Christmas Blitz (Part I)

As demonstrated by our Thanksgiving week celebrations, the Molloy family knows how to celebrate the heck out of a holiday. And Christmas is certainly no exception. In the past week we went to no fewer than 7 holiday celebrations with family and friends and milked every ounce of Christmas that we possibly could.






Mateo, Max, Alyson, little Ellie, our Elise, Andrea showing off their snowmen cards
The celebrations began when Marty and I volunteered at Ellie's school the Friday before Christmas. They had asked parents to come in and do an activity with the kids related to whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year. We decided to make snowman Christmas cards with the kids - using cotton balls (for snowman's body), white finger paint (for falling snow), star stickers (stars in the sky) and orange triangle cut outs (for a carrot nose) and black box cut outs (for a hat). Marty and I spend the evening before preparing - cutting out carrot noses, hats and drawing circles on the cards. We felt very prepared. And then we executed the project with 10 two year olds. It went....ahem...well? Let's just say there was LOTS of glue, sticky cotton balls fingers, finger paint puddles and cards that were much more like abstract art than snowmen. But the kids seemed to enjoy it and I guess that was the point.

After our activity we stayed for a little Holiday Caroling for all the kids in the day care. Apparently they'd been practicing songs with the kids because Ellie knew the words to lots of songs (Frosty, Jingle Bells, Dreidel Song, Wish you a Merry Christmas, etc) that we'd never sung with her before. She enjoyed singing and dancing and Luke enjoyed watching all the people. We have taken to calling Lucas "The Invisible Man" because he is so good and quiet all the time it's easy to forget that he's even there! During the art activity he slept and then woke up when the two year olds, who were completely obsessed with him, began poking and prodding and hugging him. He didn't cry once, even though Ellie's pal Andrea kept saying "Look at him eyes" and poking his eyeball with her finger. Actually now that I think about it, his eye has not been gooey AT ALL since about this time, so perhaps he just needed a good poke in the eye. Either that or Andrea has magical healing powers. Huh.
Uncle Kevin with Lucas, Abby, Milan and Ellie
Anyway, on Saturday, we headed over to Uncle Kevin's house for a family celebration. Ellie and her cousin Abby ran around and played with family friend Milan (who is 1) while Lucas sat there wide eyed sucking on his hand and taking in all the activity. Watching Milan toddle around and get into stuff made me a little nervous for Lucas entering that stage. I forgot how exhausting it is to chase around a new walker that doesn't understand danger quite yet! Ellie really enjoyed Uncle Kevin's neighborhood because I think pretty much every single house had Christmas lights and/or blow up decorations. For whatever reason, City Folk don't seem to be into the Christmas light thing, because there are very few houses in our neighborhood that have lights. So it was a special treat for Ellie to soak in the suburban Christmas light extravaganza.
Gram and Grandpa with Lucas and Ellie

On Sunday, we headed over to our neighbors house to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah with Ellie's frienemy Myles, his parents and some of our other neighbors and their kids (Lilly 5, Renny 2). The kids had a great time playing the dreidel game (although much to Jon's dismay, they were not quite old enough to play correctly but they seemed to enjoy playing their way!), eating latkas with applesauce, and singing songs and the adults had a great time sitting back and chatting while the kids played and entertained each other.


Amy snuggling with the kids
On Christmas Eve, we had Marty's family over for an evening of tree decorating, dinner and games. As a surprise for Marty's parents, we flew in Marty's sister Amy from San Diego to celebrate with us. It was the first time Amy has been home for Christmas in 12 years, so it was really fun to have her there. It was also a special treat for our kids - Amy got to meet Lucas for the first time, and of course she got to play non-stop with her buddy Ellie (they bonded this summer at the beach). They loved having her there as much as we did. After Ellie went to bed, Uncle Kevin and Marty began working on assembling the Rose Petal Cottage we got for Ellie for Christmas. It was one of those classic gifts that you struggle with for hours trying to put together on Christmas Eve, get obnoxiously frustrated and curse yourself for buying it (thank you so much Uncle Kevin!! Sorry!). It turned out really cute though and it was well worth it (maybe not for Kevin, but for us) because Ellie loves it and I think it will provide endless hours of entertainment.

