she's getting so smart

I got home from running a couple errands while Dave watched Violet on her lunchbreak. I think I got home around 3:45 pm. (i know, a late lunchbreak!) She was just walking around aimlessly, then sat down in the middle of the kitchen and was quiet. I asked her if she was tired and at the same time, doing the sign for tired, which is putting two hands together next to your cheek with your head tipped sideways. She put both hands on her cheeks and squished her cheeks together, then started walking towards her room, then went to the closet to try turn on the fan. She knows that the fan going on means sleepy time. I put the shades down in her room and Dave started rocking her to sleep. Wow...then she just fell asleep. She is starting to communicate so much with us regarding her wants and needs -- it is so nice. Dave said that he was feeding her some crackers for a snack. He asked her if she wanted more, so she signed "hungry" which is putting her hand up to her mouth. She ate another cracker. He asked her if she wanted another one. She signed hungry, and she ate another one. He asked her if she wanted another one, and she signed "all done" which is either or both hands waving no in front of her. She held her hands up to be pulled out of the chair. What a little communicater! This is so fun. :)

still 2 naps

Awhile back I posted about getting a hold of the napping thing. Nope. I guess I will just not mess with her schedule and let her figure it out. She is still taking 2 per day (which is a pretty good deal actually, for me!). She fell asleep this morning at 9:30 after waking up at 7:30. She slept for an hour. She fell asleep again at 3:00 pm this afternoon and now its 4:00 and she's still sleeping. I guess she just needs 2 for now.

Texas / sign language

For some reason, its a big effort for me to sit down and write out things that I want to remember. I can't trust myself to remember everything, so I know someday I'll be glad to come back to this and read with Violet all the fun things she's done. Dave and I took Violet to Dallas, Texas with us to visit our friends Shawn and Kim over their spring break. We went March 14-19, 2007. I was initially nervous about traveling with Violet. My mind wouldn't stop worrying about her ears on the airplane, what she was going to eat, and when she was going to nap, or how she would sleep at night time. Shawn and Kim tried getting a car seat for Violet at a nearby thrift store, but when I asked them more information about it, we discovered it had been expired. It turned into her eating chair. It worked wonderfully. We decided to buy a Cosco Scenera convertible that RF to 35 lbs. It'll serve as our 2nd car seat. It was inexpensive and light, so we packed it in a duffle bag and checked it through the airlines. The trip overall went practically flawless. I nursed Violet on the plane rides going up and down (even though I am down to just nursing once in the morning now, I wondered if I would produce enough milk...but she seemed contented). She even slept on almost every flight. Dave did an awesome job helping with every aspect of Violet's care. He held her on the plane rides when she was sleeping. She was so cute sleeping on his shoulder. :) We visited the Fort Worth zoo the first day, and Violet had such a blast. She was in her stroller most of the time, but she had a few opportunities to get out and walk around. Every animal she saw, she would point her finger towards it and go "ba!" She was interested in everything, with almost a constant smile on her face he whole time. She had chicken nuggets and french fries for lunch! The drive to and from the zoo was close to an hour in length, so thankfully she slept during the car rides and those equated her naps for the day. The next day we went to the Dallas Auto Show. Dave was drooling at all the new cars. I was interested, but I think Shawn and Kim only had a mild interest in going, but went with that plan with us in mind. We strolled around for almost 2 hours. The next day we went to the Dallas Arboretum/outdoor botanical garden. Everything was in full bloom and very fresh, fragrant, and colorful. Violet again was looking every which direction soaking in all the new sights. We had a picnic while watching an Irish dancing show on the grass. Violet had a turkey/cheese sandwich, some goldfish crackers and a few orange slices. She ate very well each day...and I was happy. She is weaning herself, and part of me is very happy and part of me is very sad. I know she won't nurse forever so her taking the initiative to eat food instead of nurse is a good sign. The trip overall went really well. We were able to reconnect with our friends who we don't talk to much on the phone. We just don't do well on the phone. I made some scones with Kim the last night and we talked about being supportive to our husbands despite their struggles that make us feel disrespected. She was encouraged by our talk, and I'm glad for that. I feel the Lord used me to encourage her and give her a new perspective on Shawn's struggle. I had been praying for a time to bring that subject up, and I'm glad God gave me an opportunity. Sign language is so fun! I am not going all out...just teaching her the basics. She already can sign "more" "hungry" and "milk". I'm trying to teach her now "tired" and "potty". She picked up the "hungry" sign in just one day. Today we were at the grocery store and she put her hand to her mouth and opened her mouth. I asked her if she was hungry, and she did the sign again. I got out a little container of goldfish crackers and set them beside her in the shopping cart seat, and she munched away happily. Its so nice to have her communicating with me without fussing and getting frustrated at me playing the guessing game.

swimming

Violet and I went swimming at the YMCA this morning with the MOPS group. She had a lot of fun!! She wasn't too crazy about it at first, but she found the shallow steps where you get in and found going up and down them the whole time very fun. She held onto the metal handrail next to the steps too. I swooshed her around in the water, she loved that. I even stood her up on the edge of the pool and she jumped in while I held onto her hands. Every jump caused a big smile to appear on her face and even a giggle! Everyone went to McDonalds afterwards. I got Violet some chicken nuggets and she ate 3 of them (I think). She was so tired out from all the swimming activity (for an hour and a half!) that she fell asleep in the high chair there with a piece of chicken in her mouth! It was so hilarious. Her eyes slowly closed and her head fell to the side. Everyone thought it was so cute. Poor girl...she konked out on the car ride home and then took a long nap at home. We're leaving for Texas to visit Shawn and Kim on Wednesday. The river is supposed to elevate to flood levels, so we're going to prepare the house and leave...and trust God that nothing will happen to our property. All we can do is prepare and pray.

