Our little Max, in the brief interval during which she deigned to wear her crown.
After three days of blizzard and three feet of snow, it (typically) turned summer again very abruptly on Halloween morning, and the world began to melt at a furious pace.
By noon we had all stripped to our shirtsleeves, and I'm willing to bet that the sluices and aqueducts of the city were raging with runoff.
We met up with Q's friend Esme, resplendent in the white owl costumer her aunt made for her.
Q didn't recognize her at first under the goggle-eyes and white feathers, but before long they were holding hands again amid the throngs of revelers on Tennyson.
Jena, maker of the wonderful owl costume (and the photographer who took that lovely photo in my previous post).
I got an armful of fuzzies.
Q and a matching dog in the last of the snow.
We so seldom have pictures of the three of us together, since one of us (usually me) is always glued to the viewfinder. A friend of ours took this photo at the wedding reception the other day, and was nice enough to send it one. I love this one, and something about our postures and the expressions of pure love on our faces reminds me of a similar picture someone took of my mum, my dad and me when I was a wee one.
Long overdue, but life is exceptionally busy these days...Finally posting photos of Samantha's b'day at Jan's house. QQ naturally insisted on bringing balloons. We had our eyes on a balloon bouquet from Sunflower Market, but tragically they were out of helium. We ended up with two mylar balloons from King Soopers. Q and Sam took a long time deciding who should have which, but in the end it all worked out.
Q has been the fortunate attendee at several birthdays this month, and she's starting to get into the spirit.
She was excited to help Samantha blow out her candles, even though she still hasn't entirely grasped the concept of blowing ;)
SHe also made the rounds of all the laps in the house.
Many thanks to Jan for once again hosting a lovely party, with her usual grace and expertise.
First blizzard of the year, DUMPING snow in Denver today!!
An early stroll through the neighborhood, before daddy headed in to work.
We stopped in to the local Italian joint for a takeout spaghetti, warm bread and butter, and vinaigrette salad. Seemed like the thing to do. Someone who had a similar idea was sipping a glass of wine while waiting for her order, which made me smile. Such a lovely way to celebrate a snowy afternoon!
ps - a lot of people have commented on the joy that comes from our photos, and I just wanted to say - this is no illusion. Amazingly, mysteriously, through some great alchemy of life, this is the joy that threads itself through our daily lives. We have lead good lives, M. and I both. We've had our ups and downs and our learning experiences before we met, but all in all we are fortunate people. And I think that even Q's early months were not so bad, in spite of the rather harsh hand that life dealt her at the very start. Her caretakers seem to have done well by her, if her open, happy, trusting personality is any indication. But I think it's safe to say that, for all three of us, these right now are the golden days. This is the height of our existence so far in this world - the little life we have built for ourselves. Joy has never shone so bright.
We never have weekend days off - weekends are work days for us. But on this particular sunny Saturday, we had a full day off as a family of three, thanks to the wedding of some good friends. M. took the day off work, and we spent the whole thing, morning til night, enjoying eachothers' company.
by and afternoon walk...
...to the park.
An evening gallery wedding reception down in the Santa Fe arts district was the capper to our day.
What a beautiful space for a wedding!
Q got to spend some much-anticipated time with her friend Esme.
While some people prefer to have a babysitter for an evening event, I actually prefer an event that is child-friendly so I can bring my munchkin along. Part of this is, of course, thanks to the fact that she behaves so beautifully at social events. She really is a champ, and always makes me proud.
And what a space to play in!
Dancing to the High Beams as the evening wore on.
The only tragic part of this story is that somehow, amid the festivities, I failed to get one single picture of the bride and groom themselves. This is especially unfortunate since they both looked gorgeous in their extremly hip wedding finery. I wish you could have seen the bride's retro-chic 3/4 length wedding dress with its hand-sewn fabric flowers, topped with a chic formal jacket....sadly, there is no way for me to remedy this oversight. Blame it on chasing a toddler around an art gallery all night!
