it's spring

and i can't seem to tend this blog any better than i tend houseplants. nana once gave us some delightful potted basil, parsley and chives. RIP.

though i only have this itty bitty picture

violet's class has been tending a garden at school. community gardening is obviously a hip enrichment activity for schools to tout in their recruiting efforts - i know this because kevin and i have toured several preschools recently, all proud to show off their lone strawberry on life support - but also, it's awesome. violet got some adorable kiddie gardening tools for easter, and i'm dying for nana, cuzzy kristy and aunt bonnie to consult for us at home. nana thinks i might be able to keep a tomato plant alive. anytime violet is sitting on the counter and there's a tomato in the bowl, she declares, "i yike tomatoes now," chomps it, spits in disgust and amends, "no i don't yike tomatoes." her speech gets clearer everyday, but the "y" for "l" is still all over the place, along with the "s" for "th." "mama, i have somesing on my yips!" oh let me see. why yes, that's tomato seeds from the blood-let tomato i'll now be adding to my dinner.

in keeping with the spring theme, i took violet to descanso gardens one morning when neither of us was feeling all that great but needed some fresh air. it's a beautiful space - a much humbler version of huntington gardens, its stately neighbor - and has an "enchanted train" and a children's maze, where violet made some new friends.

almost as cute as the friends she made last week at the petting zoo.

she was so excited to "take a nap with the piggies." she snuggled them with such ardor you'd have thought they were en route to the slaughterhouse. she is terrified of the chickens, and we also had a traumatic experience involving a ladybug recently. it was in her path, and she insisted that i move it. i nudged it to "wake her up" (i.e. make sure it wasn't dead), and when it started walking, violet began shrieking in terror. "don't worry, she's a nice ladybug," i said, but violet was in the throes of blind panic. i picked her up, comforted her and promised that she would like ladybugs when she was an older kid but that it's okay to be scared of them now. you really can't know how you'll handle these situations until you're in them, can you? some days i feel like i'm back my hospital gown, awkwardly holding a screaming newborn, worried i'm going to drop her.

violet had her 2.5yo check-up, and right before it, we gave her the fisher price doctor kit, which she is totally obsessed with. "dr. violet" (as she calls herself) gives very brisk and conservative check-ups to her stuffed animals and imaginary friends. we make sure to rule out fever at least a half dozen times for each patient. i've always made a point of prepping her for her own shots with "it's going to hurt a little bit but then it will stop" but she insists on telling her patients that "it's not going to hurt." "it might hurt a little bit," i interceded with mr. hats, a monkey. "no, it's not! it's not going to hurt, mr. hats!"

a few mornings ago, her eyes fluttered open, she looked at me and said, "one time, i pinched my finger in the shower door." she then fell back asleep for an hour.

here she is, enjoying the kiddie cocoa she was promised for doing so great at the doctor's office.

the other day we were dancing in the kitchen, and when the song ended, she asked for another. i clicked forward on the ipod, and when i looked back at her, she had the saddest expression on her face. "mama, sometimes i don't dance so good," she said. my instinct - so fierce and immediate - was to tell her that she's the greatest dancer i've ever seen in my life. and she is, of course. but i didn't say that. i realized that this was just a flash of what it's going to be like for years, forever, the instinct to shelter her from the failure and heartache that's going to make her a better person. but i mean, she's two! i'm not ready for her to be feeling self-conscious already. wherever did she get the idea that she's not good at dancing? does she see bigger kids dancing and feel badly that she can't do it the same? did some little punk actually tell her she sucks during freeze dance? does she watch kevin and i bust moves and realize she's doomed? i just told her that she's a great dancer for her age, and that if she keeps practicing, she'll get even better.

i mean, please. i know you can see the rhythm. step on stage the girls boo too much, i guess it's cause you run with lame dudes too much.

speaking of dudes, violet is boy crazy. i'm 100% not joking. we were looking at our wedding pictures with her, and she would not relinquish a photo of my bouquet because she needed it "to marry schroeder." we went to our friends' house for dinner, and anytime her friend viv's 10-year-old brother atticus left the room, violet would ask where he was, and when it came time to go home, violet would not leave without finding him for a hug. she talked about him the entire ride home and insisted that she wouldn't take a bath unless atticus took one with her. at least by then the real atticus had morphed into imaginary atticus, so we were able to accommodate. after all, we're used to "my big brother christopher robin" joining us wherever we go. here's violet, her big brother (can YOU see him?) and pooh, who is evidently MY big brother. i wouldn't question it if i were you.

in other spring news, we had a wonderful time at nana's house for easter. it really is one of the best days of the year on my side of the family, and we were lucky that almost everyone was able to be there. so, roughly twenty adults trailed violet on her egg hunt, and given that nana had filled 27 plastic eggs with candy and stickers, it was a long one. as kristy put it, "this is getting a little boring. she needs some competition." where the hell is christopher robin when you need him? violet consumed plenty of sugar, but it wasn't as crazy as last year. i guess she's building up a tolerance. in the picture with auntie, she's screaming for lambie cake.

we were also lucky to have uncle mike in town on business last week, and he came bearing a gift from aunt erica and "baby noah" who at 16 months is not such a baby anymore. do you think violet + uncle mike = bff 4 eva?

violet could not stop playing with her new minnie doll, and when it came time to get a picture of her with uncle mike, we of course could not get her to look at the camera.

violet + minnie = bff 4 eva.