All Hallow's Eve

As it's been for the past 29 years, today is Halloween and Katie's birthday. Unlike the past 29 years, this year included trick or treating with Molly. Well, when you have a six and a half month old there isn't really too much asking for candy (somehow every knows she's not actually going to eat it). But we did manage to get her a costume (courtesy of Grammie P) and enjoy a bit of the atmosphere in our neighborhood.

I give you...

Little Red Ridding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf!

Okay, so maybe Harry isn't exactly the scariest thing in the world. Still, they make quite the pair.

We had the wrong lens, but this should give you some idea of how intense people get with Katie's birthday here. One street over is blocked off for a good six or seven blocks and all the neighborhood (and non-neighborhood) kids come out to trick-or-treat. It's pretty amazing.

We also had to use Molly's 'First Halloween' bib. This is the before.

This, is the after. I'd say the bib works!

In closing, I'd like to wish my wife a happy birthday.

Rally to Restore Sanity, Fear, and/or Molly's Naptime

Yesterday we ventured out to the National Mall in an effort to either regain our sanity or maintain our fear. Unlike most people, we weren't focused on the political, 'who-we-are-as-a-nation' aspect of the rally; our fear/sanity was solely focused on going different places with Molly.

What do we have to fear you ask? Well, since the Rally was scheduled from noon to 3pm, it was smack dab in the middle of Molly's afternoon nap. So there was definitely a fear of a tired baby who isn't sleeping.

Thankfully Molly decided their was enough fear in the world and was, for 95% of the time, really good (there were a few instances of being stuck on the Metro with hundreds of other people crowded into the car where she wasn't too pleased). Speaking of the Metro, this was Molly's first Metro ride. Overall she was a doll. Whenever a train would come, well... let me just show you:

Molly was out of it for most of the time we were in DC. Thankfully though, she didn't scream or fuss that much.

Eventually she even went to sleep.

A view from the Capital steps.

This is as about as close to the main part of the Rally as we could get. As you may have heard, it was packed. Thankfully we were able to stay on the periphery and avoid getting mobbed.

Yeah... lots of people.

Regardless of your politics, it is pretty amazing that, on multiple occasions (and especially this close to an election), tens or hundreds of thousands of people are allowed to gather at the country's base of power to express their views. Even more amazing is the non-involvment of the government in having these rallies and the lack of an overbearing military or police force attempting to intimidate said gatherers. I don't think many Americans realize how fortunate we are to have this ability.

For those of you who were not able to attend the Rally/did not feel like attending the Rally/disagree with Jon Stewart's politics/etc., the below video is from the final minutes of the Rally and really should be viewed by everyone. The message Americans need to remember is that we're exactly that. Americans. We're not conservatives or liberals. We're Americans.

Oh, and don't forget to vote on Tuesday.

Fresh Air

It was a beautiful day today so we went to the park for some fresh air.

There was some mother/daughter bonding time (mostly Molly looking skeptically at Katie).

Harry stood guard to ensure nothing happened to his pack.

...okay, so he was actually a little freaked out by the sounds of high-pitched little kids, blowing leaves, and the possibility of another dog seeing him.



Eventually the day took a turn for the weird and Molly decided time was better spent making faces.

Seven years and six months

Today is Harry's seventh birthday and Sunday was Molly's half birthday. A few updates.

Harry is still around 70lbs (very close to his racing weight). He sits, goes down, stays, and goes to his bed on command (most of the time). He is still very food motivated and loves to go to the park. When at the park he'll mostly just trot around and sniff, sometimes interacting with other dogs. Most of the time he'll find the nearest human and politely suggest they fawn over him. Every once and awhile he'll go crazy and take off at full speed, zooming around the park and just have a blast running. This is usually when other dogs attempt, unsuccessfully, to catch him and other dog owners' jaws drop in amazement. At home he is still the relatively spooky dog we adopted two and a half years ago, though he is much, much more used to things like buses and other random loud noises. So far he has been amazing with Molly. Her screaming has never phased him and we think he enjoys being around her. He's even let her pet him (under extremely controlled circumstances). It'll be interesting to see how he reacts when she becomes mobile.

