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!

Vibble and I spent the morning running a couple of errands. This included trips to TJ Maxx and Target, where the routine goes like this: We arrive, and I put her in the seat of the cart. She tolerates this for up to ten minutes before escaping her seat-belt and attempting to dive to her death. Then I put her in the cart part. People give me dirty looks throughout the store for being such a bad mother as to allow my precious little baby to ride in this DANGEROUS, DANGEROUS way. But it is the only way she will remain carted, and an uncarted toddler in a giant department store usually ends with a lawsuit of some kind. Anyway, Violet loves to be in the cart part, because from there she can do her favorite thing: Chuck items out of a container! Throughout the store, she tosses one thing after another from the cart onto the floor. I keep an eye on this and re-cart my items as best I can. Especially since some of these items already belong to me, like my sunglasses, and my purse.

Her second favorite activity is to ADD TO the cart. If I get too close to any rack or shelf, she attempts to sneak additional items onto our purchase. Inevitably, I get to the checkout and have to do inventory: “Oh, sorry, I don’t actually want this. Or this. Or THIS Oh crap where are the diaper wipes damn it I need those!”

After our shopping trips, we met Stevel and Hae-Jeon for lunch. Soon we will be charged at buffets for Violet, because she now eats A LOT of food.

Before the shopping, we dropped off my mom and stepfather at the airport. They’d been here since Friday, a really nice visit. Vibble took a lot of sunny walks with Grandma and Papa, and she gave them lots of kisses. She does this thing now where she gets her face close to yours and says, “Mmmmm …” and you’re supposed to meet her lips with your own, whereupon she finishes the sound-effect: “… mmMAH!” Irresistible. Of course, she does this EVERY TIME she gets in trouble.

She still does not like to get in trouble. Now she gets on all fours and bangs her head on the floor while shrieking. It’s just lovely.

More and more, she takes a few steps here and there, and she let my mom walk her around by holding her two hands. She was SO PLEASED with herself, but she still reverts to crawling most of the time. This thing people keep telling us? How one day they are just walking and that’s it and it’s amazing and everything changes? Not so much with this one. More like, one day she is walking some, and then for a few days she just crawls. Then she walks some. Then she crawls. People have been saying for two months, “Oh, she is going to walk ANY DAY.” Same with talking. But she is doing it on HER schedule, in HER time, and she will not flip a switch.

She wants to be “read to” a lot now. Her definition of reading involves shoving a book in my face while whining very, very loudly until I open it and begin talking. There is NO TIME to read the words, she is not patient enough for that, as demonstrated by the screams and whining and grabs for the book so she can shove it at my face again. “Hurry up, Bob!” So we blaze through the book, and when I get to the last page and say, “The end,” she has a minor meltdown and grabs the book and shoves it corner-first into my eye. This means, “Again! Again! NOW.” I have “read” the Finding Nemo book up to 11 times in an evening this way. That’s her favorite book, I think, after the ones with the musical buttons on the side, which she likes to push in quick succession so each song gets a semi-second start before being cut off by the next one. I guess you could call it a medley?

OK, a few new photos.

Ingrid is here visiting, and we’ve been enjoying her company a lot. Yesterday we joined Jeremy and Melissa on their adventure to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Despite rumors of the poppy fields being in full bloom, alas, they were not. And it was hella windy, so we didn’t stay too long at the park. But we had a scenic drive there and back, and Violet enjoyed what poppies there were.

Last night Stevel and Ingrid played serious Rock Band. Following is a short (one-minute) video of Violet holding the microphone and demonstrating her compulsion to DANCE:

Kid Rockin’ Out

We had a visit from Debi, Sam, and Mike, who stayed with Vibble overnight while Stevel and I took a little jaunt to Big Bear Lake. Steep mountains and snow, 7,000 feet. We relaxed, walked around, and bought new hats. Mine is a cowgirl hat. Here is Steve’s.

This was my first night away from Vibble. She did just fine; in fact, she had a wonderful time. She adores Sam, so wherever her big cousin is, she is happy. We returned to near 70-degree weather, and I joined Sam, Debi, Mike, and Violet at the beach, where Sam was in his swim trunks playing in the water and sand. He and I made a righteous sand-village along a road we built leading to an abandoned sand castle.

