Expanding our World in June

June was a busy, happy month for us.  One of the highlights was Lucy and Emma's dance recital.  They did an amazing job and shone so bright on stage.  

I love the family we are forming at their dance studio, and how their fearless leader teaches my girls not only dance, but how to be a part of something bigger and to include everyone, no matter what their ability may be.  It goes without saying that hard work and perseverance are also lessons that they continue to learn on their journey with dance.

We have a couple of recitals under our belt now, and although I am no longer balling my eyes out when my babies are on stage, my favorite part continues to be when I meet them after they come off of the stage.  They are so radiant and filled with such joy and pride.  It takes bravery to dance your heart out on a giant stage, but the bravery pays giant dividends when you take in the gratitude of the audience after your performance.  Of course the week before the recital Emma came down with a horrible fever and pink eye.  I don't know if it was sympathy pains (or sympathy itching) but I felt like I was coming down with pink eye too so we treated both of us with eye drops and chamomile tea bags to soothe the itching.

Violet was actually the one who came down first with the fever, but Violet has fevers all of the time due to her inability to sweat so we didn't think anything of it.  After Emma came down with the same symptoms (plus pink eye) I felt bad that I wasn't more sympathetic when Violet was sick.  Emma was better just in time for the dress rehearsal and Lucy ended up getting sick the day after the recital was finished.  Phew!

Another big highlight of our month was going to our very first conference for Ectodermal Dysplasia.  It was a local conference for Michigan, Ohio and Illinois and it was only a couple of hours away from us.  We decided to make a mini vacation of it and had a wonderful weekend.

To think that if Violet didn't have Ectodermal Dysplasia we would have never had our mini vacation. We would have never met the amazing families also affected by ED and our world wouldn't be as big.  I wouldn't wish ED on anyone, but I have to say that it has created such an amazing bond to complete strangers that have hearts of gold that I am forever grateful to Violet for our new family.  It was also so healing for us to hear the stories of other people affected like Violet, and to see how they are thriving despite it.  Violet has a bright future ahead of her, and so many kind, loving and spirited people to help her now on her journey.

We hit the beach, a sand dune trail and an amazing farmer's market on our vacation too that I really couldn't have asked for more.  Unless of course if we could have helped the mood of our teenager trapped in a seven year old's body.  She decided on the sand dune trail that we had ruined her life, and that this was the worst vacation of her entire life.  Will and I were not prepared for such emotions and regret our awkward laughing, as I think it may have escalated things further.  Two blisters later, Lucy learned the valuable lesson that when mom says to pack hiking shoes, you really should just pack hiking shoes - despite them ruining the look of your outfit that you had planned for the day.

Lucy and Emma took a week of swim lessons this past month for the first time and they really enjoyed their time in the water, but more importantly, the fancy hair drying station after their lessons. They are going to a kid swim school that is a bit pricey for our budget, and so we decided that Violet would sit the lessons out until she was a bit older.  I told Violet that she had to be older to take swim lessons and she was okay with that.  UNTIL.  Until we arrive at the girls first lesson and there was a toddler swim class going on at the same time.  Violet heard one mom tell another that her daughter was two and then it was all over for me.  Violet took my face in her hands and yanked my head so that I was looking right at her and said, "VI VI TWO!!!   VI VI SWIM TOO!!!" I finally got her off my back by promising to take her to the family open swim.

Swimming will be a good activity for Violet, however I am hesitant about the pool Lucy and Emma are swimming at because it is over 90 degrees in the pool area.  So, budget or not, I will wait until Violet is older so that she can better regulate her own temperature and not be the kid that pukes in the pool.

This summer has been extremely hot and has been breaking all sorts of temperature records.  Because of that, unless we are swimming outside, Violet needs to be indoors in air conditioning during the heat of the day.  This is a change for us, as we used to live outside all summer, eating all of our meals and doing all of our crafts and play outdoors too.  We now make sure to get outside in the early morning and in the evening and then find creative ways to spend the hottest part of the day indoors.

Lots of crafts, snacks and movies, stories and playing house.

