Such a beautiful girl...

Our daughter is so beautiful we had to share these GORGEOUS photos.
She will hate us for these...especially the one on the left in the trio. These cracked me up.

Thanksgiving day fun!

Rolling like a pro!

Ok,
Sorry this took so long. Violet has been rolling over for about a week now and nothing is safe. We are thrilled that she finally cared enough to want to do it. Frankly, I thought she would never want to do it. I'm fine just laying here mom. Not any more!
I have another video of her rolling over in her bouncey seat, but tonight I was shooting and she was so animated, I thought this was the one, well, the one before this one would have been, but I didn't get it, and this one cracks me up.

There are a lot of things to learn from this video.
1) The video you missed because you didn't really press the button on the camera, the one where Ruby was kissing Violet's feet and then laid down by Violet's play mat while Violet rolls toward her and gets face to face for a quick puppy kiss, then looks at herself in the mirror for a few moments and coos... can NEVER be replaced.
2) She won't roll as many times during the video as she did when you first put her down when she ended up about 1 foot from the mat thumping her left foot.
3)In Violet, fussiness generally leads to one thing...enjoy!

The Video I was supposed to put up...

Hey...look what you can do...

My good pal Stacey set me up so people can sign up to get an email when I update the blog. This will help you remember to check on us now and again...I usually only update once or twice a week, so you won't be inundated. Look at the top widget to the right! Thanks Stace!

It's official

Violet is entering a new growth spurt. She has been gaining leaps and bounds cognitively this week. Grabbing and looking at things that she never noticed before. Holding on to our faces. Getting frustrated when she can't reach or get things she wants. I'm sure she will be rolling over and sitting and getting ready to crawl any second now, well, in the next month or so anyway. She did chow down nearly 12 ounces tonight before bed. I think that might have been the source of not staying asleep today and me not getting anything done. She is HUNGRY!
A few photos from this week...
Too bad she wasn't nakid for this one. It would have been perfect!



She doesn't really bounce much yet. She is more interested in checking out the engineering of how she is being held up. That and listening to the Grandma Amy bells hanging next to her.


I found her hanging out with her daddy the other day. She wasn't exactly sitting next to him, more lounging, but they sure were cute.

Thanks Aunt Mary!

I finally figured out what this blankie is for...eating!

Violet's new buddy!

Our friends Chris and Shelley finally made it back from Texas with their new little girl, Amelia Bartlet. She is now 12 weeks old and is taking to her new family smashingly. Violet and I couldn't wait to get out to their house to meet her and congratulate the new parents. Violet is just starting to really notice other little kids and was enthralled with Amelia. We have a feeling these two are going to get into some trouble together in the future!

Violet explains the Electoral College

And for good measure...pea pod video coverage

A video that cracks me up and gives you a glimpse of my time with V and the songs we sing. Notice the camera shakes at one point...that was Ken trying not to laugh...or laughing, quietly.
I can pretty much make up a song for any occasion at this point. Often using my own music as well as lyrics. This one is a rip off of this is the way we wash our clothes? I think...I mean, I can't be brilliant all of the time.

Happy Halloween

A little belated, but still...
Since I was in Memphis, Ken took Violet out for a quick tour of the neighborhood.
Her loot consisted of a halloween bag filled with baby q-tips, travel wipes, and spoons. They were ready for her to come. The rest just goo-ed over her. Violet as a peapod girl.

Peapod Violet and her jack-o-lanterns.

Peapod!

Happy pod girl.

I think I might have figured this out finally.

Posting a video that is...enjoy.

Shazam!!!

As of 2:45 this afternoon, Violet's birth father's parental rights were terminated!
As of 12:30 this afternoon, we have officially had both of our post placement visits!
Other than one last court date that is basically a formality, Violet is ALL OURS!!!!!!
No more legal mumbo jumbo. No more worries about whether or not the birth parents can take her back. No more wondering. She is OURS!!!!!!
Yeeee Haw! and WHEW!
It is amazing how heavy that weight was, even though we knew it was unlikely the birth dad would come and claim her. Fortunately, I didn't know when his rights were being terminated until I met our counselor for lunch today that it was this afternoon. I love the instant gratification of THAT!
And for your viewing pleasure...Sweet new Violet photos. In the past few days, she has started to babble a lot more, will giggle that crazy baby giggle when we tickle her, and is just amazingly happy. Look at that smile.

Pumpkin Carving Party

We had a great time at the party yesterday...here is a photo of most of the pumpkins carved...I think this was after Ayla (4) took hers away...it was the most amazing alien. Violet had a great time until it got dark and we were looking at the lit jack-o-lanterns and she had a melt down. Sigh, she just doesn't dig the dark. Auntie Andee gave her a fun ghost hat and a cool 3-d haunted house book. She was the bell of the ball! We are fortunate to have a bunch of friends who love having a baby around. (The spooky guy in the back is Don Evans, he and his wife Sheryl were the hosts of the party...Don is emeritus faculty at Vandy who retired the year before I came to Nashville.) Oh, Ken carved our pumpkins while I did mommy duty (mostly he does them because pumpkin goo makes my hands burn). Ours are in the front row, the two on the left.

