Nate and Ellete Make It Official

This past weekend was Nate and Ellete's wedding. There must be a Poulin blessing, because not only have the two Poulin children married awesome people (I'm not biased, I swear), but the weddings have both been amazing. I'm pretty sure Nate and Ellete couldn't have asked for a better day weather wise. The wind, which had been blowing pretty hard during most of the day, even died down just before the nuptials; the sun was shining; and the temperature was just about perfect. As Katie had said, you consider it a win if your wedding in Maine isn't 35 degrees and a downpour. This was leaps and bounds above that.

As much as you want to hear me describe the wedding, I'm pretty sure you'd rather see some pictures. Two warnings: 1. There are a lot of photos, 2. Most of them are of Molly (shocking, I know).

The weekend started out with a great plane flight. It was the first time we'd flown with Molly as a lap child instead of getting her her own seat. She did a great job. It would have been nice if she'd taken a nap, but that's a different story (and unfortunately one that continued to be told all weekend).

When we got to the wedding site (Newagen Seaside Inn) Molly got a chance to see what cool and new things Grammie and Gramp had for her...

Like bubbles!

She was a bit hesitant at first.

But then realized how absolutely cool they were (the bubbles that is, she already knew Grammie and Gramp were cool).

You can see the beginning of the glazed over look in Molly's eyes. As you proceed through this post you'll notice that look becoming more and more pronounced (let's just say she wasn't a fan of napping or going to sleep when she should).

"What's that Dad? I get to put on some fancy shoes this weekend?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh man I am so excited for fancy shoes!"

"Seriously, I'm excited. I don't know how else I can make you guys understand this. Fancy shoes rock."

"Now if I could just get a hang of this croquet mallet..."

I think we've created a preppy girl.

"Hmm... Let's see if this mallet meets my exacting standards. You know I was the croquet champion of the East Coast when I was younger."

This photo brings two things to mind. 1. It pretty much sums up Katie's days right now (running after Molly). 2. It reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons where Calvin's mom is chasing him.

Eventually though, Molly decides it's a good idea to follow Mom.

And to follow Gramp.

She even manages a smile for Dad.

Remember what I said about the glazed over look?

While the women were getting their hair and make-up ready for the wedding, Molly was practicing the art of hiding receipts.

Checking out the groomsmen. Sorry sweetheart, I think they're all too old for you.

Molly also had to inspect the pathway for the processional.

The happy couple, now officially hitched.

...and celebrating!

Brother and sister congratulations.

Molly just had to check out Mommy's bouquet.

There was also time to play with her cousin Hazel.

And two of Ellete's nieces.

Nate's been married for all of an hour and he's already checking the iPhone (I'm sure he's looking a some beautiful picture of his wife).

The newlyweds arrive at the reception. Looking dapper as always.

And get right to dancing.

The first dance was pretty impressive.

Molly also got a chance to dance with Gramp.

Not really sure what brought on this face.

Either way, Hazel came to the rescue.

"What's that?"
Molly wasn't too sure what to make of the band.

There's that glazed over look again.

Thankfully a kiss from Grammie can make it better.

Once again, not sure what brought on this face.

Tired girl.

Attack of the Nonapasourus

We've been out of touch with the national media for the past few days, but I'm still shocked at the lack of coverage of the vicious attack of the dreaded Nonapasourus. This ancient monster, thought to be dormant for months, was last seen in central Maine terrorizing an All-American family.

The people must be warned.

Riddle Me This

We are three.
When Molly is two, we'll be four.*

*adapted from my parents

Stats

In the spirit of baseball and all the stats they keep, here are some for Molly after one year.

• Weight: 21.88 lbs; 79.44 percentile
• Length: 29.5 inches; 62.98 percentile
• Head Circumference: 18 inches; 72.7 percentile

The percentiles are so exact because the doctor's office is moving to electronic records. The ironic thing is, the scale they use is still the old-fashion lever scale which they leave with weights still out, thus throwing off the scale over time.

Other interesting bits of information:

• As noted, Molly is starting to walk. This has really taken off in the past few days.
• She is working on her vocabulary, both verbally and through sign language. She can say 'da-da' and 'dawg' (although sometimes she says this when looking at the cats). She can sign 'up', 'more', 'food', and 'down'.
  

Year One: We survived

...so far.

It's been one year since our lives were flipped upside down and a little bundle of joy entered our world. As I'm sure it is with most parents, we've had our good moments and bad moments. Thankfully, the good moments have been much more frequent than the bad. A few highlights:

• Molly being born (obviously)
• Molly's first plane flight
• Trips to Maine and Michigan
• Getting to the destination on some of these trips
• Countless random moments of joy

To top it all off, we had a birthday party (a day early). All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better time. Molly was amazing. She had two good naps which were key. Anyway, let's see some pictures.

About two minutes post nap, the birthday girl gets ready.

After a year and they still like each other.

Molly was very polite and acted as a greeter at her own party (someone must have raised her right).

Over the past day or two Molly has really started to walk. Here she isn't even holding on to Grammie's hand.

And there she goes! Her record is about 10 - 15 steps all by herself.

Molly also got to see some of her friends. In all there were about five or so kids under three.

It isn't a 1st birthday without a 1st birthday hat!

And presents. Lots and lots of presents (between this and Christmas, I'm starting to notice a trend).

Some presents even sneak up on you.

