Messing with you

Violet was at the breakfast table with Auntie Stephanie, while Christie and I were off at a doctor's appointment for Lila.  Violet was eating her food, while watching her cartoons.

Out of nowhere she started this whining cry, basically blubbering at Aunt Stephanie.  

Stephanie figured something was wrong.  She asked Violet to please stop crying, and she asked what was wrong.

Violet instantly stopped her blubbering and said, "Nothing.  I'm just messing with Ya!"

Pretty nefarious for a two year old.

Violet the Spider

"I'm a spider," Violet said, crawling around the living room.

"But, Violet, spiders have eight legs.  How many legs do you have?"

She counted "One, two, three, four," since she was on all fours.  She said, "I guess I lost some."

Heart barrette

Violet walked around the house with a heart shaped barrette.

She told us, "I have a heart full of love."  So cute!

Silly Lion

I put Violet down for a nap.  She was a bit punchy, but tired, so I hoped it would go well.

She put her hand puppet lion, Leroy, onto her hand.  As I left the room, I heard her say, "Leroy's licking me."  She giggled madly.

"He thinks I'm made of chocolate!" she said.  "I'm not chocolate!"

I was closing the door when she said, "He's a silly lion."

Spaghetti dinosaur

"Dinosaurs eat spaghetti and meatballs," Violet announced when we were about to eat that same meal.

"Did they," I asked.

"Yep," she confirmed.

"Who made spaghetti and meatballs for the dinosaurs?" I wondered.

Violet told me, "Momma."

"Ah," I said.

"I'm a dinosaur," she said and dove into her meatballs.

Later, Violet dropped a piece of spaghetti on the table.  "Look, it's a spaghetti snake," she told us.

She twisted it a teardrop shape.  "The spaghetti snake looks like a leaf.  But it's a carrot."  She moved it again and said, "The carrot comes apart."

She looked down at the spaghetti snake and said, "He's dirty," noticing that it was covered in sauce.

Sometimes dinner with a dinosaur can be entertaining.

Violet's First Poem

During our pasta dinner Violet drafted her first poem.  It's a bit short, but she's not yet three years old:


Prince Eddie,
Likes spaghetti

My Big Machine

We lost water a couple weeks ago, and with a newborn in the house needing clean water for formula and bottle washing, I bought several big 2.5 gallon jugs of water.

We just emptied one of the jugs recently, and, too big to fit in the bag of recyclables, it was on the floor beneath.  Violet grabbed the plastic jug and went to throw it into the trash.

"Violet, Violet, don't throw that out.  It's not trash.  We're going to recycle it."

"It's not trash?" Violet said.

"No, it's not."

It's like that was the green light for Violet to play with it.  She sat on it and dragged it around the kitchen.  "This is my big machine," she told use.

"OK, drive your big machine into your room so we can put on your pajamas."

"OK," she said, happily.  She tried to drag the "big machine" across the carpet, but it didn't move as well as on the floor.  After a few more tries to drag it, she picked it up and ran it into her room.  "Bringing, my big machine."

She drove it to our bedroom for storied and she wanted to put it into our closet "So Momma can have it, because it's a big, machine," but I talked her out of it.  In the end, we drove it into her room and she "parked it" next to her bed.  We covered it with an extra blanket for the night.

I'm Gonna Marry You!

I put on some songs during dinner and Violet and I got up from the table to dance a bit.

For the next song I put on Coldplay's "Yellow," and I told Violet, "This song is about a color.  Can you tell me what color it is?"

I expected Violet to give me that "duh, that's too easy" face, but instead a few verses in she enthusiastically told me, "Yellow!"

"That's right," I said and picked her up to dance.

"No, don't pick me up.  I want to marry you," she told me.

"Um, OK," I said.  I knelt down to face her, figuring we'd be having a mock ceremony.

"No.  I need you to stand up so I can marry you," she said patiently.

I did as she asked and she took my hands.  We spun in a ring-around-the-rosie-type circle while "Yellow" played.  It was fun.

I learned two things.  First, according to Violet, marrying is spinning around in a circle with someone.  Second, Violet seems to immune to dizziness.  She can spin forever.

The sky

Violet was kindof punchy at our lunch out.  She flailed around in her highchair, loudly made observations about poop, chewed with her mouth open and ate fish by the handfuls.  She was good, just a bit too boisterous for the pretty classy place we chose.

But as we headed out of the restaurant after lunch, Violet pointed to the colors in the clouds and said, "It looks like the sun painted the sky."  And she was right.  It did.

I-spy

We played I-spy in the car on the way up to Maine.  Violet got the hang of the game and had a lot of good guesses.

I started the next round.  "I spy with my little eye something green."

