loving life

My mom frequently referred to the "glory days" when my two sisters and I were little, and life was great!.  I was always a little bit bummed that my current state wasn't her favorite...but I think I get it now.  I know I make Violets sleep seem like a big deal/problem, and there are occasions I mourn the loss of a carefree, child free life...but only because I like to talk, and I have a horrible habit of complaining more than being thankful.  Because as reality has it, that I totally get it now, mom.  I don't think life could get better than it currently is.  Yes we could have more money, Joel could be home for supper more, there a million and one "life circumstances" that I would change if I had the power...but the happiness that these two give me day in and day out, is more than I ever knew possible

Benjamin divided his cereal up so that he could share some with me.  Then I left the room and somehow  his pile which had dwindled down to nothing, grew substantially at the cost of mine!

I cut the mullet off.  It wasn't my best work of art!

This picture doesn't show how bad it is...It looks fine when its wet, but once it dries its quite unfortunate!

p.s.

For my own poor memory's sake...Violet can clap, and is rather proud of herself.  She also fully understands "no", although she feels she never deserves the command.  And lastly she goes to sleep fantastically if she's tired, but will not be tricked into naps or bed time.  Benjamin just needed to go through the routine, and he could sleep anytime!  Violet cannot.
...o.k.  Thats it!

10 months

This is our ONLY picture so far in September...I can't believe it!  I guess we have a couple on our phones, but I don't know how to transfer them.  Anyway, here's the cutie patooty at my friend Abby's wedding.  Look Closely...There are many of my dear friends skills and characteristics that I would excitedly wish upon Violet, but this isn't one of them! :)  We caught Violet yellow handed!

Oh Violet.  It's been a big month!  Lets just start off with the best of news....Violet has slept through the night 5 nights in a row.  :)  It's been facebook, text, and phone call news so I'm sure you all knew that, but why not say it again!  It took one night of an hour of tears, and a couple other bursts of 5ish minute episodes, but all in all, its been a breeze!  I know "cry it out" method proves to be controversial, but the fact that she has cried less in the last 4 or 5 nights, than in the three nights before, leaves me regret-less!

The other side of the story concerns naps...She doesn't want to take them.  At least not more than 1.  Today I decided to get serious and take the same attack as we did with her nights...but she's obviously teething, so we'll have to wait for another day.  One where she is not chewing on EVERYTHING!

She is scooting along all furniture, and has started standing, resting no weight on the furniture, but not being able to part from it.  She'll keep her hand in mine, or on the couch even though she doesn't need it, but the moment I try to make her free stand, she panics!

Her and Benjamin are Amazing in the mornings.  They play together so stink'n well.  Sometimes Benjamin gets frustrated when Violet destroys his "circle" (His Train Tracks), but then we talk about how we can build it again when Violet goes down for her nap, and he happily shares for at least another 20 minutes.  (at least this paragraph has been true the last 3 days...:)

She Loves Baby food, but isn't a fan of peaches, and really just wants grains...granola, rice, oatmeal, etc...She loves crackers and Veggie Straws, and is selective about veggies.  if she's hungry they are not a problem!

We are waiting to schedule an apt with Dr. Ferguson at Blanks Childrens Hospital in Des Moines for her feet.  We got a recommendation from our peds dr. after the first doctor failed to impress me.   I've found I don't do well with new Dr's.  I am familiar enough with insecurity that I can smell it a mile away, and when you cost that much, and have a say in my, or my child's health, I'd like you to know your stuff!

Anyway...Violet's personality is unfolding more and more everyday.  She LOVES to be tickled, LOVES to play with her older brother, Hates to be alone, and Hates to be told "no".  Her pouty lip after being scolded is enormous!  We love our little giggle box (even when she's oh so loud, or when she's not fully cooperating with sleep.)  Hopefully her negligent momma will take some pictures of her adorable self this next month!

