Naked and out of town

I'm in Jacksonville visiting my Dad and stepmom right now. I just got in at 8 a.m. and though we had nearly perfect flights (Violet slept during the five hours of our longest flight; slept the whole way! I had to wake her up to deplane!), I had only slept a few hours last night. I was pretty pooped today. Hopefully I wasn't too cranky. I'm really happy to be here.

We went to the library today, which was fun. Got a huge stack of books for Violet. Later when we were at the house, one of those huge Florida rainstorms started up. I took Violet outside to watch the rain and lightning. She excitedly requested she "go naking in the rain." I took off her clothes and gave her an umbrella; she didn't much like the driving rain, but when it died down a bit we went squelching through the puddles in the yard. We worked our way through the back yard and into the front, but neighbors kept driving by and looking shocked at the naked baby in the yard. So I took her back to the back yard. There was a huge rainbow in the sky, a great big arch. "Rainbow!" said Violet, every time she caught sight of it, excited anew each time. "Rainbow!"

While Dad was grilling salmon for dinner, he asked Violet who she liked and she said "I like my Mama best," making me cry. Then 20 minutes later I asked her if she loved me (never ask!) and she said "I like my baby" (meaning Pinky) "best." Ouch. She was really sweet today though, playing with her granddaddy, dumping a small trash can full of Mardi Gras beads over his head over and over again and giggling cutely. Mimi and Granddaddy are her adoring slaves. What is it you want, Violet? Strawberry jelly instead of peach? Two eggs instead of one? Twelve books read to you one right after another? Your word is our command! She accepts the attention regally, like the spoiled only child she is. Grownups are for serving kids, did you not know that?