I put Lucas down at midnight and Ellie woke up at 12:15 so congested she couldn't breathe. Marty and I slathered Vicks Vapo Rub on her, cleared out her nose with saline and then rocked and soothed her to try to get her to go back to sleep. She finally fell asleep a little after 2am...(to be continued)

A Few Christmas Pictures

Finding the Right Christmas Spirit

Our first Christmas where Elise sort of has an idea of what is going on is quickly approaching. Being the hippy weirdos that we are, Marty and I have been struggling with what to do about the Santa situation. We're not trying to be Scroogey about it, but the idea of purposely creating a big elaborate deception for your child seems just plain mean. Maybe I feel this way because I was crushed when I discovered the truth about Santa (in a very mean way mind you, thanks a lot Aaron!) so it seems like going out of your way to lie to and deceive your child is wrong and potentially soul crushing. On top of that, we don't want Christmas to be completely about getting stuff (which totally seems like the case these days). That being said, we don't want to be Bah-humbug and take away the fun of Christmas for our child. Getting stuff is fun. Believing in something magical, I guess if your brother doesn't ruin it for you and scar you for life, could be fun. Giving gifts to a 2 year old is fun. And obviously she is going to be exposed to Santa whether we talk about it or not. She is a pretty observant kid.

Ellie and Lucas with Sofia Rosati

So what we have decided to do is to introduce the idea of Santa, but not create a huge hoopla around it. We're going to emphasize the fact that he is an extremely generous person that loves giving gifts to children because it makes him happy to give and share - but we won't go to any extremes of pretending Santa came through our chimney or use Santa's gifts as a carrot for good behavior. We're just not going to make a huge deal about it and will see if she's even interested in the concept and take it from there.

Our little doll Lucas is finally bigger than Ellie's dolls - Tasha and Lauren

We want to make sure that in our household Christmas is about giving as much, if not more, than it is about getting. And Ellie (and Luke eventually) should see that giving can be wonderful and rewarding, and that making other people happy can make you happy. To drive home this point, this year we are involving Ellie in choosing, wrapping and giving gifts. (And yes, of course we are giving her gifts too - some from us, some from Luke and some from Santa - after all we love giving too!)

Marty and Ellie with our friend Audra and her daughter Sofia (8 months)

Last Saturday, we started to put this plan into action by taking her to Toys R Us to pick out a gift for Luke, a gift for her cousin Abby and a gift to donate to a toy drive. This was a potentially disastrous outing. First of all, Elise has never been to a toy store before and Toys R Us is a doozey of a store to start with. There are fun toys and temptation everywhere. Especially when you are not in a cart. Secondly, picking out something for Abby and Luke is concrete and she could probably understand that, but picking out something for "someone less fortunate" is a pretty abstract concept that she is probably too young to understand quite yet. Despite these obstacles, I am happy to report that we had an amazingly wonderful experience and it went even better than expected. She never cried or whined about us getting anything for her (though she did pick up a few things and say "maybe we could get this later" she always put it back on the shelf without further comment) and she never went crazy pulling things off selves, trying to open packages or running around like a madwoman (my three biggest fears about the trip).

Ellie w/the gifts she picked out

She wanted to get pretty much any and everything for Luke, but eventually picked out a very bizarre looking Glo-worm thing. I have since heard that babies do love these things so maybe she knew what she was doing. With a little bit of our guidance, she picked out a High School Musical school set for Abby. I was the most worried about her gift for "someone else" because she picked out a pink Little People bus. Ellie absolutely loves Little People and the Little People Bus is something that she would love to have and play with herself. We reminded her a few times in the store that it was not for her and did she think it was something that another child would like to play with and of course she was adamant that someone else would love it. Since we brought it home she has not asked to play with it (even though it's sitting under the tree) and while she sometimes puts the box in her lap and looks at it longingly, she's never tried to open it and she tells our guests that it's a gift for someone else. We are so proud of her! She is going to put it into the toy donation box at school later this week. Hopefully that goes equally as well.

