First Haircut Part II

Loong Den, with camera in hand, was able to carefully document Violet's very first haircut. We are trying to commission Loong Den to shoot all of her haircuts!! :)


Violet is a pretty flower!


Being a special kiddie friendly haircut place, the kids don't have to sit in boring chairs. We had different vehicles to choose from... Everything from monster trucks, car collectibles and a jeep. Needless to say, the fighter jet won.


How many adults does it take to keep Violet still enough for a haircut? Three!


Ahh... she's all trimmed up! Nice haircut little girl!

Rock Band II

Bill, Tara, and their two kids, Lucy and Billy moved to Orlando from San Diego almost a year before we did. Bill and Tara invited us over last Saturday for a get together. I think Violet had the most fun she's ever had... ever. They busted out Rockband II... Violet was immediately in love with the instruments.


It may not be a real guitar baby girl, but you get the picture.


Billy grew up so much since the last time I saw him at Boomers San Diego! Billy was an awesome singer. He was rockin out. That's Lovely Lucy in the back playing the drums.


Rock on Billy-ster!


Influenced by Billy's hardcore musical range, Violet had to test out her lungs as well... Ladies and gentlemen, we might have a little rockstar on our hands.

Violet draws now... Ok, no she doesn't.

During Violet's check-up, Dr. Marcus suggested that we get Violet some markers so she can practice her motor skills. So, Mom and I drove to Walmart and picked up these cute toddler markers. She could have cared less about the markers.


She just wanted to rip up the paper....

Violet's First Hair Cut

Violet HATES hair ties, ribbons, and barrettes. If it belongs on your head, then she'll pull it out. Since her hair was getting to length that it was poking in her eyes, we decided to take Violet in for a trim. We took her to a place that specializes in kids cuts. Here are some of the "before" shots.



I knew that it was time for a haircut when Violet was eating her dinner one night and got some rice in her hair. I took advantage of the stickiness of the rice and used it to smooth some of her hair back so that it stayed out of her eyes...

Because Violet HATED the haircutting experience so much, I didn't get any pictures during the haircut but Loong Den did. When I get those pictures from him, I'll post them up.

All Caught Up

My vows that I made to "catch-up" on my posts are now a reality! YEA! Starting now, pictures that are posted will be from the week's events. I am going to try my best to document as much as I can but as you all know, I forget to take pictures... thus no documentation. ha ha.

I officially entered my 30's on Friday. It wasn't painful at all and I actually enjoy being 30 (at this point in time I do at least).

Violet had her 15 month check-up at the doctor on Monday. She's 24.6 lbs and 30 1/2 inches. She falls in the 75%-ile for weight and 50 %-ile for height. Developmentally, she's doing great. Dr. Marcus suggests that Violet's pigeon-toed walk and bow legs aren't permanent but something she will outgrow by the age of 3 or 4 (unless her genes dictate otherwise... which may be the case with the bow legs). And despite the fact that she only says two words consistently, Dr. Marcus contributes it to the fact that she hears two languages at home.

What is Violet up to? Well, babycenter.com sent me my weekly update and it hit the nail right on the head.

---
Doing errands around town is harder than ever with a pint-size explorer in tow. Being strapped down in a car seat or stroller is the last place your toddler wants to be: Expect an earful — usually accompanied by an arched back and flailing arms and legs — when it's time to buckle up. This is partly because about 90 percent of all toddlers are walking by now (late walkers will catch up in the next month or two), which means they'd much rather be practicing their footwork than sitting still.
---

FUUUN.

Spaceship Earth

The ride on Spaceship Earth was cool before but now, with the recent remodel, it's uber cool. That's right. Naps in Spaceship Earth no more!!

Here's the actual picture of the picture that I took in the last post. If you have time, here's the video from our ride. Joe and I laughed so hard when we watched it. You can see Joe's eye peaking out behind Violet's head.

Mimi and Pop go to Disney World

Mimi and Pop wanted an escape from their Brandon home and decided to get a room at Disney's Boardwalk Villas. They had an awesome suite that had it's own little front yard. So cute! Here they are right about to brave the Florida summer heat.


We rode some rides. You might not be able to tell but that's a picture of Violet (Daddy is holding on Violet... you can see his eye) and I on Spaceship Earth. Mimi's favorite ride was Soarin'.


We took breaks throughout the day. Here is the happy family sipping sodas from the around the world at Club Cool.


Violet met Pickles the Frogs in the Japan Pavillion. She immediately got attached to them. I think that she tells them stories... I hope they understand her :).

Violet's Cleaning Service

After explaining the costs of Froginas to Violet, she has decided to try her hand at different professions... The bugs were too much of an issue for the Jungle Tours so she decided to try out a cleaning service.

