Violet at 1

Some more on our 1-year-old...

Violet's two top teeth have broken through in recent weeks, and are starting to come downward.
She is still chewing on a finger a lot, so maybe some others are also on their way.

She is eating very well - here, she is loving some homemade sweet potato fries.

She has three meals a day, plus usually some sort of finger food snack while we're out and about.

I've combined her midday feedings, so she is now nursing three times a day.

If we are home, Violet still naps twice a day, usually for an hour or 90 minutes in the morning, and 90 minutes or 2 hours in the afternoon. If we are out in the morning, Violet doesn't nap very well, even in the car.

Bedtime is usually about 8 p.m., sometimes earlier, sometimes later. The last few mornings she's slept in until about 8, though that is late for her. Most mornings she's up by 7:30.

Violet's well-check was Thursday morning, and she is very well!

She weighs 19 pounds, 5 ounces, putting her in the 21st percentile, and she's 28 1/4 inches (24th percentile). Her head circumference, 45 cm, is 50th percentile.

Dr. Brockett advised me to be careful to make sure our fair-skinned, blondie wears a hat and sunscreen. And, she now is green-lighted to eat things like peanut butter and honey - that should make lunchtime even easier.

Cora took the photos from our doctors' appointment!

I'm also showing here the latest photos with the doll, and the photo with Violet at 2 weeks. Just a little bit different, eh?

And, finally, a video of Stace singing a birthday song to his baby, with Cora performing an interpretive dance.

The Baby is One!

Our sweet Violet Mae is now one year old.

Wow.

As every parent says at times like these, how did the time fly by so quickly?

Weren't we just in the hospital, welcoming Miss Violet into our family?

At any rate, she has been a tremendous addition. We love her dearly and I thank God every day for blessing me with two beautiful, funny, smart and delightful daughters.

May I elaborate? Focusing on the younger one, since it is her birthday...

Beautiful - nothing more needs to be said.

Funny - Violet loves to make us laugh, by dancing to music, playing peekaboo and blowing raspberries.

Smart - Violet already loves to imitate our speech. She tries to sing along to the "ABCs" and "Pat a Cake," and she can say or has words for Cora, Daddy, doggy, kitty, meow, woof, mmmmm (for food), uh oh, hi and dolly. Saying "hi" and occasionally "hello" to us is a new favorite hobby of Violet's - she'll say it and wave at us, we'll say it back, and so on.

Delightful - Well, anyone who has been around this baby knows she is a delight. If I could guarantee my future babies would be like her, I'd have several more. She loves giving kisses and hugs, and loves laughing at her sister's silliness and listening to Daddy play guitar. She gets excited when we see animals, especially kitties.

For Violet's birthday, we had cupcakes with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Mel on Saturday after our Easter meal. We also sang and had cupcakes Sunday, with all our family in England via Web cam. It was a joint celebration, as Pop turned 60 on Tuesday, and Nan's milestone birthday is coming up soon.

Violet loved her cake, as you can see in the photos!

I had hoped to do something fun today on her actual birthday, but Violet has a cold and wasn't up for it. She had a fever on her birthday eve, and a runny nose.

Happy first birthday, Violet Mae! God bless you this next year, as you learn to walk (and then run) and talk (and then chatter) and grow into a toddler.

11 months

Our baby is 11 months old today!

Violet has progressed a lot in the past couple of weeks. She now has several words, and she's pushing her walker around, in addition to cruising along furniture.



This week I stood Violet up behind the walker toy, and off she went.

She walks until she runs into something, or until she stumbles; then she'll push it from her knees.

We'll see if she's walking by her first birthday!

She is so proud of herself, making great squealing noises with a huge grin.

That's our Violet - usually smiling a big, happy smile!
She says "uh oh" and "doggy," which were her first words. She also says "Daddy," "ghia" for Cora and we've heard "teh tu" for thank you.
It's not a real word, but she says "Mmmmmmm!!!" when she wants more food!

