Margo the Littlest Mutant

Margo had a Halloween costume as well. It just doesn't look like it from that really Harper-centric Halloween post. Margo was a mutant. She had three arms.

Margo's funny face makes that third arm look a little too realistic.

Happy Halloween

From Monday to Sunday Harper wore her Halloween costume no fewer than 5 times. She was a purple princess this year. With many thanks to our Alaskan and Canadian relatives.

Carving a great pumpkin. We determined that this is the first pumpkin Marc and I have ever carved as husband and wife.

Harper was never entirely comfortable digging the guts out of the pumpkin even though she put on a smiley face for this picture.

When it came time to deciding how to carve our pumpkin Harper always came back to the sad face. It had to have tears as well. We are not sure why she loves sadness so much. But she really does.

Margo shows us her best scary face.

Happy Halloween from a purple princess and Anne of Green Gables/Pippi Longstocking/Madeline/Raggedy Ann/a Dutch person. These were some of the guesses people offered for my costume. One woman just said my costume was hot. I just said thank you.

We walked up one street and half way down another and Harper declared she had enough candy. It was cold. She hadn't eaten anything but candy all weekend. And five minutes after she sat down in the stroller she fell asleep and slept all night long.

Red handed

hearting painting

Dancing Class

Harper started a dance class in the middle of September. She calls it dancing class. And it is great. One of the great things about it is being able to see old friends so often. And another reason is being able to have a weekly excuse to go downtown. Put those together and this is what we get:

Margo at eight months

Pulls herself up to stand. Laughs. Is purely delightful when we get her in the morning. Loves all kinds of beans including: Mehrsa's, Rose's, and Trader Joe's. Crawls like a champ. Likes watching clapping hands, little birds, strangers on the subway. Favorite toy: those egg-like caps on the toilet. Not good at feeding herself (see above). Very good at sleeping at night. Has two teeth and a top tooth poking through.

The Sprinkles

When our friend Jared got his fancy quesadillas published in the NY Times I was inspired to make Harper's meal times a little more fun. I was cutting quesadillas for a few days after I saw that cute cat. But Harper has never loved the quesadilla. She does love the sprinkles. So here is an attempt at making meal time more fun with the sprinkles. It should be noted that the nutella-sprinkle combo is also an idea we love copying from the Bybaran house.

On a Slide

We welcomed T+K to the east side for some Columbus Day shenanigans.

Feeding

I read "I Will Never Not Ever Eat A Tomato" often and always think the parents aren't good ones because they ask Charlie to feed Lola her dinner sometimes. But maybe Charlie likes doing it. Harper sure likes feeding Margo.

Not sure if Margo likes it.

Columbus Day Campout

Marc and Harper camped at Clarence Fahnestock State Park over Columbus Day weekend. By the looks and sounds of it they had a good time.

They found an apple orchard the next day and picked apples with 500 other people.

Airplane

Harper's new favorite game

A happy birthday to me

People always tell me I have a nice platysma.

I didn't know I loved fountains so much. This is another nice one.

We just like stripes so much.

Marc admitted he wasn't very good at making cakes so what else would I like for my birthday treat. I really love cookies more than anything. And these monsters are no exception. Unfortunately I could only eat one because I ate too many french fries for dinner.

After Harper goes to bed Margo sometimes wants to stay up and get some attention all to herself. I happily oblige.

A Conference weekend

Harper got a pair of wings for her birthday and a Dora cookie. She wore those wings for 48 hours. Including while watching General Conference. And she very carefully ate in a circle around Dora's face until all that was left was her nose and mouth.

This was Margo's second conference weekend and that was hard to believe. I got as little as possible out of the eight hours as I ever have. Having two kids is this whole other ball game.

Conference intermission at the soccer park.



Harper took this picture.

Sisters