I really need to get on the ball with the updates. Time is moving so swiftly that I barely have enough hours in the day to get what I should get accomplished.Violet is growing. She's slowly developing into a little person. She's incredibly fun to be around. She's reached that age where both Melissa and I can mess with her physically. For example, my new fun game with my daughter involves my lightly slapping both of her little fists really fast. She gives an open-mouthed and wide-eyed smile when I do this that makes me absolutely melt. I have also taken to blowing on her exposed tummy when I see it. Her reaction isn't as favorable as the hand slapping deal, but I'm working on it.
A few days ago, my first father's day sped by. Melissa made the day really special for me in taking me out for breakfast, pre-ordering Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2 in full, as well as ordering me a Cold Stone ice-cream cake. Melissa is really awesome in this regard. She works hard to make special days all the more special. I'm really lucky to call her my own.... because I own her.
Moving on...
We spent time with both sides of the family for Father's day. The three of us visited grandpa Mitchell in Chicago for the Old Town Art Fair. Melissa and I haven't been there in years and it was a lot of fun. The weather was awesome and the crowds weren't too terrible. Then on that Sunday afternoon/evening we visited grandpa Conroy and the rest of the clan. My uncle Jim (my mother's brother) visited from Colorado. His story is an amazing one. I'll just sum it up as my mother eloquently posited, "he's so brave". My uncle Jim has been through a series of strokes as well as myriad other health complications but he still works to travel around to see family. It was really, really good to see him again.
Back to Violet. She's managed to tease us with 3 nights of sleeping all the way through. However, as of late she's going at 6 hour stretches. We put her down at 9PM and she'll sleep to about 3AM. More often than not she'll be back up at about 6AM, but I noticed that if I rock her when she fusses about 6AM, she can go to about 9. A lot of my colleagues and friends tell me to try putting her to bed earlier each night to stretch out the sleep schedule. We've been trying and we'll continue to do so, but the 9PM mark seems pretty much ingrained into her mind as sleepy time. Melissa and I decided to consult Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child by Marc Weissbluth to see when we should get her on a schedule and when she should be sleeping in her crib alone. Looks like we have some work ahead of us.
Violet interacts with us all day now with smiles, whines, "cooing" nosies. It's awesome. She's making her presence known regularly now as she's starting to demand more and more attention. If I put her down and walk into the next room to get something, she'll call out to me in hopes for a reply. She loves it when Melissa and I get up close and engage her in conversation. Granted, her vocabulary is pretty limited; it seems that each of us get a little something out of our chats.
Here are some recent images of the kid. Enjoy:
Typical scenario in the AM. Melissa cuddled with V and V's
attention diverted to her boyfriend...
Mr. Ceiling Fan. Our fans receive more chatter and smiles
than we do. Violet loves our ceiling fans... even when they're not
in motion. Crazy kid.
Taken at Grandpa Mitchell's pad in Chicago.
Grandpa loves his granddaughter.
V meets her great grandmother Emilia (Melissa's grandmother).
Violet was a bit of a fussmonster on this trip, but seemed intrigued
by this new face.
Bath time with dad (and mom... snapping pictures
ad nauseum). Good practice come July when Melissa
returns to work. I'll be flying solo during bath times.
"Huh? What do you mean these are going on the
Internet?"
My god. .. What have we done!?
We fed her after midnight and now we have two!
It said nothing about this in the instruction manual.
Taken today. Next thing I know she'll be wanting the keys to the car.
Awesome. Violet later confided in me that she too
thinks Iron Man is a dick.
