daylight: saved!

i've never been happier to lose an hour of sleep! it's so great not only to commute home, but also to arrive home, IN THE DAYLIGHT. while the still under 20 pounds violet remains face backward in her bucket seat, at least now she can see her snacks, toys, books, what have you, beyond the aid of the book light clamped to her snugride throughout these long winter months. i can't wait for the whole new world that awaits once we finally move her to the convertible seat and face it forward. i know that for safety, the babes are supposed to stay rear facing until their second birthdays, but i honestly believe that i will be a much safer driver during our 90 minutes daily in the car once she can see out the windshield and chat about the passing landscape with me. she's currently obsessed with the flashing red hand of crosswalk lights ("blink blink!" she says while flashing her own hand), and i have to believe that streetlights in general will provide diversion for a good deal of the drive once she's able to see them.

but back to the time change. last week, we took a family walk that looked like this



and this week we've been coming home for evening activities that look more like this



and (drum roll please) THIS







thanks to her five-year-old buddy grace, who had outgrown the slide, and grace's generous parents, violet is now the proud new owner of this backyard slide. on day one, she couldn't climb the ladder without help, but by day two, she was zooming up it no problem. i was practically mocking her insistence that she could spiderman her way up the slide itself ("don't you want to go to the ladder?" "no!"), as it's much steeper than the toddlertown slide that she ascends so easily, and in practice for her many years of telling me to shove it, she went and climbed up it last night.

in other news, violet has her 18 month check-up this coming monday, and although it's fodder for another post, i was counting up her "words" in preparation. it probably sounds crazy, but she has over 100 words at this point (only about 25% of which you and the rest of the world could understand), though she still doesn't really use any two together (with the exception of things like "mama hand!" which means she wants to drag me to wherever she wants to go). most impressive lately are her colors. she is absolutely obsessed with identifying the colors of everything. she says red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, brown and black. green, blue and purple are the most decipherable; orange sounds like a lot of her other mystery words, i.e. auntie ("ahn"). still, it was enough to keep her rooting for her dada's team today. it was a little touch and go there



but they pulled it out in the end. go "ahn"!



in other adventures, we rode the subway downtown on saturday for an outing to the central library - the biggest and baddest of all libraries in los angeles. i hadn't been in years, and i love it so much. conveniently, we swung by bottega louie for a beignet ("bay") as we walked the few blocks from the metro stop. i think violet was a little confused by the mode of transit, as i had been hyping a train ride - "choo choo!" she enthused as we waited underground - but she did so well that i have hopes for using the subway to get to work/daycare with her on occasion.



we made it to the library in time for a live reading of chicka chicka boom boom, a book she knows from both school and home, and we checked out a couple of things for the ride home.



here is kevin's favorite pic of the week. "the whole world is hers," he remarked.