Always remember and Never forget

Here's a list of some daily if not hourly conversations around our house:

• Benjamin crawling around, frequently looking behind him, yelling, "come on baby, come on!"
• Violet, "BaBaBaBa" ...  Benjamin, "BaBaBenjamin, BaBaPapa"
• Memorable: Violets smile when she's so so tired and I lay her down 90% asleep
• Benjamin: "Very Yucky"(diapers), "Very Hot"(almost all food, and anything microwaved!), "Very Wet" (diapers),"Big Bug"(in reference to an ant),"Big Yucky", "Big Momma" (with shifty eyes, trying to be funny)
• "Nanny" - Benjamins created name for "Nana"
• Benjamin and My morning conversation...Daddy? Work. Papa? Work. Marcus? Work. Nanny? Work. Jonah? at Jonah's.  Josh?  at Josh's.  Oh.
• Benjamin - "Help Hellllp  Heeeeelp mommy"
• 
  

Some notables of the week:

• Walking into the living room finding Benjamin pulling Violet by one leg...and Violet not caring a bit
• Walking upstairs to find that Benjamin opened the gate and escorted Violet into the bathroom to play with bath toys...(I bawled, being so upset of what could have happened with Violet and the stairs.)
• Benjamin's love for hiding, in the same place OVER AND OVER and always under pillows
• Benjamin, "Oh! Mommy." (smiling out of the corner of his eyes, totally aware of his cuteness)
• He's started consistently counting to 10, and often to 13.  When asked to count the quantity of something he actually starts at 1 now.  
• He's super proud of his new skill of drawing circles
• Violet has proved to have great will...I used to think she only cried for so long because she was mobile and stood up preventing sleep...I now know she cries just as long when she's wrapped up and stuck laying down.  She just doesn't want to miss ANYTHING!

Birthday Bliss

It was a week and a half ago.  We were driving home from my parents on a Sunday morning after celebrating my friend Abigail's wedding.  I was hysterical.  Well, it started more gradual than that, but with every passing sentence I grew more and more distraught.  I was drowning in the sea of self pity and horrified at what I thought was negligence on the part of "my life guard".  But in retrospect I was standing in waist deep water, so I guess he wasn't as careless as I thought...

Well, I will save you the details of my self imposed birthday drama.  I will not throw my husband under the bus in what I thought were "grounds for concern" that my birthday wouldn't be recognized, and I will not humiliate myself in sharing all my selfish thoughts concerning appropriate birthday honor.  I will say this, however, that whether it was my near breakdown the week before the big day, God's provision, my husbands overwhelming awesomeness or a healthy combination of all of the above (yes I'm including my breakdown), I had an epic birthday. :)

I failed to capture pictures of all that pieced together my 4 days of bliss, so I'm excited to get it in writing so as to never forget how loved I am, and how loved I want to make others feel.  

My sister's birthday was the 5th and Thursday the 8th was the first day that worked for us to connect.  So Benjamin, Violet and I got to their house at 8:41, 4 minutes early to watch Elise, Reuben and Audrey while Tara took Jonah to school.  Everyone, all 5, exceeded my expectations in survival, obedience and happiness and the rest of the day continued as such.  Miss Audrey was perhaps the highlight of my day in several circumstances, and I'm not sure how much my sister would love me sharing all her quotable statements.  However I can't help but record my greeting of the morning, "Hi Tori, (to my eyes), (glance down) Why don't you have pretty shoes on today?" :)   Oh, and I do want to remember a Reuben moment of the day as well.  Setting: Jonah and Audrey whaling in the basement after an unfortunate exchange of sibling "love" as Momma
Vos reminded them the appropriate way to love each other.  I was on the main level with Violet (who, not surprisingly, had everything on her mind except napping) and Reuben who was at the table eating a snack.  I heard laughing in the midst of voluminousness cries and asked Reubs what was so funny about his snack?  He squinted his little eyes and grinned from ear to ear, saying "Audrey and Jonah crying...funny!"  I used to think my family would hold the largest quantity of humor.  I no longer think we hold a chance of that title.

