"Is this his first time at the fair?"

[Reposted from my old blog]

Last Tuesday Mark took the day off and we headed to the "Great Minnesota Get-Together", the state fair. We didn't go last year because I was hugely pregnant and my parents were in town to help us get Claire's room ready, and I wouldn't have had the energy to go even if we hadn't been so busy. So we found a decent parking spot about 6 blocks away from the entrance, and as I was tying Claire up in the sling an older couple walked by. "Is this his first time at the fair?" The woman asked with a pleasant smile. heh!

The weekend before last, we were at my friend's house for her daughter's first birthday, and I couldn't help laughing when a toddler ran sobbing to her mom, while pointing at Ava, "that little boy pulled my hair!" And Ava has even more hair than Claire does! Oh, and one more hair thing while we're on the subject. We got Claire's Halloween costume: a MN Gopher's cheerleader. It's the cutest little outfit, and I lamented to Mark that it's too bad we can't put her hair up in pigtails with ribbons. When he suggested, as a joke (I think), that we get her a wig, for some reason I pictured sweet little Claire in a huge Dolly Parton wig and started laughing. Poor kid :)


Claire and I were back at Target today, and after commenting on the sling the cashier made a comment that she sees us in there all the time (which is accurate, because we are there all the time). I don't think I've made one trip out of the house without at least one person asking me about the sling, which Claire is always in. I feel like a celebrity! Well, maybe not a celebrity, as that kind of implies glamour or something. Who knows, to them I may be comparable to the grown man who whizzed by me today on a bike wearing Zubaz and pink tennis shoes. Because I'll definitely remember him if I see him around again. I guess I feel noteworthy.

Wow, I started this post almost a week ago, and haven't had a chance to get back to it until today! And I probably won't have time to come back for another week after today, so I better finish up now. My mom is flying in today and I'll be picking her up from the airport in about 2 hours. I'm so excited! Claire is getting into everything and making the cutest faces and noises these days. I have never been more entertained in my life. She has this fake sounding laugh she does, usually when everybody else is laughing and she wants to be like everybody else. Sometimes she does it after one of us tells a bad joke, almost as if on cue. She wrinkles her nose, opens her mouth, and tilts her head back - it's so cute, I need to get it on video. That, and her new fish face.

Uh oh, she's going for the ungated stairs - gotta run!