Gibbons and picnics

We visited the Gibbon Conservation Center in Saugus on Saturday, when it offered a Mother's Day open house with moms getting in free.

 I had been to the center before as a child, but it had been many years, and Stace and the girls had never been.

The center has nearly 40 gibbons from five different species, and is the most successful gibbon breeding facility in the world.

When we visited, there were several babies, including this little guy. Known as the singing apes, the gibbons raced back and forth in their compounds, swinging and singing with all their might. I was glad Violet wasn't scared of the noise. Cora, meanwhile, was very scared of the red ants here and there in the dirt.

The open house was well organized, with lots of volunteers on hand and free healthful snacks and water.
On the video clip, you can hear the singing.

 

Then, we went on to Heritage Park for the annual church picnic. Here, Cora insisted she could do the monkey bars all by herself, until she got to them.











Cora and Violet both liked having their face and arm painted with butterflies and Hello Kitties.

Fairy Wonderland

Here she is, our little fairy lover.
For several weeks, Cora has been immersed in Fairy Land, the land where Tinker Bell and her friends fly and bring joy to children.

She talks about fairies a lot, and has us help her act out moments from the movie "The Great Fairy Rescue." She really hopes they are real and has asked me several times if they are. She wishes she were a fairy herself, so she could fly.




When Cora was good the other day, we gave her this mini Fawn, who puts to good use the Calico Critters bed. Fawn came along this afternoon to the grocery store, and kept bouncing on grocery items and hiding behind things. (All this made for a very enjoyable grocery trip! Cora was well-entertained by her tiny sidekick.)

In the movie, the little girl who loves fairies has fairy drawings and pictures all over her bedroom. Cora realized, with great concern, that no one could tell she loves fairies too, because she had no fairy pictures up in her room. Thus started a fairy-drawing fest, the results of which you can see here. In two of the pictures you can see an angry bird chasing the fairies, who are shouting, "AAAAAAAAAAA." Cora was particularly proud of the bird in the upper left drawing, with the careful rainbow coloration. Cora is the fairy on the left in that one.

In the movie, the little girl catches Tinker Bell in a little fairy house she has made and set outside. Here is Cora's fairy house, which used to be an ordinary plastic bag. The "Cora" leaf is a welcome mat, and the buttons show the fairies where to go.

For the last several weeks, Cora often has run over to the house when we've come home from being out and about. Once she said forlornly, "I looked in that fairy house. No fairies. I guess fairies aren't real. I like fairies"

In this photo, on the right side you can see a tree that Cora made out of leaves and a little hunk of wood. Her creativity and drive amaze me.

The box that Cora's booster seat came in became a new (indoor) fairy house, for when Cora herself is the fairy, trapped inside. Notice the rainbow door with glued-on flower decoration; the inside is covered in more fairy pictures.

When Cora worried that Violet was going to mess up her house, she helped make Violet a fairy house of her own from a different box.
(Note to the general gift-buying public: toys not required; boxes will suffice.)

And, on an unrelated note, Cora has been making us snicker by using the word "Daggit" as an expression of displeasure. I don't know where she heard it, or perhaps she did make it up on her own. At any rate it's better than a lot of alternatives. Even funnier is hearing Violet repeat it.

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 party, Part II

My last post got a little photo-heavy, so I'm splitting the party into two posts. Here are the bigger kids having fun!

 Our most favorite neighbors

 And here's David and beautiful baby Heather, at 10 months old. Melanie and David brought Violet a card with a big picture of a hamster's face, and when you pull the hamster's chin down, he talks in a funny voice. Violet loves this card! She laughs and laughs each and every time.

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.