Im so slack at updating this blog lately. I just seem to have no time. There is ALWAYS something to do. Anyway, Mollys laugh is so funny, this video doesn't even capture it in all it's crazy glory but it does give you a vague idea.

Molly is now 9months old! (where has the time gone?!) and she weighed in at 17lbs 13oz on her 9 month 'birthday'. She 'cruises' and speed crawls really well now, she still sleeps well and is an all round happy baby.

As for Sam his speech is coming on in leaps and bounds now. He has begun singing nursery rhymes which is very sweet and has an amazing ability to turn off and on his American and English accents. Its actually quite fascinating how he does it. He has even made up 'half and half' words. For example in English it would be 'ladyBIRD' in American it's 'ladyBUG' Sam has created his own multi-accent word of 'ladyBERG' hahaha!!

Molly has taken off with her physical skills (I always think of Napoleon Dynamite when I talk about 'skills' haha) she is crawling - both belly off the floor and a very fast 'army crawl'. She sits well with no support and can go from sitting to crawling and visa versa. She is finally enjoying her food. We're still doing the 'baby led weaning' thing. Last night she fed herself shepherds pie - her 1st taste of meat and she seems to love it. She has the amazing ability to fart like a grown man and has some pretty good burps to match!! She is 16lbs 9oz (as of last week) so still a tiny dot compared to her brother at the same age.

We have babbling too!! finally!! her favourite is 'babababa' but there is also the predictable 'dadada' and 'mamama' which, although I like to think are aimed at her us- her parents, im pretty sure it's just a noise at this point!

As for Samuel, my dear sweet Samuel. Well, he is a horrendous ball of two-year-old pent up frustration for the most part. He hates socks, shoes, using the potty, eating vegetables, going to bed, when Molly touches his toys. Just about everything sends him into a tantrum - yay! However, he still of course has his sweet moments. His speech is coming along really well and he is now using personal pronouns. My aim is to get him to recognise all letters and numbers 1-10 and colours by April. I think he'll do it. He is already almost there. He has me in fits of laughter with the things his little brain comes out with. All those neurons joining and strengthening makes for some comical outbursts. Every time Molly makes a bee-line for 'his' toys he will scream 'mummy, quick...pick her up...oh noooo! no molly! please....DONT LICK IT' hahaha...he will also sit at the table at dinner time and say 'so...ummm...shall I call Sam?' I say 'yes, why not' and he will call 'Saaaaaaammm' and then say 'oh...he's right here' hahaha...silly boy!

This video is a bit pointless as you cant really see. But he insits on wearing the lower half of his Halloween costume (some dragon legs with dragon feet) at ANY opportunity!

This video was taken about 10 days ago, just when Molly had begun to try and get up on all fours. She is now MUCH better at this and does it several times a day. Almost exactly on the same time scale as her brother. He got up on all fours 8 days after he turned 6 months. Molly was 4 days after. We still haven't got to actual crawling yet, but she seems to enjoy 'rocking' back and fourth.

As for other news: Im offering solids at least once a day. She still isnt terribly interested although she will usually 'gum' something each day. Last night she had toast with yogurt (yes, lovely combination I know!) and she gummed the toast to death haha!

Here's Molly this morning being her usual jolly self! she has settled into a great routine now. Wakes at 6:30am and then plays with Sam on the floor until around 7am when she has her milk, at around 8am she will nap for 45minutes. More Milk at approx. 10:30ish and then there is another nap around 11am - this nap is the best of all as Sam goes to bed at this time too and they both usually sleep for 2-3hrs!! NICE! At 3pm she will have another bottle and another nap at around 3:30-4ish for half an hour or so. Then its another bottle at 6pm and at 6:30-7ish she is down for the night! easy peasy!

