Violet's Favorite Gift from Santa

Our presents were limited this year, due to our severe weather and using most of my energy to drive to work (a good 3 hours of my day). 

I braved the snowy roads and picked up this little table late on Xmas eve (there were about 10 people in IKEA) when little Miss V got up on Xmas the table was waiting for her, she ran straight to it and went right to work coloring.  I have more pictures from Xmas but for now enjoy Violet and her new table.

A comparison of snow

Saturday Vs Sunday night......

Dishes and Cupboards

Violet's latest obsession after being stuck in the house at home for the last 3 days.  Take all the pans out of the cupboards, put all the pans back in.... and then moves to the drawer and pulls all the towels and places them back in (not in a perfectly folded manner either)

Snow Snow and more Snow

Okay I'm done.  It's been one week now of completely unpredictable weather.  I know the fog in Visalia was bad, and the rain can be a pain the spring, but a week of this?  I would say we had at least 8 inches of snow today, and as I sit here typing it's still snowing.  Violet hates it, when you put her on the ground, her face contorts, I think it feels funny on her feet.  

Okay snow, I'm ready for you to be gone, so I can get back to my regular life.  I'll even take rain at this point.

Violet & Santa

Well needless to say Violet was not happy with her first interaction with Santa.  

Violet's second snow

Honestly I don't think she likes it very much.  

Snow

It only snows here a few days a year, and generally it seems to happen in January.  So when the weather forecaster said snow this weekend, I laughed.  They usually aren't right... right?  But here is what we woke up to this morning.  The city is requiring chains to drive in Portland today.  Looks like we may be stuck at home!

Getting Ready

We started to decorate the house last weekend, I always go back and forth on whether we will put the tree up (Yes, it's fake please don't give me a hard time, it is pretty once it's up)  Violet has taken all of the ornaments off of the areas that she can reach, so the tree looks a little funny at the moment.  

The weatherman keeps talking about the possibility of snow this weekend.  I never know if I should believe them or not, they seem to wrong about 90% of the time.  But we are getting ready, I'll let you know what happens!

Who weighs more?

The Bird or the Baby?  I'll give you a hint, we ate the heavier one....

Disneyland

What's a trip to California without going to Disneyland?  Thanks Grandma DeGroot for a fun day!  We had a fun time, the sun was out, and Violet even took a nap in the middle of it all (just in time for Mommy and Daddy to ride Pirates of the Caribbean!)

Small World dressed up Xmas!  Violet's second ride of the day (doesn't she look excited?)

Seriously?  Have you EVER seen this many strollers before?

Violet's first ride!  Storybook... again she looks thrilled!

My favorite ride at Disneyland, alas we will have to wait until Violet is 4' to ride....

Daddy & Grandma waiting in line... really what else do you do at Disneyland?

A week!

Okay I'm really sorry it's been a week.  I feel like we've been really busy, but honestly I feel like that all the time.  We made it home safety from Orange County and returned to our regular life.  It's funny I was so sad on Monday morning when I took Violet to daycare, I thought it was going to be twice as hard for her (she really had a lot of fun with everyone in California).  The moment we stepped into the daycare she went running (yes running) to the kids and was so excited.  She wouldn't stop talking to them (in her own language) I kept trying to get her to give me a kiss good bye but she was so pumped to see her friends I was quickly forgotten.  At least I didn't have to worry about any separation anxiety!  Here are some quick photos from our trip, you can view the rest of the album here. These were all taken at Irvine park, we had a great time picnicking, looking at the ponies, riding the train, and playing with cousins.

Visiting Orange County

We are currently in Orange County celebrating Thanksgiving and Randy's 40th birthday with his family. So far we have had a fun filled week! On Saturday we had a party, on Sunday we went shopping (Yeah H & M!) on Monday we took pictures of Violet and Jubilee, on Tuesday we went to Disneyland (wait till you see those pictures!) and today Randy is fishing. Violet met her cousin Jubilee for the very first time, and they seem to get along just fine

Daddy

Sometimes when I'm feeling a little nostalgic and look at photos from last year, I was looking at November 2007 (which feels only yesterday) I found this post. 

