1 Year of L♥VE!

What a difference a month makes! In just a few short weeks Violette has gone from toying with the idea of walking to FULL BLOWN WALKING! She can take 10 - 15 steps without falling if she is focused, and she feeds herself like a pro now, too!

A December to Remember!

First - The Stats!
Height: 29.75" Long
Weight: 18 lb 10 oz
Head Circumference: 17.5"
Diaper Size: 3!
Onesie Size: 9 mos (Carters fit best)
Pants Size: 9 months/12 mos (Carters fit best)
Jammies: 12 months, but no feet! (with room to grow!)

When not walking, she crawls super fast, LIKE A TORNADO!

Mobility!
HOUSTON, WE HAVE A WALKER!
Violette went from one step at a time to 10! She keeps improving her balance, too. She hasn't quite figured out how to go down the one stair we have standing up yet, (she prefers face first sliding!) but other than that she is a pretty good walker! She still will fall to her knees and crawl when she is in a rush (like trying to beat us to the baby gate!). She FLIES around the house on her knees getting a super high intensity workout. It's pretty funny to watch!

Giggles!

Fun!
This little girl is a giggler! She has started giggling more often than not - she even has full giggly conversations with herself and others... they go like this:
"Yeah!"
"heheheheheh"
"What?"
"heheheheheh"
(repeat)

Conversating with Mama & Daddy

You can't beat all the amazing smiles she's been giving us though... HUGE and somewhat toothy! (on that note.. SHE JUST GOT HER THIRD TOOTH! The top left... and now she looks really silly when she smiles, makes ME giggle.)

Grilled Cheese!

Food! 
Violette got to have her FIRST CAKE! She did it 2x actually, the very first one was at her 1 year photo shoot with Mr. Mel Carll, we choose a giant cupcake from BakeYouHappy. Violette loved the little fondant snowflakes, but wasn't a fan of the buttercream. When I dug out some cake for her though she decided that was QUITE tasty and dug a few bites out herself.

I am SO THANKFUL that she started feeding herself in time for the smash cakes! She still isn't a fan of touching saucy/slimy/mushy foods but has started to try to feed herself with a spoon (she gets at least one bite in, the rest falls in her lap!) but she is working on it! Her favorite things are whole pinto beans and spanish rice... Oh! and cinnamon toast (Ezekiel brand).

Enjoying her Birthday Party Cupcake!

Party Time!
Her second piece of cake happened at her birthday party - SO MUCH FUN!!! - Surrounded by all of her favorite people, when we lit the candle and started singing, she sang along with us! (melted mama's heart!) After I blew out her candle, she touched the frosting with one finger, and then decided it was the MOST AMAZING THING EVER. After a few more touches, she picked up the whole cupcake and shoved it in her face! Seriously everyone in the room laughed and rooted her on. It was a great moment! We are so very grateful for all who shared it with us!

Note to mommies that haven't done the first birthday party yet... ITS A LOT OF WORK. ASK FOR HELP! We just did cookies and cocoa and I still was very overwhelmed. I never knew if I would finish before the party, but thankfully I had some help! Doing all the setup stuff while chasing a baby around is not ideal.

A friend volunteered a few of her days to help me put the finishing touches up... from my Christmas décor (which doubled as party decorations for the Winter ONEderland) to making the little snowflake crafted decorations and finally setting up for the big day.. I am certain that it wouldn't have been as smooth without her help and am eternally grateful!

A new family tradition.

A Special First Holiday Season!
Violette celebrated her first St. Nicholas Day on December 6th. For those of you who don't know, in Europe, Santa comes at the beginning of the month (which I am sure helps him out with all of those Xmas Eve deliveries in the Americas!). I learned about it when I lived in Belgium, and LOVED everything (except Zwarte Piet!) about it.  There are a bunch of Euro families in the US that celebrate it, too. And we decided that it would be nice to have Santa be the beginning of the month, since Vi & Jesus are celebrated at the end. So, she put out her shoes on St Nicholas Day Eve and woke up to an amazing gift, a toy pup that teaches her the alphabet! She loves it!

11 Months of L♥VE!

This month Violette started feeding herself! And there was a lot of sickness in the house.

She wouldn't put her cracker down without crying... alas, it stayed. 

First - The Stats!
Height: 29.5" Long
Weight: 17 lb 3.7 oz
Head Circumference: 17"
Diaper Size: 3!
Onesie Size: 6-9 mos (Carters fit best)
Pants Size: 6-9 months (Carters fit best)
Jammies: 12 months, but no feet!

This month was rough for all of us! Mom & Dad had food poisoning and Violette got her first real cold. She had 2 fevers around 101°F so we took her to see Dr. Dave two times the week of Thanksgiving. Thankfully it turned out to be just a respiratory tract infection with no ear infection.

One of the few 'healthy days' of November

Violette started taking baby steps this month and without realizing took to steps unassisted from mama to dad. :) walking is so near we can taste it! We have installed real baby gates in the living and dining area, and hope to figure out the cabinet locks very soon!

Testing out the new baby gate

Vi is totally too long for her infant car seat these days, but as she's no wear near the weight limit we will do our best to hold on to it a bit longer. There's no beating the convenience when she's sleepy! Soon we will make the permanent switch to her Chicco NextFit and convert her stroller to big girl mode, but we're both not ready yet.

Singing you a song

An Amazing Feat! Violette started to feed herself this month! At first it was just puffs, but then she progressed to some toast in the mornings, and then in just a few weeks she is now feeding herself anything that isn't MUSHY. She refuses to touch saucy noodles or mushy potatoes. We will figure that one out later. Until then, deconstructed Mac & Cheese it is! There is hope for this cake smashing yet! 

