anniversary week

kevin and i celebrated our five-year anniversary on sunday, but we exploited the occasion all week long. kevin was on hiatus, and i escaped jury service and took a couple of days off work. the week ended up feeling like an impromptu vacation -- almost as awesome as an impromptu run through the sprinklers while walking home from the neighborhood pizza joint.

violet is becoming a real chatterbox lately. i know she's mostly parroting, but it's remarkable how often she manages to drum up a (mostly) grammatically correct sentence, usually involving her school buddies and/or characters from the dora-diego posse. the above photo should be captioned "diego run in sprinklers and get his jeans wet too!" enunciation is still a hurdle (no one but kevin or i would be able to translate that last sentence) but improves in sudden spurts. "teacher z" is now "teacher rosina" and "teacher zaa" is now "teacher roxana." this happened last week, and both teachers (her two primary caregivers) were giddy that violet had figured out how to say their names properly. rosina actually called me at work to let me know.

this morning i caught violet singing to herself for the first time while on the drive to school. row row row your boat. "life ees deeee!"

another first was the bounce house. there's one at the sunday farmer's market, and violet has jumped her little heart out three weekends in a row. she gets scared when big kids go in, but we get there early enough (when the balloon is still being inflated) that it's usually just toddlers at that point. god, remember the joy?

i also took violet to her first sit-down live performance at the ford ampitheatre, at the fantastic suggestion of our friend marah who works there. the show was gaelic music and dancing, part of a summer event series designed for kids and families. making sure to show proper respect for her heritage, violet was well behaved for the first ten minutes. in fact, i dare say she was riveted for the first song and the first step-dancing. but soon enough, she started to flail about and shout intermittently. i searched her romper for the hidden whiskey flask and, coming up empty, moved into emergency peanut butter sandwich mode. after that, we abandoned our seats... and discovered all the other toddlers in attendance, running around the corridors. all in all, i'd call the outing a success, but it's going to be a couple more years before i let nana and auntie courtney live out their life's dream of taking her to see the nutcracker.

in other festivities, we hit up the neighborhood july 4th parade, which featured two high school marching bands and dozens of kids riding decorated bikes, trikes and wagons. violet and her buddy jack were mesmerized by the fanfare, and their parents were mesmerized by the sight of pajama-clad ed asner, watching the low-budget production from his front yard. the procession ended at a park, and we made the mistake of letting violet and jack head straight for the playground while the veteran parents made a beeline for the free corn dogs and lemonade. by the time we got to the food stands, there was only watermelon left. "vivi dohn yike wah-meh." right.

we also took violet to universal citywalk, thinking perhaps she could stay up for fireworks. by early evening, however, the loopiness set in. it was also surprisingly chilly, for which we were unprepared, and violet insisted on wearing kevin's shirt, which made her look like the world's tiniest ph.d. graduate. if you ask her where she goes to school, she now replies, "USC!" (dada just died a little on the inside.)

luckily, kevin had recorded an east coast feed of the washington d.c. fireworks, so back at home, we plopped violet in front of the tv and waited in anticipation of her amazement at the spectacle. here's how the conversation went:

kevin: do you see the fireworks, violet? boom!
violet: don't pick your nose, dora!
stacey: look at the red firework violet! isn't it pretty?
violet: don't pick your nose, boots! ees yucky! eck!
kevin: violet, look at all the colors. wow!
violet: don't pick your nose, dora! ees yucky! eck! ECK!!!

and off to bed she went.

on thursday and friday, kevin and i showcased our loving parenting by dropping off violet at daycare and hitting the town. we saw the amazing spider-man in 3D at the cinerama dome. we had oysters and cocktails at gjelina and the hungry cat. we popped in for the haute couture of snickers bars at tavern on thursday and still managed to pick up violet early on friday to go for yet more ice cream. and as if we aren't spoiled rotten enough, nana came up a night to babysit so that we could go out to dinner at the saddle peak lodge. we left with this year's vacation fund deposited in our bellies.