new year, more new

"I WANT TO DO IT!!!" has reached new heights lately, in practice and in pitch. the above photo illustrates one of my favorite examples. she can put on her sunglasses herself, bitches. this after i fumbled through a pile of crap in my passenger seat to find them while she raged against the brightness of the light: "no No NO, sun! get out of my eyes! that's naughty, sun! you don't get to watch diego tonight!"

that's the latest in discipline by the way. if she's doing something naughty - common offenses include climbing to unsafe heights, i.e. onto the cheap folding ikea dining table to retrieve the kindle that she's not supposed to use without our presence; refusing to get into her carseat ("i want to make mischief like max," she says, referencing her favorite IQ-challenged bunny as she plays in the driver's seat pressing the mystery buttons); and "escaping" as she likes to call her sprints away from us in public places - we tell her that if she continues the naughty behavior, she won't get to watch her shows. sadly, it's probably the most effective tactic in our arsenal right now. whenever i read the earnest parenting advice about how your child should be motivated to behave well not for bribes but rather for the inherent pleasure of exhibiting good behavior, i wince. and then i have a good laugh as i drink my coffee, eat some chocolate, read a gossip website and remind myself that my workday ends in an hour. this morning on the drive to work/school, we were listening to cinderella's "the work song," and during the classical interlude that represents lucifer the cat's pursuit of jacques and gus-gus, violet scolded, "no mommy lucifer! that's not nice! you don't get to watch diego!"

i didn't know if i had much photo documentation to post today, but as i scrolled through the last couple of weeks, i was once again struck by how quickly violet changes. for example, she's on the cusp of being completely able to pull up/down her pants and undies, so we got her a little step stool for the toilet and a big step stool so she can wash her hands. she's super into these new privileges.

i forgot to get a picture, but kevin converted the crib too. i'm sure some of you are like OH MY GOD THAT'S HUGE NEWS but it's more of a shrug in our house. violet is excited about her "big girl bed," don't get me wrong, but i still hold her until she's asleep every night and then set her down (gently), so the motivation for the conversion was really to make this easier on me. the maneuver had grown so difficult that i was literally climbing into the crib to set her down without waking her. it's a lot easier to just shimmy her onto the toddler bed. i'd also hoped that when she woke up to come into bed with us (typically a couple hours later), she'd start walking down the hallway and climbing up herself ("i do it myself!!!), but i'm not sure when that will really happen. as of now, she just sits on her bed repeating her pitiful "mamas" until i come to collect her and flop us both into the big bed. i know in so many ways she's still just a baby, but...

i can't believe what a big girl she looks like here:

she's especially thrilled because the trike was a christmas gift from her cousin reese, who is thus far her only girl cousin (of the kid cousins), and who she idolizes even though they've yet to meet.

violet looks like a pretty big girl to me in this one too:

auntie courtney (who teaches child development online, in addition to first grade in the classroom) will be interested to know that violet has changed her pencil grasp from gross palmar to digital pronate.

although auntie (who hates cats) may be sorry about our little artist's choice of subject.

violet is also thrilled that her cousin declan, who she has also yet to meet, gave her this fairy tale art set for christmas. it's pretty great how well she understands that she has family in washington dc and how we're going to take a plane to get there. she also really wants to go to the fictional town of pineville, home of her buddies jingle and bell, and when i told her it was far away, she said, "we can fly to pie-ville in a hell-copter with diego!" OBSESSED.

whenever i get wistful about how fast she's growing up, it helps to have her wear her gloves. god she is still a tiny thing.

christmas morning

SANTA CAME TO NANA'S HOUSE! are those my CAPS or violet's? you decide.

obviously we'd been prepping her for this moment in various ways, but i think the real linchpin was a viewing of "max and ruby's christmas" in which santa comes down the chimney and leaves gifts. she'd seen this in books of course, but the animation really brought to life the narrative that the fat old man we met at disneyland, after dispatching alfie the elf to spy on her and report more nice than naughty behavior, had flown to nana's house in a sleigh with rudolph at the helm, descended our chimney while we slept, and left a bunch of presents!

we waited until the end to watch her open what she'd specifically asked santa for, and i'll never forget her reaction, from the moment of dawning on her face to the gleeful sprint around the entire house. kevin swept her up before she went careening into anything, but she could not stop smiling.

so i mean, sure, i jest, but the whole thing was irresistibly fun. we weren't sure if she'd really "get it" but man did she ever. her imaginary life has skyrocketed to the point that it probably comprises half of her waking life, so the santa experience was a perfect complement. christopher robin helps us carry our umbrella. gus gus, jacques and mary all needed their fleeces zipped this morning, and we had to hold lulu's brother's legs while he peed (seated) on the toilet before we could leave the house. last night we were driving home in the dark, glumly surveying the sea of headlights before us, and violet vehemently exclaimed that she was going to LASSO DA TAFFIC so that she could go home and drink hot cocoa with schroeder!



