There's a Comic on Your Face

Violet's first experience with a comic book.



Maybe next time the comic book will make it out alive?

Swimming with Gemma

Violet and I went to our very first baby swim class today at Children of the Sea in Beaverton. Nicole and Gemma are in the class with us. It was great to see them and I am super excited to get to hang out with them every week!

This class was Nicole and I, our babies, and another girl and her baby, Ryder. I guess there are 2 other Mom's with babies in the class, but they both didn't come today.
The class went well. She got to float around in warm water on her back and front (with me holding on to her), she went down a little slide (with the instructor holding on to her) into my arms, and got to sit and then fall off of a water gym and the pool wall. She also WENT UNDER WATER FOR HER FIRST TIME. I was terrified to have her go underwater! Nicole and I said at the beginning of the class that we weren't ready for it and that we would do it next week, but we saw Ryder do it and he did fine, so we decided to have Gemma and Violet do it too. They both did well. Gemma got a little water in her mouth and Violet had her eyes open, but neither cried or got upset after.
Nicole and I are not a big fan of our teacher. She was young, a little stand-offish, and I am pretty sure she has never had a baby. Part way through the class Violet got a little overwhelmed, so I went to sit on the side of the pool to breastfeed her to calm her down and make her feel safe. The teacher acted a little irritated and told me that I should be careful because if she spits up they will have to close the pool. ??? OK, geez... soooorrrry. Feeding my baby during the lesson is not going to make her any more likely to spit up during the lesson then if I had fed her before or an hour ago. She also didn't seem to be very understanding when Nicole was trying to tell her that Gemma's "adjusted age" was 4.5 months. Oh well, not a big deal. We have lots of classes left at this place and maybe the teacher will warm up, but either way we had already planned to go somewhere else in June, Swimbabes. It is much closer to us (in NE Portland) and a lot of my friends from the pregnancy water aerobics class will be there. We just couldn't go to that one yet because Violet has to be 6 mo old to go there.
Overall, we enjoyed the class and hanging out with our friends! We can't wait until next week!

Pineapple good... oatmeal bad...

Violet ate her first bites of solid food yesterday. First, Wind gave her a piece of pineapple to suck on... which she seemed to like a lot.

Afterwards we found out online that the acid in the pineapple might hurt the baby's tummy... ooops.
Next we moved on to the real food. She had sucked on a few foods before (like the pineapple) and had one bite of applesauce, but we had not sat her down in the high chair and tried to actually feed her yet. Wind and I fed her baby oatmeal as recommended by our pediatrician. She was not a big fan (as pictured below).

She did swallow some, but most of it got on her face. Especially after she decided to rub the spoon all over her face.

Lorenzo's birthday party

This afternoon we went to Lorenzo's 2nd birthday party at Marcy & Alex's house.
There were cupcakes laid out in the shape of the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar. Very cute. I ate some, but of course, Violet and Wind could not. All of the other kids there could walk around, play games, and eat foods... it seemed like Violet was a little jealous. She watched them and tried to grab them if they cam close to her. :(
So, this was both Violet's first time at a birthday party AND the first time meeting CHICKENS! She watched them and kept trying to stick her fingers through the fence... NOT a good idea though because I tried and they tried to peck my fingers!

Where's the baby?

No Sleep til... ???

As you can see by this photo, Violet seems to sleep fine... for 2 hours... then she wakes up. She is back to acting like she did when she was a newborn (at night at least).
For awhile she would go to bed at 10pm, sleep until 3:30, wake up to eat, and then go right back to sleep. She would sleep until 6:30am and then wake up for the day.
Now she has decided to go to bed at 7pm, sleep until 10pm, then wake up every 2 hours or so there after. Let me just say... I am not a fan.

Spinning the sun.

Here is a video of Violet today using her new jumperoo. She Just figured out how to spin the sun toy on it and does it VERY forcefully. :)

Saturday Market

Todasy was a beautifull sunny day here in Portland so Wind, Violet, Neriah (her grandpa) and I journeyed down to Saturday Market today to see Violet's photo up in the Spolied Cat booth (please see the previous post on this subject). We met Carla (the lady who makes them). She was very excited to meet her first non-cat model. We took a picture of Violet and I next to her "billboard".

After that we sat down in the grass for a bit to chat and relax. It was warm out, but Violet had to wear her hat and sweater so that she didn't get burned. She LOVED touching the grass and trying to rip it out of the ground!

