Happy Mothers' Day

Lots of things happened since October but we are still mostly boring people from boring states living in the most boring part of Miami. On this mothers day we send our love our to our extended mother network (our moms, grandmothers, and sibling mothers and in-laws and so forth.)

Though here, we honor most our local mom in residence.

We love you Lilly (mommy)

Clark and Violet (and soon baby brother)

(Violet "computer signature")
cccc597jjjjjjjggggggggggggg

Halloween 2010

I wanted to be sure and memorialize Violet's second Halloween. Last year obviously she didn't know what was going on, didn't eat candy and didn't go trick-or-treating. This year was quite different. I wasn't sure if she was going to be into wearing the costume or going trick-or-treating, but I wanted to give it a shot.

First, Saturday night we had a party at church.

They had some cute decorations set up to take pictures with. Violet is obviously Little Red Riding Hood. Then we went around to all the cars in the parking lot and "trunk-or-treated." Violet didn't quite understand what was going on at first but she really got into it after the first couple of cars. Then she wanted to go back inside and inspect her candy.


I was so proud of this kid: she grabbed the box of raisins first and demanded that I open it. After that, she ate the bag of pretzels and the fruit snacks. She spit out the peanut M&Ms and then was done for the night.

Sunday, after looking for Halloween-themed hymns during Sunday School (not the official activity), we went out trick-or-treating after dinner. We were pretty sure that our complex wasn't going to have a lot of action since it's gated and there aren't a lot of kids, so we walked down a few blocks to a residential neighborhood that Clark has run through before. We got there at about 7 pm and the streets were DESERTED. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Clark was concerned that they might not welcome trick-or-treaters. I had told Violet what we were going to do, so she was yelling "houses! CANDY!" from her stroller. So we decided to just start knocking on doors. After the first few doors we started seeing other groups of kids coming down the street. Phew! She was having so much fun talking to people at each door. She usually got an extra piece of candy for every time she said "happy Halloween" or "trick-or-treat" so she picked up on that really fast and played it for all it was worth. At one house there was a pretty elderly man who was so taken with Vi that he wanted his wife to come see her, but she was sitting in the back room and has trouble getting around. So Vi walked right into their house and found the lady and talked to her for a little while. She showed her all her candy and let her give her a hug and was very sweet to her. I was so proud.

There ended up being a lot of people out in this neighborhood and we talked to quite a few nice parents with their kids. We've been pretty isolated here and it was really good to be out in the community and see so many families having fun. We stayed out for about an hour, until it got pretty dark and Vi got tired. Then we decided to go home and check out the haul.


It was a really great weekend and we're glad we went for it. I'm also quite glad that Violet doesn't like peanut butter and chocolate. I knew there would be perks to motherhood.

Oh, and I just have to mention: Clark and I were wearing t-shirts and shorts and feeling pretty warm, even after dark. Violet was sweating from wearing her cape over her dress. It was so humid that it started to sprinkle a couple of times, which felt pretty good. It's a far cry from Halloween in snow boots and a coat.

Violet's comedy tour

Violet told me her first joke today. It was after bath time, and I was drying her off.

V: "Mommy, what's towel say?"

L: "What?"

V: "Foo foo!" (laughs uproariously)

No one is allowed to tell her about knock-knock jokes, ok? I don't think I can take it yet.

Settling in Miami - random thoughts

I wrote a long blah blah blah post about the craziness that has been this move, but really, who cares? No one has time for that. Here's the things on my mind now.

