We got back from our trip East Thursday evening, and we spent all day yesterday re-acclimating to our lives. I don’t think we’re done with that—may take all weekend. It will certainly take all weekend AT LEAST to unpack the alarming amount of stuff we brought with us.

Our story begins in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where Vibble and I spent a wonderful week visiting old friends and spending great times with my family there. This includes: THE MOST AWESOME COUSINS ON EARTH! This trip was a long one for Violet, but I can tell you on her behalf that she would gladly go another nine rounds if it meant getting to be with Dani and Erica. She just adores being in their presence.

Highlights of this visit included an overnight in Pittsburgh with Cindy and Matt and Bridget and Dave; a day at Idlewild Park; a visit to Keystone Equestrian Center, where my nieces take horseback riding lessons; two cookouts at Cheri and Brian’s house—one of which was attended by Tracey and her husband and kids—and lots of trampoline time! I think Violet is likely dreaming about that trampoline as I type this.

From Latrobe, I borrowed my oldest niece, Erica, as a mother’s helper, and she and Violet and I headed to Penn State for a little reunion weekend. Despite the heat and some toddler moodiness to match, we had the very best time walking around campus and downtown and swimming in the hotel pool. My roommates and I, who have kids around the same age now, were there, and Jen & Pete and Kelly also joined us. It was a great little dynamic, and I so enjoyed being there and being together.

OK, here’s where it gets ambitious: From State College, we drove all the way to Bear Paw, NC, where my grandparents are summering. Yes, that’s a 14-hour drive. With a two-year-old. All I can say is, THANK GOODNESS FOR ERICA. There were so few moments of complaint from Violet on this trip, and in fact, she seemed to enjoy most of it immensely. I would say I gambled and won with this plan, wouldn’t you? The overnight in a hotel in Wytheville was especially memorable. Erica decided while I was in the shower to give Violet half of a chocolate bar. (Note: This is but one example of Erica’s DEVIOUS SIDE.) What followed looked a lot like that first time freshman year when your friend comes home completely drunk, and you and your other friends, being not drunk, enjoy just sort of messing with that person. Erica and I laughed until we cried at Vibble’s nutty high-jinks for an hour while she jumped on the beds singing, whipped off her diaper and danced all over the room, and talked to us in a high-pitched and speedy little voice. Needless to say, she slept like a rock that night. Also needless to say: No more chocolate for you, Little One, YOU ARE CUT OFF.

On to lovely Bear Paw. Lovely and REMOTE. Our cabin was fantastic, and the lake was gorgeous. The company couldn’t have been better: My grandparents, The Kinkers; my dad and Pauline; my mom’s brother, John, and his wife, Lynn, and their two kids, Olivia and Lillian, from Northport, MI, all week … we were also joined late Wednesday night by Stevel, and my mom and Mike and Dani came down for one day of overlap visit as we were heading out. Lots of great fun in the pool, a wonderful day on a rented pontoon boat on the lake with my dad and Pauline, and whitewater rafting with the Northport Kinkers.

FINALLY, we headed to Georgia for some relaxing time at my dad’s and for visits with my Nana and with my dad’s side of the family there. By this point, sadly, I was sort of burned out on taking photos, I guess, because I don’t seem to have a single one. Know, though, that we enjoyed the time together a great deal, and seeing everyone is always a treat. Plus, Vibble got to play with her great-uncle and great-aunt, and I’m not sure if she knows they aren’t some Georgia toddler playgroup.

The kid was good as gold on the flights, such a smooth little traveler! She arrives back here with a mastery of the iPad, a dozen or so mosquito bites, and a LOT of new words (thanks to her cousins). And yes, you can check out the photos—on Facebook and via this link.

My mom flew out for a visit the other week, and we had the bestest time. We visited Leo Carillo and Malibu Lagoon, shopped, and just basked in the fearlessness and fun of Vibble. Stevel and I took an overnight to Big Bear, just the two of us, which was a nice, lazy, relaxing getaway. Check out photos here!

This weekend saw a visit from Cindy and Bridget. What fun—hooray! We shopped, poppied, beach-hopped, and ate-stickers-all-the-time-dude. We enjoyed a visit from Cindy’s fun cousin, this rad guy. It was wonderful to hang out with these girls. I posted some photos—poppy day shots by Jeremedia: Here’s your link to the PHOTO AWESOMENESS.

And now I need to go do my glute exercises. My glutes are bozos.

Two important things happened this week in the way of “getting back on the horse.” Horses.

[1]

We rode our bike again.

I have a great kid-seat on our bike, and I started taking Vibble for rides in bicycle-friendly Santa Monica at about 6 mos. old. When she was a year-ish, we had an accident. It was actually pretty hard to talk about, and I hadn’t been on the bike since, but here’s what happened that day:

I put Vibble in her seat in the garage and mounted the bike. It was very dark in the garage. I rode out into the extremely bright sunlight and was momentarily blinded, and in that moment, I misjudged the location of a pretty high curb in front of our building. We toppled over the curb into the busy street. The first thing to hit the road was my knee (after months of physical therapy, it’s kind of ok now, heh). Second thing was my arm. Third, my precious kid’s helmet. As in, her head, on 26th Street. Cars whooshing by within centimeters.

She was fine within, I would say, 45 seconds. The helmet did its job, and I limped over to the front steps and held her, and she was smiling and laughing in no time.

