l.a. livin'

i'm amending this post because i forgot what i was going to lead in with - violet's celebrity sightings! she met jon cryer at coffee. ("he-whoa witto baby," he said in a goofy voice.) she's seen sam rockwell walking his dog many times (and seen our dogs try to attack his dog many times). she was especially impressed (or was that me?) to see tobey maguire in the 'hood. "spiderman!" she screamed. (or was that me?)

she also had a big indirect brush with fame this week, when i was pumping her milk one room over from the guy who made a little series of movies about "the force." the door doesn't lock where i usually pump, so i blocked it with a chair. i kept looking over my shoulder to make sure he didn't walk in. can you imagine??

i forgot to mention that violet's six-month check-up had its (literal) ups and downs. the up: her length is above the 50th percentile! the down: her weight is into the 5th. to me, it looks like it's dropped off the chart, but when i said something about the "zero percentile," the ped laughed that there isn't a zero percentile. i guess that makes mathematical sense, but then why does the graph allow the plotted line to fall under its lower limit? i guess the good news is the doctor isn't worried. with these measurements, i fear that violet is already aspiring to the pages of us weekly, and i blame her l.a. lifestyle.



weekday mornings are still pretty frantic, which is ironic because the race comes to a grinding halt on the 101. i've been meaning to update, however, that violet's car fury waned awhile ago, although that first month of the daycare commute was pretty much the worst of my life. i can't say she loves being in her car seat, but she mostly tolerates it now, thanks to:

an ever growing rotation of toys. i'll pay any price for something that entertains her at length.



the muppets and wee sing cds. i won't lie, these are both getting pretty hard to take (apologies to my hensonite husband). (sample wee sing lyrics: "walking walking walking walking hop hop hop hop hop hop running running running running running running now let's stop now let's stop." yes, let's.) i think violet likes the broadway quality of the muppets and the kids voices of the wee sing, so i need some new options, stat. what's remarkable, however, is that although i've listened to these songs hundreds of times now, i still don't know a lot of the lyrics. there's no question that sleep deprivation really does inhibit the formation of new memory, probably for evolutionary reasons.

and last but not least:



forgive the sun in her face - i had to lift her shade to snap the pic once we parked. i actually prefer that she doesn't sleep in the car since it can mess up her "real" naps, but when she's done, she's done, even if i'm jingling something right in her face. the puddle of drool is more proof of our shared genetics.

in other news, stranger anxiety has been making a return, to the dismay of everyone who wants to hold violet. we loved visiting with nana and my godparents rich and sandy this past weekend, but violet unfortunately preferred them from the view of my (apparently bulging a.c. slater) arms (according to my husband). we managed to trick her with the floating head teddy to get this one:



nana was probably the most brokenhearted, but we used violet's rich-and-sandy present - an awesome old macdonald puppet - to get one more:



it's hard to imagine a more frustrating job than sears child portrait photographer.

but despite the little day-to-day annoyances, life is good. pretty much every conversation that kevin and i have is now interrupted with a non sequitur about how violet is the most awesome baby in the universe. and it certainly helps that she's happy to see me everyday when i pick her up.



obviously the feeling is mutual.