our day-to-day schedule is tight right now. i don't mean it as a complaint, though i do of course wish i had more time to tend this little blog. most of all i wish kevin had more time to sleep. his work is all consuming right now, and while that's awesome for all of the reasons you can guess, it's a bummer when he misses violet's bedtime. as for me and violet, our weekdays typically look like this:
7:15am, wake up
7:45am, leave the house (looking like i stepped out of a maybelline ad, obviously)
8:30am, daycare arrival
8:45am, daycare bye bye
9:00am, i'm at my desk
5:00pm, i leave my desk
5:15pm, daycare reunion
5:45pm, we finally drive out of parking lot
6:30pm, sprint into the house to let poor mutts out
7:30pm, dinner
9:00pm, i shower while violet either joins me, takes her own bath, or runs around naked
9:30pm, pjs and stories
10:00pm, lights out
10:15pm, i sneak out of violet's room when she's finally asleep
at this point i used to join kevin for our precious couch time, but nowadays he's usually not home yet, so i do the chores that he used to be doing while i was rocking violet down -- food prep, dishes, laundry, making peanut butter kongs for our neglected/spoiled dogs, retrieving plastic tiaras lined up on "the balcony" (aka the cobweb-covered treadmill in the garage). i'm usually finishing up in the kitchen as the dogs skitter to the front door when kevin's car approaches from a half mile away. bills and bureaucracy have thus bled into my desk downtime, and i mean, is the government shutting down or something? i'll have to find out when kevin tells me his favorite jokes from the day. sadly i'm the worst audience for these since i don't get the topical references. or maybe i'm the best audience? in sharp contrast, kevin consumes far, far too much news. he's always sending me links to some crazy shit about a kid who got the bubonic plague from an elmo toothbrush or something, and i'm like, i don't have time for this crap! resend that link to the dog playing in a pile of leaves! reading about syria makes me feel dumb, and that dog has something important to teach me about life!
violet will still nap for three hours at school (i know!) though on the weekends she'll only nap a little over an hour. lately she loves to hike up her big girl britches and declare she doesn't want to nap, but she crashes out eventually. when she does take a shorter nap at school, she goes to bed earlier, which of course is a mixed bag because then it means we have less playtime but maybe i'm not washing tupperware at 11pm?
happily the grind grinds to a halt on weekends, and while i'm about to post a bunch of pictures that make it look like we've been busy on the weekends too, we haven't really. we did enjoy my parents' anniversary party followed by violet's birthday party, but most weekends we just kind of play by ear. one weekend we made it to the aquarium of the pacific in long beach, and while violet was into it
her enthusiasm couldn't possibly have beaten mine. i haven't been to an aquarium since i was a kid (i know, i know, i didn't smoke enough weed in college) and OMG have you been to an aquarium since you were a kid?? we watched the seal and sea lion show, got "hugs" from the sea anemone, and narrowly stopped violet from leaping into the shark reef. apologies again for my lousy photography skills, but did you know that at an aquarium there are penguins a few inches from your fingertips?!
and how could i have forgotten about otters?? the only cuteness that can rival a good kevin-violet pic
is an otter. i could watch otters all day.
on the topic of cuteness rivalry OMG
we spent a swim afternoon at our old roommate bianca's place. her doggie, mclovin', used to sleep with me and kevin until 4am when bink would get home from work, at which point he'd shotgun down the hall to be with her. she also has two chihuahuas, cashew and chestnut, and we spent most of the visit watching violet's giggle fest as she snuggled in their doggie bed. now whenever she sees a chihuahua, she asks, "is it chestnut?" kevin brought home a flyer for some glorious $1.5 million home for sale in our neighborhood, and violet beamed: "look! it's bianca's house!" of course i relayed this story to a very pleased bianca.
we also made it out to the fair. that petting zoo is out of control. as kevin understated, "these guys are a little aggressive." no matter. as long as it's not a chicken (we exited the farmers market petting zoo early this past sunday due to "too many chickens"), violet is all about it.
the fair had this rad play experience for kids where they harvest produce, collect eggs from chicken coops, milk cows, sell their goods and take their (play) money to the grocery store to buy processed foods (seriously!) like animal crackers and top ramen.
we posed next to the feed sign because my mom's best friend's family is, in fact, these kruses.
in other weekend fun, here is violet with her best friend, hana, at their very first play date outside of school.
kevin heard there had been a slip n' slide involved, and the next day he sent me an article about how many kids die of the bubonic plague on trampolines every year or something like that.
i also keep meaning to mention that violet's absolute favorite song right now is the jackson 5's ABC, and after i showed her a clip of their ed sullivan show performance, she initiated michael, jermaine, tito, marlon and jackie into her posse of imaginary playmates. as you would expect, it's comedy gold. of course it can be a little disconcerting when michael joins her for bath time, and also every night when we "pajama race!" against jermaine, who always, at the very last moment, fumbles his bottoms while violet pulls up hers and throws her arms over her head in victory. you can't make this shit up. my mom was babysitting recently and enjoyed playing play doh with max, ruby and tito's cat. i wouldn't have pegged tito for a cat person. at least i'm assured that violet has a feminist streak because she regularly asks, "why were janet and latoya not in the band?"
