Sittin' Up

Violet gets better and better at sitting up everyday.  She can actually sit unassisted for about a minute.  If I put her boppy around her she can sit for a long period of time.  She loves to sit on her blanket surrounded by all her toys.

She also can now roll back over onto her back.  So she can now do a complete 360.  She rolls right off her playmat! When she is on her tummy she kicks her legs alot, I think she is trying to crawl or scoot around.  Soon enough!  She also loves to put her feet in her mouth and she is obsessed with sticking her tongue out.  It's probably out 8 hours of the day! 

She is finally getting the hang of eating baby food.  She doesn't spit it all out anymore.  I usually just give her rice cereal mixed with baby food once a day and in small amounts.  I have learned she likes thicker consistency rather than runny.

The day after Christmas we went and ate leftovers at my parents and I gave her some sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes.  She LOVED them.  She kept whimpering when I would stop feeding her.  I also gave her a taste of whip cream and she started crying for more.  This girl loves grownup food.  Baby food is just not her thing! She watches Justin and I eat and tries to grab everything.  It's funny how intensely she watches us when food or drinks are around.

Violet is best buds with our littlest yorkie Penny.  Penny sits on her lap and Violet grabs her fur and tries to pull her into her mouth.  It's adorable.

Mommy's Girl

Violet is such a mommy's girl now.  She has reached that point where she knows when someone else is holding her and she gets really wary of strangers.  She actually seems to get scared of large groups of people.  She screamed her head off at my parents church and also on Christmas eve at my aunt and uncles.  If anyone tries to hold her she get really upset.  She does ok with people holding her at our house though.  Probably because she is comfortable with her surroundings.

My dad was holding her the other day and she was sitting on his lap.  I don't think she realized who was holding her until she looked up and saw him.  Tears started immediately.  It's obviously cute that she wants her mama and that I am the only that can calm her but it also gets tiring! I never get a break!  I guess that's how it is as a mom.  She still won't take a bottle so now not only am I the only one that can feed her, I'm the only one who can calm her down!

1st Christmas

Violet's 1st Christmas was a blast! She got so many toys! More toys than she even knows what to do with.  Our living room is pretty much taken over by her toys now.  She is one spoiled little monkey. 

We woke up and opened presents at our house first.  She pretty much was only interested in the wrapping paper.  Every toy she opened went straight to her mouth.  After that we went to Justin's parents for Christmas breakfast.  Violet got to hang out with cousin Landon which she loved.  They are hilarious together.  Violet got even more spoiled by grandma and grandpa Dickmeyer.  So many cute things. 

In the afternoon we went to my parents house for turkey dinner.  I pretty much ate and ate and ate till I was sick.  There's just too many goodies sitting around during Christmas.  Of course Violet got even more presents.  It's hard not to go crazy on babies. 

It was so fun to hang out with all the families, eat lots of good food and help Violet enjoy her first Christmas.  Christmas is just as fun when you have kids as when you are a kid.  Justin took off the next 2 weeks from work so we are excited to spend some time with him!

Oh and big news to anouce, a big congrats to my sister Jessica who got engaged on Christmas Eve! So happy and excited for her and Adam! I get to be a maid of honor for the first time, yahoo!

Christmas morning

eating her presents

eating the tissue paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

spoiled little missy

playin' with her new toys

playing with Landon

Grandma Dickmeyer with her babies

Here Comes Christmas!

I am so excited for Violet's 1st Christmas! Last night we went and looked at Christmas lights.  Violet fell asleep before we even got to the street.  Oh well, next year she will really enjoy doing that.  Justin and I had fun though.. looking at lights, listening to Christmas music and eating the McRib (yes, I ate it again). 

Today I got Violet's stocking in the mail from Pottery Barn.. so so so cute.  Love it.

My mother in law got Violet a babys first christmas ornament but I still wanted to get one for her from us.  I decided on a Curious George one since its like one of her favorite things to watch.  I also just realized she listens to the Curious George movie soundtrack with Jack Johnson everyday for naptime.  Check out this cuteness...

 

and how bout a cute pic of some chubby baby feet with red sparkly socks... nothing says Christmas like red socks..

My Christmas Baby

Yesterday we went to church with my family and Violet got to wear her Christmas dress I made her.  It turned out so cute!! I had her wear her giant bow again, it makes her look like a present.  A delicious present.  Top that off with some to die for Mud Pie tights and we have the cutest Christmas baby on the block...

 

I took a white t shirt and turned it into a dress.  I love the way it turned out!

santa tights.. so cute!

look at that bowl full of jelly

and of course I needed a Christmas headband.  I had been wanting to make one of these for me..

Wrapping Paper

Yesterday I was wrapping some presents for Violet (yes I know she can't unwrap them) and gave her some wrapping paper to play with.  She loves the crinkly noise it makes.  She was so excited when she ripped a piece in half.  It was hilarious.  Kids can amuse themselves with the simplest things!