I visited with my friend Melanie on Saturday and you can hear Violet saying "uh oh" at the end of this clip. It always makes me laugh to hear her saying it at naptime, when she's alone in her bedroom, throwing her animals out of the crib.

We can tell Violet is getting older in another way - she has been getting mad and screaming more the past couple of weeks. Especially when Cora and she are playing and she isn't happy about something. For example, in this video clip:

(The backstory is, Violet had been dancing to the music this toy plays, and it was adorable, until I got the camera out. A half-dozen clips later, and only one clip had a tiny bit of dancing. Stace and I agreed, though, that this one was pretty classic. It's starting to appear that Violet isn't going to let Cora push her around.)

Lastly, I was tidying up Violet's bedroom today while she untidied it.

When we emptied the playroom to change the carpet, we put the small bookcase in Violet's room. It has the baby books in it, after all, and her room has some empty space. We'll see if it ends up being a good idea!

10 months

Violet is now 10 months old, and such a fun and affectionate addition to our home.

She loves us very much, and is pretty quick to give us her open-mouth kisses.

Her personality is generally happy, easy-going, upbeat. If every baby was this joyful, I'd love to have five more!

When she does something she shouldn't do - like touching the DVD player - and we firmly tell her "no," she is unhappy, but no tantrums yet. She definitely doesn't have the same strong-willed personality that Cora has. (Phew! I reread the blog and was writing about Cora's screaming fits at 9 and 10 months...)

Yet again, one negative (but kind of funny) thing I should note: I was out front with Genia and our kids, and handed Violet to her for a moment. Violet immediately started fussing, waved her arms at Genia's face, and then reached for me. The arm-waving looked a lot like hitting!

Violet pulls to standing easily, and climbs up on things like low storage boxes that slide under the bed.

She likes to put things in her mouth - everything she can reach! Still no teeth other than the bottom two, and her teething symptoms have lessened.

She generally goes to bed between 8 and 8:30, and sleeps until 7:30. She's still taking two naps, though the morning nap has shifted to 9:30ish instead of 9.

In the bottom photo, Violet had woken up at 6 and was so unhappy. I changed her diaper to find a lot of mess, which was making her bum very red and painful. No wonder! By 8:30, when she was having her breakfast, she was done!

Speaking of breakfast, Violet normally has oatmeal in the mornings, and whatever we're having for dinner, in the evenings. She especially likes yogurt, chicken, peas, corn and carrots, along with quesadillas and French toast. She ate an entire piece of French toast for lunch the other day, and the next night she nearly finished a chicken-and-cheese quesadilla by herself!
She also nurses four times a day - in the morning, upon waking from her naps, and before bed.

We also have a couple of other cute photos from the past few weeks. In the third one, she found my lipstick and knew just what to do with it. And next, she was very pleased with herself after pulling down onto herself a box of fun things.

A new park

We've had a nice couple of weeks with friends!

We hosted our MOPS table last week (I'm now a table leader), and on Monday we went to visit Juliana and her girls.

They now live a short walk from a big park with nice new play equipment. Cora and Maya were excited to see each other again, and held hands on the way to the park.

Since it was President's Day, the park was busy, and as soon as we got there, Cora was off and running.

Juliana packed a picnic lunch for us all, and Cora liked mustard for the first time.

Back at the house, Cora helped clear Juliana's back yard of extra lemons and oranges.

Yum! We'll be having lemon chicken Saturday with one of them.

And Violet learned how to get Cheerios out of a Snack Trap container.

My little baby is growing up!

Growing up, part 2

We took our girls out the other night to Chronic Taco, a Mexican quick service restaurant. Normal, right?

Well, yeah, but it was one of those nights that showed in little ways how they are getting bigger.

For one thing, Cora was eating chips with guacamole and salsa. She loved it!

And Violet was really happy to eat about a third of Cora's quesadilla. It was a breakthrough to have something new to feed Violet for lunches and dinners.

