My little piggies...

Hi there everyone! Hope you're doing well. Things around here aren't overly exciting. The highlight of my week was learning to blow bubbles in my bathtub water without inhaling and choking. Amazing... I know. I was also inspired by my cousin Hailey to try out a new hairstyle. Yes, I've graduated to pigtails. That's pretty much one step closer to my driver's license.

The weather here has been fairly warm (close to 100F) and I've enjoyed playing in the inflatable pool bought for me by Aunt Christie and Uncle Scott (thanks, you guys, for my Toys R Us gift card). Here's a pic of Daddy joining me in the pool. I wanted to tell him that he might be a little big for my pool but he seemed to be enjoying himself and I just didn't have the heart to kick him out. Anyway, I hope your week has been filled with pigtails and whale pools too!

Learning new things every day...

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing great! This has been a full week so far and I'm learning new things every day. I'm finally starting to understand the sign language that Mommy has been showing me. Now, instead of just screaming at Mommy for food, I can show her the sign for "more". And instead of screaming at her to let me out of the high chair, I can show her the sign for "all done". That's not to say that I don't scream at her anymore, because that's too fun. I've also learned how to have a really good tantrum. Two days ago Mommy took something away from me that I wanted so I threw myself down on the floor, cried and rolled around. And when Mommy ignored me and went to the other room, I followed her and threw myself down again at her feet. Mommy laughed! Didn't she understand the breadth and depth of my emotion at that time? So I gave up... for now...

I've also learned how bad cigarettes are for you. We have a guest staying at our house and he smokes when he's not around us. I snuck into his room and found his cigarette pack. Mommy thought I was being a little "too quiet" and found me sitting on the floor with cigarettes all around me and one sticking out of my mouth. She freaked out at first, but later mentioned that she wished she had at least gotten a picture first. It's not like I was going to take the habit up. It wasn't lit and it didn't taste that great anyway!

And today I got to go to the water spray park with Keilani and her mom (Auntie Faye). We had tons of fun! Keilani is 1 month older than me and really smart. I'm hoping she can teach me how to roar like a lion just like she does! Here's a few pictures of our time together, including a photo of me enjoying my first experience with sand. All I have to say is that sand feels really cool falling between your fingers, but it sure tastes horrible. Anyway, Keilani and I are going to try and get together every Thursday afternoon to play so that gives me (and Mommy) a break each week! Yay!

Play dates a plenty...

Hi everyone! It has been one week since my last confession... I mean blog posting. Last week began with a couple days of recovery from my birthday hangover (mmmm... frosting...), but that was short lived and Mommy & I quickly got bored. So she sent out a panicky email to some of the other moms for some much needed social interaction. We quickly had three play dates organized and a Saturday night dinner with Paige & Oscar! I don't know who was happier - me or Mommy? Otherwise life has been relatively boring, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

The only caveat to the fore-mentioned boredom is in regards to my sleep. My next two teeth are coming in and I'm having a horrible time sleeping. Mommy is starting to mumble things about me becoming an only child. That's fine with me... it just saves me from having to show any new kid who's boss.

In closing, I thought I'd end with another dance video primarily because it's just so much fun. Here I am enjoying yet another Great Big Sea tune, a remake of R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It". Great song...

My birthday week comes to an end...

Hi everyone... Well, I thoroughly enjoyed the grand finale of my birthday WEEK yesterday, when we had 37 people over for my birthday party. Mom and Dad set up a sprinkler, wading pool and slip-n-slide, and everyone had a blast. I was a little overwhelmed at first by all the people, but after shoving a piece of cake down my throat I loosened right up! Thank you so much to everyone who joined in the festivities. I really appreciated you coming over to celebrate. Mommy enjoyed herself so much that she's already thinking about planning her next big party. Daddy on the other hand needs a little more time to recuperate. Anyway, here's some pictures from the shindig. First of all, here's my cake and me enjoying a piece of it!

Also, here's some pictures of my friends enjoying themselves in our backyard. The first picture is Hailey trying to decide whether or not to brave the slip-n-slide, and figuring that sliding through the jaws of a shark just wasn't appealing. Then there's a picture of Tristan enjoying the pool and Tommy tossing around the beach balls.

Verbal insights from Molly

Hi there! Well, as this is my first birthday WEEK, I figured it was high time to share with you some of my insights verbally. So far, all my communication with you has been written, but today I wish to amaze you with the depth of my knowledge through spoken word. Enjoy!

Why can't birthdays be EVERY day?