There was one day this past month that dawned cool and crisp.  The girls and I made a last minute decision to pack a lunch, hop in the car and head to the zoo.  I'm so glad we did, as it may be our only zoo trip until fall at the rate the weather is going.  We had a great time and the only thing that would have made it better is if Will could have played hooky from work and joined us.

Despite the weather, we did not hibernate all month.  We had yoga classes, Lucy had vacation bible school, the girls and I took an herb walk class, and we enjoyed time at the farmer's market, park and library with friends.

We still had plenty of back yard play with classic things like the slide, play doh at the picnic table,  bubbles, and sidewalk chalk.

Our covered front porch gets a really nice breeze and so instead of our usual picnic table meals in the backyard, we moved some lunches to the porch.  Our backyard is in full shade by mid-afternoon, so that also helps us get outside while keeping Violet more comfortable.

Our suburban farm produced bowls of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries and I was able to harvest rhubarb, lavender, herbs and of course eggs this past month too.  The longer we have been gardening, the more we are starting to realize that we do the best with perennial plants that thrive without out too much fuss in our garden.  This includes the berries, rhubarb and herbs.  I think our garden is slowly evolving into an edible perennial paradise.

Lucy seems to appreciate gardening the very most, and loves finding frogs, caterpillars and flowers in our yard.  The below pictures in clockwise order from the top left: if our family was watering cans, Lucy holding a black swallow tail caterpillar she found on our dill plants, a habitat Lucy made for her frog that was very feng shui and Lucy collecting flowers.

Charlie continues to be loved by his humans but is developing quite a reputation with the local wildlife.  From a bird or a mouse's perspective, his name is probably know around our yard as Lucifer.  So many times birds are dive bombing his head and squirrels are yelling at him from the trees.  One evening the girls and I were outside enjoying our yard while Will was at work for a late meeting.  All of a sudden we heard two robins chirping so loudly that it could more appropriately be described as bird screaming.  We immediately knew Charlie was to blame and ran to investigate.  Sure enough, Charlie had a baby robin in his mouth.  The robin was still alive though so we poked Charlie with a broom handle until he dropped the bird and then we locked him in the garage with a dish of wet cat food.  The baby bird seemed to be okay, however it was too young to fly.  Emma showed me the tree that she saw Charlie jump out of with the baby bird but I couldn't find the nest.  So I set the baby bird down at the base of the tree and text Will to park in the driveway as Charlie was grounded in the garage and I didn't want him coming out.  The next morning we had to get my car out of the garage and Charlie was once again free to roam about the neighborhood.  When we came back from our appointments, Charlie was lounging in the backyard with a lazy and smug tail wag, while the mom and dad robins were back at dive bombing his head.  I'm assuming he got the baby bird after all.  

That very same evening that we tried to save the baby bird, a college student had knocked on our door and asked for our participation in a campaign to shut down a pipeline in the Great Lakes that is past it's prime and a risk to the safety of the water and all that depends on the water.  The girls and I each wrote a letter or drew a picture for the cause and that night, Lucy told me that "It's exhausting trying to save the world." Yup, and try as you might, sometimes it still doesn't have a happy ending.  But at least we know that we tried, and that's all you can do.  But, saving the world one fish or bird at a time does lead to some very good sleep!

We enjoyed family get togethers this past month, and got to hold our new baby cousin Annie, who is also my God daughter.  Tears fell when I told my cousin look, "my baby is holding your baby."  It's amazing to believe that my cousin and I are now able to watch our own daughters grow up together.

We also celebrated birthdays including a belated one for me with my family, my dad's, my brother's and Will's mom's birthday as well.  For Grandma T. we made a garden stone complete with our kids hand prints.

My brother got married this past month in Florida and I was unable to go for various reasons, but the main one being my kids.  It was the same day as Lucy and Emma's dance recital, and also, I still am unable to leave Violet and taking her with me was not an option as Florida in June would have been way too hot for her.  I do not regret my decision, although it was one of the hardest decisions I have had to make.  However, even though I don't regret not going, it was still incredibly sad for me to miss my own brother's wedding.  My sister in law got me through it though by patiently encouraging me for the week prior to download SnapChat and then she proceeded to SnapChat the entire wedding for me.  It was the next best thing to being there and it really helped me get through missing it.  Imagine my tears of gratitude though when my brother and my new sister in law sent me a package with baby pine trees - the favors from their wedding.  Now I can plant the trees and feel like I was a part of their day, even from far away.

