Violet Magic

Violet was in the bath tub, splashing around, enjoying herself.  I was getting ready to wash her.  I grabbed her soap and conditioner from the closet.  The soap is a big bottle so it's by itself, but the conditioner bottle is small and it hides in the big orange cup that we use to help rinse Violet off.

I said to Violet, "Do you want to see a good trick?"

She's two and a half so naturally, she said, "Yeah!"

I said, "OK, watch this."  I took our big orange cup with the conditioner bottle hiding in it, and I shook it up into the air, so the conditioner bottle went flying a couple feet into the air.  I grabbed it with my other hand.

I've done this trick a few times but today for some reason, I said, "Ta-da!" afterward.

Violet clapped her hands.  She asked, "Can I do it?"

I told her, "Sure," and we did it together.  She held the cup and "helped" me toss the cup and I grabbed the conditioner bottle before it dropped into the tub.  When I caught it, we both yelled, "Ta-da!"

We did it a couple times and she loved it each time.  But then I started to wash her.

But Violet wasn't done with magic.  She said, "Do you want to see a trick?"

"Sure," I said.

She took her little toy boat from the water and held it in front of her face.  "I'm gonna do magic," she said and counted "One, two, three" and then threw the boat away.  She yelled, "Ta-da!" extremely pleased with herself.  I didn't point out that I could see the boat bobbing on the water.

Violet "vanished" the boat a few more times, getting more and more excited and giving louder and louder "Ta-da"s.

She doesn't get how magic tricks work, but I can't beat her enthusiastic showmanship.

Love... and Play-Doh

Violet came over to me just before her bedtime and gave me a really nice hug.

"I love you, Violet," I said.

"I love... Play-Doh," she said.

Naptime-out

I was working from home yesterday.  I was on a conference call, and I heard Momma yelling and Violet crying.  Once my call ended I went upstairs to see what had happened.  Christie was at the top of the stairs.

I said to her, "Is everything alright?"

"No," she said.

"Why?  What happened?" I asked.

Christie told me about how she told Violet that it was time for a nap, but Violet didn't want to stop playing.  Christie had put Violet in her bed, and Violet had instantly stood up and tried to get out.  After two repetition of trying to put Violet in bed, and Violet popping out defiantly, Violet got a time out.  Her stint in time-out didn't change her attitude, however.  She kept telling Christie, "No.  No nap."

While I had been on the call, a total of three time-outs happened, and some yelling on both sides.

I asked Christie, "Where's she now?"

"In her room," she said.

"In her bed?"

"Ahh, no," she said.  "I don't know what else to do.  The time-outs aren't phasing her."

I told Christie I'd take care of it.  I brought my computer up into the dining room, so I could be near to Violet's room, in case I gave her a timeout.

After setting up work, I went into Violet's room.  I found her playing in the closet.

"Violet, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Playing," she said.

"OK, but it's nap time.  You don't need to sleep, but you've got to stay in your bed and try."

"But I don't want to," she said.

I got tough.  "OK, Violet, you can't play, you can either stay in your bed or do timeout until naptime is over."

"I don't want to be in bed," she said.

"Well, it's not playtime, it's naptime.  Your only other option is to spend naptime in timeout.  Do you want to do that?"  I said it like she'd be crazy to pick time-out over bed.

To my surprise, she said, "Yeah."

"You want to do naptime in time-out?"

"Yeah."

"OK," I said.  I put her into the corner I use for time-outs.  "You're in timeout.  You have to stay there until naptime is done.  If you change your mind and decide you want to go into your bed for the rest of naptime, just tell me."

Violet nodded and started to do her time in the corner.  Now, for time-outs we typically follow the recommended duration of one minute per year of age.  So Violet typically stays in the corner for two to three minutes.

I thought for sure Violet would get bored with time-out and be begging to go into her bed.  Once again, I was wrong.  Twenty minutes passed, and I decided to check on her.  She was still standing in the corner where I'd left her.

I asked, "Do you want to go into your bed now?"

"Yeah," she said.

I put her into her bed, but saw from the monitor that she instantly got out of bed.  I collected her and put her back into her time-out corner.

