go west, young g-ma

hi, family. hi, friends. it's been a little while. we're back from vacation and a lot is going on, but i want to catch up proper, so let's resume where we left off.

grandma linden came to visit! g-ma hadn't seen violet in over a year, but we've talked about her plenty (and to her on the phone plenty: "i yuh yoo gammah leed"), so violet was eagerly anticipating her arrival and just loved having her in the house. it's so exciting to see violet warm to family she too rarely gets to see. i can't wait until we're able to fly back east to see kevin's entire extended family, including three little cousins that violet is dying to meet. we've yet to venture into the world of toddler air travel, and the reason is, well, we're chicken. go ahead and mock, and we'll go ahead and squawk.

lucky for us grandma was willing to come west again. of course violet insisted upon a tour of her favorite haunts, and at the top of that list was the grove and dinner at the farmer's market. violet tried to convince grandma to get rice and beans from loteria, but grandma stuck with a po-boy from the cajun stand. next time don't forget your bib, grandma!

linden's visit coincided with the jertberg family reunion at "the ranch" about an hour east in ontario. my mother's grandmother was one of seven, and every other summer the descendants descend upon the ranch -- an aging storybook property that's been in the family for generations. there's a swimming pool complete with two retrievers doggy paddling alongside all the kids and surrounded by trellises exploding with grapevines in full bloom. i still remember how excited i was the first time i picked a grape as a child, and the disappointment as the sour juice hit my tongue. there are rusted over antique cars parked in the weeds, a barbecue pit where the pig is roasted, and an ancient iron merry-go-round where all the teenagers congregated late into the evening.

linden was an especially great sport about joining the party full of strangers, but violet stuck by her side whenever she wasn't racing around like a madwoman, which i suppose was most of the time. i was especially happy about this picture because violet's expression is almost an exact replica of her uncle mike (linden's youngest) in my very favorite photo from kevin's childhood. in it, kevin is pouting beside his birthday cake while his younger brother takes a lick. i'll have to scan it for the blog one of these days. for anyone who knows kevin, it's a classic.

linden was lucky to witness a big first in violet's life -- the day of the skipped nap! as expected, i was grumpy and apprehensive about my failed plan to get violet to sleep on the drive over, and once violet discovered the magic of the ranch, the nap window was firmly shuttered.

i have to admit, violet was delightful all day despite not napping. she was just so happy to run free, and there were several other little kids afoot. she became absolutely obsessed with "oliver the kitty cat," a sage old guy in the twilight of his life who let her pet to her heart's content. violet chased him all over the place and busted him eating a hunk of roast pork on someone's abandoned plate. it's been a few weeks now, and she's still talking about oliver eating the meat. late afternoon i did manage to nurse violet down for a (cat)nap. she crashed hard for 20 minutes and woke up acting as refreshed as if she'd just logged twelve hours on a westin heavenly bed.

i wish my dad wasn't wearing his sunglasses in this picture so that you could see his eyes. it's kevin's mom and my dad who have the bluest eyes in the respective families, and they must have some pretty mighty genes given the depth of violet's blues.

while we did manage of few of these big outings, the most fun was had just hanging around the house. we danced in the kitchen to violet's favorite song. has this been documented here yet? there are several songs that violet asks to hear, but this is far and away #1. i almost died one day when we sat down to dinner, i got back up to turn on the ipod, and violet wheeled around in her booster seat and declared, "i want rakim!" she now regularly tells us, "don't sweat the technique." i tried to explain that it's only natural to sweat the technique if you're white, but that our family is actually so white that it would be futile to sweat it. after considering, she replied, "i want decemberists." exactly. so much for her street cred.

all in all, we had such a fantastic week, and it was really hard to say goodbye to grandma. violet misses her flip flops

her nightly stories

and most of all her company. after all, it takes being truly comfortable with someone to really let your belly hang out.