Silver Lake

Every once in a while (and more and more frequently now) it hits us that we've got another person living with us. That may seem obvious, but we're a little slow, so it's taken us a while to catch on.

I remember feeling the beginnings of the change as she was eating more and more. There was a subtle shift in the food we had to have available for us - first boob/milk, then optional snacks, then the absolute requirement of real food. We eat, and therefore she needs to eat, too. Duh. And suddenly the kids menus at restaurants start to make sense (although we still tend to just order things we can share with her).

And then there's the shoes. When she was itsy-bitsy she didn't wear shoes. Then she wore them, but they were itsy-bitsy. At some point over the summer I realized that her shoes weren't going to find a home on their own. So she got a shoe place next to our shoe place at the door.

For Zach, he tells the story of when it dawned upon him that there was another person in the house: he was at home with her - I think she must have been playing behind him or in the other room - he sneezed loudly and he hears a small voice say "bless you!".

And then there was yesterday: I had asked Zach in the morning what he was doing that day. He mentioned errands and I asked if he was going to bike. Molly perked up and said "Bikeride? Bikeride time?" She abandoned her Legos (tm) and started chanting "needshoesandsocks" over and over again as she ran and got her shoes and socks and proceeded to sit down and try to wrestle them on (which she actually can do sometimes!).

So, not only do I need to accept the fact that she's a full-blown kid-person, but I also need to start spelling more things so she doesn't get her hopes up for something that may not happen (like the bike ride - it was too cold).

photos: Molly in the wind; Molly & Mama; Molly examines the stick she found; Nona; Molly does "buffalo shoulders"; Molly; Nona, Mama, & Molly. All on the docks at Silver Lake in Ocracoke, NC.