2:46

Stella was born at 2:46 in the afternoon on January 18th, 2007. I don't know who looks worse in this picture - me or Stella, but really we were both just terrifically happy that the ordeal was over.

Here she is all cleaned up hanging out with Jason. She was about 4 hours old. She was such a sweet, mild baby.

Here she is at 2:46 the next year. We were blowing up balloons for her birthday "party". As you can see, she is already lagging behind in the hair department.

But she was adorable anyway, and I think she already knew it. Yes, even then.

Here she is at 2:46 the year she turned two. You can see her birthday party is in full swing. Grandy and Bubby braved a blizzard to bring helium balloons and eat cake.

This year she tried to hold out until 2:46 without a nap, but crashed just before then. A bath with Violet can use up a lot of energy, you know.

So here she is, three years old. She insisted right up until she woke up this morning that she was only two-and-a-half. I think this picture was taken before 7am. I'm surprised my eyes could focus. But then  - the camera does it for me.

I'll have a lot more pictures for you in the next post. We had a three day birthday seeing as how it was a three day weekend.

Recent activity

Violet's and Stella's Grampy came to visit them last week. Stella had never met him before, and neither Violet nor Stella had met his girlfriend, Bonnie. They got along famously, though.

 

Sadly, these are the only pictures I took while they were here. I didn't even think to get a picture of Violet with them.

In other news, Violet has discovered the internet is not just Nick Jr. She somehow discovered that there are movies of her favorite game on YouTube. She will actually pause the movie to read the story, which leaves a little to be desired.

Here's another thing she figured out. Google.

Do you wonder what she is Googling?

Miss Coates is her kindergarten teacher.  She's not the only victim, though. Violet Googles everything. So much so that I am tempted to take her computer offline. At least until we figure out this 'parental controls' thing. Who knew this would happen so fast? She's barely 6.

We had a talk about the internet the other day. I explained that it was like a big, big mall where there are lots of  stores, and some playgrounds, but there were also things like people's houses, and restaurants and jail and places that it might not be good for her to be. And in this mall, there are all sorts of people. Good people, fun people, but also people who are tricky and people who are mean, and even bad guys. I asked her if I would let her walk around by herself in a mall like that, and with big eyes she said "No Way!". So I told her that for the same reason, she can't wander around the internet by herself. I'm not sure my analogy was clear to her, though. She's pretty concrete.

This morning

Violet is home sick from school and partaking of her favorite activity: making up new levels for the Blupis.

Stella would have been content to lie in the sun and watch Diego all day.

Mean parents that we are, we forced her to go to preschool.

Vacation

Just a mish-mosh of cute pictures from the holidays.

Stella met Santa at Bear Hugs Christmas party. She just stared at him with big eyes and didn't say a word.

 Violet dressed us up. Look hard and you can see we have red noses taped to us. Violet is a sick reindeer with a thermometer in her mouth. I am Santa, and Stella has a little sign taped to her chest that says "Jesus". Maybe we ought explain this Christmas thing a little better.

 Ring pops.

We had a fun but crazy time in Maryland with Karen and Amelia as well as Stacey, my Mom and Julian, Jason's sister Tiffany and her boyfriend John. Did I mention it was crazy?

Knuffle Bunny is our new favorite book.

Will Trixie ever get her bunny back? Horrors.

Amelia and Stella are such good friends. So are Violet and Amelia, but I don't have pictures of them together from this trip.

Violet avoids cooking by spinning in the kitchen.

Stella and Amelia were in charge of meals. Stella is an A-1 barista.

 

Violet is an A-1 princess.

Stella is auditioning to be in a Dr. Seuss book.

After Christmas we mostly just hung out trying to keep the natives under control.

Here's Violet modeling her body sock. It's always fun to take pictures of the shapes she can make.

This toy was Jason's as a kid.

Hard at work with clay. Maybe later we will show you the claymation Blupi movie Violet and Jason made.

