Violet's Circus Party

 Violet Mae is 3!

We celebrated with a trip to "The Circus is Coming to Town," a children's theater show Auntie Mel is acting in.

As a birthday group, we got to sit in the first two rows, and most of the children in our group got to take part in the interactive story.

 Barbara Schwartz, the Storybook Theatre co-founder, brought Violet onstage so the whole audience could sing "Happy Birthday" to her.

During the show, Violet got to pretend to be a circus giraffe. When asked by the "ringmaster" what giraffes have, she said "tails" instead of the expected answer "long necks." All on stage were asked to wag their tails like giraffes.
Violet loved being on stage, smiling away.

 

 Here's most of children in our party with the actors.

After the show, we headed over to the pony rides/train ride area of Griffith Park.

We were fortunate to get a couple of empty picnic tables on a busy Saturday afternoon. Melanie set up a face-painting station, which the little girls loved.

 Violet picked out a clown cake (made of cupcakes), in honor of Mel's show.

 The pony rides were a hit, as well. Cora, Alexyss, Sophia and Lucas took a ride on the trotters, while Violet and the others went around the track at a more sedate pace.

The day ended with a train ride for Cora, Violet, Grandma, Morgan and her girls Sophie and Norah.

It was a long and fun day; Violet and Cora both had a brilliant time. Violet loved her birthday, after talking about it all week long.

Happy Birthday, our sweet Violet! We all love you and are so proud of the big girl you are becoming.

Violet at 2 1/2

Here's Violet at 2 1/2, doing a little light reading after breakfast.

Yep, you read that right. Violet the toddler is swiftly heading toward her third birthday. 

She remains very affectionate, generally speaking, especially to the cats. Violet usually confuses their names, but she loves giving them full-body hugs and neck squeezes.  

She's still a cuddler with us, too, and loves crawling into our bed on weekend mornings.

Here, Violet's helping Stace with the gardening, in her most natural state. Violet's been spending a lot of time naked at home, or at least clad in only a top, as we slowly work on potty-training.

It's been slower-going than I expected and had hoped, but no matter. She knows how to use the toilet, and she simply needs to get better about telling us when she needs to go, rather than only heading to the potty when we direct her to.

Here, Violet was in need of a diaper change, and ran ahead into her room to get ready. In her haste, she knocked the changing mat off the dresser, silly girl.

So, what is Violet like at 2 1/2? She definitely is two; she cries and whines more than she used to, and she'll be overly aggressive on the playground or with her sister.
She talks all the time, asking good questions and making good observations. "The big-girl swing is probably cold," she told me the other morning at the park.

She likes to make us laugh, by singing, talking in silly gibberish, tickling us and dancing. Her smile and joy are infectious, and I love having her with me most of the day, every day.
She wakes up around 7:30 most days, naps for 90 minutes to two hours in the afternoons, and is in bed around 8 most nights.

Violet really loves Miss Diane's class, and talks about going most days, even though class is only once a week.

In this photo a few weeks ago, she was painting a ghost, a ghost she then grew frightened of. She wanted to take the ghost with her on the playground, I think so she could keep an eye on it. She talked about it all day, saying she didn't like the ghost and she was scared of it. 

The next week focused on pumpkin art, and she was openly relieved. "No ghosts," she said approvingly after Diane showed us the projects.

Silly Violet

 Violet made me laugh the other day. We were getting ready to leave to take Cora to Camp Clarita, and running a little behind.

Cora encouraged Violet to eat more quickly, so we could leave.
"No. I eating properly," was her reply. I wish I had it on tape! Her voice is so cute: "pwop-uh-ly."

After taking Cora into camp, we went to the grocery store. When we had finished our business at the deli counter, Violet said, "Tell the man I'm 2," referring to the deli man. I think she's gotten used to people talking to her when she's in the front seat of the cart/trolley.

