merry margaret

Margaret will be eight months old in a week's time. But since next week will be decked to the hectic (in the most wonderful of ways), I thought I'd take a moment now and list a few reasons 8-month-old Margaret makes us all kinds of merry.

JUST CHEEKY

These cheeks are kissed roughly 397 times a day. And if you saw these cheeks in person, you'd smooch them silly, too.

Little sweet cheeks herself.

PENSIVELY SPEAKING
Some of our best comedy material has been met with seriously stoic expressions. Maggie can giggle with the best of them, but when she decides it's time for a staring contest, it's on, baby.

Seriously.

TWIRL GIRL
Despite her somewhat stoic expression in this picture (see "pensively speaking"), girlfriend loves a tutu. I very much approve of said love.

It's tutu much.

TIP OF HER TONGUE

For about a month, Margaret's tongue was constantly hanging out the side of her mouth (Grandpa Hallstrom style). I like to think her Great Grandpa gave her a heavenly lesson before she made her way down to earth.

Miss you, Great Grandpa.

GO WITH THE FLOW

Margaret lets us place her anywhere and everywhere for our weekly Margaret by the Week photo shoots — even when it's against her better judgment. 

What about this is a good idea?

WHAT A DREAM

I don't deserve this dreamy baby (she's still rocking 12-hour nights). But I love that she takes after her parents in the odd-sleep department. Remember little sleepy Breezy and Adam?

She's like me. She's really, really like me.

JOY TO THE WORLD

We've got a crush on this munchkin. Is it terribly obvious?

No Margarets were harmed in the making of this picture.

thanks (a lot)

Where have I been? Oh, yes. Giving thanks.            

Here's a glimpse into our delicious day.

This little turkey takes my gratitude to a whole new level.

All the little Hallstrom turkeys.
(Please appreciate Ryan's hand under his chin. I'm in love.)

Did you know my mom is festive?
Just a bit.

I think it's super cute that my parents wanted to sit at the kids' table.
But that's what happens when you have super cute parents.

Margaret with her Auntie Kara.
We love her.

Margaret and her first pumpkin pie.
I think she's on to the fact that our food is WAY better than hers.

oh spooky day

Happy Halloween, everyone! 

Hope your day was as spooky cute as ours.

Notice the bow on my pumpkin? I must be obsessed with forehead bows because I SO didn't mean to make my pumpkin look like Margaret. (No, like, honest to goodness.) Also, please appreciate Adam's wicked cool eye-patch. My husband is so way talented, it's eerie.

 Maggie with her accidental pumpkin-sake.

 

She looks thrilled, doesn't she?

Boo to you and yours.

the half of it

Surprise! It's a party.

It's our daughter's half-birthday today. (And my 100th post!)

In Margaret's wee six months of lifedom, she has become a crawling, jabbering, bouncing baby girl. She giggles when I get her out of the crib in the morning, she loves a busy print, she observes everything she can get her eyes on, she cocks her head to the side when she really needs to concentrate, she looks so darn cute in jeans (no, like, so darn cute), she constantly sticks out her tongue, she blows raspberries in her spare time, and she thinks her dad is hilarious.

As for how much we love her? She doesn't even know the half of it.

As a blog party favor, please appreciate her brand new crawling skill in the video below. I've tried to entice her with toys to get the crawling on camera — and no go. But when I tried candy? It was crawl time, y'all.

And yes, that is me saying, "You're so advanced" at the end of the video. What do we call it, Hallstroms? Ah, yes. Humbly proud. :)

baby talk

What's Margaret thinking when we do our weekly photo shoots? 

I have an idea.

"So it's a hat this week? What will the bows think!"

"I suppose this is mildly amusing."

"Never mind. It's snore-ing! What is this, like, week 100?"

"I give up. And I'm not even wearing pants!"

"Fine. We'll do more. But I'm going to spit bubbles all the way through it."

"I'm running out of ideas here."

"This has got to be the winner. I look pensive and everything."

margaret by the week

 Week 20

Now that I'm 20 weeks in and haven't become Flaky McFlakerson, I'd like to introduce you to Margaret By The Week, an ambitious little project where I post a photo of Maggie every week during this first year of her life. Then, when we hit 365 glorious days, I'll have it made into a book.

You can find the link here. 

Aside from the motherhood points I'm trying to score with future adult Maggie, the bonus is that this little project has been surprisingly easy and super, super fun.

I mean, who wouldn't want to photograph that face?

stand and deliver

Sitting is so easy-peasy, Margaret thought she'd try standing. In the air. While sucking her fingers.

No big deal.