1) I bought a rug from Craigslist today and made a friend. Kitchen table soon to follow, I hope. I like the looking but not the actual purchasing/haggling/transporting.
2) Clark and I should both have married people who like getting stuff done. We are not those people. Also, we should have married people who like being in new situations. Uh-oh.
2a) I wonder how long we can live with boxes in the living room?
2b) I hope I can find the baggie of bookshelf pegs or we are all in trouble.
3) Miami is humid. This bears remembering.
4) Violet LOVES Lady Gaga. She recognized a song on the radio today and, when it was over, spent the rest of the drive saying "want Gaga!" This might not be the greatest parenting.
5) What do other people do with their stuff? Not books and clothes and things that are easy to organize, but random papers and chargers and electronics and pens? I can never find good places for these things.
6) After spending ~$1200 on a new head gasket that blew during the move, why does my car still hate starting in the heat? Because, let's face it, heat is what you're going to get, Sentra. (It always starts on the second try with no problem, so I'm not that worried. But still.)
7) I am excited for the internet guy to come so we can stop stealing wireless. Although, stolen internet has the advantage of being cheaper.
8) Clark wants to put Violet in preschool. No way am I ready for that yet.
9) One of Violet's nursery leaders at church is a sign language interpreter. When Violet started freaking out a little bit on Sunday (fourth different nursery in five weeks for the poor girl), she calmed down instantly when Stacia started signing to her. I couldn't be happier.
10) The movers' list says they lost a box, but our list has all boxes accounted for. I'm confused.
11) I have a dishwasher. But no garbage disposal. Wha????
12) When we turn down our new street, Violet says "home!" She never did that before.

Cute moments

We are all awhirl in dissertating and packing and craziness, but I just wanted to post two quick things. The first is an adorable picture of Violet, taken by my sister-in-law Amanda when she was watching Vi while we were apartment hunting.


She is just too cute.

Second: today, after a long day, Violet was feeling peckish and slapped at my face. I immediately got up and put her in her crib for a 60-second timeout, which is what I always do when she hits. Usually she screams bloody murder the entire time and then shows some vague signs of being contrite when I get her out. Today, after I put her in the crib and walked out of her room she didn't make a sound. I was quite shocked and got Clark to come and see. He waited a few seconds and then walked around the corner into her room to check on her. She was sitting calmly in the middle of her crib, and as soon as she saw him she said "sawwy" and signed "sorry" at the same time. I went in after him and she said it again to me, all without any prompting from either of us. It was such a sweet parenting moment and I can only hope she really knows what it means!

Short Miami vacation

I don't know how life can be so busy and so uninteresting at the same time. Here's a brief rundown.

Clark continues to work on his dissertation, hopefully to defend in early or mid August. He's actually back at the lab right now, and it's 1 am. He's looking forward to being done.

Last week we prepared to leave Violet for the first extended period of time to go visit Miami. I was very nervous about a lot of things regarding this trip, but I knew it was what we had to do. Clark's twin brother Claron and his wonderful wife Amanda took Violet for us, and I knew she would be in great hands. I took Vi up to Santa Barbara for a few days to get her settled in and give Clark a chance to work. The morning I was leaving to drive back to Irvine, Violet started running a fever. She was sick the entire time we were gone, poor baby, although it probably made her easier to watch since she just laid around the whole time. I finally tore myself away, drove down to Irvine, picked up Clark, and headed back to Long Beach for our red-eye flight to Miami. I hit some pretty bad traffic and we were sweating it, but we made it in time. (Side note: The Long Beach airport consists of some trailers set up on some concrete in the middle of a field. It looks like there should be an Eastern European old lady with a herd of goats in the corner. But our JetBlue flight went great regardless.)

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 5 am, drove to Miami and had some time to kill before we started looking at rentals at 9 am. We looked at places with a realtor all day, looked at places on our own in the evening, and then went to dinner at the most amazing place with Clark's future boss.



This is when I started to think, maybe I could get used to living here. Even though it had rained off and on all day and was over 90 degrees. But we were able to eat dinner outside very comfortably, and not get eaten by either mosquitoes or alligators.

We looked at a bunch of places the next day, and we liked each one better than the last. Finally, on Friday morning, half an hour before we were scheduled to leave for the airport, we called the landlord of one condo and told him we were ready to rent! This is the first time we've ever rented a place on our own (we've lived in student housing for five years) so it feels very big and grown-up. The current tenants were in the process of packing, so we didn't take any pictures of the place since it was full of random boxes. But we like it a lot, especially since it has a dishwasher and the washer/dryer are about six feet down the hallway. The condo is in a gated community with a security guard, so a lot of my Miami fears have been put to rest. It's also within walking distance of the mall, grocery stores, and Metrorail, so Clark can commute to work and leave us the car. Yay! Here is one quick taste of the kitchen:
Yes, those are all cabinets under the bar. Storage!!

