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.

Potty Time?

After her brief love affair with the potty last fall, Elise has shown very little interest all winter. When she first started talking about the potty and asking to go, the older kids in her class at school that were potty training. I guess when the older kids moved up into the next class, all the potty trainers left and she lost interest. We were never pushing it because we thought that she was still on the young side and it seemed like a bad idea to try to potty train in the winter when she was wearing four layers of clothing.

However, it appears that after her brief winter hiatus, Elise is interested in the potty again (without our prompting). It all started on Easter, over at my Aunt and Uncle’s house. They have one of those little kid sized potties and Ellie was completely obsessed with it (we only had one of those little donuts you put on the big toilet). She went in and sat on the little potty like every 15 minutes for the whole time we were there.

So, we decided to breakdown and buy a little potty, even though I think they are kind of gross, because she obviously likes it and it’s easier for her to do herself. And she is definitely in the stage where she wants to do everything herself. We also bought a DVD called Elmo’s Potty Time because it can’t hurt to slap the Elmo brand on something because she’ll inevitably be more interested in it if it involves Elmo. The DVD is pretty funny – it has all sorts of songs with clever lyrics like “Grown ups, oh yeah they do it/Someday maybe even you’ll do it/You’ll do it/You’ll use the potty” that are really catchy and somewhat embarrassing to be singing in the hallways at work.

Her very own potty has so far actually been more of a hazard than an exciting step toward diaper-free life, as she has been injuring herself on it quite a lot and never actually using it for it's proper purpose. A few weeks ago, she was trying to stand in her potty (don’t ask) and fell (obviously) with her little butt landing on the lid and getting scratched and bruised. Then last week, she fell off the potty (don’t ask) onto her Tickle Me Elmo doll (apparently it has hard mechanical pieces that can really hurt- who knew?) and bruised her butt yet again (people at daycare are seriously going to think we are beating our child). Yesterday, however, she asked to watch Elmo’s Potty Time and after we were done, she said that she wanted to use the potty. So, Marty took her in the bathroom and she sat on the potty… and she actually went! She was so proud of herself “Ellie pee pee in potty!” and we were super excited too because this is the first time she’s used the potty in months.
Ellie and her Aunt Kate (aka Aunt "Tate")
So it looks like we may be putting potty training into full swing here in the next couple of weeks. I was planning to being this over the summer, but if she continues to be interested now, we might as well go ahead and go for it. I am not looking forward to what I have been told is a long and exhausting process, but we do have several things going for us:

1. Her hatred of wet/dirty diapers,

2. Her love of the potty,

3. Her hatred of diapers, period.

4. Her catchy Elmo Potty Time songs that practically brainwash you into needing to use the bathroom.

Wish us luck!

Gorillas and Snakes and Polar Bears, Oh My!

This weekend, Ellie experienced her first real zoo trip - and what an experience it was! We started off our jammed-packed morning by arriving at the City zoo right as it opened on Sunday, hoping to beat the crowds in what was predicted to be a lovely (but not too warm) day. Our first stop on the zoo adventure was the Reptile/Amphibian House, mostly because it was the first thing we saw but also frankly because I thought that Ellie would hate it and we'd get it out of the way. I couldn't have been more wrong. Turns out, our little girl has a thing for snakes. She got more and more excited as we went from snake to snake, crying out "More Snakes" if we tried to sneak a peek at a lizard or a turtle (which are apparently boring). If the snake was just lying there in the case she'd demand "Move around, snake!" but those stubborn snakes didn't really listen to her demands.

Next up was the elephants, which she has always loved, so seeing them in person was really exciting, although her only commentary on the elephants was "Elephant". They were eating and walking around, unlike some of those lazy snakes, so there was no need for making demands. We went on to what turned out to be the most exciting part of our adventure - the gorillas. The gorillas had a very large outdoor area to roam around that is separated from the people by a glass wall. One of the gorillas came right up to the wall while we were standing there and looked Ellie right in the eyes and scratched his nose. Ellie thought this (and pretty much everything the gorilla did) was hilarious and fascinating and she could have stayed there all day.

On a side note, I was taking pictures of her interacting with the gorilla and couldn't see her face too well so I took her hat off. When I took it off, there was a collective gasp and mummer from the gathered crowd about Ellie's striking red hair. No joke, it was like she was the one on display and no one had ever seen a real, live red head before! I have no idea what that was about, but it was very strange.




