Lunch with ladybugs...

Olivia’s already showing an interest in driving. A few months ago she asked me if I would buy her a pink tinkerbell car and she wasn’t referring to a toy folks; she was asking for a full-sized car. I know, I know, I can’t believe I’m already having car conversations with my child. Ah well.
Today she also asked her Daddy if he would show her how to drive when she gets older (at least she’s figured out this isn’t going to happen anytime soon). He said yes and then she asked “Will you show me how to t urn on the lights and the radio? And will you draw me a special map to where the ice cream cones are?” Yeah, I want that map too. I wonder what else she would like on her map…parks, pools, candy shops, any tinkerbell tourist hot spots and fairy doors. Oh the wonderful, magical world of childhood. I wish I could bottle it up and give her doses of it as she grows up. Just to spread the magic out over the years.

Liv's auntie requested more funny quotes. They happen daily but for some reason this is the only one I can think of right now. "Check it out at dot com mommy."

Getting three babies out the door is enough to wear a momma out. She's got Bart, Emma, babydoll, a diaper bag and the purse has food from her kitchen.

I don't have a good photo of Violet for today's post mainly because every picture I take of her is blurry. The girl just can't sit still. If we put her on the ground on her bottom she acts offended and rushes to the nearest piece of furniture to pull up on.

She hit two big milestones this week. She took her crawling beyond the tentative one or two knee scooches forward to crawling a foot or two. But she still prefers scooting on her belly when she's got to be somewhere in a hurry.

And the other milestone... she stood up without any help! It was for about three seconds. I was getting Liv ready for the bath and I turned to check on Violet and there she was- standing with her hands in the air. I had to look up and down to make sure I wasn't missing something like a stool she might be leaning on. But there was nothing, just Vi and her solid little legs holding her up. She didn't even wobble; she calmly put her hands back on the stool in front of her and went on about her business.

What Violet likes:
blueberry muffins
Cheerios
doing the robot dance in daddy's lap
bedtime stories with her sister
baths
naps
sucking on the two middle fingers on her left hand
anything her big sister does, especially dancing and singing
and her sister's room

What Violet doesn't like:
teething
getting dressed and undressed

At the bakery

Soccer practice

Fall is finally here...
Olivia spent March to September looking through the hot streets asking "Mommy, where are the acorns?". And I assured her that when the days got cooler and fall arrived the acorns would fall off the trees. They are her treasures. Every moment outside is spent with her crouched close to the ground, fingers cupped around four or five little nuts with their bumpy caps.

Violet is pulling up on everything that doesn't run from her. She doesn't crawl; she swims across the ground like a little fish. We're pretty sure she's going to skip crawling all together and just start walking.

On a walk through the neighborhood... we found a ghost tree and Liv introduced Violet to "the biggest acorn I never seen!".

Getting ready for Halloween

Mother's Day

This was my third Mother's Day. I got lots of cards, phone calls and texts telling me how loved I am and encouraging me to keep on keeping on. It was a high tech day; not only did I receive text greetings for probably the first MD in my experience but I also decided that I am going to document them with video so that I can enjoy them for as long as I can work my way around a computer. I'm kinda sentimental like that.

It was the most relaxing day that I've had in a long time. Chris made a brunch that was out of this world for my mom and me. The omelettes were light and full of flavor and the pancakes were strawberry-licious! And speaking of pancakes watch the video to see how Liv feels about syrup.

The evening ended with me spending some girl time with my favorite ladies knitting and chatting.

Talented from head to toe

Olivia's creativity is without a doubt one of her greatest assets. She is an avid dancer, singer, story teller and artist.

A few months ago while I was on maternity leave I noticed a drawing on her chalk board. I assumed Chris had helped her draw it. A few days passed as Chris and I were both deeply involved in Violet's feedings, diaper changes, medication and doctor visits. I kept looking up and seeing that drawing on the chalkboard and finally found myself in the same room with Chris for a few moments. I asked him if he'd helped Liv with the picture on the chalkboard. He said no; he thought that I'd helped her with it. When we realized that neither of us had helped her we were both in awe and got up to get a closer look at her work. She'd drawn a nicely shaped circle and filled it in with straight and diagonal lines that impressively stayed within the circle.

A few days ago she painted two pictures of Mickey Mouse. And it looked just like the Mickey Mouse icon that you see at the beginning of Walt Disney movies. First of all, it's amazing that she remembered what Mickey Mouse looks like. We don't let her watch much television and she doesn't see many movies. I think she has seen maybe one half hour episode of a Mickey Mouse cartoon and a few other times we've pointed out pictures of Mickey to her. The pictures she drew had one large circle in the middle of the paper and two slightly smaller circles on the top left and top right of the large one. They were mostly black with some red and green. The first one she drew had one of the ears touching the head. Neither Chris, Christine or I said anything about that but as she showed her work to Grandpa Jim she noted that she'd made a mistake and pointed to that spot.

Olivia sings a lot. She makes up her own lyrics to familiar tunes but also makes up her own songs entirely. And most of her dancing routines have a fantastic finale of her on the floor in some kind of spinning move ending with a leg lifted in the air. One of the cutest things I've seen her do is to slap her tambourine on her hip while dancing. That girl's got some moves I tell ya!

This morning while sitting at the table she pointed to the fourth seat that didn't have any oatmeal or smoothie and said "What about Emily?" I said "Emily who?" She said "Emily, Clifford's girl." Her imagination is powerful. Chris and I have even learned how to use it to our advantage too. When she asks for something that we don't have (or don't want to give her), like a cookie, expensive phone or camera, we'll pretend like we're giving it to her. And you'd be surprised how often she says "Thanks" and pretends to take it from our hands without skipping a beat. Of course this can backfire. Like tonight when I was in a rush and needed her to wash her hands. I said "Liv, where's your stool?" She reached an empty hand to me and said "Here it is!" I think the theater is in this girl's future.