We went to La Brea Tar Pits and the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. It also has to be mentioned that this is the visit where Sam fell in the duck pond at the park. Poor, soaked Sam! He was so excited to find TURTLES in the pond; in his enthusiasm, he leapt onto an unstable rock. SPLASH! That was NOT on a nearly 70-degree day, unfortunately. Chilly walk home. But overall, a really FUN visit together.

No sooner had they left, than I was laid up with the flu. Puke, puke, puke. Viral hangover. It’s Day 3, and I’m still a little shaky and sluggish but doing much better. Violet is not herself, either, but I think it’s this awful teething. It makes her moody and strange. She will be giddy, chirping away and then scream in agony and drop to the floor, grabbing her head or mouth and refusing whatever you offer her in the way of comfort. Poor, poor little bug.

She loves her pacifier too much. She has developed a rash on her chin and cheeks, thanks to constant drool under plastic. She is NOT amenable to being without the pacifier very much of the time. Yesterday the breakout was even bleeding a bit. But ChappyFace MUST have her Nuk. All day and all night.

Steve, Violet and I got up this morning and headed down to Irvine to meet the several-hours-old Christopher Hill! Full name is Christopher Jayden Hill, born at 4:04 a.m. on 3/6/09 (kind of a cool birthday). He’s a bit early, but healthy at 5 pounds, 9 oz. And what a cutie—see for yourself!

We just got back from Gym n’ Swim at the Y. Violet was in LOVE with the gym half, which takes place in a room full of cushy climby things and other 12- to 18-month olds. She literally did laps around and around the outside of the big mat and then went wild climbing all over the place. We sang corny songs, and she was in heaven. AND THEN they busted out the BUBBLES. I think she may have broken her face smiling over that one.

The swim part she was a little less into, and that just confirms for me that it’s a good thing we’re doing this. The other kids were amazing, kicking and dunking like pros. They’re all very comfortable in the water, and I hope to see Violet get to that point, too. The other moms assured me in no time at all she will be a little pre-swimmer. Glub glub. Now she is out cold. Glub Gl—zzzzzzzzz.

The trip to Florida was relaxing, really terrific. We flew out on a red-eye, and you know how you’re supposed to just sleep? Violet wasn’t interested in sleep as long as there were other people awake. New friends! And she must touch every one of them WHAT IS WITH THE TOUCHING. It’s very awkward for me on the plane when she lunges forward and rubs the head of the bald man in front of us. AWKWARD. Fortunately, most people are quite happy to be touched by Violet, and they offer her their sleeves to caress with smiles. Finally, once everyone around us had turned out their reading lamps, the kid went to sleep.

In Atlanta, we saw her grandparents, her great-grandmother, and her great-aunt Janet, as well as cousin Chels. A short but quality visit. On to Orlando, where we rented a car and drove on up to Altoona, a mini little town at the Southern end of the Ocala National Forest. The senior village where my grandparents live is an idyllic little place. They have a nice garden condo on a lake, and they are truly happy being an active part of the community there. The dining hall food IS a highlight, although I’m not sure it compared to the highlight in the high-chair at the Kinkers’ table each meal. POPULAR CHILD.

We mostly relaxed (per my request, not theirs!) and watched Violet crawl around, but we did take one day and do a little something fun. We drove over to the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House and toured it and saw a few local sights. I really love seeing the homes of literary greats for some reason, and it’s motivated me to get reading. I’m going to re-read The Yearling, but first I’m catching up on some of her first publications. I just finished Jacob’s Ladder, and I enjoyed the poetic, illustrative quality of the worlds Rawlings creates. I’ll keep you posted as I read more. Meanwhile, I can give a hearty recommendation to Jacob’s Ladder.

The trip home from Orlando was a bit trying. It began with Violet puking up her whole breakfast just ten minutes into our hour-plus drive to the airport. Wardrobe change! This put us a bit behind schedule, but we still managed to return the rental car and make our plane. Commence the TOUCHING. Fortunately, we were seated between two women who seemed to have no problem putting away the work they had brought to do in order to entertain a one-year old instead.

It’s not as easy to fly with her now as it used to be. She wants to MOVE. On one recent flight, she escaped out of the seat and took off up the aisle. By the time I could get my seatbelt unfastened and get up to chase her, she was nearly to the cockpit, with all of the passengers looking around like, ‘Um. Whose kid is this?’ She also sleeps less and for shorter periods of time. If not for her love of destroying magazines, I don’t know whether we would have survived this last five-and-a-half-hour flight. (Thanks, SkyMall and American Way Magazine! Thanks, Seat Pocket!)

