Great grandma Fran

Flying home from Ohio for a service for Molly's sweet great grandmother, known as gfran by her 7 grand kids. We lost her unexpectedly a few weeks ago, and I am still overwhelmed with grief. She was one of the sweetest, most gentle, loving and selfless women in my life and I am so very sad that Molly won't have more time with her.

The last time we spent time with her was for a birthday party for Molly's cousin, Emerson. It went past Molly's bedtime and she was getting a little fussy. Grandma reached over with her famous long finger nails and gently to tickled Molly's arms and neck. She was immediately in a trance and fell asleep in my arms. Grandma was an amazing babysitter for Molly when Ben and I were in a bind and always came bearing gifts that ended up being Molly's favorites.

I will miss her stories, her tickles, and her soft soothing singing voice. I will pass on our memories and traditions to Molly with Andy Williams playing white christmas with the first snow, eating Jiffy cornbread with milk and sugar, always putting a little cinnamon on Molly's applesauce, rolling out and decorating the best christmas cookies with Molly, and I'll probably even watch Miss America contests with Molly and think of gfran. I will tell her stories and tickle Molly's back and arms. I will try to show Molly the love and sacrifice that grandma always provided for her children and grandchildren. I am so glad they at least got to spend a little time together.

11 months

How is it even possible that our sweet girl is 11 months old?! She is such a joy in our lives as always and changing every day. She is very mobile and crawling all over the place and up the stairs. As is true with most babies, she puts everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) in sight straight into her mouth. She has the cutest personality with so many facial expressions. There is never any doubt what she is thinking or feeling. She is usually a happy, sweet girl but can also loudly have a thing or two to say if she's unhappy. She eats like a champion and is growing so fast! She is a little clingy at times with some separation anxiety. She loves to dance, shake her head "no!," play in the bath, laugh with her dada, talk to mama on facetime when I work, and play outside. She can tell us when she's "all done," wave and blow kisses, pull herself up to standing in her crib, and show how she is "so big!" She sleeps like a champ. She also loves to dance and will sing along too. Her favorite things right now are ritz crackers, yogurt, her Elmo book, and her monkey who sleeps with her every night. She brightens our world every day. Can't believe she's almost one year old!