Check up

The official stats from this morning's 1 year well baby check up;

Weight was 18 lbs, 4 oz. She gained 2 whole pounds in 3 months!
Height was 30 inches. She has officially outgrown her carseat and we're on the hunt for a big girl seat.
She's still long and lean, surprise surprise :-)

She had to get a finger stick for lead and anemia and 4 shots - BOO!

1 year chair pictures

Good morning, birthday girl!!



So excited for her special day!!


Getting ready to flip off the chair...





Just walking around.



Check out my tutu!



Happy girl!


Thanks to Aunt Riley for helping out with the photo shoot!

Happy Birthday!

I'm trying to put together the words to express how I'm feeling about my baby girl turning 1. So far, all I can think about is how did my tiny baby turn into such a big girl already?

So tiny


So big

Birthday!

We had a small birthday party for Violet this weekend and it was so fun to celebrate our baby girl. All of the grandparents and aunts and uncles came and that made it really special!



We were planning to go to the park, but the snow came as a surprise!


Tenholder family


Steffey family


Opening presents



With the grandparents


Checking out the birthday candle





She loved the homemade strawberry ice cream but threw the angel food cake overboard. Ha!



Singing Happy Birthday!

What's new

Last week we enjoyed the warm weather and visited the zoo for the first time. Her favorite zoo animal was....a fish?


Just doing some gardening.



Working on some more teeth. Chewing on a paci seems to help!

Trying to SQUEEZE her block like mommy and daddy. Hilarious!

Lots and lots of clapping. YAY!

Camelbak

Just a girl and her baby Camelbak.

Outside time

Putting her baby inside the big vase. She loves this game!



Tiptoes - I am obsessed. Unbelievably cute!


Pushing her baby



Master stair climber.


Thanks to the Grabers for letting us borrow so many super cute summer clothes!

Waiting for Dogs

Even though it's not even 7am yet, we are waiting patiently for the neighbors to walk their dogs. We need to see some dog dogs!

What's this?

This is the latest installment of "What's This?" Violet needs to know what everything is and so she'll go through everything and give me this look and gesture when she doesn't know what something is. She makes an "eh" sound until I tell her what is is, then she kind of nods and commits it to memory while looking for another new thing. If you were a fly on the wall of our house, you'd hear me labeling everything for her and talking nonstop!

Violet's baby

It's pretty cute that Violet's special baby is a picture of herself. She likes to carry her baby around, give her kisses, and show her baby to mommy. With some prompting from me, she shared her paci with her baby. So sweet!

So big!

11 months

Since there was no 29th of February, we decided that Violet would stay 10 months forever.
What?!? We can't do that? Ok, 11 month pictures coming right up. Theresa came over for some T time and helped us out - thanks T!

Favorite things about 11 months:
-so much walking, even though she prefers to crawl
-picking up words and using them often (especially dog)
-we can do tiny ponies in her hair!!!
-sleep training is behind us and we are so thankful for much better sleep
-can follow simple and some complex requests (Where is your lotion? It's inside your scooter - can you bring it to mommy?)

Challenging things about 11 months:
-sickness and her first ear infection
-throwing food she doesn't want
-we have to be consistent about what we tell her (if we say "diaper change" she heads for her room, if we say "go for a walk" she's going toward the door and her stroller, etc.)


Walking!


Teeny tiny ponies!


Standing up by herself



11 month chair pictures



Looking like a big girl



She sat on the chair for about 5 seconds before she remembered how fun it is to dive off of the chair and do a flip into my arms. She was going crazy!!

Not even 9 am!

It's not even 9 am yet and I already have 4 videos to share. Violet is in a particularly good mood this morning and she's coming out of the sickness fog. It's like her body was so focused on getting well for a week or so and now that she's better she's developing in fast forward. This morning she started saying DOG! Just in the last couple of days she is:

-really trying to say new words: dog, duck, bath, and Jack
-when I say "time for a diaper change" she grabs her diaper and crawls right to her room
-likes to help me unbuckle her car seat, high chair, or anything else
-gets excited and heads for the door when I say we're going bye-bye
-dances to all kinds of music
-can throw balls, bean bags, and other things

The sign for "apple" is, apparently, hilarious.


Learning to say "dog" and showing me her favorite dogs in her DOG book from Aunt Laura.







Playing curtain peekaboo.

bathtime words

Ok so last night we really though she was getting close to saying "duck" and "bath" but now listening back it's hard to tell. But she really is trying to say some real words. So fun!

lunch poses

YAY!


Snacking on strawberries with her feet up



Praying?