Violet is establishing herself as the comedian of the family. Her vocabulary has grown so much this past month, and she is definitely using it in her comedy. The other day Lucy and I were locking horns as we were trying to get everyone in the car to get someplace on time. As I was buckling Violet into her car seat, I leaned over her and put my face right next to Lucy's and asked, "Who's the boss?" Silence and a cold stare back from Lucy followed my stern question, so I asked again, "Who's the boss?" Silence and more icy stares from Lucy until Violet piped up and yelled with glee, "MAMA!!!" We all burst out laughing and it's safe to say that Violet saved the day.
A couple of days ago, Will came home from work and settled onto the couch to catch up with the girls. He put his feet up on the ottoman and Violet waddled over and for some reason sniffed his feet which were resting right at her nose level. As soon as she took a whiff, she recoiled in shock yelling "EWWWWW!" We laughed so hard that now every time she feels the need to insert some humor she will stick her feet in our face while saying "Ewww" or she will sniff our feet while showing huge disgust.
For better or worse, we can't help but describe Violet as our Wild Card. Will and I find ourselves telling a story of something we thought we could do and then our surprise as to how Violet foiled our plan. Things that we assume are simple tasks are often far more complicated with Violet in tow. A simple trip to the library? Sounds fun, let's go! The reality - leaving the children's section with a screaming Violet and apologies left and right to the little boy she yanked a toy from, the books all off of the shelves, and the general volume of noise that surrounds her with me dictating to Lucy and Emma on how to best clean up her wake of destruction while I remove her from the situation. Or how about the other day, how Lucy, Emma and I thought a trip to the craft store would be a fun diversion in our free time. Wrong again! I bought each of the girls a ball of yarn as the exciting first step in teaching them how to knit. Then we got sidetracked in the scrapbook paper aisle, looking for cute paper to mod podge on top of old baby food jar lids. The next thing I know I look down and Violet is a tangled mess of yarn in the shopping cart. I try taking the yarn from her and she starts screaming at the top of her lungs a new word, "MINE!!" I decide that it's time to go and as I try pushing the cart with my screaming child in it to the check out line, the cart stops dead in it's tracks and I realize there is a trail of yarn wrapping around and down the aisle we just came through. After Lucy and Emma tracked down the trail of yarn and came back with the end of it we high tailed it to the check out line and of course there was a long line. No one made eye contact with us as Violet continued yelling "MINE!!" and Lucy, Emma and I tried untangling the mess she had made so that we could pay for the disaster. When it was our turn, the cashier laughed out loud at the mess and offered me a pair of scissors. Clouded by my own frugal judgement of wasting the yarn I declined the scissors, and instead said yes to whatever knick knack impulse buy Lucy and Emma asked me for in the check out line.
We got out to the parking lot, found our car and as I tried getting Violet out of the cart I realized that she had knotted herself to the seat. I wanted to kick myself for not accepting the scissors when they were offered because now I was left with two options - going back into the store with the still screaming Violet to make a fresh new scene with what was left of my dignity or to detangle her myself in the privacy of the oh so public parking lot. What felt like ten minutes later, with Violet screaming "MINE!!" for all to hear still, I finally got her free and strapped her into her car seat. My stubborn and cheap self still didn't know when to call it quits though, so I spent another ten minutes detangling the yarn. In retrospect, I should have just left the cart and gotten in the car and never looked back as the stares and the sweat and the screams were just not worth it. Hindsight is twenty twenty. It's a good thing this kid is so cute.
At Violet's well visit this past month the doctor asked how many words Violet knew. I realized just how much she knows when Lucy, Emma and I started listing them off: hot dog, pop for Popsicle, box for juice box, stuck, up, wow, ow, mine, hi, bye bye, nack for snack, slide, nigh nigh for night night, wawa for water, boat, duck, socks and rocks!
Violet can also point to all of her body parts when you ask her - belly, toes, feet, legs, nose, eyes, ears, hair, etc.
She is our feisty, funny girl and knows exactly what she wants and doesn't back down for a second. Here she is below staring down one of our chickens. "Bawk bawk" is what she says when she talks about chickens.
She has gotten really confident on her feet and can even run now. I no longer feel like I need to be her second shadow to keep her from scraping her baby skin on the driveway. I am amazed to say that I even feel comfortable with her on the slide all by herself too. I mean, she's already figured out how to go down face first, which is far more exciting than feet first.
This kid defies all expectations. She is a full time job and I love her so much. She is our Wild Card, and is whoever she wants to be, that is for sure. I can't help but feel amazed and proud at this child that has been entrusted to us. Violet, you keep life interesting and are exactly what our family needed!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment