Simon and I were walking around in the mall yesterday getting a birthday present for cousin Ella, when we came across some Halloween costumes on super deep discount. Who on earth would wait until this late to think of Halloween costumes?

Me! My craftier friends have been felting and feathering for weeks now, but we are not a crafty people. We do, however, know a bargain when we see it.

Penny is going as: another mouth to feed at the start of a global financial crisis! Booga booga! Scary!

I think they like them, yes?

Penny had apples on her pants, so the kids think she is "Apple," an overly self consciously named celebrity baby. She does not think that is very funny.

Land shark!

I love these next two pictures of Claire Helen:

Simon was instructed to "show us your tough shark face." Ooooh! Scary!

We went to a Halloween party at the community center, and I felt bad about the dearth of Penny pictures.

Unfortunately I felt bad about it under fluorescent lights. She's not really green. Sorry kiddo.

The party was manned by college students, and I think the college students came up with the games. One of the stations was "manicure."

If Claire Helen gets her nails painted, Simon gets his nails painted. Pink, to match his crocs. My son has now had one more manicure than his mother has in her entire life.

The end.

Penny is one month!

And one day, but yesterday we were hiking and barbecuing, so she'll excuse our lateness.

She was not into the whole baby model thing, so these aren't especially good pictures.

Even pissed off she's pretty cute, though, right?

At one month she is very mellow (though starting to get a little bit of a witching hour at night- gearing up for the 6 week fussies), eats well, sleeps well. Can smile at you, but does not bestow that honor on just anyone for any old thing. Another Skeptical Harrington Baby.

We have more grandparents coming in tomorrow, and we mean to try to get her to meet the extended Seattle cousins, maybe this weekend, but we sort of forgot to mention that to any of them. Are any of you reading? Up for pizza this weekend?

We have a sleeper!
Let us all commence the Serbian Trumpet Dance of Joy. They have one, you know. And a whole festival devoted to trumpets. It's on Youtube. It's Simon's favorite show.
Penny sleeps! I've never experienced having a newborn around who sleeps. Gee, they are cute when you are not hallucinating bugs crawling on your skin from the sleep deprivation. I doubt it will last, but for now it's made the transition from 2 to 3 so much smoother than I could have imagined. I was thinking it would be pretty easy, too, so that's saying something. But sleep and the fact that the age gap is so much bigger means that despite
1) Simon flooding the upstairs bathroom the night we got home from the hospital, raining water and plaster down on the downstairs bathroom and ruining the upstairs one(Oh well, we meant to remodel that one anyway)
2) Mat getting a stomach virus 5 days in
3) Claire Helen getting that same stomach virus 3 days later
4) a not super fast physical recovery
5) Penny having trouble with the whole weight gain concept
6) Mat returning to work instantaneously
this is still a whole heck of a lot easier than the transition from 1 to 2. Hour to hour I'd say it's at least easier than when I was pregnant and we were a man down, and quite a bit more fun for me personally. Yay! I remember Simon as an infant very fondly, but I do not remember that time period with a lot of fondness.


Penny, doing what she does best. She also smiles and laughs in her sleep, and looks about somewhat skeptically when awake. She is transfixed by the slats on our bed and the baby on the side of the wipes box, whenever either of those are in view. She doesn't really cry, so far. We were at a thrift store looking for school supplies yesterday, and she let out a yell while Mat was holding her. I had to look around and ask if that was ours, because I don't really recognize that sound coming from her.

Looks just like Claire Helen, only blonde. Well, blonde shortly after a bath. A few days later I tend to second guess myself, but then we bathe her again, and under the preschooler-head-touching-grime the hair is, indeed blonde.

Oh, it's so tiring being a baby model.

Also, we have other children.

Donut shop run after our first successful venture out (the pediatrician's office).

At the donut shop, Penny...slept.



We like Penny!

Preschool starts up again next week. Claire Helen is just really excited to get back to her friends and the fun stuff they do there. Simon is maybe a little more nervous; let's all wish him luck.

Penny, days 2 through 4

Penelope Lane Harrington

Born August 13, 2008 at 9 am sharp. 9 pounds 3 ounces, 21 inches long, with blonde curly hair and legs so strong she jumped out of the first bath the nurses tried to give her. Has incredible lungs (going to need them in this house), but so far only cries- "Neh!" when hungry, and "Hey!" when something's bending the wrong way.