In the end I had tried one more attempt to get her to stay in bed.  That attempt ended the same way the first one had.  Excluding the two brief attempts to get her to stay in bed, Violet was in time-out for a whole hour.  At some points, she was making a pathetic fake cry noise, but she never moved.  She never sat down.  She just stood there and did her time.

At no point did laying down in her bed seem like a better options than staring into that blank corner.

Sometimes I'm sortof proud of what a strong little woman she is.  And sometimes the fact that Violet did a one hour time-out like it was no big deal scares the crap out of me.  She's only two and a half, and still stubborn as a mule.  What happens when she gets a few years older?

Big and Little

We walked into Violet's room to change her diaper and put her down for a nap.  She had quite a bit to say.

She told me, "Next time, you can be little and I can be big.  I can change your diaper.  And you can go on my potty.  Won't that be good?"

Before I could say anything she continued.  "And then you can be big, big so you can play with the window."  We're trying to keep her from playing with the window in her room, which explains that part.

Sometimes, it amazes me how fast that little brain works.

Pimple Care

I went to get Violet out of bed this morning.  I unfortunately had a pimple just under my lip.

"You got a pimple?" Violet said.

"Yes, unfortunately I do," I said.

The first level of care in Violet's world was to call upon her animals.  Her favorite stuffed animals each gave it a kiss in turn.  "Bear-bear will give your pimple a kiss," she said and shoved him in my face.

"Thank you," I said.

"And Monkey will give your pimple a kiss."  She shoved Monkey into my face.

"Thank you," I said again.

After the stuffed animal curative session was through, Violet was going to help.  She jumped out of bed and headed to her dresser.  I didn't know what she was going to do.  She pulled out one of her favorite pink sweaters and climbed back into bed toward me.

"Here you go, Daddy."

"What's this for?" I asked.

"It for your pimple," she said and thrust it into my face.

"Thank you," I said, yet again.

"There you go.  Does it feel better?"

"Yes," I said.  "That's very nice of you."  Then she complained when I took the sweater off my face in a minute.  I wonder if she really thought I should wear a pink sweater on my face all day.

Leg Violin

Violet was in the tub.  She looked down at her legs in the water.  She kept her left leg straight and bent her right leg across it.  She moved her right leg back and forth across her left one and started making violin sounds.

I saw this and asked her if she was playing her violin.

She said, "No, I'm playing my regular violin," and kept making violin sounds.

Waiting on you

Auntie Coles, Violet and I were out to eat.  Coles and I had finished our meals a bit ahead of Violet's.

The waitress came over to the table and asked if we wanted some dessert.  I said, "Maybe in a few minutes, she's not quite through yet."

The waitress left and I said, "Violet, we're waiting on you for dessert."

Instantly, Violet shoved the remaining chicken nugget and a half and half dozen grapes into her mouth all at once.  Her cheeks were full to bursting like a greedy chipmunk's.

Vacuum Cheers

Auntie Coles decided that she would help us out by vacuuming the living room, while she was babysitting Violet.  So she corralled Violet's toys and proceeded to push the vacuum around.  And because she wanted to "help" Violet pushed her toy vacuum around as well.

Violet would bump her vacuum in the big vacuum that Coles was pushing.  "Vacuum cheers!" Violet said.

Coles said that Violet did vacuum cheers the whole time she was vacuuming.

Old

Violet was in the tub having a bath.  Out of nowhere, she looked down at her legs, examining them.  She looked up from her legs and said, "I'm getting old daddy."

Corn

We were in the middle of dinner and Violet was getting punchy.  She grabbed my arm "I have some corn."  She held it like an ear of corn, so I followed what she was doing.  And then she bit me.

What I'm thinking

Christie and Violet were having breakfast.  Out of nowhere, Violet said, "Momma, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Christie laughed and said, "I don't know, what are you thinking?"

Violet didn't seem to know how to respond.  She spun it back on Christie, "What are you thinking, Momma?"

Potatoes and Singing

We went to Memere's and Pepere's house for the afternoon.  Pepere had made a beef stew for lunch.  He had made it before and Violet had eaten a surprisingly large amount, so he made it again today.