We planted flowers at Luke's, my grandparents and Will's grandpa's grave this past month.  They are drought hardy plants, but I am hoping they make it through this crazy hot summer we are having.

As painful as it is to plant flowers at your own baby's grave, I have to say that Luke has also opened up our world too.  We are more compassionate to others who are grieving and we understand first hand how to help those going through a rough time in their life. We have formed bonds with other families who have lost children and whenever we meet another parent who knows the pain of losing their child, our relationship automatically goes from stranger to family.  It is interesting to me how struggles can create such strong connections.  The pain we have encountered in our lives has broadened our horizons and given us rich experiences of which we would have never had otherwise.  If I had it my way, I would still pick for Violet to be birth defect free, and for Luke to be with us on earth, whole and healthy too.  But I did not get to pick, and as there is nothing I can do to change matters, I will choose gratitude, and try to recognize the silver linings when they come my way.  

Violet at 26 Months

We are getting into a groove with the heat and Violet at this point in the summer and Violet seems to be happier.  We do not have central air conditioning but our window air conditioners do a very good job of keeping our house comfortable for Violet in our record breaking heat of a summer.  Here Violet is below, hanging out at her favorite spot in the house - in front of the air conditioner.

Violet was sick this past month with a fever and chills, and had lots of snuggles in front of the TV with a blanket.  Since then, whenever she feels sick from being overheated, she climbs up on the couch, tucks herself in with a blanket in front of the air conditioner and asks for a movie.  I usually let her, as her attention span with the movie is about 10 minutes and that is long enough for her to cool down and feel better.  She also took a pretty bad fall on the playground by our house and was left with a black and blue bruise on her forehead.  She told our chiropractor about it, and asked for some of his 'magic' tape for herself and her doll after she saw Lucy get her sprained ankle wrapped in it.  She was insistent that the tape be placed directly on her forehead.  

Violet has also gotten really good at bouncing around the house on her red donkey named Donkers and accidentally bounced into a wall and hurt her head.  I was able to get a smile out of her when I asked if she thought Donkers should get a time-out for hurting her.  Violet has spent many a time-out in that same chair this past month, so she really got a kick out of Donkers serving some time there too.

Before bed tonight, Violet and I were snuggling and she started pointing at my teeth.  Then she pointed at her own teeth and asked why, "Vivi's teeth no match?".  This about broke my heart and I couldn't think of anything to say.  I have been dreading the day when Violet realized that her teeth were different, but thinking about it tonight, I am feeling very grateful that she realized this while snuggling me and not from someone being mean to her.  The next time she brings up her teeth to me, I will have positive affirmations ready for my beautiful girl.  Violet had a dentist appointment this past month and she did a great job.  Our dentist is so very sweet and kind and always has positive affirmations for Violet.  She let Emma sit next to Violet in the chair for moral support and Violet did a great job.  We prepped for days about the visit, and Violet would tell me, "Vivi no bite dentist!" in a proud voice.  We left the office with great news - Violet has two more molars coming in and one more top front tooth - and I couldn't help but realize that a year ago almost to the date we had left that same office and I had called Will sobbing in the car with our new diagnosis.  This time I was calling Will, happy beyond belief that Violet was getting three more teeth!

What a year it has been and it is amazing to me how life is forever changing and something that seems so final and unfortunate can turn into a happy, regular life in time.  We have met some beautiful people also affected by Ectodermal Dysplasia and have found a wonderful support network among them.  To think that I didn't know any of them a year ago is really crazy and I am grateful to Violet for being the reason that we have found a completely new circle of friends that we never would have met before.  Our world has expanded, thanks to Violet, and that will have a positive impact on our family forever more.

