What We've Been Up To

February came and went faster than I could've ever thought. A few Highlights:

* Molly turned 18 months. She weighed in at 19 lbs 11 oz (1 percentile) but the doctor said she's still staying on her own curb so he's not worried. Maybe one day she will break 20 lbs. She had to get two shots, and hates the Dr's office, but is doing well. She is talking up a storm these days, and it's fun to hear what new words she says. It's helped Keith and I realize we need to watch what we're saying. We were watching my parents puppy's for a few days and one of the days she says "dumb dog". I hadn't noticed how often I'd been saying that (as it was peeing on my floor left and right) until it came out of her sweet mouth. She also makes sure to let everybody know when she burps. She is a little sweetie though, and everytime I ask her what song we should sing before bed, she starts singing "I love you, you love me". We sure do love her.

* Molly also started nursery. She has only gone 3 times however. The first time we took her, she lasted the first hour by herself, and then started bawling for mom and dad. We stayed with her the last two weeks, and we'll see how she ends up doing.

* We found out about this awesome thing Home Depot does. On the first Saturday of each month they do a kids workshop, where your kid can build something for free. We happened to be in the store the first Saturday of February, and I had heard of the workshop before, but decided Molly was probably too little for it. I was grateful that 4 or 5 of the employees told me to still go check it out. Molly had a blast! I wish I would've had my camera. I did get some cute pictures of her in her sweet apron they gave out. The one for March we just grabbed the kit and did at home. They built a racecar and all of the scout leaders decided this would be a good project for scouts, so it was too packed. It's been fun to watch Keith and Molly build stuff together. She is still a daddy's girl.

* Molly is already starting to act interested in the potty. I wasn't planning on this happening until she was a little earlier, and am a little unprepared/uninformed in this area. She has 4 times now ran into the bathroom saying "uh-oh". I will put her on the toilet and she will pee. However, she doesn't do this everytime she has to pee. I bought her a potty insert for our toilet today, and I have sat her on it 4 different times today and she has peed each time... I'm just not sure she understands that she needs to tell me each and everytime she has to go. Any advice on this subject would be awesome :D

* Keith's parents and sisters along with my cute neice came to visit for my birthday! It was so much fun seeing them, though it seems like the time always just flies by. We are hoping to be able to go to Washington in the late summer to visit for 2 weeks. One week never seems long enough.

* Baby boy is doing good! He is definitely more active than Molly was. I remember with Molly worrying about how little I felt her, even towards the end, but with this round I haven't worried about that at all. At our 20 weeks ultrasound, he did have an enlarged kidney, and they couldn't see all the parts of the heart. We got another ultrasound at 30 weeks though, and everything looked great. The only problem now, is trying to come up with a name. We've got 7 weeks to figure it out I guess.

* Keith is still working hard and going to school. He will apply for his program at school this summer. Come the middle of April he will be done with school for this term and will be half way done. Only two more years.... so close, but yet so far. I am so proud of all the work he does though. At least 90% of the time he gets all of his homework done at school between classes. He gets home around 5 and we are able to have dinner together. He is so amazing and puts Molly to bed for me every single night. It's nice to have the evenings together as well, though we seem to call it quits and go to bed pretty early these days.


I think that's about all we have going on for now. I'm counting this as my February blog, so we'll have more to write about later in the month. And as always, here's some pictures:

A Post

I decided I'm about due to make a post. I've actually written 3 blog entries before this, which are saved on blogger. To be completely honest, I'm not quite sure why I never posted them. There are quite a few things that have happened since I posted last, but here's the major things I can remember:

August 4th: Molly turned 1!!

August 25th: Molly got her first cousin on the Smith side

August 29th: Found out we're expecting. SURPRISE! (To even us).

October 12th: Keith & Stacy 3 year anniversary

November: IT'S A BOY

December 25th: Christmas! (Christmas pictures to come)

January: Stacy commits to blogging at least once a month (Yes, really.)

