Lagoon

Last week, we went with some friends to Lagoon. It had been almost two years since the last time we went and we had high hopes that Eddie would be more adventurous this time around. He was and it was fun to see him go on rides by himself. He said they were fun, but it was difficult to judge based on his facial expressions, which looked like a mixture of fear and concentration.

He told us later that Bulgy the Whale was his favorite.

Luckily, he had some friends to ride with. Here he is with Lucy on Moonraker.

Violet spent the time lounging in the stroller looking hot and sleepy.

A First

Today Violet experienced a first: being stung by a wasp. She was stung twice on her hand and it took me a few minutes to realize that she was shrieking with good reason. At first, her whole hand turned red and swelled up, but after about an hour, the redness and swelling started to go away. I take this to mean that she is not allergic.

Motor Mouth

These days, Eddie asks a lot of questions. And I mean A LOT of questions. This makes watching a movie with him a little ridiculous -- even movies he has seen 800 times already. To let you experience this first-hand, I decided to make a list of everything Eddie said during the first ten minutes of his first viewing of Despicable Me.

"What happened?"
"Dere he is."
"There he is."
"What's wrong wif her?"
"What happened?"
"Where is he driving?"
"Where is he driving?"
"Where is he in?"
"What was he in?"
"His giant car!"
"What's in his house?"
"What's wrong with him?"
"What is he doin'?"
"Where is he going?"
"Where is he going?"
"What are those kids doin'?"
"What are they going to do in this movie?"
"Where they at?"
"What is he doin'?"
"They're at the movie theater."
"Where's he going?"
"He's gonna steal the moon!"

By my calculations, Eddie said something every 27.2 seconds. Now I understand why parents learn selective listening.

Swimming Lessons

Eddie completed his first level of swimming lessons last week. He did a great job and is now much more comfortable in the water than he was when he started. Since we were leaving town immediately following swimming lessons on Friday, Dave came with us and got some photos of Ed in the pool.

One of Eddie's biggest problems when it comes to swimming lessons is his inability to remember what he is NOT supposed to be doing. The class sits on the steps and the teacher takes one kid at a time to swim them around. Almost every time the teacher's back was turned, Eddie would start doing something ridiculous. This time, however, he just took the opportunity to practice his kicks.

Then it was Ed's turn to swim on his back. Look at those graceful kicks... Eddie's other big problem with swimming lessons: he doesn't remember to keep his legs straight when he kicks.

Eddie got his form pretty good on floating, though he still isn't confident enough to float on his own. Maybe next summer he'll get that down.

Eddie is sad that swimming lessons are over, but I am not. Watching Eddie during swimming lessons filled me with anxiety bad enough to make my stomach ache. Because of this, I decided not to sign him up again this summer, but to wait until next year. Hopefully by then, he'll be better about remembering the rules.

Six Months Old

Saturday was Violet's 6 month mark! Eddie and I took her in to see the pediatrician today. She now weighs 18 pounds, 1 ounce (86th percentile) and is 27 inches long (88th percentile). And she has her very first ear infection.

Violet continues to be a joy for us. She is a very happy girl (when she's not sick) and she puts up with a lot of "love" from her brother. She is extremely active and I often check on her in the night and find one or more of her limbs poking out between the crib slats because she rolls around so much. Here are some new things she does:

Kisses

She has started giving kisses, sort of. Eddie thinks it is hilarious to put his face right in front of her so she'll lean forward and suck on his nose or his cheek or his hair.

Dancing

When music starts playing, she gets this look of concentration on her face and starts swaying forward and back. It is pretty darn cute.

Sitting

Violet is suddenly a very stable sitter. Her biggest problem comes when she bends completely in half to reach something and ends up falling on her face instead. Usually she doesn't mind. She just rolls out of it and rolls around the room.

And here are some of her new favorite things:

Eddie's Toys

Luckily, we haven't run into too many conflicts about toys yet, but I'm sure it is coming. Violet has baby toys that she plays with if that is what is available, but if she has her choice, she always goes for action figures and matchbox cars. She especially likes Man (made famous here) and Eddie's blue Batman. She also enjoyed playing with Ken at Grammy's house last weekend. Her current favorite of Eddie's toys seems to be My Pal Scout, a talking, singing dog. When Scout starts to sing, Violet stops crying and starts to dance!