Anyway, next we wandered over to the polar bears. One of them was pacing back and forth looking rather menacing while the other was frolicking in the water playing with a big blue ball. Ellie really enjoyed watching the polar bear swimming and playing with the ball, so much so that the zebras (who were next on the path) that were just standing around lamely eating grass or whatever seemed pretty dull in comparison. Things perked back up with the giraffes because they are another one of Ellie's favorites and it was pretty exciting for her to get to see them in person.

After a lengthy stroll past a bunch of other fun animals (the otters were a particular highlight for Ellie) we made our way to the Children's Zoo, which is like a petting zoo that basically features a bunch of farm animals that children can touch and pet like rabbits, goats, sheep, donkeys and chickens. For whatever reason, Ellie was only interested in the goats, and walked right by the other animals without any desire whatsoever to pet them. She was also particularly enamored with the life-sized tractor she got to climb on and "drive". Actually this tractor might have been her favorite part of the day, and it was quite a process to finally drag her off and convince her that there was more exciting stuff to see at the zoo than a tractor.

Around this time, it was close to noon and Ellie became so distracted by hunger that she lost all interest in the remaining animals. We'll have to take her back to see the lions and tigers and bears at another time. She had so much fun on this trip (and so did we!) that I am excited to take her back for more zoo adventures. But for this trip, I'd say that the gorillas and snakes and polar bears worked out just fine.

Oops Upside Your Head

Last week, Elise was running around with her Daddy at Gram and Grandpa's house when she accidentally tripped in their living room and went flying head first into the corner of the coffee table. From the other room, it sounded like a cracking skull followed by a wailing, very upset little toddler. Luckily, when I went rushing into the living room I discovered a fully in-tact skull and no blood whatsoever, just a plum-sized (and plum colored) knot above my little one's brow bone. Through her sobbing tears, she kept saying "Ellie bumped her head", I guess in case we didn't realize what was going on. I must say, I am really enjoying her being able to tell us what ails her (even when it's obvious - it's just nice to have confirmation). If there's anything I learned from all this it's that toddlers (at least mine) REALLY don't like ice applied to their swelling eyes. I swear the ice made her about forty times more hysterical than the actual fall.

Needless to say, our little one developed quite a shiner that made it slightly embarrassing to take her into public for the next week because it looked like one of her parents punched her in the face. Let's just say I would not have been surprised to have gotten a visit from social services. Luckily, people realize that toddlers are clumsy and we made it through the week social-service-visit free. The eye brow bruise made its way down to her eye lid, so she has looked like she's been sporting purple eye shadow for going on two weeks now. It doesn't seem like it bothers her (as long as there is no ice application involved) so I would say that we are extremely luckily. It could have much, much worse than mere a shiner!

Two Generations

Last weekend we drove down to Maryland to visit with my friend Shannon and her family who was up from North Carolina for the weekend, and my friend Michael and his family who drove up from Southern Maryland. Shannon, Michael and I grew up on the same street, and born within 8 months of each other, we have literally known each other since the beginning of time. Blood or not, they are my family. It was so fun to see them, and even more fun to get all of our children together. It's kind of bizarre to hang out with your childhood friends and their children because you still feel like such a child yourself it seems impossible that you could really be an old, married parent. I still remember our first day of kindergarten together, and here we are all grown up with children of our own.
Ellie and Skylar
Anyway, Ellie did a great job on the long car trip and went the entire day without a nap OR a meltdown so I'd say the trip was a raging success. The weather was gorgeous, so we got to get our first real afternoon of the Spring lounging in the yard and playing for hours. It was great to be able to spend the day with friends and to see our children interact. Ellie was fascinated with Michael and Dawn's son Devin (3 months) while he was in his car seat, but was much less excited about him when her Mommy was holding him. She was literally climbing up my leg saying "Ellie's Mommy" and "Mommy hold her" (she gets her pronouns confused but she meant Mommy hold me). This does not necessarily bode well for the arrival of little Juan, but we have several months to work on this issue so I won't stress yet!

I hope that after 31 years, Ellie is still friends with her buddy (and our next door neighbor) Miles and that their kids get a chance to meet each other and hang out. Even if only for an afternoon.
























Ellie, Devin and Skylar

Fashion Stickers

This afternoon, I received some clothes that I'd ordered on line for Ellie (I suddenly realized a few days ago that now the weather is getting nicer she has nothing but winter clothes). So I put her in one of her new shirts and once it was on, pulled the size sticker off the front of the shirt. She said "No, sticker on!" until I put it back on (she has an odd fashion sense I suppose). Once the sticker was securely back on her chest, she rubbed the sticker and said "Ellie cute!" with a proud smile on her face.

