Halloween comes early

In preparation for Halloween, Paloma and Imogen delved into the dress-up box last night - and look what they found!

The infamous spider girl dress that everyone loves:



Do you like it better with blue sunglasses? And how about some dance moves?



A Halloween costume is nothing without a wig....



Have you ever heard a witch cackle?

Have you ever heard a princess giggle?

Same, same (only different)

Sometimes, people ask me if Paloma and Imogen are similar. I think they are very different - Paloma is more serious whereas Imogen is a little goofball.

But, sometimes they are very much alike.

Yes, they both like to eat melon. And, yes, they are wearing matching clothes. And they love it! It was Paloma's great idea and Imogen thought it was just fine.

But in reality, these two girls are very different...

Baby you can drive my car...

dancing girl

Happy birthday Paloma!

Paloma turned three last week. Three already. It feels like we just celebrated her second birthday.

My, how time flies.

Her birthday was on a Thursday, so we opened a couple of presents before school. She seemed pretty happy to get a new bunny ears jacket.

Modeling her new jacket

Ears to keep her ears warm in the winter

At school, she shared some hedgehog slice with her friends and everyone sang happy birthday.


When we got home, Howard artfully hid her next present in the backyard.

Although she seemed a little distracted, we eventually got her to try out her new trike.

And away she goes!!!

After a trial run in the backyard, we decided to take it to the streets.

She talks a lot, doesn't she?

The next night, Grandmommy and Grandaddy came to visit and she dressed up for the occasion.

Thanks for the hat, Aunt Shari!

Then on Saturday morning, we celebrated AGAIN! (Three parties: what a lucky girl!)

We had a bunch of friends around and they had a grand old time with paint and a blank wall.

Of course, no party is complete without birthday cake. Paloma had requested purple cake with pink frosting and I did my best to oblige (despite some technical difficulties).

Proud as punch!

Mia, Caroline, Paloma, Finn, Liam, James

One, two, three blow!

Thanks to Sarah for capturing Paloma blowing out the candles. Apparently, I missed the first attempt:

In the meantime, Imogen just soaked up the atmosphere...

"Yeah, I'm cool. No big deal."

And now we have a beautiful mural in our backyard!

[Thanks to everyone who came and painted with us![

There's still room to add more!

I wonder what will happen when (if) it snows?

Flying solo

Last week, Howard was out of town for work, surveying sfishes on the Delaware River. He caught a huge gar and had a pretty good time (apart from missing us, of course). 

I had my hands full with three girls (Semilla, Paloma and Imogen) but we all survived. I have found the key is to keep the meals simple and give each of them some attention. Including Semilla. 

You may have noticed that Paloma doesn't like to wear shoes. She loves to walk barefoot in our pokey backyard. But you may have also noticed that she's wearing one pink sock and one purple sock. 

Odd socks!

Apparently, there was a little communication problem before Howard left. He had a different understanding of what it means to do a load of washing for everyone. Paloma seemed to miss out.

Paloma's full laundry hamper. 

You may also wonder what Imogen is doing while I'm tossing the ball for Semilla and watching Paloma rake.

She's part of the fun too, but she's behind the camera. Kind of.

Along for the ride. 

She's got my back.

Up close and personal. 

Curiosity

At the Natural History Museum, there is a life-size replica of the Mars Rover, sitting in front of the Planetarium. In fact, when I first arrived at the Museum I was able to watch one of the research scientists planning the movements of the Rover. It was pretty amazing! The Rover is about the size of a VW Beetle and moves as fast as a Galapagos tortoise, so they plan for a week of movements.

As you may have heard, there is a new robot exploring Mars - Curiosity. It's pretty amazing to watch it crawling across the Martian landscape.



In the meantime, we have our own little explorer venturing out on a mission to discover new lands:

So...

... this is what's been happening lately:

Imme has been a great sleeper and has been growing, and Paloma is always entertaining. 

I'm told that babies grow while they're sleeping. 

Sitting up like she's an old hat at it. 

Discussing the finer points of classical literature (Peter Rabbit). 

Mutual chuckles....

Imogen loves eating!
We have to feed her whenever we eat or else she gets stroppy. 

In other exciting news, we just celebrated our FOURTH wedding anniversary. I decided to really live it up and spent the day in bed with Imogen, getting over a minor daycare bug. We are finishing off our final bottle of wedding wine (which really should have been drunk a couple of years ago), and we still have plans to have a dinner sans children one night (thanks in advance to Leslie for babysitting!).

In other, other exciting news, Howard brought me the best gift ever today: a truckload of horse manure for our garden. Happy!

Quote of the day (from Howard): 

"Imme is so cute! She's such a cute baby!"

{pause}

"You know, I think she looks a lot like me."

Hello again...

Yes, we're still here. Yes, we're all doing well. Yes, Imogen is growing every day (too quickly). Yes, we're busy.

We're off to Heron Lake for Imme's first boat ride this weekend. But here's something to keep you busy in the mean time.

Sweeeeet potato!

We saw some animals at the zoo
(Hi Leslie!).

Birthday brunch at Farm & Table.

 

 Paloma likes writing letters to Imogen. 

I met this guy at Wildlife West Nature Park
(yep, I like my new job).
(And, yes, his tongue really does feel like sandpaper.)

The girls are learning to play together. 

We have a new job and a new baby, but this is what's really keeping us busy:

So proud...

