First Winter Adventure

The climatic little girl (La Nina) brought us some early cold weather and snow. High temperature yesterday was 25 yesterday - COLD for Seattle...rather pleasant really compared to the 40 and raining last week.

We bundled up Molly and took her outside for her first snow adventure. We are happy that she has recently started allowing hats to stay on her head.

Knowing that it is much, much colder in Idaho, where we will be for Thanksgiving, Trina and I made a run to REI for some boots an mittens. Molly got real excited when we put the new boots on her feet.

We played in the yard for a bit, and then Molly wanted to walk across the street.

We walked down the street, where Cooper, the big german shepard licked her face clean. She ran all the way back.

Quiet

Trina and Molly have been in Mazatlan for a week now, having fun in the sun, playing in the sand, the Pacific Ocean, and the pool. I'm sure Molly is having a wonderful time and her Mom is too.

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It has been real quiet around here. Even the dogs have adjusted (mostly); they still sit looking out the window and get excited whenever a car slowly drives up near the house. I am ready for some noise, chaos, cries of "Milk please!", "Up!", "Boop. Boop. Boop" (Mollynese for "book"), ticklefests, and Sesame Street on the TV in the morning.

First Pony Ride

A few weeks ago we took Molly to Bob's Corn Maze & Pumkin Patch near Monroe for some autumn fun. In addition to picking out a pumkin, Molly had a bunch of farm fun doing some other things:

She got to drive a tractor.

She rode in the cow trailers behind a tractor.

And best of all, ride a pony. She knows what horseys are and points them out and says "Horsey!" whenever she sees on in a field, in a picture, or on her clothes. We weren't sure how she would react when we actually brought her to one since she usually afraid of large animals. She wasn't afraid and enjoyed her pony ride very much.

She thinks Uncle Wally should have one for her to ride every time she goes to Idaho. :)

Halloween

This year we had a lot of fun with Halloween. Molly had two costumes - a fairy and Minnie Mouse. She toured the neighborhood as Minnie Mouse, discovered candy, and now knows that Snickers bars are awesome. She was not shy about grabbing candy from the bowls and immediately requested us to open one for her after each house.

After four bite-sized bars she was pretty amped up. She was running all over the house, climbing on everything, and seemed to really think that standing in her rocking chair was a great idea. We have to keep her little bag of goodies hidden, since she knows what is in it. Last night she climbed up on a chair next to the hutch in our kitchen and grabbed the bad from behind a bowl of fruit. There was no taking it away or any of the candy without a major breakdown, but Pirates Booty did help satisfy her with something other than chocolate.

One Year Ago: The avacado.

My curiousity had me searching my photographs to a year ago and see what Molly was up too. As it turns out, October 12 was when serving her avacodo didn't go so well. It wasn't her first exposure to the wonderful green fruit, but it was a while before we subjected her to it again.


Her attitude toward avacado has changed thanks to guacamole. She gets excited if she sees me making it and expresses her eagerness for the strangely good green slimy chip dip with emphatic signs (sign language) for "more" and excited cries of "More please! More please!" until she gets her little bowl of it.

Of course this should be expected with guacamole instead of plain avacado. There is no comparison. The avacado is wonderful and unique on its own, but to eat guacamole is RAPTURE in comparison.

The Left Hook

I was trying to take a self-portrait of us on a hike yesterday when Molly caught me with a left hook.

Occasionally you get help on something when you don't want it. It's all in how you handle it.

Guacamole

Guacamole may be Molly's favorite food. She gets excited when I am making it. She doesn't eat the chips - she simply loads them up, sucks the guacamole of, and re-dips. She gets her own bowl of guacamole. The last time we ate guacamole she had ruined a couple of prized blue-corn tortilla chips, but hadn't taken a bit out of any of them, so we gave her a spoon.

She enjoyed the new found efficiency.