Happy 1st Halloween Baby!!!

Like most of our friends, Jonathan and I are REALLY into halloween. So it was no surprise when I started dressing Violet up early. We got a few costumes and holiday themed clothing items handed down to us and I just couldn't resist one on sale at Babies R Us. Violet was a good sport throughout the whole month. Daddy was a little less enthusiastic. He thinks I'm embarrassing her. Well... he's RIGHT! I only have a precious few years before I have no more say in what my child wears. I know this from first hand experience. 

We met Irene and Natasha at the park one afternoon for some more swinging and sliding. Good thing they weren't wearing the same skull sweatshirts... because they do actually have the same little skull sweatshirt....

Grandma came to visit the week before Halloween and we had a nice time hanging out. I got to decorate the front yard and we spent a little time out there taking pictures. Violet was totally busting out of the little velvet bat costume. The snaps kept popping open and she was only barely able to sit up on her own for these pictures. She kept flopping over into the grass. But with a little patience and help from Grandma we got some great pics!

We had a total of 7 pumpkins to carve. We did two the previous Wednesday at Marisa's pumpkin carving party. The last 5 we carved on Friday night before halloween. Of course I have to be all fancy and special with the electric pumpkin carving knife so it takes a little longer but the results were fantastic as usual.

On Saturday we dressed Violet up in her butterfly halloween costume and did another photo shoot in the front yard. Grandma had picked up the giant rubber duck at a store on the island so of course we had to have the baby riding the duck! That evening we headed over to Chez Neumansky to see their fantastic decorations, meet up with other friends and hang out. Violet didn't deal really well with being out so far past her bed time so it was kind of an early night. 

On Sunday we continued our tradition from last year. I made beef stew and we hung out on the porch steps while the candy grubbing children came by to beg for treats. A couple of the neighbors happily had some beef stew, Gwydion & Anna came over to hang out and shoot things with air soft rifles and Jonathan got to show off his lightsabers to anyone who came by in a Star Wars costume.  

And we made it through another year without the house getting egged! Success!

Almost 6 Months!

Sorry its been a while. I'm better at posting the short quippy things on Facebook. It's hard to find the time anymore to type anything more than a few lines nowadays. Violet keeps mommy on her toes! But here's 2 videos to make up for it. 

Violet is just about 6 months old now and officially MOBILE! She's rolling around like crazy and  pushing herself back and forth a lot while on her belly. She's even getting up on her hands and knees! But she doesn't seem to have the coordination to keep it up for long or go anywhere while in this position. Just a matter of time I guess.

Mu-Shu doesn't seem to like the baby much but Pandora is ALL OVER HER! They have been rolling around and playing together for a while. I have to keep a pretty close eyeball on them though. Pandora can play a bit rough sometimes. But Violet loves her so much. She gets all excited and yammers at the cat when she's close by. 

Don't want to brag too much but we are SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! Most of the time anyway. Violet goes to bed between 7-9, depending on her naps that day. She usually wakes up once around 11 or 1 for a quick feed or diaper change. But sometimes she'll skip the 3am wakeup all together!  She'll wake me up anywhere between 5-7am but usually I can coax her back to sleep if I bring her to bed (after Jonathan is up for work). She pretty much always sleeps in her crib now. I think she's a bit big for the co-sleeper. She rolls around too much and wakes up when she hits the sides and having her in bed with the two of us AND the cats is just too much so we're sticking to the crib.

Mommy has been trying to teach herself some sign language and we're already using it with Violet. She won't start signing back for a few more months but it's going to take mommy a while to learn so we're starting now. Please do not confuse me with one of those evil sancti-mommies. Yes there is a slight twinge of guilt over not being able to teach her a different language. (mommy and daddy are ign'ant americans and we can't afford our spanish speaking nanny share) This is more for my convenience than anything else. Trying to avoid the temper tantrums and communication confusion surrounding the early toddler time. 

Halloween is coming up soon! I promise more posts where we will be showing off all the totally heinous costumes that I will be damaging my child with. Here's a preview!

And here's one of Violet and Daddy. Keeping cool during one of those stupid hot days we've been having this year.