So moving ahead to Friday...I don't really remember the morning, so we'll skip ahead to the evening. We met Auburn and Colin at Dublin Bay for supper which was awesome because I love Dublin bay, and had a ton of fun with the Van Kootens.  It was a relaxed evening involving sitting on the porch playing with kids, getting updated on jobs and school, a successful kids bed time, margaritas, good conversation and an early adult bedtime! :)

Saturday was surreal.  Auburn and Colin brought delicious Jaarsmas Bakery doughnuts and coffee cake.  Combined with some really yummy coffee, it was quite delightful.  Around 9, Joel took the Van Kootens to the football game, and I put Violet down for a nap.  It went quite well, and around 9:30, are you ready for this?, I went to Jordan Creek Mall - by myself.  It was glorious.  I love my day to day life so much, so I didn't know how much I would enjoy a break from it.  But pure silence in the car, free hands in the mall, and a little bit of birthday money gave me a couple hours of pure joy.  I came home to a beautifully clean house, with a napping 2 year old and a little Violet asleep on daddy's lap in the rocking chair (which I completely messed up, and struggled with Joel the next 1 1/2 hrs to remedy) and even a clean bathroom & tub so I could take a bath and get ready for my birthday date.  Well Joel had borrowed a motorcycle from his friend, and took me out in style for a winery taste test, Thai food at The Spice, and frozen custard at Orange Leaf.  I was a little worried leaving Violet for a chunk of the day, and then again a large portion of the night, but went home to find a clean house again, Benjamin, with jammies on, sitting in the center of his wooden train tracks "choo chooing" Thomas and Spencer, and Violet, also in her jammies, reading books with our great sitter, and a lullaby playing in the back ground.  Seriously people, it was like a movie was being filmed at my house all weekend.  Oh, and Iowa State won the Iowa vs Iowa State show down...WHAT?!?!?!

Sunday, September 11.  We woke up, ate some breakfast around the table, and then got ready for church.  well, we were 30 minutes late.  We left the house around 9 (which is when church starts) and surprisingly I wasn't stressed about it.  As we started off Joel decided I needed a coffee, and on our way to starbucks, we got lost in conversation, and started heading to church again.  When Joel realized we forgot to stop for coffee, he turned around, we made the planned stop and we were right on time for the sermon. :)  I put Violet in nursery for the very first time ever.  She screamed and they didn't come get me, which is fine, but I don't think we will try again for a few months...The rest of the day was fantastic.  Well, sort of fantastic.  The Vikings played, I made some yummy football food.  My parents came up and celebrated with us, and bought me a Taco pizza I had been wanting since seeing the commercial.  Those parts were so great.  However, Violets rocky start to the day, and lack of nap in the a.m., threw off the rest of the day for her cute little self, and it kind of had me a little worked up.  Oh and the Vikings lost, which was a bummer, but whatever.  I still got to wear my great jersey. :)  I guess I could say that it was the Perfect Ending to the perfect birthday weekend.  I got to spend it with my beautiful babies, my handsome husband and the two people who got me here in the first place.  I'm so glad I get to call you mom and dad!  Thanks to all my family for loving me in this 27th year of life!

HAIR

I'm developing a stronger love and (i think) a better knack for updo's.  Here's some fun hair that's happened recently and not so recently.  It's incredibly sad how little I've documented!...

Still 9 Months :)

Wow, I feel like this is the millionth time I've done a 9 month post for Violet.  That's funny to me for a couple of reasons...#1 - because I'm super tired and everything is either crazy funny or the end of the world, #2) because I said early on that Violet could get to 9 months and then she had to stop.  I guess if I just keep posting 9 month posts, she'll just always stay that age in my mind!

Well, we had her 9 month old well baby visit today.  I have a love/hate relationship with the doctors office.  I love getting stats, I love having a professional tell me my baby is beautiful and healthy, and I love seeing Benjamin's ear to ear grin when he hangs out with Nemo and Dori in the lobby.  However, I hate insurance questions that I don't know the answers to, I hate trying to fill out forms keeping one eye on Benjamin and one hand around Violet(which is definitely not an adequate number of hands for her personality!) and I hate when my babies get shots...I hate deciding if they should get them, I hate the guilt with either decision, and I hate the pain of them getting poked.  I hate them.

