Half a year is better than none

Bright, wide-eyed little baby Goldie! She can't be awake for five minutes without someone picking her up and hugging her. We can hardly believe it's been six months since she joined us---but then, we can also hardly believe there ever wasn't a little Goldielocks to cuddle and love. We made a cake for her half-birthday (Angel Food for our little angel, not that she got any of it) and the other kids insisted that we should dim the lights, sing, blow out a candle, the whole works. They love, love, love their Marigoldie and she loves them too!

 

This is such a typical look for her---wide eyes, raised eyebrows, an expression of great interest. She smiles the instant you make eye contact, but it's hard to make her laugh---a nearly silent, open-mouthed *erk* is the most we can usually get from her, even with our most hilarious tricks. Not that that stops us from trying!

She most dearly loves to eat her own feet. I love it when babies do that.

We love this girl!

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Abe gives the Gettysburg Address

Abe and I both memorized the Gettysburg Address this summer, and in honor of its 150th Anniversary today, I'm posting this video. I love the Gettysburg Address! The two younger boys know large chunks of it, but they can't get through the whole thing without help.

I think I had memorized this before, at least partially, sometime in the distant past, and of course it's all really familiar to me, but it was surprisingly hard to move from there to actually having it truly memorized. It's that last section---with all its "rather for us" and "for us the living, rather" and "to be dedicated here" and "to be here dedicated"---that really gets me. Abe and I were in gales of laughter as he tried to help me get it. And I finally did, and so did he. I think he does such a great job reciting this; he really gives the sense of the words as well as the words themselves. Which is good, because I feel like my Abraham ought to have a special bond with the words of Abraham Lincoln.

Here he is, wearing his Abe Lincoln beard and Daisy's magician hat from last year---which doesn't quite fit his head---but it adds a nice touch. :)

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Bunny Mama and Bunny Baby

Marigold is the right size for this bunny suit. And she's SO cute in it! You know how I am about bunnies.

So many pictures! I just can't restrain myself.

Then to make matters worse, Daisy wore MY BUNNY SUIT my mom made me when I was her age. I wore this bunny suit _everywhere_. Daisy is adorable in it.

So then there were two bunnies, and Daisy insisted on carrying "her baby" around everywhere.

Sometimes to the baby's slight dismay.

I suppose now that I've come this far I might as well show the rest of the furry family. The two pandas made a double-repeat appearance (with different people inside 'em).

This monkey wanted to have his own baby, too.

This elephant made his flexible trunk.

And here they all are together!

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Sunday Leaves

Not this cold and wintry Sunday! No, I speak of two Sundays previous, thirty degrees and forty million snowflakes ago. 

I just . . . don't even know what to say about these facial expressions. We were eating cookies earlier; can you tell?

Happy Goldie!

Shy

Gleeful

I love this cross-cutting orange stripe

Such lovely weather and scenery; long may it linger in our memories. :)

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