training day

Today marks the first full week of school. With the older children unavailable to amuse my little flower, I have been trying to create experiences for Violet which incorporate education and civic responsibility. I know it is much too premature to think of snow- and I shudder to imagine days of ice and insulated parkas; but, I thought that we should begin her training  for conscientious citizenship during Buffalo winters now. Since we have two All Wheel Drive vehicles, we have never found ourselves stuck in the ruts of a blizzard. But, many of our neighbors are not as fortunate. Even the smallest citizen is useful in exerting the power needed to force cars out of snow banks. But, the power and will to overcome nature's obstacles does not come without prior training. This is why I loaded up her Cozy Coupe with bricks. The Coupe has two lazy wheels which perfectly replicate the experience of being at the mercy of a frazzled driver who has forgotten how to follow directions when you call out from the back bumper, "Turn the wheel right. No, your right." Violet was eager to learn. I told her that I would give her a Goldfish cracker for ever brick she managed to keep in the Coupe at the end of our session (the door does not stay latched and our driveway is terribly bumpy). I think she did okay. 

The Baby Turns One

12 months of Violet

My baby turns one today. She is our last baby (unless someone sees fit to bequeath their child to us). All of her firsts have been both occasions for celebration and bittersweet reminders that this will be the final time we will observe such beginnings. Of course, I become wistful and sappy when remembering the day she was born. I was five days overdue and had resigned to the idea that I would be pregnant forever. But, she decided that in the middle of the night, during a good old fashioned Buffalo blizzard, that she was ready. My labor and delivery was unremarkable except for the fact that it was intensely fast and, at the same time, quiet and serene.  Under a full moon, on a Thursday (just like H and Princess Commando) we welcomed her, Violet Emily. She was the crowning golden thread which completed our family’s tapestry. And, it felt as if she had always been with us. How had we gotten along for so many years without her?

  

 In the very beginning of the pregnancy, there was a slight scare and I was sent for an ultrasound, “just to check on things.” As the tech waved her magic wand, there it was in the dark shell in which I carried her, the unmistakable, first, bright flickering of her heart. There is not much else to see at six weeks, just all heart. And that is what she still is today (all heart). I could sing the praises of her wonder, her joy, her love all day. But, instead I will just share some recent pictures and eat birthday cake.

She kept chasing Princess Commando around the living room. And, each time she would stop at the same spot and "talk" to me with her hands and her little baby babble. The first picture is my favorite because she kept putting her hand over her heart, ever so dramatically, as if she was saying, "Mom. that last run almost gave me a heart attack!"

Violet is obsessed with noses. Ruby is obsessed with fingers.

  Princess Commando is squeezing the love right out of her.