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.