Aunt Jessica and the Pumpkin Patch

It is now at the end of week two of three with Aunt Jessica visiting Molly. The time has passed too quickly. Although her body was in shock from the 13 hour time difference, we didn't let her sit and lazily fend of the jet lag. We kept her on the go by starting off with a trip to Bob's Corn Maze and Pumpkin patch. Bob's is a small farm near Monroe and is growing every year. In addition to the pumpkins and corn maze, there are wagon rides, pony rides, jungle gyms, kid's rides in trailers behind a little tractor, and a store with lots of local goods.

It had poured rain the day before, so the place was a muddy mess. Cars were getting stuck on flat ground, tractors were busy pulling people out, and the occasional kid would walk by splattered in mud from going down face first. Trina, Molly, Jess (and the small pumpkin she was smuggling), and I piled in the trailer that hauled us up to the bars.

There isn't a lot for an 8-month old at a muddy farm, unless you are willing to let them get real muddy, and put who knows what in her mouth. We watched some of the older kids and parents having fun, and then plopped Molly in the middle of the pumpkin pile for some pictures.

With all the colors, textures, and sizes of pumpkins in the pile, I thought for sure she would try to climb all over the pile and discover it all. Nope. She thought the stems were worth tasting. We moved her around a bit to see if smaller or different pumpkins would gather more interest from her, and finally we found one that did. She gave it a good rub down; perhaps it felt similar to her rather bald little head.

We let her cawl around on the pumpkins for a while, then mosied on to pick out our pumkins and a few other things. Hopped on the trailer for a ride back to the car.

The Bath

Molly is growing more independent. Since learning to crawl and stand up on her own, although with the assistance of a stool, coffee table, or leg to grab on to, she has become all the more active and independant. She rarely want to be held, except to eat or rarely to go to sleep. If she is in your arms, keep her bouncing, flying, or something to keep her moving. She believes the world is hers to discover and will stop for only a few things that ultimately help this cause - food and unwillingly, sleep.

Now that she is coordinated enough to support herself she takes baths with out us in the tub. We fill the tub with enough water to cover her legs, sit her on a yellow foam pad, and let her splash away.

She is very tollerant of the washing part of the bath and even seems to enjoy that as well.

Even in the bath it is hard to keep her still. The moment she gets bored with trying to eat her red devil rubber duck, she starts crawling around and in an instant is climbing up the wall of the tub to stand up with all the big people in the room.

Avocado

At last! The camera arrived in the mail today after a month long vacation at the repair shop in Portland. No more of that.

First off, I had to get back to photographing my favorite subject, Molly. Trina had started feeding her some whole grain puffs (a.k.a. 'baby crack), which we scatter on her tray where she has fun picking them up and stuffing in her mouth on her own. Next up was the new item for the day, the green, slimy avocado. Initial reactions were mixed, but positive.

Then it started to go down hill. Smiles were present, but not when we put the green slimy stuff in her mouth. Furthermore, the internal/external ratio was shifting to the latter.

Finally, the full-on gag ended the session. Trina cleaned her up and we ate dinner around the kitchen island while she was entertained by out antics. She particularly enjoys the rattling of of the martini shaker. Some green slimy death vegetable made it to her head, so Trina gave her a bath while I did the dishes. A big bottle and off to bed to stand in bed crying for a while before sleep.