What We've Been Doing

Dear followers (all 3 of you!),

Sorry for the prolonged absence...I lost access to blogger at work (I used to use my lunch time to do my posts), and blogging at home has never really been a priority for me. I'd rather spend the time playing with my little munchkin!

Violet has really changed a lot since my last posts! In our eyes, she no longer seems like a baby, she's more of a little girl! It's hard to pinpoint when the change happened, but she's definitely her own little person now!

Right now, she's really into singing and dancing...as well as jumping, reading books together, playing tea party, watching Yo Gabba Gabba (occasionally!), helping me with anything I'll let her, and just being all-around cute!

Here's some pictures for proof!

This was her spring picture taken at her daycare.


And this was on the 4th of July...she really liked doing smoke bombs and snakes!


And later on the 4th, swimming and blowing bubbles and all kinds of outside fun at John's parent's house!


And this was mid-September. I've been waiting for a while for her hair to be long enough to use foam rollers on it! This was the first try!

Turned out pretty cute! Unfortunately, it seems she has hair like mine and the curls fell out pretty quickly. Next time I'm going to put them in right after bath time, and see if she'll sleep in them! =)

So, that's all for now. I'll try not to go as long between posts next time! I can't guarantee I'll get back to super-frequent posts, but I'll try to do one at least every few weeks updating you guys on our lives!

Alyssa

Happy 2nd Birthday!!!

Two years ago, today, we welcomed Violet into our lives...and things haven't been the same since!

Let's reminisce for a few minutes...

Violet Alexandra was born July 19th, 2008 at 2:38 AM. She weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces, and was 21.5 inches long.


Look how tiny she was!


And here she is one year ago, on her 1st birthday, chilling out in her big girl carseat.


Now, back to the present.

Here she is a week ago, showing us she's ready to go! We thought it was her 2nd birthday we were getting ready for, not her 16th!


We had her birthday party on Saturday...my mom and mother-in-law took a bunch of pictures for me, so once I get those I can put together a post on that.

Here she is yesterday, at breakfast, playing with her Tinkerbell flashlight projector thingy my parents got her!


This morning, I was trying to take a birthday picture...she was looking at me like "uh, mom...we're supposed to be getting ready for work and school, not taking pictures!"


Oh, and my sister-in-law Tiffany made that bow for Violet! It was one of the first bows she's made, and I LOVE it! So cute!

By the time we made it to school, she was all for a birthday picture! She's growing up so fast! She looks so much like a little person instead of a baby/toddler! And her personality is coming out more and more each day!


"Cheese!"


It's amazing to me that she's already 2 years old. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun!

Silly Little Girl

Tuesday evening (6/8), we decided to go out to dinner. Whilst at the restaurant, Violet decided to raid her diaper bag and see what fun things were in there to play with.

Of all the toys I keep in there, she decided to play with a diaper. And with her daddy's encouragement, she decided to put it on her head.

And she thought she was soooooo cute! Apparently I did too because I took a picture of it!

Too Sweet

Check out this pic of Violet chilling in the hammock at my parent's new house on June 5th (my little sister's 18th birthday (crazy!))...



Is it not just too cute?!!!

Hair Pics!

I've been having a lot of fun fixing Violet's hair lately.

Here she is with some piggies, fancied up with some cute flower clips.

5/19

Here she is at a Drillers game on 5/21...she was starting to get tired so I changed her into her PJ's just in case. Well then she got some energy, and wanted to wear her sunglasses.

Check out that silliness! Oh, and in case you were wondering, fireworks are still scary.

And here she is two days later, in Walmart, sporting the 80's exercise video hairstyle.

I had pulled her hair into the pony, and then she decided she needed the hairband. At first she was kinda confused as to why I was taking her picture in the grocery store, but then she decided to show off her smile for me!

She kinda looks like a little rabbit the way she scrunched her face all up!

Shopping & Chillaxing

On April 17th, Violet & I had a shopping day with my mom and sister. Well, my dad was jealous and wanted to see Miss V also, so he and my brothers met us at the mall for lunch.

Here's V, sitting on his lap playing with the stickers from her Chick-Fil-A kids meal.

It was really stinking fun, as you can see.