At the store, she was most excited to be buying yogurt drinks. She talked about them a lot. When we got home, I emptied the car and went to the back of the house, and when I came down the hall, I heard Violet rummaging around a drawer.
I came out to find her happily consuming her own yogurt drink! She had found them in the bag, got one out of the four-pack, got a straw from the drawer and pierced the top herself.

Later in the day, she asked me to tuck her in on the cat's bed.

And this week, I asked Violet to help by putting a new package of toilet paper rolls into the empty drawer. Here's what she did, with the declaration, "I making a stack!"

Our Violet loves making us laugh.

Violet at 2

Here was Violet's first time in the 2-year-old class at church. She was more than ready to move up from the 1's. The week before was the first time we've heard a bad report from the workers - she spent the service following other toddlers around, saying "no" and "mine," and trying to take whatever they were playing with.

Stace found Violet acting similarly when he took her to My Gym this week.
And at home, after disagreeing about turning the bathroom light off, Violet bit Cora on the leg hard enough to leave imprints. Poor Cora had been a sitting duck, you might say, as she sat bare-bummed on the toilet. A bit later, Cora screamed again as Violet was pulling a handful of her hair.
Um, yep. We are TWO!

But of course, she's not naughty all the time. Often when I look for Violet around the house because it's too quiet, this is what I find - Violet reading a book, or tucked into something or other, playing the night-night game on her own.

In this instance, Violet pulled out the "cat care" book and was saying, "I love you, kitty."







Violet can be a very silly girl. Here, she found an old diaper cover of Cora's with bad elastic, called it "panties," and needed to wear it.

Violet loves singing. She wakes up singing - at the moment, "Happy Birthday" is her favorite. She also loves seeing her friends and trying to ride Cora's old scooter.

She makes us laugh by shouting out, "I see Magic Mountain!" when we're in the car, when we're either nowhere near Magic Mountain, or she's looking the wrong way out the car window. And, when we drive past Genia's house, she usually asks, "Is Ave Johnny awake?"




Violet's two-year well check went well. Very well in fact, being that she wasn't due for any shots. There was just one she could have had, but since Vi is old enough to remember things a bit, and the appointment was going so well, I figured we'd hold off so she remember a positive experience.

She remains a peanut: at 32 inches, she is in just the 14th percentile. Violet weighed 25 pounds, 5 ounces, which put her in the 32nd percentile. She's finally getting her last incisor, and I'm sure she'll be due for her two-year molars when we are on the plane to England next month.

Dr. Brockett noted the correlation between speech and high intelligence, and said that we're in trouble! The other day at the grocery store, I stepped briefly away to check the price on a product. When I got back to Violet in the cart, she asked, "What you looking for, Mummy?" She asked a sleepy Cora the other day, "Are you tired, Cora?"

Not all of Violet's talking is as cute, of course. We've been hearing a lot of "NO!" as a three-syllable word, with the "nnnnnnn" sound stretched out. Example: "NNNNNNNNNNNOOOO, Mummy! I NO go to bed!" or "NNNNNNNNOOO, I no want it dinner. I want yogurt!"

In this picture, Violet was proud because she had put on her own shoes! (This particular pair is especially easy to take on and off.)

Here, Violet is playing with her new Thomas bath toy from Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty. She loved it. Violet still prefers to sit in her bath seat, and asks for it if we don't automatically put her in.









Here she is showing Daddy some love at the end of her birthday party...

It hit me a few months ago that, this year, our family would consist of a 5-year-old and 2-year-old, and not the preschooler/baby combo I've been used to. It hit me like a ton of bricks, actually: "Wait! I just had a two-year-old! I don't know if I want another one!"

It's hard to believe Violet is two already; such a big girl and no longer our baby. But when she flashes us her big smile, her blue eyes sparkling away, we know how blessed we are to have her in our family

Happy Birthday, Violet Mae. Daddy, Cora and I love you bunches!

