Spreading the Happiness

Possibly one of my favorite things about parenting is the opportunities it gives me to make people smile.
I love going grocery shopping with her and having people stop me in order to smile at Papillon in the sling.
I love holding her during worship at church as she looks over my shoulder, knowing that the people behind me are making fun faces at her.
We have one friend, an older fellow, who loves playing with Papillon so much that if you let him hold her, he tears up with happiness. Literally. Its fantastic.

Recently, Papillon and I were able to get out and spread some happiness.
We visited Great-Nannie, which I think Great Nannie enjoyed very much.

Clearly Papillon also enjoyed herself.
She is usually quite the cooperative happiness-spreader.
Though from time to time, a grumpy face comes out:

Fortunately, even Papillon's grumpy faces have a knack for making people smile.

Spitting

This is Papillon's latest trick.

Sometimes when she wakes up from her naps, this is how she entertains herself until I come to get her up. Just spitting and spitting.

We are doing our best not to encourage it too much (lest it continue beyond the "oh that's so cute" phase), but it really is adorably hilarious!

Baby Love

Some times, at silly times, unexpected, totally unprompted times, it hits me.
It hits me like a ton of bricks. Only more pleasant.

I love this baby.

And when it hits me I feel overwhelmed.
Overwhelmed with love.
I didn't know it was possible to love this much.

And then I think, is this what God means when He says He loves us like we are His kids?
Cause that would be intense love, like whoa.
Cause I love Papillon with a love that fills my little, imperfect heart up to the almost exploding point.
Imagine a love that fills up a perfect, God-size heart to the point of almost exploding.
Like I said. Whoa. Intense Love.

In conclusion:
I love my baby.
I love that my baby is teaching me about God's love. It's cool how that works.

Llamas and Polka Dotted Hats

On a recent trip to visit my parents, we decided to take Papillon to visit the llamas at a local garden center. (Don't ask me why the garden center has llamas...it seems odd to me, but they do, and it works for us.)

They actually have quite a few llamas, 20 or 30 ish I think.
Llamas are rather funny looking.

Papillon was not terribly amused. They don't move much, so she wasn't sure what the big deal was.

The chickens on the other hand, moved a LOT. And Papillon loved them. They were almost as entertaining as Marge is.

On a side note, do you like her purple polka dotted hat?
I made that one. It is one of two of her polka dotted hats.

The other is this one which she got for Christmas from her Grandma.

Papillon loves hats. Or at least, I love Papillon in hats, which is pretty much the same thing.
Papillon also loves her Moby Wrap (in the picture above) which we can now do in a forward-facing-wrap so she can see the world as we go walking. She loves it. And I love how only her little hatted-head sticks out of the wrap. Super cute!

Fun with Family

These pictures are from a couple weeks ago I believe, but too cute note to post.

Here is Papillon in her "I heart My Auntie" shirt, which she loves, clearly.

Doing some tickle-crunches with her Uncle.

Making a tower with Nannie.

And possibly the most fun, cartoons with Grandpa. See how excited she is.

And then she yawns. Grandpa's napping skills are contagious.

Fun in the Snow

Last week we had another little bit of a snow around here and I decided it was time to finally get Papillon out in the white stuff and see what she thought of it.

Here she is getting bundled up:

Yeah. Not a huge fan. I like to think its because she didn't have a cute snow suit with ears like she (ok, maybe "I" is more like it) always wanted. But its probably because she is trying to tell me that her toes are going to be cold with only one pair of socks on. I didn't listen. Her toes got cold. Oops. Sorry, Papillon! (They recovered)

Papillon's reaction to the snow:

Pretty calm. She reacts quite calmly to most new situations. She likes to study it before forming any opinions.

Marge thought it was pretty sweet.

Subtly begging me to get her cold feet out of the wet snow.

It was short lived fun, but I think on the whole, she liked it.

Done!

On Sunday, Mon Amour officially graduated.
Complete with the 30 seconds of fame that comes with graduating as you walk across the stage and shake hands with some deans and such.
It was a momentous occasion.

Perhaps more momentous was the ordeal of trying to get out of the parking garage. Every friend and family member at graduation parked in one parking garage - and wouldn't you know it, the exit gates broke and would not let anyone out. The day was saved though when my mom and one or two other proactive individuals took charge and held open the gates to let people out. After an hour of sitting in the garage not moving, we all got out...and the poor garage lost a ton of money. Poor them. They willingly admitted fault though, saying they forgot to schedule staff because they thought graduation was next week. Ooops.

Anyway...

I am very glad Mon Amour has his masters; it was a good life decision I feel. But I am super excited that he is done!!

By the time we tried to get a picture of Mon Amour and Papillon, Papillon was quite worn out from the festivities. She really was more excited for the occasion than this picture suggests. (note the "I love daddy" shirt she wore for the occasion!)

Good work, Mon Amour!