Family Times

It's happened a couple of times now. It has just happened again.

It freaks me out. I can only stare, which must concern her a little.

I take Violet out of her crib in the morning and she looks like a

totally different girl. Literally, her face looks different.
Where is my baby?!

Who is this big girl; Practising jumping, walking backwards and

shuffling sideways. Reading books to me. Singing songs,

and making up her own nonsense to tunes she already knows.

Looking to me for laughs at her silly jokes, or just chuckling

to herself about something. Telling me in almost full sentences

what she plans to do,

"I'ma go sleep in the tent, sleeping bag is comfy!"

She's extremely intelligent, aware, sensitive, tenacious, independent,

affectionate, and looks really cute in her new orange running shoes.

Violet is a whole 21 months old already.

I think it's the pregnancy hormones getting me all teary here.

Everything is fine on the pregnant frontier...except for a bad joke

the midwife made the other day about hearing a third heartbeat

with the doppler (mine, baby's and...?). "It's highly likely it's just

an echo of the ONE baby that is in there" she said quickly, after

I almost had a stroke. Ha. Ha. Ultrasound scheduled for April 16.

Bad joke.

Anyhoo, we're obviously all about family here. Rhea (Jesse's eldest sister)

and Israel (her boyfriend) arrived from a 6 month bouldering adventure

in Spain and France last week. Violet took one look at Rhea, and fell in love

with her aunt. She remains shy with Israel, however. Here he is planning

his next Columns (a video game) strategy against the master Jesse.

All I'm saying is that MY man got 48,000 points.

Violet looks at him and says "funky hair!"

He's slowly winning her over with his amazing skill at contact juggling

and wooing her in Spanish, the language of Dora.

They are staying with us, and in and around the Ottawa Valley, for a few weeks.

It's nice with all the reunions and beautiful people.

And eating cake and whipped cream without proper cutlery.

Gratuitous Nudity

For a long time, Violet would get really excited about having a bath. So much so, that we always had to spell the word around her. As time has marched on, however, the truth about her eagerness to bathe has been revealed. She really only likes the nudity before the bath. Now when we say "bath", she yells "nay-kid!".

No one could possibly like being naked as much as this girl.

Her two favourite things to do when naked (besides joking about peeing on the floor), are running and reading.

A Polite Bather

As the water drained from her bath last night, I asked Violet "where does the water go?". She looked at the drain for a while, then called out "Bye water!....See you later!....Thank you!...Kiss!".