Kate's 2 Month Stats

I took Kate in for her 2 month well baby check-up and vaccinations and couldn't believe that she weighed nearly 13 pounds (12 pounds 14.5 ounces to be exact)!! Launa weighed that much when she was six months old. Kate is chubby to say the least. :) She was 24 inches long so she's in about the 90th percentile for both weight and height, I think. Evidently Mark's genetics are kicking in.

Kate Estelle Mollotte

We were blessed to welcome our sweet "Kate Estelle" into the world on September 2, 2009 at 4:53 am. She weighed 6 pounds 13.8 ounces and was 20 inches long. When she was born she came out and wasn't crying. I thought something might be wrong, but she was just pretty mellow. Thus far, she still seems pretty easy going. I forgot how much love you have for a newborn baby and how sweet they really are. It is like falling in love, only with a lot less sleep. :) I took one look at her and said, wow, she looks like her Dad. She has his head shape and a ton of dark brown hair and a definite Mollotte nose and chin, but as time goes on, she may have inherited some Jenks traits -- maybe my big lips and blue eyes. The best part is that her big sister can't get enough of her. Sometimes it's enough to make me crazy, but it is endearing. Launa is her ultimate protector and doesn't like any other kids holding her baby sister. When the baby cries, Launa comes and gets me immediately yelling "Baby Kate crying... hurry Mommy, rapido!" My favorite is that when they go for car rides Launa wants to hold her hand and when Kate cries, Launa tries to talk sweet to her and tells her "Oh Katie-Cat, it's okay sweetheart." I need to get it on video because it does warm my heart. Mark is also quite smitten with our latest addition. He even asks to hold her when he comes home. As far as adjusting goes, the first two weeks were fantastic. Launa's allergies have flared, the adrenaline is gone, and now I wake up in the middle of the night loopty and not remembering where the baby is (when she's in her crib). Thank goodness my mother is just down the road and my sister-in-law is nearby because that has made coping about a million times better.

My sister-in-law, Jen, who just moved here took pictures of Kate & Launa that I think turned out fantastic. She does photography as a hobby/little side business so if anyone's interested she does excellent picture taking & editing!! Seriously, how many pictures have you seen of Launa smiling with her teeth?! Anyway, so these are Baby Kate's first pictures & Launa's 2 1/2 year old pictures. Enjoy!

Here She Comes...

Mark has Launa for a little while because I'm in "crazy nesting mode" as he calls it so while I had a minute, I thought I'd update the blog. I'm officially going in to have baby #2 (affectionately known as Baby Kate) on Tuesday. I've never been induced before so I'm a little nervous and have been trying all the usual methods to go on my own, but I still don't even feel close, so who knows? I'm so excited to see her and bring her home, but also know that in about a week, I'll want to put her back for a couple nights and sleep. :) Launa has been folding the baby clothes, laying out the burp cloths and singing lullabies for awhile so she's pretty excited. I can even hear her changing her baby dolls diapers and saying "that's disgusting Baby Kate!" That she gets from my brother with a 9 month old. :)

My sweet niece, Hunter, takes the best pictures and sent a couple to me. I love the one of her and Launa and also Launa with the sunglasses exudes a little of her spunky attitude so I love that as well. My Dad says that she does everything with such purpose, I can't think about her antics and not smile. She is truly one of a kind. We're anxious to see what her baby sister will be like, and we'll keep you posted!

Launa 2 1/2 Year Snapshots

At Least She's Not a Liar...

Last night, I tried to use our DVD/VCR player and discovered that there were some major problems. While I was fishing out about 6 cannon & horse pieces from the Risk board game along with a few DVDs, Launa asked what I was doing. When I told her that SOMEBODY had stuffed the game pieces in the DVD player and now it wouldn't work, she told me cheerily, "Yes Mommy, Launa do it." What can I say? She is definitely not a liar:). This is the conversation we had last week after I discovered that she had got the board games out and scattered all the tiny pieces all over the place...

Me: Launa, why in the world did you throw these pieces everywhere? (this is after I had scrubbed the yogurt out of the carpet and cleaned up jam handprints from the kitchen floor)
Launa: Because I'm naughty.

She says it happily and sing-songy. How do I respond to that? It's hard for me not to laugh. Two nights ago, she plugged my bathroom sink with about 30 napkins. When I found her, she told me "Mom, it's okay. Daddy fix it."

When she is refusing to get in her carseat and I'm threatening for Mean Mommy to rear her head, she happily tells me "Be nice Mommy - where's happy face?"

Update...

I should apologize for the lengthy update, but my baby will most likely be born by the next time I update, so I have to get all my information in on one shot while I am somewhere with high-speed internet!

The Mollotte Grandkids on Mother's Day

Mother's Day picture -- pretty sure I'm due for a hair cut & color!