Overall, our trip to Miami was very positive and gave us a lot of hope for the next couple of years. I think we'll be happy there and learn to get around. It was also nice to leave Violet and realize that neither of us will die from the separation. I was VERY happy to see her again, but it is easy to forget how nice it is to not worry about diapers for 3 days. The trip also coincided with our 6th anniversary, which was a nice present to us as well. Note: anyone who tells you that Miami drivers are terrible is NOT exaggerating, and this is coming from someone who drives through LA frequently. I have never seen people run red lights so brazenly.

So now we're back, and counting down for real. After 7 days with a fever and cough (and one day of unexplained hives), Violet's ear started leaking something yucky and we had to take her in this evening to be diagnosed with a double ear infection. I am happy we were able to get her some medicine and hopefully she will feel better soon, but also keep sleeping 3-4 hours in the afternoon so I can get some stuff done! (Ok, I know that is wishful thinking, but I can hope....)

Sorry for the lack of interesting pictures, you know us.

Graduation!

I've decided I hate blogging. But I keep doing it halfheartedly because it's the closest thing to a journal I'll ever have, and there is definitely stuff I want to remember about this phase of our lives. But if no one wants to read it, I wouldn't blame them!

Life has been a whirlwind since I last posted. With work, thesis, moving, family visiting, and a quickly-moving toddler, there is not a lot of extra time. We are currently looking at leaving for Florida in early August. Clark is finally finished TAing (forever!) and now gets to focus on thesis-writing full time. He's on a "5 pages every day for 40 days" plan. That's easier in the sciences than it is in the humanities, apparently. He can put in things he's already published, for one, and he gets to put in figures, which take up a good amount of space. He already walked for graduation the first week of June, which was nice because we had lots of family come to celebrate with us. We also all went to see The Lion King at the OC Performing Arts Center the night before, which was a really amazing show. Violet really enjoyed graduation because she liked clapping for all the people's names. The rest of us realized that it was actually quite boring, but worth it to see Clark be recognized for all his hard work these past five years. Clark feels like it was a little pre-emptive since he hasn't defended his dissertation yet, but that's just a formality. Right?? My mom insisted on telling the waiter at the restaurant that Clark was "my son-in-law the new doctor" and Clark got to hear about his medical complaints. The best part was, since Clark got a much-needed haircut and shave for graduation, Violet refused to go to him and spent all weekend crying "dada!" for Claron.

Violet continues to be more fun with each passing stage. She is firmly a toddler now, and quickly leaving babyhood behind. She uses a fork and spoon (when she feels like it), loves to run and play outside (unless there are bigger kids around), and has a keen awareness of the power of her own cuteness. When she throws a full toddler tantrum, it is preceded by her crouching down very carefully, getting on all fours, lowering herself to the ground deliberately, rolling to her back, THEN screaming and thrashing and kicking her legs. But she can almost always be coaxed out of the tantrum by a Fig Newton or piece of fruit, and most of the time if I just walk away she will eventually grow bored and get interested in something else.

She has a really amazing vocabulary by now, thanks to the Baby Signing Time DVDs. I know a lot of people don't let their toddlers watch TV, but these DVDs have done amazing things for her and I would recommend them highly. Each of the four DVDs has about 25 signs on it and Violet is close to knowing all of them (she uses maybe 50 of them correctly, another 25 she can recognize and try to imitate, and the last 25 we haven't seen yet - that's just a rough estimate). She is starting to try to talk out loud as well although it's still largely unintelligible. I can't get enough of listening to her laugh "giggu giggu" when I "tickle" her. She is definitely aware that there is a lot of stress at home and I have to be careful to keep focused on her toddler needs when she's awake and save the moving stresses for naptime and nighttime. She's such a social little girl I think she will do great with the changes. One thing she is NOT good at is sleeping in a room with other people or taking naps when there are a lot of people around, which has made the family visits a little difficult. Hopefully by the time she ever has to share a room she will have learned better sleep habits. But since my mom left and Violet has been back in her own room, she has napped for over three hours both days and slept great at night. There is hope.

Here's a bunch of pictures Amanda took with her lovely camera from graduation weekend.