, which was really cool. The only things she didn’t really care for were the hippos (which were pretty scary, and they kept sticking their gross, hairy noses up against the glass so it looked like they were going to bite us) and the sharks, which were displayed by visitors walking through a huge tunnel so there were all of these enormous sharks surrounding us. She didn't cry or anything, just shook her head and said "No, no" in this sad soft little voice and grabbed our hands and started walking out of the room.

It was quite an adventure though, and we look forward to going again on many a cold winter Sunday. And I think she'll grow to love the hippos and sharks with time. Either that or we'll spend lots of weekends hanging out with penguins.

Holiday Whirlwind

This holiday season was particularly exciting because Marty and I were both off for an extended period of time, (12 whole days! Paid! Without using vacation days! Working at a school, together, rocks.) so we had what seemed like it would be an enormous amount of time to visit with family, catch up with friends and most importantly spend lots of quality time with our daughter (but of course it went by in a flash). I doubt that Elise will ever again in her life receive such devotion and attention from both of her parents simultaneously for such an extended period of time. We both spent nearly 300 hours in her presence, only taking breaks for sleeping. That’s got to be some kind of record.

And we spent what felt like a large majority of those 300 hours in the car. This at first seemed very unfortunate because of Ellie’s long-lived car hatred. I was dreading all of the driving we were planning to do (visiting various family members in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia) but apparently there is nothing that gets a child used to the car better than forcing her to sit in a car for hundreds of hours. In fact, I might go so far as to say that she actually likes the car now. My mom said that yesterday they were playing outside and Ellie ran over to the car and asked to get in! For someone who threw a stink every time we had to drive 5 minutes to the grocery store, this is certainly a big change of heart!

Ellie playing with Uncle Kevin and Tickle Me Elmo on Christmas Eve
Her new car tolerance made our road trips much more manageable - even enjoyable! And the small amount of time that we weren't road-tripping, we were hosting guests and enjoying the holidays. Last year, Elise was only six months old at Christmas so she had no real clue what was going on and could care less about opening gifts or what the gifts would be. And, at only 18 months, I expected a similar reaction again this year. But Christmas turned out to be much more fun with an 18 month old than I ever imagined. She still didn’t “get it”, but she loved tearing the paper open and was super excited anytime there was something to do with Elmo under the wrapping paper (and she actually enjoyed gifts that were Elmo-free too). The child is in Elmo overload. She now has about 20 Elmo books, two Elmo DVDs, an Elmo Christmas ornament, an Elmo bath toy, an Elmo plate, bowl and spoon, a large Elmo doll, a Tickle Me Elmo and three small Elmo dolls. You’d think that it would be too much, but no. She carries ALL of her Elmo dolls around with her (I am not kidding) and reads her books to them and feeds them from her Elmo bowl. I think Marty and I are the ones that are actually in Elmo overload: she’s in heaven!

Aaron ("Uncle Wolfe"), Ellie and "Neigh" in Colonial Williamsburg
Another fascination that she got to indulge in over the holidays (and the only thing that could distract her from talking about Elmo) is her new found love of horses. While visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Virginia, we spent a morning at Colonial Williamsburg, where horse drawn carriages take visitors on tours around the town. At first, Elise seemed a little unsure of what to make of the enormous animal, and it think it took a few minutes to make the connection that that huge creature was the same thing as the little animal she’s seen in books. But she did make the connection and decided that horses are the coolest things ever. She actually got to pet a horse that was taking a little break, which might have been the highlight of her year. My brother, Aaron, was holding her while she was petting the horse, so she somehow made the connection that he was the “horse guy” and spent the rest of the visit demanding that he show her more horses. Here’s a sample of our afternoon:

Elise pats Aaron’s shoulder while he’s mid-sentence, then begins tugging on his arm.
Elise: “Neigh?”
Aaron: “Ok sweetie, we’ll try to find more horses.”
Aaron resumes talking to the adults. Elise taps his shoulder again, cranes her head around so she’s in Aaron’s face.
Elise: “NEIGH!”
Aaron: “Yes, I know you want to see more horses and we’re on our way to find more.”
Elise: “Neigh? More? Neigh?”
Aaron: “I think there are more up this way. We’ll see more horses, Ellie, I promise.”
Elise: “Neeeeeeiiiiigggggghhhh! More? Neigh?”
Quiet clip clop of horse feet in the far distance. Elise goes very still, listening. Then breaks into an enormous smile.
Elise: “Neigh!” Several minutes go by, the horse drawn carriage passes and she watches silently. We watch until it is completely out of sight. The second it is gone, Elise taps Aaron’s shoulder.
Elise: “Neigh?”

All and all, Elise did extremely well over our holiday vacation, and I am so proud of her. We spent a ton of time in the car, in other peoples houses, around large crowds of family and friends and there were lots of little kids in our house playing with all of her new toys. Through all of this, she remained sociable, happy and pleasant to be around, with few meltdowns in between. Not to mention that our little 5:45am riser slept in until 7:15am - 8:30am every single day of the break. It's a Christmas miracle. Hallelujah!