We got Violet into her highchair and put the bowl in front of her.  Unlike the first time when she devoured a surprising amount, this time she just picked.  She ate a few carrots, but not much else.

I asked, "Violet, don't you like the stew?  Pepere made this for us."

Pepere said, "Violet, did you try the potatoes?"

Violet said, "The potatoes are too slippery. I can't eat them."  I'm not sure what that means, but there you go.

Later on, Violet ran around like a nut around the living room and eventually started to seem tired.  We put her down for a nap.  As tired as she seemed, she wasn't going to sleep.  From the other room I heard her say, "Daddy, I can hear you're voice. You didn't sing me any songs."  So it was my fault that she didn't nap?

Hiding

Violet doesn't exactly understand how to play hide or how to play hide and go seek.

She'll say, "Go hide in the living room!" and stand in the living room and watch you hide.

Auntie Coles and I were "hiding" from her, and she watched and directed us in placed to hide.  "No, not there Auntie Coles, go behind the chair."  "No, Daddy, hide behind the table."

It would be really bossy and rude if it wasn't so funny and cute.

The other day Christie, Violet and I were in the kitchen one night while we were cooking dinner.  Violet hid behind the hand towel that was hanging from the oven handle.  From the chest down it was Violet, clear as day, from the neck up, it was blue hand towel.

"I'm hiding.  Can you find me?"

We lifted the towel and "found" her.

Violet doesn't understand hiding exactly, but I think she'll figure it out eventually.

I don't care

We had gotten pizza for dinner.  Auntie Coles opened up the box and pulled out a slide.  She started to prepare it for Violet, since we don't just throw a whole slice on her plate.

Coles said, "Violet, do you want you pizza in bits or strips?" as she started to cut.

Violet said, "I don't care."

I said, "What?  you don't care?"  This was a new turn of phrase for the two-and-a-half-year-old.

"I don't care," she repeated.

Christie and I discussed this phrase and tried to determine where it came from.  We had been hosting Lily, Christie's 13 year old niece.  We think it's quite likely that Violet's phrase came from Lily's teenage apathy.

Up!

We were wrapping up dinner, and Violet took a last bite of dinner.  She hadn't had much milk to drink, so I handed her her milk cup and said, "Here.  Wash it down."

Violet took a sip and said, "I'm gonna wash it up!"

She didn't throw up or anything, that her comment might suggest.

Kitty Meat?

Violet, Christie, Lily and I went to dinner at the Chinese food restaurant.  We ordered a bunch of different plates to share.  When the food arrived, we chowed down.  Violet picked at the chicken fingers and fried rice.  Christie really wanted the boneless spare ribs, so we got an order.  The ribs were really good, artificially red and sweet.
Christie said, "Mmm, this is good candied meat," and took another one.
Not to be left out, Violet said, "I want some Kitty Meat, too!"
We all fell into hysterics.  It was just not the right thing to say at the Chinese Food place.

A bite

After dinner, Violet asked for a brownie.  She'd been good throughout the day and had eaten a good dinner so we gave her one.  She devoured it, of course.

Pretty much as soon as she was done with it she asked, "Can I have another one?"

Momma said, "No Violet, you had your one.  That's all you get."

Without a pause, Violet asked Momma, "Can I have a bite of yours?"

Smooth Violet.  Very smooth.

Bugs

Violet walked up to her older cousin Lilly and started making a show of sniffing her.  Violet sniffed her all over.
Lilly asked, "Violet, what are you doing?"
"I'm sniffing for bugs!" she said.

Thanks

Violet, Uncle Jerry and I had just eaten dinner and we were driving to the bookstore to pick out a few titles to add to Violet's library.

Violet said, "Daddy, can you make a cow noise?"

I was feeling silly so I started dog barking, "Woof, woof, woof."

Uncle Jerry asked, "Violet, is that the sound a cow makes?"

"No, it's not," Violet said.  Then she said, "Daddy, can you make a doggie noise?"

Again, being silly, and playing with her, I said, "Moo."

Violet just said, "Thanks."  As soon as she'd said it, I knew I'd been played, and she just wanted me to make a cow noise.  Whenever I make the wrong animal noise, she always corrects me, or tells me I'm wrong.  She didn't, so I knew she got what she wanted out of me.