This weekend, we are going to wrap presents together - Marty and I both got something for each other for her give to each of us. On Christmas Day, Marty and I are going to make a huge deal about loving the gift that she gives us so that she can see how happy giving can make other people. I think that it's going to work out really well, and I am happy that we decided to put this plan into action instead of just having her come down on Christmas Day and open a bunch of gifts and that's the end of it. We'll see how it actually works though. So far, Ellie has said that she wants a purple balloon and some blueberries for "Chriss-a-miss" so her expectations of receiving gifts are pretty low. We didn't get her tons of things, but I am pretty sure that she is going to love the things we did get her and that the whole thing is going to blow her mind since she is pretty much expecting to get some blueberries.

I am definitely feeling the Christmas spirit.

Growing Up, Moving On

My how time flies. It feels like I blink and my children have grown and changed in so many ways. This week both of the Molloy children demonstrated just how quickly they are growing up. I can hardly believe that we have a 2 1/2 year old and an 11 week old!

Lucas demonstrated that he truly loves his mother and cares about her sanity when he began consistently sleeping through the night (usually 11:30pm - 6:30 or 7am - 7-7/12 hours of sleep every night!!)! The early Christmas miracle began on Thursday and has shown no signs of fading (though because I am putting it in writing I am sure that he will wake up at like 4am tomorrow just to prove me wrong). After the second night, we decided that two days was enough of a pattern to move him into his own room. He's been sleeping in a cradle in our room, basically because I am lazy and walking to his room to feed him 2 or 3 times in the night did not seem appealing. But once he started showing that he has the ability to sleep through the night, we decided to go ahead and move him.

The next step is to move him from his cradle to the crib - we will probably give that a try later this week, but for now we're doing one thing at a time so as not to jinx the sleeping. It was a little bittersweet to move him out of our room - it's nice to have our own space back (helpful hint: if you have a small room, put a big piece of furniture in the middle of it for 11 weeks and then remove it and revel in how enormous your space actually is!) and not to have to worry about doing something to wake the baby in the night, but it is also sad because our little baby is growing up so quickly! Where have the last 11 weeks gone?!

Speaking of growing up, the other day Elise was sitting on the potty before bed and I was crouched on the floor waiting for her to finish up (using the potty before bed is her latest procrastination technique). She leaned into my shirt and pointed out that I had letters on it (it said Polo Ralph Lauren), then pointed to the first letter and said "That's P". I was surprised because while Ellie can recite the alphabet, I didn't think that she actually knew what the letters were individually. Maybe it was a lucky guess or she was just talking about the letter P at school. So I covered up the other letters and asked what the next one was. "O!" Right again. Ok, the next one. "L for Lucas." Um, seriously? When did my child learn this stuff? She then proceeded to rattle off more letters, a few of them with a word associated (a for apple, u for umbrella, e for "me"). I was getting more and more excited as she did it so she was getting really excited and smiling and so incredibly proud of herself. It was amazing. I think that she got all but one of the letters right. Of course, a few days later when I pointed to the letter S on something and asked her what letter it was she said "8" so obviously she doesn't have the whole thing down pat. But still I am amazed how quickly our little girl is growing up and how much she's learning everyday (without my even knowing!)

As for the Dairy Challenge update - it had mixed results. Luke's cradle cap actually got 100% better and his congestion issue did improve slightly. I actually didn't even realize that his congestion had gotten better until I started eating some things with dairy in them again and noticed how stuffy he became. Urgh. However, his eye is continuing to goo up like crazy - it's worse than ever and becoming somewhat of a problem. Every time he naps now his eye is gooed shut when he wakes up and while he's awake it's not sticking shut but is a continuous fountain of goo. I am not sure what to do about that - maybe I will check in with the pediatrician about it again. Anyway, I think that I am going to largely avoid dairy when possible, but not go crazy analyzing every ingredient of everything I put in my mouth, like I did with Elise. I think I am also going to try giving up eggs for a few days to see if that gets any results.

I go back to work next week (!!) but only for two days and then we're off until January 5th for the holiday break. My maternity leave went by so quickly and both kids continue to grow up and move on the the next big thing every single day.