Several times since then, I've made Cora a tortilla-n-cheese, and cut off some for Violet. She always finishes it.

Violet also ate a lot of pasta the other night, which made me happy. Before, she would just spit out pasta. But the other night she couldn't get enough. So I now have more options for Violet's meals.

Growing up

On Sunday our family took a couple of steps forward.

First, in the morning, Cora moved up into the pre-kindergarten class at church. She said goodbye to Taylor and Josh, her teachers for the past year, who do such a great job each week.

(I would have liked a nice photo of Cora giving them a hug and the cards she wrote out, but Cora isn't into such cheesiness.)

Cora was so happy to move into the next class, with the "big kids." It's a mix of 4s and 5-year-olds who will enter kindergarten in the fall.

As we walked away, I got teary. I'm not that mushy of a mom, so it hit me by surprise.

Then, after naptime, we went to Lowe's for drywall and other odds and ends for the kitchen.

We were there for two hours, and it was another time of realizing that our little family is growing up. Cora was an angel on our long trip. She played with Violet, helped feed her to keep her busy, and made up games to entertain herself.

She also - for the first time - used the toilet by herself. As we went in, she told me she would do it all by herself, because she is now four. Right then. We didn't lock the stall, and I was right outside it. But she managed to handle it all, by herself. She also washed her hands alone.

(Since then, she still asks for help at home. The days of "I need some wipe!" aren't over yet.)

Back to Lowe's. Besides Cora acting so grownup, Violet also is growing up. She is so very different from the tiny baby entertained with a rattle. This time around, she was happy as long as she had snacks. She ate through the Cheerios, several toast sticks, and part of a banana.

9-Month Well Check

Last night, Stace and I took Violet to Five Guys for dinner before we did some DIY shopping.

Violet had yogurt, and in the second photo, she's working on her first try of a little piece of pickle. She didn't flinch at the taste, but couldn't quite get it down her throat, so we fished it back out.

For Violet, it was a celebration of a successful 9-month-checkup!

(So, yeah, take these top photos as a poor substitution for doctor's office photos. Forgot the camera AND my camera phone.)

Dr. Brockett said her lungs sound fine despite all of her coughing. She is very healthy, other than the remnants of her cold.

Her weight has really fallen down the growth charts - she was just 16 pounds, 13 ounces, down to the 14th percentile! I know that her active nature, crawling around everywhere, plays a role, and she hasn't eaten nearly as much as normal for the past 10 days while she's been sick. Still! I was surprised at how tiny she is.

Her length was 27 1/4 inches, or 35th percentile, and her head was 44 cm, or 48th percentile.

She has been fussier the past few days, between the cold and her top two teeth coming in. They haven't broken through yet, but she is drooling a lot. and it looks white in the middle of her upper gums.

This final photo makes me laugh. Another example of the second child getting things easier, perhaps? Cora never would have had Mummy give her Fruity Cheerios at this tender age! But she was so fussy, and they made her so happy. Until I took the cup back, after she spilled them out, and she got quite upset. Uh oh!

Nine Months

Violet is now nine months old, and as much of a sweetheart as ever!

She likes to stand up, and can pull up on just about anything, even walls and glass doors that lack handholds.

She hasn't figured out how to move her feet and legs forward, so no cruising or walking just yet.

She babbles a lot - lots of mamamamama and dadadadada - but I wouldn't say she is calling Stace or me by name yet.

She's had her first cold this week, with a mild fever, lots of coughing and a drippy face (lots of snot, drool and watery eyes).

We have her 9-month well check on Friday, so we'll find out then how big she has grown.

We've taken into the playroom some new toys for Violet, now that she's getting bigger. Some friends with children a little older than Cora passed down this fun musical door toy. Both girls like playing together with it, as you see here, when we made it into a house with a blanket and chair. Violet is clapping to the music. She loves music!