Things have been crazy around here with the holidays, finding out we're expecting, Keith going to school, etc. Molly is growing way to fast, but not getting any fatter. At her 15 month check up, in November, she weighed in at a whopping 18.1 pounds. This is in the 1.3 percentile. Her height was in the 85th percentile at 30.5 inches. The Dr isn't worried about her as she seems to be eating well, and her anemia has finally gone away. He thinks that she's just going to take after her daddy, who can eat anything and still stay super skinny.

She does something new everyday and I can't imagine life without her. She is getting so smart. Today she accidentally stepped on my finger. I said "ouch" and she walked over, kissed my finger, went over and opened the cupboard, and pointed to the bandaids. She's only seen me get bandaids maybe twice, and catches on so quickly to things. She knows lots of words, and already recognizes letters and numbers... though every letter is an "s" and every number seems to be a "6". Her two multiple syllable words were "Dora dora dora" (Always said three times) and "backpack". This was after watching Dora the Explorer twice.

Keith has been going to school and working. He was able to cut his hours down a little bit at work, to focus more on school. We've still got a way to go until he's done with school, but I finally feel like we're on the downward slope, as he's more than half way done. He works so hard at school, and always comes home with a smile on, ready to help with Molly, dishes, laundry... you name it. Sometimes I have to be careful how much I ask him to do, because I know he is always more than willing to do anything for me.

I have been lucky not to have any morning sickness whatsoever with this pregnancy. I had hardly any with Molly, but this time, I often questioned whether I was pregnant. I do get carsick, which I don't when I am not pregnant. I was however very tired, and still have to go to pee about 20 times a day. We're excited to be having a boy, but we are having the hardest time deciding on a name. It's not that we can't agree on one, we just haven't found any we love. We still have 3 1/2 months to think about that though. Also, I cut off 12 inches of my hair!! I decided to donate it to locks of love.

I think that about sums it up for now. Here's a few more pictures we got taken in November (In Sunny St George) by the wonderful Alecia (http://www.aleciasphotography.blogspot.com/) She is amazing.

I kept debating what to do now that Molly is down for the night. I came to the conclusion that I should probably wash the dishes. That said, I am too emotionally and physically drained... so I should be taking a nap. Instead I thought I would write a blog. My talent in life is typing... I can't play an instrument, I'm not good at sports, but I can type. The reason I am mentioning this is to justify the fact that I keep all of the things I should be scrapbooking and journaling about on a blog, because I can type it all down really fast. I do, however, have a goal to write all of Molly's milestones down in her baby book next Monday for Family Home Evening. By the time Molly is my age, there probably won't be a blogspot.com, so I want to put it all in her baby book, along with some photos. For now though, just a little update on what has been going on.

Molly started taking steps about a week after she turned 9 weeks. Now she will walk wherever she is going most of the time. When dad walks through the back door though, then she crawls faster then I have ever seen a baby move. About a week after she started walking then she got her first tooth. It is starting to show, but I have yet to get a really good picture of it. She also has started saying "mo" when she wants more food. She will point (or more reach for with all five fingers) to the light when we ask her where the light is. When we ask her where mommy or daddy's nose are then she will grab our nose, and she will grab her toes when we ask where her "tosies" are. She also has two different books that have ladybugs in them. When we ask her where the ladybug is then she will point at them (with her thumb).

Molly "pointing" at the light.


Now that I've got those milestones recorded... Today Molly got her first x-ray. I was making her a bottle this morning and Keith was watching her. When I walked in to give her her bottle, I noticed she was eating something. I asked Keith what it was and he said he wasn't sure. He reached in her mouth and pulled out a brad and two (soggy) paper flowers. For those of you actually reading this who don't know what a brad is, I will put in a picture. Anyway, Keith handed them to me and I noticed there was only one brad when there should have been two. After digging in her mouth some more and searching all over the floor, we figured that she must have eaten it. We called up the Dr and they had us bring Molly in. The Dr checked all her vitals and then wrote out a paper to go to the hospital and get an X-ray. Keith had to go to work so I took her in. She did really well all things considered. After all they did lay her on this huge table, with these massive moving machines all around her. I held her hands and after she tried to sit up a couple times to look around, and realized that I wasn't going to let her get up, she just stayed until the x-ray was finished. We then came home and the Dr. called us a little later saying that the brad was in her stomache. That is where they were hoping it was, as opposed to her esophagus (yes, I had to look up how to spell that word). The Dr then informed me that I need to watch her really well for the next 72 hours to make sure there is no bleeding, fever, or any other irregular signs.... and lastly, she would like me to search through all of her poop (sorry I hope that word is ok to use with everyone reading this :P ) and watch for the brad to come out. If it does not come out in 48-72 hours then I have to go get another x-ray to make sure it didn't get stuck somewhere.

