Bouncing Violet

Here's a recent video I took of Violet and Grace playing. Its so amazing to watch Violet develop the capability to talk and really share what she is thinking. That and the sheer joy on her face really can't be beat. Enjoy!

President's Day Weekend

My wonderful husband took me for a mini weekend vacation to spend some time by ourselves before Owen arrives! We went to St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore of MD (only 1.5 hrs from DC) and were blessed with perfect weather all weekend long! We stayed at the Old Brick Inn Bed and Breakfast (http://www.oldbrickinn.com/) and it was absolutley fabulous and more than we both expected! The best part of the trip was that Brandon's boss gave him a bonus (gift certificate for b&b.com) for a job that he done very well on and it paid for all our accomadations! Our room was so neat too! It was called "The Lady Guinevere" and had a huge beautiful antique bed and even a knight in shining armor in the corner! Check out pictures of the room: http://www.saintmichaelsmdbedandbreakfast.com/Guin_additional%20photos.htm Being prego and all my biggest priority was of course food! The owners of the Inn, John and Sallie, made this breakfast to die for! Yummy home-made pastries, scones, etc... and some kind of main dish like an egg souffle to go with it. And always fresh fruit. The first morning I ate so much breakfast that we didn't need to eat until we went for dinner that evening! Besides eating a wonderful breakfast every morning, we spent time exploring St Michaels which was all walking distance from our B&B and checking out the many cute shops and probably spending too much money:) We also spent some time relaxing at the spa there and got a couples massage, which afterwards Brandon informed me that I really need to start framing more so we can do that on a regular basis! I agree:) Another fun thing we did was walk over to the hotel/resort that they filmed "Wedding Crashers" at. Here I am in front of it!

Third Trimester

I couldn't believe it last week when I went in for my appointment and realized I have entered the third trimester!! It is flying by! This baby boy (Owen-if some haven't heard the name yet) is so active ALL the time. Violet was usually only really active at night when I was trying to go to sleep. This big boy wakes me up from a sound sleep and keeps bouncing around all day as well. I'm just praying he is getting all his energy out now and will be a laid back, easy going boy that my Violet is NOT:) I don't know if I can handle 2 climbers!!

At my appointment we discussed Violet's birth and how her shoulders got stuck and that planning a c-section is probably going to be the route to go with this baby. I'm not thrilled about the possiblity of this baby getting stuck like Vi did or a c-section. I was really upset after Violet was born that things hadn't gone like "I" had planned that they should, but in the end since Violet was healthy that was all that mattered. So, I just need to mentally prepare myself for this birth that it's not going to go like I've always imagined childbirth should be like and trust that God will give me the peace I need for all of this. They are going to have us go in for another sonogram around 34 weeks to get an idea of how big this baby might be. But they aren't expecting it to be any smaller than Violet (8.3pds) since 2nd babies are usually larger than firsts and also boys are usually bigger as well.

Here are some pictures of me so far thru my pregnancy:

Birthday Girl!!

Wow! We can't believe that our baby is a TWO year old:) What a fun day we had yesterday. It started with our birthday "princess" eating her favorite eggs (although when I told her when she woke up that it was her b-day, she told me she wanted cake!) . Then some of her friends from our church playgroup came over to play and eat yummy cupcakes! After a much needed nap my parents, sister, and Chase, and a few friends in the neighborhood came over to celebrate and have dinner with Violet. She had so much fun and loved it everytime everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her! And of course our girl loves CAKE!! She would eat it at every meal if we would let her.

This year seems to have flown by, but we've shared some great memories in just one year! I thought her first year was so neat watching her go from just a little thing that laid there and fussed to be held to a walking one year old! This year has been even more fun! Watching her toddle around to running, jumping, bouncing and showing absolutely no fear in gravity:) From only saying a handful of words to being able to say phrases, short sentences, and count to 13! And the most unfortunate word we have learned as of late is "MINE!" She also knows exactly what she wants and is not easily distracted or distracted at all any more, so she has learned to throw quite a fit when things aren't happening the way she would like them to! Even though thay are quite frustrating sometime, it is cute and we have to remember that we can't laugh when she does it or else we will have a little monster on our hands:)

Check out the changes in just 2 short years:




We also went to Violet's 2-year check-up and she weighed 29 pounds (80th percentile) and was 35 inches long (75th percentile). So, obviously our girl is growing and thriving quite well! We can't wait to see what this next year brings us especially with Violet becoming a big sister!!

La La's Video

Here's a video Havilah took the last time she watched her. Can you say Chocolate Fiend? I guess its genetic.

She's a Big Girl

Its been a long while since I've posed anything but this is definitely something that needs to be posted:
I was giving Violet a bath on Wednesday night. She was playing in the tub, like she usually does, splashing water and slinging around her wash cloth. I was trying to clean up a bit in our room by putting away the freshly folded clothes in the dresser. I hear her stop, say and repeat, "Poopy! Poopy!" I just knew that she'd left a floater for me again in the tub. I was rushing back to pull her out of the tub and was looking for the BabyRuth bar (for those of you with memories of Caddyshack). So I looked and looked, but nothing. Here's this soaking wet little girl still screaming Poopy! jumping up and down. I ask her if she needs to go poopy and she keeps repeating Poopy Poopy. So I put her on the pot. Of course, she's still dripping wet and I don't have the training seat, so I just hold her on the seat. She sat there and went potty for the first time. Needless to say, Grace was very disappointed to have missed the show.

We bought Vi a big girl bed for Christmas. Our goal was to get her ready for the Big Girl Bed with enough time that she would unnecessarily resent the new baby. We intended to get her into her new room right after Christmas, but Grace was not so excited about moving Vi to another room since she would no longer be a baby. So, that caused a bit of delay. More recently, Vi's been sick with a fever. This has included a pretty big fever, a clingly little girl, who only wants to eat while sitting on Mommy while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We were afraid she'd wake up a few time during the night, so we decided to wait for a night when I wouldn't have to be up early the next day. She's been feeling better at the end of the week, so we decided to roll the dice on Friday night. As I got her ready for bed, I started talking about the big girl bed. When the time came, I tucked her in, read her a story from her Toddler's Bible, handed her a cup of water, started her music, and turned off the light. She only whimpered/whined once. She slept all night. She did wake up a bit earlier than normal (which she's done all week long) but this time it might have been due to a lack of a black-out shade in the new room. I fixed that this afternoon.
So, I just put her to bed tonight. She snuggled up in her bed with an Elmo, some water and her music. Not even a peep, just straight to sleep.