Recently, Olive has been into babbling, again. I don't even want to call it a regression, though: it nearly always takes the form: "You're a ba-pi-bu-be-pay. That means: you're a dragon!"

What's striking, to me, is how very clear it is that she's just play-acting a frequent occurrence in her own lived experience: we'll tell her something incomprehensible, then explain it in simpler terms. I do wonder how frequent this is, to her, that she's made a game of it.

Another of her absolute favorite things recently has been cocoa walks. The recipe for this event is simple: you take your family for a quiet walk in the forest on a dark winter evening, bringing hot chocolate along, and you invite another family of friends with whom you are close. The kids run and shriek and play during a special outing¹, and the adults get some nice conversation in a socially-distanced setting.

We've all been very lucky about Covid-19, so far: we know of some people in our second-order social circles who have been infected, but it still hasn't touched anyone we're close to, let alone in a bubble with. Even more than that, we're lucky that Olive is young enough that, as a practical matter, it's not impacting her life too severely. There are some things we're just not doing this year², but the disappointment is all in the adults; she seems to be taking it in stride. She knows that there is a virus, and it's stopping us from doing things, and that we don't like it, but other than that it's just a fact of life to her.

One thing I've been struck by in Olive's behavior in the last month or so is her very intentional approach to managing her feelings. When she gets upset, now, she's now much less likely to burst into tears than she used to be; instead, she'll storm off quietly ³ to a place where she can be alone. I'll typically follow her a minute later; when I do, she's always been astonishingly receptive to just quietly talking about what happened, and how it made her feel, and how we can feel better about it next time. This very clearly isn't the final form of her emotional management strategy, but all the same, it's a huge step forward from simply throwing a tantrum, which was her previous strategy.

When she's happy, which is still most of the time, she's very excited these days about Christmas coming, to the point of spontaneously singing carols. I am certain that when the day comes, she'll be thrilled to wake up to presents under the tree. I just worry that there is so little snow here; she's been convinced somehow that a thick carpet of snow is an essential part of the Christmas experience, and around here that's just not a very likely event.

Still, even if the lack of snow makes her a little sad, I fully expect to have an excellent Christmas. For all that's gone on, this has been a good year for my family. I hope the same is true for yours!