da da da

After the ga ga ga she got the da da da sound. Dave loves hearing it. :) Sometimes I don't know what the point of this blog is. I might go back and read it someday. I guess, I meant to say that I don't know what direction to take it. If its a mom-vent session time, or a "report on how Violet is doing" spot. Oh well...sometimes I just come here and type, and most of the time its regarding Violet just because I am with her 24/7 and she's constantly changing. If I don't write some of this down, I know I'll forget. She is turning into such a goofy toddler. She is so fast. I turn around and she's across the room doing something. She can push and pull things with her little strong body....even go down the stairs. We taught her how to do it when we were in Mason City at my parents' house...and she loved the cushy carpeted stairs, and took to it quite well. Here at home, the stairs are hardwood, so maybe she won't slide down them quite as well. She is down to nursing twice a day. I like the personal freedom. I tend to stress about what she's going to eat...but I've been planning so I don't feel that way. She loves cheese, toast, any kind of cracker, soup, a mixture of meat/potatoes/veggies, yogurt, milk, bananas...almost anything. She is an excellent eater. She weighs around 24 or 25 lbs right now. I found something that keeps her occupied for at least 10 minutes. She will eat one of those Quacker rice cakes (which are really made with popcorn) - but walk around incessantly while munching on it. She walks around to the dog's bowls and shakes her head no (because she knows not to touch it), then takes a bite, walks around the counter, stops to chew and swallow, takes another bite, walks across the kitchen, hits the cabinet or the fridge, chews and swallows, takes another bite, then crawls into the little space where the broom used to be next to the fridge, sits down, and quietly munches on her snack all alone in the corner. She'll do the same thing with toast. Sometimes she ventures off into the living room or her bedroom. Dave and I try not to laugh at her because we don't know how much she really understands, but its so darn cute that we can't help but turn around and snicker. Today she decided to hold out her toast to the dog and Abby's mouth snatched it up right out of her hands. She wasn't too upset by Abby taking her snack. She did smile and thought it was mildly amusing. I hope she doesn't continue to do that. We're still struggling with napping. Today it was 10:30 am and I was hoping to wait closer to noon or 1 to put her down, but she was SO tired and cranky, that I had no choice. She fell asleep at 10:35 no problem, lights out...who knows how long she'll sleep. We're going to Texas next week Wednesday for 5 days to visit Shawn and Kim. I'm nervous about the difficulty of traveling with all our stuff with her, what to do about food, how to keep her entertained, what she's going to break of theirs, what to bring for clothes, etc. *sigh* I know we'll get through it. I hope we have fun. Oh, and Violet is getting her first molar. Last night when I was brushing her teeth I saw the little white ridge of the tooth starting to poke through. I knew she was teething!!

da da da

After the ga ga ga she got the da da da sound. Dave loves hearing it. :) Sometimes I don't know what the point of this blog is. I might go back and read it someday. I guess, I meant to say that I don't know what direction to take it. If its a mom-vent session time, or a "report on how Violet is doing" spot. Oh well...sometimes I just come here and type, and most of the time its regarding Violet just because I am with her 24/7 and she's constantly changing. If I don't write some of this down, I know I'll forget. She is turning into such a goofy toddler. She is so fast. I turn around and she's across the room doing something. She can push and pull things with her little strong body....even go down the stairs. We taught her how to do it when we were in Mason City at my parents' house...and she loved the cushy carpeted stairs, and took to it quite well. Here at home, the stairs are hardwood, so maybe she won't slide down them quite as well. She is down to nursing twice a day. I like the personal freedom. I tend to stress about what she's going to eat...but I've been planning so I don't feel that way. She loves cheese, toast, any kind of cracker, soup, a mixture of meat/potatoes/veggies, yogurt, milk, bananas...almost anything. She is an excellent eater. She weighs around 24 or 25 lbs right now. I found something that keeps her occupied for at least 10 minutes. She will eat one of those Quacker rice cakes (which are really made with popcorn) - but walk around incessantly while munching on it. She walks around to the dog's bowls and shake her head no (because she knows not to touch it), then take a bite, walk around the counter, stop to chew and swallow, take another bite, walk across the kitchen, hit the cabinet or the fridge, chew and swallow, take another bite, then crawl into the little space where the broom used to be next to the fridge, sit down, and quietly munch on her snack all alone in the corner. She'll do the same thing with toast. Sometimes she ventures off into the living room or her bedroom. Dave and I try not to laugh at her because we don't know how much she really understands, but its so darn cute that we can't help but turn around and snicker. Today she decided to hold out her toast to the dog and Abby snatched it up right out of her hands. She wasn't too upset by Abby taking her snack. She did smile and thought it was mildly amusing. I hope she doesn't continue to do that. We're still struggling with napping. Today it was 10:30 am and I was hoping to wait closer to noon or 1 to put her down, but she was SO tired and cranky, that I had no choice. She fell asleep at 10:35 no problem, lights out...who knows how long she'll sleep. We're going to Texas next week Wednesday for 5 days to visit Shawn and Kim. I'm nervous about the difficulty of traveling with all our stuff with her, what to do about food, how to keep her entertained, what she's going to break of theirs, what to bring for clothes, etc. *sigh* I know we'll get through it. I hope we have fun.