Quick as a wink, Violet said, "Is it that sign?" pointing to the highway sign.

"Yes it is," I said.

"Hey you beat me," Christie said to Violet.  Then, she said, "Do another round now!"  Apparently Momma didn't like beaten by her two-year-old daughter.

New Mitten

Violet was in her bedroom, not sleeping.  She was screaming and making noises, all perfectly normal.

She started yelling, "Momma, come in here," over and over again.  All particularly normal, and all noises we typically ignore.

Then Violet yelled, "Momma, come in her.  Come look at my new mitten."

That was interesting enough that Momma had to go check it out.  Violet was wearing her stuffed lion hand puppet, Leroy.

When Momma comes in, Violet said, "Momma, do you like my new mitten?"

Momma laughed and said, "Yes, I do."

Violet laughed madly, incredibly pleased with her little joke.

Kitchen rug

Violet does a pretty good job of washing her hands, which probably shouldn't surprise me because she loves playing in water whenever possible.  We usually have her do it in the kitchen where it's easy for us to pull a chair up to the sink.  Standing on the chair, she can just about reach the soap and the faucet lever to turn it on.  Now with some of that foaming soap, Violet will wash her hands for five minutes at a time.

But Violet is fiercely independent.  She prefers to do everything herself, and would like it if she didn't need us to move the chair for her to stand on.  The only trouble is that we have a small rug on the floor, and the rug is rubber bottomed so that it doesn't slip.

I was feeding baby Lila and Christie was cooking when we called Violet into the kitchen to get ready for dinner.  Violet in pirate princess mode, wearing no shirt, pink tutu and green rain boots, came flying into the room.

"Violet, wash your hands, please," I told her.

"OK," she said enthusiastically, and grabbed the chair she usually stands on.

"Do you need help?" I asked.

"I can do it," she said and pushed the chair toward the sink.  I watched the chair move and then stop, hung up on the rug.  Violet pushed and pushed, but only ended up rocking the chair while its front legs were stuck.

The next part I particularly enjoyed watching.  Violet pulled the chair away.  She grabbed the rug from the floor, carried it to the doorway and threw it into the dining room.  Obstruction removed, she pushed the chair into place and happily washed her hands for about three minutes until we told her she was done.

I laughed out loud at watching her take on a problem, hit a snag (literally), get frustrated, overcome the problem, and then enjoy her success.  I was a proud dad.  If only she's put the rug back, we'd be all set.

Bear bear

Violet has a pink hooded bunny robe, complete with pink bunny ears.  When Violet wears it she looks incredibly cute.

Often when she wears it, she puts one of her stuffed animals in it.  She'll come out of her room with her robe bulging and Bear Bear sticking out under her neck.

The other day Violet looked at Christie's shirt for a long time.  Christie wondered what Violet was thinking.  Violet pointed to Christie's shirt and said, "There's space in there for Bear Bear."

Princess outfits

Lately, Violet has adopted a pretty strange manner of dress.  She's completely enamored with her princess dress costumes, especially the one that served as her Halloween costume.

She rocks the princess skirt and green and purple rubber rain boots.  "I'm a pirate princess," she'll say with regard to her outfit.  Oh, yeah, she's usually shirtless as well.  Apparently you can't wear a shirt if you're a pirate princess.

Puzzle

We were driving in the car up to Maine.  Violet was getting a bit punchy after a couple hours in the car so she started talking nonsense.  Then, after a while she said, "The clouds made a puzzle."

We looked at the sky and saw that with a bit of imagination it was easy to see the clouds as interlocking puzzle pieces.  It was another fun Violet observation that makes us see our world in another way.

Call me Davey

I was getting Violet up and for some reason "Call Me Maybe" was stuck in my head.  I was singing it as I was changing her out of her pajamas.

Violet said, "It's not 'Call Me Maybe.'  It's call me Davey."

"Oh, OK."  I told her.  Apparently she's now an authority on pop lyrics.

The Helper

Violet was sitting at the counter at Poppy and Gramma Kelley's house, enjoying some dried pear slices.  Poppy was heading outside to do some work on chicken coop.

Between bites Violet says, "If you need any help, just give me a call."

"OK, Violet.  Thanks," Poppy says with a laugh.

Happy Nice-giving!

We've been enjoying our Thanksgiving holiday at our inlaws.  Violet generally travels well, with the possible exception that she refuses to sleep in the car, and we've been having a good visit.

We started the day waking Violet up with a big, "Happy Thanksgiving."  We've said it and she's said it a bunch of times today.  At some point, "Thanksgiving," turned into "Nice-giving," on Violet's end.

