I used GSLAR.com!!! 
So easy and wonderful!
Garage Sales

She works hard, she plays hard...April and May

The end of April brought a visit from my folks, Grammy Pat and Papa Walt...somehow I have no photos of them, I think my camera was lost for a time, and we used Ken's, so I will have to find them when I get back. Most of the month of May, Ken and I have been working nonstop trying to get the house ready for sale. You can see some of the mess in the house around us. We are noticing a lot of changes in Violet's awareness, and her personality and will coming out. She spent a lot of the month nodding emphatically, one up one down, but has now learned to shake her head "no" which is sad. She was so accommodating only saying yes. She also has more hair, and more curls coming in every day. Right now she looks a bit like Art Garfunkle, with the rim of flyaway curls, and not much on top. Hopefully that will change soon.
Enjoy!

Bathing beauty

I know...another bath? I just can't resist. We put her in the sink as the bathtub is hard to get to for our old aching bodies. She likes it. Oh, and the last slide shows you how curly her top is getting.

Zoooooo trip

Ok, so we went to the zoo for the first time, as I mentioned. And here are the images worth mentioning from that. She really didn't much get looking at the animals, except for the meerkats. Which I can't find the photo of...must be on Ken's camera. Maybe this time next year she will be more into it.
At least she looked cute in her sun hat (made by a friend of Ken's mom) and her elephant outfit. Which you can only barely see in the photo of her riding on Ken...the small red detail is a line of elephants...

11 months

Thought I would send out a little happy since I am awake at 3 am even though Violet isn't.
She turned 11 months on Sunday. It was not ceremonious as we are working on the house upgrades. We finally felt like progress was being made last night when the siding had been replaced, the top or the railing on the deck was redone and the back door is scraped and will be painted over the course of the next couple of days. The last huge thing is to replace the sink in the bathroom and then we are so much closer to being ready...of course there is a LOT of cleaning to do...sigh...cleaning. Violet is enjoying the process as many of our friends and neighbors are coming over in the evenings to babysit. She is so curious about new people and people she knows and how differently everyone plays with her. She is very social, and fortunately, very easy going, so most people are enjoying these evenings of fun.

This photo is a little old, she now looks a little like Art Garfunkle with a crown of fluffy curls that are oh so slowly trying to reach the front of her head.
I will download more photos soon.

a story to share

Violet is getting to be a big girl...11 months this Sunday. Hair is getting curlier and curlier (and thankfully starting to fill in slowly in the front of her head). She is getting to know what makes other people smile, laugh, and talk to her. I guess this is two stories...
1 Today we went to the GI testing for her belly. While we were waiting for the doctor to show up, Pam, our tech person was talking to V and Ken started making her dance her Irish jig. Because Pam had her all rialed up, V was really hamming it up, kicking her little feet like mad and smiling like a crazy leprechaun. Pam immediately went and got the other techs, and some other people to come in an watch. V had an audience and boy was she hammy. Another attention hog in the family...what is a mom to do???

2 On the topic of when not to laugh.
V has been doing a bit of hitting at people when she is being held and gets excited. I don't think she means it as a bad thing, she is just a bit flail-y. However, this evening she hit me a couple of times, and in good parenting fashion, I said, "no hitting" and took her hands and held them together for a few seconds. Then I said, "Violet, hitting hurts mommy, no more hitting" and let go of her hands. She immediately and precisely hit my leg 3 times and then in true V style, nodded her head hard from top to bottom. Just one nod. It was as if she was saying, Violet will hit...and she will do it like this. She caught me off guard and I laughed out loud...whoops...now hitting is a funny game. Crud. The nodding is pretty cute though. She will also crawl up to Ruby and just look at her and then all of a sudden, nod the big nod. We don't know what she thinks it means.

Oh, and 3...
She now waves bye bye. Awwwww.

Violet takes her playing very seriously. Ken shot this series of images after some teeth came in so she was pretty happy. I just love all of the faces she makes. Some have attitude, some just happy, some full on giggling. She is really getting to be pretty fun. Today we are off to the zoo with Grammy Pat and Papa Walt. This is her first trip to the zoo so we will see what she thinks about all of the big animals. If they are anything like Ruby for her, she will just want to touch their tags!