Good Golly Miss Molly!

We babysat our youngest grandchild this past weekend and it went surprisingly well. Molly was a totally different child than she was the last time we babysat – a few weeks when they are just over a year old makes a huge difference. Last time she was a ‘mouth-wide-open’ screamer totally determined to punish her mother for abandoning her even when her mother wasn’t there to appreciate the punishment. Apparently, she was fully capable of crawling, but we saw zero amount of that; she was just a screaming lump in the middle of the living room.

This time was shockingly different. The Viking and I spent most of the time just staring at her like she was a changeling. We had only babysat a month previous – how can this little human be the same human from a month ago? The whole experience was a revelation.

The Highlights

• She mastered the sippy cup. Last time she wouldn’t even pick it up. This time she was a rockstar, one-handing it and performing stunts as she drained the last drop of juice.
• SHE WALKS! And runs! All around the house like it was an Olympic Speed Walking track. She stuck her little hand up to grab my finger and started dragging me around behind her. Amazing.
• She loves getting her hair combed. Especially if you accidentally squirt her in the face with a water bottle. When she woke up in the morning, her hair was kind of knotted and sticking in all directions and I thought I should get her looking spiffy for her mom. I assumed I needed to sneak up on her because who likes getting the knots out of their hair when they are 14 months old? She turned around at the last second and got a face full of water and it wasn’t even warm. SHE GIGGLED! I started combing her hair and she got that look on her face that everyone on the planet makes when they are getting a head massage. She grabbed for the spray bottle and tried to squirt herself and when that didn’t work, she handed it back to me. So, I sprayed her in the face again and combed. And again. And again. Until the bottle was empty and she still wanted more.
• The turkey baster is no longer her favourite toy.

• She has the smelliest farts I’ve ever been forced to smell.
• She found a remote control and held it to her ear like it was a phone. She went to the kitchen and started chatting on the ‘phone’, so The Viking and I started answering her from the other room and the conversation became quite complex.
• She is an epic chair dancer.
• She TALKS! I had given her a sippy cup of juice and when she had no interest in it, I set it on the table. An hour later she stood beside me, reached toward the table and demanded “JUICE!” Well, knock me over with a feather.
• She has a stuffed sloth that is almost as big as she is, and she never puts it down.
• She squinches her face when she smiles and it’s fucking adorable.
• Watching her facial expressions is like looking in a mirror. She has a ‘what-the-fuck’ face.
• Fruitloops received the ‘what-the-fuck’ face. Pretzels didn’t and are the preferred snack after grapes.
• When she poops, she gets this still face and faraway look like she’s listening to aliens.
• Cook an egg for her and she stuffs it in her mouth with both hands and no, she doesn’t want a spoon, thank you very much.
• She gives hugs for no reason at all. It’s a ‘wrap her arms around your neck and lays her head on your shoulder’ kind of hug that makes you feel warm and squishy inside.

So, it was a win. More than just a win, though. It was a spectacular success! The one takeaway was that we don’t have enough toys to entertain Molly and keep her mind working. Lids off Tupperware containers and pill bottles filled with beads won’t cut it anymore. And that’s how I found myself scrolling through dozens of listings on Facebook Marketplace. We want to be prepared for next time, after all.