Our Cheeky Monkey Ellie at 10 weeks- first 2 pics













Our Cheeky Monkey Luke at 10 weeks(3rd and 4th pictures)

Ellie-isms

Here are some more classic Ellie lines from the past few weeks:


Lately I have been talking with Ellie about the difference between boys and girls. Part of our nighttime ritual has been that we talk about all of the people in her life and say whether they are a boy or a girl. One night as I tuck Ellie in she says, "Tell me who is a girl."
I reply, "Why don't you tell me who is a girl?"
Ellie says "No you!"
so I say "Ok, how about I say one, then you say one."
Ellie thinks for a minute. "I'm busy. You go ahead."
"You're busy? What are you busy doing exactly?" to which she replies,
"I'm busy doing lots and lots of stuff. You go ahead and tell me."

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While playing, Ellie trips and falls down. Mommy asks if she is ok, to which Ellie replies, "I broke my crown!"
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Ellie leans into Luke in his swing and puts her face right up on his saying hi to him repeatedly. Oma tells Ellie to back up a little because he can't see you when you're that close to him. Ellie leans back and looks at Oma, then puts her face back into Luke's face and says, "You can't see me!"

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As I am walking with Ellie up the stairs at my parents house to put her down for a nap, I tell her "Opa will get you when you wake up from your nap." to which Ellie replies, "He's a nice guy."





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We're flipping through a magazine and Ellie points to a picture of Catherine Zeta Jones on the red carpet and says, "I don't want her to come to our house!" I don't know what she has against her, but I could promise Ellie with all sincerity that rest assured Catherine Zeta Jones will never come to our house.

2 Month Check-Up

On Friday, I took Lucas to the doctor for his 2 month well-baby check up. And it turns out that he is, indeed, well. He weighed 11lbs 7oz (50th percentile) and measured 22 1/2 inches long (25th percentile). He is also right on track with all of his developmental milestones (i.e. holding his head up, tracking objects, smiling, etc). I voiced our concern that he isn't really interested in toys - he doesn't bat at them or engage with them at all -the only thing he is interested in looking at is his bear mobile and people. The pediatrician said that this is often the case with second children - when they have something as fun and interesting to look at as their older sibling running around (and our energetic Ellie is certainly entertaining), silly little baby toys are totally boring. So that made us feel a whole lot better.
Ellie gives her brother a check up
Ever since the eye infection during his first week of life, Luke's eyes (mostly his left eye) have been a mucousy mess. His eye weeps almost constantly. It is not red or inflamed, just constantly weepy with mucous and/or tears. The doctor said that this is due to a blocked tear duct and there is nothing we can really do about it. We can massage it, which should help a little, but often children that have this problem continue to have it until they are at least one and the duct fully finishes developing. We also talked about his congestion - last week I decided that Luke couldn't just have a simple cold because he is congested all of he time. We're talking constantly. Some times are much worse then others, but I really don't think it's a cold. The doctor suggested using a humidifier to moisten the air, and to use saline solution when it gets bad. We also talked about his cradle cap, which looks gross and is making him bald, but is harmless. She suggested rubbing olive oil on his head several times a day to keep the scalp moist. I have not tried this yet, as it seems like it would be weird and smelly and make his head look oily and much more disgusting than a flaky scalp. Maybe it's something I will try later if it really starts to get out of hand.

That's when she broke the news...she said the combination of the severity of his eye goo, the severity of his cradle cap and the congestion issue means that he could have...that's right...a dairy allergy! I kid you not. I nearly fell over and died right then and there. She suggested that I give up dairy for a few days - if all of these issues get extremely better then dairy could be exacerbating all of these problems. If there isn't any significant improvement then I can go ahead and put dairy back in my diet.

I have to admit that it is extremely hard to muster up the will power to give up dairy again. It was a little different with Ellie because she was in extreme abdominal pain, had a head to toe itchy rash, horrible eczema and was totally uncomfortable and unhappy. Luke just has a gooey eye, a stuffy nose and a flaky scalp - all things that don't seem to bother him in the least. So I was going to do this 3 day no dairy test over the weekend, but we had too many things in the fridge with dairy in them and I feel like I need a little more mental preparation before I dive into the dairy free life again. I know it's just three days and it probably seems selfish to not just do it, but I feel like I need to be prepared to give dairy up completely if he does, in fact, have the allergy and I am just not quite ready yet. I am going to start on Monday though, so wish me luck!