In clockwise order from the top left below: Violet is such a goof, and loves to play outside in her "dip dops" (flip flops that aren't hers and are too big and not safe for walking or running on concrete driveways...), Violet noticing her reflection in the bottom of the trash can in our bathroom, Violet playing baby with Emma (usually she is a mom and makes a point to tell me that I am the Uma and Daddy is the Umpa), and finally, Violet playing outside with my favorite baby doll from when I was her age.

Violet's appetite has slowed down considerably this past month, but I am holding on to the fact that she isn't becoming pickier, she is just eating a lot less quantity.  In the below picture, she discovered how to get the milk out of her cereal bowl.  When she finished the milk, she was done with breakfast.  Our chickens finished the soggy cheerios.

This sweet girl is sassy, silly and sweet.  I love how she holds onto my pony tail when I carry her and how she answers most questions by saying, "Mmmmhmmm."  Everything in her world can be described by categorizing it into Mamas, Daddies and Babies.  Forget small, medium and large or boys or girls.  In Violet's world, family is everything.

There is nothing like a two year old to simultaneously make you crazy busy and yet force you to slow down and smell the flowers too.  I read something the other day about don't forget that every blessing has a burden.  Two is such a fun age, but also so very challenging.  I have decided that I love having a two year old, and her cute sayings, chubbiness and loyal love is a fair exchange for tantrums, painfully slow outings and no sleep.  Yup, totally worth it.  I yuv you ViVi!

May at the Suburban Farm

We had another month full of celebrations at our house!  We started out the month with a triple birthday party for Lucy, Emma and Violet with our family.  The girls wanted to do a fairy theme this year, and so we made little fairy stepping stones, went on an acorn hunt with tiny baskets and even found fairies hidden throughout our yard that the cousins could take home to make their own fairy gardens with.

It really is amazing how close in age all of the cousins are, and they had a great time playing in the yard despite the below average temperatures.

A couple of days after the trio birthday party was Violet's actual birthday followed at the end of the week with Mother's Day.  I had a wonderful Mother's Day and was surprised by all of my gifts, but especially one from my friend who had borrowed my kids for the morning to work on a special surprise.  See the top, right hand picture below.  I mean, I have no words but you better believe I was a crying mess.  Will used his art talent to draw me some adorable pictures of our family and also refurbished a vintage picture frame that we've had since his family cleaned out his grandma's basement over seven years ago.  Will also made me a huge batch of veggie spring rolls to fill the freezer, as they are my favorite "fast-food" lunch in a hurry.  And I treated myself by making a batch of one of my favorite spring time desserts, strawberry rhubarb cobbler.

We spent a good part of the day in downtown Detroit and enjoyed the last day of a Musical Swing exhibit that was so interesting and fun.  We walked the river walk downtown and even found a patch of yellow tulips still in bloom so that I was able to have an impromptu photo shoot of all of my babies - Luke represented by the yellow tulips.  We even had time to relax at home and built a puzzle together as well as watch the kids play in the backyard.  It was a perfect day.

As if Mother's Day wasn't enough to spoil me, my birthday was soon after where I was the star for the day again.  This time I used my star status to have Will make me a huge batch of meatballs to stock the freezer for quick week night dinners.  Will and the girls also worked together to make me one of my favorite summer desserts - brownie pizza.  The girls and Will all had homemade gifts for me including a beautiful bracelet made by Emma, cards and drawings from Lucy as well as a set of my very own Lego Girls and a bee keeping tool box made by Will.

My birthday was very hot and humid, and so our usual go to birthday celebration of being outdoors had to be carefully planned out and executed as early in the day as possible.  We picked up breakfast from the Whole Foods bakery complete with an assortment of danishes and pastries and some delicious breakfast burritos.  We ate our breakfast picnic at a local park and then enjoyed a hike together and some time playing on the playground before it got too hot for Violet.

It was another perfect day full of homemade gifts, delicious food and the people I love most.  Our final holiday for the month was Memorial Day, where we enjoyed the parade that goes by our house with all of our neighbors and their kids.  I'm losing track now as to how many annual parades we have all come together for, but certain things are starting to become a tradition including some yummy sandwiches from Pinterest called "Funeral Sandwiches" that we are now renaming "Parade Sandwiches".

