Sisters (Weekend)

Some shots of the girls...

Crazy great hair (requires a unique angle - or lots of gel?)

Isla's suddenly gotten all roly-poly and likes to spend time on her tummy interacting with things. She's getting really good at pushing up to get a look at the action, and even trying to work her legs into the act as well. It's now quite possible to find that she's not still where you put her down . . .

I'm really psyched with the idea of the girls being able to play together. It's not all there quite yet, but they can now really interact with the same thing or with each other. Margot's always been great with Isla, but we're getting close to some mutuality. I figure I'd better enjoy it now, before they team up and turn on me.

Hard to tell at first, but this is basically Margot dancing in circles to amuse Isla, and Isla eating it up.

Goin' Mobile

Apparently we're entering the frightening age of having two mobile kids. I put Isla down on the floor-gym mat this evening . . . a couple of minutes later - "where's Isla?":

Oh, there she is . . .

... happy as a clam, under the coffee table! Looks like she's learned to back up.

Look What I Can Do

This also is close enough to her "I see someone I like" smile to give you an idea of how cheery it is to be around Isla most days.

Merry Xmas

Isla, Day Five

Isla Pics

A few pics for those waiting patiently...

Sacked out in proper baby-suit and socks:

Candy-cane stripes:

Can you rub your tummy and pat your head?

Isla Has Arrived!

Next First Post - Making Fingers

So, just in case other methods of communication have failed to reach anyone reading here . . . We can confirm that, as we say in this household, Christi's "making fingers". Which explains why she's been more than usually tired.

Here's the confirming evidence:

This time around we're taking the "making fingers" meme to heart, and calling the little tyke Fingers until they arrive (hopefully sometime in December). We're also not planning to find out if Fingers is a boy or girl, until that time.

Actually, to be quite specific, I think we saw some fingers - or at least hands - although we don't have a printout of such an image. Also (in addition to the head above) arms, legs, feet, spine, chest, and a bunch of internal organs. Everything looked great.

Margot is interested and excited, although I don't think she has any idea when December is.

Margot's Second Birthday

Margot turned two last Friday, so we had a little party over the weekend.

Naturally, there was cake - with blueberries, Margot's favorite:

... and presents:

(Thanks to Great-Grandpa Bob for Bobby the dog!)

One of those presents was a cool car - strangely, also called Bobby! (Thanks Auntie M and almost-Uncle C!)

Aine thought the car was cool - good enough to follow it and Margot around the yard...

... or even to share a wagon ride with.

Soren and Brady followed Margot (and/or her cookie?).

Danny liked the cookies too.

In case the cake and cookies weren't enough, there were also cupcakes. Soren enjoyed one.

Sam the puppy visited from next door, to play with Elisa among others. She wore him out.

Sigrid just liked sitting on the lawn (or the lawn blanket, even though it prevents her from eating grass).

We hope that everyone had as good a time as we did!

Oh no! The TV stopped working!

We've just watched Coraline on DVD. Something about it totally captured Margot - don't know if it was the animation, colors, motion, or what - who basically could barely tear her attention away long enough to open her mouth for me to spoon dinner in occasionally. She kept commenting on or asking about what "that girl" in the movie was doing, what was going on, etc.

Anyway, we got to the end, and the screen went black just before the credits started to roll. At this point Margot came to life with an "On NO!", and jumped up with an "I fix it!", walking over to try to turn the TV back on. The credits rolled, and the music came back, so she realized it hadn't stopped after all, but I was trying to figure out what she was doing, so I paused the movie with the remote. "OH!" she says, trying to figure out whether to go fix it or not. I restart the credits, telling her that I did it, to which she says something like "...it stopped by itSELF".

I'm not sure there's any great lesson or observation in this, but we were pretty amused. I like that she was going to take it on herself to go across the room and turn the TV back on, since it had obviously just turned off in the middle of us watching this entertaining show.

Overheard...

I'm working in the dining room this afternoon, shut in so that I don't have to answer "what Daddy do?" continuously.

Overheard from the kitchen, as Christi and Margot come downstairs:

Christi: (rustling of plastic bag)
Margot: (urgently) No hot! NO HOT!
Christi: But that's what makes it toast!

No specific reply was audible, but I also didn't hear the toaster ding...

Sentence?

Lately, Margot has been saying things that sound a lot like sentences. They generally are missing verbs, but you get the idea. Examples are: "Mama outside" (generally referring to Daddy being outside) and "Margot outside" (to mean that she would like to go outside). Today, we had the start of communication at an entirely new level.

Margot was standing next to Jolly's crate, eating her toast. Jolly was unexpectedly in the crate looking very excitedly at M's toast. I walked over and saw that the door to the crate was closed, presumably by Margot owing to Jolly's lack of thumbs. Somewhat confused, I asked, "Margot, what are you doing?" to which she responded "I close dog". My brain heard, "I closed the dog into the crate, mother". It was amazing AND involved the use of a verb!

Ahh, the unexpected wonders of parenthood.

Margot vs. Daddy's Art

We went to visit my parents recently - Uncle Bill and Grandpa Bob are in town!  More on that later...

Since my old toys are now Margot's toys at my parents, Daddy got to make an awesome tower of blocks.  I mean, it was like, twelve hundred feet tall.  Or, three.  But very rickety.

Margot wasn't that interested while I was building, but became interested once I was done, and dealt with Daddy's creation appropriately.

(Video has sound . . . I tried to cut it down to a quiet level.)

Great-Grandad Smith

Margot's great-grandfather, Robert, came up to visit and spend a little quality time with the small one and the rest of the family. Margot's in a shy, suspicious-of-people-who-aren't-mom-or-dad phase, so we were curious to see how their time together would go. They basically marveled at each other and smiled a bunch. I'd call it a great success!

Now that Robert has returned to Florida, we're all missing him and counting the days until his winter trip back this way.

Here's a shot of Robert, Margot, and Murray for your viewing pleasure.

New Toy

Once again, Margot's friend Soren has generously allowed her to borrow a gently used toy.  Thanks, Soren!

In this case, as we head for the 11-month mark, Margot has been getting more and more interested in spending time standing, and she's pretty good at sidling around the coffee table or around the couch, or recently even "finger walking" holding onto Mom or Dad's hands.  So, we figured it was time for a "walker" toy that she could clomp along behind.  Over the last week, she's gone from rank amateur to being really pretty good with the toy.  Which is OBVIOUSLY how she got herself into this photo-opportunity:

Margot and Pop-Pop, 4/19/2008

Margot's Grammy and Pop-Pop came to visit ten days ago. She's sitting up tremendously, and looking at the world and the people and things in it with a whole new intensity and attention, at least to my eye. I think you can see a bit of it in this photo. I think Christi's working on some posts as well, so I won't spoil some other recent developments yet. Stay tuned!

Margot and Daddy at the Playground, 4/19/2008

Bean Meets Bear

Margot got a very special visit this weekend from her blog-sister Claire Bear.  

It was really great to get these two together ...

... (as well as seeing our old friends her parents).


She even ate my cooking!

... which apparently has Kung Fu Bean Power!


Thanks for visiting, y'all... even Jolly had a great time with a scamperer in the house, even for a short while.

Thanksgiving Teaser

OK folks - I know everyone's out there in turkey-hangover, and probably surfin' over to see what's been put online lately . . . well, we're down in Brooklyn at Christi's Mom's place, and having lots of fun. The big surprise is, we're taking lots of pictures! So, until we get them a bit organized later, here are a couple teasers so that you don't have to wait so long...

Happy Birthday to Mommy!