I'd had so many saved up questions for our pediatrician that it actually slipped my mind that it was also crazy amounts of shots day. Luke received FIVE vaccinations (three in one leg, two in the other) as well as an oral roto virus vaccination (the taste of which did not impress him and he spit a large percentage out. Hopefully that does not mean that he could still get the roto virus). I'd forgotten how horrible it is to witness your baby getting shots. Not that it's all roses and lilies to take a 2 year old in for shots, but at least you can explain to a 2 year old what's going on and prepare her for the event. Little babies just scream and cry and stare at you with sad, begging eyes that say "Why are you letting this person hurt me!? Make it stop!" And you never really get used to seeing your child screaming and bleeding, even if you are actually doing something good for them. But his anger was short lived. He was a little crabby and sleepy (sleepier than usual which is pretty sleepy) the rest of the day, but by Saturday morning he was back to his normal self.

And then in two more months we get to go and do it all again!

Thanksgiving(s)

This week was full of all sorts of Thanksgiving festivities for the whole family and we celebrated the heck out of this holiday. Good thing I absolutely adore turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie! It all began on Tuesday, when Ellie's school had a Thanksgiving feast. I (was) volunteered to cook the turkey, so Luke and I took on the task on on Monday. (Luke was really not that much help). On Tuesday morning, I took Ellie into school, then came back to the house to carve the turkey and make gravy (because it's much easier to do without a two year old under foot) and then turned around and took it back up to school (all the while carting a sleeping Luke with me). It was a little hectic, but in the end it worked out well. I was supposed to stay and help serve the kids but there were already a ton of helpers and not much room for all of the extra people so Luke and I were dismissed.

Apparently Ellie had a fabulous time and even tried lots of foods that she doesn't normally eat. When she got home, she told me that she ate "turkey and ketchup" and then she said she had "carrots and ketchup". I thought that it was completely disgusting that they would even offer ketchup to eat with turkey and carrots, but it turns out that "ketchup" was actually cranberry sauce. And man can my girl pound down some cranberry sauce! I think we found her new favorite food.


On Wednesday, Luke and I cooked yet another turkey (this time with the help of my parents and both Luke and I weren't much help) and went to the Thanksgiving feast at the school where Marty and I work. (Ellie went to spend the day and night at Oma and Opa's house.) Everyone at work was very excited to meet Luke, and Marty and I showed him off proudly (many of the students commented that they'd never seen a baby with "orange hair" before). All of the students and their kids were there eating and dancing and laughing, so it was loud and chaotic...but Lucas slept through the entire thing. For about three hours he snoozed while he was being passed around from co-worker to co-worker in rooms with tons of people and blasting music. He certainly did not get the light sleeper gene!
The kids with their second cousin Cassin
On Thursday, Marty, Luke and I headed down to my Aunt Lanny and Uncle Floyd's house where we met up with Oma, Opa, Ellie and my dad's side of the family. Ellie once again indulged in lots of cranberry sauce and she also tried both the apple cranberry pie and the pumpkin pie. Both of the pies had dairy in them, but she seemed to think that the resulting rash was worth it. Many of the members of my family got to meet Lucas for the first time, and Ellie got to play with her second cousin Cassin which was really fun.



On Saturday we had our final Thanksgiving celebration of the week, this time with Marty's family. We had a lovely evening hanging out and Ellie had a particular blast spending time with her cousin Abby, whom she completely adores. On the way home on Saturday night, Marty said to Ellie "Did you have fun at Thanksgiving at Gram and Granpas house?" and Ellie responded "I had pie!!"

I think that says it all.

