So as it turns out, I'm just as bad at keeping up with an online journal as I am with pen and paper! I notice the last entry I made was over a year ago, and as anyone with kids can tell you that is a huge chunk of time! Violet has grown a lot, and every day she is less baby and more little person. Some things haven't changed. Every night, bedtime is the same routine - plus or minus a bath, depending on the day. It's milk & stories, brush teeth, put on the Roy Orbison CD, and down to sleep we go. I just managed to ween her off her bedtime 'ba ba' about a month ago. I know, I'm terrible. She was just so attached to that bottle that I felt bad taking one of the last pieces of her babyhood away from her. At first I made a big production out of getting her a special sippy cup for bedtime only. I found some with soft, silicone tops that were similar to bottles thinking maybe she wouldn't notice the difference as much that way. Of course, that plan backfired on me when, a few days later, she managed to chew up the top of one of them. Something she never did with her bottles. I instead changed over to using a cup with a soft, flip up straw we had gotten for her forever ago at the Rainforest Cafe and she seems perfectly happy with that. She still asks for her bedtime baba, and I remind her that she gets a bedtime big girl cup of milk now. Thankfully it was not as difficult of a transition as I thought it would be. At almost 3, she still isn't potty trained...I supposed every mother assumes their little darlings will be magically trained (by the toilet fairies maybe?) around 2 years of age and diapers will just be a distant memory by the time they turn three. Not to be for us. Every day when I ask her when she's going to use the potty, she says "Later. I'm going to do that later." Or "Tomorrow" is another favorite answer, because she can re-use that one as many times as she likes! Yes, I realize it's on us (Andy and I) to get her trained, but I feel like if she's not even interested in trying what's the point?!
She's gotten big into board games lately. We had bought Candyland and Chutes and Ladders some time ago, and now that she's old enough to play them they've become a daily staple. Add to that the Disney princess Memory game I picked up for her for Christmas and we spend a good few hours a day playing games. Which I think is good because it's teaching her to take turns, to pay attention, and to not be a sore loser (although she beats me most of the time at Candyland!)
We're planning our latest adventure to Disney World for next month. She was last there when she was about a year and a half old, and she still remembers (or at least says she does) a lot of her experiences there. For sure she remembers the Small World ride, because she's talked about it ever since. She's excited to ride that again, and to meet the characters. I'm excited to take her at this age since she's a lot more vocal than she was last time we took her, so we'll really be able to hear what she thinks about things.
The pic attached to this entry is one of my favorites from this past Halloween. She had fun trick or treating, we took her three times to make up for the previous year when she had been sick. The last time out we took her to the outlet mall up in Pleasant Prairie (which is where this was taken.) She filled that pumpkin to the brim! She was a riot. The mall is pretty decent sized, and after we were about half way through the stores after every time she would go up to the counter, say 'trick or treat,' and get her treat, she would turn to Andy and I and ask "all done yet?" or something like that. We just laughed, because what kid gets tired of people handing them free candy??