A few funny quotes from Olivia

After eating 5 pancakes at Grammy's house Olivia turned to Grammy and said "I don't really like pancakes."

While painting rocks to look like ladybugs she said to Mommy "Don't make your mistake face."

After sneezing on her library card she said to Mommy "I bless youd on my card."

Playdate!

We had lots of fun while I was on maternity leave after Violet's birth. One of the best memories was of our standing Wednesday afternoon playdate with Amy and her daughter Lucy. They made soup in Livy's kitchen, drew chalk pictures on the easel and played like it was bed time. They would lay in the bed, tell Amy and me "goodnight", pull the covers over their heads and giggle. Lucy loved to sketch on Liv's magnetic sketch pad. She would cover the whole pad with squiggly lines and say "Olivia, is that enough?" Liv would barely stop what she was doing to say "No." Lucy would continue drawing squiggles and asking if it was enough. At some magical point that was only known to Liv she would decide that there were enough squiggles and she would respond with "Yes." At that time they were both satisfied with Lucy's sketch and moved on to other games.

Growth spurt!

Last night Violet slept from 7pm until 5am! She ate then went back to sleep until 7. Woke again for more food and then went back to bed by the time I left for work at 8:45am. Right now she's big enough to wear clothes for 6-12 months. And her feet are quite big. She is also very long which makes it hard to keep her in footed pajamas for more than a few months.

Violet has the sweetest disposition. She hardly ever cries. In fact I don't think I've heard her cry in weeks. She fusses at us when she's tired or hungry but rarely goes into a full crying spell. She's such an easy girl to put to bed as well. I just swaddle her and lay her in bed, give her a kiss and walk out the door. She will look at herself in the mirror, smile and coo until she falls asleep. Easy!

An interesting case of Iwannabea Ladybugitis

Olivia was inspired by the rocks we painted to look like ladybugs. So she took the Sharpie pen and put spots on her belly. When Chris came out to the front porch she hid under the table and said "Dad will be so upset!" Of course he wasn't mad but he turned to me and said "Are you nuts?" Perhaps a little.

Violet turns over for the first time

Violet turned over to her tummy for the first time yesterday morning while cuddling on the bed with me and Chris. I think it took her by surprise; first she started to laugh. And when she laughs it is a full body laugh. Her smile takes over her face. Her eyes change shape and her dimple appears. Then she turns her head to the left and raises her shoulders up toward her ears. And then her whole body makes a "c" shape. It really is quite charming. So it was in the middle of this smile, when her body made a "c" that she rolled over to her left side. She lingered there for a while and then she squirmed around enough that she made it all the way onto her tummy. It was so great that both Chris and I were there to see it happen together.

I am long overdue for writing Violet's birth story. I think it's time that I write it before the hard work of a full time job and taking care of 2 kids under the age of 3 turns my brain to total mush.
Violet almost came into the world early, around 32 weeks, so I was ordered to go on bed rest. That seemed to convince her to hang out in utero a little longer. Christmas was approaching and I was dilated 2 cm. The doctor thought that I would deliver the week she was on vacation. But no, little Violet hung on. Then she was almost induced on New Year's Eve. We were pretty excited at the possibility of having the first baby of 2010 but then my doctor realized that the 31st was a Sunday and her office was closed. So the birth day was moved to January 3rd and we were set to start the induction at 7 am. Violet wasn't due until January 8th but I was in a lot of pain and it looked like she was going to be a big girl so Dr. Oliver decided we could induce before the 8th. I was more than happy to comply.
So on the morning of January 3rd Chris and I woke up at 6 am. Grammy came to the house at 6:45 to watch Livy. We thought she would sleep through our departure but she stumbled out of her room rubbing her eyes. We told her we were going to the hospital to have baby Violet but her primary concern was getting Grammy to read her new Charlie and Lola book to her.
Once at the hospital things happened pretty quickly. I was hooked up to the IV and they started the pitocin drip. I could feel the contractions and I could also see them on the monitor. There was a monitor for Violet's heartbeat too. I found it very reassuring to listen to her heart beating. After a few hours I got an epidural and whew that was not a pleasant experience. I had a spinal block with Liv and that was so much better. The epidural made my hips and legs so numb that I had no control over them until late that evening. Anyway the contractions continued and I felt nothing.
At 11:50 the nurse checked me and I was 8 cm dilated. She called the doctor and the other nurses to get them ready. Dr. Oliver came in to check on me. She told me that Violet would certainly be born by 2; things were going very well. As she and the nurse left for a quick lunch she said to push the nurse's button if I felt any pressure that made it feel like I needed to push. Ten minutes later I told Chris he'd better push the nurse button because I was feeling a lot of pressure. And for good reason; I was a full 10 cm dilated and the nurse could see the hair on Violet's head!
The nurse told me not to push; I needed to wait a bit for my doctor and nurse. I didn't have to wait long though. As soon as they arrived the pushing began. On the third contraction "little baby Violet" came into the world looking absolutely beautiful. It was 12:42 pm and she weighed 7 lb 15 oz. She was 20 inches long and had lovely dark brown hair. She had enough hair that the nurses that bathed her spiked it up. Too bad we didn't get any pictures of her first hair do.

I have not yet had a chance to post about Violet's birth and a lot of other noteworthy events in our lives. For now please enjoy these photos that I took during story time yesterday afternoon.