She's so right.

All in the Family

We decided to move back to the east coast after several years of enjoying the “warm life” out in California because it was important to us that our eventual children would have the opportunity to really know our families (and vice versa). We are truly lucky that Elise not only knows her grandparents, but sees all of them every single week (thank you grandparents!) and absolutely adores them to pieces and looks forward to her weekly visits. Another wonderful thing about living on the east coast is getting to see immediate and extended family on holidays, and sometimes just on random weekends. It almost makes up for the horrible east coast weather!

Easter weekend was a family blitz for Ellie who got to see the large majority of all of her family members in a two-day period. On Saturday, we went to the Meredith’s house in Maryland where almost all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, 1st cousins once removed, grandparents and parents (close to 30 people!) gathered to eat obnoxious amounts of delicious food, watch Duke lose (haha!) and catch up with each other. All three of Ellie’s second cousins on the Meredith side were at the fete, and it was really fun to have all the girls together (Kam lives in Hawaii so this has been an infrequent occurrence). My Uncle Rob got all of the girls matching dresses last time he was visiting Hawaii, and they looked absolutely adorable, running around in matching dresses all day.

Elise, Emma (7), Cory (3) and Kam (15 months) had a blast playing endless games of ring around the rosy, and took turns dragging random adults into the game. Elise then took center stage for a while, running around in circles by herself, laughing hysterically until she made herself so dizzy she fell over…and then stood up and started with the circles again, and again and again. She definitely wore herself out from all of the action of the day and was asleep before our car turned off their street.



We headed over to Gram and Grandpa’s house on Sunday for the Stauffer family gathering with Ellie’s grandparents, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Rachel and cousin Nate (13). Elise opened her Easter basket (thanks Gram and Grandpa!) and spent the afternoon entertained by her new books and DVD. While the rest of us dyed Easter eggs, we gave Ellie an egg and some stickers, which she had fun putting on, then taking off the egg repeatedly. After a little movie time with cousin Nate and a delicious dinner, we were all exhausted from the craziness of the weekend.

The next weekend, the family fun continued with a visit from my cousin Sarah and her daughter (Ellie’s second cousin) Kam. Ellie was once again a little territorial with her things at first, but eventually loosened up and really took to the idea of taking turns, which is now her favorite thing. Everyone must take turns with everything. This phase is probably a mixed blessing. Anyway, Sarah and I took the girls to the Please Touch Museum, where they had a blast running around and playing with the various exhibits. After lunch and (much too brief) naps, we hit the playground. Elise was distraught that Kam was not wearing a hat (You have to wear a hat to go outside! It’s the rule!) but eventually got over it. I had no idea she was such a stickler for the rules. She was also quite the tattletale – shouting out every time Kam wandered over to the stairs (“No, Kam! Stairs!”)

The girls had fun at the playground, then we hit the ATM which turned out to be the highlight of the day for our little ones. The B of A has one of those where you swipe your card to get into this little ATM room. The girls squealed and laughed and ran around and hid behind pillars and jumped on the shoe grate and had a blast for like 15 minutes before we had to literally drag them away. Who knew that an ATM room could be such an exciting place for a 15 and 20 month old? I guess I’ll have to add it to our outing repertoire!

That evening we all headed over to my (and Sarah’s) other cousin Allen’s house where he and his wife Petra treated all of us to a wonderful home cooked meal. Allen and Petra have two canaries, which turned out to be a huge hit with the kids. They are not confined to a cage and the girls were enthralled with sitting in the room watching the birds fly back and forth from one windowsill to another. Kam said “birdie, birdie” about 5,000 times while we watched the birds and Ellie repeatedly said “birds flying” also on a broken record. They never seemed to tire of watching the birds or repeating these phrases.

The next morning when Sarah and Kam were getting ready to leave, Ellie flat-out refused to give them hugs and say goodbye, which I found odd because she is usually really good about this. Then when Sarah started loading Kam into the carseat Ellie broke down and got completely hysterical. “Where’d Kam go?” she howled again and again through huge sad tears. I’ve never seen her react this way to anyone’s departure! Apparently Elise developed quite a strong bond with Kam. Sarah’s husband is being transferred to Baltimore in August, so I am very excited that they are going to be closer so that we will be able to get the girls together more often.

Looks like Ellie loves family as much as we do.