I was not fine. Aside from my physical injuries, I had just come a little too close to Bad Things. I shook and sobbed, and while the sobbing eventually abated (after hours), the shaking lasted almost three days. And we didn’t ride the bike again, I couldn’t.

The other person who was not fine—perhaps the person least fine—was Stevel. This was a family bike ride, so he was on our other bike behind me, and witnessed the whole thing. I think for him, watching Violet’s tiny helmetted head hit the street was the very thing his anxiety is constantly assuming might happen: Complete horror. He still doesn’t understand how I drove that bike so that it went over sideways into the street.

I don’t need to tell you how awful this all was. We sort of agreed I wouldn’t blog about it, and that wasn’t going to be a problem, since I could barely choke out a one-sentence version of what had happened to tell the doctor when I went in about my knee. But I’ve since told the story to friends and family, and I wanted to record it here and report that we got back on that bike this week. I knew I needed to do it. It was a trembly ride for me, but by the end, I’d hit my stride again, and OH MAN, does this kid love to ride. Holy crap. She chattered the entire way to the library. Twice, drivers got honked at from behind, because a light turned green and they were still talking to Violet: “Look at you! Goin’ for a BIKE RIDE? You like your bike?”

It was all very smooth from her perspective, I think. She was enthusiastic about getting in the seat—she clearly remembered and was eager to ride. She had a new helmet (I was told after any accident you should replace the helmet), which she has since put on in the house a few times and worn around, as if to say, ‘When are we going on that bike again, Mom?’

Soon, Vibble, and often.

[2]

The other horse I will abbreviate, as it is still kind of fresh in my mind (and the bruises are still green).

I had some things mounted in the kitchen, a tiny cabinet up high with our liquor in it being the highest, screwed in as instructed to the thick wood (actually, it’s double-cabinet thickness) side of the cupboard bank over the sink. It was on there good and sound, trust me. BUT then I mounted a Can Crusher on the side of it and proceeded to release all of my frustrations on Diet Pepsi cans, with the force of all of this going into the side of the cabinet and rocking it slightly on its screws. I knew this was a bad idea. KNEW. And yet …

So one day I’m crushin’ some cans, and BA-BOOM!!!!!!!! The cabinet comes OFF the wall, on its way down taking out a nearby wine rack, the medicine cabinet that serves as Vibble’s play kitchen fridge, a piece of the cupboard, some chunks of the floor, and oh, a little bit of my leg.

Fortunate thing of fortunate things: Vibble is not playing in her kitchen, although she is pretty eager to get into the middle of the mess, and Dad has to keep her from trudging through glass and wine and booze and fractured wood and Diet Pepsi cans and laughing-weeping Mom (I felt momentarily insane).

OK, so back on the horse: This week, I had a professional handyman come in to do some things in the house, and I had HIM re-hang all of these things—liquor cabinet, wine rack, kid-fridge, Can Crusher (in a new spot, of course). He put billions of heavy duty screws into everything. I don’t know if you could get these things down with a sledgehammer. He also mounted some other things onto walls where I had been considering hanging them myself. His instructions were: “On there good enough so if she hangs off of it, it’s not coming down.”

The lesson here is, Kristan and her cordless drill: Too ambitious. I wouldn’t say this was a “close call,” since it was clearly the can crushing that caused the disaster, and I never crushed cans while Violet was in the kitchen. It made me RIGHTLY nervous to have her anywhere near that action. But what if … ?

OK, put the helmet back on, Vibb, if you’re going into the rooms where Mom has screwed random cabinetry into the walls herself.

That wasn’t as abbreviated as promised, sorry. And yes, both of these fallen-off-horses were my fault. I blew it. I’m learning from it, still.

[C]

And now I need to try and get myself back to sleep. I’ve got some awesome friends coming into town today, and I want to be ready to PLAY! Bridgey comes in around 3, and Cindy around 10, and with Cindy coming I’m thinking we will likely grocery shop right away, since I don’t know the first thing about buying bacon. Or foie gras.

[1]

The Marietta Edgars—what fun to have them out.

[2]

Aunt Debi and cousin Sam from Corvallis. An overnight to Sea World was awesome.

[3]

Some kind of awful cold. Vibble started coughing and sneezing while her grandparents were here, and her status declined as her aunt and cousin’s visit arrived. Boo. She is a sad little coldling. Not feeling so great myself, so please forgive the short entry. We did get some nice photos, though, so enjoy!

We’ve been enjoying a wonderful visit from my mom, and she shall henceforth be referred to as “The Groundhog,” because I asked Vibble to say “Grandma,” and she said something like “Gruh,” and of course my mother was THA-RILLED, but then Stevel said, “It sounded more like ‘Groundhog’ to me.” And with that, a nickname is born.

This trip will be memorable to me as the Trip When Violet Refused to Sleep Because GROUNDHOG IS HERE. How many times can you tell someone Good Night, child???

We lucked out with gorgeous weather for the birthday party. Violet’s Big Oh-Two was ushered in with hot dogs, presents, cupcakes (Thanks for the cupcakes, David!), a playground, and lots of friends in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Awesome!

Today we took Violet swimming during open pool time at the Y. As my mom described it, “Sheer joy.” Vibb was beside herself with happiness at having the pool all to herself and two people to “swim” around with.

And so, she is two. But we have sort of known that for some time now. What a cutie.

