Settling In & Mermaid Malou

I think I mentioned we turned on the pool a few weeks ago. Thanks to all that summer training with her cousins, Molli Malou was ready to go!

Mor and Daddy expected we’d have to be holding Molli Malou a lot in the pool. We thought we’d have to guide her along, teach her not to be scared, gradually coax her into maybe kicking herself around, unsupported, with a noodle.

Instead, from the moment of our very first swim she simply pulled on her swim wings, declared that we were not to touch her, and the little mermaid was off!

You can download a little movie of her swimming prowess right here.

She got a cute haircut toward the end of September.

I mentioned our IKEA spree. I didn’t mention how much Molli Malou enjoyed it.

Nana had asked for a photo of Molli Malou in her hairband with her new haircut, as she’d seen her over Skype one evening. This was the best I could do.

How much you like that pool, Molli Malou?

Looks like you’re dipping a toe… how’s the water?

Well, toes aren’t always so reliable… try dipping a finger.

So… the room, as I mentioned previously, was a disaster. A weekend of building and mounting a few IKEA goodies, and voila!

Believe it or not, it’s still that clean! And she plays in it. And one night earlier this week, she even turned out her lamp by herself to go to sleep!

And speaking of lamps, check out the cool IKEA lighting we installed in the green room.

They give a really nice effect.

You can tell I’m tired by the half-assed way I’m rumbling through this. Sorry.

One more rumble: another shot of Madison, this one from Tuesday (September 30)…

Can you make out her face? Her hand is sort of clenched in a fist alongside her jaw. She’s in profile. If you look rightward from where it says “15.2 cm / 1.6 / 50 Hz” on the printout, you go right into her face. The short, thick white line is the ridge of her nose. Her visible eye, the left, is closed. Her wrist is over her chin. Her little apple cheek is a bright white highlight. The highlight to the right of the big black circle is her ear. See it now? It can be tough to get the right view, but once you do it’s adorable. She’s adorable.

And Molli Malou is going to be the best big sister ever! She’s practicing with all her dolls and stuffed animals. She’s wonderful with those imaginary babies, but an absolute tyrant in terms of getting the rest of us to be quiet while the baby sleeps, or not sit too close to the sleeping baby, or not eat imaginary food that had been lovingly and laboriously prepared for the baby. She can get quite worked up.

“Daddy! I told you! You HAVE to be quiet or you will wake the baby and she’ll cry and then I will be angry at you because I am her Mor and don’t like when she cries!”

Now go watch the movie!