After three unofficial, mom's-doing-the-best-she-can trims, Roxi got her first real haircut on November 18.

She got to watch a Sesame Street video, eat snacks and play with a comb the whole time. Not a bad deal.

Looking sharp ... and only looking this way for 3.5 seconds, because the ponytail holder (or, as the hairdresser referred to it, the "pretty") was SO outta there after that.

I'm going straight to the top, baby! Here, Roxi sports our friend Sue's smokin' red cowgirl boots.

Firsts

• First molars earlier this week, one on the bottom left and one on the top right. That's 10 teeth for those of you keeping track. Only 10 more to go! Bring on the turkey jerky.
• First instances of stringing two words together. Roxi's vocabulary has, up until now, been a string of one-word declarations: More! No! Meow! Quesadilla! These days, we're getting a few phrases: More raisins! Cow moo! No more! Cheese please!
• First instances of counting. We're up to two so far. As in: One, two shoes. One, two blocks. And so forth.
• First singing of the ABC song. We're up to D (on a good day). The interesting part is that she starts singing it (granted, you must be listening with a trained ear to hear it) when she plays with her computer keyboard.
• First religious candy experience. A very nice woman at TCBY's introduced Roxi to the magical wonder of M&Ms yesterday. Rob and I decided immediately not to tell her the name of the treats so she couldn't ask for them all the time. This, we figure, will be happening soon enough. She seems to think broccoli with cheese sauce is candy these days; no need to tell her otherwise.
• First fuh-fuh-fuh. Roxi got her very own fish a few weeks ago, a lovely blue/purple Beta named Fifi. Happily, our three cats seem completely uninterested in Fifi thus far.

In other news, Roxi has been smooched on by lots of grandparents lately. Grandpa and Grandma took her to the park. Gamma shared fabulous pop-up books. Nanna taught her about the color pink. And much, much, much more.

And a list of Roxi's current favorite activities:

• Eating. A lot. Especially raisins and broccoli (and M&Ms, but we're not talking about those).
• Drawing. The drawing experience includes the preparation of the paper, taping of the paper to the table, removing of the crayons from the container, actual drawing, asking Daddy or Mommy to draw shapes (circles and stars mostly, we're working on triangles and squares), putting crayons away, ripping the paper off the table and asking to start all over again.
• Naming colors. Her latest breakthrough is knowing the difference between purple and blue.
• Asking us to sing songs. Especially ones accompanied by ridiculous gestures.
• And still on the A list: dancing, reading and chewing on everything within arm's reach.

Roxi's first hay bale maze experience over Halloween weekend. It was cold and raining, and she couldn't have cared less. So much hay, so little time!

Boo.

It was a fine Halloween. A very fine Halloween indeed. Roxi sported her sheep costume for a couple hours in downtown Fort Collins and another couple hours at Rob's work. Both places were swamped with other wee cuties. Roxi was too distracted by all the costumes to bother with candy. She was also too warm to keep her costume on for long. Luckily, she looked just as adorable with it tied around her waist.

Accessorizing with pumpkins.

Lamb on the run.

Baaaaaaa.

The whole Halloween crew: Josie the Ladybug, Roxi the Lamb, Hailey Strawberry Shortcake, Zander Yoda and Lucas the Fireman (with Dola the Mom peeking in from the back).

Roxi is already well prepared for her second Halloween. A little insider information for ya: She's going to be a sheep.

In response to the question, "What does a cow say?" (Moo!)

Midway through her speech on the merits of cookies before dinner.

In response to the question, "Where's your tongue?"

Purrr-fect indeed.

Roxi has finally reached the point where she is more interested in drawing with crayons than eating them (usually anyway). Our little artist is even starting to know the names of colors: puhpuh, geen, wed, yahyoh ... and on a really good day, boo, bown, back and ahwahng too.

One of Roxi's first masterpieces.

Last weekend, at the lovely Colorado State University gardents.