the swings

i'm sorry for the radio silence. we had a bit of a scare this week with violet. it's over now, so i won't bother recounting the details, but the short story is that i went for a second opinion about her weight - even though her regular ped thinks she's doing absolutely great - and the new dr ordered some extra tests to do rule-outs. there was blood drawn. there was a children's hospital appt. there were near fisticuffs between me and bureaucracy. but all of the results came back normal and healthy.

kevin was worried of course, but never really worried, and i've clawed my way back out of the google-induced panic spiral. because of murphy and his stupid law, it was my busiest work week of the year, and i've finally submitted a giant report that was due today. it was also teacher appreciation week at daycare, where i threw a pizza luncheon, delivered gifts, etc. kevin really couldn't miss work, since it's the last week before a hiatus, and we couldn't have made it all work without my mom, who came up from san diego and kept violet home, recovering from her latest cough. although a little chest cold never hinders violet's spunk, the proof that she is one hundred percent better is that her lungs have never produced louder shrieks, of joy or fury. it's like she's won the lottery when you give her an empty water bottle to play with; it's like you set fire to the winning ticket if you dare take that water bottle away. she really likes that water bottle, damnit.

one of the week's brighter moments took place at the park. we had to bolster the little runt in the bucket with blankets and things, but oh did she ever love it. here i give you violet's first swing: a retrospective.

in need of striped pajamas

we've been pretty laissez-faire about babyproofing, and we've never ended up leaving violet in her crib or playpen. usually she just kind of follows us around, stuffing shoes in her mouth (loose ones or the ones on our feet) whenever we need to go about our business. her bedroom has been the only place we'll leave her unsupervised, and i returned from the bathroom the other day to find this:



i probably should have been panicked, but i about died at the cuteness. i mean look at how tiny she is! a little tiny person on two legs! she was pretty proud of herself, as you can see, but if you walk away, she will shriek, in part because she needs help sitting back down onto her cushioned tush, but in larger part because she does not appreciate being caged in. (reminds me of this hilarity, see number four.)

the only "cage" we really use is the baby einstein discovery center (thanks sar!), which we've only recently put into play because violet is finally tall enough to get her toes down. banging on the piano is of course her favorite, my little rachmaninoff... if rachmaninoff had composed baby-friendly jungle beats... which i'm pretty sure he did not.



evidently locking up the baby isn't going to work, so i guess it's time to get serious about locking away our giant bottles of valium, vicodin, and vodka.

first mother's day

despite the evidence (and the fact that we both look smashing in ray bans)



most days i still have a hard time believing that i'm a mother, so it was nice to have an actual holiday to help me wrap my brain around it.

wonderful things happened all weekend long. on friday violet gave me her present. as a mother now, i'm putting vanity aside and posting this awful photo of me so that you can appreciate my girl's budding talent in the art of 80s puffy paint.



on saturday a gift arrived from kevin's momma - thanks linden!



have you tried chocolate-dipped pineapple? seems weird, right? but it's amazing! the only one who didn't appreciate this gift was petey, who worked himself into a panic barking at the balloon. i'm sure many bad things happened to him when he was a stray on the mean streets, but i can't imagine any of them involved foil balloons.

on sunday we met my parents and sister in newport beach for brunch. i could tell the story of how i had a petey-style panic attack when we arrived at the restaurant to find that the "patio" was actually indoors, with tight tables populated by proper folks sitting in silence as violet readied her fists for table-banging, but why would i want to look like an asshole on my own blog? the restaurant had a single unisex stall for all of its patrons, and the only place for breastfeeding, given that we were a good mile from the car, was a park bench on the shopper-crowded main drag. but as luck would have it, violet used her indoor squawk throughout the three-course meal, and in the name of mother's day, i gave a peep show on the street.

we exchanged cards and gifts all around, but the biggest hit was the curly ribbon on the present that poppy gave to violet. apparently my dad had been eying a dress at a del mar baby boutique, but when he returned and asked the clerk for it, he discovered the pricetag was $250. "some french designer," my dad said as i had visions of poopy footprints on chanel silk. thank god he bought an adorable summery two-piece instead, and with accoutrement that kept the munchie busy on the long ride home.





the buttercream on my whole weekend happened on saturday, when my sweet husband planned an outing to mother-daughter hotspot, the grove, because he wanted to take me shopping. we were going to eat at the farmer's market, but when violet fell asleep in the carseat and we couldn't get parking close enough to carry the heavy thing, we ended up detouring to the village idiot - and were surprised to be seated less than an hour from kentucky derby post time! the race time slipped our minds this year, as it had once before when we were likewise preoccupied, exactly five years ago, with planning our wedding. we had been combing venues in santa ynez and stopped for a beer at a random dive bar in solvang, only to find it filled with enthusiastic race fans, as was the village idiot on saturday.

a bowl of mussels and heavenly "garlic mops" later, we were watching animal kingdom cross the finish line and relishing our luck as we shared an old favorite - derby day - with violet for the first time. the moment was the perfect reminder that life is both forever changed yet somehow still the same, plus one.

lambie cake

my mom and sister made the long round trip on saturday (and fought the lynn house germ invasion with a bottle of purell) so that they could celebrate belated easter with the munchkin. i'd like to believe my mom baked a second lamb cake just for me, but i'm pretty sure her motivation was a photo op with her favorite grandchild. unable to partake in the sugarfest, violet was understandably suspicious.





then violet napped, and the adults ate cake.

it's so funny to see my little tomboy all dolled up. she has so many gorgeous dresses (she even has this little number in a bigger size), and i wish we had more opportunities for her to wear them. she, however, would probably protest. frills trip her up these days. she wears pants to daycare but always seems to come home with rug-burned knees. yesterday she came home with blue paint in her ear. other moms at daycare have referred to her as "feisty" and "a scrapper." some weeks into her young life, my sister read us the chinese zodiac characteristics for violet's year - year of the tiger, same as kevin - which scored her the nickname "tigs."

even if it wasn't the perfect easter of egg hunting in the sunshine, tigs was none the wiser and loved hanging out with her family.