We were glad to be home. I say “we,” because Violet went happily into her dad’s arms in the Baggage Claim area, and there she stayed.

One other thing I need to mention is that she decided on this trip to bite or pinch me whenever she was displeased with something. This meant I came home with little brown bruises all up and down my arms. Next time I see someone roaming the streets who looks like this, I will be less quick to think, ‘Ew. IV drug user.’ Instead, I will concede the possibility that there is a tot nearby with chunks of this poor person’s flesh in her teeth and under her fingernails.

Just in case you think Bitey McBitey is satisfied with such abuse, let me tell you she has also taken to ARGUING with me. No, she doesn’t talk yet, doesn’t say Yes or No. But when I tell her NO, she NODS her head vigorously and continues to do whatever behavior is being forbidden. This usually involves an attempt to climb to her death.

Still no walking; when we hold her up to try and walk her around, she goes limp and wants to crawl. She is a crazy efficient crawler. My grandparents and I did discover that if there is a floor she doesn’t like having her knees on, like cold tile, she walks on all fours. So maybe it’s just a matter of motivation. In any case, she is content to crawl and CLIMB. Sitting? Not interested. I mean, why SIT when you can STAND on your high-chair? What good is a skull if you can’t do a little dare-devilry now and then … or AT ALL TIMES. Besides, when Mom freaks out, it’s almost as hilarious as when she says, “Ouch!” or “No!” HILARIOUS!

Because our friends at Vibble Photography are spending this week in midterm-study mode, the photos of their namesake’s first birthday party will understandably take a back-seat until after the last Scantron bubble has been darkened. Meanwhile, I give you a few shots from friends of the big event, as well as some snaps from around the house, including one of the Bread Crumb Massacre of 2009: Click here to look at photos.

(Many thanks to Mark, Jeremy, and Sarah for their photos!)

More on the trip soon … meanwhile, here are photos:

Wedding

Dave’s Wedding Photos

Get-togethers

Enjoying a visit from Debi and Sam right now. Photos of that, plus Christmas morning, are here (click). Merry merry!

UPDATE! I have more to add:

So, on this visit, we did the aquarium, which Sam seemed to enjoy a lot. He is a fan of turtles and got up his nerve to pet some rays and sharks in the touch-pools. He aspires to be an oceanographer one day, so it was really up his alley. Violet, meanwhile, was enthralled watching all of the kids. She also seemed to enjoy the tanks this time—not a ton of enthusiasm, but she was interested. The only incident was when an adorable sea lion came over to the other side of the glass right in front of us to play, and Vibble freaked out—screamed, clutched at me, and began sobbing. Too dog-like, maybe. No matter how much I try to expose her to dogs in a gentle way, she fears them for the most part.

We also enjoyed a great day down at the beach by the pier with Sam and Violet. Vibble is very entertained by her big cousin.

For new year’s, Debi and Sam hung out with Violet here at No. 6 so Stevel and I could go out to dinner ALONE. This hasn’t really happened much in the last ten months, although it WILL be happening MORE. Anyway, we went to Akbar, of course, and enjoyed ourselves. We even got dessert (the Mango Surprise is BACK). When we got home, we all watched the ball drop on the East coast. As we debated whether to stay up until West-coast Midnight, we watched an episode of Hannah Montana, thanks to Sam. If you’ve never seen this show, it’s really something. Steve’s reaction? “Is this the end of civilization?”

Christmas was delightful. We spent Christmas Eve with the Kodjas and their other guests here in Santa Monica, trying some authentic Thai seafood. It was delicious, and I had never seen a big squid-head on a grill before. BUT NOW I HAVE. We played “Scene-It,” which I have to admit I always assumed was a dumb game, but it is actually great fun. Violet interacted with 8-month-old Joseph. He is a big, healthy kid with sweet pink cheeks. Mostly, they grabbed at each other’s faces. It was Mrs. Kodja’s birthday, which meant there was both a cookie-cake AND an ice cream cake. And champagne! Let’s just say I had to detox the next day, and not from the champagne. The Kodjas also brought us two pears the size of monkey heads for New Years.

Christmas morning we had visits from David, Jeremy, and Melissa. (Thus, additional photos shall be forthcoming.) We all enjoyed watching Violet experience her first Christmas. She did not seem to notice anything special going on and mostly, as we predicted, enjoyed playing in the discarded wrapping. David and I took a walk to get cake (well, I got cake, and David showed amazing restraint in ordering only a bottled water) and visit Sarah-Architect. Later, the Kadoshes (Eitan, Jacquelyn, and Charlie) came over for a nice, long, leisurely afternoon and evening of Rock Band, “Apples to Apples,” and junk food. Oh, man, GREAT DAY!