And here the little ham is on April 23rd...as you can see, it was a very stressful week at daycare and she was soaking up the joy of a Friday evening by taking up the whole love seat!

"Hey mama, I'm ready for some chillaxing! TGIF!"

And finally, here she is modeling her new sunglasses (purchased during the aforementioned mall trip).

This was on 5/2, on our way to Walmart for the weekly grocery shopping. Thee funny thing is she wouldn't take them off! She wore them the whole time we were in the store!

Silly little girl!

Mall of America!

The next several posts will all be using pictures taken with my iPhone. I haven't downloaded the pictures off our cameras in some time, so I'll do some back-tracking after I finally get around to doing that! =)

April 2nd and 3rd, we flew up to Minneapolis and went to the Mall of America. It was a fun little weekend getaway, and we made it home in time to spend Easter with our families.

Here's a great picture of John & Violet on the plane leaving Minneapolis Saturday after a long day of shopping Friday.


And here's Violet showing off her cute piggies while waiting for our next flight in Chicago.

Those crumbs are from my blueberry muffin, which she loved!

Easter was great, I don't have any pics from my phone so you'll have to wait! I'll do all my storytelling when the pics go up.

Singing & Dancing

Violet is learning a lot of songs lately, and loves to sing and dance and do the motions to them.

Some of her current favorites include:
- The Wheels on the Bus
- Ring Around the Rosy
- The Itsy Bitsy Spider
- If You're Happy and You Know It
- 5 Little Monkeys

I've taken some videos of her, maybe one day I'll figure out how to post them...or at least try! I haven't taken the videos off the camera in almost a year! Pathetic, I know.

Also, I've discovered CDs by the Cedarmont Kids. If you have kids, you should check them out. I own the following:
- Toddler Tunes
- Action Bible Songs
- 100 Singalong Songs for Kids

They're good to put in, especially while you're cooking dinner or something. And they mix in good Christian songs for the kids, which is nice! Violet is still a little young for the Action Bible Songs, but it was only $4 and I think she'll like it once she's a little older! I remember a lot of them from when I was a kid!

Bubble Bath Unicorn

Date: 3/16/10

Sometimes I do those things as a mom you think you'll never do. One of those is taking pictures of my child in the bath with her hair spiked up. But it's just too cute!

So, yeah, here she is in her bubble bath (Tinkerbell bubbles, of course) and with a unicorn spike. In my defense, it does make washing her hair more fun, until I have to wash it out anyways! She is just like me and hates the water in her face!


Oh, and no, she's not using that Olay body soap. She uses Aveeno baby products, which I highly recommend if your child has sensitive skin! =)

Some other funny things she's been up to:
- It really bothers her when my hair is in my face. In fact, she'll come over and push it out of my face for me if she can!
- She LOVES all her stuffed animals & dolls. She isn't attached to one in particular, but she'll pick which one she wants to take with her to school, or hug before bedtime, or take to the grocery store. It's really cute. Maybe I'll do a post dedicated to all her animals.
- Speaking of dolls, she has her little baby doll named Emma that she is such a little mom to! She pats her back, gives her a bottle, tries to change her diaper, sings to her, puts a blanket over her when she lays her down, etc. Emma's even been put in the time out corner once!

She's at such a fun age (95% of the time, anyway!).

Trip to the Aquarium

Date: 3/14

So, I've been wanting to take Violet to the zoo and have just been waiting for a nice enough day one Saturday to go. I think she will just LOVE seeing all the animals! Unfortunately, we haven't had one yet, so this particular day, we decided to go to the aquarium instead. My dad and brother came with us (John was in Arkansas biking, and my mom was home with my sick sister).

So, here we are at the horseshoe crabs. They're one you can reach in and touch, but she would reach and almost touch the water, then pull her hand away and giggle. Right here it looks like she's saying "Look mom, I'm touching it!".


And here she is sitting on one of the exhibit ledges posing for a pic. The starfish in the background make for good color contrast!


And here's a picture of her with my dad and brother. My dad was so happy that he was in a picture with her where she wasn't crying! We've been making a lot of progress in that department lately, and this pic turned out too cute!


