a big girl now (a quasi-list)

it's been such a long time since i've done a "life lately" post that it's hard to know where to begin. trying to keep up with all of violet's latest developments is like physically trying to keep up with her.

that's violet at the verizon store one weeknight at 9pm. as you've probably heard from the source or the trickle-down, kevin lost his job. he's a television writer, and should he continue in the profession, he will also surely lose his next job, and again the next, and so on. it comes with the territory (and its pesky 13-week contracts). so it sucks of course, blah blah, yin and yang, and hey, speaking of silver linings, kevin got a new contract! it's for two whole years! thanks, verizon. you'd think it would be easy to get a spouse added to your longstanding verizon account, but it turns out it's almost as difficult as landing a job in late-night television. but back to those silver stitches, while we were enjoying a perfectly civilized evening in the company of our neighborhood branch customer service representatives, we were also treated to a nice chat with dr. 90210, who showed me an iphoto of his kids and complimented me on my post-baby weight loss, which i imagine is an icebreaker for his tummy tuck offerings, which i escaped at a literal sprint after violet as she made a break of her own for the parking lot.

so i don't know if you've heard, but violet has an announcement: "i'm a big girl now. i'm not a baby anymore." we (ab)use her hearty embrace of this concept to the fullest. for example, babies go pee pee in diapers, but not big girls! truth be told, we weren't in any kind of rush on the potty training front, but day care told us she's ready, so fine, we went to target, let her pick out some dora undies (well, she wanted the diegos, and while i hate "for girls" and "for boys" conditioning, i guess i hate dealing with the potential for sideways looks at school even more) and, at least for the moment, she's now 100% in undies. we wanted to keep the diaper overnight, but violet had a thing or two to shriek about that, so she's in undies overnight too. as long as we head straight to the bathroom at morning wake-up, she's good, but naps are hit and miss. "i have poo poo" were her first words after her sunday nap, and she wasn't lying. as i picked her up and told her no problem, we'd clean it up, she said very apologetically, "i dohn want get my poo poo on you, mama." i tell you, not even poop can grease her hold on my heartstrings.

i can't believe how much violet talks now. it's just so awesome, i really can't overstate it. seeing her language develop will no doubt be one of the greatest joys of my life. i know i need to write down more of this stuff because she cracks us up every single day. on saturday morning, she was running around shirtless and declared, "mama, i can't see my boob." i said, "you can't see your what?" "i can't see my boob!" "your what?" i mean, i didn't think she actually meant boob, but then she said, "you have big boobs. i have leetle boobs." she pointed (at my almost B cups) for emphasis. i said, "oh! your boob! well, look in the mirror." she did, and she broke out in a big grin as she admired her boobs (or lack thereof). then when i went to put her shirt on, she yelled, "no mama! i want to see my boobs!"

violet's current favorite game is hiding. under the covers, in the closet, behind the curtains, under my skirt, in the linen cabinet, and especially face down in the disgusting fuzzy bath mat whilst pulling the edges up around her cheeks. she was very disappointed to find that she couldn't get herself into the fridge and close the door. when in any hiding spot, she squirms and squeals with delight as we exclaim how worried we are that we can't find her, she was right here a minute ago. whenever she's discovered, she shrieks, holds up a finger and declares, "i want one moh time!"

her imaginative play has really picked up over the past couple of weeks. it's especially amazing when she's running around, moving invisible items from here to there ("i give dis to you, jack" and "i give dis to you, viv," she'll say, since those are two of her buddies). most of the time, though, she's still using her actual toys. it was all i could do not to laugh this morning as she played with boots

and baby jaguar in her carseat, and boots told baby jaguar, "you're not listening to me! you need to listen to me, baby j!" she also put them both on timeout the other day and wagged her finger: "you need to listen to your mama! you could get hurt!" seriously, do i wag my finger? it's pretty humbling to relive my discipline failures through her dramatic play with beanie babies, but at least i'm building abs of steel via laughter suppression.

if you cue violet with this line from where the wild things are - "the monsters said, 'oh please don't go - we'll eat you up! - we love you so'" - violet grins and gleefully recites, "but... max... said... NO!" i'm sure it's been said the world over, but maurice sendak knew what he was doing.

violet's other favorite books this week are knuffle bunny, i am invited to a party and the aforementioned the ghost of nicholas greebe. at school violet drew a bunch of skewed yellow circles with dots in their centers and then told her teacher that two of them were ghosts. "we've been reading some halloween books at home. they're friendly ghosts," i explained. "mmm," her teacher replied as she cast a wary eye over our little haley joel osment. so, is it wrong if i teach violet to say, "i see dead people"? i mean, you can teach these little sponges anything! there is so much potential for comedy, it's really, really hard to resist.