PHOTOS, PHOTOS, PHOTOS

That’s possibly the cheesiest title I’ve ever come up with, and that’s saying a lot, considering I spent a couple of years titling articles in the ZOOgram magazine at The Baltimore Zoo. Got Cranes on the Brain? Paying Raptor Attention?

The holiday report is this:

THANKSGIVING: Anne and Auggie visited. The Hills came over, as did David, and Jeremy stopped by, as did Jeremy Jr. and Julie and Cousin-Shana. Patricia was here too. Am I forgetting anyone? We played some games, went to the playground (a bit chilly but nice to get fresh air.) We had a lovely dinner, as prepared by Jerry’s Famous Deli and picked up to-go. This is called slaving over a hot credit-card. Violet was not interested in eating one bite of this feastly feast, oh no, she had found superior nutrition in the form of a small tray of assorted trail mixes set out as appetizers. All day, all she ate: Trail mix.

CHRISTMAS: This time I got Whole Foods do the cooking, and what a tasty meal it was! We were joined by Jeremy, Melissa, David, Junior, Julie, Noelle, and Phil. We were also joined by the Wightmans, but as we did not hear the phone ring to let them in, we were denied the pleasure of their company. [Yes, in other words, we invited them and then did not answer the door when they came. We are enormous jerks. ] But in happier news, we played Pictionary and Buzz, played outside in warm sunshine, and partook of decorated cookies, mudslides, a fantastic meal, and other treats. Oh, except for Violet, who spent the day eating nothing but—you guessed it—TRAIL MIX. Again.

I got a few photos on my phone, and Melissa and Jeremy had a camera along, so one way or another, I’ll share photos with you soon. Now I need to go eat some leftovers and dump the trail mix out of my shoes.

Merry merry to you all!

Our visit to Florida last week was truly an enjoyable one. A LOT of travel, but it was worth it to be together with Vibble’s great-grandparents. We relaxed at LVT, where my grandparents live, and had some fun outings to Umatilla, Eustice, and Alexander Springs. Nice, hot weather (just like we’ve been having here in L.A.—November is swimsuit weather this year), and some computer time in Grandad’s office. Vibble was the hit of the dining hall, and we played it up by letting her have her own bowl of pudding one day and her own plate of cake the next. Haz-mat suits were in order.

For more, here are photos of the trip. A Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Last night Vibble slept in her crib for a couple of hours. Sometimes this happens. We heard a lot of banging in there—like legs and a little skull hitting the sides of the crib quite hard. I went in twice to comfort her; both times, I found her crying in her sleep. Steve went in a couple of times, I think, and finally brought her into our bed. She commenced her usual routine there: Refusing with exaggerated kicking motions to have any body parts under the covers, and insisting on positioning herself horizontally across the bed, presumably to be in the best position to kick Steve in the head all night long. But last night there was an added twist. Three times she woke me up chatting away in her Vibblese, touching my arm and face, and tilting her head side to side as she talked. All three of these times I found her to be STILL ASLEEP. Each time she wound down the session by flailing and flopping around the bed and finally sighing and being still/quiet. Now we know why some nights when she has ended up in our bed we find her asleep on the floor NEXT TO the bed, or, once, all the way over by the bathroom vanity. Nothing unusual about yesterday evening—no extra sugar, TV, nothing. Just a normal day, with a crazy toddler night.

Halloween was so sickening cute this year I was literally holding back the puke. We went to Corvallis, Oregon, and spent the holiday with Steve’s sister Debi, Debi’s son, Sam, and Mike. Friday afternoon there was trick-or-treating in downtown Corvallis at the businesses there; as a college town, Corvallis still has a thriving little downtown commerce area. We dressed the kid as a sheep this year, and Holy Sheep Poo she was C-U-T-E. By the third business, she had observed enough to know what to do … she walked up to the candy person and opened her bag with an expectant look.

Saturday I took Sam and his friend trick-or-treating, and Vibble hung back with Steve, Debi, and Mike to pass out candy. Sam was a wizard, and we had a nice walk around the cul de sacs of their neighborhood. By the time we got back, Violet was an Old Pro at the candy giveaway concept. Doorbell would ring, she’d pick up the giant bowl of candy, kids would say, “Aw!” when they saw her, then “Trick or treat!” Violet would reply, “Teet teet!” and dole out the candy, to which the kids would say, “Thank you!” and she would reply, “Thank you!” Barfously adorable, no?

We were able to bait-and-switch fruit roll-ups for candy with her, though we could see it would certainly be the last year for THAT. We had gorgeous weather in Corvallis, with the leaves turning and the sun shining a lot, and we enjoyed the visit immensely.

Oh, what’s that? You want to see what? Oh! PHOTOS! Here ya’ go. Oh, and I posted a few more recently over here, too.

The iPhone app Steve made a while back has been getting such wonderful P.R., and with absolutely no help from anyone; it’s just gone out into the world and sincerely impressed the hell out of people. If you’re not playing, you’re missing out. And if you are playing, but you’re not registered to receive online challenges from your friends—and from THIS GIRL—you’re missing out on so damn much I can’t even TELL you.

Anyways, here’s the latest …

And here’s even more!

