Our playful, funny, sweet and sassy girl is almost two! When we ask Violet how old she will be on her birthday she will giggle and say, "Seven!" Then we say, "Not Lucy - Violet - how old will Violet be on her birthday?" And then she will giggle again and say proudly, "TWO!" After a little pause, she will then add, "Emma, five." She is talking so well now and loves retelling a handful of the same stories to us, as well as saying the phrase, "Watch this!" before she does something goofy. In the last week, she has started saying, "Watch this Mumskies!" which I find hilarious as for some reason, she now refers to me as "Mumskies".
Violet makes it impossible to get anything done when Will isn't home to entertain her and as Lucy and Emma are engrossed in their own play and get upset when Violet messes things up, Violet and I can be found playing together most of the time. Violet will take me by the hand and practically drag me where she wants me to go, and then tells me to "Seat down" and then shows me how to play. Usually, after we have been playing for a bit, Emma wanders curiously over and becomes torn between playing with us or playing with Lucy. Here we are below, making pizza. This is something that they learned in their kids yoga class and is great stretching for the old Mumskies. Our legs are the crust, in case you were wondering.
Will does a great job when he is home, taking Violet on various errands so that I can get some things done. It's gotten to the point where when she leaves the house with Will, she will turn and ask me, "Mama come too?" It is so hard to say no to that! If I do muster up the courage to say, "No, mama staying home" she will respond with, "O-tay mama. I love you! Bye!" But when I do respond with, "Yes, mama coming too!" she rewards me with excited jumping and squealing.
Violet loves collecting rocks and her height lends her to the perfect angle for spotting just the right stones. She is also very methodical in what she does. She loves running around barefoot when we are at home, but unlike her older sisters who leave their socks strewn and stuffed all over the house, she places her socks on the piano every single time.
That's not to say that Violet doesn't contribute her own fair share of mischief though. Here she is below, after I caught her cracking a dozen eggs all by herself. Or in other words, when my back was turned she made a disaster of my attempts at breakfast. I didn't handle this mess very calmly, but it did help that she kept sweetly saying, "I sorry, mama." In the below picture, she is offering up her hands at me saying, "mess?" Keep in mind that egg yolk dripped all over the counter, cabinets and floor just doesn't present as messy in photos. About half of the dozen eggs made it into the bowl.
Our ViVi is having a rough go with sleeping this month. It seems that we take one tiny half baby step forward and then after we enjoy the progress for a week, we take several giant steps backwards.
As Violet is about to turn two, I can say that these have been the most sleep deprived two years of my life. If I think too much about it, I get very frustrated and angry. I feel as though her sleep struggles are stealing my ability to fully enjoy her rapidly disappearing babyhood. Why, oh why have I been given not one, not two, but THREE kids who don't sleep with the last one sleeping worse than I ever thought could be possible?
So, unlike with my previous babies where I fought with ever fiber of my being to achieve sleep (specialists, books, diet, magic), I am surrendering to my lot in life, and refusing to waste any more energy on the things I can control - anger and frustration. And maybe I'm just too tired to fight what I clearly have no control over. Most days we get by just fine, as long as I refuse to dwell in frustration and anger. It is still very tough though when Violet is sick. Her sleep when she is healthy is just enough for us to get by, but when we enter into a sick stretch already sleep deprived, it makes it so much more difficult. Violet had another upper respiratory virus this past month. We got through it with creative techniques - in clockwise order from the top left: staying in PJs all day, Violet requesting upside down back thumping to loosen up the mucous in her lungs, Violet using a play kitchen mustard bottle to show us how we spray her nose with saline, and finally, me pushing Violet in her swing outside for a nap, since she was too congested to sleep laying down and refused to go to sleep via more conventional methods.
These past two years have presented more challenges to my stamina (mentally, emotionally and physically) than anything I have experienced before. But the same deep levels I have been challenged, I have also experienced that same level of delight. My joy in Violet is so very large and the love that she sparks in my heart makes me say without a doubt, that I am beyond grateful that I was chosen to be her Mumskies.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment