our little german

everyday i think i'll have time to post an update, but work is ramping up again as this is orientation week on campus and with it comes much office flurry. the students are moving into dorms, and i already feel a pang for the day when this will be us with violet. (should she choose to attend college. should we not be living in a trailer in 2028. and all of those other disclaimers.)

"da" is what's new lately. violet now points at everything, and everything is "da." dada? "da." mama's car? "da." hops the bunny? "da." the light switch? "da." the tree? "da." her favorite pony in her favorite book? "DA." and of course airplanes flying overhead. someone recently asked kevin if our neighborhood has a lot of air traffic noise, and we both thought, huh? no, none. now that violet looks up into the air whenever she hears a plane (whether we're indoors or out), we realize that burbank airport has arrivals and departures scheduled every four minutes during commuter hours. the resulting "da's" make me feel like we're in deutschland. we LOVE it - the cuteness is almost too much.

last weekend violet went to the del mar racetrack for the first time. my family is big on the races. my grandfather was a season ticket holder, and my grandmother used to let me "split" $2 bets with her (that she of course paid for). she loved to bet hopeless longshots, so i rarely saw any payouts, but that didn't matter. the most amazing moment last weekend was when the crowd leaped to its feet, as it always does when the horses are coming down the stretch, and violet caught sight of the blur of motion on the turf. the look on her face was as if she'd seen a flash of lightning for the first time. i imagine we'll get to experience that look over and over again, and i can't wait.







in other news, my mom gave us ridiculously generous birthday gifts - spa treatments at burke williams - along with free babysitting so that we could also go out to dinner. that's right - with violet at almost 11 months old, kevin and i went out on our first post-baby date! i'm sure there are those who pity us that it's been so long, but to us, it's just felt natural. ("it takes three legs to make a tripod, or to make a table stand. it takes three wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle.") that said, it was so very nice to just be together so that we could - what else? - talk about the munch without her simultaneously climbing us like scaffolding.

we figured go big, so we went to osteria mozza and ate to make up for any missed dinner date in the past near year. for posterity's sake, we had:




santa barbara prawns with radish pesto salsa
carciofo alla firenze con patate e uovo (fancy artichoke and potato thing)
burricotta with radicchio, spiced walnuts, honey and fried rosemary
maccheroni alla chitarra with early girl tomatoes and garlic breadcrumbs
butternut squash mezzalune with amaretti
polenta with parmigiano reggiano
broccolini with chilies and vinegar
crespelle alla fragola (sauteed strawberries over crepe thing filled with housemade strawberry gelato and topped with sliced almond bark)

it would be superfluous to go on about the awesomeness.

and we made it home in time for me to nurse violet to sleep as i've done every night from the start. bad but happy mama.