Mabel Molanphy

Some­times the appli­ca­tions Mabel plays with on the iPad freeze up. This is Mabel’s impres­sion of how it freezes. Which is even fun­nier when you real­ize that she came up with this entire­ly on her own and mama was sharp enough to fig­ure out what she was doing.

ABCDEFG — H Y JACOB…

Love it.

For some time now, Mabel has been pre­tend­ing to ride a bike by sit­ting and rid­ing just about any­thing that she could find, includ­ing the iron­ing board, the humid­i­fi­er, and any­thing with wheels – in and out of the house. So a cou­ple of weeks ago, mama bought Mabel a bal­anc­ing bike (a bike with no ped­als) to get her start­ed. Well, need­less to say, Mabel loves it. 

Here are a cou­ple of clips of her ‘rid­ing’ her bike. Apolo­gies in advance for the shaky video – I typ­i­cal­ly walk beside her to make sure she does­n’t go on the street (not that she lis­tens to me). 

Dur­ing tonight’s bed­time rou­tine, I was able to record Mabel singing her favorite hymns to her dolly.

Love Is Spo­ken Here
I see my moth­er kneel­ing with our fam­i­ly each day.
I hear the words she whis­pers as she bows her head to pray.
Her plea to the Father qui­ets all my fears,
And I am thank­ful love is spo­ken here.

Mine is a home where ev’ry hour is blessed by the strength of priest­hood pow’r,
With father and moth­er lead­ing the way,
Teach­ing me how to trust and obey;
And the things they teach are crys­tal clear,
For love is spo­ken here.

Child of God
I am a child of God.
And He has sent me here.
Has giv­en me an earth­ly home.
With par­ents kind and dear.
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me.
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do.
To live with Him someday.

Mabel has had a very spe­cif­ic bed­time rou­tine since she was born – well, prac­ti­cal­ly since she was born. The rou­tine goes as follows: 

1. Announce it’s time for bed.
2. Bath — some­times real­ly short, some­times long.
3. Taco-time (dad­dy wraps her in a tow­el like a taco — when­ev­er he gets to be there).
4. Brush teeth (more like suck tooth­paste from brush).
5. Comb hair (now that she has some).
6. Run around nakey for a lit­tle while while we pre­pare her dia­per and pajamas.
7. She picks her paja­mas (typ­i­cal­ly goes for the lady­bugs or the flowers).
8. Now we get down to busi­ness and wres­tle her into her night gown (a pouch that zips her in like a cocoon). 
9. As soon as she’s in that, she knows play­time is over.
10. She lays on mama’s or dad­dy’s lap on the rock­ing chair — don’t for­get her pur­ple dolly!
11. And her pink dolly. 
12. And bear.
13. And big dol­ly — or oth­er pink dol­ly if they hap­pen to be around. 
14. Scrip­tures (Jesus sto­ries), books, and/or frog­gy sto­ries — as many as she can con us into. 
15. Songs and hymns — again, as many as she can con us into.
16. Prayer — typ­i­cal­ly said by mama or dad­dy, with Mabel inter­ject­ing when­ev­er she feels prompt­ed to. 
17. Hugs and kiss­es while she con­tin­ues futile attempts to get some more sto­ries or songs.
18. Crib — don’t for­get her dol­lies. And her blanket.
19. Finally…bed time. Now she sings to her­self for about 15 min­utes and then she’s out.
20. Mama and dad­dy lay in near-comas wher­ev­er possible.