Fun days with friends

The past week or so brought us a friend, Phyllis, from Chicago and some coffee time with Stacey. All in all, we are just happy to finally have some fall weather and cooler days. Ken is working on finishing up the deck dad was helping us redo...he has a lot of screws and a few boards to put in yet. I am busy making houses for my photos, goal of 10 new photos by the end of the month. Travels start back up on Halloween weekend with a conference in Memphis for SPESC. Violet will attend the first day or so, after which Ken will come get her and bring her back to Nashville for trick or treat with the neighbors. This year we got wax fangs to hand out to keep us from eating all of the candy!
Big girl at the coffee shop

Fun with Phyllis

On Ruby and her feelings for Violet

Today, I headed out to the bank to do some minor business and left Violet home with Ken. He also had to take care of some business and put Violet in her Bumbo seat to play with her pals on the mat. When he came back into the living room, he found Ruby near Violet looking at her. Turns out, Ruby was waiting for Violet to thank her for the "gift" she brought in to her tiny baby...a dead squirrel...recently killed and lovingly presented to Violet on her play mat! Ken yelled at poor, thoughtful Ruby and took the dead beastie outside. Violet seemed to have missed the whole thing as purple giraffe was really interesting to her. The mat is being cleaned ala Silkwood. The squirrel has been buried. I was seriously gone all of 10 minutes.
I think it is quite evident that Ruby likes Violet. It is a big job to catch and kill a squirrel, especially with all of the escape trees we have in our yard. That is catch number 2 for sure, 3 if you count the one Ken found that was just a pile of squirrel fluff...kill #1...that we know of. We hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
Oh, and there was no blood to be found...we figure it had a heart attack and some major internal injuries from being tossed about for fun when it was caught.

Tiny Foot

So tiny and perfect.

My other baby

Ruby has been neglected lately so I thought I would show you her general state of being. She has been doing well lately, not trying to run away, less lonely, still a little clingy, and she does whine until she gets a walk in the mornings. She really doesn't need to whine...it isn't like we have forgotten at all since Keona died. She is just a little high strung. Post walk, she is out sleeping on her dog bed in the living room, dining room, or in Nani's old haunt, the bedroom on the big bed. She will likely start moving out to the back porch again soon as it is cooling off again...finally!
Play with me?
If not, I will play with myself!
playing with the hedgehog carcass near Violet.
I LOVED the new toy Kiki and Mila sent to me...I chewed it up!

All smiles these days

Ok, this kid doesn't stop. As long as she is standing up she is a happy girl! Violet also enjoys laying and kicking, but standing is her favorite. And I did do some reading on what appears to be an old wives tale...that kids shouldn't put pressure on their legs at this age or they will be bowlegged. Whew!
(Oh, and these are out of order, but I can't figure out how to change the order on the new slide show system...I am working on it!)

Jumpey Seat

Alright, we tried this one about 2 weeks earlier than the box said was appropriate. She really didn't get it. Maybe without the footy pjs? I think she will be there really soon, but there was absolutely NO jumping going on and mostly she just fell over into the side. I think the fact that her arms don't come over the top is part of the problem. Look for updates on this one.

home time

Checking out papa.

Tired on Grammy's lap.

Sad and tired...or time for a meltdown!

New Dolly from Rowe.

Weird hair texture dad!
Some highlights from our home time during my parent's visit.
Violet seemed to know them right away...or she was just happy to have new people to entertain her. She had a great time with the constant love and attention. She is starting to really play with her toys and is getting more human every day!

Traveling with Violet

As of 15 weeks, Violet has now visited 9 states. Most recently, she drove with me and my mom to NC for a show (we went to SC on the way...mentioned in another entry). Violet is a very good little rider for the most part...as long as you don't keep her in the car past sundown. I haven't decided if it is a time limit thing...she does ok with 5-6 hours, but 7 turns into 12 fast when she screams and will not settle back into her car seat. Mostly this happens after the sun hits the horizon, so my theory is that it freaks her out to not be able to see stuff. Though turning on the car light doesn't seem to stop the madness. On the way, we had a harrowing final 2 hours, on the way home it was only more like 1.5. I did my best with my cell phone and an image of her in there that would stop her for a minute or so, but then she would wail away again until I found the next distraction. sigh. We will have to figure that one out, or we will always have to plan to stop after 5-6 hours. That is restrictive. I guess when she can play it might get easier....or harder...shudder.
So these are some highlights from the start of the NC trip and the New Orleans trip that added daddy. See the French Quarter with Grammy entry for more!
Audrey and Sophia are the daughters of the friends I met my first year at SECAC. At the time we were all trying to be pregnant and were all struggling. Last year, only a few weeks apart, they were both successful and their daughters are now pushing on 2. They are sweet little girls who were having a great time together. Maybe next year Violet will be able to play too!
Mostly Ken and I went to the conference, but we did get to go to Cafe Du Monde for begnets (I don't know how to spell that one!) Happy little pillows of fried dough...yummm! And a quick walk through the French Quarter back to the hotel before catching the airport shuttle. I guess we need to plan for a bit more free time during these forays in the future.

