Mabel Molanphy

Posted on 25 November 2012 by: Daddy

A Random Update

I real­ized I have sev­er­al pho­tos of moments we have cap­tured with Mabel which have not been post­ed yet, so in an attempt to catch up a lit­tle, here they are: 

Posted on 24 November 2012 by: Mama

Does mama love you?

Poor Mabel has­n’t been sleep­ing so well late­ly, and has in turn had a few impul­sive mis­di­rec­tions. When gen­tly being guid­ed back to the task at hand, she will often ask “does mama love you?” It has called me to the atten­tion what a sweet spir­it she is and her imme­di­ate recog­ni­tion that she has made a mis­take. To real­ize her need to feel loved at these times helps me to real­ize as a par­ent that she is very, very aware of her emo­tion­al surroundings.

On anoth­er note…we went to the cir­cus today. Dad­dy should be post­ing pho­tos, soon. 🙂

Posted on 2 November 2012 by: Mama

Mabel’s music…

We’ve post­ed a few sound clips and videos in the past of Mabel singing her songs, but until recent­ly, I did­n’t real­ize just how much she enjoys express­ing her­self through songs. Now, when­ev­er she is awake when dad­dy gets home from work, she busts out in full cho­rus, “I’m so glad when Dad­dy comes home!” (the LDS pri­ma­ry song). Of course, David’s but­tons are bust­ing, he’s just so proud! 

Ear­li­er this week, we did a lit­tle Face­Time, and as soon as she saw him, she made up her *own* lyrics and tune to sign a song about how much she loved her dad­dy. As the week pro­gressed, she sang a song about her quinoa (hot break­fast cere­al) and her chipati (Indi­an-style tor­tillas). It’s just so fun­ny to see her wheels turn­ing as she shares her thoughts in words. 

I think my favorite, thus far, was this afternoon…her dol­lies (“pink dol­lie” and “pur­ple dol­lie”) have seen bet­ter days, and they are rather drool-stained. I ordered some basic, sol­id-col­ored fab­ric (pink and pur­ple, of course) to sew “new paja­mas.” She kept announc­ing all week to any­one who would lis­ten that mama was sewing new paja­mas. Today, as I fin­ished her pink dol­lie and hand­ed it to her, she wrapped her arms around her and began singing “Fam­i­lies can be Togeth­er For­ev­er!” To me, it rep­re­sent­ed how much she loves her dol­lies and how much she appre­ci­at­ed my effort to keep her dol­lies pret­ty. It real­ly warmed my heart.

On that note…for two Sun­days in a row, Mabel has sung “Fam­i­lies Can be Togeth­er For­ev­er!” in the mid­dle of some­one’s talk at church. HAH. It’s always as a result of look­ing at pic­tures in her nurs­ery manual…whenever she sees a pic­ture of a fam­i­ly, it’s what she sings. She real­ly has such a ten­der heart.

Posted on 25 October 2012 by: Mama

If I’d Known It Would Be the Last…

I seem to be run­ning into this phrase more and more late­ly, when it comes to being a par­ent. How the things that seem lenthty in rou­tine or ener­gy seem to sud­den­ly be gone, with­out a moment of warn­ing. It leaves the said-par­ent a lit­tle sad that those moments are gone, with­out a chance to say good-bye. Near­ly three weeks ago, dur­ing a Sacra­ment meet­ing at Church, just Mabel and I were in atten­dance. She was quite fatigued and want­ed me to hold her. It’s not uncom­mon for her to sit on my lap dur­ing church, with a firm grip on her dol­lie and two fin­gers in her mouth. But, this par­tic­u­lar day, she want­ed me to rock her, as I have each night since the day she was born. This con­tin­ued for near­ly the full hour of Sacra­ment meet­ing. Dur­ing her nap, I relayed the sto­ry to David, with the added note, “I nev­er know when she’ll be all done with me rock­ing her.” It was that night. Dur­ing her night-rou­tine, she sud­den­ly declared that she want­ed to sit in her “lit­tle chair” while mama sat in the rock­ing chair (by myself). It’s con­tin­ued each nap and nigh­t­ime rou­tine since. I miss rock­ing that lit­tle girl, but i am so grate­ful I had that last moment.

My dear sweet Mabel has been a great sleep­er for us (not with­out try­ing!) and sleeps so peace­ful­ly and sound­ly in her crib. David has always want­ed to sneak into her room to peek at her, but con­se­quent­ly ends up wak­ing her up some­times. Near­ly a week ago (last Sat­ur­day), David was able to sneak in there and see her, but fotu­nate­ly also video her sweet self just as I know she sleeps (fin­gers in the mouth and a firm clasp on dol­lie). Again, it was the last. That was the last nap she took in her crib. The very next day, she climbed out of her crib, again. As I took pic­tures (and cried) of yet anoth­er loss of rou­tine new growth oppor­tu­ni­ty for Mabel, I was so grate­ful that David had the last video of her sleep­ing so peace­ful­ly in that crib.

I miss my baby girl and it’s hard to see that she is grow­ing up. And yet, I’ve been here every sin­gle moment of it. I am so grate­ful for the sac­ri­fices and deci­sions that David and I have made for me to raise our daugh­ter full-time. These moments are gone, but the mem­o­ries are dear to me. And thank good­ness for iPhones to cap­ture them. 😉

Posted on 22 October 2012 by: Daddy

A New Friend

Mabel has an incred­i­bly vivid and active imag­i­na­tion, so she will often sur­prise us with her fun­ny inter­ac­tions with toys. Her newest friend, Rody, is cur­rent­ly on loan from one of Rebec­ca­’s friends. Mama fig­ured that she would like to ‘test it out’ to see if Mabel would like the boun­cy horse. Well…you tell us. 

A New Friend from David & Rebec­ca on Vimeo.