I rode my bike to the Promenade and returned some things to Old Navy and REI. Then I met up with Stevel and Violet at a street fair/block party the co-op was hosting. If you can imagine a large-scale event that takes up the whole block, and that has been organized by hippies, you can understand why the crowd control and traffic flow were afterthoughts. Non-thoughts. There was a carnival-style popcorn machine IN THE DOORWAY. NARROWEST DOORWAY ON EARTH to begin with, people, and it is both in-door and exit. Not so fun, the co-op block party.

Back at No. 6, Vibble played in her pool. Here are two photos of that. Never mind the captions, unless you were on Noelle and Phil’s Christmas card mailing list, in which case, enjoy the sense of life coming full-circle.

I thought about drinking the tea the acupuncturist/Traditional Medicine doctor gave me yesterday … she said I should “drink it fast in small sips at first until the taste does not bother me.” It remains yet undranken.

Next, Vibble acted like she wanted a nap. But really she just wanted to to watch TV in our room. She did let me trim her fingernails while we watched Sponge Bob, though, and that manicure was three weeks overdue. Eventually she did nap, but it was a struggle to get there.

During the nap time, I took a hot bath, then went to Trader Joe’s and OSH. Yep, I ran errands without a toddler standing up in the shopping-cart seat to scream in my ear. LUXURIOUS. God, I love this kid, but GOD, is she screamy right now. And determined to make our public outings as complicated and potentially toddler-fatal as possible. It can be trying. We really have more fun together here at home.

After her nap, Vibble ate some of her favorite foods: yogurt-covered pretzels, avocado, hard-boiled egg, apple, and DESSERT.

After dinner, and I am not making this up, this happened:

Four people—two long-time friends, and two very new friends—showed up for a little casual hanging out. They had just come from Bed, Bath & Beyond, where they had all purchased toe separators. Three of the friends were raving about their new products. The fourth one did not de-shoe, as he claimed to have some webbed toes he didn’t want to show off, and so planned to try out his new As-Seen-On-TV luxury at a later time, alone.

After the friends left, Stevel spent two hours trying to get Vibble to sleep. We had this thing worked out, before that full moon. Now we have to get anal again about the evening schedule, I think. Food in belly at 7. Butt in bath at 8. Stories and songs at 9. Power down by 10. We get lax, and we miss the good drift-off window. Before the window, she is too awake to sleep. AFTER the window, she is overtired and can’t control herself.

Anyway, now she is asleep. Stevel is submitting iPhone app stuff. I’m thinking about a second round of dessert for myself. And that is the story here.

Full moon here, and Vibble’s been with us long enough now for the pattern to be undeniable: She is a werewolf. Tonight it took me two-plus hours to get her to sleep. My mother is here, but Vibb would have no part of anyone but me touching her after her PJs were on. This happens sometimes, no big deal, but her behavior was erratic and intense. Sleepy, whiny, suddenly energetic, talkative, then lolling, then climby … clearly under the influence of forces that had taken possession of the poor child. And then there is the fur. I haven’t mentioned the fur on this blog yet, but there it is: She has fur on her back and on the backs of her shoulders. It’s soft and black, strange and cute, and when you combine it with the fact she is quite off—quite not-herself—every full moon, it can’t be denied. We need a Nuk made of a silver bullet for these occasions.

In a related sidenote, the ear thing … When she is sleepy, Violet reaches for Steve’s ear (or down my shirt for a nipple to tweak, but that’s more common and less relevant to this particular story). She is often forceful in moving his head to one side or the other to allow herself access to an ear. This is how we really know when she’s tired—you pick her up, and she shoves your face aside so she can rub your earlobe between her fingers. Right now Steve is in New Orleans, and this evening during part of my lengthy and varied efforts to get the kid down for the night, Linus climbed onto my stomach. Violet responded by forcefully moving his head so she could access his ear, which she began to fondle. Linus objected, shook himself free, but the child reined him in with another forceful yanking of the face. They went back and forth a few times before Vibble sort of won, and Linus submitted, albeit somewhat tensely, to her ear-tweaking. Some kids suck their thumbs. Ours rubs the cat’s ear. And has fur.

COURIER

Vibble moves things all over the house. It is both infuriating and amusing. Since Monday I have been trying to find my metal ruler. I just found it, along with my blue pen, in the drawer in the bathroom where I keep extra TP. “Someone” took it and thought to herself, ‘This isn’t where this belongs!’ And so she put it “away.” I find things like this all the time. I feel like I now spend 30 percent of my day shuttling things back to the room/floor they belong on so I can find them again next time I need them.

PERSONAL TRAINER

Yesterday we went to Irvine to hang out in the Woodbridge Lagoon with Megan and Christopher (photos on my phone—will post them later). The Lagoon is awwwweeeesoooommme. Something between a swimming pool and a beach—perfect for a little one. But we wound up positioned between the Lagoon and the lake, and Vibble was determined to motor it into the LAKE. So unpacking our gear went like this:

1. Pick up a bag/item out of the wagon and hurriedly walk it to our chairs.
2. RACE to the steep bank of the lake and grab the kid before she dives in.
3. Pick up next bag/item out of the wagon and hurriedly walk it to our spot.
4. BOLT to the lakeside just in time to prevent a drowning.
Repeat.
Repeat again.
Repeat in reverse to pack back up to leave.