And that brings us to Molly. She had another round of vaccines today and wasn't too pleased about that. All in all though, she was a trooper and only cried/fussed for about two to three hours. Some vital stats:
-16 lbs, 6 oz
-26.5 inches tall
-head circumference of 16.3 inches

Molly can sit up by herself and roll around with the best of them. We're finally at the stage where wherever we put her down will not be where we pick her up 30 seconds later. She is quite the talker and enjoys exploring what her vocal cords can do. She enjoys going on walks now that it's cool enough to do so for more than 10 mins or so. Molly has taken quite an interest in the animals and loves to just sit there and watch them. She hasn't learned to crawl yet, but once she does the cats had better watch out. Molly's spitting up is still unfortunately with us, but hopefully she'll start to out grow it soon. We've started her on solids as you've already seen. Perhaps most important, Molly sleeps like a champ (for the most part). She goes down to bed between 6:30 and 7 and we rarely hear another peep from her until 6 am. Encouraged by our nightime sleep training success, we've got her on a fairly consistent nap schedule as well. Life improves exponentially for us all when Molly has plenty of rest.

Solids and assorted other things

This post is gonna be a doozy. As you know we're not the best at uploading photos and then adding witty comments on a semi-regular schedule. So to make up for that, here are some things you've missed over the past few months.

As those on Facebook know, Molly started solid food the other day. At first it was just oatmeal and with some formula mixed in. Appetizing, I know. Well, Molly wasn't a huge fan of the taste and that, coupled with her lack of knowledge of how to actually eat made for a bit of a mess and not much in the way of nutritional meals (don't worry, she's still getting plenty to eat).

Well, today we had two big first for Molly.

"What's that? I get to have bananas?!? Awesome! I don't even know what those are yet, but I'm sure they taste better than that bland old oatmeal... And what exactly am I sitting in? Oh! It's my brand-new booster seat? Cool! Now I can sit at the table with you big people and talk about grown up stuff. So what are you guys talking about? Cleaning the bathroom? Yuck! I thought grown-ups led interesting lives and talked about cliff-diving, saving the world, and traveling to distant planets. This is boring. Anyway, so about those bananas..."

"Umm... not too sure about this. You sure Mommy didn't sneak something nasty in here like onions or mushrooms?"

"Let me help you with that spoon."

"Alright, these bananas aren't half bad. In fact, if I ever actually learn how to eat my food instead of just wearing it, I might actually enjoy this whole process."

"Yeah, still hungry. Gimme some more! ...please"

Molly also recently graduated to the big girl portion of the stroller. No more infant car seat for this lady. Now she gets to ride around in style. (we also replaced the car seat and Molly seems to like it a lot more than the first one we had. She's a little more upright and we think that bothers her stomach less. At least with this new one she doesn't spit up in it within five seconds every time.)

This is just one of the many, many rose blossoms we've had over the past few weeks. As you'll see below we had our back patio redone this summer. One of the new plants is a climbing rose which has approximately ten buds ready to burst right now.

Many thanks to Mike for water-proofing our new storage shed and new fence.

Part of Molly's New England Tour was stopping by to see great-grandma Janet. As previously noted, Molly did her best to impress (this picture was taken early in the visit and Molly had just been screaming for the majority of the past five hours so she was a little out of it).

As baseball season comes to an end for the Red Sox, Molly has this to say.

Aunt Ellete wasn't too sure about the sounds coming from Molly...

Molly was a little shocked at those sounds too and immediately blamed them on Uncle Nate.