Well, I completely missed my appointment two weeks ago, but thankfully when we rescheduled I was able to find a non-nap time appt.  yay.  hurdle #1 conquered.  #2 - we switched insurances, and I of coarse forgot the cards (I thought about it the day before, but never saw joel again when the sun was up, and i was thinking clearly to ask if he knew where they were)  So that was complicated, especially since I didn't even know the name of our new insurance.  But the lady was super patient, and Joel answered my emergency phone call, so we got it taken care of...hurdle #2 - dominated.  Then came the waiting period, which wasn't as bad as normal.  We found a chair by the fish tank and Benjamin was about as cute as ever running from side to side, identifying Nemo's and Big Dori.  He was singing songs to them, and saying hi to them, and checking the water level, and singing more songs.  Seriously I just wanted to eat him up.  (I felt horrible for the little boy who was also watching the fish.  His grandma was less than a peach of a woman and never made eye contact with me or Benjamin.  Seriously, if you knew how funny Benjamin was being, you'd know how cold it made this woman seem.  But they didn't seem sick so it could have been worse.)  Last came the appointment.  This requires it's own paragraph.

Violets Stats:

• height 27 inches (Benjamin was... 2 inches taller)
• weight 17 lbs 3 oz (...over 5 lbs heavier)
• head 44 cm (...2 cm bigger)

Developmentally she's a rock star.  Doing everything she's supposed to and more.  So then she asked if I had any questions...

1. she sleeps from 7:30pm - between 6:30 and 8:00am.  Getting up once at 1:30am (the last week or two, I kinda forget)  my Q.) Should I stop feeding her at 1:30a.m., or since she primarily nurses is she truly hungry.  A.) She's only hungry out of habit, and could totally make it all night if I just stop enabling her...but she might start getting up earlier.  To which I replied, "I'll keep getting up at 1:30!"
2. Her cheeks are raw from biting them Q.) is her mouth o.k.?  A.) Yes, she's just teething
3. Benjamin's breath is HORRIBLE.  He breaths through his mouth some, but I try to tell him to shut his mouth and we brush his teeth.  Q.) is his nose/ throat o.k.?  A.) after checking down his throat...Yes, just floss his teeth.  He might have food stuck
4. Violet Feet.  Both feet, primarily the left one, go severely ( Joel would disagree) noticeably inward.  Q.) is she going to grow out of it?  A.) Appointment with the Podiatrist.  After looking at them, watching her and trying to straighten them, she decided that although many moms come in with the same question Violets are fairly difficult to straighten and bounce back rapidly to their angled position.  She noticed a curve in her foot and would like me to have it checked out, so we have an appointment on the 14?th with the podiatrist.  

Hurdle #3 were the shots.  Violet got poked, and cried for 3 seconds, and recovered like a champ.  Benjamin only had to get a spray in his nostrils and acted like we were castrating him.  He was nervous it was going to be a shot, and readied himself for the worst...but recovered quickly.  Then came the time to leave, and consequently hurdle #4.  This is so ridiculous.  She said I was able to go, and I looked around and there was no well baby visit info sheet, no card for our next appointment, or info about the podiatrist.  I was confused.  I asked the nurse and she said she would look around.  After 5 minutes of trying to corral my kiddos in that small space I opened the door.  Our two nurses were sitting at the front desk and had a paper to hand me (As if they were waiting for me) and said they couldn't find the other card and they would make me a new one.  They sent me out to the waiting area, where I waited and nurses kept coming out handing me things like vaccination charts, and finally I went up to the front desk ladies and said "I'm just a little confused, they told me to make an appointment with the podiatrist, but I don't have any information." At which time another nurse came and handed me a card with an appointment written on it for Violets feet.  I guess they don't ask you when you are available, you just get what they have.  It kind of offended me, but I'll get over it.  We said bye to the fish, and our Morning at the Doctor's house (Benjamin's wording) was done and defeated.  

Now we're just praying for healthy feet and a easy "fix"!