Happy new year to all.

Just added: Some pics!

Some pics:

[1] [2] [3]

A newbie! Emily and Elizandro had their baby! Anita Salguero was born yesterday morning at 1:15, weight is 7.5 pounds, hair is BLONDE. Emmer is doing well. WELCOME, ANITA!!!

I am ALONE. In the HOUSE. ALONE. BY MYSELF. Stevel has taken the kid to the park for a bit. He told me to use this time wisely and to “be done” with whatever over-ambitious organization project I decide to take on by the time he gets back. I assured him neither of those things is likely. The feeling is so amazing, not because now I can finally take that bubble bath and eat bon-bons while watching decadent TV. Truth be told, I have that opportunity every day while she naps. But every day while she naps, I am suddenly on deadline. I have 45 minutes, or two hours, or whatever nap it is, to complete six loads of laundry, eat lunch, pay our bills, e-mail a student, call the plumber, take out the trash, the list goes on … a list of things that become ten times more complicated, ten times more time-consuming, when there is a Slimy Shadow along for the task. A Slimy Shadow whose primary goals are to (a) try and choke herself to death on any and all small objects she can find and (b) whine every second we are not making eye contact. It is much, MUCH easier to just sit on the floor and make eye contact with her than to try and get some small chore done. So anyway, where shall I start?! This is so exciting—should I make the beds? Clean up after the pets? BLOG?

I wish I could blog about all of the things actually going on with us right now, but this isn’t the place for that. We are exhausted.

Meanwhile, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving here at No. 6. David cooked a fabulous dinner, with Patricia’s help, and we had friends to share it with: Raji and Thippewhan; Christine; Jeff, Megan, and half-baked Winston Hill; The Selan Brothers, Junior and Junior Jr.; Jeremy Sr. and Melissa; ourselves, and David. Eitan also stopped by earlier in the day with Charlie Waffles. There was some Rock Band II, of course, and a little Little Big Planet. Lots of techie conversation. A few of us took Violet for a walk after dinner, very fun.

In other news, the day for which I have been waiting for YEARS has finally arrived! There was a Black Friday event at the Three-Bs (a horrible place of many horrors), and I was able to purchase a Dyson DC24 for 20-percent off! It is now the case that, should we ever arrive home to find that No. 6 has been ransacked by burglars, I will rush to the cleaning closet to see if My Baby is OK. Then I will perform CPR on my husband in front of his empty desk.

All right, yeah yeah, fine, I know what you really want.

Photos from Jeremy and Liss taken while we all awaited the wonderful national results on Tuesday …

I think I have the flu. Someone shoot me. Or hug me. Or make me well?

The kid does have a crib in our room BTW. She just doesn’t want to sleep in it. But she does. Sometimes. Other times not so much, ’cause it’s hard for ME to sleep with a kid standing up in a crib screaming in my room. We’ll work it out. We have to, because it’s become dangerous for her to sleep in our bed. Last night she almost fell off the side; I caught her under the arms at the last second. And Steve reported that he woke up in the middle of the night just in time to see her crawling toward the foot of the bed; he scooped her up about a centimeter before the edge. Does it sound to you like WE are getting any sleep? She seems to be just restless in her sleep. She falls deeply asleep on one of us and then as soon as we lay her OH SO GENTLY YOU CANNOT IMAGINE HOW GENTLY into her crib BOOM! Screamin’. And yes, I have been trying the “self-soothing” (aka let-her-cry-herself-to-sleep) thing during the day with her naps. Sometimes it works. Other times after 45 minutes I have two choices: Pick her up or start drinking Drain-o to self-soothe MYSELF. My sense is that she is feeling some stress right now. Maybe I will make her an appointment with my psychotherapist. “Ga? Pbblbbt? And how did that make you feel?” I do have some highly recommended books about sleeping and babies. Maybe I should read them or something.

This past weekend saw us road-tripping to Tucson, where we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. While Stevel and his sister Becky did some treks around Tucson, car-less Vibble and I ate at the IHOP—the International House of Pancakes—next to the hotel. A lot.