She volunteered to clean our house for free, so long as we would give her good referrals to our neighbors...


She overestimated her size and realized that cleaning was a little more difficult than she anticipated. Here she is trying her hand at air guitar.

Violet's Jungle Tours

"Welcome to Violet's Jungle Tours. My name is Violet and I will be your guide today."


"Follow me!"


"Oh! Four armadillos are hiding behind the bushes. Let's check it out!"


"Thank-you for your time today and I hope that you learned lots. Don't forget me the next time you need an outdoor excursion!!"


"I'm going to play with the sticks now."

Orlando Science Center

"Daddy, wake-up!! You and Mommy are taking me to OSC today!"


"See, I told you that we would have fun."


"How did they know that I LOVE legos? These legos are just perfect for my developing motor skills."


"Daddy, can you build me something like this? I LOVE levers and switches!"

"What do you think will happen if I press this button? Let's find out!"

Benson's Near Death Experience... Maybe Not as Dramatic as Skooter's...

Benson is Joe's and I's first kid. He's a lovebug and a cuddly guy. He's loyal to a fault. He's our beast... One night before bedtime a few weeks ago, I noticed that Benson just wasn't himself--he's usually the first in bed, hogging up as much space as he can on our king size bed (if you calculate Skooter in too, it's like Joe and I have the space of a full). But this night, he was awake, sitting on the edge of the bed looking very unsettled... Maybe he had gas? I went to sleep.

Right at 11pm, I hear "the noise." If you all have a dog, you know the vomiting noise that all dogs make. I jump out of bed and see that Benson is puking out black vomit. I am immediately alarmed and call Joe into the room. We SpotBot the stain and give Benson some water.

I look up black vomit + dogs on the internet and it basically told me to prepare for immenent death. I freaked out. Joe (my cool, calm, and collective other half) told me that I was over-reacting and that he would watch Benson so I could catch some sleep. Benson continued to throw up 1-2 times every hour. Every time, it was black.

By 4am, I hadn't slept a wink and tried to console Benson (who hadn't slept a wink either). At one point, we had called the Animal ER but all they wanted was money and didn't seem to care about the well-being of our dog. We figured that if he had lasted most of the night already, we would take him to our regular vet first thing in the morning.

Long story short, Joe took Benson to the vet and the vet did an anal exam on the guy. Benson had eaten so much soil in our backyard that it clogged up his bowels. The black vomit was soil. As soon as the "plug" passed, Benson was as good as new.

Moral of the story? Don't forget to feed your dogs a meal or they go into the backyard and eat dirt.

Lesson learned.

Just for kicks...

Violet loves to play in Mommy's and Daddy's closet. I actually catch her trying to drape some of our clothes on herself. It's pretty darn cute.

She's very ticklish now!

Frogina Love x 2

Frogina # 2 and #3 have arrived in the mail. Scared that Violet wouldn't take to her new found friends (because they aren't the original...), I decided to introduce Frogina #2 to Violet while she still had Frogina #1.

Success.


It was pretty cute because I gave her the new one and she played with her like she did her old one. Then I gave her the old one too and she did a double take. If only I had it recorded on film.


This is Violet "breaking in" Frogina #2. Gotta chew on the eyes to make them nice and gray.


We decided to do before and after photos... So this is the before shot of Frogina #2. We'll do an after shot in a few months to see the progression.


I am pleased to admit that Violet will sleep with either/or, or sometimes both! We decided to hide Frogina #3... She will be the spare if (heaven forbid) something happen to #1 and #2.

Violet certainly loves her frogs.

Violet & Finn, the Easter Edition

"Hey Finn, what's with this crazy tradition that people hide eggs? They expect us to find these things? Do you see anything yet?"

"I don't see a thing!"

"Look, I recruited the Chihuahua. Benson has got a great nose. He'll find these eggs."


"Ahh! This is impossible!"


"Violet, maybe there is something back here."


"Oh forget it! I'll try again next year."

Formal Easter

Joe's side of the family gets together every year for Easter. It was fun times to be had by all!! We gathered over at Mimi and Pop's house. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, heck-- all sorts of relatives came together to celebrate.


Mimi has ordered Violet a special Easter basket with her name monogrammed on the back. You can see that the basket was perfect for Violet because she could lift it up herself (plus it was okay if she fell on it... it was soft!).


After practicing the neighborhood hunt, Violet had started to get the hang of how to collect eggs.


Finn Easter egg hunted as well. Here he was looking as cute as can be.


A glimpse of all the kids in action. Everyone hunted for 15 eggs and some eggs had a monetary surprise for the kids! Oh my! Too bad the adults couldn't play. I would have rocked the hunt.