First of all Violet @ 14 months...
Violet has been transitioning every day of every week, of every month of her life...I guess we all are, but she refuses to let me use the phrase "her norm is...", but lets face it, when I use it, she makes me a liar. So at the risk of lying, I will tell you what her norm could be perceived to be, right now at this very moment...just for the sake of recording something :)
Since stopping nursing Violet has been a rock star sleeper, with the exception at considering quitting her morning nap. If she's tired, she lays down, and goes to sleep without a peep....If momma hasnt worked the whole day, or been gone for the second half of the day, or if she doesn't know that there is any company over...And she also goes down well, for Aunt Auburn, Nana, or daddy - as long as momma is gone from the house, and isn't an option (see what i mean, but struggling to tell you about a "norm"...It all makes perfect sense to me, but seems like insanity when typed...
She is starting to play independently much better than at other times. She has some favorite toys such as the numbers puzzle, hand-me-down lego boat, and a cow from Benjamins tractor. She does like her tea pot and cups if someone is pretending to drink with her, and also will rock-a-bye with her baby, if momma rocks a baby also.
Violet is very texture sensitive. She screamed about the not so soft texture of her chirstmas dress, until I took it off, and spits out any chunk of fruit in her yogurt. She doesn't want to even touch the jello, and loves to touch her skin.
Last week, I was thinking of something fun to do with our new casts, and thought of painting the little toes poking out of the bottom...I knew it would either be a great idea, or more probably a horrid one. It shocked me to find out that SHE LOVED IT. She cried only because she didn't get to hold the bottle the whole time, and that I had to stop painting. It has given me the itch to get her ears pierced :)
Violet loves her hair, but hates bows...Her hair is as straight as a pin, and momma is having a very difficult time excepting the mullet that appears if it is even 3/4 inch longer than her neck line. It will be a very sorry excuse for a bob for a little while long, but thankfully her little face is so stinking cute when she smiles, that its hardly noticeable :) sort of...
I forget what her "achievements" are supposed to be at this age, so I honestly don't know if she's ahead behind or right on...lets go with the last one :) She was 17 lbs at 12 months (3rd %?), and they had us attempt to plump her up with butter and olive oil, to make sure she didn't have a metabolic disorder and to ensure that her body was processing fat correctly. (She was 17 lbs for 6 months) Well daddy took this job seriously and we got her to 19 lbs in 6 weeks. :) I don't know what she is now, and I thought she was going to gain a bunch with these casts, because she can't move well, but she has gotten even pickier with food, so who knows...Before the casts she was walking/running, and now, not even crawling, just a lot of rolling :) She might get a six pack though from the amount of effort she puts into sitting up over and over throughout the day. :)
Her Words:
- juice (which really just means drink)
- dada
- momma
- that?
- mooo (cow)
- baba (not as consistent sheep)
- cheese (when someone has a camera)
Her Signs:
- please (occasionally she says it as well, but not frequently and never speaks on command! I am proud of this one because if she grunts and points for something, I ask "what do you say violet?" and she signs please:)
- all done (mostly if she just doesn't want to eat something)
- more (this one is so occasional that I've kind of given up on it, and switched my focus to "please"
Violet still wants momma for comfort 90% of the time, and starts crying the moment I come back from being absent for any amount of time. Its like an instant, "oh yeah, you were gone, and I'm miserable without you, pick me up and never let me down" kind of reaction sometimes...But at the very same time that she is a mommas girl, she is in love with her daddy. It makes me pretty jealous, because if she's a little crabby, she frequently will give him the instant smile, or cuddle up to him, and look at him with this smile out of the corner of her mouth and adorable eyes...She is wrapping him around her finger very intentionally, and very carefully. Its incredible to watch!
The bitter part of our day, many times a day, is the battle for my phone. She doesn't mind playing with one of her 4 play phones, but if she catches a glimpse of my phone anywhere anytime, she is miserable until I manage to distract her or give in...and that is the problem, that I do sometimes give in. She also has this love for bananas. I love to keep them around because she eats them so well, and her eating well, isn't a common thing, but you can only give a little girl, or anyone, so many bananas before they are miserable, and so its a battle...Even while we were walking through Methodist into Blank's for Violets cast switch, her eye caught a banana as we walked by the coffee stand, and we didn't even fight it. We bought the $1 banana. silly girl.
Well, Violet has been so fun, even with all her changes...only nursing to not nursing anymore, anti sleeper to napping/sleeping incredibly, running after Benjamin, and barely moving 2 inches in a half hour, etc...it has truly been a joy seeing her personality develop. She is a smart cookie and without a question will test mom and dads rules and follow through, but seeing her reaction to a stern "no" already, and how it makes her so sorrowful to know that we aren't happy, gives me hope that obedience is possible, and I would be doing her a disservice to not expect it! (But my! it is much harder around than the first time. It seemed so black and white with Benjamin, and gray has become a very common color in my mind!)
Now, if her brother can learn to sleep through the night without going stinky, so it stops waking her up with the unpleasant fumes!!!!...:)