SB Zoo with Claudia!

Travels! We paid a visit to the Santa Barbara Zoo with my cousin Claudia, her fiancé Darren and their kiddo Deion! It was a fun-filled day! Violette enjoyed her big girl stroller for the first time, and loved the giraffes! She also loved spending time with Claudia! 

SB Zoo with Claudia

Next month is fast approaching... birthday party planning is in high gear, invites have been sent... christmas card and birthday pics have been taken... I'm a bit overwhelmed by December's to do list but praying it all gets done with minimal stress!

Violette's Birthday Invitation

Well, I'm  off to tend to a sick baby...
Until next time!

10 Months of L♥VE!

We CANNOT BELIEVE that Violette's birthday is less than 2 months away! She is growing fast and is amazing us at every turn. This month she even took a few steps and has been growing to L♥VE food just like Mama and Daddy! We are excited for what the next two month's will bring! 

the only one in focus - she moves FAST!

On the Move!

First - The Stats!
Height: 29" Long
Weight: 16lbs 7ozs
Head Circumference: 17"
Diaper Size: 2
Onesie Size: 6-9 mos (Carters fit best)
Pants Size: 3 months (Carters fit best)

EATING
This week our little one can count 2 bottom teeth, and is skipping several of the other teeth and jumping ahead to get her molars on top and bottom on both sides (usually considred a 2 year molar at 18-24 mos, she is getting them NOW! She regularly enjoys cheese, yogurt, applesauce, and broccoli. Her favorite veggies are butternut squash and sweet potatoes, though they do hurt her tummy. She really enjoys sharing mommy's organic cinnamon raisin toast in the mornings, and L♥VED her first taste of pierogi! Grandpa Crash would be so proud! This month we also tried Pick Up Stix and Violette ate brown rice and veggies, and a little bit of momma's pot sticker. A few other favs are pasta and of course Cheese Enchiladas and Rice!

Enchilada & Rice Face!

MOBILITY
Still crawling at the speed of light, however she prefers couch surfing and 'walking' with her push toy. Just yesterday our little one two TWO unassisted steps from Mama to Daddy! She can stand up without any help from furniture. And this morning she decided that everytime Mama puts her down, she will stand up and take one step! I am sure walking will be in the VERY near future. We are mentally preparing for that right now!

Using her Push Toy

Hopefully this code will work so you can see her walking with her push toy!

Standing unassisted, holding one of Daddy's juggling balls.

TALKING
Babbling and smiling, she also likes to 'sing along' (more like yelling) with Mama in the car, and just about everywhere else these days! (I harmonize to the yelling.. a trick her Auntie Pri taught us!) If you "Grrrr" at her, she will usually start her imitation of the dogs growling, more like the growling of a gremlin... LOL. Daddy calls her his little Gremlin when she does this! She also makes sounds like clicking her tongue, and "grrr"-ing as well as her other favorite sound "Lalalalalla" She is all ready for her Christmas carols! LOL

Chattering away.

SLEEPING
AWFUL with the new molars coming in. She was literally waking every hour needing 'snuggle' time. I finally made it to the store to buy those teething tablets and teething gel. (We did have a 'little teethers' brand but it didn't seem to help much. We purchased homeopathic Orajel tablets and gel - with Elmo on them, the ones that have no benzocaine and only natural ingredients - and that seemed to help quite a bit. Coupled with Tylenol, she has been sleeping about 4 hour spurts (until the meds wear off). Hopefully this lasts no more than a week! Mama's eyes have been hurting her at work from the lack of sleep - though she still tries really hard not to complain or allow it to impede her performance. The 4 hour spurts have been helpful in getting back to 'normal'. I really hope we can continue them. On a side note, we have been trying to get to work/leave work an hour earlier this week, and that transition has gone pretty well. Now I hope it doesn't kill us when the time changes! LOL.

Vi ain't afraid of no ghosts... but she's still not going to sleep!

THE REST
Violette got to visit her very first pumpkin patch this year! Dressed in fall attire, we went to a patch in Ventura called McGrath Brothers that has been a working farm for over 100 years! They grow pumpkins, strawberries, celery and more! They grow produce year round, and have a beautiful old barn and cottage. They also have chickens that lay every color egg! (I asked which chicken lays the blue and green eggs and they didn't know for certain, but they do have quite a few Bitsy-birds (Rhode Island Reds) that lay the brown eggs! They had goats and geese and other farm animals as well. We got to take a tractor pulled hay ride, too. It was a fun filled day with our daycare friends (Kitiara, Crysania, Sean Michael, Brooke & Gabe!)! We really wanted to get a GINORMOUS pumpkin, but settled on two smaller ones, a small orange pumpkin and a white one that's a little bit larger. We don't plan to carve or paint them this year (both aren't appropriate for babies her age!) so instead we bought metal push-in silly faces to decorate them with at Ma Maison. :) We have settled on a Halloween costume, and Violette even gets to have Mama as a prop! We will share those pics with you in the next blog!

Pumpkin patching!

We also had the pleasure of going to TWO fabulous first birthday parties this month, one for Andres and one for Jaxson. Both were TONS of fun with fabulous themes! We have started planning Violette's first birthday party, but since her birthday is SO close to Christmas, we just hope that her friends can join us for a sweet intermission to their holiday preparations! I know that Violette will always struggle with her birthday being so close to the celebration of Jesus... but I pray that she will feel special every year just the same.

In costume at Andres' jungle book party!

With hopes that your Halloween will be fun-filled and festive - we thank you for keeping up with our little family along the way.

All my best,