Two and a half

About a week ago I mentioned to Violet that she recently turned two and a half. At the time, I think she said something like, "Oh." And that was the extent of that conversation. Well, on Friday, I took her to my company's Halloween party (everyone brings their kids and the decorations are over the top) and when one of my colleagues asked her how old she is, she answered, "two and a half." Seriously! I couldn't believe she remembered that!

First Earthquake

Violet felt her first earthquakes today. One this afternoon and one tonight - both were about 4.0. It's official, she's a California girl!

That Face

So this has quickly become known as "the picture." My dad took it a couple of weeks ago when he was here for a visit. Just look at those eyes!

Pancakes!

Ok, so I've done one posting in three days... so much for one posting a day! Oh well, this video will hopefully make up for it. It's from the same day as the last video but I had to split them up due to size of the file. Violet has discovered the deliciousness of pancakes. So whenever she is pretending to cook, she is often making pancakes.

All By Myself!

My lack of postings is pathetic. Violet has completely transformed in the past 6 months and I've done a terrible job of documenting these changes. So, I am challenging myself to post every day over the next week.

"All by myself," is something that Violet says a lot these days. She is extremely proud of all the things she can do all by herself. Pee pee in the potty? Yes, "All by myself." Grab the milk from the fridge? Yes, "All by myself." Turn on and off the lights" Yes, "All by myself." Take a shower? Yes! "All by myself!"

Ice Cream!

Violet has discovered the joy that is ice cream. Simple as that. Just look at her face!

Easter

Easter was last weekend and we had so much fun coloring easter eggs with Violet. She loved the whole process and now calls all eggs "easter eggs" regardless of how the eggs are being prepared.

Us: Violet, would you like scrambled eggs for breakfast?

Violet: Easter eggs?!

Us: Yes! Easter eggs!

Violet: Yay!

Here are two videos of the easter egg making process. Very adorable.

To view all of our photos from Easter click here.

Violet is 2!

Violet turned two a couple of weeks ago, on April 14th. We had a party for her the weekend prior to her birthday and the difference between last year and this year was incredible. Looking back at last year's video of singing "Happy Birthday" she looked confused as to why all these people were singing to her and I blew out the candle. This year, she sang along (she had been practicing "Happy Birthday" for about a month) and she blew out the candle. She's such a little girl!

To see all the pictures from Violet's birthday party click here.

More trips and fun

My posts keep getting less and less frequent. It's almost like a quarterly update. Here is a synopsis of January - March.

January
We've kept ourselves busy with more traveling the past few months. In January, I took Violet to Seattle for what is now becoming an annual trip for us. We had so much fun visiting with my friend, Liz, and her parents. Here she is drinking coffee with Liz at one of my favorites coffee spots in Seattle, Vivace. Although Violet's "coffee" is just steamed milk in an espresso cup. Violet has known the word "coffee" for some time now and likes to enjoy a cup with the adults.

To see all the pictures from Seattle click here.

Violet also still loves to talk on the phone. In this adorable set of pictures, she is talking to my dad. She looks so comfortable chatting on the phone, it's crazy. And don't think that my dad was doing all the talking. This was definitely a two-way conversation!








To see all the pictures from January click here.

February
In February we took an incredible 11 day trip to Hawaii to visit family and relax together. Violet loved the beach and swimming in the ocean. Chip and I had a blast building sandcastles while Violet had fun destroying them as fast as we could make them! It was so wonderful to see Chip's family. We even got a date night out while Chip's cousins watched Violet.

To see all the pictures from Hawaii click here.

March
Our good friends Deb and Sean came for a visit with their kids, Austin and Eli. They stayed with us last summer and Violet loved the boys. Once again, they all got along famously. Violet and Eli even had their bath time together, which was really fun to watch. It was a very rainy weekend and Violet loved the boys' matching raincoats and umbrellas, so down the street we went to get Violet her own set. They have come in very handy too, since we've had so much rain this season!

To see all the pictures from March click here.

What Violet just said

"No Mommy, that mine, I need that." And then with the cutest smile ever she said, "Pleeeeease!"

Yes, this is no joke. Just in the past week, Violet's sentences are getting much longer and more complex. She's been surprising us every day.

Oh, and in case you're wondering what it is that she was asking for, it's the computer.

Three in One

It has been months since my last posting and we've had three major holidays in that time: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We moved at the beginning of November and with the holiday season essentially already upon us, it was incredibly difficult to sit down long enough to do a posting. So, in this one posting I am going to cover all three holidays.


Halloween

This was the first year that Violet was able to begin to enjoy Halloween and we were really excited for her to experience it. Not so much the candy aspect of it, since honestly she doesn't know what candy is, but rather the dressing up and hanging out with other kids part of Halloween. And we thought all was lost when Violet wouldn't take a nap that day and then fell asleep in the car during a 5 minute drive to our friends' house. She slept in my arms while everyone ate dinner and kids ran around. And just when we were about to head home, she woke up and was ready to join the party. So, on went her costume and out we went. The streets were packed and we couldn't get over how well she did with all the activity and people in costumes. There was only one costume that scared her, and honestly, it scared us too!

To see all the pictures from Halloween click here.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with our good friends, Kerry and Alan and their family and other friends but instead of Baker Beach, they had the spread at their flat in the city and we had two birds: deep fried and roasted. It was fun watching the the deep frying of the bird. I've never seen it done before.

To see all the pictures from Thanksgiving click here.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. Chip's parents came out for the week of Christmas and my dad and mom were here. Christmas eve we walked Thompson Street here in Alameda, which is known for going all out for Christmas. Every house is decorated with lights and displays. It was really fun to watch Violet's reaction to it all this year, since last year she was so young. She was especially taken with the Thomas the Train display, since she is generally in love with Thomas these days. She insisted that we spend some time at this display and she hugged and kissed the life-sized Thomas. It was so cute!

To see all the pictures from Christmas click here.