New Deck Fun

Part of having my folks come down was to give them some Violet time, part of it was for Mom to travel with me to North Carolina so that Violet could come with me, and part of it was for dad to help Ken rebuild the deck since is it a piece of cr#@ made by the idiots who owned....oh, I give up...we basically have to rebuild everything they redid when they owned our home. So to save Violet myriad splinters when she learns to crawl and walk, we decided to get rid of the substandard materials covering our deck and replace them with quality products...but not the best stuff, I mean, we aren't made of money or anything. So, while mom and I traveled to Elon, NC via South Carolina (she has a state thing and it only was supposed to add 40 miles, and an hour or so, but with Violet added more like 3 hours as she was DONE with her car seat) dad and Ken set forth on this project. It is now probably mostly done, except about 10 boards dad and I didn't have the night before they went back north. So finished deck photos to come. Probably after I get new cushions for the deck furniture...so maybe next year. In the mean time, enjoy!

French Quarter with Grammy Pat

Well, this is out of order, but it was cracking me up..the back story is...
My mom went down to New Orleans with Ken and I so that she could take care of Violet so that we could participate in the SECAC conference presentations. So mom decided to take a self-guided walking tour of the French Quarter with Violet on Friday. My last words to her were, "make sure you take some photos of what you see so we can put it on the blog". So...here are those photos. They cracked me up. I really can't tell you what most of these places are, but if you have been there, you might know.

travel updates

I'm in CO this weekend without my family and am missing them. More update on this month's travel tomorrow, but wanted to show what a hard time Ken is having while I am gone.
Horrible, isn't it? Poor thing won't stop crying she misses her mommy so much. Ken is just a crappy dad. What can I say?

Didn't last

Well, last night wasn't an all nighter, but she is regularly sleeping 12 hours with only one wake up, so I guess we can't complain!
I just thought you could use a recent photo of our sweet thing. These are two from a fun day with Stacey last week.

9 hour night

Ahhhhhhh...........
She did it. She slept through a whole 9 hour night and at the correct times. Went to be around 10 and woke up around 7. That is my girl...
Now if she can just do it more than once.

Too bad I woke Ken up at 5:30 thinking she was crying. It was a tv upstairs. Oops!

Things...

Ok, so things that have been going on...
Violet had reflux, so she is now taking pepcid 2x a day and is back to her old happy girl self. It is amazing!
We also went to the doctor to check out her smelly belly button and found a little bump in there that has to be cauterized off...one treatment down, the next is Wednesday next week.
Violet now grabs at toys, not always successfully, but it is starting.
She talks a lot...is now responding to us talking to her and starting to mimick some sounds we do.
She thinks it is funny if I make her crying sounds at her and smiles and giggles some.
But not when she is crying...then it isn't funny at all.
She was 12 lbs. 2.11 oz. the other day at the doctor.
Our friend Elena, born 2 weeks after V is also already 12 lbs. (Let's hear it for breast milk!)
She does some amazing push ups when on her belly. Not rolling over yet, but I have shown her how many times.
She had a right side lilt, lean thing going on, but Dr. Miles fixed it...that is our chiropractor. See Bumbo images in the slide show.
Violet will be in a PSA filmed by a Watkins student this weekend. She will star as a baby who's mother is beaten...it is against domestic violence, not for it.
She is waking up right now, so the slide show will have to wait!

The Iowa Trip

We had a great trip to Iowa, including a stop in St.Louis to visit Janet, Eric and Teagan (of which there are no photos???). We had a week of fun with Ken's family, including opening for Ken's show (also no photos) and a baby shower for Violet (also no photos...any body help me out here??? Steff?). There were many get together's with family and friends and we loved it all! At my folk's place we spent time with my brother's family, including the newest nephew, Chase. There are photos in this slide show of Violet with Chase...he weighs all of 5 lbs 12 oz. and Ken calls him the helium baby. It was fun to get to meet a niece or nephew after only one week...normally we don't get to see them until they are 3 months old or so. On the way back to Nville, Violet decided she no longer wanted to ride in the car seat and cried about 5 of the 12 hours it took us to travel our normal 8.5 hour trip. Sigh...she is not totally traumatized and now is ok in the car again. After 2 weeks at home, Violet is finally going down for naps and nite -nite with only a few minutes of whimpers or crying and is doing really well with it all. Ahhhhh....now if we can only get to sleeping through the night!!!
Enjoy!