sassy

Mom! Seriously, I do not want my picture taken right now. I'm just trying to learn the ABC's in Spanish right now and I'm really busy so puh-lease just give me some space!

cute outfits

This cute Halloween outfit was a bit hit at the Little Gym!


A big package arrived this week with lots of cute new outfits and hairbows. Thanks Grammy!

new language

New things

A hook on high chair helps her sit at the counter and help us cook


She loves her new big girl stand up toy!


Did you know that the coffee table is the perfect place to play peekaboo? Blowing raspberries makes the game so much more fun.


A new food - pumpkin! We're like our baby foods seasonal!

turn around

Have you ever seen a baby so happy to obey?

Own Post

This picture is so unbelievably cute it deserves its own post. As soon as I took it I knew it would be one of my forever favorites. It will be one of those pictures that can instantly transport me back to this specific moment in time. I am so blessed I got to spend some time at the playground with my baby girl on a picture perfect October afternoon!


Pure joy

playground

We've been going to the playground almost every night lately. It's a great way to help with what can be a little bit of a cranky time - after dinner but before bath and bedtime. She also LOVES the swing and just smiles so big and cracks up. It's so much fun!

Here she is crawling through the "tunnel." I put her down on one side, run around to the other side, and she races to get me!









On the swing

new foods

We've been having lots of fun trying new foods lately. She's had just a few things mixed with oatmeal:
1- avocado, didn't really like it
2- apples, loves them!
3- squash from our garden, likes it
4-carrots, LOVES LOVES LOVES
5-teething biscuits, LOVES. She will gnaw on one for a long time and she really likes to eat like a big girl.

carrots all over the place!


She even shares with mommy and daddy!

party

Hey, if you're going to have a party you might as well get dressed up!



Thanks Megan for the super cute outfit!

sink bath

She's such a big girl she can take a bath in the sink. She loves it!

Silly face!


Love this one!


Such a sweetie

bear crawl

Grandma Carol came and spent some time with us on Monday. We even went out to lunch! While she was here she was telling me how Nathan used to just do the bear crawl and wasn't interested in walking for a while. Later that day Violet decided to try out the same move! She just pops her little tush up but doesn't really go anywhere yet. Hey, her dad's a pretty cool guy so I can see why she would want to be like him.

favorite song

I don't know why "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" is universally loved among all babies, but my girl sure loves it. We're working on hand motions (as you can see) and as long as it keeps her smiling, I'll sing this silly song a thousand times a day.

Note: We had just come back from a run. She's rested after a snooze in the jogging stroller and I'm sweaty. Just look at her, ok?

love

We've had some hard days/hours/moments around here lately. Baby Violet is turning out to be a mama's girl and doesn't like to have me out of her sight. Sometimes she cries until I pick her up, then when up she cries until I put her back down. She's so active and doesn't like it if you make her slow down. She loathes diaper changes because she has to lie on her back for 30 seconds. She doesn't want to nap for more than 30 minutes lately and has had some cranky afternoons as a result. She's feeling the effects of teething, growing, and developing so rapidly her body and brain can't catch up.

Even still, I could just inhale her sweetness. I know that she's a little out of sorts right now and I love the moments when I can see her sweet self shining through. The other day we had a few precious minutes in the middle of a hard afternoon. She likes to play with the sheer curtains in her bedroom while we sit in the rocking chair before naptime, and I watched her discover that if she looks through the curtains she can still see a distorted version of her mama. She would look at me through the curtain, move it over to see me in plain view, laugh, and do it over and over again. It was almost enough to make my heart burst. We like to play a game where we "chomp" each other and take little nibbles out of each other. The truth is that I could just eat her up, even on a bad day. She is such a precious gift and I am eternally thankful that she is my daughter and I get to be her mama.

Trouble

I don't think we're ready for crawling, standing, and getting into everything yet. We asked her if she could slow down a little bit and she emphatically said no. And so it begins...

"helping" me put the groceries away


Standing up on her own holding on to the exersaucer


blurry pictures are typical because she is always.in.motion.

Taste of Saint Louis

One thing I look forward to every year is the Taste of Saint Louis. It's so fun to go downtown and taste different foods from local restaurants. The food was a little disappointing and the offerings were kind of boring, but at least we had this cutie along to entertain us!

New ride

Check out Violet's new ride.

New trick!

She is learning how to pull herself up! Isn't it too soon for this?!

Trying Avocado

6 months

I cannot believe it's been 6 months since our baby girl arrived on the scene. Sometimes it feels as though she's been here forever and it's hard to imagine our lives without her. Other times it feels as though her time with us has gone by so fast and it seems like yesterday she was a snuggly newborn who wasn't mobile. But the fact is she's 6 months old and we're enjoying every moment!

Here are some of my favorite things about Violet Olivia at 6 months:
-She is sitting up so well
-She is such a fast army crawler. When she has been playing for a while and wants a change, she'll crawl over to my feet and start pulling up on my legs.
- She'll take a break from crawling for a few seconds and just rest and kick her legs for a minute.
-When we're out somewhere and a stranger talks to her, she'll quickly turn her head and bury it into my shoulder
-She is very sweet to other babies
-When she sucks on her bottom lip with her wide-eyed expression and just melts my heart
-Even though she's mobile she still loves being held in the Moby wrap
-She splashes like crazy in the bathtub and has so much fun
-Her two bottom teeth are so cute! They are also impossible to photograph.
-She's a petite girl, but strong and healthy. When we got her 6 month shots the nurse said she's the strongest 6 month old she'd ever met and she's worked with babies for over 20 years. She's small and mighty! Hey, at least her clothes last a lot longer!
-When she gets excited she squeaks



Happy 6 months, sweet baby girl!



Yay! It's my half-birthday!





This is really how this month's chair pictures went:

Oohhh, the table. I think I'll go check it out.


Yep, the table is so much more fun than just sitting in the chair.


I'm almost there!


Whoa!



Also, she really enjoys sticking out her tongue lately.

Catching up

We've been busy lately! Since I've been slacking on the blog posts, here are a few pictures (in no particular order) to document what we've been up to the last couple of weeks.

Vi's been exploring and getting into more and more interesting places (in the side table)


In the coffee table?


We've started solids - this is her first try with avocado!


We went to the Shrewsbury fall festival


We've been going for runs in the jogging stroller


We had a great time with Grammy!


What happy girls!





We went to Scott Air Force Base to celebrate Ginny's retirement


We've been making friends at the Little Gym (here she's doing her special move - the wheelbarrow)





We harvested tons of basil - the last of anything from our garden


She got 2 bottom teeth - teething is no fun :-(


We had a picnic dinner





It's so hard to catch her "pose" and this is the best one I've got. She'll be crawling around, then stop, lay on her side for a few seconds and survey the area, then she'll be back on the move.


Grammy got her this turtle ball pit and she loves it!