Wednesday, January 25, 2012

11 months

I can barely type 11 months without getting all misty eyed. Another month has come and gone quicker than the last and our little baby is only 2 1/2 weeks from being a year old. 

So much has happened this past month and Violet's development has just taken off. She had her very first Christmas. She was very into opening gifts and tearing up the paper. Of course she was spoiled beyond belief by our amazing families. That is a whole other post in itself,  which let's be honest, I probably will never find the time to post about it. We also went to Disney World right after the new year, which brought about her first time to fly. She did amazing especially for being that baby that cannot sit still for anything. She had the absolute best time. She was very afraid of the characters dressed up in the big plush costumes, but she loved the princesses. She would give the biggest smiles, clap, and wave to them. She would even get upset when they would leave. Disney World is also a whole post in itself(that I WILL get to!) , so I won't go much further into that.   

Violet got to spend so much time with her cousins this past month. She absolutely loves them and getting to play with them. We have a picture of the three of them framed in our living room. She is always going over to it and talking and pointing to it, so today I brought it down and let her touch and look closer at it. She immediately gave it kisses and started pointing back and forth to Jude and Lilly. I would say their names when she pointed and within 5 minutes I was asking her where Jude or Lilly was and she would point to the right one. Melt my heart! 

Violet still has no interest in walking. Occasionally she will get up on her own and walk behind her little push toy. If we try to walk behind her holding her hands she only has bout 10 seconds of it before she kicks to get down and crawl. She is however standing unassisted. It is so cute because she usually has no clue she is doing it and when she realizes she sits herself right back down. Since we have been home from Disney she has started to dance and bounce up and down whenever she hears any music. She gets the biggest grin on her face when she is really into it. 

On our first flight home from Florida we were watching the Baby Einstein sign language video with her. She has seen it so many times here at home, but this time it clicked. The first time they showed the sign for "baby" she looked up at Robby and I and signed it to us. It was so precious. Since then we kept asking her to sign baby and she consistently did it for us. When we got home we signed baby to her and she crawled to her favorite baby doll and picked he up and gave her a hug. So now anytime we say baby she signs it and then has to find her baby doll. She loves to rock her baby then hand the doll to us and we have to rock it. She also burps the baby doll after I showed her how, it is so sweet. I have been working on "eat", "more", and "all done" with her since she started sitting in her high chair to eat, and now she will sign "eat" anytime we ask her to. Just yesterday while eating lunch she looked at me and signed "eat more." I was so suprised. We'll see if she does it again though. She can show us where her hair and her mouth is. We are now working on eyes and nose. Her genius never ceases to amaze me. Kidding! Sort of.

Violet is a little chit chatter/ jibber jabberer. She says dada all the time and is getting so much better at mama. She's even said it a couple of times while not crying or whining. Whoop whoop! She has also said both of her cousin's names. "Yillye" is said alot, and I heard her say Jude very clearly one night while we were at Disney. She is definitely going to be a little talker before a walker. The past few days she has been big into giving us, everyone and everything tons of kisses. She will come towards us making the "muah" "muah" sound, which means I want to give kisses. The kisses are also followed with the sweet little "muah" sound. 

All too soon we will have a one year old. I have lots and lots of party planning left to do. It is going to be so much fun to celebrate the joy of our lives.  

Sunday, January 1, 2012

DIY noise maker toy

Violet loves puffs, but she loves shaking the can of puffs even more. She is also really good at getting the lid off making the puffs fly everywhere. For a while now I have been wanting to make her a little shaker out of an empty can of puffs. I finally saved one and right before I started I thought I might as well make it pretty.  So, I got to work this morning while she was out and about with her Pop and Poppie. It was super quick and easy to make. Here is what you need. 

  • Glue gun/glue sticks
  • Scissors
  • empty container with lid
  • rice and beans
  • stash of pretty fabric scraps





 First I cut out the fabric for the lid. I left about an inch and a half over of what I needed so I could wrap and fold it underneath. Then I just folded and glued it down all the way around.

 Then I measured and cut what I needed for the container body. Glue and wrap the fabric all the way around at the top first, then glue down the long open end. Make sure to tug and pull the fabric tight so it's not baggy and fits snuggly to the container. To finish this part cut some excess fabric off the bottom then fold and glue it to the bottom of the container like you were wrapping a gift with wrapping paper. I also ended up cutting a circle of the same fabric to cover the folds and glue on the bottom just to give it a more finished look.

Pour in the rice and beans. I used about a cup of each. After I poured in the noise makers, I cut a circle of fabric and glued it over the opening to give it extra spill protection. (Not pictured)

 Glue the inside of the lid, press it firmly onto the container, and continue pressing down for a minute to make sure it holds tight. I had a gap between the lid fabric and container fabric, so I took scraps from the edges of old hankies and embellished until it was covered.