Like giant pink dogs from Uncle Nate and Aunt Ellete (who both used to work at F.A.O. Schwartz).

"You! With the camera! More presents and more sugar!"

After seeing what could happen with animal shaped cakes (friends of ours didn't have the best experience when they made a frog-shaped cake for their 1 year old: think freak out), we decided to go with just a cupcake. After opening all those presents Molly was a bit tired.

So tired that Momma had to help blow out the candle.

"Want some icing?"

Poor cupcake. You never saw it coming...

Uncle Nate and Aunt Ellete with the birthday girl (on her actual birthday). We were thrilled they and others made the trip down.

For Molly's birthday we went for a walk at Fort Washington with Grammie and Gramp. Molly looks tuckered out because she just spent a good ten minutes walking up hill (holding on to Gramp). It's a tough life, but she survives.

You give me fever...

While I'm sure Peggy Lee didn't intend her song 'Fever' to be fitting for this situation, it is. Particularly one verse:

you give me fever when you kiss me
fever when you hold me tight
Fever In the morning
Fever all through the night

In other words, Molly has a fever.

It isn't a massive fever. (So far) It isn't a get really worried about things and spend the night in the ER fever (commence wood knocking).

It is, however, the first time she's really been sick in her life. We both realize how lucky we are to have made it this far (although a full year would have been nice), but that doesn't make her or us any less miserable. That said, she's still a really good kid, even when sick. I'm probably jinxing myself here, but the past few nights she's slept for at least 6 - 7 hours at a stretch. And she's gone back to sleep if she wakes up at some un-Dogly hour. Molly definitely fusses throughout the day, but she also has periods of silence and happiness.

In addition to the fever (and whatever sickness is causing it), Molly is still hardcore teething. She has about six teeth coming in (at least) so her mouth hurts. For all you new or soon to be parents out there, how about a math lesson? Teething + sick kid (e.g. fever and diarrhea) = dehydration (my high school math teachers would be proud, I'm using more words in a math problem than numbers). Yup. Molly is a little dehydrated. Don't worry, we're keeping an eye on it and making sure she isn't in an danger. In addition to trying to entice her to drink water throughout the day, we've also read that foods high in fat and fiber are good for dealing with the water loss issue. So, after trying to make a homemade chicken noodle soup for her last night (utter failure as far as she was concerned - didn't touch any of it), we went a different route tonight: Chipotle.

Yes, we fed our sick child 'fast food'. However, the parts of the junk food she ate are actually helpful for her particular situation. Guacamole (avocados) is high in good fat. Black beans are high in fiber. Massive amounts of salt, which apparently what was missing from our homemade meal, means Molly wants to eat it. And boy, did she eat (she even drank more water too - especially when an errant jalapeno found its way into her mouth). At least she's getting calories and water.

So all in all, it could be worse.

That said, what type of parents would we be if we didn't document this with embarrassing photos?

Gotta have stylish hair before bed.

Glamor shot.
The thousand-yard stare pretty much sums up her weekend.

Really, how pathetic can you get?

Sanibel

We recently went to Sanibel Island, FL for a week's vacation. Despite all the pictures being of Molly, we actually spent some time with friends and family. All of whom we don't get to see nearly enough.

The whole trip was great. Molly wasn't phased at all by the 60 mph wind gusts blowing the plane sideways down the runway as we took off from DC. She also wasn't phased by the lack of sleep during the two and a half hour flight until about 20 mins before we landed when she finally gave in and went to sleep... just in time to be woken up by the pressure change. Not a pleasant experience.

Molly took some time to settle in to a routine that didn't involved waking up at 4am, but we had loads of help throughout the day for free baby sitting. Molly also got to hang out with her cousins Robby and Carolyn who are about five and three years old. She had a blast playing with them.

The flight back wasn't that bad. However, the time at the airport was a lesson for us. If you can print your boarding pass out at home, do it! We checked in the day before but didn't print out the boarding pass thinking it would take all of two minutes to do this at the airport. Well, it would have if AirTran's computer system hadn't gone down for a few hours before our flight. The lack of computers meant something that should have been a breeze became an almost two hour wait in line just to get our boarding pass. Thankfully we made the flight and didn't have to deal with the hassle of scrambling for a new flight.

And now what you've all been waiting for. Pictures of Molly.

This trip is where we really started to give her "real" food. She's interested at first.

Usually the first bite of anything elicited this reaction. Thankfully after the initial shock she actually warmed up to just about everything.

Especially her hat.


Despite her face, she actually did enjoy the beach. This was after one of those 4am wake-up days.

...and Molly has continued the Magoun tradition of having one person make a weird face in an otherwise nice family photograph.

Molly also got to spend some quality time with two of her great-grandparents.



Molly also spent most of the trip practicing new faces.

Okay, so it's pretty much the same look.

Toofies

While we're still in the beginning stages of things, Molly is definitely starting to have teeth poke through. So far we've spotted two.


This video gives some idea of what's going on (be careful, as soon as the clip is done it moves on to another).

On the right side of her mouth you can just barely see a white spot. This isn't the best picture, but it's the best Molly would allow.

She thinks it's pretty cool though. 'Cause all the cool people she knows (Mom, Dad, the animals, etc.) have teeth.

The other thing we're dealing with is Molly's desire/ability to stand on her own. Here she's using Katie for a little support, but she's getting to the point where she can stand unassisted for a good five seconds. Next up: running.