Thanksgiving

We had an amazing Thanksgiving break. Some friends from Fort Worth allowed us to borrow their house in Pebble Beach, California. The house was beautiful and so perfect because it already had lots of baby gear (high chairs, pack-n-play, etc.). We had a week of fun and lots of good family time. Margaux loved the beach. In fact, a couple of days after we got home, I asked Margaux what she wanted to do that day. Her response was, “Airplane. Go see sand?” Just like her B, she’s always ready to head to the airport. Here are some of the Margaux pics from the trip, and I’ll post some more in a few days. Most of these are from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and Point Lobos State Park.

Halloween

This is a little late, but I wanted to share a couple of pictures of Margaux from Halloween. Dan and Tamara bought her a super cute Halloween dress and bow. I did my best to get a lot of wear out of it by taking her to a different church every week in the time leading up to Halloween. Good thing we didn't visit one of those churches that doesn't like to acknowledge Halloween, or if we did, they didn't have the nerve to share their disapproval with me.
In addition to the dress, Margaux got into the holiday spirit in her pink poodle costume, which she called her "dogfit" - a combination of "dog" and "outfit." I had been procrastinating on buying Margaux a costume because I couldn't decide what I wanted her to dress as. One day I thought to myself, "Well, you better make up your mind or your kid is going to be the only one not in costume at the preschool costume parade. It's not like someone is going to knock on your door and hand you a costume." You know what happened? That very afternoon our neighbor, Mrs. Park, rang our doorbell and handed us a costume. She said she found it at a local shop and thought it might be Margaux's size. And, it WAS her size, which is amazing because Margaux is petite and hard to fit. All in all, Margaux loved Halloween. She doesn't quite understand why she can't wear her dogfit to school these days, and who knows, I might just let her. If you can't dress up as a pink poodle just for the fun of it when you are a toddler, when can you?

Agritourism

Mike, Margaux, and I had our first experience with agritourism this weekend. Agritourism is a way farmers and ranchers can make extra money by opening their land to tourists. We drove about 30 minutes to a farm between Stillwater and Ada, OK. We got to go through corn mazes, hay bale mazes, a pumpkin patch, dig for bones in a giant sand pit, and pet donkeys, horses, and miniature cows in a petting zoo. The bone dig and the petting zoo were not my favorites. My urban upbringing did not prepare me for the ick-factor. Margaux loved it all, though. We went with our friends, Tracy and Claire. Claire is in the pictures with Margaux. She’s Margaux’s age but is a lot taller. They are best buddies and are really cute together.
P.S. I don't know what is up with the underlining above, but I can't get it to go away.

Just playing on the couch

Hey, all. Things are well here in Stillwater, though it's cold and rainy today. Because of the weather, and b/c Margaux is a little under the weather (nothing serious, just a vaccination hangover) we're playing inside today. Here's a short video of Margaux, who is 19 months old now.

Our best to all...

budding Georgia O'Keefe?

This is an early sketch Margaux made. She calls this one "cudders." (as in, she used several cudders to make the picture: red, green, etc.)

First Day of School

Today was the first day of what I hope will be a very long and erudite academic career for Margaux. I am the one to take her to school, and as you can imagine I was a little apprehensive about how it was all going to go down. School starts at 9:00, and I teach several blocks away at 10:30. I had visions of a shrieking child whom a teacher would have to physically pry off my body so I could tearfully make my way to the car. I even left off the mascara this morning in preparation. Here’s what happened.
As we pulled up to her school, dozens of parents and children were gathered outside the building because no one (and they are serious about this) is admitted before 9:00. I carried her into the crowd thinking she would be uncertain of all the new people in this strange new place. She wanted “DOWN” immediately, and when I complied, she started going around saying hi to everyone and everything (including the flowers and rocks, so people probably think she's a little off in the head). When we went inside, she just headed for the toys and never looked back. Other children where crying, but she just looked at them like, “Can’t you see all this cool stuff to play with?” I suppose I'm a little offended, but oh well, I'll get over it.

Someone show this to Faye!

My mom and I have discussed recently how Margaux has not come up with a name for Grandma Faye. Margaux calls her grandfather Mike "Pop" and grandfather Lolan "Kaw-paw," and called her late grandmother Betty "B." But grandma Faye remained nameless. But no more! As you can see, Margaux has finally settled on what to call grandma Faye.

Priorities

Last week, Margaux and I went to Braum's (regional ice-cream/burger place) to have a malt. While there, I got a gallon of milk. At the checkout line, Margaux surprised the cashier by snatching my wallet from me, pulling out a $20 and saying "money!" As we walked out, I had Margaux (still clutching a dollar bill) in one arm, the milk in the other. Transcript of our conversation follows:

Margaux (looking at gallon of milk): "Milk!"
Dad: "That's right."
Margaux (looking at dollar bill): "Money!"
Dad: "That's right. Which do you like better, milk or money?"
Margaux (long pause): "Money!"

This is her, digging through my wallet:

some vacation pics/movies...

When you fly with children, you have to make sure they will fit in either the overhead bins, or under the seat. The airport has helpful diagrams to assist you with this...

In other news, Margaux's aunt got her a new pair of Squeaker Sneakers. If you watch the vid, it becomes quickly apparent why they're called squeakers...

Pics from Fort Worth

I can't believe how long it's been since we posted! I'm trying to catch up, now. To start out with, here's some pictures from our stay in Fort Worth. I'm sorry for the delay, and promise to be more vigilant in posting.

Here's Cindy and nephew Keller playing with little M in her pool we set up in the back yard of her grandparents' house.



Splashing is always fun!



Here's a closeup of our little minnow...



And here's a couple of pics of Margaux and her friend Claire (thanks to Tracy for the great pics!).

