winter moments

A winter moment inside:

Maia is into trying other people's winter clothes right now. Hats, boots, mittens... long gloves are particularly entertaining when they come up to her shoulders and the fingers hang loose at the ends.

Above are a couple of her famous expressions while donning Mom's hat.

Mom, by the way, is still getting called "dada"... and with great conviction. I have to say it is quite endearing to see your child smile and call out an exuberant "dada" the first time you see each other in the morning, even if it's not your name.

And a winter moment outside:

Yesterday we went for a family walk in the cruel cold, all bundled up and in the shelter of a new forested trail. At first I wasn't sure why we were doing this to ourselves, as it was probably -30 with the wind chill. But then within a hundred crunches of snow under our feet, we saw it. A beautiful white-tailed deer that stopped straight ahead of our path another hundred feet in front of us. And it just stood there watching us in the middle of the trail, in full view. After we realized Phil was oblivious to its presence (wind blowing the wrong way to pick up a scent) and the deer stayed frozen for a good long time, we decided to walk towards it, and it stayed still -- about a minute in total. And when it finally decided to bound off, I realized I had probably never seen a deer bound like that before with its big white tail sailing behind it. A great gift.

I don't think Maia saw much of the deer, but she sure loves the cold winter wind on her face. Isn't that just a little odd?