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.