So now you're relatively caught up. We'll leave you with one of our favorite pictures from our photo shoot with our engagement/wedding/family photographer, Samantha Warren.

and then there were three

It's already been three short years. In many ways it seems like yesterday we were both anxiously waiting until 3:30pm so we could finally be married. In other ways, it seems like we've been married forever (in a good way). That's probably because we've packed a fair amount of life events into those 1,095 days.

Over the past three years we:

bought a house...

adopted Harry...

remodeled the house...

got pregnant (well, Katie did at least)...

and had Molly.

It's also important to remember what we agreed to that day three years ago.

Andy's vows to Katie:

Katie,
You are everything I could ask for
In a friend, a woman, and a wife.
You are my best friend and the love of my life.

I promise to be there to celebrate your successes
To laugh with you in times of joy
And comfort you in times of sorrow.

I will encourage and support you,
Honor and love you.
I will respect our differences
And do my part to work through
All our challenges.

Katie, as I stand here before you
In front of our friends and family
Know this:
You have my heart,
You have my soul,
I will be yours and stand by you through eternity.
You are my love.

I love you.

Katie's vows to Andy:

Andy, I knew from the moment we met that you were important to me. It wasn't long after we met that I realized you were my best friend. I spoke and you listened; I laughed, and you laughed with me; I cried and you supported me. From the earliest days of our friendship, I was never afraid to share my deepest thoughts and feelings with you, because I knew that would be there for me, no matter what. And that trust has never faltered.

As our relationship developed, I discovered that you are not only my best friend, but the love of my life. And I stand here before you today, Andy, because I am the happiest -- the luckiest -- woman in the whole world, because I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

I promise to stand beside you in moments of joy and moments of pain, to be your pillar of support as you have always been for me.

I promise to take care of you in sickness and in health, to never leave your side in times of weakness.

I promise to be the best mother I can be to our children. I want to nurture in them all the qualities that I admire and adore in you.

I promise to be faithful to you and honest with you. There is nothing in this world worth risking the trust that we have in each other.

I promise to be your best friend. Always. I promise to love, honor and respect you even when we disagree, because that is what best friends do.

I promise to be your partner in all things, large and small. Apart we can succeed, but together we cannot fail. Together anything and everything is possible.

I love you with all of my heart, Andrew Magoun. Today and every day for the rest of our lives.

Molly's New England Tour - Summer '10

Molly is still in the midst of her New England Tour - Summer '10 (sorry, all commemorative t-shirts and posters have already sold out), but we thought we'd share a taste of what we've been up to.

Falmouth, MA:

As you saw from our last post, the trip didn't start out the best as we made our way up to New England. Molly made her hatred of the car seat well known and what should have been a roughly 8 hour car ride turned into a 12+ hour car ride thanks to traffic and the more frequent stops a baby requires.

Eventually we got to Falmouth and it was all worth it. The weather was beautiful on race day and TEAM HOULI made a strong showing. While the final numbers aren't in yet, as of race day the team had raised over $22,000 for the Foundation! Thank you to all who contributed.

New Harbor, ME:

Once again Molly decided we needed to get up earlier than we planned. So instead of waking up at 5:30am, we were on the road somewhere between 5am and 5:30am (Molly woke up at 4:30). This worked well as Molly slept for the first hour of the trip and then was relatively peaceful for the next half-hour. Unfortunately, that's about when she realized she was in a car seat. Again. I'm sure Molly was quite shocked to realize this as she'd made her point about car seats just a few days prior. Just be safe though, she made her point for the remainder of the drive to Maine.

While the drive to Maine was not Molly's best moment, her time at the cottage the Poulin's rented was up there vying for the best times of Molly's life. The whole week she was pretty much nothing but smiles, and for good reason. The cottage was amazing. Located right on the ocean, the cottage had a huge, three-tired deck that opened onto the rocks, a beautiful porch (part of which was screened in), wireless internet (not that anyone spent much time online), ceiling fans in every room (a favorite of Molly's), and more. Even when the weather was "bad" it was beautiful. The sound of the waves crashing and the fresh ocean air were a perfect combination for relaxation.