It's no wonder she can say daddy, and not Mama yet,  they have a special bond.  And tomorrow is Randy's special 40th birthday (he's kill me if he knew I posted it on here), so say happy birthday to daddy tomorrow.  We love you Daddy.

Little Miss V

Before I had Violet I believed there were "rules" to parenting, in my mind I told myself, my child would NEVER do this or that.  As my good friends Sinistar once told me "rules are meant to be broken".  Parenting is a day by day act.  It takes patience and love.  It is rewarding and makes me complete - did I really just say that?  Maybe I'm feeling sentimental because she's growing so quickly and time is going twice as fast, and I'm slowly realizing that I understand what it means now.  

And now the faces of Violet.... She does this thing with her eyes currently, its hard to explain she likes to open and close them in a silly way.  I really wish I knew where she learned this from, I hope I'm not doing this and don't know it, you would tell me right?

Baby Dolls

A few weeks ago we had a little potluck with friends.   Amelia brought her baby doll -Violet carried it around all night long.  I believe this was the start of a new fascination.

Each morning when I drop her off at Daycare she goes running for the "baby doll" corner.  She carefully removes each one from the cubby and places a blanket on it.  Apparently this goes on all day long, putting them to sleep, feeding them, reading to them, and just giving them lots of love.  We decided it was time she had her very own baby doll.  She doesn't have a name yet, but she is well cared for, and is often covered and recovered with her blanket.    The best part was when Violet turned to Randy, pointed at her doll and said "baby".

Dancing and Dogs

I think I mentioned before that Violet loves dogs, each time we pass one she yells out DAH (which is Dog without the G) we've been making a strong effort to teach her to add the "g" on the end, which has turned the word into DAAAAHHHH.  I found this silly kids show on cable called puppies (really it's just called puppies - someone made a lot of money off this one), it is just silly music, babies and puppies for 10 minutes.  And guess who just loves it?  

Halloween

For Halloween we went to Jen and Neels for a little "Southern Food" and party.  Violet dressed up as a witch (she actually wore the costume all day!)  I dressed up as Angus Young (and got the new AC/DC cd out of it!  Score)  The kids loved watching the trick or treaters come to the door.  But, of course Violet was much more interested in the dog and cat.  Here is a small list of words she can say: dog, cat, ball, doll, and duck. 

Ellie, Violet & Harrison

Violet liked Ellie, the princess and the witch.

Mommy what is Sarah Palin doing in with Ellie?  Seriously Jen looked just like her, it was uncanny.

Food!

I know that last thing anyone wants to look at is a dirty baby.  I really can't help it that Violet LOVES her food.  Randy make spicy curry for dinner last night, so Violet had her own special dinner of pasta, needless to say she put it everywhere, but she loved it.  She's really good at her sign language skills now, at one point she asks for more... which I refuse, and then she says all done.  I really think if allowed she would eat all night long.  And yes she did use that spoon.

Visiting the Zoo

We took Violet to her first trip to the zoo last weekend.  I wasn't sure how much she would enjoy herself, and was pleasantly surprised.  She loved the animals (although she called most of them "dogs") and was very interested.  We also got to see the new baby elephant at the zoo named Samudra 

Daddy and Violet at the end of the day, it was a bit chilly but no rain!

Daddy and Violet checking out the elephants, she loved to point at everything.

While at the zoo, the chimpanzees were having a little argument and chasing each other.  Honestly I have never heard anything like it in my life.  Violet was in total awe, I probably should have gotten video, but here is one of them who was screaming from the top of a post.

Amazed by daddies favorite animals... fish! (of course when I showed her mommies favorite animals at the zoo - bats - she just said dog dog dog)