There were a couple exhibits she was scared of (the alligator gar stick out in my memory, not that I blame her!). She would say "sca-wy" and hide her head in my shoulder! I'd have to say her favorite thing was in the river room, where she saw raccoons running around. This just reinforced my thinking of how much she will love the zoo!

And here she is after we got home, being silly as always and showing off her cuteness!


Conclusion: Aquarium was okay, can't wait for the zoo!

Playing Around the House

Date: 3/12/2010

So, here's Violet one fine afternoon, looking at what I'm cooking in the oven. Please ignore her seriously crazy hair! If I don't put it up in a ponytail or pull it back with a clip, it's all in her face. It's almost long enough to tuck behind her ears, but not quite yet!


And since the weather is finally starting to warm up, we've been able to start playing outside and going on walks. This particular day, it was a little windy, but still good for bubble-blowing! Of course, she's at that age where she has to do it herself.


She hasn't quite figured it out, so I usually take over the duties (which keeps us both a little less sticky!).


Oh, and another note on that stage includes picking out some of her clothes. For instance, she loves this sweater and will wear it over any of her jackets if given the options. It's a borrowed-hand-me-down from her cousin Kate who always has the cutest clothes! When we put on the "sweat-a" she makes sure to tell me to do the "but-ton", and if I miss any, she points it out! Same things with her "jac-ke" (no t at the end yet) and the "zip-a"! She is so smart and is getting so good at communicating with us!

February 2010

So, the end of January/early February we got MORE snow, and of course, Violet wanted to play in it! So John made her a big pile and she had tons of fun climbing in it!


Also in January/February, our daycare was closed for 3.5 weeks due to issues with the sprinkler system freezing & busting, so Violet got to spend a lot of time with her grandmas! My mom even made her a couple of bows, one of which she's modeling for me below!

Obviously she likes it! =)

Another milestone in February...my 25th birthday. John bought me tickets to the ballet...Sleeping Beauty. It was awesome! And I got to pick the restaurant...PF Chang's! What a great birthday date! Unfortunately I got the flu on my actual birthday and was out for 4 days! Bummer.

January 2010

Over the New Year weekend, we drove down to Hot Springs, Arkansas so John could do some crazy trail marathon. Violet doesn't like to sleep in her pack & play anymore, so she shared the bed with us (good thing we got a king!). So, she woke up with this humongous smile and I just had to take a picture. Seriously, this was like within 5 minutes of her waking up. She is probably one of the happiest morning babies ever.


And here she is dancing to the music and smiling for the camera while Trent looks at her like "what on earth are you doing?". Being silly, of course!


So, I bought this hat for Violet for her 1st birthday...and she hated it. Well one day (in December or January, can't remember now) she picks it up and puts it on and decided she liked it! Here she is modeling her hat on the couch. What a goofball, but a cute one!


And then in late January, I was busy in the kitchen cooking dinner and I heard her opening drawers and entertaining herself, but wasn't paying too much attention. I look down, and she has her hat on and has draped a kitchen towel around her like an apron! I don't ever wear an apron, so she had to have learned it at daycare (maybe like a paint smock?). Anyways, I thought it was the cutest thing!


I mean seriously, I know I'm her mom so I'm a little biased, but isn't she just too cute?!

Christmas 2009

So, I know I'm WAY behind on my posts, so I'll keep the catch-up ones short and sweet so we can get back to present-day faster!

Here's Violet on Christmas Eve, posing by the tree.


I told her to say cheese so she gave me her best smile! Unfortunately, she squinted a little too much, but it's still a cute pic.


Here she is on Christmas morning, modeling her new pj's and playing with some of her new toys! She absolutely loved her little pot & pan set, and pretended to cook for us all day. Also, check out that crazy bed hair! Oh, and the Tinkerbell doll leaning against the fireplace was her special gift from Santa.


And here she is a few days later, playing in the snow, which she just loved! I had to practically drag her into the house because she was all red from playing in it and I didn't want her to catch a cold!


That's our Christmas in a nutshell!

Still Waiting...

Dear blog,

I miss you. My computer is still broken. It's been in the shop for over 2 weeks, and was broke for quite a while before that. And my work won't let me check you anymore. =(

Hopefully my computer will be fixed soon! Until then, I just will keep checking you periodically from John's work computer (which is what I'm on right now).

Sincerely,
Alyssa