The Interrogator

If you seat Marty next to a person he does not know at a dinner party, he will leave the party knowing more about that person than perhaps his/her own mother knows about them. This is because Marty always asks lots and lots of questions, like he is conducting a very intensive interview. He asks people so many questions, I am sure that they leave wondering if Marty is secretly writing a book about them. This is how inquisitive he is. Well, it seems as though our little Ellie has picked up this trait from her father. Either that, or she is just a typical inquisitive almost two year old! (we've never had a two year old before so we wouldn't know the difference!)

Ellie is in a phase of constant questioning. Her favorite question these past few weeks has been "Who dat?" (translation = who's that? - but she also uses it to mean what's that?) She asks this question every time she sees a person (whether she knows who they are or not) or hears a noise. Stranger walking to their car - who dat? A loud bang outside - who dat? A construction vehicle she's never seen before - who dat? It's a question she asks roughly 20 times an hour.

Another favorite question is "Where Daddy going?" (of course Daddy can be substituted with anyone else's name) She asks this every time someone leaves the room - even if they have just explicitly said that they are going to go to the bathroom and therefore she knows exactly where Daddy just went. But like clockwork she'll still ask the question. She also asks this every single day after Marty buckles her into her car seat and shuts the car door to take the one step to open the driver's side door. In that 1 second period between the time Marty has shut her door and before he has opened his car door she asks where Daddy's going. Every single day, every single time.



A new question that has recently been popping up is "What's Mommy doing?" (again, substituting the name with anyone). She doesn't ask this as much as the other questions, but it's catching on quickly. I can see that becoming a very popular question in a few weeks. She mostly asks this in the context of our neighbor Myles. She always wants to know what he's doing if he is not in his yard - like he has some kind of secret life she wants to be in on. But she also tends to ask what you are doing if you are doing something that doesn't involve playing with her.




And yes, of course, you can't forget the traditional toddler favorite: "Why?" Like any typical toddler, sometimes she'll throw out the why as many as ten or fifteen times in a row in response to anything you say. Marty sees it as a personal challenge to answer her why every single time, which can sometimes lead to some very deep and philosophical conversations that Marty basically ends up having with himself. To my knowledge, she only "beat" him at this game one time - he just didn't have an answer after the 30th or so why after he'd painted himself in a corner. Unlike Marty, I typically answer one or two and then quickly change the subject. I think Marty's true appreciation for questions makes him much more tolerant of talking in circles with a toddler. It's only a matter of time before he starts questioning her. Get ready for your interrogation Ellie!

Growing Updates - Ellie, Juan and Mommy Molloy

Elise, Mommy and Giraffe playing hide and seek in Daddy's closet


Well, I am officially more than halfway through my pregnancy with Juan (21 weeks! That flew!) and so far so good. I had my Level II Ultrasound last week and it appears that Juan is growing right on schedule and everything looks healthy and normal. Hurray! Unfortunately, Juan is not the Showboat that Ellie was in utero, and it was impossible to snap a good ultrasound picture. As soon as the "camera" came out, Juan buried his/her face into the placenta and refused to move. So, we have three pretty boring pictures of Juan's spine. I wonder if this is a sign of their differing personalities. When Ellie was 20 weeks, she hammed it up for the camera, sticking her face right there prompting the Ultrasound Tech to take a few 3D pictures even though we didn't request it or pay for it. We were excited that we could get some 3D pictures of Juan, but now we'll have to wait to see what Juan looks like until Sept/Oct.

Meredith at 20 weeks


In the meantime, I am growing so much faster than I did with my last pregnancy. I am already almost completely in maternity clothes (something I didn't have to do until I was at least 6 1/2 months with Ellie) and I can barely believe that I am only 21 weeks when I look down and see my enormous baby bump. Hopefully it's a case of growing quickly and then leveling out at some point! I am feeling kicking and movement more and more - something that I absolutely love and makes me feel very connected to our little Juan.




A few weeks ago, Marty said to Ellie that "Mommy's having a baby" to which she replied, "No, Ellie's the baby." I later asked her if she wanted a baby in the house and she said "Um.... no." At least she contemplated it, right? Anyway, we decided to take it up a notch and start reading books about being a big sister and playing up all the excitement about all the wonderful things about big sisters and about babies. We have also begun to remind her that she needs to be gentle around Mommy's tummy because of the baby. So far all of these efforts seem to be working fairly well, and she seems more excited about the idea of being a big sister and having a baby around. She is also more mindful of being gentle around the baby and even goes so far as to kiss my belly and say "Hi Baby".




Lately, Ellie has taken to patting my belly and saying "Mommy growing a baby" which is pretty cute. Then sometimes she'll pat her own tummy or Marty's and talk about the baby and we have to remind her that it's only Mommy that's having the baby. This mix-up could lead to some very unfortunate and potentially embarrassing situations if she starts patting bellies that are not mine, hers or Marty's. Hopefully that won't happen.




Ellie is becoming more and more independent every day - she is getting to be such a big girl. In the past few weeks she's learned how to put on and take off her shoes by herself (she can even thread the velcro strip!), she can take her jacket off by herself and she is getting pretty good at putting her own pants on (though she often struggles with getting the pants over her butt with that bulky diaper) and taking her pants off. She wants to do everything by herself - she always says "Ellie self" when she feels like she doesn't need any help doing something and then when she does something by herself she gets really excited and cheers "Ellie did it!" She is also becoming very communicative about her likes and dislikes, loudly proclaiming "Ellie don't like it" or "Ellie like this!" about pretty much everything. (FYI - dislikes include any food that she does not recognize, all vegetables, dirt and anything on the television that is not Elmo related. Likes include kids music, the playground and fruit).




