Just for the record

Molly was 10 months old on January 7th and let me tell you, this girl is growing and changing by leaps and bounds right now. She is such a little sponge and constantly tries to mimic sounds, movements, etc. Just for the record, I'm going to post about some milestones Miss Molly has reached in the past several months because I will surely forget if I don't do it now.

Her new favorite thing to say is "Uh ohhhh" when she drops something. Or she says it when she doesn't drop something. And when she touches something. And when she looks at something. Well, you get the idea. She says it a lot and it's pretty darn cute. The sounds and words she says so far are (in order that she has said them):

1. Baba- We call bottles "babas" so I have a feeling that's why this was her first word.
2. Mama- She started saying (which was really more like crying) mama when she was upset. And that's the only time she would say mama at first, when she wasn't happy.
3. Dada- She loves her dada and she started saying dada very , very softly and sweetly at first, almost like a whisper. Be still my heart.
4.Uh oh- I'll give grandma Marsh credit for teaching her this one.
5. Dog- We like to say "Frankie's our d o g" and really sound it out. We have been saying it A LOT to her and she finally said it yesterday for the first time! It comes out "Dooo...GG!" With a really hard G sound. So funny.

Above is the "Uh oh!" face.

Below is MR petting the Duh-ah-guh.

And, of course, there are many other babble sounds she makes but these are the main words thus far.

What, might you ask, is Molly wearing on her face? Why, those are Mira-flex glasses made for babies. And yes, they're real. Many people have quizzically asked "How in the world do you know if an infant needs glasses?" So here's the backstory on how she ended up with little pink spectacles.

At around 5 or 6 months, we noticed her left eye turning inward a little more than the right one. We didn't think too much of it at first since babies are still learning how to focus at that age and can appear cross eyed at times. However, by month 7 it hadn't gotten any better. So, we went to the pediatrician who referred us to a pediatric opthamologist at Vanderbilt.

You can see her left eye turning inward in that picture at around 5 or 6 months of age. And also in this one (can you guess what month it was?):

Many people thought that I was overreacting and making something out of nothing. Her eyes looked normal most of the time. Even the pediatrician felt like nothing was too out of the norm and referred us "just to be safe" and ease our minds. However, it is my belief that a parent's intuition is usually right and I was prepared to insist on seeing an opthamologist no matter what.

When we went to her first eye exam in December, she was a perfect angel. Really. She laughed and smiled during the entire first part of the exam. There were stuffed animals that lit up and made noise on the other side of the room instead of an eye chart (Molly can't exactly recite the alphabet yet).

Then, they dilated her eyes and we waited to see the doctor. Bottle time just so happened to fall while we were waiting so she fell fast asleep a few minutes before they called us back. It actually worked out well because the docotor said she could still open her eyes and see everything she needed to with her asleep! And we didn't have to worry about her wiggling all over the place. Then, after some examining, the doctor said she did, indeed, need glasses.

The good news is that she is far sited and it can correct itself with time (hopefully). She has been straining to see which caused her eye to overcorrect and turn inward. And, thankfully, she has done wonderfully with the glasses and does not pull at them or bother them at all, which tells me that they must really be helping her. I chose classic pink but ordered a second pair in an aqua color last week so she could have some accessory options. Hey, if you gotta wear them every day, you might as well make a statement!

MR gets LOTS of extra attention now when we are out in public because of her little glasses. Many people have never seen glasses on an infant before I suppose. But I don't think she minds the extra smiles, compliments, and adoration.

Lastly, the other big news around our house is that MR finally, officially started crawling in her ninth month. She has been rocking on all fours and pulling up since 8 months but didn't master the crawl until recently. And master she has.

She can crawl and climb and go wherever her little heart desires at a moment's notice. Baby proofing, consequently, is our new hobby. ;)