We enjoyed lots of time with family and friends, including my nephew's third birthday party, yoga classes followed by picnics at the playground and impromptu rock concerts put on by our kids with nothing more than a couple of instruments and a fireplace for a stage.

We enjoyed an after school snack at a new park, a jumping fountain with friends and opening day at the Farmer's Market.

The kids and I are all getting summer fever and are completely over school work, but I am still enforcing things and trying to remind everyone of the upcoming light at the end of the tunnel.  In clockwise order from the top left: Lucy won her favorite type of stuffed animal for perfect attendance in her catechism class all year; Lucy making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch; Lucy reading to Emma and Violet; three little apple trees all filled up for good behavior; Emma caught looking at a picture book when she was supposed to be doing her reading book for school; and finally, Emma reading her reading book to Violet.

Lucy has become a huge help this past year, and it is amazing to me how much she is capable of doing if the motivation is just right and I am very grateful for her.  Here are my girls below, learning the art of sisterhood: eating ice cream together, singing to Rachel Platten in the car together, playing dolls, having a snack, cuddling in bed and taking a bath.  These are the times that I consciously soak in so that I am sustained through all of their fighting and drama.

May was a great month for gardening.  We planted all of our vegetable seeds and Lucy and I made a wildflower seed bed as well.  Our apple, pear and peach trees put out beautiful blossoms this year, as did some of our flowering shrubs.

Lucy and Emma wanted to plant their own flower bed this year and so Will dug up some sod and arranged some extra landscape rocks we had and then we took them to the local green house and gave them a budget.  They had so much fun in that green house picking out their flowers that we had to practically drag them out of there.  I'm not one for annual flowers, as I'm more of a perennial girl myself so I have to admit that my attention span was shot!  In the left hand picture is Lucy planting their flower bed.  The small inset picture next to it is of a nature scavenger hunt that Lucy and Emma put together for us to do.

I found a toad while gardening and debated whether or not to show Lucy as I always feel so bad for the toads in her possession as they receive almost too much love and never enough to eat.  Of course I had to show her though, and I became her favorite person in the whole world for doing so.  Besides playing with their toad, the girls have enjoyed building fairy gardens for hours on end in our backyard this past month.

We collected the first of the season's harvests from our garden including rhubarb and asparagus.  We ate asparagus for about four weeks straight and by the end I wasn't sick of it, but the excitement had definitely faded.  In clockwise order from top left: eggs in a blender to make a pear pie breakfast bake; the difference between my plate and Lucy's plate and what I thought was a heavenly dinner which ended with Lucy saying, "can I try some of the ribs - only because you kept making sounds when you ate it so it must be good"; Lucy eating corn on the cob - on the cob - as last summer she had no front teeth and needed it cut off of the cob; asparagus, rhubarb, and last but definitely not least, one of my biggest time savers - delivered groceries.  The best was when Emma looked out of the front door and yelled, "MOM!  FOOD'S HERE!"

Our baby chicks are no longer babies and this past month were old enough to be wheeled outside during the day.  This was a giant chore from the beginning and by the end of it we were completely over it.  We had to bring them into the garage overnight because their rolling coop was not animal proof and they were still too small to be put into our permanent coop with the adult hens.  Charlie was very possessive of the chickens and would lay next to the coop or on top of it every night as if he was guarding them.  I think the reality was he was making sure that if one got out, he would be the first to eat it.  By the end of the month though the chickens no longer ignored his paw under their cage as he swatted it back and forth and several times he ran away after they pecked him.  In the bottom left hand picture is what you do when your friend pulls into your driveway, opens her trunk and a watermelon rolls out.  Little did she know that she would be donating it when she bought it, but a smashed watermelon is nothing to cry about when there are chickens nearby!

Charlie is happy that we are spending more and more time outside and loves to harass us as we work in the garden.  My favorite is that he thinks low back fat exposed to the elements is something to be swatted at.

