mini mugs

On the way to Marfa last week, we stopped in Hatch to get the kids some passports. Turns out T or C is appointment only and everyone in the town is getting a passport this next month. Here are their little pictures.  I love them--especially Theo's, he took it without me close and was being so shy.

After looking at these two pictures side by side, I realized my joke of Margot's turning into a sweet potato is not so much of a joke anymore. Girlfriend's got a full blown case of carotenemia. Otherwise known as, sweet potato/butternut squash poisoning, which is harmless but especially devastating for the particularly fair complexioned. I thought it only happened to moms who fed their kids gallons of carrot juice, but I have created an oompa loompa. A cute oompa loompa, but one nevertheless. I am starting to cut down on her vitamin A consumption, and we'll see how recovery goes. But, I think she's going to have great eye health. Or make really good candy, either one.

Marfa

Donald Judd (or Don, as we liked to call him) art installation. Do not touch. Or take pictures, as the Judd super fan said loudly as I took this picture.

At the beginning of our guided tour, some in the group commented in general on our kids' cuteness, how fun, etc. I would have loved to get their (new) opinions after the two hour tour was over.

Candy and Dad shoulder rides. That's how you get two toddlers though a huge space where they can touch nothing.

I'm so glad Theo had a friend to play with (and fight with over cars and legos too, of course. They're toddler boys!).

Prada, Marfa. An art installation 37 miles away from Marfa.

Real shoes (right only) and bags inside. Also, bullet holes.

This past weekend we took a road trip to meet the Boam family in Marfa, Texas. A place that is as small as its name is fun to say. Marfa is a really interesting place--basically what happens when people who are talented with money decide to make a tiny (tiny) town in west Texas a home for their art. If you build it, they will come--and they are hip artists, musicians, chefs and (ahem) tourists. There aren't a ton of artists, musicians, and chefs, but they are there in more abundance than say, Valentine, Texas. Or Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (although some people here would argue that point).

It wasn't until after we got home that Jon and I realized that this was our first trip with the two kids without any type of grandparent assistance. And while I loved our trip, especially the time spent with our friends, I think we all were tired and a bit overwhelmed from juggling the naps, night times, weird meals, and restlessness of two toddlers and a baby. Theo decided that this was the weekend to develop a cold and cough, and Margot had her first fever. She also refused all that gross store bought food I brought and subsisted on breast milk and Cheerios, exclusively. Central time did work in our favor, as Theo woke up every day around 5:00 am MST, and Margot usually had about an hour between 4-5 am that she preferred to be awake. Combine all that (the Boams were lucky that their cute little Henry just started crawling out of his crib, so they got to try and introduce a whole new sleep arrangement away from home) with art installations that MUST not be touched in any way, even though they look like boxes and tunnels, and the fact that most of Marfa is not kid friendly (a town full of hip kids and hip retirees=little patience for little children that scream a lot and hate restaurants), and we came away as parents with a lot more experience under our belts. Marfa is a small town to its core, with restaurants that open and close due to a whim, pizza places that run out of everything you could put on a pizza, and a Dairy Queen (it's only chain, I think) that does not know what a crunch cone is. Finding dinner was so difficult one night that the words "Sorry, we're out of baked potatoes," almost brought one in our party to tears. We also ran into the lady who was renting her house to us a few times. (If you want to get to know her too, you can read her newly published book.)

All the things that did not go according to plan just made this trip more of an adventure. I love telling a good story, and this weekend was a favorite just based on that alone. This blog post will get too long if I talk more about how a 10 pound attack dog drove me to jump on a picnic table, the beautiful stars at the observatory in one of the darkest night skies in the country, the epic grilled cheese Jon and I chose to eat based on how it combined all the grilled cheese options on the menu into one sandwich, the tiniest NPR station, how we saw a major star (maybe C or D list!) at a pizza place (the "inconceivable!" guy from Princess Bride), the amazing burritos made by a lady in the shed behind her house, and the hand stitched fabric wall hanging illustrating a nude beach in the house bathroom. I am so glad I have a poster from a show I did not attend to remember it all by. My favorite thing of all, though, was to sit in a living room with dear friends and laugh until my stomach ached. I would drive anywhere to do that.

Margot, 8 is great

Eight months already! Once you pass six, time flies by. Margot is a little joy, weighing a bit less than 15 pounds, and is around 25 inches in length (I think). She's still struggling to fit into 6-12 month clothes and has a little round head that won't fit the latest hat I knit her. Now I'm making another one in the 3 month size, should do. She loves scooting, goes up on her knees a bit but doesn't see the point when she can zoom from room to room on her belly. It helps that our house is all tile--basically an infant slip and slide. She goes amazingly fast and looks like she is swimming. If the past few nights of screaming are proof, she is working on her first tooth. Her pincer grip is stellar--I hadn't given her finger food until yesterday, but she has been slithering around on the floor, picking up tiny tiny crumbs and putting them in her mouth for a while now. Speaking of food, she doesn't like bananas anymore. She loves sweet potatoes more than I can explain. I don't blame her, when there are any left I finish the bowl, they are so delicious. No pears, no mango, avocado made her projectile vomit. She really only eats sweet potato, sweet potato mixed with other things, carrot, and an apple/prune/cinnamon mix I made. Oh and water. She freaks out when I give her water. Tune in next month when she has a nice orange-y sheen to her skin. Good thing it's a superfood!

She utters a pig squeal in anger if you take something away from her, which is a constant in her life when Theo's around. She loves to explore in the playroom, checking out all the random things in there, and I can leave her for a few minutes just constantly checking that she isn't around any choking hazards. I bought some clips for her hair, but while long on top it's still too thin to hold anything. I think she may be growing out of her 0-3 month shoes finally. She is a bitty thing that I love so much! And luckily she still thinks I'm the bee's knees.