snack trap wins again

our little drunken sailor

we're beggars and blighters and ne'er do-well cads
drink up me hearties, yo ho
aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads
drink up me hearties, yo ho

pumpkin among pumpkins

the munch has a lot of nicknames, pumpkin being one of them. you should have seen the look on her face when it dawned on her that a pumpkin is actually a round orange object. it's the same look of bewilderment-turns-into-awe when i point out a "mama" in a book, and she looks at me like "wait a minute here, whaaaa?" it blows her mind whenever she realizes a word is multi-faceted. ask "where's the bird?" in her room, and she'll point at the bird decal over her door, and then ask "where's the other bird?" and she'll delightedly point at the bird decal over her crib. what really blew my mind the other day was when i asked her "where's the lion?" while she was playing in her playcenter, expecting her to point to the big stuffed lion-on-a-stick, and instead she pointed at this tiny sticker of an actual non-animated lion, and then, when prompted with "where's the other lion?" pointed at the toy lion. she can point at the real moon outside or an animated moon in her books. or a real bird in the sky. and now she knows that she's pumpkin, but so are the five pumpkins in her current favorite book, and so are the sad two trader joe's pumpkins on our porch.

that's right. we went to the pumpkin patch - the real pumpkin patch (as opposed to the haystack-in-a-parking-lot variety - don't worry, i'll teach violet the difference) - and didn't come home with any pumpkins. it was an awesome day, but it just flew by. by the end, violet was starting to fade (read: grumpity grump grump), and it seemed like too much effort to select, pay for and load pumpkins into the car a half mile away by wheelbarrow. i tried to make up for it in the trader joe's bin, but we're going to have to hit up one of the overpriced pumpkin parking lots if we want anything that's going to do justice to the sesame street carving kit that kevin bought (yesssss).

the fall harvest festival had it all - mining for gold, goats walking along wooden high beams, pig races, penelope the 600-lb pig (she didn't race, in case you were wondering), pony rides, ostriches, chicken coops, pumpkin pie/cookies/bread, a corn maze, a tractor parade, and many other things that we didn't get to see. sadly we missed the pig races because we were so focused on the pumpkin-among-pumpkins photo op, but there's always next year.







we were lucky enough to meet up with lisa and john despite dueling nap schedules. trying to get babies to nap compatibly is like trying to get them to smile at the camera together. or to look at the camera together. or to look at the camera at all.







violet was elated when she realized that nana and auntie courtney had driven all the way from san diego for the outing.



almost as elated as i was by the produce at the farm. four varieties of cauliflower, people! ("take a picture," you all mocked. well booyah!)



and because i left the non-smartphone photography duties to my sister yet again, and she has other things to do than keep up our blog, here's a group shot stolen from jack's blog (thanks, lis).



to think, a mere two years ago these four parents were sleeping off hangovers on saturday morning and couldn't have defined meconium to save their lives. who knew how good they'd look posing on a giant haystack pyramid?

skimming

i've fallen so far behind again (violet was sick, i was home from work, blah blah) that i'm going to have to skim to catch up. at least violet never seems to mind this when we're reading books. sometimes she turns the pages so fast that a story will read "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? i see a red... purple... teacher... all done!" (insert enthusiastic jazz hands.)

sign language-wise, her two reliables are "more" and "all done." we've been working on "thank you." she also shakes her head no at every opportunity. at the end of mealtime, she'll be flinging food off her tray, and i'll ask "more?" she thrashes her head from side to side. "all done?" HELL NOOOOOO. what's the third option? upend a bowl of cottage cheese onto the dog and sign "thank you" of course.

kevin has it worse than me. violet will be laughing uproariously at his jokes, but when he reaches to pick her up, she screams like he's pennywise the dancing clown. girl does not like getting her diaper changed. i mean, who needs it, right? sure, the diaper may be wet, maybe even filled with some hazardous waste, but it's not leaking yet. it's still good! ah, our little hippie, just trying to go green.

speaking of hippies, violet does not abide socks. she pulls them off every single day. how do you get hippie babies to wear shoes and socks without screaming (like you're pennywise the clown)? this is a sincere question. i've tried reasoning with her as we wrestle ("you have to wear shoes and socks if you want to succeed in civilized society"), but she just kicks me in the face (translation: "ever heard of steve jobs?")



violet has also started to psych out kevin. she'll smile sweetly and reach out to hand him a prized item - say, a clump of mystery dirt from the bathroom floor. "thank you!" kevin says/signs, and as he reaches to receive the offering, she quickly pulls it back and shakes her head NOOOOOO (and then eats it). i wonder if there's a sign for "you fell for it again, asshole!"

some serious late reporting here, but we took violet to a wedding in san diego with surprising success. as my sister's best friend lauren recited vows behind the prado in balboa park, violet crawled up and down the stairs in back - giving me a better view than i would have had in a chair - and didn't disturb the ceremony at all. sure, she was filthy before a single photo had been taken, but she had fun. there was even a make-your-own-goody-bag table at the reception with goldfish crackers.





i nursed her to sleep on an empty balcony overlooking the twinkle lights. i've loved the prado for years, and i think i'll always remember that moment. then i got to eat a real dinner, which was awesome.



violet woke up in the middle of the toasts, and even though it was 10:30pm, we let it ride. she was a little confused as we thrust her at the bride and auntie courtney, but someday she's sure to appreciate the beauty with which i captured the moment.



we hit the dance floor for the first song - someone had to get the party started!



and then headed home to bed. in somewhat related news, violet likes to sleep like this.

snack trap emerges victorious