Baths/Swimming

Violet loves to splash. The two times she has been in the pool, she has loved it. She tries to swim away and is not afraid to put her face in the water. In Grammy's pool on Saturday, she sat in the baby float and kicked herself all around the pool.

The Best Parts of My Day

Sometimes, being a mom is hard work. Being a mom to a three year old boy is even harder. Eddie and I have constant power struggles. But I have found that there are certain parts of nearly every day that I treasure. Then when the kids are asleep and I can think about how cute they are, I always remember these special times with them. I thought I should write them down so I'll always remember.

When Violet wakes up

Generally, Eddie gets up before Violet does. A lot of days, he gets through breakfast and is busy watching his cartoons when I finally go upstairs to get Violet out of bed. As I bring her down the stairs, I say, "Hey Eddie! Look what I found upstairs… it's a baby _____ (fill in the blank with a random animal)." Some of my favorites are "alligator," "giraffe," and "pteranodon." Eddie immediately responds, "No, it's a baby Violet!" This is one time of day when both kids are in a good mood and Eddie thinks I'm pretty hilarious. I'm sure that won't last too long.

When Eddie goes to bed

Lately Eddie has become a bit of a Momma's boy. I am okay with this most of the time. I am starting to realize that he is growing up and that in a few years, he will probably want very little to do with me. Eddie seems to love me most at bedtime. We brush his teeth, say his prayers, then he instantly says "I just want you." So we snuggle for a few minutes and I attack him with kisses and we talk about whatever he wants -- what we did earlier or what will happen tomorrow. Then I find him a stuffed animal to take my place and say "I love you." Here's the best part: he usually responds with "I just love you, too."

When Violet is ready for a nap

I love when Eddie is entertaining himself and Violet is ready for a nap. I take her upstairs and rock her until she settles down. We sit and she squirms around, wrestling with me to see everything in the room, then finally ending up cradled in my arms, holding my nose or my hair or my chin. She's getting so big so fast that I am worried she'll soon be too big to rock and I know I'll miss it.

When Eddie lets me read to him

Eddie has always been a bit of a snuggler. When he was a baby, we would sit in the rocking chair a lot, reading, singing, and just snuggling. I'm sad that I don't get to do that much with Violet, but she never wants to sit still, so I don't think she'd go for it anyway. Lately, Eddie has stopped letting me read stories to him as often as I would like. But when he does let me, I think it's great (as long as he lets me stop after a few and doesn't purposely select the longest stories). He is so smart and has pretty funny reactions to things these days. He likes to tell me which random Dr. Seuss illustrations are really him, me, Dave, and Violet (the Beft that always go to the left).

When Eddie plays nice with Violet

Eddie loves Violet a lot. And she loves him back. Now that she's getting through being a helpless, fragile baby, she is a lot more fun. Most of my day is spent saying things like, "Stop touching your sister" or "Get away from her face" or "Don't push her over" or "Let her play with some of the toys." When Eddie stops harrassing her and just plays with her instead, it is really cute. She attacks his face and licks him all over, which he finds hilarious. And she loves to listen to him talk and to watch him do funny things. They also have the same taste in TV shows:

Great Grandparents

Here are some photos of the kids visiting their Great Grandparents on my side of the family. The photos were taken in late May, but I kept forgetting to post them until now. It's been long enough that Violet looks like a completely different girl.

Great Grandma Barton

Great Grandpa Barton

Great Grandma Jones

Great Grandpa Jones

Goodbye, Combover

Violet's hair has always been one of the first things people notice about her. Unfortunately, it has been falling out on the sides, and the new hair coming in is much lighter than the stripe of long, dark baby hair she still has on the top.

This has led to a rather unfortunate combover. Kristen has been talking about giving Violet a haircut to even things out a bit, but was hesitant to go through with it. After more waffling over the issue this morning, I assured her it would grow back, and she decided to take action.

Violet is much younger than Eddie was when he had his first haircut, and didn't really have any concept of what was going on.

She was quite indifferent for most of the process before breaking down near the end. But I think you will agree that the final result is a considerable improvement.

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.