So for the last half of the day, that's the greeting she's been giving.  We talked to my parents on skype and Violet told them, "Happy Nice-giving."  Super cute.

Style

We were trying to get Violet to wear these brown mule slip-on shoes.  They looked like they'd be very warm and Violet's feet are often shockingly cold.

I went into her room and was glad to see her with the shoes on, but then realized that she was pulling them off.  She looked at me and said, "They're not my own style, Daddy.  I don't want to wear them."

She reached deep into her closet and pulled out a pair of sparkly purple shoes and she started to put them on.  "These are my own style."

Apparently Violet's "own style" is pretty darn flashy.

Belly Cake

It's funny how after eating, Violet's belly is noticeably bigger.

She got down from her chair after dinner and cake.  I pointed to her belly.  "That's a big belly, Violet."

She looked down and pulled up her shirt.  "Yeah," she agreed.

I gave her belly a little squeeze.  "I feel a lot of cake in there.  How'd all that cake get in there?"

She looked at me and, totally deadpan, said, "With my fork."

In there?

We were going through the drive-thru to get some junk food one day.  I placed the order and began to pull up as instructed.  Before I drove off, Violet pointed to the drive through speaker box.  She said, "Daddy, is he in there?"

It's got to be neat to see the world like a two-year-old.

A princess, not a potato

To keep Violet entertained while Christie was feeding Lila, I had Violet "help" me cook the tater tots.  I pulled the baking pan out of the cabinet and put it on the counter.  Violet entered cooking mode, which is basically bringing a chair to the counter to stand on.  I ripped open the bag of frozen tots and said, "OK, Violet, we have to put some of these on the pan here."

Violet grabbed the tots and one-by-one put them on the pan.  The process was so slow it was painful for me to watch.  A minute passed and only three tots sat on the sheet.

"Violet, maybe you should pour them out of the bag, you know, so it'll go faster."  I stepped out of the room for a minute and came back to see the whole bag of tots piled up in a mound in one corner of the baking pan.  I guess I was asking for that result, really, asking her to "pour."

"Violet, how many of these are you going to eat?  This looks like a lot."

Lately, Violet always has some kind of answer, regardless of the question.  "Two," she says.

"Well, two isn't very many.  We'll have to cook more than that."  I put a bunch away and she helped me spread the rest out on the baking pan.

For some reason, Violet got her face right down to the counter to look at the tots up close.  I did the same.  then I smelled the tater tots.  Then I made a show of sniffing her.  I sniffed the tots again.  I sniffed her again. "Violet, you smell like the tater tots."  She really didn't, but I had to play with her.

Violet became indignant and said, "No! I'm a princess and not a potato!"

In the tub

Violet was in the tub and asked, "Can I have a washcloth?"

"To wash your bum?" I joked.

"No, for the walls.  So I can keep them nice and clean."  Violet wanted to give the inside of the shower a scrub.

"But, what about keeping your bum nice and clean?"

Violet gave me a serious face, "That's too hard, but I can clean the walls."  How tough is it to clean her bum?

Whoppers

Violet has been slowly making a dent in her Halloween candy.  She gets a piece or two a day, but she asks about having a piece of candy about ten times an hour.

She ate a good dinner and was generally a good listener tonight so we let her have a piece.  She wanted a pack of Whoppers, so we opened the wrapper and gave them to her.  She eats them with relish but at warp speed, with lots of Mmmms and Yummms.

Once she had finished she said, "The candy makes my body happy."  It was great to see how much joy these three bits of candy gave her.

Older for it

I was enjoying a vodka and tonic and I saw that Violet was fascinated by it.  I think it's the crushed ice and the straw.

Violet looked as me and asked, "Can I have a sip of your drink?"

I said, "Oh, sorry Violet, but no you can't.  It's alcohol."

Violet knows that alcohol means that she can't have it, because it's for adults and she's too young.  She said, "I'm older for it," trying to tell me that she is all of a sudden old enough for it.

"Sorry kiddo, you can't have it."

Undaunted she made her plea passionately.  "But I'm older for it and older for it and older for it.  I'm old daddy."  After a pause she added, "And I love it."  Another pause, "OK, Daddy?"

"No."

Then the conversation took a turn.  "Do you love alcohol daddy?" she asked.

"Well I like it," I suppose.

"Is it good in your belly?"

"Yeah, sure, kiddo."

Mommy, while drinking her Prosecco, said to Violet, "Violet, you know what you call someone who loves alcohol? A boozebag."

"Boozebag," Violet repeated, enjoying the sound of the word.

Our little family moment ended with Violet calling me a boozebag for a while.