(Here's a picture of what brads are... they obviously aren't this big..)



Being a mom, then I've had a lot of gross things happen.. but having to change her diaper and not be able to immediately throw it away is hard for me. I am so very grateful to Heather, who sent Keith a "diaper changing kit" that included some latex gloves. I am so gratefull that she is okay, but I do plan on punishing her for this when she gets older ;)






(I had to throw in a picture of my beautiful flowers I planted!! I love them.)



Molly loves to climb onto and into everything she can.





Lastly, here's Molly walking!! She's getting better and better every day.

Cute LITTLE Molly

I decided to write a blog while I'm here at my mom's house. This means that there will be no pictures this time. That's ok though as I usually go crazy and post 100 pictures each time I blog.

Keith is gone cat fishing with my dad and my brother in Arizona for about a week and so Molly and I decided to come and stay in Cedar City with my mom and my sisters. We've had lots of fun. The only bad part is when I hang out with them then we like to go shopping and then I end up spending money. Luckily I am a bargain shopper. We went to the outlet mall in St George and I got 6 shirts for only $18 total. I was excited to get some shirts that'll fit me a little better now that I'm lucky enough to have a mommy belly ;)

Before we headed out to Cedar City we took Molly in for her 9 month check up. While we were at the Dr we did find out a couple things:

Molly has anemia. It's not too big of a deal right now. He said she was pretty close to the border but she does have it. When they pricked her toe to get the blood I thought that she was going to start crying but she just sat there and stared in amusement, watching the nurse collect the blood in her little straw. For the next 6 weeks we just have to give her iron drops in some Orange Juice, and make sure we give her lots of things with iron. After 6 weeks we go back in and get her blood checked and go from there.

Molly's clogged eye duct also is still not better. The Dr says that the eye specialists don't like to schedule infants appointments until after they are at least 10 months old though, so we are supposed to call back in a month, assuming it doesn't go away, and they will call and set up an appointment for her. He said it looks like she will have to get the minor surgery on her eye but that he can't tell us for sure.

Molly is still on the tall side. I think that she's in the 80th percentile now. She has dropped in weight from the 14th percentile to the 7th percentile. She is 9 months old and only weighs 15 1/2 pounds. The Dr isn't too worried about this as both Keith and I were smaller kids (Keith still is) and she still has plenty of diapers needing changing each day.

Other then that it was a pretty normal appointment. It was crazy when he told us that if everything else goes well, he will see us after Molly turns one! That's only three months away. Wow!!

Here's a few more things about Molly I wanted to make a note of:

*Molly still has no teeth. Keith and I joke around wondering if she will walk or get her first tooth first.

*Molly eats solids really well. She chews with her gums and eats almost everything we eat now. We do have our list of no no's from the Dr though. She eats her breakfast the best.

*Molly will no longer nurse, except for first thing in the morning. I was exclusively breastfeeding her and she has decided she is too busy to sit down and nurse. She just does not want to hold still. It has been a hard transition switching her to formula as I'm still trying to figure out how much formula she wants how often. The Dr also has us putting a scoop of formula in her cereal in the morning to give her extra iron since she is anemic.

*Molly is getting closer and closer to walking, but who knows how long it will take her to actually get it down. She is to the point that she will walk barely holding onto my finger. She has taken a couple of single steps by her self, but never more then one step. It's almost more like she falls forward and catches herself from falling by taking a step and then gives up.

*Molly threw her first real tantrum the other day. Keith thinks this is the cutest thing ever.

I am so lucky to have Keith and Molly in my life! Life just wouldn't be complete without them. I'll try to get some pictures up soonish.

Trip to Washington and 8 months old!

