Congratulations Stephanie and Paul!

Last Saturday Stephanie and Paul got married in one of the loveliest weddings I've been to - every element was totally personal and unique. Sadly I didn't have my camera but you can catch a few pictures on Summer's blog - with many more to follow.

Beatrice, Month Seven

Beatrice's seventh month saw her still working on most of the same things she started last month, including crawling and sitting up. She spent most of the month in a great mood, however (barring episodes of teething), full of laughter and excitement. She is very sociable, loves parties and crowds, and gladly welcomes the attention of strangers.

Here she is crawling to get Dev's Leatherman:

She's taken to letting out a loud roar of enthusiasm or victory - she does this constantly, all day long, whether bathing, feeding the dogs Cheerios, or greeting a new friend.

She has now sampled a wide variety of foods, vegetables, fruits, grains, and meats, and loves them all - some of her favorites include yogurt, puffed cereals, beef, peas, and all fruits.

Every month she gets more and more interested in her toys, which is so gratifying since I bought them for her long before she was able to appreciate them (and in some cases, long before she was born). One of her favorites is the Swedish barnyard play set.

She also adores the Rody that Patricia, Lucas's mother, gave her.

This month Beatrice met James's sister Katy.

Beatrice loves playing very rough (or as rough as we'll allow) - she likes nothing more than to be knocked over by the dogs, to tumble upside down, fall over, get back up, be grabbed and tickled, or pushed very fast in the stroller. Here she is roughhousing with Shack:

She loves music and toys that make noise, including her xylophone and her giraffe shaker (both Christmas gifts from Mina).

She also loves books and listening to stories - Travis gave us several new favorites this year for Christmas, including stories about Babar, Eloise, and Madeline.

Beatrice is very independent and insists on doing everything herself, which is charming but also messy and time-consuming. She won't eat anymore unless you let her try to hold the spoon and feed herself, and she also wants to turn the pages of books on her own.

She is learning lots of skills out of order, the harder thing before the easier thing, so she can crawl and use a spoon quite well, but she can't properly sit or use a cup at all. It's pretty clear she has her own agenda.

By far what I'm proudest about, though, is that Beatrice is so brave. She is truly fearless. On New Year's day at the Waddingtons' annual party, we showed her a wooden mango. When you turn the mango upside down, a realistic-looking cobra pops out. You might have expected Beatrice to cry or at least recoil when the snake popped up in her face - instead she let out a roar, lunged for it with both hands, and tried to throttle it. That's totally Beatrice.

We didn't take that many photos this month other than Christmas ones, but you can catch a few on Facebook or Flickr.

Stephanie's bridal shower

On Wednesday night, Summer St. Pierre, Amy Robb, Amy Turner, and I hosted a bridal shower for Stephanie before her wedding this Saturday. We looked at photos of Stephanie from infancy until the present day, learned a little about her fiance Paul in a trivia game, and had a wonderful time celebrating Stephanie's amazing, adventurous pre-married life and looking forward to all the exciting times ahead for them both. I can't believe I've known Stephanie now for more than twenty years, ever since I spied her playing wagon train on the monkey bars in fifth grade.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Beatrice with her cousins Louis and Rosemary in Griffith Park

This year's Christmas card photo

Merry (belated) Christmas! and a Happy New Year!

Early in December I took Beatrice to see (a wonderfully authentic-looking) Santa at the Americana shopping mall in Glendale. We waited in line for 45 minutes surrounded by loud music, blinking lights, and shrieking children but Beatrice had a great time throughout, she was smiling the entire time, even when I made her sit alone on the lap of an outlandishly costumed stranger.

Christmas attire in Southern California

Then we drove to Dallas with the dogs, stopping on the way to visit Michael, Laura, and Boston in Santa Fe.

We spent the holidays with Dev's whole family: Mamo, Naresh, Suzan, Mina, James, Julie, Maureen, Rosemary, and Louis, along with me, Dev, and Beatrice, plus the two dogs and Maureen's rabbit Fifi.

And we even got snow for Christmas!

Louis had his Christmas balloon tied to his wrappings

Beatrice plays with her drum and xylophone from Aunt Mina

Beatrice opens her first Christmas gift from her mom and dad, the "bob and wobble lion"

The lion is a hit.

Playing the worst board game of all time.

Beatrice with her Christmas balloon.

James makes an excellent pie.

See the rest of our Christmas photos on Flickr and Facebook.