My honey bees arrived early this past month and so we spent some time beforehand prepping all of the hives.  To take the supplies to the property north of us where I have several hives was definitely an engineering feat.  Will and I are super proud of the fact that we have still managed to keep our four door sedan with three kids and our suburban farm.  We managed but trust me when I say there wasn't a free square inch to spare.  One of the hives at the property was hosting a snake which took me by surprise, and another hive at our house had a family of mice living under it.  It was sad for me to then see Charlie eat them one by one.  It just really affects me and it is so strange to me that the rest of my family is indifferent to it.  I overheard Lucy ask Will, "Why does mom get so upset when Charlie eats birds and mice?  Charlie has to eat too!"  First off, we feed Charlie cat food so it's not like I want him to starve, but secondly, how are my kids this callous!?  I am hoping that it means they have a healthy sense of the food chain and how life works unlike me, who grew up in suburbia.

I've been involving the family more and more in my bee keeping, mostly out of necessity because I have so much to do, but also because I've realized that for all these years that I've dreamed of having a family business together, that this IS the family business!  It's ironic that my hobby has naturally evolved into this great business, but wow, am I ever so grateful!

Lucy and Emma are amazing helpers at my bee classes and we have been done it enough times now that I no longer even need to give them directions as they know what needs to happen next and take care of it.  We also caught our first swarm of bees from a nearby house and although we were Googling what to do the entire time, I can now say that after several weeks they are thriving in their new home.  This was about a $120 value, although I need to impress the fact that nothing is ever free.  We learned so many things the hard way with this swarm and are very fortunate that we didn't kill them with our ignorance.  My favorite picture below is in the center bottom, of a sheet that we obtained from who knows where that has tigers all over it and seems to be as useful as it is ugly.  In this instance it covered up the box that we left the bees in overnight when we realized that they had chewed a hold through the bottom and were all over the inside of our car.  I also would like to point out that the flat rear end featured in the bee suit below is Will's.  When we arrived on the scene of the swarm we realized that I did not have the strength or confidence on the ladder to hold the box for the bees while getting the swarm into it, so Will had to do it.  The entire time he kept telling the onlookers that this was not his hobby - as if to cover his flat butt if the whole thing went awry.  My favorite part of my side kick was when he made a point to tell the gathering audience that we must have left his bee suit at home as he zipped up the snug fitting suit.  I played right along and said, "Oh, you're right. Sorry about that."  All the while knowing that it was his bee suit that had just gotten tight on him.  But the full disclosure is that MY bee suit hasn't fit since I was pregnant with Violet and I am now wearing his suit.  So I guess he was right that he was putting my suit on.  *GRIN*  Photos from top left in clockwise order: a bee class that I'm hosting, Will catching a swarm, our tiger sheet keeping our newly obtained bees contained, an order of wedding favors, and soap cooking in my crock pot.

But the best part of this story is that Will and I were on a date when we got the call that there was a swarm near by, so we left Costco (yup, we were grocery shopping on our date) and ended up having an awesome, crazy adventure together.  We even got a call from the babysitter - after we asked her if she could stay longer - that one of our chickens got loose and she felt like she was in uncharted waters.  Oh, the excitement!  We had so many laughs and it will forever be one of our most memorable dates and our beloved baby sitter also has some good stories she will never forget too.

Life is never dull with my hilarious husband, three fiesty girls, 60,000 plus bees, too many chickens and one crazy cat!

Violet Hot and Cold at 25 Months

This past month with Violet has been quite challenging.  We believe it is the rising temperatures and humidity outside combined with her new age of two and her trouble with sleep.  Her tantrums and mood swings have been epic to say the least, and I have turned several heads when I've sprayed her in the face with the mister bottle during a melt down.  It finally occurred to me that it probably doesn't look good when I spray a screaming toddler in the face with a water bottle, much like a pet owner would spray a misbehaving cat.  Because I don't feel like defending my parenting to complete strangers, I now mist myself as close as possible to Violet, so she still benefits from the second hand spray and hopefully now I'm only being judged for her lack of clothes in public.  It is kind of hurtful when mostly elderly people tell me to my face that I need to get that poor baby some clothes before she freezes to death.  If only they knew the stress and anxiety that went into what she is currently wearing/not wearing.  Here she is below, trying to catch a breeze with Will.