We were able to go to Washington to visit our family there for Easter. It was so fun to be able to see everybody. It made me want to move back. It was fun having somebody to hang out with everyday and not having to have Keith gone at work and school all day. Luckily we get to go back in two months. Molly was good in the car, all things considered. I mean she is a busy 8 month old who was trapped in a carseat for 12 hours each way. That being said, she did cry. We were also lucky enough to only get pulled over once, probably because Keith was driving the whole time and is a good driver. He got pulled over because we had a light out.

Molly turned 8 months old on Easter! It never ceases to amaze me how much she is learning and how much she is growing every day. She has been clapping her hands for about 3 weeks now and when we tell her to "give me five" she will give us five. She has also been saying mama for about 2 months now, though I didn't mention it because I thought she was just saying it as a sound she'd learned. While we were in Washington though, I got the flu and so she didn't get her mom too much one day. That is when I realized she knows what mama means. She would cry and cry for "mama" and it broke my heart (because I was too sick to hold her) and made me happy, since I knew she knew my name and that she loves me. She also is very mobile still, crawling everywhere and getting into everything. I mentioned last month that she can get herself standing by herself without any help and I finally caught her on video. Only once though and she lost her balance. She usually will stand up and then stay standing for quite a while. She doesn't seem interested in walking yet though. She will walk along the furniture all over the house, but when she stands up, she doesn't even attempt to walk. That's ok with me though, she's only 8 months old after all ;) She's also eating finger foods. For some reason, the favorite thing I've given her is little tiny pieces of wheat bread. She picks them right up and pops them into her mouth and makes it sound like the most delicious thing ever. I guess that's about all I can think of for now. She doesn't go back in to the Dr's office again until 9 months so I'll try and post her "stats" then. Here's some pics and a video.

She even pretended she was going to clap after the video.. but then she got distracted.

Another Video.. She thinks it is so funny to kick her dad... Maybe not a good thing to teach her for the future but we think it's funny for now :).

Woohoo!

Molly is sleeping!... at night anyway. I am so excited. I didn't remember how good it felt to sleep :) She now fusses for only about 2 minutes before falling asleep for the night. She goes to bed at 7 each night, wakes up at 5:30 to nurse, and then falls asleep again until 7:30. It was a tough tough week but it definately paid off.


We are still working on her naps. I think the problem is that I was trying to get her to have 3 naps a day, but I think she might already have transitioned to only 2 naps a day. Yesterday I tried letting her go longer between naps and she slept 1 hour the first nap and 1 1/2 hour the second nap. That's definately an improvement. It's still a work in progress, but one thing at a time.

Molly is also standing up. She falls over after a bit (sometimes I think she just plops down because she gets bored). She knows how to get on her hands and feet and stand up from there, but whenever I try to get it on camera she crawls over to me to try and get the camera. I did capture her a couple times with assistance from me. I even made a video and put some sweet music in it (I did that part for Keith since it's a song from his favorite movie).





She is growing up so fast, and we are finding it hard to find a spot for all her stuff. We need to build a shed or something. She's done with her swing, her bassinet, her bouncy chair, and her play mat for starters. Then there's all of her clothes that she's outgrown. She's still pretty tiny though, and in size two diapers.









Molly has been "dancing" lots (she was even bobbing her head in the 'stand tall' video). We happened to catch her on camera dancing to her favorite song ;)


Also, I went out to get the mail the other day and look what I saw!!! I am so excited! I guess I'd better start clearing out all those leaves.



And last but not least... My brother and his wife had a baby.. on Keith's birthday. He is so cute and I can't wait to go to Washington and meet him.


Here's a couple more pictures of Molly:

Keith decided that on the couch would be a safe place to leave his chocolate covered raisens. Of course she pulled herself up and got them. I was glad that she had her binky in because she has a big handful that I'm sure she would have stuffed in her mouth.

And one last video (a super long one.. sorry)... This is from a month ago when she decided she didn't want to eat anything. I finally got her to eat.. but as you can see it was a bit messy. She's eating really well again now though (and letting me feed her).

Time Flies

Molly is already 7 months old!! This is crazy. I could have sworn I just wrote a post last week, but alas it has been a month and a half.

