"no no no" in landslide victory over "yeah"

here's violet all dolled up for oscar night this past sunday. she went with a little frill and a little edge, just like her mama likes the fashion. obviously i was happy to have an occasion to trot out the goonies onesie that lisa gave to me when violet was still in the womb. i tried to get violet to actually pose for a picture, but the title of this post should tell you how that request was met.

given violet's vehement opinions these days, i sought her input as we "watched" the red carpet arrivals, but she was much more interested in chasing the dogs around and trying to get them to chew on their own chew toys, which they wanted to play with about as much as she wanted to play with her own toys. she'd had enough of the hollywood scene long before angelina's leg made its now legendary appearance. "seacrest out!"



we took a family walk, although "walk" implies a certain level of velocity that is difficult to meet these days. rudy the lazy approves of the pace.



catching up from the prior weekend, we were excited to attend jack's first birthday party in san diego. here's the happy family.



and here is violet playing peek-a-boo on the slide with the object of her greatest adoration, nana.







i loved watching her trying to figure out how the wind works. it's a nice lesson for a toddler, that unpredictability.







this past weekend, after enduring our accountant's annual flogging in order to get our taxes done, we took violet to the noah's ark exhibit at the skirball. everyone i've talked to who's gone has been impressed, and it's easy to see why. there are literally hundreds of animals crafted out of recycled materials. there are wheels you spin to make lightning, to make leaves rise in a windstorm, to make rain flood the ark, to make the giant giraffe head move from side to side, and to make the animals climb two by two onto the ship.





i think the scale of the ark was actually a little overwhelming for violet, who mostly enjoyed things she also enjoys at home, like practicing her animal sounds



and hurling pieces of fruit at the ground and squealing in delight. (one of our crisper drawers is now reserved for "play fruit" like past-prime lemons and any apples with bite marks.)



even more enjoyable, of course, is the game of chase whenever it's time to go. you know how your first instinct is often to say "no no no" in fast succession upon any surprise accident? you spill wine on your shirt, you can't find your wallet, your toddler plucks something out of the gutter to eat - "no no no!" this is what violet says now, ALL THE TIME, and i honestly don't know where she picked up the finger wag that accompanies it. there are a lot of hard things about parenting, but chief among them is trying not to laugh when you've got a face like this sassing "no no no" at you.

"ama"

a popular new word in the violet lexicon is "ama." from this picture i'm sure you can guess what it means. in the recent past, violet only used "ama" to refer to pints from the freezer. the ice cream cone pictured on the beach page of her "my first words" book was but a mystery. but then we discovered the baby cone at gelato cafe. last night on our drive home, violet was flipping through the book again. from the front seat, i usually know she's on the beach page when i hear "stah" for starfish, but this time it was "ama." i'd like to say it wasn't one of my prouder moments, but anyone reading this knows i'd be lying.

whenever the freezer door opens at home, whether we're getting waffles in the morning or a veggie burger in the evening, the begging for "ama" ensues. i'm having progressive success with the lesson of delaying gratification.

two nights ago:

violet (halfway into bowl of pasta): "ama?"
me: "we eat dessert after dinner."
violet (shoves bowl away): "ama! ama! ama! ama!"

last night:

violet (hunk of fish in hand): "ama?"
me: "we eat dessert after dinner."
violet (shoves fish into mouth): "ama! ama! ama! ama!"

"modern family" was filming outside of gelato cafe last week, and as we exited between takes, violet clutching her baby cone of stracciatella, jesse tyler ferguson saw her and exclaimed, "how cute is THAT?" when they ran out of baby cones this past saturday, the cuteness quadrupled. violet, as you see, had no trouble managing the increase in size, but like my own mom always did, i "helped" anyway by "licking the drips."

valentine's (and bastille) day

violet wants to send a big hug to grandma linden and grandpa chick for her holiday basket, which she dug into with gusto.





about halfway into her shortbread cookie, she started running sprints up and down the hall with her valentine's balloon, purchased two weeks ago at the grocery store and still afloat! that's some premium atomic number 2 in there. kevin informed me that we're in the midst of a national helium shortage this year, so i'm thinking i'd better suck out the gas while the gettin's good. what if violet never has another opportunity to hear the sage advice of the witch doctor in the seventh octave?



this past weekend we went to san diego, where violet was lucky enough to hang with her friends thea (age 3) and helen (14 months), and especially to jump on their giant backyard trampoline. by "jump" i mean that thea jumped, and helen and violet experienced the shock waves on their bottoms, which they loved. i snapped at least ten pictures of the trio, and as i told their mom, that meant i'd have one usable one. well. what i actually had was blur, red-eye, and these:





i love the little girls eying the big girl's cracker, as if it's better than what they've got.

we also spent quality time with my family and had our most successful restaurant outing to date. violet ate the entire contents of the bread basket and then housed half a plate of penne with butter and parmesan. i haven't seen that kind of carb-loading since my last valentine's day as a single.





in other news, the little sweeties have been growing sweet peas, which are stationed right outside the front door at daycare. violet has been checking on them each morning.



it's so (is there another word for it?) sweet. they sprouted just in time for valentine's day, hooray!