As you can imagine, between the two of us, Katie's parents, and her brother and his fiance, there were more than a few photos taken. Here is but a smattering:

The above shot was taken from the porch of the cottage.

(Thanks to our friends Mark and Courtney for the awesome outfit)

Molly and Mike spent a fair amount of the time in some variation of this pose. Between the two of them, I'm not sure which one was more content.

Molly had her first Maine lobster, courtesy of Uncle Nate and Aunt Ellete...

...but that doesn't mean she wasn't still a little skeptical of Nate.

While the audio is not the best, you get the idea.

Winslow, ME:

Eventually though, every good time must come to an end. Well, that's not completely true. While we did have to leave the cottage, we were still able to enjoy ourselves and the additional help with Molly for a few days longer back at the Poulin's. Molly did relatively well with the third brand-new places in just over a week. She also did really well with the drive from the coast inland. Since the Poulins' were the ones driving her, they couldn't believe she didn't like car rides and were relatively pleased with themselves. Little did they know...

Bangor, ME:

Luckily our visit coincided with a surprise house-warming party in Bangor for Katie's cousin. It was great to see family, show off Molly, and enjoy in celebrating the successful step of becoming home-owners.

Keene, NH:

On the way up to Maine Molly had passed through New Hampshire, but had not really officially been there. It was just as well that we were able to add NH to Molly's list of states with a trip to see my grandmother in Keene.

The car trip was more than Molly's limit of about 1 hour, I'll leave it at that.

It was great to be able to introduce Molly to more of my family, especially because we aren't able to get up there as often as we'd like. The visit was wonderful, and despite not having the best trip there, Molly did her best to impress yet again (and she did impress). Molly showed off some of her tricks including rolling over and practicing to become a brass player by buzzing her lips (she could probably amuse herself for hours doing this). Molly even proved she knew how to nap.

Arlington, MA:

Molly's nap in Keene meant she was well rested for the trip to Arlington to meet her other uncle and aunt and her cousins Jack and Nate. Thankfully Katie had figured out that episodes of Sesame Street on the iPad could keep Molly's mind off the evils of the car seat for awhile. So, thank you Apple (we just wish we'd thought of this earlier).

The visit with Molly's cousins was brief yet fun. Jack was especially excited to finally meet Molly. Seeing a three-year old and a 13-month old full of energy though was a bit scary. If it were possible to somehow harness their energy the energy demands of the US would be met for years.

We were able to calm everyone down enough to grab a picture or two of the cousins.

Winslow, ME:

Unfortunately, the combination of a long day of driving and it being well past bedtime meant even the power of the iPad was not able to stave off Molly's displeasure for the ride back to Winslow. While no real good came of this, the Poulins were able to witness first hand what Katie and I had been talking about for the past week and a half. I'm pretty sure they believe us now.

The other unfortunate thing about the drive back to Winslow was that it meant my vacation was at an end. I stayed the night at Jack and Nate's house and headed back to DC the next morning. It was great to spend more time with everyone, but I was exhausted even after just a few hours - I'm not really sure how Steven and Lauren do it.

If you've noticed a theme throughout this retelling of the trip, it's that Molly does not like to spend long amounts of time strapped into the car seat. And really, who can blame her? I wouldn't enjoy being strapped in to something and traveling backward for hours on end. Especially when I'm used to being able to move about. So with that all in mind, the plans for getting Katie and Molly back to DC changed and instead of driving (for what would likely be a 15 - 16 hour trip), Katie and Molly are going to fly back. Luckily it won't just be Katie on the flight with Molly, as her mom will also be coming down. Hopefully the extra set of hands will make the trip a lot less stressful.

While still in Winslow Molly was able to see more family, including her great-great grandfather.

Molly also performed two other Maine rituals: visiting Ocean Point... and going to Marden's (don't ask).

In all it was a wonderful trip.