Molly is growing up and learning new stuff everyday. She learned to Crawl on Feb 9th, at 6 months and 5 days old. The next day she learned to pull herself up standing on everything, so life has been crazy. We've had to make sure to keep everything picked up as she can get everywhere. We had a little scare the other day when we found her with a marble in her mouth! I felt like the worst mother in the world. It took us a while to figure out where she even found it. Her favorite thing to play with right now is cords, which also makes it hard as cords are a little harder to just pick up and move. Basically we just have to make sure we're watching her 24/7 and if not (when I'm taking a shower), then we put her in her playpen where we can still keep her in eyes view, which she doesn't love. In other words.. my house is a mess, and I've learned to take showers quicker then I ever thought possible.


Molly is also still not sleeping through the night. She wakes up several times during the night. We are trying to "sleep train" her so we both can start waking up happier. So far the sleep training isn't working, but we're trying to have hope. She wakes up probably about 10 times a night, and not because she is hungry. We are trying to be patient but sometimes it gets hard. She also only will take 1/2 hour naps. I get so jealous reading about all these babies who are sleeping through the night and who take 1 1/2- 2 1/2 hour naps. We are so grateful for Molly though and wouldn't trade her for anything in the world.

Other then her sleeping problems she is doing great and makes us very happy. She is eating her solids a lot better now. She still hates her green beans and peas, though she will happily eat her squash. Fruits are still her favorites. When there is music on then she will sit up and start bouncing up and down. She says "mama" and "baba" alot and is experimenting with sound. She went down on the percentile in weight, but the Dr is no longer concerned about it as she has a tummy and since both of her parents were on the small size as babies.


Having a baby has been the hardest thing I have ever done. It has also been the most rewarding thing though. At the end of the day, I know that I wouldn't be able to do it without such an amazing husband. He is so patient with me always and so helpful with Molly. He works so hard at work and at school and then comes home and just keeps going. There's often times he comes home on his 1/2 hour lunch break and I've been so busy with Molly (trying to get her to sleep and feeding her etc) that I haven't made anything for Keith to eat. He always laughs when I tell him how sorry I am that I didn't have something for him to eat and he just goes and makes something for both of us. I'm so lucky to have a husband that never ever has even raised his voice to me. Everytime I get upset then he always takes the blame, (even when it's my fault). I wonder everyday how I got so lucky to have him. He is always willing to do anything and everything for me.

I was going to write Molly's weight and height and percentile for her 6 month check up, but the papers are in the room where Molly is attempting to sleep.. so for now it will have to suffice that she is just barely over 14 lbs (I think she is in the 13th percentile?) and I believe was 27 inches (which I think was the 85th percentile). I'll check tomorrow and edit this when I get a chance though. Her eye duct is still clogged, and if it is still clogged at her next appt (9 months old) then the Dr will get us in touch with an eye specialist and she will possibly have to have the minor surgery on it.

In other news, Keith is still going to BYU. He is working hard to get into the Information Systems program. He will apply at the end of the semester. It's difficult to get into though, so if he doesn't get in we will have to weigh out our other options, as it is something he would really like to do.

Keith's sister Heather is pregnant! That means Molly will be getting 3 cousins this year. My brother's wife is Due this month, my sister in May, and Heather at the end of August.

I just got called to be the Activity Days assistant for our Primary Girls. It is a good calling as it's only every other Wednesday from 7-8. I was worried when the Bishop asked to meet with me as I don't always stay to all of church since Molly eats during the day quite frequently still, but this will work out great.

I guess that is it for now. Here's a couple pictures. Please excuse the red-eye as I'm on Keith's laptop and I am too lazy to figure out how to use the editing software on here. Also, if anybody reading this could please excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes and just ignore all of the thing's I've said that make absolutely no sense, I would appreciate it :) My excuse is that I am sleep deprived :)





I love this picture and the next one. She is always wanting to do whatever her daddy is doing.


Grandpa was giving Molly a ride in a box. She didn't seem to enjoy it too much.

My husband is such a good sport. I had to beg him to let me put that ribbon in his hair so we could all match haha. See how perfect he is.





Lastly... Molly still has no teeth and I can't feel or see any coming in... but she is the princess of drool.