Summer Time

I guess summer has officially arrived. Just before the weather turned hot, we learned that our air conditioner needed repairs before it would cool the house. We have been waiting for the right parts to arrive, so we have been without A/C so far. The past week has been pretty hot, sometimes getting into the low 80's on our ground floor. Violet and I do not handle the heat well, so we have been doing what we can to stay cool. I mist the kids with our spray bottle. We let the kids go without clothes while we're in the house. Last Wednesday, I gave each kid a damp wash cloth to play with. Eddie thought it was weird, but Violet liked it.

Don't they look a little overheated?

Tuesday night, Eddie woke up soaked in sweat at 10 PM, so we decided to have a slumber party in the living room. Eddie slept quite well downstairs and when he woke up the next morning, he had no idea he had been sleeping downstairs with everyone all night.

Luckily, our A/C should be fixed tomorrow so we can return to normal life.

Another indication that summer has arrived is Eddie's last day of toddler class. Today was his last class and I think that he will be sad not to go any more. Violet and I went to class with him for his last day and he had a blast. His teachers loved having him in class because he says the funniest things. He even had this month's story memorized and kept reciting it along with Teacher Lisa as she read it to the class. Here is today's art project:

(Hint: it's an octopus)

Violet has been growing up a lot over the last couple of weeks. She is getting pretty stable with sitting. She is much more interested in toys than she had been. When she drops a toy, she tries to get it back instead of just moving on to the next one. She is learning to clap and to wave.

Unfortunately, this was the best photo I could get of the two of them today.

Violet's Five Months Old

Violet is five months old today. She is growing up fast. Here are some fun facts about Violet:

Likes

Baby food. We started her on solids about three weeks ago and she seems to love it. We skipped rice cereal and went straight to fruits and veggies. She especially likes sweet potatoes, peaches, and pears. She is pretty good at eating, too, but drives me crazy because I can't shovel it in fast enough for her. She shoves her hands in her mouth between every bite, which makes the whole exercise a lot messier than it would be otherwise.

Spitting. I don't remember Eddie being much of a spit-bubbler, but Violet sure is. She blows raspberries at every opportunity. Just last night, Eddie exclaimed, "she has a bubble beard!"

Tummy time. Violet loves to be on her tummy... most of the time. She rarely rolls from her tummy to her back, but frequently rolls from her back to her tummy. She likes to play on her tummy and often falls asleep on the floor that way.

Most people. There are only a few people that drive Violet to huge frowns and tears (Not through any fault of their own. Sorry Grammy and Papa). Most of the time, Violet loves when people look at her and talk to her. She smiles. She laughs. She blows spit bubbles and coos. Her biggest laughs so far have been for Eddie, her cousin Caleb, and her aunt Cheryl. I am happy to say that even if I can't get her to bust a gut, she seems to prefer me over everyone else at the moment. I'll enjoy that while it lasts.

Dislikes

Being hot. Violet will not sleep when she's too hot. Fortunately, it hasn't been too hot yet this year. Unfortunately for all of us, it is now hot and our air conditioner is broken. Last night was bad enough that we slept over in Cheryl's basement. When Violet is hot, she screams and writhes around and cannot be calmed down. Hopefully the A/C will be fixed by the middle of next week. In the meantime, we're leaving town in search of cooler temperatures... for all our sakes.

Sleeping through the night. Violet has slept over 5 consecutive hours once. Yes, once. Usually she wakes up at least three times each night. I only feed her once each night, but she insists on waking up several more times just to make sure I am not getting any real sleep.

As you can see, Violet is a pretty happy baby.

Cute Kids

Our kids are really cute. Whenever they begin driving me crazy, I just try to remember that. Over the last week, we've gotten a lot of cute photos of them that I thought I ought to post (since I'm getting a bit behind). So forgive the randomness and enjoy the pictures!

I decided to start Violet on solid food. I opted to start with sweet potatoes and Violet loved them. After her initial confusion about what I was putting in her mouth, she did her best to gobble them up. She tried some bananas, too.

On Sunday morning, the weather was lovely, so we took a walk around the neighborhood. Then Dave took photos of the kids in front of my black tulips.

Violet makes great faces and especially likes to stick her tongue out these days.

Yesterday, our day started off a little rough. In an attempt to fix that before the entire day ended up in shambles, I decided to take the kids to the splash pool. As soon as I mentioned it, Eddie was ready to go. He had a blast splashing in the pool and putting his face in the water. And it was fun for me because he is big enough now that I don't really worry about him drowning himself like last year.

We've learned over the past few days that Violet does not like to be hot, so she was really fussy as I tried to get her ready to go. She was not happy about getting her cute new swimming suit on, so I wasn't able to get a good photo of her in it. Here she is as we were getting ready to come home.

She liked sitting and kicking in the shallow end for a few minutes. Hopefully the next time we go she'll be in a better mood so we can get a nice photo of her outside the car seat.

On a side note, the day did end up in shambles after I found Eddie (while I thought he was napping) pants-less in his bed covered in poo. It called for an emergency bath, an emergency load of laundry (or two), and all the patience I could muster. Luckily we all survived...

Don't Say That

Eddie loves to watch movies. He goes through phases where he will only agree to watch one or two different ones, then later, he'll move on to one or two others. I really appreciate Pixar and the way the writers try to make them appeal to adults as well as children, but as Eddie has begun to memorize and repeat his favorite lines, I have realized that there are a lot of things in their movies that are not really appropriate for a three year old. For example:

"Do I look stupid to you?"
Hopper // A Bug's Life

"Did you all take stupid pills this morning?"
Mr. Potato Head // Toy Story

"You stupid, pathetic waste!"
Randall // Monsters, Inc.

"SHUT UP! Just, SHUT UP, you idiot!" Woody // Toy Story

"Oh would you just shut up?" Nigel // Finding Nemo

"Turn on your lights, you moron!" Peterbilt // Cars

"I'm in hillbilly hell!" Lightning McQueen // Cars

"Welcome to hell."
Chef Skinner // Ratatouille

"Hey! Turn your butt off!"
Francis // A Bug's Life

"I told you kids to stay out of my butt!"
Mr. Potato Head // Toy Story 3



That being said, there are many quotes from the same movies that Dave and I think are hilarious and use as often as possible:

"We'll get there when we get there!"
Mr. Incredible // The Incredibles

"Oh, this is just too good."
Syndrome // The Incredibles

"Oh dear, seems I'm off to a poor start." Doc // Cars

"No, no! Don't just hork it down!"
Remy // Ratatouille

"It's a disaster." Remy // Ratatouille

"The rat! It stole my documents!"
Chef Skinner // Ratatouille

"Let's do this thing!"
Linguini // Ratatouille

"Have you seen a bird?"
Dug // Up

"Who cares? Who cares? Sequins are tacky!"
Ken // Toy Story 3

"The Groovy Formal Collection, yes!"
Ken // Toy Story 3