Magnents and Play Dough

Poor Molly has a hard time each day.  I spend a lot of my day telling her "not now" or "stop" so I have been trying really hard to give her things to do while we do school work each day.

Lately Molly has been enamored with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book.  I have been reading it often and she has been requesting the DVD as well.  One day while exploring the game closet she found a bag full of magnetic letters.  She quickly added them to the fridge and was singing  "a told b and b told c, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree" but of course her version was more "a..b... up coconut tree".

Later in the week I went to a Relief Society craft night and came home with a new nativity magnet set to play on the fridge. Molly has had a good time rearranging them on the fridge, the dishwasher and I even found Mary and Joseph on the oven at one point.

This one will stay on the fridge for awhile.  And so far it has kept her busy while I make dinner.

And for the first time in my life I actually made play dough.  I don't know how cost effective it is since the recipe I used called for Cream of Tarter and that stuff is expensive especially if you need a quarter cup of it. But the play dough was so smooth and it was nice to only have one color.  My kids all loved playing with it especially since I had just cooked it and it was still warm.

I broke out all the play dough toys too. That isn't something I do often. I just hate having to clean up the play dough mess.

Maybe play dough will have to be our new Rainy day activity. I know my kids love it and I do have a very nice big batch of bright pink dough now.

Plenty for all to have a large blob.

 

I know Molly would love to play with it everyday but I don't know if I am up for that yet. 

If you need a good Play dough recipe, this is what I did.

2 cups water

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1/4 cup Cream of tarter

1/4 cup oil

food coloring or even paint (I just used food coloring)

Heat on the stove in a large pot. Fold the flour over and over making sure the bottom is pulled up to the top. After about 5 min. it should be stiff and well mixed.  Dump it out on a floured counter and kneed it (when it is cool enough to touch) for awhile until very smooth.  Then play and play.

Keep in a air tight container and it should stay moist for a number of months.

I am trying to keep Molly better occupied while I help the others with school. It isn't easy and she often gets pushed aside and as a result she is rather crabby so I am trying to make sure she gets read to and played with each day but also that she is given things to do while I am needed elsewhere.

Another Trip to the ER

It is never easy to be a mom.  There are so many things to do all the same time.  Today after church I got to work on dinner.  We were all hungry and Molly was tired since on Sundays she misses her nap due to afternoon church right at the normal nap time.  So she was a bit cranky and underfoot while I was cooking up some spaghetti.  I had just browned some beef and had drained the grease into a little throwaway cup and was busy making the sauce when I heard Molly behind me start to scream. I turned and there she was with the hot liquid all over her face and chest.  I am usually so careful with hot items on the stove and such but somehow I left that little cup of drippings too close to the edge of the counter and this little curious girl got her hands on it.  I quickly pulled her dress off (I am still hoping her dress isn't ruined) and called my husband to help put her in a cool bath. I didn't know what else to do.  While he bathed her she continued to scream and scream. I called the ask a nurse to see what else we could do and she recommended we take her to the ER. So we left our unfinished spaghetti to sit on the stove (turned off of course) and headed to the hospital.  Poor little Molly screaming the whole way. I think we hit every light red on the way there!

The doctor said she has mostly just a first degree burn but a few places where she has a slight 2nd degree burn. I consider this lucky. Her face was bright red and her chest was scarlet with a few places where the blisters has formed and popped leaving some loose skin. (Sorry to be so graphic).

The whole time in the hospital Molly kept begging to "go home".  She didn't want anyone to touch her and she didn't want anything to do with anything the nurses or doctors brought her. She wouldn't even take a lick of the popsicle that they offered her.  They put some ointment on the raw spots on her chest and tried to put a bandage on her but she grabbed it off and fought the nurse when she tried to reapply it.  Molly really just wanted to go home. We did force down some Motrin and we were sent home. Molly conked out on the way home. All the screaming did her in.

After returning home she woke up and seemed back to her normal self. She ate the rewarmed spaghetti and even had a cup of chocolate milk before we sent her off to bed. I am really hoping she sleeps well.

I think Molly and I learned a lesson with this incident. I will be MUCH more diligent about keeping hot items out of reach and hopefully Molly has learned not to be too curious.  I feel like the man with the yellow hat telling George to not be curious.  Of course she will be curious but maybe,  just maybe she will have the memory of this burn to help her pause and think about grabbing things from up on the counter.  I know this will be etched into my memory so each time I ever "drain the fat" it will be placed well out of reach.

