Dentist and Dance

Another trip to the dentist.  Violet actually let the dentist inspect her teeth this time.  I made a comment that he got farther then the dentist did last visit and he commented "Yeah I read the notes."  I wonder what those notes said?  "Patient won't stop screaming when I tried to count teeth?"

Recently Violet had a second dance recital.  This one was a tap number to Jingle Bell Rock.  About halfway through the number she thought it would be fun to pretend to fall.  She pretended to fall three or four times.  The first time the teacher picked her up.  The last few times they just left her on the floor.

Before the show:

Warming up:

Dancing:

After it was all done, chilling at Target.

And the dance itself.  

Count the times she "falls".

That's my kid!

Halloween

This was a great year for Violet for Halloween.  This was the first year she really "got it".  Last year it was fun to get candy but she didn't put it all together.  This year she was excited weeks in advance for trick or treating and getting free candy was just amazing to her.

We went to an early Halloween celebration at Irvine Great Park.  Violet was a blue butterfly princess again because her Elsa costume was ripped and mommy hadn't fixed it yet.  Oops.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin.

Violet got to wear her costume to dance class Halloween week.

Tap dancing is hard work.

And then there was Halloween night itself.  We started by carving pumpkins.

Eric's jack o lantern.

Violet and my jack o lantern.

Then dressed up as Elsa from Frozen, it was time to trick or treat.

Making snow!

Exhausted and enjoying her spoils.

Recently enjoying a hike with Daddy.

Wearing a new dress from Aunty Deanna:

Hawaii, yes again...

Violet and I went to Hawaii again to visit my friend Jenee and her family.  We spent another couple of nights at the Disney Aulani resort which was awesome yet again.  We pretty much stayed at the pool all day.

One of the best parts was that Violet was old enough to go to Auntie's Beach House (AKA Disney babysitting) which was open until 9:30 p.m. at night and included in the cost of the room.  We tested it out the first day when Jenee and I booked spa appointments.  I can't say I was at all surprised when someone was waiting for me between appointments to let me know that I needed to call Auntie's Beach House because there was some kind of problem.  I was sure Violet was probably having some kind of melt down or needed a change of clothes--something that would necessitate me leaving and missing my massage.  Luckily they just called to let me know she didn't eat her lunch but then had a fit when they took it away at the end of lunch time.  I think my response went something like "Oh she didn't eat lunch?  Do I need to come get her?  No?  Excellent, off to my massage."

Roughhousing with Nick.

 We had breakfast with the characters again.  The wait for pictures took forever.  It felt like we were really at Disneyland.

Waiting to meet Mickey.

Waiting some more.

That night it was back to Aunties Beach House for Violet and Nicholas while the adults enjoyed a nice dinner and tropical Mai Tai's at the resort restaurant.  Low alcohol tolerances made for a fun meal with excellent food without the kids.

After leaving Aulani we headed back to Jenee's house.  Violet loved going upstairs to visit Jenee's parents.

Hopefully they didn't mind her random visits.

The flight home was a bit rough.  With a 3+ hour delay and a 5 hour flight, Violet was literally rolling on the ground towards the end.  But it was all worth it and I'm sure we will be back next year.

Beach Camping

A couple of weeks ago we did our second and last camping trip of the season.  We thought we would brave two nights with Violet but I had some doubts we would make the second night.  Violet did surprisingly well, other than waking everyone up the second the rose.  We stayed two nights at Carlsbad State Beach.

Violet pretended to ride her horse.

The campground was on a bluff overlooking the beach and which was pretty deserted except for campers.

View from our campsite.

There wasn't a lot of nature other than the beach, but I think Violet had a blast.  We made smores both nights and Aunty Jenny joined us the second night.  Violet swam all day at the beach.

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A recent hike with daddy:

How Many Apples are you?

We've been up to a lot of fun recently.  We took Violet to Knotts and Camp Snoopy which she loved.

Violet loved the swings!

Violet recently learned how to write her name.  Sometimes.

Today we went to the petting zoo.  Violet chose the largest horse to ride instead of a pony.