We had a big snowstorm, which is almost always good news around here. Stella isn't crazy about being out in the cold, but Violet adores it, and she and Jason found an icy patch and cleared it off to do some skating.

 

X-Squad

Violet has been taking gymnastics for the past three years. She started in the 3 year old class, where she would wander around, not really listening. When she did participate, she would just do the parts she liked and nothing else. She got better at listening, and she got better at following the coaches directions. Finally, this year, they decided she was listening well enough to join the X-Squad which is the exhibition squad. Most anyone can be on the X-Squad, so it was really sad when they told her no last year. But this year, yes. You should have seen her face the first night. She was so proud of herself. I can't believe I didn't have the camera.

A couple weeks ago, it was picture night. Violet had her picture taken with the entire team. She had to wear her uniform (well, the leotards are on backorder, so they wore their t-shirts, sweatshirts and little velvet shorts). Part of the uniform is two french braids. Yeah, you heard that right. Two. French. Braids. For my girl who won't let me get within three feet of her with a brush. (Though I have to say - at least she usually brushes it herself now).

Imagine my surprise when she sat still for the 20+ minutes it took me to put these braids in her hair. Doesn't she look marvelous?

 

 Don't be fooled. She is still the Violet you all know and love, no matter what her hair looks like.

She did really well for the group picture, but her individual picture - well - I'll have to show you when we get it back. It was part Walk like an Egyptian and part goofball. Pure Violet.  A couple years ago it would have bothered me, but no longer. I know when I'm beat.

Happy birthday, Violet

I know I am late with this post. Violet has been 6 for more than a week. She hasn't had a party yet, though, because the poor kid was sick the day it was to happen. She did bring cupcakes to school on the 22nd, though. And she went to her favorite restaurant, Applebees. Here is a little photo retrospective for you. All these were taken within a month or so of her birthdays.

6 years old

Practicing flying. Such a clever and determined kid.

 

5 years old

Oh, the attitude. Who cares if mom wants a picture.

 

Four years old

She definitely has her own creative agenda.

Three years old

Back in the day she still let me put fabulous pants on her.

 

Two Years Old

Determined and stubborn and funny and crazy.

One Year Old

Already funny and amazing, Violet was the queen of the land.

 

One month old

We could not even begin to imagine what was in store for us.

Happy Pagan Holiday

Violet had a very specific request this year regarding her Halloween costume. She wanted to be a bat, and she wanted to have all of her be black, including her face, which she wanted to have a black mask just like the Red Robin at the Red Robin restaurant where we went with Auntie Karen and Baby Amelia. Okaaaay. And just how do you ask for that kind of fabric at the store?

Stella just wanted to be a mermaid. And, as usual, she was pleased with whatever I did as long as it was pretty and sparkly.

We went to downtown trick-or-treating. It was a balmy fall day - 66 degrees - lovely. Crisp leaves, outstanding autumnal decor - this picture was at the Kennebunk Inn.

The only problem was; no one told us that downtown trick-or-treating was the day before Halloween. The town gets a big dope slap for that one. Why trick-or-treat on a Friday night when Halloween is on a Saturday?

So we headed over to Duffy's, the new decent pub/restaurant in town. And it was nice just to be together, in a restaurant, both kids sitting on their chairs and being restrained. It was nothing short of a miracle. And they have help-yourself-popcorn.

And then we trick-or-treated the residential section all the way home. Sort of. We hit almost a dozen houses before the kids were done.

With a little encouragment the kids made it the whole half a mile to Grandy's house, where in Violet's words "Bubby said I could take whatever I wanted." Violet's bucket was twice as full as Stella's if that gives you any idea of what she wanted.

And now the kids are in bed. We sorted the goods when we got home, and Violet and Stella did some shockingly good trading. Stella can't have the candy with milk chocolate, so Violet offered up Smarties, Skittles and a sucker in trade. I was impressed.

Something has happened to Jason, though. It's not the pensiveness - he is often pensive. He just seems different somehow. Maybe a little protective of his candy bowl? The trick-or-treaters were actually skipping our house.