She was determined to get into the deep water of the Lagoon pool. I decided to let her go and slip under quickly, thinking this would deter her from heading that way. We did this no fewer than five times, me fishing out the sputtering, “WTF-is-happening” Vibble each time. And yet … she just kept doing it! I finally got her distracted by her sand toys. The constant need for me to thwart her suicidal maneuvers—standing up in the shopping cart, racing toward the deep lake, rushing to the deep part of the pool, climbing onto the table at the restaurant, eating crayons on the sly, more, more, more … despite my love for cake, I should be as svelte as a supermodel in no time.

LE CHEF

Since her visit with her cousins, Vibble’s play has changed. My nieces are Imaginative. Note the capital “I.” Like, AMAZINGLY imaginative. Since we got home, Violet is playing by herself a bit more, and her play involves a lot more pretending. Steve and I spy on her when we can. ‘Look, she’s scooping things out of the little pot onto the little plate in the little kitchen! AWWW!’ So cute.

We are home and trying to get back on track here, although Stevel leaves for SIGGRAPH in New Orleans this weekend, and my mom is visiting … normalcy, I miss you. Please come back sometime.

The report:

WEEK 1: ACTION-PACKED!

We first went to Atlanta (Marietta, specifically, to my dad and Pauline’s house), to spend the week with my sister and her two girls, who were in town from Penna. My mom and Mike were also in the area, staying with Mike’s sister Jill. So while my dad and Pauline worked all week, we did the zoo one day, Fernbank Science Museum another, and Centennial Park and downtown another, as well as plenty of shopping. My nieces and sister actually tacked on an aquarium day, but Vibble and I sat that one out. It was intense fun, although maybe not the best agenda for me and Violet with our fevery illnesses. Quality time together and Atlanta adventures. It did us all good to see each other and enjoy the kids, each so unique in her current stage/age.

WEEK 2: AHHHHH.

My mom and Mike departed, returning to Penna. The husbands arrived. We all drove down to Tybee Island to enjoy five of the most gorgeous beach days I could have asked for. Tidal pools, warm water, small-town, laid-back Tybee. I thought about just staying. Forever. But mostly I tried not to think too much at all. Nope, no thinking. Perfect.

Sarah-Nicole, my cousin, got married on the beach on Tuesday. It was lovelier than whatever you are imagining a beach ceremony might be like. One thing about a beach wedding is that every photo you take looks amazing. The shots I took on my PHONE are gorgeous. The extended family was there in almost full turnout, so there was Nana time, aunt and uncle time, cousin time, and all that. Great food, great party. And a new family member, the very gracious, super-super-nice Tim. Welcome, Tim. Brace yourself.

The highlight of this trip was absolutely seeing Vibble and her cousins together. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say this was probably the most fun two weeks of Violet’s year-and-a-half-long life. She ADORES Erica and Dani. She follows them around squealing, goes looking for them immediately upon waking up in the morning, smiles a face-breaking smile at all times in their presence pretty much. In general, Dani is her playmate, and Erica, her comforter.

To sum up what my nieces are like right now isn’t too hard. Dani = ENERGY. Wild, unbridled, unfiltered. She is a blond bolt of lightning in the room. Says what she thinks, demands what she wants (and she wants it ALL), and knows what she likes. She is my shopping buddy, as she loves clothes and trying on different styles. And she is the best playmate anyone could ask for. To play with her at the beach is to be six again, and not in a nostalgic way, but in a pure and total way.

Erica, meanwhile, is curious and smart. Somewhat bookish, although not in any way that excludes being a physical kid. The best summary I can give of her is this: She likes to find things. She likes to find hermit crabs in the ocean, coins in the parking lot, neat things in the closets of a beach-house rental. She is always sort of scanning. She has an amazing command of words and describes things in original, vivid ways. And she is a STORY TELLER in the tradition of the Edgars. Gifted in so many, many ways.

Never have two siblings been so different from each other. They play together well much of the time, but they FIGHT. I’m not always sure what they’re competing over, other than who is better at giving Aunt Krissy a migraine. But when Vibble enters the picture, the dynamic changes. The only thing they fight over is who gets to sit by her, and even that argument fizzles out quickly as they both turn their attention from themselves to her. They were selfless with her, generous and understanding of her mini-person limitations, not just physical but emotional (e.g. she doesn’t really know how to share yet). They both wanted to make her laugh and smile, to entertain her, to comfort her when she cried. She brings out the best in them—they are excellent cousins to her. Just another of the many reasons I’m so proud of both of them.

Vibble did some more talkin’, although still not much of a vocabulary. “No,” “car.” There were reports of phrases and even sentences, but neither Stevel nor I witnessed these, so I can neither confirm nor deny them. She grew BIGGER, that’s for sure. She likes a Southern buffet! Like her MOM! … and to the disappointment of her dad, I think, heh. She got more exploratory, a bit more independent. Much steadier on her feet.

Now that we’re back, we’ve been going for a bike ride every day. THIS CANNOT HAPPEN FAST ENOUGH FOR HER each time, and she lets me know this by screaming and banging her helmet against my bike until I load her in the little seat. She is more and more demanding also. Thirsty? SCREAMS and claws at the refrigerator. Hungry? SCREAMS and shakes her high-chair. In CVS with your mother and she won’t let you remove all of the eyeliner pencils from the makeup display and bang on the print-your-own-photos computers? SCREAM for 45 minutes. Yeah, I’m not sure I am allowed to go back to CVS. Learn to talk, please, little Screamy One.