90% of the time, she wants to include us in her games (by which i mean demands that we play and micromanages our involvement), but i already get choked up thinking about that day in the future when the Do Not Disturb sign is scotch-taped to the bedroom door.

we spent a week at my parents' house, which may be the longest we've been able to hunker down in PQ in the almost 9 years that kevin and i have been together, and it was SO NICE. christmas day itself was a small affair this year, and the biggest disappointment for violet was that "my big kid cousins nick and noah couldn't come for kiss-mas," which is the first thing she told teacher roxana upon her return to school last week. i think i speak for everyone in my family when i say the highlight of xmas 2012 was a dancing cat:



other highlights for violet included: vanilla;

her first massage (with my mom's physical therapist esther);

hilltop park / greatest park in the world;

and the gingerbread house sent by grandma linden. we didn't want to desecrate the godliness that is the cleanliness of nana's house, but the first thing we did back in LA was dive into this baby.

 there's no symbolism here, none at all. i hope your 2013 is off to a good start.

holiday cheer

here are a few pics from one of my attempts at a holiday photo shoot. as if i'm not terrible enough at this, there's kevin trying to sabotage me in that last one. by now anyone reading this has seen our actual card, which was conceived and photographed by kevin, and thank goodness. i love sending (and receiving!) holiday cards, but trying to get "the best" shot of my child is too much pressure. by the time she's old enough to grump about posing for the annual christmas card picture, i'll be relieved to reinstate my old tradition of hemming and hawing over the boxed cards for an entire afternoon at the bookstore. if there are even bookstores by then, which i doubt.

we let violet pick out her first real christmas tree at a local church lot (thanks dietricks!), and i think it's safe to say that she loved the experience. she spent the entire time sprinting up and down the aisles and hiding in little corners under trees, giggling and shrieking. we considered getting a more standard six footer, but violet was thrilled about the idea of a "kid size" tree, which conveniently also fit inside the volvo. we've managed to accumulate so many original ornaments over the years that we're tossing out the old boxes of generic glass bulbs. we couldn't even fit half of our others on this little tree.

violet's #1 favorite ornament this year is a big green bulb with kevin's late grandmother's picture that "talks" in her voice: "kevin, it's time you come home for a merry christmas." this kind of ornament - it's one of the best parts of christmas.

she was also really fond of a handmade cupcake ornament and a ceramic starbucks one given to me years ago by my sister: "mommy's coffee." i'd like to say the joy of tree trimming brought about this smile, but we'd turned on diego for some reason, i think so i could finish making dinner.

i took violet to sing carols on the trolley with mrs. claus in beverly hills - which is not, by the way, the three-block "ride to santa" that it purports to be, but rather a 40-minute advertisement for shopping opportunities, as if the tourists had come to rodeo drive without realizing they could actually SHOP there. we were happy to learn, however, that the usually sample-stingy williams sonoma was, in fact, giving out free cups of peppermint hot chocolate. i'd like to say violet was the most excited of us two. she did, in fact, clutch her little cup for quite awhile, but it was me who downed the last (cold) sip. violet now loves to insist, "mama, drink the rest and say AHHH!"

what i don't have scanned for the blog yet is a photo of violet... sitting solo on santa's lap! the trolley dropped us at the paley center for media, where i was stunned to discover that not only was my kid happy to climb on santa's lap and make her case for a diego doll but also that the elves printed out the picture ten seconds later and handed it to me for free!

the way the days fell this year was great because in the past couple of years we haven't had that much time for cookie baking with my mom in san diego leading up to christmas, and this was the first year that violet could really participate in the full extravaganza. i tried again and again to get her to smile for the camera, but she was taking her work very, very seriously. it was apparent that she was enjoying herself immensely, but not in a silly or playful way. just look at this little virgo in action. exacting! meticulous! she's going to be great at baking. i love it.

the smiles came later, during the taste testing.

on christmas eve, we took her to my hometown lights extravaganza, christmas card lane, and unlike last year, this time she was thrilled upon recognizing many of the characters - from santa and frosty to cinderella, snoopy, and even dora. shockingly, none of the residents had chosen diego as the centerpiece for their holiday decor - what?!

next up, christmas morning! i've got things to report about violet's latest developments (and her ever growing posse of imaginary friends) but christmas pictures will always trump text, right?