Earlier today I picked Violet up from preschool, and I saw this posted outside the door:

Apparently they measured how tall all of the students were with apples.  Well, almost all the students.  Notice that Violet has no measurement.  With a feeling of dread, I asked Ms. Kelly, "Violet didn't let you measure her did she?"  Nope.  Ms. Kelly's comment:  "She's very headstrong."  Yup.

First Day of Preschool, Year 2

So today was the first day of preschool.  Violet picked out a dress to wear and as I armed myself with a camera, we entered the building.  I looked up which classroom we were in (104 with Miss Beth) and headed that direction.  Violet had other ideas and started to head to last year's classroom.  This was not going to go over well.

About two weeks ago I mentioned to Violet that she would have a new teacher this coming year and a new classroom.  She said she didn't want a new classroom.  I tried to build it up, "It's not the little kid classroom.  It's the classroom for bigger kids."  She got fairly worried and said a few times "I'm a little kid.  I want to be in the little kid classroom."  About a week later she brought it up again on her own, "Mommy I'm a little kid.  I want to be in the little kid classroom again" so I knew she was worrying about it.

Back again to today, as I headed one way and Violet headed another, Violet started to panic.  Full category 5 melt down mode ensued.  Loud full on hysterics--my kid was spectacle of the morning.  There would be no picture taking this morning.  I had hoped to meet the teacher and check out the room, but instead, they basically ushered her inside and recommended I make a hasty retreat.  They closed the door so she couldn't escape, but not before the teacher commented "I remember her from the summer.  She is strong willed!"  I have never met this teacher prior to today and she has never taught Violet before, but somehow she already knows how head strong she is.  I guess word gets around.

Her substitute swim teacher said the same thing two weeks ago to me after a 20 minute lesson.  About 6 months prior, Mr. Matt, her usual swim teacher, told me she's in his top 5 for strong willed kids to teach.  He teaches a lot of kids too--a lot more than five.  I remember the week she was born and we were struggling with nursing and at a week of age, my lactation consultant said the same thing.   After many sessions, she said in her whole career she had had only a couple of babies that just refused to latch.  Then she brought over a hospital grade breast pump which essentially signaled a sign of defeat.

I remember when I was having a hard time when she was going through a difficult time as a newborn (pretty much week 3 through week 8) during her period of purple crying (google it, that was her), one of my good internal medicine colleagues said "Really Laura, with you and Eric as parents, did you really think your offspring wouldn't be stubborn?"  It made sense at the time and it makes me chuckle now.

After the door closed at preschool today, I hid around the corner and watched Violet crying hysterically while just staring out the window.  Miss Beth asked me if I wanted a call in 15 minutes to let me know that she was doing okay, but I said just to call if I needed to come get her.  About thirty minutes later I got a call and was fully prepared to hear that I needed to come get her, but they were just calling to say she was fine.

Apparently the rest of the day went great.  Looks like they came up with some classroom rules:

Notice Violet's input of "No bossing."  Those that have seen her play with others will see the irony in that.

When I picked her up she was all smiles.

Apparently they counted fruit loops as they strung them on a necklace.  Her's had 38--it was written on the plastic bag it was stored in.  Her necklace was reduced to just a piece of string by the time we pulled  into the driveway.

Later that afternoon she went to her first gymnastics class.  The first half hour she didn't participate.  She told the teacher she didn't know how and she would "do it at home."  I watched this all on the parent spycam they had up since parents are not allowed in the room with them.  The teacher's aide stepped out and asked me if I wanted to go inside the classroom to try to encourage her.  Really with Violet she needs to come to her own conclusion that she wants to do something.  If I try to get her to participate, it will have the exact opposite effect.  Luckily when they switched from the floor room to the bar/trampoline room, she decided it looked more interesting than scary and jumped in.  We will see how next week goes.


Later this month we go back to the dentist.  I mentioned that she has an appointment coming up (mistake number one) and she immediately started talking about how scary the dentist was and how she didn't want to go.  More things to look forward to.