Cousins

A couple of weekends ago Marigold and I had a chance to hang out with my niece and nephew two days in a row. My parents brought them to my house one day and I brought Goldie over to my parents the next. It is so fun to watch these three together. These cousins really love each other and get such a kick out of one another. Warms my heart.

My Dad and his two beautiful granddaughters.

Marigold has no idea how funny she's being to 5 and 8 year olds.

Yes, they all fit in the tiny house!

They made soup and Marigold modeled the size of her mouth to ooo's and aahh's.

Playing guitar with Mason couldn't be more fun.

Marigold sharing and hugging teddy with McKenzie.

Teddy and M get a ride from Grandpa.

I think Marigold already looks up to Kenzie. She was trying to give her her best smiles. Hilarious.

The next day at my parents, there were so many new toys to explore. I told Marigold we were going to see Mason and McKenzie again and she lost her mind with excitement. They are so amazing with her. They play with her and make her laugh so much. It's going to be fun to watch these guys over the years.

Christmas is Coming...

The excitement is brewing.

*Thanks to Auntie Jodie for the adorable coat and hat!

Mmm...

My Mom made pumpkin cookies with maple cream cheese frosting and I got this twisty metal thing. It's awesome.

Do you know where I can find more twisty metal things?

Peas in a Pod

These two goofs spend a lot of time hanging out on the floor together. Why is it always so awesome when your Dad gets down on the floor to play with you? It's universal right? She loves her Dada. Yes, she's holding a cucumber. She's holding a zucchini in the other hand too. My mom got her a set of realistic vegetables and she LOVES them. They get carried around and fed to all adults and stuffed animals. I'm sure they will be in many more posts to come.

Halloween

I love our community in West Seattle. There were so many afternoon and early evening Halloween options for the little trick-or-treater. We went up to the Admiral Business District and went from store front to store front. It was the perfect amount of activity for a 18 month old.

We were excited all day!

Who's an excited duck?

Who's still excited?

I love this. Her costume was a little big so when she ran it looked like she was flapping.

I always try. Usually at least one of us is distracted.

Welles knows how monkeys kick it.

A duck and her raisins. She carried that pail the whole time. She caught on to what was going on really quickly. Even though she didn't know what candy was, she knew that the actions were fun and rewarding somehow.

There was a giant fuzzy spider at the sporting goods store and when you got close to it, it was pulled up into the air. This was a real experience for little miss. She was so excited and a little sceptical of this spiders intentions. I'm pretty sure she peed.

Look at the owl behind M. A little overwhelmed and oh-so-cute.

Finn borrowed a light saber from his friend, Darth Vader.

Towards the end we ran into another duck. Can you believe it? Marigold couldn't. She thought she was such a lucky duck.

Hooray! Eva got one with all of us looking! One of M's eyes is hiding but that's still pretty good. On our way to the car we even went to a couple houses. She was so into it. I love love LOVE doing stuff like this with her. It's amazing to watch her learn and grow and experience.

When we got home Casey did the fatherly candy safety check and we let her play. She would dump it out and load it in. What more was there to do? This was so fun! Next year she'll know what's more fun. Sugar high.

WHat the what is this? And why does it smell like yummy stuff I get when my teeth hurt really bad?

Tired and thrilled with her loot. It was a great Halloween. I hope I still get to pick her costume next year. I already have a few ideas.....

Halloween Carnival

A couple days before Halloween, Eva and I took our kids to a Halloween Carnival at the local community center. Marigold's duck costume had yet to arrive but thankfully Grammy Joanne had given her a Snow White outfit that she LOVED! Off we went.

Marigold stood in the middle and took it all in for a few minutes and then ran around wanting to touch everything.
Here's Eva with her two little monkeys. Adorable! My girl refuses to pose for pictures. Someday.

Elmo was there and Marigold just about lost her mind. She followed him around for a little too long:)

There was a giant bounce house with a slide and she wanted to stay in it the whole time. It was scary for Mama because I couldn't get in there with her and the bigger kids were going nuts. She thought it was hilarious. I was a nervous nelly. I tried to put her in her own bubble (see above). She climbed up and went down the slide all by herself. I took a video with Eva's phone so maybe I'll post that later...

She sat in a big girl chair and ate snack. I couldn't get over how she looked sitting at a giant table eating with loads of other kids. I loved it. I'm glad she's young enough not to know that I didn't let her have a capri-sun.
She picked out the most perfect pumpkin ever at the pumpkin patch and tried to decorate it. Every sticker that went on came right back off.

She tried every single bike and toy.

She was terrified of the blow up ghost but the pumpkins were okay. She was zonked when we left. Exhausted and adorable.

Smile?

I am vain. I admit it. I like taking pictures with my friends and I love taking pictures of my daughter and with my daughter. I am trying to show her how fun this is but she may be more like her dad in that regard. I'm really trying to teach her the whole "smile" for the camera thing. Here's how that's going.

Sometimes I get this. It's the "get it over with" smile.

Sometimes I get this. I don't know what this is.

This is the"here's my smile now let's go outside" smile.

I kind of love this one but it looks a bit painful.

This is more like it.

There's my smile. Thanks Marigold. Keep puttin up with me.