Launa & her cousin, Alexa on Easter

Where to start... since I've started updating my blog every two months, I have a lot to include for the records. First of all, IT'S A GIRL!!! Most of you probably already know by now, but we are expecting a girl in <4>

Easter was kind-of a let down this year. We had an Easter egg hunt at my Aunt Mary's. We took my grandparents and Launa was a tyrant the entire way there. She kept kicking my Grandpa (who had to sit in the back with us) and yelling at him. It was embarrassing. By the time we finally got there she fell asleep and stayed asleep for the entire egg hunt. Then, on the way home she repeatedly yelled that she "wanted Papa out!" My poor 91 year old Grandpa kept asking my Grandma in the front if she'd like to switch places? Oh, the joy. In the morning she got her basket and loved the candy, but wasn't loving have to put a dress on for Easter.

We have also had some serious "Mouse-capades" these days. I caught a mouse running through our living room, woke Mark up to kill it, and he had to chase the poor mouse all over the house with a broom and a mop forever. He finally had it cornered in the bathroom, (I was laughing too hard and kept getting yelled at so I was hiding in the bedroom) was standing on a chair and all I could hear was him screaming like a girl. The mouse won. After it ran up the shower curtain and kept jumping down at him, Mark just trapped it in Launa's room and left out a mouse trap. The mouse ate the bait and didn't get caught, but we came out victoriuos the next night. :) About three days later, we caught another mice so I'm borderline mortified with the whole situation. We've got traps and poisons and mothballs and so far, the coast is clear. I'm also working on getting some cats. I hate mice and this has really lit my fire to get our house building up and going in the near future.

My parents also came home from their mission, which has been fantastic! Launa told me that "Papa Vard scary" but he's growing on her and now she loves to tease him. My Mom has already helped me rip linoleum out of the bathroom, build front steps, helped me clean out my disaster of a car, potted some flowers, and the list goes on and on. She is such a doer. Mark made sure to get her flowers for Mother's Day as he is thoroughly enjoying my being so productive these days.

Ready or Not, Baby #2 is on the Way!!

Launa's potty trained (kind-of)

I'm going to make a crazy confession here that going to be taboo... I think if I were to choose a profession based solely on the day-to-day duties, "Housewife" would be like 385th on my list.

To see my perspective, you have to understand where I'm coming from. In the past 24 hours, I've scooped poop from panties and put it in the toilet TWICE, discovered M&M colored hand prints all over my white duvet cover, put Launa's clothes back in the drawer so she could tear them all out again, tripped over pitchers of water that Launa has figured out how to fill herself, cleaned up the water, woke up at 4 when Launa was demanding the "Rock-a-bye chair", washed a ridiculous amount of laundry for three people, confiscated a knife, TylenolPM pills, and scissors from Launa and gotten kicked for it (and yes, I put them up high, she's intuitive and incredibly ambitious), watched 2 (okay 3) episodes of Dora, started contemplating dinner, cleaned bathrooms -- you get the picture, and I have a family of THREE. So if someone posted a job description for "Housewife", call me crazy, but I probably wouldn't apply. But for some reason, when you love someone or something, you're willing to do crazy things. Launa also told me a "secret" (that she loves me) a bunch today, gave me snuggles, brushed my hair for me, and made me jump on her bed with her, and Mark did take her last night and put her to bed and let me sleep, so I guess you take the bad with the good.



There is one category of "housewife" or mothering that you can't explain, the job satisfaction category. When there are sweet moments and milestones, there is nothing more satisfying, and for that, I'll continue to endure long days filled with sometimes menial tasks for probably the rest of my life.



Now I'll get to the point, the big reason for my rant is that we are officially expecting baby #2 on September 8th and I'm contemplating life with two Launa's. Here's to cleaning up more poop and getting less sleep! :) In all seriousness, I am really excited and can't wait to meet him or her. Mark would appreciate it if everyone would pray fervently for us to have a boy, but I'm completely content with a healthy baby (okay, one that is a good sleeper is also on my wish list, so you can slip that in there:).



Sorry for the lengthy entry, since I post once every three months, I'll have to upload some pictures I finally got off my camera.

Launa's 2 Year Stats

Launa is officially two years old. For my recording purposes, her stats were the following:

Height: 34.5" (65th percentile)
Weight: 25.6 lbs (30th percentile)

The doctor ordered an iron test due to her extremely pale skin. Then she commented that I also had really pale skin so maybe it was genetic.

Ew, Ew, Ewww!!

I'm pretty sure that Launa is ready for the potty training stage. Two days ago, she was in the tub and told me she had to go potty. Sometimes she says this and means nothing, so I was taking my time getting her towel, lotion, and jammies ready when she started running around the tub yelling ew, ew, ewww!! I looked to discover that she had pooped in the tub and was running from the poop. I thought it was a good sign she finally thought poop was icky. Needless to say, I will be purchasing a potty chair tomorrow. Sorry, no pictures on this one. I thought they'd be both gross and indecent. :)