Fat Babies Have No Pride

(Who can resist the occasional Lyle Lovett reference ;)

Molly is eight weeks old and growing like crazy -- it's hard to believe that the chubby little girl in front of us was such a little peanut less than two months ago. She's over 10 1/2 pounds now and growing out of her "little baby" clothes already. Max spent so long in his preemie and newborn clothes that it seems strange that it's already time to pack up Molly's smaller outfits. She's already chunked up enough to have a "nacho neck" that we need to clean carefully during baths ("nacho neck" being an obscure Beavis and Butthead reference and describes a neck with enough chubby folds and creases that one could potentially use it for the storage of snacks ;).

Happily, although Molly lost a lot of her hair on the top of her head, she doesn't seem to be losing all of it and the missing hair is already growing back. Hopefully her receeding hairline and extreme widows peaks won't be noticeable for much longer! So far it looks like she'll be a total brunette and won't even have the "almost blonde" hair that Max has. But, it's a little early to tell yet -- she might surprise us. I'm just glad I won't have to cut it -- I'm still procrastinating about getting Max's hair cut for the first time (and, no, he does NOT have a baby mullet -- he has baby curls).

Max is still in full-blown toddler mode -- it's all his way, all the time (or so he'd like to believe). He's still being a super picky eater, which we're hoping is a passing phase, since he's always happily eaten a wide variety of things. He's become really fascinated with toy cars -- this must be an inherent boy trait, because we've never taught him to play with cars. Nevertheless, lately he'll go steal one from his big brother's room, carry it into his room, and start driving it around on the floor while saying, "vroom, vroom." So, we had to get him some cars of his own, which he happily drives around the house. Max has also been learning his animal sounds, which is very cute. He now knows what dogs, cats, birds, monkeys, lions, and monsters say (in case you didn't know, monsters say "raaaarr raaaarr" while waving their arms around).

I also let Max make his artistic debut last week -- his great grandma would have been proud. I gave him an old box of crayons (the 64 pack, mind you) and let him go to town. With a little prompting from Mom, he made a very colorful piece of squiggle art before he decided it was MUCH more fun to dump all the crayons out and play with them instead. But, I'm sure it won't be long before he's creating amazing works of art all over the white walls (there's a good reason I set him up in his high chair to color). :P

It's starting to feel a lot like fall already -- my favorite season. The leaves are starting to turn and you can already hear geese flying over the house on their way to more temperate climes. It's time to visit some orchards, drink some cider, bake a couple of pies, and make some pasties. Grandma and Grandpa managed to score some Honeycrisp apples and were nice enough to share their good fortune with us. Mom can't stop eating them and even Max the Persnickety decided that they were worth trying. I'm currently contemplating what Max and Molly want to be for Halloween (since they don't have an opinion) and whether or not I want to make their costumes myself. However, it'll be hard to beat Max's awesome costume from last year.