first candlelit dinner

we didn't think of it, but we ended up taking violet out to her first restaurant dinner (ca' del sole) on the saturday of valentine's day weekend. we made a 5:30pm reservation and asked for the far corner of the patio, and luckily we didn't appear to interrupt any romantic dinners. as we concluded, even old people in the valley don't book the early bird special on valentine's.

forgive the pathetic camera work here. at night, we have to blindly aim our relic of a canon and shoot, like two-eyepatch pirates. obviously the half-capitated kevin is better at this than me. i think it's safe to say that violet isn't enamored of dim mood lighting.





and i don't think we'll see her eating pasta with mussels and clams anytime soon either.



we didn't stick around for dessert (will i ever type something more shocking on this blog?), but we had a great meal anyway (there you go, something more shocking).

lots has been happening in violet's world. she pushes all the way up onto her hands and is really trying to get onto her knees. usually she just ends up kind of scooting herself in a circle. even the daycare ladies and the doctor agree that she's a very active baby, and the doctor thinks this is why she's been sliding on the growth chart, burning up calories down into the 10th percentile. i try not to worry. she's happy, but i'm suspicious - who refuses food so happily? is she really a lynn??

next week i start transitioning her to my work's on-site daycare. it's pretty bittersweet at this point because even though it's the right thing for a number of reasons, she's definitely formed attachments with her care providers, and they were truly surprised and sad to learn that i'm moving her. she's the youngest and smallest baby in the infant room, there the longest hours, and i think they really adore her. they have been so kind - leaving a few months window open in case we want to bring her back - and i'm so grateful because my confrontation-avoiding self was so terrified of the potential awkwardness of these last couple of weeks.

at home, i (the boobs) always put violet to bed, and kevin (nicknames welcome) hangs out with her in bed every morning while i get ready. daddy-baby time is her favorite of the day, save for bath time. i haven't yet figured out if she's a morning person like mommy:



or not so much a morning person like daddy:

weekend update

thanks to auntie courtney's visit, i have some new pics to post!

(last weekend we were also lucky to get a visit from aunt mary ann, who was here for a quick business trip, but i need to steal a few of her pics to post too.)

(kevin gets his verizon iphone in a week, so hopefully it will improve our picture taking.)

the weekend kicked off with a walk to the gelato cafe for our morning coffee. violet is already becoming a regular (and dare i say favored) patron. she loves to peruse the colorful case of flavors. the fact that she has a taste for full-fat dairy has everything to do with her current diet and nothing to do with my own dietary leanings.

next up was a monster 2+ hour nap, during which courtney arrived and got to catch up on the celebrity rags with me, and then we hit the grove. violet enjoys the farmer's market because there's so much to see, but the hands down favorite is of course the dancing fountain. she was fussing around a little, but the leaping water immediately calmed her. (incidentally at bath time, she's started smiling and grabbing at the stream of water anytime we pour a bowlful onto her belly.)







it was enough excitement that violet even finished a bottle and then had a boob snack in the nordstrom ladies lounge.



what, no photo of the latter?

violet then car-napped through our pit stop at another dessertery that i can only imagine she would love: milk. we took our cookies and ice cream home and then ventured to find a few less calorically calamitous items at our saturday night hotspot, whole foods. while i'd always believed the produce section was violet's favorite, when i picked up a box of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (wow, cookies get mentioned a lot on this blog), she started kicking her feet, squealing, and grabbing at the box like nothing i'd ever seen. her right sock fell off three times during the outing and was retrieved and returned by three kind strangers.



in the morning, we almost cheated on gelato cafe and went to aroma, but the aroma line was, as it often is, an around-the-bend whip of hipsters, so we returned to the cozier cafe for morning snacks. they make homemade pop tarts, so it's hard to go wrong.



embarrassingly, courtney took a bunch of photos of us, and we took zero of her with violet. i vow to get better about this. i am honestly ashamed.

we also took no pictures of our good times at john and lisa's house for the superbowl - potentially the last time violet will see them before her new pal baby dietrick (due friday) arrives! while violet wasn't a good luck charm for the dietrick home team, she was a good luck charm for her dad, who had the magic numbers in his office pool for the halftime score and won $500. violet gently suggested that we start saving for her wedding because she wants a valentino gown, an open bar, and swans. what has auntie courtney been teaching her?