Violet the model...

Violet and her cat Romeo are famous! Romeo has a catnip pillow that he LOVES. We bought it at the Portland Saturday market at Spoiled Cat. He plays with it all the time and recently he has decided to play with it right next to Violet while she does tummy time. He kicks it, rolls around, and scratches it... acting all tough to show Violet how bad ass he is. I took some photos of them and showed them to my mom. Well, apparently my Mom's friend at work, Robin, has a sister who is the one that sells and makes the exact catnip pillows that I buy. The booth she sells them in has tons of pictures of cats playing with the pillows. My mom passed on my photo of Violet and Romeo to Robin, who passed it to her sister. Anyway... she hung the picture up in her booth.

So now Violet and Romeo are FAMOUS models.
Photo credit: Robin Hausen :)

Cracking up.

So, a few days ago Wind and I were standing out in front of our house with Violet and Zig-Zag waiting for Jenny, Dylan, & Eloise to get here. Zig-Zag was already really excited because his dog-friend Choco was out front too as well as the little kid who lives next door, Darian. Then Jenny, Dylan, and Eloise arrived and he went nuts. He was running back and forth SUPER fast on the sidewalk. When Violet saw him doing this she started cracking up. I mean, not the normal 3 -5 giggles that Wind and I can get out of her after trying super hard for several minutes... She was cracking up laughing. She chuckled over and over and over again as long as Zig kept running back and forth. It was so awesome!
The next day, to see if it was just a fluke, I made Zig run back and forth really fast upstairs... again she cracked up laughing. So, it turns out, that he is the funniest one in the house and the only one who has gotten her to laugh that much... and he wasn't even trying!

Music Class

Violet and I went to our first Music Together class yesterday. We sang songs, played instruments, danced around, and got to hang out with other babies. Some of our moms & babies that our in our new mom's class are there which makes it instantly comfortable. It was really very fun. Our friends Stacy/Tyler are signed up for the class, but won't be going for another week or two.
We got a cd and song book of songs to learn for class. One of them got stuck in my head and I only heard it once. "Hear the pony galloping, galloping... down the country lane."
She was super tired when we got there and I was afraid she wasn't going to make it through class, but she thought it was so interesting she forgot about being tired until the class was over.
We will be going once a week for 10 weeks. If we continue to like it we might sign up to go in the summer as well... then Dad can go too!

Doctor's visit

We went to see our doctor, Dr. Collins, yesterday for Violet's 4 month well baby check-up. She weighed on at 15lbs 13oz (91st percentile). She is now 25.75 inches long (94th percentile) with a 16.95in head circumference (94th percentile). Still a very big little girl!
Dr. Collins was very impressed with her strength and alertness. She said that she has better strength and many of the skills of a 6 month old. She was especially impressed at her ability to stand up (assisted, of course).
Violet got more vaccines too. One in each leg and an oral one. She was really happy... smiling at the nurse... then she stabbed Violet... then a look of shock and mild crying... then she stabbed her again... then A LOT of VERY LOUD crying. I breastfed her right after and she calmed down quickly. When we got home I gave her some Tylenol and then she went to sleep for most of the rest of the day and night.

4 months old!

I can't believe she is 4 months old already. Laughing all the time, eating solid foods, and crawling are just off on the horizon.
She is so beautiful, fun and precious. I love her glowing smile, chubby belly/arms/legs/cheeks, and her beautiful little soul.
I am excited to spend the rest of my life getting to know her. :)

She can sit by herself...

Well, almost. :)

No Neck Violet!

Wearing a turtle-neck shirt when you have no neck doesn't make much sense, but it sure is funny!

Happy Easter!

 

Violet's first Easter was fun and fairly uneventful. She got an Easter Bunny from her Grandma in the mail. She touched his soft fur for awhile and then had a good time trying to eat him with little success. She sat in her vibrating seat for about an hour watching me make dinner and then took a nap with her Dad in the chair. Jason and Libby came over to help us eat our giant ham, sweet potatoes, biscuits (made by Wind) and a pineapple upside-down cake. She smiled a lot at everyone and I think made them more excited and nervous to have one of their own in a few months.
I hope this post will be the first of many for the family/friends to enjoy.

Hello World!

Hey there, I'm Violet Leigh and this is my blog! I can't wait to tell you everything about myself and to grow up with you. Stay tuned for all sorts of neat stuff.