Violet's birthday party, Part I

We celebrated Violet's birthday on Saturday at Placerita Canyon, which has now become our preferred birthday party location. Cora's first and third parties were here too...

Stace and I handled the food and drinks, while Grandma was on duty for crafts and activities. Here, she is helping Alexyss with her bag for collecting various items from nature.

Violet's and her best bud on the scavenger hunt...












Then, it was time to decorate sun visors! Later, those who had time decorated little bird feeders to take home, to bring the nature to them.

Here come the 2-year-olds! Violet turned 2 Friday, and it was Ezra's birthday Saturday. Marley's turn is Monday, and then Liana hits 2 on May 9.

 This little one did so well at her party. She was up past her normal naptime, and she did get sleepy, but I don't think she cried once.

 When looking through the cake book at Ralphs, Violet chose the Thomas cake. But since the cake was actually a grouping of cupcakes frosted to look like one "cake," I figured I could do that and save $20. I added chopped strawberries and chocolate chips for that personal touch, with red strawberry frosting and blue sprinkles to complement the Thomas candle. 

  How many 2-year-olds know to blow out the candles? I guess Violet has been very observant when we've been to birthday parties!

I think she likes it!

Since it was Ezra's actual birthday, we sang to him, too.

Then it was time to hurry over to the nature center for the animal show. Here is Blossom the Opossum...

...and a friendly great horned owl.

Violet's birthday

Here's how Violet spent her 2nd birthday...

Following our new tradition, Violet enjoyed her chocolatey "birthday cereal" (mixed with oats so it had some nutritional value!).

After taking Cora to school, we met up with Jaimie and Luke for a walk. They brought Violet these adorable Minnie sunglasses (and adorable flip-flops), which were a bit more girly than the funny shirt we're borrowing from the Roberts for the next year.

Before picking Cora up, we made a quick trip into Ralphs, and Violet kept asking to look at the cake book.

After Daddy got home, we gave Violet her gift - a little acoustic guitar so she can strum along with Daddy.

With a little "help" from Cora, Violet settled on Burger King for her birthday dinner. (Cora had been coaching her earlier in the day to ask for Chuck E. Cheese, and Violet did so, but Stace really can't stand that place. So we convinced Cora to help Violet change her mind.)

After dinner, we went to the coffeehouse to see a couple of lady singer-songwriters perform. One, Jess Penner, we saw last year and really enjoyed. We were excited to see her again; alas, as you can see from Violet's face, it was a bit late for our girls to be out listening to music. We caught a few songs and bought a CD and called it a night.

Violet bits

Violet's reached the age where her Thomas sensor began sounding loudly. She now really enjoys books and DVDs about everyone's favorite blue engine. She wanted to color Thomas, and since Dad couldn't find the coloring book (and he's quite a handy artist), he drew her one to color.

Using the toilet can get a little boring, so Violet finds ways to amuse herself. Like blowing her nose with half a roll of paper. Or seeing how many body parts she can get into the toilet.

Violet still uses the toilet several times a day, but I wouldn't say we've made any progress over the past couple of months toward diaper-free living. My current thought is that we'll make that push when we return from our June trip to England.

 Playing the "night night" game is still one of Violet's favorites (though I did have to talk to her about the problem with camping out behind a door that could swing into her head).

Violet is talking up a storm, and it seems that daily, we hear comments on how well she speaks.

(Some of this, I believe, is because she is so tiny - she still looks like she could be 15 or 16 months old, and it's pretty strange to hear a child that age say "Where are you going, Mummy?"  or "What are you doing, Daddy?" or "I wanna see the book.")
Here, you can hear her saying "What you making, Cora?" and answering that she would like a pancake, and a waffle.

We also get some of the negatives of a talkative almost-two-year-old, with too-frequent shouts of "Give it back!" "That's mine!" "My turn!" and "NO!"
Or, of course, just screaming, when Cora and Violet aren't getting along well.