You can think I'm crazy all you want, but I'm convinced I just lost a battle of wits to my two and a half year old.

A Break

We saw on the baby monitor that Violet was not napping, but rather was roaming around in her room.  I went in to give her a nap "reset."  When I opened the door I found her sitting on her tiny pink loveseat.
"You're supposed to be napping.  What are you doing?" I asked.
"I needed to take a break," she said.
"A break from your nap?" I said.
"Yeah."

Just Do It

While we were up at Ma's house for the weekend, our friend Kelly stayed at our place and watched Doolin, our dog.  Doolin gave Kelly a really tough time.  To put it briefly, Doolin made a "messes" in the house and did some destruction.  By the time we got home at the end of the weekend, Kelly was totally fed up with Doolin and refused to watch him ever again.

Kelly came by on Monday to hang out with Christie and Violet.  They all went out and had lunch and generally had a good time.  After they got back to our house, Violet noticed a spot of Doolin puke behind a chair.  She pointed to the stain and said to Kelly, "Clean it up."

Kelly looked stunned so Violet added, "Just do it."

Kelly launched into a diatribe about how all she did was clean up after Doolin and she's not doing that again.

Violet was unmoved.  She looked Kelly in the eye and said, "Just do it."

OK, so Violet was lippy and disrespectful of her elders, not a demonstration of good behavior.  It's something we need to work on.  But it was a funny moment.  I think Auntie Kelly found it funny, stunned as she was.

Some Love

Violet was overdue for a nap this afternoon, so she was kindof punchy.  She wanted some goldfish crackers.  I got her some, but apparently not fast enough, so she was not quite crying, but blubbering, by the time I handed her crackers to her.  Having gotten her snack, I thought she was all set, so I walked away into the living room.
Apparently, she was not, though.  She came over to me, still not quite crying, but almost.  She came over to me with her arms outstretched and said, "Daddy, please give me some love."
So sad and so cute at the same time.

Right?

We did a test of how Violet's carseat and the soon to arrive baby's carseat would fit in the car together. So I had the infant seat on the living room floor. Violet asked if it was her seat. We told her that it was for the new baby.
Violet asked, "When the new baby wants to go in the carseat, it'll come out right?"

Hmm...

Violet has a couple of pocketbooks.  She tends to fill them with tons of small toys and then close them and forget about them.  

She and Auntie Coles were going through one of them and they were pulling out all sorts of forgotten small toys.  

Auntie Coles reached in and pulled out a small votive candle.  She said, "Where did you get that to Violet."  

Violet grabbed the candle and said, "Hmmm."  She quickly put the candle back into the bag before Auntie Coles could take it away, and changed the subject.  

Very sneaky, Violet.  We're on to you.

Kiddo Roulette

Violet, Auntie Coles and I went to get ice cream, so Violet was happy.  We got our order and went to sit down.  I picked a table with a toy carousel on it, figuring that it would occupy Violet if she finished her ice cream before us.

She consumed about half of her cup of ice cream, which is pretty much her typical dessert ration.  Then she started in on the toy carousel.  It was plastic circus tent about the size of a basketball with animals in a carousel track under it.  On top of the tent was a large button that when pressed started the animals running on the carousel track.

Violet started pressing the button and was fascinated watching the animals.  She started and watched it run dozens of times in the few minutes after her ice cream, while Auntie Coles and I consumed ours.  

After a while, it started to be a kind of roulette, Violet would get excited about which animal finished facing her.  "Yay, rabbit," or "Yah, duck," she'd say.

Auntie coles hit the button and started the roulette.  She and Violet watched as the carousel landed on the duck.  "The duck?  I don't want the duck," Auntie Coles said, and she started the carousel again.

The carousel came up duck again.  "Why do I keep getting the duck?" Auntie Coles asked.  

Violet took the carousel and manually spun it until the rabbit faced them.  "There, I fixed it!" she said.

Princess

I normally like to capture Violet's funny antics and sayings, rather show pictures.  But I had to share this one.  Our little princess!