Don't Correct That One

Lately, Violet's realized when she needs to use the past tense and for regular verbs she sounds spot on.  Sometimes, though, she tries to add an 'ed' for past tense in the wrong places.  While it's super cute to hear Violet say something like, "I give-ed Monkey a piece of candy," and "I take-ed my boots off," I figure that if she knows enough to conjugate, maybe she can comprehend the irregular verbs.  So I'll often correct her with the right word, gently, though.  I try to keep her interested in learning new words and not to be a jerk about it.

When Violet wakes up in a good mood in the morning, she usually says, "Momma, I'm all waked up."  Christie looked at me one day Violet said and told me, "Please don't correct that one.  I love the 'all waked up.'"

Clouds

From the other room I hear, "That looks like the Earth."  Curious, I go over to Violet and see she's pointing to a section of clouds between the trees.  With an effort I can imagine that it looks like the Earth, sortof.

Then I think Violet's interpretations of the clouds got a bit more abstract.  "That looks like a chicken," she said.

"Hmm.  I'm not sure I see that.  Where?"

She pointed, "There."

I still didn't see it, but rather than be contrary and stifle her creativity, I see the chicken.  "Oh, there.  OK."

Violet found Monkey and Bear-Bear amongst the cloud formations before she shifted back to her toys.

Presents

People have given us presents recently, with the arrival of the new baby.  Violet has gotten about as many presents as new baby Lila has.  I think receiving all of these gifts has sparked Violet to give random gifts to us.  The gifts she gives us typically look like this one:

This is a mini-basketball of Violet's wrapped in a sheet of loose-leaf paper.  OK, sure it doesn't look like much here in the photo, but watching how happy Violet gets making and giving these gifts to people is a great sight.  Very heart-warming.

Really High

Violet disappeared into the other room.  Two minutes later, Christie hears "Mommy, I'm very high!"  She checked it out and found this scene:

My favorite part is how proud Violet is of herself.  No fear of heights, whatsoever.

Illustration

Violet, Momma and I were reading a book about cuddly animals.  The book contained a bunch of neat illustrations.

Momma said, "Violet, do you like these great illustrations?"

Violet said, "Yeah."

I said, "Violet, do you know what the word illustration means?"

Violet said, "I think it means, anticipation."  She had no idea, but decided to exchange big word for big word.

Stuffed Animal Care

Violet's been a good stuffed animal Momma, lately, giving them lots of hugs and playing with them.  She's also recently gotten a fluffy pink robe (with a bunny ears hood, naturally), which she also loves.

The cute part is that we put her robe on, and she immediately grabs one of her stuffed friends, usually Monkey or Bear-Bear, and stuffs them into the robe.  The next time we see Violet, she's got her animal crammed in there with her, peeking out from her chest.

She's also been potty training her animals.  I stepped into her room and hear her talking to Monkey.  I saw that Monkey was perched on the edge of an open drawer.  Violet said to Monkey, "That's awesome.  You made an awesome poop!  That's a big one."  Such a positive Monkey Momma!

Salad Wars

I gave Violet a bowl of salad and sat down with my own plate of it.  Violet started in on her plate and then decided to share with me.  She put a bit of cucumber on my plate and said, "Here you go."

I told her, "Thank you," and then mostly because I didn't want her to give away her food, I immediately shared right back to her.  I put a bit of tomato on her plate.  "There you go," I said.

Magnanimously, Violet said, "Thank you," and then immediately consumed it.  Violet was polite and ate something immediately, a double-win.

Not to be outdone, Violet immediately shared back a piece of lettuce.  I returned with a bit of carrot.

The pace ramped, both of us politely, but aggressively, tossing food back onto each other's plate.  We were polite to each other, but it was also like some weird kind of a fight.  Easily the quickest I've ever gotten Violet to clear her plate.

Special gift

Violet had been in a gift-giving mode lately.  She's been giving little random things and toys of her wrapped in  random pieces of paper.

Violet came up to Mommy and gave her this special gift:

No, it's not poop.  What it is, though, is an empty lip balm pot we had given Violet, which she refilled with the guts of a chocolate doughnut.  Mommy was very surprised when she took the lid off the pot to find this little gem.

Boobies

I was preoccupied doing something in the kitchen, probably holding the new baby and trying to make a formula bottle, when Violet came over to me.

"Hey, Daddy?" she said.

"Yeah, kiddo, what's up?" I said.

She lifted her shirt up and said, "Did you see how big my boobies have gotten?"

I enjoy when she catches me off guard with something like this.  "Um, yeah.  Good kiddo!"

"They're getting big," she declared with joy.

"Yep, they are."

"Big and big and big!" she added and then ran out of the kitchen.  It was definitely one of those moments that's funny and cute when she's two and that I hope she outgrows before her teen years.