Falmouth Road Race

We are finally on the Cape after a bit of a hellish drive up. Molly is not a fan of the car seat to begin with, and what turned out to be a twelve-plus hour trip just wasn't doing it for her. The good news is her lungs work perfectly well. ...and can work perfectly well for hours on end. The other good news was that when we finally did get to the hotel she went to sleep within five minutes.

Today however, is a different story. Hopefully she'll realize she needs the sleep and let us regain some sanity before we go off to bed (sleeping in the same room as a baby again is not the greatest, she's not the quietest and we've been on extra high alert so we don't ruin too many other guests' vacations).

Tomorrow is the Falmouth Road Race which I will be running for the Matthew W. Houlihan Foundation (thank you to all who have donated!). Molly has a super cute outfit that we'll grab some pictures of and is thanks to Mrs. Houlihan.

An Honorary Michigander

Well, we're back from Michigan.

The trip was a blast. We had a great time seeing friends and family. Molly got to meet her great-grandparents, great aunts and uncle.

Here's Molly with her great-grandfather Pa and great-grandmother Ceelee. In addition to meeting her great-grandparents, Molly also was able to hear stories about her name-sake, her great-grandmother's sister Mariel. While Molly may be a tad too young to remember these stories in the years to come, both my mom and I were able to capture them on our phones (technology is pretty impressive).

Four generations of Hoagland women (two by marriage, two by birth). By this point in the photo shoot Molly had had enough of looking at the camera. Apparently something on the floor was much more interesting.

We were also able to catch up with some friends from home. The above shot is from Dean and Tricia's house with their two little angels Owen (you can just see the tuff of blond hair behind Katie) and Sophie. It was great not only to see them, but also to talk with some people who have already made it through our current stage of parenthood and survived.

While visiting, we made sure to stop in at the local baby boutique, Sweet Pea. Owned by two friends of mine from high school, this is where we purchased Molly's first outfit back in November (we'd just found out we were having a girl)! We love the store and encourage anyone who may be passing through Northern Michigan to check it out.

Being that we were in the Great Lakes State, Molly also had her first experience with "swimming".

Here she is all decked out in her surfer-girl attire.

At first she was a little skeptical...

...but you can see from the smile on her face that she definitely liked it.

These shots are from her foray into West Grand Traverse Bay off my parents beach. Later on in our trip she went "swimming" again in Glen Lake at my grandparents house. So now she's been officially "baptized" in Michigan waters.

The trip also gave us a chance to remember why we both love Michigan and Traverse City in particular. The above picture was taken from my parents deck at about 9:30 - 10pm.

First flight

Yesterday was a big day for Molly. Not only was it her first time out of state, but it was also her fist time on an airplane! The day started at 4:15am when Molly decided we should get things going fifteen minutes befoe our alarm was supposed to go off (this actually turned out to be a really good thing as we were a little rushed by the time we got to the airport). From there we were all in uncharted territory as Molly had never flown before and neither of us had ever flown with an infant.

All in all the whole trip went off with nary a hitch. The first flight from DC to Detroit began only a few minutes after we boarded the plane (we were so late getting to the gate that the gate agent didn't think we were even on the flight) and just in time for Molly to eat. Lucky we had a bottle ready and were able to keep her relatively quiet. Molly's first experience with announcements from the flight deck was something to behold. All the sudden this random voice started saying things and Molly's face just lit up. During the whole announcement, Molly was just happy as a clam. Thankfully the plane took off soon afterwards and Molly went right to sleep. There wasn't a peep from her until we landed.

The second flight didn't start out as well. The main issue was the broken A/C on the plane. Let's just say Molly was not a fan. After a good ten to fifteen minutes of crying (thankfully no screaming) the plane took off and Molly was once again down for the count. So overall, out of a total of a seven-ish hour trip (including a three hour layover in Detroit), Molly was only really crying for about fifteen minutes. I'll take that any day.

We're all enjoying our time here in Travere City and will hopefully have pictures after we get back home.