She was great on the plane, though, both ways, and by great I mean great-for-a-one-year-old, as in, no one glared at us, not once. I count that a success. So far, she’s a decent traveler. I give her a B+/A-. My own score continues to creep down. I used to be an A+ traveler. Now I get such awful motion-sickness I was still feeling it two days AFTER we returned. As for Steve, he might need to repeat a grade in terms of travel. But he seemed to do a much better job of enjoying himself for moments here and there on this trip than I’ve seen in the past. One day he and I rented a scooter, and he drove us around some.

And now I think there was just a little earthquake, and I am going to take that as nature telling me to get off the computer and take Dramamine in case the Big One is right behind it, because I will not be able to hold onto the door-frame and my child if I am throwing up. Also, I need a Diet Pepsi now.

PHOTOS:

Cousin Fun and Family Fun

A Gorgeous Wedding on the Beach

Back at No. 6

We went to Irvine yesterday to spend the day with Megan and wee 3.5-month-old Christopher. What a great day. Oh man. Suburban bliss enough to tide me over for … well, I don’t really crave suburban bliss, so it’s more an exotic surprise!

Megan and “Winston,” as Stevel and I still like to call him to ourselves*, were finally over being sick for a while, and Vibble was on her bestest behavior all day (this has NOT been the case so much recently**). We took a gorgeous, breezy sunny walk in the endless Utopia of Woodbridge Resort/Community. We ate a decadent meal at Olive Garden. We shopped at, I swear, the world’s largest Babies R Us until our eyeballs popped out of our heads. And all the while, Violet watched, and often gently petted, her little OC*** friend. In case the very thought alone of V’s being a sweet-tempered little darling with her pal doesn’t gag you, here are, photos of the sap. I mean, holy effing cute, right?

* As a pre-publicly named fetus, Christopher needed a nickname in our household. We decided they (the Hills) should name him Winston, Winston Church Hill. Alas, we did not get our way.

** More on the behavior soon. I think we are getting somewhere with attempts to discipline. It mostly breaks down when she is denied access to computer equipment. Often such access is denied because there is yogurt on her hands or something.

*** OC in this case can stand for either Orange County or abOte half Canadian in citizenship.

And now I am very, very tired, as for some reason Shortie slept barely at all last night, favoring instead a certain combo of whimpering, thrashing, and kicking off covers. Blast.

Number one, Welcome, Ayati! Congratulations to Susan, Bobby, and Asha.

Number two, Thank you for the Milwaukee mini-tour, Kate.

Number three, Congratulations to Liss, who yesterday turned in her final assignment of her undergraduate career, and who graduates from UCLA this Saturday!

Yesterday I took Vibble to the Zimmer Children’s Museum. It’s a great place, and we ended up joining as members. This is a place a lot like Kidspace, where we went the week before last (Or was it last week? What year is it?), but targeted to a bit shorter crowd. It’s got a real airplane inside the kids can play in, a real ambulance … and then kid-scaled versions of various scenes they can play in to their heart’s delight—a hospital ER, a grocery store with cashier stand and produce section and shopping baskets … a bookstore … a bagel shop …. a synagogue … a little indoor park … a newspaper-making place (?) … all of this complete in detail and stationed along an adorable, DETAILED “street,” and all just sitting there with props and “costumes” lying about, waiting for kids and their imaginations to enjoy it. There’s also a small room full of big, thick, gym-mats designated for under-twos. We got there just as it opened, and no one showed up for about 20 minutes. So Vibble was able to walk around and explore without any bigger kids to compete with. She did not want to go in the plane or ambulance. She wanted to pull everything off of every shelf in each of the scenes. Eventually, more kids showed up—but no one older than 4—and then she was really in heaven. MUST. TOUCH. EVERY. KID. She did a lot of what Stevel calls Stalking, too, where she would single out one kid for a while and just trail them all around the place for a long time, until I put an end to it because it became so AWKWARD with the parent. Anyway, we will be going here more. It’s a great place for Vibble to interact with other kids, explore with great freedom (the place is a good size and is in a building more secure than the airport, I kid you not), and develop her imagination. It’s also a fantastic place for us to play TOGETHER, and I love that.

Which brings me to my next topic. You may have noticed that we seem to be “doing” things more and more. All of a sudden, this kid is C R A Z Y. I mentioned a few posts back a certain wildness. It abated some, but came back (Again coinciding with the full moon—coincidence? Have you SEEN the black fur on this child’s back? My furry little were-wee-one). Now the wildness seems permanent. It’s like some kind of backup-rocket-engine has engaged in there, and she has to be interacted with and stimulated constantly, or she acts out. And acting out is not pretty. Meltdowns over nothing, purposeful and violent dismantling of household areas, blatant rule-breaking (Did I not TELL you EIGHT times to stop playing in the pool of cat vomit by the TV? Mom will clean that WHEN IT DRIES!).

In terms of new-parenthood discoveries, I am confused as to why, when you have a kid, everyone warns you about the sleep deprivation of the infant stage. That is amateur-sleep-deprivation stuff. I would gladly trade that feeling for how exhausted I am by dinnertime every day now. And the last few nights? She has woken up and cried in the night repeatedly until she is in bed next to me. Which means I wake up feeling like I slept in the trunk of someone’s subcompact car. For about two hours. And that was my whole night. (Susan, I really don’t know how you’ve survived with Sleepless-Sunshine over there. I hope you have reinforcements coming to stay for a loooong time with the new addition.)