Hi everyone. For those of you who didn't get to see yesterday's blog, please be sure to scroll down and read it. Something tells me that this is going to be a busy week for my blog, because it's my birthday WEEK! That's right - why should a birthday be confined to one day? I figure that with multiple celebrations I can enjoy a birthday WEEK! Yesterday was fabulous. Mommy made me a semi-healthy birthday cake. It was a carrot cake made with pureed carrots (i.e. - baby food), some whole wheat flour and no raisins or nuts (thanks to my allergies). The health factor was pretty much demolished with the cream cheese frosting though... yummy... She also made me a special pasta casserole birthday dinner that was awesome! After dinner me and Mommy and Daddy enjoyed my cake and opened presents. It was really nice to just celebrate with our little family, especially considering Saturday is going to be a much larger party. Anyway, for those of you who aren't able to be here to celebrate with us (e.g. - pretty much all of our extended family in other cities and countries), here is a condensed video of yesterday's festivities. Love you!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Hi everyone! Today is my birthday! As of 1:30 this afternoon I am officially one year old! Daddy sang "Happy Birthday" to me when I first woke up. Then Mommy sang it to me. Then Nani and Papa called and sang it to me over the phone. All this before 8:00 in the morning! I could seriously get used to this! On this special day, I would like to summarize the top five things I have learned over this last year of my life:

5. Sleep is for the weak.
4. Big people food is WAY better than the mush they try and feed babies.
3. Cheerios are the way to happiness.
2. Cardboard melts in your mouth... not in your hands.
1. Mommy and Daddy would do ANYTHING for me (except let me play in the toilet)!

Anyway, yesterday Isabelle's mommy (Auntie DeAnna) took some photos of me to commerate the first year of my birth. She did the pics as my birthday present and they turned out great. (Thanks Auntie Dee Dee!) But, I'm starting to think that I may need to hire myself a modelling agent the way everyone is constantly snapping my picture. At least that way I might get some royalties out if it! Anyway, here's a few of my birthday pics! Enjoy!

Having a HOT Independence Day!

Hi there everyone and happy belated 4th of July. This was my first 4th of July ever, and let me tell you that it was a hot one. Sacramento reached 105F (40.6C) yesterday! Once you get over 100F, it's pretty much all miserable though. So to celebrate the holiday, we went to the river with some friends to try and stay cool. The water was totally refreshing and with multiple dosings of sunscreen and some shade next to the beach we all prevented overheating. Eben's Daddy BBQ'ed for everyone (thanks Uncle Pete) and I had fun playing with all my friends. But the highlight for me was sorting through all the rocks on the beach with Daddy. There were brown ones and white ones and beige ones. Big ones and little ones. I made sure to taste every single one of them so I would get lots of extra minerals in my diet! Yay! Anyway, here's some pictures of me and my friends at the beach. They're not the best photos because of the glaring sun, but you get the idea. Take care!

There's no place like home...

Hi everyone! We made it safely home last night. I had a WONDERFUL trip to southern California, although I must admit that I'm sure happy to be home in my own bed. Anyway, a lot happened this trip so let's see how concisely I can summarize the events!

Our first night in Long Beach was really exciting. We didn't get to our hotel until 10:00 at night, and the first thing I noticed was that Mommy and Daddy weren't going to be able to fit my playpen into the bathroom. I was going to get to sleep in the same room as them! My first sleepover! I stayed up until 1:00 in the morning talking to them and laughing (much to their dismay). Mommy and Daddy were really upset, and I don't really understand why they weren't into our late-night sleepover as much as I was. Anyway, the next day I wasn't able to see Grandpa and Grandma van Riessen like planned because Grandpa was ill (hope you're feeling better Grandpa). So Mommy and I went to the aquarium while Daddy was at his seminars. I loved the aquarium! There must be a trillion different kinds of fish! But the highlight for me had feathers, not scales. They had a aviary with lorakeets in it. I could get sooooo close to these birds but Mommy kept me just far enough away so I couldn't grab one (which was really annoying).

The next day we went to Grandma and Grandpa Belknaps house, which followed up with a trip to the San Diego Zoo! I thought the Long Beach Aquarium was cool, but the zoo was a quadrillion times cooler. And it was soooo huge that we didn't even come close to seeing everything there after being there for 5 hours! I ended up seeing some of the exhibits through closed eyelids because I was exhausted! The highlights of the trip included seeing the baby monkeys, and watching Mommy and Daddy get attacked by a rather large bird in one of the aviaries.

The trip thus far had been fabulous, but we got to end our vacation with another visit from Hailey, Uncle Scott and Aunt Christie! The first night they were there, we went to the park to burn off some energy. Hailey couldn't control her excitement to be out of the car after their long drive, and she just ran and ran and ran. And Uncle Scott got out his new trick kite and we watched him fly loop-d-loops. He let Daddy try flying it and he put it into a nose drive and hit Auntie Christie with it. He said it was an accident, but I know the truth...

Finally, on the day we left, we got to celebrate Hailey's first birthday! She even shared her some of her individually made bug cakes with me. Neither of us had ever eaten cake before, but it didn't take long for us both to get the hang of it! I can't wait for us to chow down on some more cake in a week and a half when Hailey will be here for my birthday party! Yay!

Anyway, sorry this is such a long posting, but so much has happened that I just can't contain my excitement! Hope you are all having as fabulous a week as I am. Also, happy "day after" Canada Day to all my Canadian homies! We were thinking of you yesterday!