today's a big day at school. violet is going to take her first nap on a cot as part of her preparation for the toddler room. i was also informed that she's figured out how to open the gates in the infant room, and when i chuckled to her teachers about how she's trying to escape from them, they replied, oh no, she's not trying to go anywhere... she's trying to let all the babies out. liberté?

cheeeese!

violet's "smile for the camera" features adorably squinched eyes and nose... and dear god, look at that underbite. this particular type of malocclusion is well chronicled in photos of yours truly at this age. i can see the writing on the wall for munchie, and it's a sketch of a medieval-inspired torture device known in the modern world as the palatal expander.

blissfully unaware of her orthodontic fate, violet is big into giving hugs these days, at least to stuffed animals and people she likes. there is nothing more heart-melting in our lives than her little monkey hugs.



the fallout from the hug love is that violet continues to "wrestle" with her "friends" at "school." have i written about this yet? some weeks ago, her primary care provider delicately asked if we liked to "play wrestle" at home. usually they see this behavior in kids with older siblings but are baffled as to where violet has picked it up. as i was stuffing her jacket into her cubby yesterday, i turned to see our little stone cold steve austin hug the unsuspecting baby elijah to the ground. "smackdown!" i shouted as i cranked up some metallica on my speakerphone and violet threw up her arms in "so big!"

in a similar takedown, "gentle hands" has rocketed past a certain f word in my most used daily vocabulary.

also problematically, violet likes to hug-down the dogs, whose names she has just started saying. in a reverse of the classic pirates of the caribbean scene where the prisoners beckon to the dog holding the keys, violet taunted her favorite WWE opponents.



thankfully "roo" and "peepee" don't care much for her plastic things. she's always chasing after them with what she thinks are generous offers -- foam blocks, crayons, clean socks -- and doesn't seem to understand why she doesn't get the same reaction as when she offers them 95% of her dinner.

speaking of my anxiety over her caloric intake, violet is being transitioned out of bottles at school. reassuringly, she is excellent at this:



but as her teacher noted upon emailing this photo to me, when violet was asked if she wanted a little more milk, she said "no!" (featured here is the accompanying ASL sign for "hell no!")



"LOL!" ended the email, but i'm sure you can guess who was not LOL!-ing.

in other news, violet really likes to scribble lately.



a big favorite is to slap her hand on the magnadoodle and demand that i trace it. i thought this was a pretty cool trick that i'd taught her, but once again, school schooled me.



as promised, in her la-z-boy:



"i'd like to order a cheese pizza, hold the pizza."

a good sit

for an active girl, violet truly enjoys a good sit. anything that's even remotely bench-like or chair-like, and she's all about it. above featured is the turtle seat at our park (a sideways shot would show it's shaped like a turtle), although i doubt too many other parents refer to it as the turtle "seat." "want to ride the turtle seat?" doesn't really get your adrenaline pumping, does it? violet spends more time on it than on the more ride-like bouncy attractions. a helpful young fellow gave violet some pushes to demonstrate just how rocking the turtle ride can be, and violet gave him a look that said, "are you one of those waterbed people?"

kevin anticipated the seat love before me, which is why violet ended up with her own plush armchair for christmas. i need to get a picture of her in it, but man, kid seating is cute.

whenever we walk home from the coffee shop, violet insists upon sitting on this "bench."



and while she enjoys the bunnies, guinea pigs, sheep, pigs, goats and chickens at our farmer's market petting zoo -- although not the cow, which she's afraid of -- the chairs are equally exciting (and possibly more so).



auntie courtney took violet into the petting zoo a few weeks ago, and a little girl in a head-to-toe lamb costume tried to rip violet's chair out from under her. my sister, showcasing her impeccable first grade-teacher skills, gently but firmly explained that lambie could have the chair when violet was done with it. lambie contemplated this for a moment before declaring "mine!" and trying to de-seat violet a second time. enter lambie's dad looking like a deer in the headlights: "uhhh... uhhh..." in a yard filled with animals, who knew a chair could cause such controversy? if these chairs start giving massages and delivering oxygen to my brain, then the $4 admission fee will be worth it. (but seriously, i LOVE holding the bunnies. i hadn't held one in years, and the way they relax once they're against your heartbeat is wonderfully newborn-esque.)

in other news, violet emerged from the bathroom last night having borrowed kevin's reading material. i think she's not quite sure what to make of it.



nonetheless, she flew through the pages like a middle-school girl reading the naughty parts of a v.c. andrews novel. (is that reference just for me?)



and i kid you not, this is the page she stopped on to really peruse:



thank god munchie can't read yet! dada, you're going to have to stash this book away with your tattered playboys and that rolled joint from 1968. what, it's not like your mom is reading this. (hi linden.)

(but regarding #617, violet, i'll happily take the compromised air if you sleep until 10am this weekend.)

"we're bad parents," kevin declared as i finished snapping this particular photo series. i like to think of the "so bad it's good" variety.

in related news, violet can identify all the letters of her name, which nana taught her at christmas using a personalized name puzzle gift. she's best at "v" "o" "e" and "t." i think "i" (eye?) is a little confusing, and she often skips the "l." i didn't think she could perform this party trick out of this specific context, but she surprised me the other day by pointing to a "t" on her bib and saying "t."

so, no pressure, pumpkin, but can you spell chymotrichous?