Violet is Three!

Violet is three!  Three years of learning, growing, changing, laughing, smiling, crying, cuddling, and exhaustion with this sweet and feisty girl is causing me to pause with wonderment and gratitude.  I wish that our time with Violet hasn't been so filled with challenges, as then maybe the time wouldn't have slipped through my fingers like it has.  BUT, I also know that without the challenges, I wouldn't have the level of awe and thankfulness that I have for our very loved little girl.

This past month we have been working with Violet on how to say the condition that she has.  She says "ectodermal dysplasia" so very cute and each and every time, the proud look on her face as she says it reassures me that she will be just fine.  She is now old enough to understand that she has ectodermal dysplasia and we have had some sweet conversations about it.  She asked me the other day why one of her teeth is laying down next to the others and I told her that someday we will make it stand up with braces, just like several of our friends have braces right now.  She also has been telling me when she needs water or cooling which has been a huge improvement from the first three years of her life.  Here she is below, after she discovered that grass in the shade is very cool and relaxing to lay in.  The other picture below shows her proudly showing off her hair that is getting long.  Ectodermal dysplasia affects her hair, skin and teeth and so we are also very excited that Violet's hair is doing so well.

Violet has such a silly personality and loves to tell stories and entertain us.  She is starting to learn about stories versus lies and in the top, left hand picture below, Violet is telling me that she only had one cookie after I discovered her in the kitchen with a package of cookies half gone.  She couldn't look me in the eye as she told me she just had one, and had one cookie in her mouth with one in her hand as she reassured me that she only had one cookie.  I couldn't help but laugh and take a picture, which I hope wasn't reinforcing her behavior.  In the top, right hand picture below, I came upstairs to get Violet from a time out she had finished when I saw her feet sticking out from under the gate on her bedroom door which was reminiscent of the witch in the Wizard of Oz.

Violet's temper erupts quickly and violently, but fades fast (unless she is overheating and then that is a wild and crazy ride).  I swear it is like she wants to be put in time out.  I keep telling her she doesn't have to hit someone to have some rest time, but so far, she just acts relieved when I put her in her room, and then tells me minutes later that she is "going to be a good girl now."  She doesn't hold a grudge and has no problem transitioning into my happy, sweet girl after a temper tantrum.

Violet's overheating tantrums are another animal all together.  We struggle with car rides.  Any ride over 20 minutes and it seems like she overheats and then loses her mind.  Currently, Emma is harnessed in a five point buckle right next to Violet, but I'm thinking that arrangement needs to change very soon as Emma receives the blunt force of Violet's rage when she overheats and there is no amount of threats or distractions that will get her to stop.  The only solution is getting Violet out of her carseat and cooling her down.  This is not always practical, like when you are grid-locked in a traffic jam on the expressway.  Last week Violet finally got in to the pediatrics genetics clinic at a large hospital about an hour drive from us.  We are now awaiting our insurance's decision on covering a genetic test we would like to have done.  It took three hours to get home from the appointment as we left about an hour before rush hour.  Two solid hours of her screaming and frothing at the mouth with multiple stops to get her out of the car and we were convinced that we had found a new level of hell.  I think being harnessed to a metal-based carseat is just bad news for Violet and despite an air vent right above her head and plenty of water she reaches a point where she is just done and her freaking out just worsens her condition, as all of the screaming naturally raises her body temperature too.  After the rage is over and she is finally out of the car for good, my heart breaks for her as she apologies on her own accord for being a "bad girl" (her words, not mine as I try to tell her that she is always my good girl but sometimes does bad things) as she wearily lays her head on my shoulder.  It's like she is a prisoner herself to her crazy heat-induced rage.  Fortunately, she is tall for her age and it will only be a couple of more years (and many, many more gray hairs) before she no longer needs to be in the five-point harness carseat.

Violet got to patiently watch Emma and then Lucy celebrate their birthdays before she got to have her special day and so when her birthday finally came, she knew exactly what she wanted.  The night before she got to pick out her own balloons, and then the morning of her birthday she played her "Birthday Wild Card" and demanded her cup of milk BEFORE she got dressed and went downstairs. In so many words, she wanted her breakfast in bed.

Violet wanted a scooter for her birthday and Will scored a good deal at the Salvation Army.  He also made her a doll bunk bed like her sisters have and one of her sisters got her the other item she had requested for her birthday - a Chelsea Barbie doll.  

A couple of days before her birthday she told us she wanted to go to the local indoor playscape to celebrate but on the day of her birthday - which rained most of the day - she was content to just stay home and play with her presents.  Play Doh, riding around in the house on her new scooter, watching the movie Sing that she had gotten and reading stories was all she needed and wanted.

An important thing to know about Violet is that she is a mama's girl.  Her loyalty to me is unsurpassed and she gets jealous of anyone showing me affection.  For her birthday, she told me that she wanted to read stories in a nest (sitting in my lap she refers to as her nest) and lots of snuggles.  We are still trying to get Violet to sleep through the night in her own bed and one night when Will told her that if she doesn't go potty (she was refusing to go potty before bed) that she couldn't come into our bed in the middle of the night.  She looked at me with big, tear-filled eyes and said, "I'm sorry mama that I can't snuggle you tonight."  

We measured Violet and she is as tall as her sisters were when they were FOUR.  Yes, Violet seems to be taking after my mom's side of the family in height.

But a four year old is still very height challenged.  When I found Violet in the bathroom standing on top of the toilet, I asked her why she was up there and she told me, "So I can see myself in the mirror!"

Violet, like your siblings before you, you have taught me so many things.  You have changed me and I am a better person from being your mom.  I am so grateful that you are my daughter, and as you told me the other day, "You and me baby we're stuck like glue."  Happy birthday Violet!!!