Beatrix hit the fourteen month old mark yesterday and, thanks to a single midday nap instead of her usual two naps, cruised into the evening like she'd had a few too many before collapsing into a sleepy heap. Jubilant and boisterous, this girl knows how to have fun, exhaustion be damned. Not sure whether she'll ultimately be a rock star but from her cool cat demeanour at eight months (above left), to the honing of her snarl at ten months (above middle), she's clearly graduated to a new level this month (above right). She's now cavalierly almost running around the house and climbing on and off things she really shouldn't. Her impressive gross motor skills continue to outshine her verbal skills but for what she lacks in quality of vocabulary, she aptly makes up for in sheer volume of babbling. Cutest of all is her stomping around the house with play phone in hand, yattering on in baby speak, clearly planning world domination. Some scary foreshadowing of teenage phone usage going on here.
In other news, the weather has now started its flip-flop stage in preparation for the onset of winter. Cool but sunny autumn days were eclipsed by a snow day last week during which we received 29 cm of the white stuff. Shockingly, it has all melted now but for a while it felt like we were in for the long haul. Never ones to completely batten down the hatches, we have been attempting outdoor excursions to keep the kids' cheeks rosy. The hilarious outcome of this so far has been the discovery that our second child isn't so keen on being cold. Whereas Sam's first forays into the snow involved fits of giggles as documented here, Beatrix maintains an unamused expression throughout and her delightful temperament only returns when she's safely indoors. We're not too sure whether we will ever see the emergence of Arctic Toddler, Part Deux, but in the meantime, we'll keep trying.
As for the early winter attack, it did give us the excuse to get the Christmas tree set up in November, much to the horror of our neighbours. Sam and I made quick work of the assembly and decoration during Beatrix's morning nap on the Snow Day and her confused expression at finding a tree in the living room was pretty funny. She stood staring for several minutes before looking back at Daddy, pointing at the tree and launching into a babbling explosion along the lines of "what the #$*#^?". No doubt, she'll get the hang of it in no time. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
