Happy 3rd Birthday Violet!

Our wonderful little Violet turned THREE! And what a sweet little honey she is.

I was a little concerned that this would be a tough birthday for Violet. Her brother and sister just turned 5, and she had it in her head that she was going to have "all of the little children come over" for a bouncy house birthday party. However.... that's a 5 year old thing...which of course I *tried* to explain.

 Despite my worries, Violet had a wonderful 3rd birthday. Wanting our sweetie to feel just as special as her brother and sister, we made sure to celebrate her big day with a few smaller parties. She had a lot of fun.

On her actual birthday, we took her to lunch and went to ride Go-Karts at Craig's Cruisers. Being 3 years old means you can ride Go-Karts! She felt pretty big, despite the fact that nobody else could see her sweet little head in the car while she was racing around. Grandma and Grandpa Tuls joined us for the fun.

   

 

We also had a small gathering with some of my local extended family. They were getting together for a BBQ and so we had cake for Violet there, just another excuse to celebrate our little girl.

 And of course, celebrated with the Navis family while we were all together for the weekend.

 Violet is a sweet girl, with her own personality developing more and more. She is clearly growing out of the toddler phase and into a preschool, big-kid phase. She speaks and sings clearly, and she loves to do both. She makes up the funniest songs and is very creative in her language, putting pieces of different words together and then telling us with confidence what they mean.

However, she is quite shy yet, and so there are times when she is in a new setting or with new people that she will not say a word. And that is just fine. She is very excited to be going to school soon. In fact, Eden will often say, "Violet if you are nervous about school, I can tell you what it will be like." And Violet will just shrug and say, "I'm not nervous."

 

Violet loves puppies most of all. If you want the girl to smile, present her with a puppy. This has been true for some time, and this summer we saw just how true her love is when the Deurs had their puppies - real live soft, squishy, sweet puppies. Violet was in heaven.

 Violet wants to do everything that anyone bigger than her can do. Mostly she wants to do it by herself (whatever "it" is) but she will ask for help if it means being included. She plays very well with her big brother and sister most of the time. I think it's become natural for her to be a "communal" player, as she does not always know what to do if she has to play by herself. However, she does not let herself be pushed around either; she definitely has her own voice and she is learning to assert herself more and more.

 Violet is great at drawing and can write her name. She has had an almost perfect grip on pencils since she was just one year old. Plus she loves to draw and write; so she gets lots of practice. Lately she has been practicing a lot of letters that are not in her name and it won't be long before she will be writing the whole alphabet.

 Of course, we just adore Violet. She is truly a delightful, fun, spunky, smart, sweet girl. And every day I feel so thankful that I get to be her mom. Happy Birthday Violey, we love you so much!

Here's Violet's 3 year old Birthday Interview: