Cute

Brodie is a friend of mine who is quite simply, very cool.  He's from Pennsylvania but has a distinctly Berkeley vibe about him, he has played in various bands (and from what I understand these are actually good bands...he was on TRL once) and is kind, considerate and smart to boot.  He was one of the great surprises that business school offered.  Not the kind of person I thought I'd meet there, but the kind I had hoped to meet.

When I met his wife, Claudia, I realized that in addition to all of his other good qualities, he also had great taste in women.  She is cool as well, in the same down to earth way that Brodie is.  A real woman's woman, she's just a very comfortable, fun, smart person to be around.

So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find out that their four year old daughter Margot is also cool.  My main recollection of this kid is of watching her run around a vast expanse of lawn in back of a professor's house on the Main Line and thinking that her outfit was way hipper than the hippest outfit I have ever put together.  With her Italian soccer jacket and frilly skirt over pants, she was straight out of Williamsburg, but in a good way.  

Now I'll admit I'm picky when it comes to children.  Many of them are annoying.  A few of them are cute.  She's one of the cute ones.  Very cute.

Although I've known Brodie and Claudia for a few years, I only just realized a month or so ago that Claudia has been writing a blog called Mothering Mini about their little family (mostly about Margot) for the past three years.  The things you find out about people.

Anyway, I just spent a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon on the couch in the sun perusing her archives and the exercise has left me with quite the warm fuzzy feeling.     

Brodie with Margot, the early years:

I love this because this is how my dad used to carry my sister and I around when we were little, so it brings back some nice memories.  But our backpack was lime green, and it mostly was used in national parks, not so much for everyday stuff.

Here's Margot looking like a little oracle:

And here she is all grown up.

Beautiful, no?

Just when you've had it with bratty kids (I think I go to the Whole Foods in Tribeca too much...there is a particularly high instance of brat in that place) you can bring yourself back from the brink with a glimpse into the Ruland household, where the kid is bright and precocious yet well behaved, and the parents are just great people who love each other and their child.  A valuable resource indeed.