Today

 This little lady loves to be outside. All morning she kept going to our front door and trying to open it to go outside. When she failed at her attempts she would start screaming for freedom. So, I decided we should head on over to the park after a few errands (one of which was buying tickets for The Hunger Games!). As you can see her baby doll is a constant companion and no Mickey Mouse goes unnoticed.

We came home from the park to have lunch. Lately when Violet eats oatmeal or applesauce I have been letting her try to feed herself with a spoon. She is getting so good at it! I have to help her scoop it up by moving the bowl around, but other than that she does it by herself. The first picture is her telling me, very loudly, that she wants to do it by herself. The last one is the victory clap after a successful couple of bites. She is quite the tenacious little thing.

Recently

In the past week and a half baby Violet has grown into a full blown toddler. Walking is her favorite thing to do. Back and forth, to and fro, even in circles. This girl is a walking fool. I know this will probably be short lived, but she seems so much less into things. It's like she is up in this whole new world and getting into drawers and cabinets are beneath her (for now). She is constantly babbling and talking about who knows what. She actually said "church" this past Sunday when I was telling her that, "dada is at church." after her saying "dada" incessantly all morning. I even have it on video to prove it, though I am debating on posting it due to the fact that I sound like a backwoods hick when I say "church".  When asked what a dog, cow, owl, or old lady says, she appropriately responds with a "woof woof", "moo", "hoot hoot", and "hush" (old ladies say "hush" because of the line in the book Goodnight Moon). This 13.5 month age is pretty fun stuff I tell you. We are loving (almost) every second of this new  toddlerhood stage.

Violet's First Birthday Party

This post is extremely image heavy, I apologize. Violet's first birthday party was a blast from start to finish. My mom and I had way too much fun shopping, DIYing, and decorating. We decided to go with a Valentine/heart, blue/pink/red theme since little miss was born on Valentines Day. I had tried my best to stay away from any kind of Valentine idea to try and make her birthday separate from the holiday of love, but I just couldn't deny how cute (and easy) it all could be. I had so many favorite parts to the day, but I loved me some of the photo booth we sat up. I thought is was the perfect way to document everyone who came to love on Violet. What a fun (and tiring) day it was. We had the best time celebrating the love of our lives!

Ruffle cake by Cassie Cakes

Cupcakes by my dear friend Jessica Dunlap

Cake Pops made by me! Thanks to this super helpful tutorial

 Party decorations done by myself and my cute Mom

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.  

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.

10 months 1 week

The boo boo is another month closer to one year of life. She is more fun than ever and we just can't get enough of her. She is all over the place and even walking behind her little walker/cart/play toy. It is so cute how proud she gets when she goes a really long distance. Another tooth has popped up on the bottom and the two top front just started cutting. This has made for some sleepless nights lately, but let's get real, that isn't all that new to us. Violet just has never been a good sleeper. We've tried it all, and yes, we have a day and night routine that has been in place for almost 6 months now. She is a feisty one and can keep going long after you think she should have just crashed. She has now (almost) fully made the transition to finger/table foods. I have been so proud of her for trying so many new things and actually liking them. Her favorites right now are green beans, cuties, sweet potato, and toast. 

Violet is our little share-bear. She wants to share everything with everyone. Her food, pacifier, books, and toys are always being extended in our direction. I think it's just the sweetest. Her favorite is to hand her pacifier to me and wants me to put it in my mouth, and when I actually do it, she thinks it is the funniest thing she has ever seen. My favorite is when she crosses the living room to grab a book, brings it back, hands it to me, and grunts so I will read it to her. It can't just be read once either. A minimum of about 10 times through is required before she will move on to another (if at all). This past month we have discovered she loves to problem solve. We will give her all kinds of different tubs, bowls, and cups that have corresponding lids. She will sit there and figure out which one goes to which and actually puts the lids back onto them. I know it sounds super simple or we probably should've started doing this with her months ago, but I think she is absolutely brilliant when she does it. I can't even count how many times a day I say how smart she is. Proud mama right here.  

Violet's first Christmas is just days away and we couldn't be more excited. She is going to love every second of it, especially ripping up all of the paper. The holidays are just that much more fun now that she is here. She brings so much joy into our and our family's lives. We are so thankful for the gift of our little girl.

9 months

Violet turned 9 months and not a whole lot has changed since 8 months. She is a super quick crawler. I look away for a second and she is out of sight. We try to walk with her while standing over her and holding her hands, but she doesn't want much to do with it. She starts kicking her legs wanting to get down and just crawl. She is getting another bottom tooth which is making for some cranky days and multiple rocking sessions in the middle of the night.

She loves giving kisses to everyone and everything (except me...still). I will catch her kissing the people in her books, her stuffed animals, and herself. Anytime we see a mirror it has to be kissed. She now knows how to do touchdown. She  has it backwards though and instead of us saying "touchdown" to cue her to do it, she throws her arms in the air and waits for us to say "Touchdown Sooners!" The other night while we were out to eat she would put her head down and want us to say "Where's Violet?" then she would pop her head up with a big smile wanting us to say "There she is!" It was so funny to see her start being silly with no prompt from us.

Violet had her first Thanksgiving this past week. She got to spend lots of time with her Uncle Tony, Aunt Natalie and her cousins Jude and Lilly while they were here visiting from Texas. We went to the Zoo(where we snapped the above pictures), had 2 family Thanksgiving dinners, and cousin bath times. She had so much fun playing with her big cousin and giving her little cousin the sweetest kisses.

I can't believe in just 3 months she will be a year old. It seems impossible that it has almost been a year since this wonderful little being came into our lives. She is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. I am forever grateful and thankful that I get to be her mama.