90

Dear Nana Turner,

Happy birthday! I'm sorry we couldn't make it to your party but I hope you have a good time anyway. 

Mama told me the other day that we share a name, and then we found out that I share some hobbies with you too. I love popping bubble wrap too!!!!!

Save me some birthday cake for my next visit!

Love, 

Paloma Lois xxx

Little Lois in action....

Snuggle Puppy

Paloma has a book all about Snuggle Puppy. Evidently, she likes it very much (and has memorised most of the words). 

Thanks, Paige, for the ukelele!

a visit from Grandma and Grandpa

Mum and Dad came to visit a couple of weeks ago, on their way home from celebrating Mum's (big) birthday in France. It was great to see them for a few days! 

We didn't do much while they were here, except drink lots of tea and take Semilla to play in the river. 

Sometimes drinking tea involves reading books. 

Sometimes drinking tea involves picnics on the floor, with a naughty dog. 

Semilla loves the river. 

She never gets tired of the ol' stick-in-the-river game
(even though we do). 

Exploring with Grandma. 

Jim and Claire came to visit as well. We went to the Rio Grande Nature Center (leaving Semilla behind) and looked for ducks and turtles. Unfortunately, the turtles were all on vacation and we didn't get to see them (this time).

"I see one! I see a duck!"

Thanks for the visit! We hope to see you again soon.....

Happy birthday, Aussie Grandma!

We hope you received your card in time. 

Yep, that's the Burdett tongue sticking out. 

A lot of work went into that card...

If you listen closely, you will hear Paloma ask for a toothpick to spread the glitter.

And several iterations....

A glimpse into Paloma's busy little mind....

Until Paloma got it just right.

Happy birthday, world traveler!

Happy Valentine's Day

Howard is out of town for a few days for a meeting of fish folk. Paloma and I decided to make him a Valentine's card. She really got busy....

turn, turn, turn

Two months to go!

Two quick months and BITO will be here.

Trying to convince Semilla to stick her nose in the picture. 

My belly is getting bigger and bigger - the little creature will spend the next couple of months fattening up and so will I.

At the moment, BITO is head up. We're hoping that s/he will turn, turn, turn in time.

And, it seems that the season is beginning to turn too. Our chickens are enjoying running in the yard and garlic is starting to poke up out of the ground.

Afternoon sunshine in our backyard. 

Afternoon ragamuffin in our backyard. 

NMNHM

The other day, Howard was working from home and so Paloma and I decided to clear out for the morning. We headed down to the Natural History Museum for a bit of fun and exploring. Paloma has an ongoing fascination with dinosaurs (as does Howard, coincidentally) so I thought she would love it. 

She did enjoy seeing all of the dinosaurs and the skeletons. 

A dinosaur from New Mexico's Seacoast

She liked watching the movie and seeing the fish. There was a lungfish that didn't move much and then some much prettier fish that were much more interactive.

Apparently, she's getting tired of having her picture taken all the time....

She also really enjoyed running around in the 'river' - a swirl of blue lights meant to mimic the sea floor.  

"Mama! Come with me! Let's go in the river!"

And then there were a couple of dinosaurs outside in the sun, which seemed like a perfect spot to sit down and refuse to go home. 

At the heels of "Alberta",
the Albertosaurus

You may also notice that she decided it was a perfect day to wear her tutu. We got lots of grins from grandparent-aged docents in the Museum...

The cool kid hangin' in the sun...

It was a fun little day trip and we will definitely go there again as Paloma gets older. Maybe our next adventure will be to Explora! 

Merry Christmas!

We are currently packing to head up to Taos for a very white Christmas!

Paloma has been getting into the spirit of the season.

PS Thanks to Leslie and Karen and Karin for a beautiful solstice dinner last night.

See you again after the Christmas break!

Excuse me Sir, how old are you?

Happy Happy Birthday Dad!

You are a spectacular dad, a cool dude, and a really sweet Granddaddy...(are there that many "d"s in Granddaddy?!?! Crikey! (That's what Ayesha would say). 

We are all wishing you a Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

Paloma practiced this song several times and wanted 

to sing you the alphabet song too (we were rather 

impressed because we have not heard her sing the 

alphabet song yet either). However, she must have been 

a little camera shy because this is all you get.

Love WHB, ASB, PLB, BITO, and Semilla.

snow day

Yesterday was a snow day, which meant that daycare was closed and UNM was closed. It's funny, though, because there was really no snow. Apparently, there was snow all around Albuquerque, but just not IN Albuquerque. 

Oh, well. 

Howard was more than happy to spend a day at home with Paloma while I went into the lab and worked through some more invertebrate samples (making the most of the quietness!). 

We did, however, have real snow last Saturday. Not a lot, but enough to justify getting Paloma all dressed up in her cold-weather gear to go out to play in the yard. 

"Come on! Let's go!"

 Enough to make a happy little snowman.

"Hello! I'm a happy little snowman!"

 Enough to make a happy little girl.

Busy cleaning the picnic table. 

 

The next day was bitterly cold too, so we spent most of it inside.

Papa draws good giraffes. 

 Everyone could hang out together in the warm living room.

Semilla thinks life is pretty good. 

By the way, it's still freezing cold (Weather Underground says it currently "feels like" 29F [=-1.7C]). I'm staying inside with a cup of cocoa!