Totterer

May 31st, 2009

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).

So You Think You Can Click?

May 28th, 2009

Excuse my shameless friend-promotion — but please read Sarah-Novelist’s first review for the National Examiner, especially if you’re a fan of the TV show So You Think You Can Dance! The more you click on the page, and the more you comment, the more money S gets in return!

CLICK HERE!

Just Some New Photos

May 21st, 2009

Sarah-Novelist came to town today, and we did a bunch of fun walking around. Here are a few photos from today.

Prenup

May 16th, 2009

Before we got married, I told Steve that he would have to teach any child we might have to drive. I think that was our only prenuptial agreement.

And Stevel, it’s time. So far, she is not a “defensive driver.”

And Then I Was Cited for Environmental Law-Breaking, and My Child Was Removed from the Home

May 15th, 2009

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.

Just a Wee Video

May 6th, 2009

Watchy watchy!

And now Vibb and I are off to Oregon … see you when we get back!