Hair and Noses

As I have mentioned (and as you have seen) Elise has been "follicle challenged" pretty much since birth. A few months ago she started growing hair like wildfire...in the back (she still does not have enough hair on top to make a pony tail or to hold back with a barrette). Unfortunately the hair she was growing was growing first like a mullet and then like a straggly rat tail. Marty and I discussed cutting off her rat tail, but I have to admit I was hesitant to do so. When your child only has a very limited amount of hair and everyone constantly thinks she's a boy it seems mean spirited to chop off what little hair she actually does have. In the end, Marty finally convinced me that it would be better for our child to have no hair than to have a rat tail. He was right, but I now understand the old men that are bald with pony tails i.e. Michael Bolton. When you have little hair on top it's hard to part with what's working for you in the back.

Anyway, a few weeks ago after bath time, Marty unceremoniously chopped off Ellie's rat tail, thus giving her her very first haircut! I must admit, it does look much better - she looks less like a redneck and it brings out her adorable curls. People think that she's a boy just about the same amount that they did before (all the time) so it doesn't really make a difference on that front. I don't think she'll ever be recognized as a girl until she gets a pony tail or a barrette, no matter how much pink she wears.

Speaking of boys, Lucas has developments in the hair department as well. Actually it's not developments so much as it is hair loss. Lucas was born with a full, thick head of reddish-blond hair that has now begun to fall out at an alarming rate. It's not that I am finding tufts of hair in his crib or in the drain of his baby tub, but his hairline has receded to the point where he looks like a middle aged man and it's thinned out to the point you can see his scalp. Just when I thought we were going to have a child with hair! He has also developed a mean case of cradle cap (in his hair and eyebrows!!) which may be what's leading to the hair loss. Luckily it doesn't seem to bother him.

Gram and Lucas
Last week, both Ellie and Luke had colds. They were both in pretty good spirits despite not really being able to breathe. (I, on the other hand, got their cold and was completely miserable.) If you do not have a child you don't really understand what it is like when a child has a cold. You see a child with a runny nose - whether it's fresh or crusted - and you think "that is so gross - why don't they wipe that kids nose?!" I know that you think this. I thought this too. And then I had a child and now I get it. You DO wipe the child's nose. A bazillion times a day. But 1 nano second after you wipe it, there is more. And 70% of the time (or more if you have a particularly feisty child) wiping your child's nose it is an out and out battle. And the frustrating thing is that it's a battle you can never win because even if you DO get a good wipe, the clean nose only lasts for a few seconds. Then it starts all over again.

Ellie has started to want to wipe her own nose (often voluntarily on her own), which is nice, but it usually just means that she just sort of wipes the mucus across her cheek and it makes more of a mess than if her nose just ran uninterrupted. And we are grateful when she actually picks up a tissue to complete the task. In an effort efficiently tend to her faucet nose, she'll do quick wipes with her hand, her sleeve or - my personal favorite - my clothes. Preventing this from happening takes a lot of nagging and still doesn't make much of a difference. Having a toddler with a cold certainly keeps you on your toes.

But having an infant with a cold is interesting too. His nose doesn't run, he just gets very congested. And unfortunately not being able to breathe through his nose gets in the way of his two favorite activities - sleeping and eating. I feel so bad for him when he has to take little breaks while eating so that he can breath through his mouth.

He'd gotten 100% better (completely congestion free for several days) and then the other night in the middle of the night (of course) he woke up at 2am so congested he couldn't breathe at all and struggled for a little over two hours. I tried everything I could think of to ease his congestion, and in the end I am not really sure which of the 50 things I tried actually worked but he eventually was able to breathe again and got back to sleep. In the morning and next day (and since then) he hasn't had any other congestion issues so Marty and I are wondering if maybe that severe congestion was unrelated to the cold he had last week and perhaps instead some sort of allergic reaction. The only thing I'd had that was different from the usual was that that night I'd shared a beer with Marty. But the jury is still out as to whether it was a reaction or just a random two hour congestion. If he does have an issue with beer - well that is certainly something I can avoid and hopefully he'll be avoiding until much, much later in life anyway.
Oma and Opa with the kids
I have a feeling that these first colds of the season are only the tip of the iceberg of a long winter of lots of illnesses for all of us! So many nasal adventures to come...