When Violet becomes overheated, it becomes a vicious downward spiral as she communicates her discomfort through screaming, which then causes her to overheat even more.  When all other cooling methods have failed, I put her in a cool bath and she calms down very quick.  It is such a relief to have her sweet personality come back and it breaks my heart to see her lose herself when she overheats.  People with the same challenges Violet has keep telling me that it will get easier in a couple of years when she knows how to manage her own temperature better and I keep reminding myself that if we can make it through the toddler years we will be okay.  The tough thing is, that if we are playing outside she is so happy, even when it is warm.  It's almost like her core body temperature raises slowly, over a period of time and once it hits a certain point - probably when the rest of us start sweating - she starts becoming more and more irritable until there is nothing to do except douse her in cool water.

Violet loves swinging and now that the weather is warmer, we have realized that her swing is in full sun.  The other day I told her no when she wanted to swing because it was too hot.  She got upset and kept crying and whining about swinging that I finally agreed and put her in the swing.  A couple of minutes later she became lethargic and I pulled her out of the swing and drenched her shirt in water.  I feel like in a couple of years I won't have to fight her to keep her from overheating.

 I just hope the rest of the world won't be distracted by Violet's mood when she is hot, and can see the girl that I see - the one who loves to help me...

 ...and is super silly and loves to entertain an audience with her antics.  In the below pictures from clockwise order starting at the top: Violet turned two lap desks over to make a bed out of the bean bag bottoms, Violet telling me, "Look Mama T., I up down!" and finally, Violet telling me to look at her hands while we were driving in the car.  Fortunately I found it funny as it is a giant pain to have to put her shoes and socks back on each time we need to get out of the car while running errands.  However, unlike when her sisters were her age and I made them walk without shoes and socks if they took them off, I never will reprimand Violet for taking clothes off as I feel like that is the first step in managing her own body temperature.

Violet still has the most varied appetite out of her sisters, and appreciates foods that are soft, unless the food is chocolate of course.  She still doesn't have any bottom molars and struggles with raw veggies and apples.

Violet speaks in full sentences now and it is such a cute thing for us to hear - especially if we understand what she is saying.  Usually if I can't make out what she is saying, Lucy and Emma are ready interpreters.  Some of her favorite phrases this past month include:

-"Help me Mama T."
-"What's this Mama T.?"
-"That scared me!" in response to almost getting hurt or hearing a loud noise.
-"Too spicey!" describes any food she doesn't like, even if it is just something she has to spit out because she can't chew it.

She also likes to whisper-talk stories, which I find highly endearing.  And yes, she refers to me as Mama T.

Violet loves playing house and setting up various little cozy corners for her and her baby dolls.

 In fact, Violet's favorite thing to do is to play mommy with her baby dolls.  She got a new baby doll for her birthday to match the ones that Lucy and Emma play with and I'm sad to report that the new baby doll has replaced her little Rosie baby doll that she has slept with since she was just a couple of months old.  Maybe the larger sized doll feels better to cuddle, but either way, I am sad to see her love of Rosie come to an end.

Besides her new doll named Kayla from her birthday, she has also found my favorite doll from when I was a kid named Babsie (or as Will refers to her as The Albino Princess - reason number 234 why we wouldn't have been friends as kids).  It is crazy to me to see Babsie come back to life through the love of Violet and I feel such amazing gratitude that my most beloved childhood toy has a new life again with my real-life baby.  Here Violet is below, playing with her two favorite baby dolls.

Violet really is a sweetie when the temperature is cooler and the humidity is low.  Oh, and when everyone gives her what she wants immediately, without hesitation.  A toddler that doesn't sweat - such a difficult combo!  Even still, I love her with all of my heart and can't imagine life without her, no matter how exhausting our life right now may be.  Here she is below, smelling lilacs, picking flowers and watering our garden.

 When Lucy and Emma were struggling with toddlerhood tantrums I read them the book, "I Love You Through and Through" where it says, "I love your happy side, I love your sad side, I love your silly side, and your MAD side."  I think I need to add a page for Violet that says, "I love your cool side and your HOT side, I love you through and through, yesterday, today and tomorrow too!"