The Big Two Weekend

Jesse and I started the Toronto weekend ( a.k.a. 'Nanafest') by taking Violet to the zoo on Friday morning. We were so excited. Tigers! Monkeys! The Zoo! Violet was going to love it!
As it turned out, not so much.

SHE WHINED THE ENTIRE TIME FOR COWS.
“Where are de cowwwws?”

Couldn't have cared less about the leopard 2 feet away.

It wasn't all ambivalence though; she did like the fish, that crazy black and white striped horse, and had to admit the giraffe was cool....eventually.

Anyway, in retrospect, she might be too young to appreciate exotic zoo animals fully. She also had one of her first really loud public tantrums (a transcript follows)...

“Drink water!”
I offer her the water bottle
“No water!”
I take it back
“Waaaaaterrrrrr!”
I offer it again
“NOOOOO!”
I take it back
“Wanna water!”
I offer her the water. She takes it this time! Then tries to pour it out all over the stroller.
I take it back.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”.

Time to go home! We'll try again next summer.

The rest of the weekend went more smoothly. Nana's backyard turned out to be more to her liking. She sat amongst the foliage with Teta Peach, discovering pine cones and eating grass.

Violet had a marvelous party with adoring guests, lovely presents (even her own little guitar), balloons, party hats, and tons of yummy food.

Her overwhelmed but happy little face while everyone (20 people!) sang Happy Birthday to her made me tear up. She loved it.

Jesse helped her blow out the candles on her smartie cake .

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

In other news:

In honour of Father's Day and our anniversary (10 years together, 6 married) I had been meaning to write a little about what a great husband and father Jesse is. Instead, since he was completely annoying last night after consuming a caffeinated beverage, I will leave you with this anecdote and photo.
The man spent an alarming amount of time filling a bottle with exactly the correct amount of water, that when attached to Violet's birthday balloons, would cause them to hang suspended in mid-air. Look at his face when it finally worked.

Love you, nerd.

interlude

I do have a big post full of wonderful pictures from Violet's birthday weekend brewing.

Have to quickly share just one little story though:

Violet slapped my arm in frustration this morning over something I can't remember now (oh, yes, she's TWO for real now). I said "Violet, it makes Mama really sad when you hit me". She looked around, grabbed the nearest National Geographic, dropped it into my lap and said

"here, have a magazine...happy now?".

Very Observant

This morning, I came into UV's room in my bra and undies to get her up (she doesn't get out of bed before I open her door...yet). She looked up at me from her pillow and said "that's a biiiiig tummy!".
Yes, I think I have officially passed the cute belly stage of pregnancy. It sneaks up on you, like the moment when you realize no one expects you to carry anything anymore, or get off the couch to get your own ice cream. Yessss!

I am going away for a conference for a few days early next week. All I can think about is this little face missing me...and a room all to myself with cable tv.

Pool Party

Pool party at our place!

Sure, the pool may only be a few feet in diameter, 5 inches deep and warm like bathwater after being in the sun for a couple of days, but man does UV like it! We got it on the way home from the museum on Sunday morning, filled it up during her nap and she spent the time she woke up until dinner in it (even eating her snack en pool). Because Jesse took the 'pool photos', there's not a shot with the acutal pool in it.

Before her little eyes fully opened this morning, she was already asking "swim in da poooool!".

In other news: Sometimes when they wander away and are quiet for too long, it's a good thing.

When Two Blogs Collide

As the parental units sat chatting and sipping coffee after brunch, Margo and UV sidled up to the bar, chugged from their sippy cups and shared "they wrote that on your blog?!" stories.

Morning

The cardinal singing for love at 4:30 am, the cat walking all over me at 5:00 am, and UV whining "maaaaamaaaaaaa" at 5:30 am – will we ever sleep in again?
The answer is NO!

We do have a nice morning routine though. Violet climbs into bed with us at around 6, has a bottle of milk, and snuggles for 2 peaceful minutes.

Then she starts talking at full volume, squirming around, standing up to look out the window for birds and telling me “wake UP mama!”, her hands holding my face to look straight into hers. Just so I really get it.

I always ask her if she had dreams while she slept. She always says “yes”. I ask what about, and she always answers “mama”. I ask what I was doing in her dream, and she always says “dishes”. Funny. I never do the dishes…ever. That sounds like a dream Jesse would have.

Jesse gets up and makes oatmeal. Violet stays in bed with me until she hears Oma in the kitchen making coffee, “OMA’S HERE!”, at which point she slides off the bed and runs to see her. Yesterday morning I noticed a star sticker in her hair (her reward for using the toilet). The light was perfect, the kid is beautiful, so I grabbed my camera.