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.