Aunt Tammy and Uncle Calvin come to visit

Wednesday afternoon Aunt Tammy and Uncle Calvin flew in from Baton Rouge to visit for a week. Margaux just loves Aunt T and Uncle C!

They took her to lunch at Crepe Myrtle:

...and Aunt Tammy bought her her first pool! Margaux is now a big fan of the swimming pool. She just looks at it and says "water" with a sort of awed tone in her voice, as in "that's a lot of water!"

She likes to sit and splash both herself and everyone around her.

And this pic is actually from the previous week when we were in Fort Worth. Neiman-Marcus has a small children's section with (what else) a toy Ferrari. Margaux just hopped right in like she belonged there.

And here is a pic of Tammy reviewing parts of the foot (metatarsals, proximal and digital phalanxes, etc.) with Margaux.

Baby yoga

Learning to walk entails learning to stand, and Margaux's efforts have been great fun to watch. She frequently manages to get her rear end up while the hands stay on the floor and ends up doing a perfect "downward dog" pose. Here are a couple of pics (taken from my Blackberry, so pic quality isn't great.)

I'm a walkin'

Greetings from Fort Worth, where Margaux gave her mom the Mother's Day gift of taking real and unassisted steps a couple of hours ago. I, of course, forgot the video camera so I won't have footage up until we get back to the Still. Maybe Cin can shoot video w/her iPhone. It certainly costs as much as a video camera. Margaux sends kisses to all.

Hello, everyone. We hope your weekend is going well. Here are a few pics we thought were sort of funny.

I call this one "Angry Baby." Little M was peeved with me one morning b/c I took the remote control away from her. She's performing a ancient Cajun gesture with her left hand which translates, roughly, into "You have made me angry so I flare my nostrils at you!!!"

...by the time breakfast was served, however, she had decided to forgive me.

This was from later in the day (dinnertime, I think). Sometimes, dinner makes her downright giddy.

Here's a pic of M3 relaxing in her toddler-sized easy chair. That's one of her babies with her. She says "baby" very slowly and deliberately--"bay-BEE"

A Day in the Life

Feeding herself while wearing spinach war paint.

Checking email on Daddy's crackberry.

Using her walking toy as a scooter. I guess a skateboard will be on her Christmas list.

Chilling out in the chair she got for her birthday. She loves this thing.

Rocking in the chair made by Grandpa Melancon.

Getting a pacifier out of her diaper bag.

Sitting in her walking toy with her purse and baby doll.

eye of the tiger, redux

You may remember a few weeks ago when Aunt Megan sent us a tiger that dances and sings "Eye of the Tiger" (we put up a video of it). Well, now Margaux has figured out how to work the on/off button and enjoys turning the tiger on and off and on and off and on and off...

(In other news, we changed the blog settings to allow comments from anyone. Previously, you had to had to have a blogger or google account to post comments.)

What's been happening...M's BD, words, and snow

Well, we haven't been terribly good about updating the blog lately, but we've been a tad busy. Two weeks ago, we celebrated Margaux's birthday (real b-d is on 3/12, but her mom teaches on Thursday nights, so we had a party 3/14). Margaux had a great time and enjoyed getting presents. At this stage, I believes she likes ripping up wrapping paper more than she likes playing with the enclosed toys. Here's a few b-d pics. (Thanks, Aunt Tamara for the pictures!)


First we have the birthday girl:




Then, we have the birthday cake:



She tried the cake, but didn't really eat much of it.








But overall, she had a great time at her party.

Today we're all sitting around inside because it's snowing here in Stillwater. Over breakfast this morning, I recorded Margaux and Cindy having a discussion. Pretty amusing. Also I've included a brief clip of the snow falling and M's reaction to it.

For those Down Under

As many of you know, Margaux's B and Pop are traveling in New Zealand and Australia. They are missing Margaux, and it just so happens that my friend, Courtney, who is visiting this weekend brought her camera. So, for you, Mom and Dad, here are some pictures of your granddaughter from this morning. Love to you both, Cindy, Mike and Margaux

Tornadoes and Tigers

Lots of twisters a couple of days ago (Tuesday). I was about to give M3 a bottle and put her down for a nap when the warning sirens went off. You'd be surprised how quickly you can get a baby, diaper bag, flashlight, and weather radio down into a storm shelter if you're properly motivated. All was fine in Stillwater (some light hail damage) but other communities in OK weren't so lucky.

On a happier note, Aunt Megan sent Margaux a stuffed tiger that sings "Eye of the Tiger," the hit song from the 80s. The tiger plays the song over and over and over and over again. We love to hear it! (Not!)

But here's a fun video of M3 and her new toy. If you watch closely, at around 1:33 into the video you see a subtle hint that Margaux has had enough of the song.

Dancing to the purple dinousaur

Hello, all. We're digging out from under the ice that got dropped on Stillwater over the last couple of days. Our Honda has been parked up the street the whole time because it was impossible to get down the icy hill without sliding into the creek. Our neighbor tried to move his Corvette (I guess he was going to put it in the garage) and ended up spinning around in the ice and parking it on top of *his* neighbor's terraced flowerbed, where it sat for 2 days because the tow truck couldn't get down the street. Yeesh.

Here's a short vid Cindy shot. When Barney came on, Margaux dropped what she was doing so she could crawl over and dance to the Barney songs.

Margaux eats cheese

This video shows the first time Margaux tried cheese, and as you can see, she's not keen on cheese. We'll keep trying to get it down her, though, because a world without cheese is sort of sad.

Short movie

Cindy got me a FlipVideo camera for Christmas, and I've been having fun filming stuff. It's very easy to make quick little movies, like this one...