Getting Bigger

Molly seems to be getting bigger and bigger every day. Just this morning, I awoke to discover Molly standing next to my bed dressed in one of her many monkey-themed shirts and a pair of jeans. Nothing too radical or unusual… except, I hadn’t dressed her. And it was still too early for Anna to be getting up.

My little girl had dressed herself.

Where’s Christmas

As Christmas morning dawned, Molly asked “Where’s Christmas?” and “Can I see it?” That’s when it dawned on me that I didn’t exactly know how to explain the holiday in light of the fact that we’re not practising Christians. I can’t speak for Anna, but I don’t particularly believe in the whole Christian mythos. And I certainly have questions about the behaviour of the Catholic church over the years.

So how do I explain to Molly what Christmas is all about? Who’s Santa Claus? Why does he give us gifts? So many questions. Fortunately I’ve another 361 days to figure out good answers…

Molly received lots of good loot for Christmas this year. By far her favourite gifts are the Ponies, the Thing, and the Dora Play Tent. Anna has kept many of her childhood toys (and clothing, and artwork, and pocket lint, and dirty tissues, etc) and she handed down the first installment of her My Little Ponies for Molly to enjoy. Many of these ponies are two decades old, but they don’t look it.

Next on Molly’s favourite list is the Thing. I don’t know what to call it. And I don’t really understand it. But I think that’s because I’m an adult and my imagination has been stunted from too many years of working in an office. In the photo above, Molly is using the Thing as a wobbly seat that she can spin around in. She’s also used the thing as a sort of helmet and a bucket for carrying her ponies. So I guess it’s a versatile Thing. Plus, it’s pink.

Finally, Molly adores her Dora Play Tent. I’m not big on Dora, although I do think the Saturday Night Live spoof of Dora is very funny. But Molly just loves playing in the tent.

Next Year

We’d like to de-emphasise gifts next year. I’m not certain whether that can be done given the incredible marketing message of Christmas. We’re trying to come up with some sensible ways to celebrate the Winter Holiday without racking up debt on everyone’s credit cards…

It’s kind of unfortunate that Toys for Tots only accepts new gifts. We were thinking that it might make sense for Molly to choose several of her toys to donate to less fortunate children. But certainly there must be organisations that accept well-loved toys (provided they’re still in good shape).

Christening the New Mini

This afternoon we picked up Vivian: Anna’s new Mini. After nearly three hours we were able to drive away in the fiery red sports car. And drive we did. We took Hwy 9 through the Santa Cruz mountains over to Santa Cruz where we had slurpies from Jamba Juice and walked around town.

I got to drive on the way home. Whether it was something she ate or the twisty turns of Hwy 9 we’ll never know, but Molly got pretty sick and vommited all over herself, the car seat and Vivian. Fortunately, Anna had thought ahead and brought a change of clothes. So we got poor Molly cleaned up, changed, and did our best to clean up the car seat. At last we were ready to embark again.

Except a few minutes later, Molly honked again. This time, we were close enough to Saratoga that there really wasn’t anywhere to pull off the road. Plus we had nothing we could change her into. Fortunately, she passed out shortly thereafter — it was already 8:30 pm.

When we got home, and after she had a bath, Molly was much happier and seemed fine. Vivian’s smelling much better now that I’ve cleaner her up a bit. Now all we need to do is wash all the clothing and the cover of the car seat.

I’d say that Vivian has received her introduction to the Watkins family…

More Nicknames Than A Mobster Convention

Poor Molly! She was born into a family of wackos. There is no better evidence (that we can offer without truly incriminating ourselves) than the nicknames we have given our daughter.

Here are some examples:

• The Bean
• The Beanster
• The Sea Monkey
• The Microsite (courtesy of Papou, aka Evan)
• Chewy aka Chewbacca, Wookie (she gnaws on nearly anything)
• Spewy (she drools and occasionally regurgitates)
• Poopsie (due to her exceedingly full diapers)
• Molly Poopins or just Poopins
• Pota-toh, Sweet Potato, Pota-tah, Tater Tot
• Screechy
• Gamera (or really, any critter from the Godzilla movies)
• One-eyed drunken pirate

I am certain there are (and will be) more in the future. Feel free to post your ideas- we’ll most likely use them at one point or another. But keep it clean folks!