fits and starts

it sometimes feels as if violet hasn't changed THAT much lately. but then what is actually A LOT of change makes itself suddenly known. or more precisely, the fact of just how much she's changed (and how quickly) suddenly dawns on me.

violet used to eat the books. we rarely made it past page three without her chewing on the corners. god forbid if we attempted a story without flaps to lift (and rip) or pop-up cookie monsters to tear out (and gum to decapitation). i'd hear about these two and three and four month olds and how much they love the hungry little caterpillar, and i'd look at my hungry little cardboard eater and promise that good looks are better than brains any day. but now she'll sit for surprisingly long stretches with full attention on a book. she'll point and babble along. when did this happen?





i used to think violet was an especially tough crowd, which has been rough on her comedy writer father. we'd try so hard to make her laugh only to be met with pity and scorn. now? she's a crazy gigglepuss. tickling works best (and spares us all from desperate dick jokes).



i also used to think that violet would walk early, since she was an early crawler, but now i think she's going to walk late. first of all, she's got chicken legs and isn't very sturdy, and when we try to hold her up by the hands, she protests by firmly planting her butt on the floor like she's (and the irony doesn't escape me) gandhi at a sit-in. "we really need to assemble that walker," i said to kevin. but as it often does, lazy parenting won out.



when i went to lift violet for a ride on her froggy rocker, kevin intervened: "she knows how to climb on and off herself." what?! what's next, a harley?



but just when i thought all of this maturity was more than i could take, violet went and had her best night of sleep since that fateful night that ended in mastitis for me about eight months ago. she went down fast at 8:45pm and slept in her crib with no wake-ups until 3:45am, when i brought her to our bed to nurse, after which she fell asleep easily, dreamfed at 6:15am, and woke up smiling at 7:00am.

it's also worth noting that all of a sudden (and it really did seem to happen all of a sudden) violet's separation anxiety is exponentially improved. no matter who was holding her, she'd scream for me if she so much as heard me tiptoe across another room. kevin has put up with many a morning meltdown while i hurried to get dressed and brush my teeth (though likely not my hair, let's not get crazy). daycare has had it bad too - just weeks on end of sobs and snot upon my departure. then last monday, no tears - and no tears all week! this week, she's actually excited when we arrive and reaches for her teachers, or sometimes even her "friends."

violet has been buddying up to a little boy named colt, who's about three weeks older and ten pounds heavier than her. he has a reputation (among the mothers of the oppressed preppy babies) as kind of a tuff who has been known to remove a hair bow or two. "so you're saying they're thugs in crime?" i asked. the teacher laughed with surprising heartiness - clear confirmation. in their age group, colt is the biggest and violet the smallest, so they'll make quite a pair in their reign of terror. i set violet down next to the quiet ruby, who wears special headgear and is one month violet's senior, and violet inched over and smacked her in the face. "oh (shit)! gentle! gennnntle," i redirected. and violet smacked ruby in the face a second time and wheeled back for more. ruby frowned at the injustice, and violet smiled widely as i grabbed her arm. oh viole(n)t, i knew we were tempting fate when we named you.