The thing about Vibble is that she draws attention, and I meet so many people now. They just come up to us and start conversing. Any excuse to get close to her. So the first day we go in there, and there’s a restaurant full of pre-teen male gingers wearing scout uniforms and eating pancakes. As they filed out, one of the leaders knelt to say hi to Violet … 20 minutes later, I had learned the troop of 50 boys was from Scotland, here to see the Grand Canyon and other Southwest sites. The leader explained that due to the heat that day I had been cheated out of seeing his troop in their kilts, which they typically wear.

The next meal, we sat at a table with a glass wall on one side. On the other side of the wall was a little girl—maybe 7—eating with two men. Little kids make Violet go GIDDY. So there was much smiling and laughing and face-making until the threesome left, and we waved goodbye through the glass … but they went up their row of seats and made a U-turn to come talk to us. Well, ONE of them spoke to us. He said, “My niece wants to know how old the baby is.” Turns out Uncle is the only one who speaks English, and not Dutch. Through him, Vibble and I had fun making the acquaintance of young Ninka. (And yes, Abigail, that makes two Dutch references on this blog in just a few months!)

I also met a couple from Michigan, and while that’s not international, we talked a long time, and Violet tried real hard to take the guy’s Rolex.

In other news, Becky has come back with us to L.A. for a while, and Violet is finally cutting her first tooth at almost nine months. And now, your moment of Zen.

We just got back from a very California morning activity. We went to the Co-op to buy $5 organic eggs, and we did it on a bike, which we rode in the bike LANE. On our way we passed this. Vibble was into the ride, although she wasn’t a fan of the helmet. I can’t blame her. It’s a lot of helmet for such a little noggin. Also, she looks like a fireman. She’s out cold now—the ride wore her out.

We bought the eggs because her doctor gave us a semi-lecture on account of our not following his chart for what she should be eating at each stage. He says she is supposed to be getting strained meat and egg yolks at this point. That advice disagrees with a lot of what I’ve read and been told, but he says his chart represents the latest recommendations in the pediatric community. I would feel more confident in the truth of that statement were the chart not clearly created with a TYPEWRITER. I think I’ve mentioned how much we like our aged pediatrician. He’s a sweet man, even if he clearly has never used a computer. Anyway, we’ll try some eggs today.

We’re recovering from a lot of travel in the last month. The travel, along with Vibb’s new phases, has us a bit worn out. But it’s all wonderful stuff. Violet is now 17 pounds, a very efficient crawler with the cutest bum-wiggle you ever saw. She is ambitious, crawling further and further and pulling herself up on any and every surface. She is still a little off with the sleeping, but we can’t blame her—between teething and our flying her at unthinkable hours to places two time zones away, she is understandably confused. Anyway, she needs a lot more minding and is irresistible—she wants to play and interact and snuggle all the time, and so do we.

Little by little, she is making sounds not just on her own, but on cue. For a few weeks, she has been happy to repeat back a little lip-smacking sound. Last week she began to repeat back one of her favorite sounds to make on her own, “Ha! … Ha! … Ha!” Today for the first time, she mirrored my “Buh. Buh.” Still working on “Da. Da.” On her own, she makes “Mmm” sounds and others—she loves to sing. But definitely the most common sound to come out of her mouth is the “Ha! … Ha!”

So, the travel: This past weekend saw us on a whirlwind trip to the D.C. area for the wedding of Emily Freeland and Elizandro Salguero. It was a super-sweet event, and I was in heaven to be spending time with my college roomies and friends. They all look terrific and seem happy with their lives—careers, families, etc. We stayed in Laurel with the Modis, Jitu, Reshma, their two kids (Shivani and Sohan), and Jitu’s parents. They watched Violet during the wedding, and for Violet’s and my longest time being apart, it went pretty well. We were eager for our reunion at the end of the night, but for her part, she reportedly had a GREAT time (she just loves slightly bigger kids with their running around and animated talking). For my part, I can’t imagine better peace of mind than having left your kid with a house full of doctors who have raised or are raising healthy, happy kids.

The wedding was preceded by a baby shower for the bride and groom. Their family will be complete come December. A highlight of the day for me was helping Emily and her new stepdaughter, Jazlynn, get ready for the big event. How beautiful they both looked! The wedding itself was a fun evening of DELICIOUS Italian food, Latin and American music, and friends. The couple had already had a private ceremony, so after introductions of family members, the rest of the night was all-party. Emily AMAZED me with her third-trimester stamina. Oh, man. Super Bride.

Enough talk. Check out the photos!