Last night I had a migraine again for most of the night, due to its being cloudy outside. See, my skull has AMBITIONS. It wants to be a famous meteorologist. Thus I would like to make it known on the record that when I die, I would like to have my organs donated, but my SKULL should be sent to UCLA’s School of Atmospheric Sciences, and enrolled as a first-year undergraduate.

I don’t know what today’s failed attempt at toddler exhaustion will involve, but I know it won’t be Gym n’ Swim. Combine the crazy active days with the contorted, cut-short nights and the fact that I’m lifting a 25-pound body every ten minutes (often while also lifting 80 pounds worth of groceries, or a jammed laundry basket, or …), and right now I feel like I got hit by a speeding subcompact car, one with a mom in the trunk. Thud. I just can’t do it today. Can’t swish her around the pool. Can’t spot her on the mats. Can’t lift her up and down during the chorus of the Pirate Song. I’m sorry, Vibble, but we will have to fail at wearing you out today somewhere where I can watch from the sidelines. Playground maybe, or the Creepy Restaurant. Or maybe David will come over and play Hide n’ Seek with you for two hours.

Just in case it comes across that I’m not enjoying my toddler, I have to state for the record that she is the cutest, funnest thing in the whole wide world, and I feel lucky every day to be getting to spend so much time with her.

I don’t want to end this post without updating you on Stevel. His recovery from the surgery continues. Still in pain, but looking less run-down now. It will still be a little while before we know how well the surgery worked in terms of improving his breathing. We will let you know for sure.

Time for Blue’s Clues. “La la la la la la because it’s really FUN!” Thinking Chair, please help me remember what day it is.

DEVIANT NO. 1: A NOSE

Steve had surgery Thursday to correct his deviated septum. He hasn’t been complaining of a lot of pain, but he is tired and uncomfortable. He won’t be able to breathe through his nose for a week or so. The hope is that this surgery will make it so he sleeps better. Well, that is MY hope. Steve is still skeptical. He’s not really a hoper. So I’m adding to my hope the hope he is pleasantly surprised. See how I have to hope for both of us? Isn’t that extra nice of me?

I would write more about Steve’s surgery and recovery, but I’m not sure he would want me telling everyone things like how, when waking up from the anesthesia, he tried very hard to get out of bed, confounding the nurses. He was groggily explaining, “I have to get home to my wife.” Aw. He missed me. Or feared me. Either way, aw.

DEVIANT NO. 2: MIA

Mia. Mia, why did you have to poop on the carpet just minutes after the carpet cleaner had left? Why?

DEVIANT NO. 3: A WOLF PUP

The week before last, Vibble was insane. Moody, impossible to please, hyperactive. Core Reactor Meltdown. I took her to Gym n’ Swim but skipped the Swim, because I kept picturing a toddler-instigated tsunami in the pool. (Take a moment and imagine it yourself—devastating scene.) Last week she eventually returned to her happy natured self again. That’s when Steve noticed the Mastadon molar. When she ate, he said, “Yeah, grind it.”

Tuesday we went to KidSpace in Pasadena with Sarah-Novelist and Megan and Christopher, and Violet had a wonderful time walking all over the place. She likes to hold someone’s hand and lead them around. She’ll come up to one of us and reach out her hand and say, “Mmm? Mmm?” Very cute.

But now I think the other molar must be coming in. Combine that with the Full Moon and the fact she walks now and therefore must walk at all times, and WHERE she WANTS to walk, and you have some challenging little stretches. Yesterday there were many times when she refused to sit in the stroller, and by refusing I mean arching her body and screaming, or slipping the binds of her restraints and standing up. She also refused to be held, and at times it took my total body’s muscle power to keep her in my arms, versus, say, in the street, or on the escalator at the mall. She was restless and hyper yesterday, so I took her to the mall in the morning and the promenade in the afternoon to get her out of the house so Steve could rest and to let her walk around some. Today I will just go straight for the playground, though, because it was too much of a workout to try and conform HER to SOCIETY (e.g. the streets thing, the doors-that-say-”Employees Only” thing, etc.). Not happening. She requires total freedom right now. I require a week in a spa.

Here are some photos from this week. Enjoy!

Friday morning Vibble woke up wanting to cuddle on the couch. I turned on a crime-show, and we sat there snuggling for about 45 minutes. She got restless, tottered around the room some. Then the climactic scene came on, and I got engrossed in it. When the show ended, she wasn’t in the room, so I went looking for her. Turns out she had gone upstairs, closed the safety gate at the top of the stairs … gone into our bedroom and closed the bedroom door … turned on the bedroom TV and CHANGED THE CHANNEL to cartoons. When she saw me in the doorway, she let out a huge giggle, like “Check out what I did!”

The last few days have seen an important change. While she has had the ability to walk a little for, oh, months now, she has only now demonstrated a preference for it. She giddily lurches around the living room, and wants to be held by her hands everywhere we go. Her feet are pretty tiny, judging by the sizes of shoes that are designated for her age, so maybe that’s part of it?

At Gym on Wednesday, Levi turned on the bubble-machine, and Vibb sort of said “bubbles.” Several other moms commented on it. I haven’t been able to make it happen since, but maybe this was a first-word (besides Mom/Bob and Dad)? She only repeats sounds when she feels like it. “Say ‘Mom.’ ‘Mom.” “La-di-la-di-la-di? Buh. Buhbuhbuhbuhbuh.”