We will keep you updated as the family continues to grow!

Ellie's BFF...Sorta

Ellie has a BFF (that's Best Friend Forever for those of you not into ancient slang). Although, her BFF isn't actually friend per se. Basically Ellie has a mild obsession with Myles, the boy (literally) next door. It makes perfect sense that Myles and Ellie would be friends. They were born only about three weeks apart, they live next door to each other (in row homes nonetheless) so they see each other all of the time, we get along really well with Myles' parents and the kids both envy each others' backyard toys. Of course they would become friends.

The thing of it is, for as much they are around each other and playing near each other they don't really play together. Now, you could use the "parallel play" argument, which is perfectly reasonable. Usually children play next to each other and not with each other for a long time (1-2 years). However, while Ellie did mostly parallel play with other kids, she has recently been much more interested in playing with other children and does actually interact and play with them now. She has actually taken her classmates by the hand and run around and played with them. I have seen this. But for whatever reason, Ellie and Myles are always just sort of playing in the vicinity of one another (preferably with the other kids' toys). Pretty much the only time they actually interact is when they are desiring the toy that the other one is playing with, pushing each other over or whining/crying about whose turn it is to play/ride/swing.

And yet, Ellie inquires "Where's Myles?" about 400 times a day. If she notices that he is outside (or his dog or his parents), she cries "Myles outside!" and runs to get her shoes while announcing that she plans to go outside to be with him, even if she's right in the middle of diner or she's in her pajamas (we really need to get some blinds for our windows so this will stop). When we walk past his house and he's not in the yard, it's "Where's Myles? What's Myles doing?" I swear, if she could put a lo-jack on this child, she would. She is always extremely interested in his whereabouts and wants to be near him as much as possible. And then in those exciting moments when the stars are aligned and they are actually together, they mostly ignore each other. Maybe the strange dynamics between males and females is already established at this age. I have no idea and have decided to stop trying to figure out their "friendship" and go with the flow. If they enjoy being near each other but not playing together, who am I to judge? Whatever floats your boat. And who knows, maybe one day they'll be true BFF's.

Broken Record

How do you know when you are too often saying the same thing to your child over and over again? I'd say the clearest way to determine this is when your child starts doling out your words before you have a chance to say anything yourself. I have had several examples of this in the past two weeks alone - it goes a little something like this...

Ellie throws a stuffed animal across the room and immediately says "Ellie, no throwing!" Apparently she is punishing herself now, so discipline is a breeze (I kid. There is nothing breezy about it.)

Ellie stands up on the couch as she says "be careful". Ellie crawls under the dining room table and reminds herself "watch your head". She finishes playing with a toy and says "put it away".

The good news in all of this is that is shows that she really is listening when we talk to her. This is truly exciting in itself. The bad news is that while she clearly hears what we are saying, she does the things we tell her not to do anyway. I am going to go with the theory that she knows the words and not the meaning, as opposed to knowing the meaning and being defiant. It is probably not the case, but it makes me feel better.

Miss Manners

Elise is becoming quite a little lady in terms of her manners, which goes to show that nagging can, in fact, be successful (I knew it!). Our little one has taken to using polite phrases such as “Cuse Me”, “Tank Too”, "Soddy" and “Peas” on a fairly consistent basis much to the delight of her parents who have been drilling this into her since before she could talk. The hilarity of it comes when she draws particular attention to WHY she is being polite, belting out such gems as “Ellie burped! Cuse me!” or “’Cuse me, Ellie tooted” or my personal favorite “Ellie gas. Cuse me”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to paint the picture that Ellie sits around with her hands folded in her lap saying things like “When you have the opportunity, please pass the broccoli. Thank you, my dear Mother” as though she is the miracle polite child, because that is not true at all. First of all, she is still in her vegetable rebellion phase and never requests veggies, and secondly, she is nowhere near the pinnacle of politeness. She is, afterall, a toddler.

She still has her moments of demands, forgetting to add please onto her “request” (Mommy, Come!). She’ll say “cuse me” but often she is saying this as she elbows and pushes you out of her way. She still occasionally snatches something from your hands without a thank you. But still, I really do think that it’s becoming something that is ingrained in her and she is beginning to be polite as a reflex. Marty and I do not have to remind her to say please and thank you and excuse me every time it is appropriate, and that in itself is completely exciting after months and months of nagging reminders. The other day I sneezed and she casually said “Bess you, Mommy” and I nearly passed out with happiness. It’s these small things that keep us going during toddler tantrums and meltdowns.

Now we need to start working on getting her to stop lifting up her shirt for no reason.

Um, Maybe Not

Ok, maybe I was jumping the gun on the whole "Ellie is ready to start potty training" thing. This morning, Ellie was playing, running around and all of a sudden she stopped and squatted giving all of the "I am about to do my business" signs. My mom said "Ellie, do you need to use the potty?" and Ellie responded with "No, Ellie poo in diaper." My mom tried to usher her into the bathroom anyway so that she could use the potty just like Elmo, but that only solicited crying and shrieks of "No, Ellie poo in diaper!"

Well, at least she knew she had to poo in the first place, right? Baby steps.