Sweet Sixteen Months

Trois vignettes from Toddlerdom:

1. While working to master the ability to run, Julia is passing through an intermediate stage which doesn't show up in any What to Expect books: goosestepping. She marches down the hallway, stiff-legged, lifting her dinner-roll feet as high towards her head as possible. Between that gait and her uber-Aryan looks...

2. Running comes in handy so far a) as a physical complement to a loud and sudden shriek of joy and b) as a fun way to get closer to Dad. So far, she can only take five or ten running steps toward me before vaulting into my arms and chest, so it's pretty easy and fun to catch her. With greater velocity will come greater force, though - I may need to start putting pillows behind me.

3. Her obsession with "mwah"-ing everything interesting (much less lovable) reached an early peak in late August, when she wanted to kiss Lake Superior, but it may have reached a trough tonight. We went outside to look at the neighbors' Halloween decoration: two hands, two feet, and a monster head which can be arranged so it appears some sort of ghoul is clawing his way out of the ground. All five pieces light up, which is frankly disturbing to see out the bedroom window at 3:32 a.m. Anyhow, Julia stared hard at the ghoul head and then decided, well, yeah, of course: "Mwah." I wouldn't actually let her climb into the flowerbed to lay one on the undead.