In no particular order here's some excitement from the last few weeks: We 'started' baby led weaning. Molly is 24 weeks...so, I suppose it's maybe 6 months..or not, I don't know how you're 'supposed' to count it. Anyway, absolutely NO food has made it down Mollys gullet yet. She likes to squish the heavily over priced organic avocado in her little fists, and smear it all over the table. She has shown little to no interest in ingesting any. To me this is a sign that she probably isn't ready for solid food yet and i'm not surprised. That's fine, and one of the many benefits of baby-led weaning - SHE will decide when to eat. SHE will decide when her instincts are telling her she needs more than breastmilk. We are one of the only cultures that see it as a good idea to strap a baby to a chair and force pureed 'diet' foods into its mouth, when the babies natural instincts kick in and the food gets thrust back out, it's scraped off and forced back in. Babies are not in charge of what, when and how much they eat. Baby led weaning gives the control back to the child and that in turn has many benefits. When I think of all the time and effort I spent making purees for Sam and how I would have to feed him before I could enjoy my (then cold) meal it just makes so much sense to me to allow Molly to eat at her own pace, and eat 'real' delicious foods instead of pureed carrots etc (bllergh). She will be able to enjoy meal times with us, watch us eat and learn while I enjoy my HOT food!

We took Sam to the Children's museum in Phoenix, he LOVED it. He is such a clever little boy - but then I'm his mother, of course im going to say that haha. He already knows 3/4 of the letters of the alphabet, some names, some sounds and some both. He talks up a storm now and copies EVERYTHING Bryan says. I cant actually write on here what profanity left his mouth this afternoon...but lets just say it wasn't particularly pleasant and Bryan got told off!!

Miss Molly Mookins got her English passport! meaning she is now officially a 'dual citizen' like Sam. She wont be able to be deported when we go home haha...and no, I seriously wouldn't put anything past the government of either country. I can seriously see them trying to deport a baby!! What a wondrous thing it is for my children to own two of the most valued passports in the world. It will mean, when they are grown up they can live and/or work ANYWHERE in the whole of Europe or the US. There are not many people than can do that with out mounds of paperwork and visa applications. I would assume it will make them valuable employees of any large businesses that require travel between such countries as they will save everyone lots of time and money not needing any travel paperwork!

Just a photo of my beautiful girl. She is such a sweet girl. Almost NEVER cries. Im so glad we have her, she is already Sams best friend and the 1st thing he asks about when he wakes up. I hope they will be close when they grow up.Bryans dad left last week after joining us for a week in sunny Tucson. Unfortunately Bryan had to work for much of it but we were able to get out and have fun at the weekend with a trip to Mt Lemmon and Sabino Canyon. I wouldn't wish the horrors of Tucson on anyone but I'm pretty sure he enjoyed his time with us.

I think I have the only baby that doesn't coo or babble, but growls. Please excuse my un made-up face, my spots and exposed bra strap (I was at home all day - you're lucky im even out of my PJ's!!) and admire my beautiful baby girls delicious growls. Its funny to think that one day she will have a sweet, girlie voice.

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get s

What a busy month. On Friday we got back from spending a month in England. It was SO wonderful. The children really get so very much from being there. There is space to run around and you don't boil to death, there are enough people to lavish them with the attention they deserve, there are animals and trees and most importantly for Sam there are hundreds of his beloved 'Choo-choo's'. Sam spent a great deal of time with my dad in the meadow watching the trains go by and playing with Lola. It makes me realize how truly limited their life is here in Az. Its too hot to go out, there is barely anything to do and no family around. I really hate this place for them.

That brings me to my next point. Bryan has got an assignment for an unaccompanied tour of Korea for a year. For that year, the children and I will go back to England where im sure they will flourish and I will get to have a life and family to talk to. To compensate for a year away from family the airforce allow you *some* say in what base you go to afterwards. We have picked Germany as our number one spot and I really, really hope we get it. However, we all know how the airforce likes to do as they please, so we can only hope.

As for milestones, Sam is almost potty trained. We haven't dared to leave the house nappy-less yet, but the time is close. He has zero accidents during the day at home although he is still in a nappy at nap time and bedtime. Molly is growing slowly but surely, she is finally just over 14lbs and will turn 5 months old next week. She can roll both ways and has been doing so since the 25th August, she is much more steady with her head control and can do baby push-ups while on her tummy. We will introduce solid foods in October when she hits 6months. We will be doing baby-led weaning and I cant wait. I'm hoping it will help her to gain a little more weight as Ive been researching some baby-friendly calorific foods like avocado, sweet potato, bananas etc etc all of which she should be able to feed herself.