Check out Steve’s/our day yesterday (that would be Saturday, the “weekend”): 8 a.m. haircut, 10 a.m. baby shower, hour-drive to Agoura Hills to sign tax documents, drive to Melrose to pick up Steve’s new glasses, dinner on the Promenade. It was all either really fun or really important stuff, but a packed-solid day. Amazingly, Vibble held up well. Her behavior this past week wouldn’t have predicted as much—she’s been a moody wild thing, we think because she broke a new molar the size of a Mastadon-tooth. The baby shower was to congratulate Walter and Dana, whose (big) little guy is expected in a couple of months, if not sooner. Oh, man, the outfits their friends gave them. I love little-guy clothes.

It’s 3:30 a.m. V woke up not long ago and was up crying for a bit. Stomach-ache maybe? Or the teeth? In any case, she took my spot in our bed. She is big enough, and insistent-on-sleeping-sideways-between-our-heads enough, that it really doesn’t work anymore to have her crash with us on the random night here and there. We just don’t all fit comfortably. Since I only got a few hours of sleep LAST night due to a migraine, I really can’t spend the rest of tonight getting kicked in the face as I hang onto the very precipice of the bed. So I came downstairs to put something in my stomach (cereal) and blog a bit, before I head to the twin-bed in her room and go back to sleep.

So, ‘night (again).

Our trip to Oregon was great and included some Nana and Babba time for the kid, as well as an idyllic small-town weekend in Corvallis. Debi, Mike and Sam live on a cul-de-sac in a wonderful house with a lovely lawn. Kids show up and come in and out of the house to play Wii or jump around on the lawn or ride their bikes and scooters in the street. Violet was in HEAVEN. The weather was gorgeous, and to top off the attention from KIDS, she had an endless flow of bubbles, thanks to her Aunt Debi’s embracing of the hyperventilation that can ensue when one wields a bubble wand for too long. I got to do some shopping, and Auggie and Anne took Violet and me to Multnomah Falls.

Coming home, we didn’t have a chance to grocery shop right away. So Vibb got to have peanut butter for lunch, and in case you’re not familiar with the greasy properties of peanut butter, it took a serious cleanup effort, involving TWO BATHS, to combat the haz-mat. Then, yesterday, she pulled a Clif Bar out of the bag of groceries on the floor. She insisted I open it, with the kind of insistence that would make a terrorist divulge all of his secrets and scream PLEASE GOD, WATERBOARD ME BUT NOT THIS, so I opened the package. I was thinking she might take a little bite and move on to more fulfilling destruction, but she ate the WHOLE BAR. For those who don’t know, Clif Bars are energy bars for men. Also, the chocolate ones look enough like poop to cause my neighbor, on his way to the mailboxes, to stop in his tracks and say, “WHAT is she eating?!”

Now it is 4 a.m., and someone is awake. Why, you ask? Well, see, a certain dad who shall remain nameless has a unique ability I call The Magic. He can put Violet to sleep just about any time. I think the chemistry of it has something to do with Steve-Body-Heat PLUS Steveling-Body-Heat EQUALS Nine-Thousand-Degrees. While I took a nice long shower yesterday evening, the kid apparently got grumpy, so the dad used his Magic to put her to sleep for the night at 7:45. Superhero Ethics: Fail.

I’ve been meaning to note on this blog her special little language, as it is the cutest thing I’ve heard in all my life. Her most common “words” right now are “Nn-DIE?”" and “G-zOI?” She seems to have communicative intention, to know what she is saying. We don’t know of course, but when speaking in her own language, her inflections and mannerisms are her own, versus the imitated ones she uses when she sometimes deigns to mirror some word we’ve laboriously suggested she pronounce … although she does say “Hello?” frequently while holding an iPhone up to her ear. She also does this with various other “phones,” like a Wii remote or, yesterday for several aisles in the grocery store, a packaged block of cheddar cheese.

48 hours of no one needing anything from me
A bed to myself
Leaving my shaving razor on the side of the bathtub without worrying about it
Midday cocktails
Spa treatments
48 hours of not only not having to clean constantly, but not having to clean AT ALL
A little roulette, a little slots
Wearing high heels and “pretty clothes”
Breakfast buffet
Hours and hours lounging by the pool
Room service chocolate cake at 11 p.m.
Uninterrupted time to chat with the girls
Getting to read a little, and not “Where’s Nemo” or Dr. Seuss
Long showers, with leg-shaving time and everything
The restaurant in the Bellagio that serves only dessert
Leisurely shopping in uncrowded stores
People expressing their thoughts and desires in words other than “Eh. EH!!!!!”
No litter-boxes
Getting to sit down and eat my food without having to grab bites in between cutting up and serving someone else’s food
Kelly time—it does me good

The weather was gorgeous for us, sunny and breezy, hot in the middle of the day and warm in the evening. Time by myself is such a precious thing, nothing can compare to it … so I bailed on the people we were with both nights around ten or so. They went out, I enjoyed time in a room ALONE.

It would have been perfect had I not had this awful, gut-wrenching feeling in my insides all weekend. Every time I saw a baby or toddler I felt for a second like the wind got knocked out of me. Oh, little ball and chain, I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!