 

After present wrapping we went to lunch with Justin.

look at these twins

When Justin gets home he only has about an hour to play with Violet before her bedtime.  He loves to cuddle up with her and make her giggle.  Such a good daddy.

 

love this.. just looking at each other. too cute.

(please ignore the laundry all over the couch)

McRib

Should be renamed the McFantastic.  For those of you who haven't tried it, your missing out.  I tried it for the first time the other day and pretty much think it was the best thing Mcdonalds has.  I don't eat fast food that often but I had to try it after seeing the commercial for it.  Who doesn't want bbq sauce dripping down your chin?

Add-on to the Previous Post

I just published the last post and went upstairs to check on Violet.  She is sound asleep.  I had to take a picture though because it was just too funny.  I forgot to take her headband off...

Sleep Update

Violet has been doing better sleeping at night lately.  Can I get a hallelujah? Every night is still different but we haven't had any nights as bad as those previous ones I posted about.  I have been doing lots of reading and have come to the conclusion that there are two key elements to baby sleeping well at night.

1. early bed time, 5pm is not too early--it is better to put them to bed that early rather than a nap and later bedtime


2. good naps daily

Bingo! We gots number 1 but we don't gots number 2.  Violet has never taken a nap in her crib and I figured it's time to get that going.  I used to be a proponent of no crying to get your baby to sleep.  After reading lots of stuff I think that no way is wrong, you just gotta try out different things and see what works.  So, today is day three of laying Violet down in her crib for her morning nap.  I have decided to not let her cry more than an hour. 

The first day she cried for 20 minutes and then slept for 20.  I didn't let her cry anymore after that so that nap was done.  Day two she laid there for over an hour happily, but no sleep.  Day two I also added a toy to her crib that plays music and projects pictures on the ceiling.  I also have a cd playing on repeat (at night she has a womb sound machine on the highest volume).  I can't tell you about day three yet because she is currently in the process.  Fingers crossed.

We are going to get the first nap on track before we attempt the afternoon nap.  I don't want to overwhelm her.  Violet should be taking two naps for atleast 2 hours each and maybe even a shorter nap in late afternoon.  Are you kidding me? Do you know how much I could get done in that amount of time?  Jeezo.  I'm lucky to get two 20 minute naps out of her.  No wonder my days are not very productive!

Wish me luck on my journey to naptime bliss!

(side note: the key to letting your baby cry is not listening! Turn the monitor off or it will break your heart.)

and now for my favorite part of blogging... the pictures!

look at those baby blues!

peek a boo

new sling-- I made her a ring sling when I was prego but it's a pain to adjust, this one has no rings or buckles or anything!  She looks like my baby kangaroo!

loves her daddy

 

 

Justin went to Mcdonalds for coffee last weekend because we were out and came back with this....

who orders the pancake breakfast at mcdonalds? this is hilarious to me

Violet Meets Santa

Friday afternoon we took Violet to the mall to meet Santa.She was very cranky that day so thankfully she took a nap while we waited in line. I love seeing all the little ones in there cute outfits or matching Chirstmas pjs, so adorable.
She did awesome.  She looked a little unsure but even gave us a little smile. Santa was very nice and didn't talk in a loud voice which would of scared her. I was half tempted to let Santa know I would like a brother serger and a silhouette craft cutter.  Hey you never know.

I lOVE how the pic turned out.

Here's some pics before we went to the mall.  Don't you wish you  had this cute present under your tree? And yes I know her bow is gigantic, I absolutely love it.  

Last Post

Last post I uploaded the wrong video... sorry.  Check it out again and hear the shriekster first hand...

Funny Girl

As I've mentioned before Violet is an extremely vocal baby.  She is rarely quiet.  Giggling, fake coughing, gurgling, babbling and her favorite... shrieking.

She is becoming so good with her hands too.  She can pick up her toy now and spends a lot of time putting things in her mouth.  Pretty much everything goes in her mouth at this point! She is getting better at eating baby food too.  I don't feed it to her everyday which is probably why she isn't that great at it.  She is getting closer and closer to sitting up each day.  She also is starting to try to crawl.  She is only scooting but she sure is tryin' to figure it out.  And she only goes backwards.

I have been trying to watch to see what hand she favors and it seems to be the left.  She sucks her left thumb and usually has her toy in her left.  I am a lefty so we shall see.

I mix fruit into the rice cereal, she likes it better

practicing sitting

this is purely for picture purposes I promise... isn't it the greatest though?

(and yes that is a notebook with Zac Efron in the background... I am a high school musical fan. Nerd, I know)

Never Enough

You can never have too many cute pictures of this sweet little ball of fun...

another picture mom?

cheese!

chunky legs are the cutest

makes u wanna do an 80's workout video huh?

Aunt Jess, we love her!

melon head

 

 

 

 

 

 

hi mom!

 

 

loves to do this.. leans way back in her chair or in your arms