leapfrogging the forthcoming birthday post (does it count as postmodern if it's just lazy?) here is violet this morning, delighted by the porch she decorated last night with trader joe's pumpkins.
whenever anyone asks what she's going to be for halloween, she insists she's going to be a jaguar again. thankfully last year's costume still fits. she pulled it out of the dress-up bin last night while we were playing trick-or-treating, a game that involves traipsing around the backyard in the dark with nothing but a flashlight to help us avoid the dog poop.
v: we need to get your costume out of the closet, mama.
me: what am i going to be?
v: a tuna fish.
me: what's daddy going to be?
v: a pig.
me: should we dress up the dogs too?
v: yes. rudy will be a sea director.
me: a sea director? what's that?
v: like sebastian the crab.
me: and what's petey going to be?
v: a sea director too.
happily the grind grinds to a halt on weekends, and while i'm about to post a bunch of pictures that make it look like we've been busy on the weekends too, we haven't really. we did enjoy my parents' anniversary party followed by violet's birthday party, but most weekends we just kind of play by ear. one weekend we made it to the aquarium of the pacific in long beach, and while violet was into it
her enthusiasm couldn't possibly have beaten mine. i haven't been to an aquarium since i was a kid (i know, i know, i didn't smoke enough weed in college) and OMG have you been to an aquarium since you were a kid?? we watched the seal and sea lion show, got "hugs" from the sea anemone, and narrowly stopped violet from leaping into the shark reef. apologies again for my lousy photography skills, but did you know that at an aquarium there are penguins a few inches from your fingertips?!
and how could i have forgotten about otters?? the only cuteness that can rival a good kevin-violet pic
is an otter. i could watch otters all day.
on the topic of cuteness rivalry OMG
we spent a swim afternoon at our old roommate bianca's place. her doggie, mclovin', used to sleep with me and kevin until 4am when bink would get home from work, at which point he'd shotgun down the hall to be with her. she also has two chihuahuas, cashew and chestnut, and we spent most of the visit watching violet's giggle fest as she snuggled in their doggie bed. now whenever she sees a chihuahua, she asks, "is it chestnut?" kevin brought home a flyer for some glorious $1.5 million home for sale in our neighborhood, and violet beamed: "look! it's bianca's house!" of course i relayed this story to a very pleased bianca.
we also made it out to the fair. that petting zoo is out of control. as kevin understated, "these guys are a little aggressive." no matter. as long as it's not a chicken (we exited the farmers market petting zoo early this past sunday due to "too many chickens"), violet is all about it.
the fair had this rad play experience for kids where they harvest produce, collect eggs from chicken coops, milk cows, sell their goods and take their (play) money to the grocery store to buy processed foods (seriously!) like animal crackers and top ramen.
we posed next to the feed sign because my mom's best friend's family is, in fact, these kruses.
in other weekend fun, here is violet with her best friend, hana, at their very first play date outside of school.
kevin heard there had been a slip n' slide involved, and the next day he sent me an article about how many kids die of the bubonic plague on trampolines every year or something like that.
i also keep meaning to mention that violet's absolute favorite song right now is the jackson 5's ABC, and after i showed her a clip of their ed sullivan show performance, she initiated michael, jermaine, tito, marlon and jackie into her posse of imaginary playmates. as you would expect, it's comedy gold. of course it can be a little disconcerting when michael joins her for bath time, and also every night when we "pajama race!" against jermaine, who always, at the very last moment, fumbles his bottoms while violet pulls up hers and throws her arms over her head in victory. you can't make this shit up. my mom was babysitting recently and enjoyed playing play doh with max, ruby and tito's cat. i wouldn't have pegged tito for a cat person. at least i'm assured that violet has a feminist streak because she regularly asks, "why were janet and latoya not in the band?"
leapfrogging the forthcoming birthday post (does it count as postmodern if it's just lazy?) here is violet this morning, delighted by the porch she decorated last night with trader joe's pumpkins.
whenever anyone asks what she's going to be for halloween, she insists she's going to be a jaguar again. thankfully last year's costume still fits. she pulled it out of the dress-up bin last night while we were playing trick-or-treating, a game that involves traipsing around the backyard in the dark with nothing but a flashlight to help us avoid the dog poop.
v: we need to get your costume out of the closet, mama.
me: what am i going to be?
v: a tuna fish.
me: what's daddy going to be?
v: a pig.
me: should we dress up the dogs too?
v: yes. rudy will be a sea director.
me: a sea director? what's that?
v: like sebastian the crab.
me: and what's petey going to be?
v: a sea director too.
