Baby Bear at 29 Months

Our sweet and feisty Violet has really grown in her speech this past month.  This morning after another rough night of sleep I asked her if she had a bad dream.  She nodded her head and then I moved on.  A moment later however, she launched into a several minute description of her dream that would have caused me to sleep badly if I had dreamed it too!  Long story short, Violet said that in her dream Emma went to bed with a necklace on even after I told her to take it off and then died.  Will was there when she told us this too and it made us so sad and also amazed at what is actually going on in her head.  Violet loves us all so fiercely, but has a special place in her heart for Emma which we attribute to Emma's being the closest in size to her, as well as Emma's habit of giving Violet whatever she wants when Violet is upset.  Emma and Violet also play house every single morning while I make breakfast and share their dolls with each other - sometimes peacefully and sometimes not.

Violet loves playing with baby dolls and talks to them in full conversation.  She also likes to tell me that she is her baby's mom and I am the grandma.  Violet also loves playing with play doh...

...and also enjoys getting into things that she knows she shouldn't.  Here she is below, after I found her in her sisters' closet with scissors and Emma's washi tape.  Emma of course told me that she didn't mind.  I had to tell Emma that although I appreciate how well she shares with Violet, scissors are something that shouldn't be shared.

Her expanded vocabulary includes testing the waters with words like poop and she has taken to calling everyone, including my parents, "poo poo pants".  We have tried replacing it with "popcorn" pants but it isn't sticking.  The most challenging part is that it is hard not to laugh when she says it and unfortunately that is reinforcing her habit.  Will has had a recurrence of ulcerative colitis this past month, and perhaps that is partly to blame for her new vocabulary.  My brother John walked into the house the other day and Violet greeted him by saying some pretty graphic stuff about Will's health.  In an effort to maintain some class, I will just say that I think my brother was scarred for life!  Violet does seem to have a sense of humor, if even it is stuck in the potty phase right now.  She does enjoy making us laugh though, and being silly, refers to Will as Papa Bear and to herself as Baby Bear.

I was telling someone the other day that as the third girl in our family, Violet moves on pretty quickly when we tell her "no" or "wait a minute".  She will throw a fit for a moment, but then picks herself up and takes it upon herself to obtain the item or service that we denied her.  In the above picture, she found the screw driver and batteries all on her own and brought them to Will after he told her that he would fix her toy phone later.  She is very independent and I like her ability to help herself most times - unless of course I told her no to say, candy and a little bit later I found her up on the counter unwrapping a piece of the forbidden candy.

Violet is still a great eater, and has a special love for condiments.  Here she is below eating butter straight out of the package at a restaurant, as well as eating salsa with a spoon.  Forget double dipping, how about double scooping?  Also, for Violet, chips are just a utensil to eat salsa with.  I say that because tonight I finished the chips on Violet's plate, all the while knowing why they were slightly soggy.  They were Chipotle chips and she is my baby so that makes it okay that I still ate them, right?  Will told me it was equivalent to eating chocolate covered peanuts that someone else had sucked the chocolate off.  I told him that I have standards, and would never eat that - unless of course they were dried out and I was in need of some protein.

We had some breakthroughs this month with Violet's ectodermal dysplasia.  She now helps herself to the freezer for cooling gear when she starts to feel hot at home.  In the below picture she has a necklace made by a friend out of sponges that you get wet and then put in the freezer.  It is her favorite way to cool off because it is like an accessory.  It is so nice that she is starting to help herself as at the beginning of the summer it was a toddler/parent battle to help her cool off.  We also finally got the official letter from U of M Children's Hospital stating that Violet is now on the wait list to be seen by their genetic team.  That was a huge relief and we are excited for when we finally get the call to make an appointment.  We also found someone who makes weighted blankets which are supposed to help you get into a deeper level of sleep.  It has definitely helped Violet to push past the 30 minute mark which is when she normally wakes up and now it is about every hour instead.  The problem we are having still is that the weighted blanket gets hot on her and so she wakes up overheated.  I'm hoping as we get into the colder months that this will work itself out, but in the meantime I am keeping her room extra cool and the blanket has definitely helped more than it has not.  

Violet had one major overheating episode this past month in a bounce house at our friend's baptism party.  Fortunately Lucy and Emma came and alerted me that Violet was acting funny in the bounce house and when I went to investigate I found her slurring her speech and moving around like she was drunk with a face that was a red as a tomato.  I pulled her out of the bounce house and she then began to throw an epic fit.  This is typical when she is overheated, but it was made worse by the fact that she really really really wanted to stay in the bounce house.  Because it is now fall, I haven't been bringing her cooling mist fan with us anymore and so had to rely on my friend to get us the supplies we needed to help her feel better.  Needless to say, Violet was NOT happy and we ended up leaving the party.  Lesson learned and we were reminded that we should always have her cooling kit with us and that despite the progress Violet has made in regulating her own temperature, she is still a toddler and wants what she wants!