I am sure Molly will be fine, thank goodness.  Her face and chest aren't even red anymore (maybe it was all that screaming that was really causing her to be so red.  I reapplied the ointment just before putting her to bed and it was only the few bad patches that were still angry.  She really does need a good bath.  She still smells like grease.

Our Youngest Pupil

Molly is a girl who knows her mind.  She is a very different girl that Sophie was at her age.  Molly is very feminine.  She loves to wear dresses and gets so mad at me when I pick out an outfit with pants.  She also insists on nightgowns.  She doesn't appreciate the warm footed pajamas that I have had for all the other kids.  I have made her a few more nightgowns out of old receiving blankets.  Those have turned out to be a great place to find some flannel that was just sitting on the shelf.

This is one lively little girl. She keeps us very busy and keeps us entertained.

Molly often raids the dress up box and finds the skirts that Sophie has collected from a few years of ballet. The pink sparkly one is her favorite.  In fact when you ask her what her favorite color is she will tell you "Pink".

Molly also really loves dolls. This is a big change from my other kids. Sophie always loved animals but was never that interested in dolls. (Until she got excited about American Girl dolls). So all my old Cabbage Patch Kids have come out and are actually getting played with from time to time.

While we do our school work and often during FHE games Molly breaks out the Pretty Pretty Princess game.  She loves putting on all the necklaces and earrings.  We don't play the game, we just put on all the jewelry.

This is one of the nightgowns I made out of a receiving blanket. I kept the crocheted edging along the bottom.  Molly doesn't even mind the green color because of the cute ruffle on the bottom.

The last few months we have seen great changes in her communication.  Molly used to sign a lot and now I sort of miss all her cute signs. (She still uses the sign for cheese a lot because that is her favorite food and sometimes I don't let her have yet another cheese stick so she thinks if she signs it along with scream "cheese" at me that I might give in. ) She is a talker now!

She sings too. She has loved Popcorn Popping and Once there was a Snowman for a long time. She used to just act them out while we sang. Now she is singing along. I heard her last night singing I am a Child of God.  I know they sing this one in nursery every week.  We haven't sung this one a whole lot at home lately as we  have been going through the ones for the primary program. It is so cute to hear her little voice sing this song!

Despite her girly tendencies this little lady can get down and dirty. She loves to get outside and play in the dirt and mud. At the park she goes straight to the water and sand areas.  She may be feminine and loves all things pink and pretty but she doesn't let that interfere with her desire to explore everything around her.

We are so lucky to have her in our home.

Seniora Castafiore

That very first day, while still in the hospital, I knew that Molly was a singer, a soprano. She was reaching the high notes quite easily. I remember telling my kids that we were bringing home Seniora Castafiore. If anyone has read the Tin Tin comic books Graphic Novels, they know of whom I am talking. My kids knew exactly who that was and laughed. But the singing came home and it has stayed.  Seniora Castafiore lives on in my little girl.

I have never had mild children that just sit in their strollers and look at the world around them. Mine have all let me know, right off, that that was not going to happen. They all have climbed out of grocery carts, run wild through the library, climbed to the top of every slide and shoot down before they could even walk. They are all experts at pitching a fit if they don't get to do whatever it is that strikes their fancy. I don't know if it just because I am getting older and more tired. Or if it is because I have three other kids that I am also having to deal with but Molly seems to top them all. Her fits are even harder for me to deal with. A lot of it has to do with the high pitched screech she uses whenever I try to steer her away from whatever she has decided she must do.

Today a lady at the library stared at me like I was crazy  or worse because I was strapping my screaming 18 month old in her stroller. Molly was doing her best impersonation of Sra. Castafiore yet. The staring lady came up to me and asked if she (Molly) needed anything. I told her, while trying to catch my breath, "No nothing, she just needs to be locked in her stroller so she wont play in the water fountain or head down the stairs anymore."  The lady didn't know how to respond to this I guess because she just quickly went back to browsing for picture books for the child that must have still been off at school. She was there childless during school hours, so I guess couldn't relate to my situation. Molly, thank goodness, quieted down a bit and we packed up our books and checked out as quickly as we could. We tend to be ruled by how long Molly will allow us to stay at any one place. Which in reality is more... How long Mom can stay sane while playing, chasing and keeping Molly out of trouble.

I admit I loose my cool now and again. My patience for this type of thing varies from day to day. And some days it is all I can do to just make it to the car and go home.  I am embarrassed to say on Monday I left the doctors office in tears because both Molly and I had been waiting for so long we were both shaking. Once the tears started I left and she never did get the shots she was supposed to get that day. I am usually a patient person who is understanding when it comes to waiting my turn. But waiting for an hour and a half for shots with a 18 month old who is tired and ready for a nap is a little too much for any Mom to take.

On this day it was stairs and water fountains that she wanted to play in too. But we had to stay in the waiting room to hear our name when it was called and Molly would have nothing to do with the waiting room after about 15 min or waiting. I didn't blame her.  Gross, germ infested toys that are already overrun with kids playing with them isn't my cup of tea either.

And now we are sick. I have a sore throat and my ear is popping which tells me I am getting a cold. Molly's nose is running and Ian has been wiping a bit of stuff on his sleeve today. Gotta love the Well Check appointments at the doctor that make my healthy kids, and me sick.

Maybe that is my problem today. It is the cold talking and not just my lack of patience. All I know is that each time Castafiore starts singing I just want to head to my room and shut the door. It doesn't help really. I can still hear her but at least there is a door between us.

My Little One

One of the things that has been taking up a lot of my time is this little one.  I know I post pictures of her all the time and she is very cute. She is also my constant companion. When I sit down to read a story to the kids she is right there hitting the book out of my hands. If I try to read my own book she quickly decides she needs a drink or a diaper change or has made a mess that I need to clean up.  If I sit down to practice the piano she is right there hitting the keys and screeching to be allowed her playing time.

We keep hoping the screeching and the desire to play the piano will pay off one day and she will be a great musician. For now we often call her "Seniora Castafiore", who is the opera singer from the Tintin books. This screech must be good for something. She doesn't seem to be growing out of it. It is growing with her and she is using it quite often. Perhaps when there are words the high pitched vocals will subside but for now they are always there and always very nerve wracking.

Molly loves to get into everything too. She is constantly rearranging my cupboards. My pots and bowls are banged about and filled with all the treasures she finds in the pantry.  Oh, the pantry is her absolute favorite place to play. She can find bottles of all shapes and sizes there. For some reason she likes to carry around the big bottle of vinegar while making sounds like a weight lifter.

Last night she sat on my kitchen floor and played with some steal cut oats for a good 20 min. I was busy grinding up wheat and rice to make flour as well as watching a pot of oats that I was cooking to go in oatmeal bread. Molly got a hold of the oats and dumped out a bunch. My first reaction was to get peeved but then I thought about how easy it was going to be to clean up. Just a quick sweep and all would be well again. Even her clothes wouldn't be covered with anything, they would brush off and all would be swell. So I let her play.

 

She made oatmeal angels laying on the floor and swinging her arms and legs through the oats. She picked them up and put them in the bowls and then dumped them out again. She would have stayed longer but I was done and needed to move on to other things. I will have to remember steal cut oats as a good "clean" fun mess for her to play in. Luckily she didn't have that much in the can to dump out. 

So yes, Molly keeps me busy.  Maybe I am just getting old.

Girls and Free Time

Sophie was in distress this afternoon when she couldn't find her How to Draw Animals book. She had gotten it off the shelf and couldn't remember where she had left it. This book along with her sketch book are often busy together.  When she doesn't have anything pressing to do this is usually what she chooses to do with her spare time.

Today, after she found the book, she spent a good amount of time laying on the floor drawing and drawing while I was reading my book, Molly napped, and the boys played outside. She goes outside to play a lot but evidently today she had something in mind that she wanted to do and luckily the other kids were out of the way so she could accomplish it.

Henry got a new Webkinz pet for his Birthday.  When I saw it I thought it was a duck bill platypus but Sophie said it was called a google and was a duck of some kind. So today she dug out her animal encyclopedia (She keeps it by her bed for a little late night reading) and looked up platypus. She went to work drawing, labeling and writing about a platypus in her sketchbook.

When she was finished she spent a lot of time telling me all about what she learned. I knew they were mammals but laid eggs. She told me all about these very different mammals.

I love it when she learns new things just because she loves learning and not just because I tell her to do it. This was completely unprompted and at her whim.  Her drawings are getting really good too.

This is what Molly does with her time.

She loves to play with my pots, pans, and bowls that are in one of the lower cabinets. I feel like I am always putting my bowls back where they belong. She has been exploring other cabinets lately to see what fun things they hold. This was a particularly good day because I was distracted making bread.  She got her hands into the forbidden cabinet where the flour, sugar and other baking supplies call home. Good thing the flour bucket was almost empty or else I would have had a much bigger mess to deal with.