Happy Birthday Violet!

Our sweet baby Violet turned 1 on August 30! We had a birthday party for her on the 28th, and we were overwhelmed and touched by the attendance and the gifts of family and friends who adore our girl almost as much as we do. Violet was fairly serious during her party, taking it all in. But some day she will love hearing all about her first birthday party!

Sebastien and Eden had a great time at Violet's party, and thoroughly enjoyed eating Violet's cake and opening Violet's presents. They liked entertaining Violet's guests and playing with Violet's new things. They've even asked a few times since Violet's birthday, "Is it Violet's birthday again today?"

Violet is looking and acting much less like a baby and more like a toddler all the time. She is not walking quite yet, but she is very capable of getting where she wants to go, nonetheless. She crawls pretty quickly and scoots around the furniture with ease. She can stand for a couple seconds on her own, and has taken about a step and a half a few times.

Violet loves books, and she points to pictures and words (with her chubby little pointer finger) wanting to know what things are. She also likes to take our fingers and make us point to the things she's interested in. Vi is more and more eager to follow her brother and sister around and she often wants to join in their activities (much to their dismay at times.) But by far Violet's favorite thing is music. She enthusiastically joins in our after-dinner family dance parties. She bops and twists to music without fail. And usually when someone starts to sing, she will begin to swing and sway.

Violet is gaining new words as well. In addition to Mama and Dada, her favorite word is "ball." She can also say, "up," "buppa" (grandpa), "buh-bye" and she can say "oof"(woof), "moo" and "meow." She can sing "EIEIO" and does the motions with "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." She says "ooooh" when looking at books with Mama and "mmmm" when she's eating. She also can fake sneeze, and she often joins in laughing when everyone else is, with a rather fake-sounding laugh.

Violet loves finger foods, and it's harder and harder to get her to eat baby food without her making a ridiculous mess. (She really took to her birthday cake, but then struggled to sleep that night, all hopped up on sugar.) She likes to hold her own spoon and dip it in her yogurt or her baby food jar to feed herself.  We've switched Violet to cups from bottles, and from formula to milk. She does not always love drinking from her cup or drinking her milk. But we're sticking with it. We also dropped her bed time drink. She has done just fine with that change. She sleeps very well at night, and usually naps two times a day.

The last year with three very young ones has of course had its challenges at times, but it has been worth absolutely all of it. Violet is sweet, funny, adaptable, clever, social, cuddly and just a wonderful addition to our family. We are so excited to continue to watch her grow and learn about the world around her.