Wordless Wednesday

Dinner and Dancing

Violet loves music, and loves to dance to it. We have tunes playing on the iPod system in the kitchen just about every night while Violet eats dinner - if we forget she's sure to remind us to put on her favorite song. Dance moves at the dinner table are pretty standard at our place. A couple of weeks ago, we were listening to a new Putomayo CD we'd recently picked up (World Playground) as she dined, and she couldn't resist this Celtic song:

(Having finally worked out the kinks to the process of posting video, I wanted to share this clip. We're really not much into videography, though - I promise I have no intentions of incessantly posting footage of Violet's every adorable antic.)

Wordless Wednesday

As Promised: Violet in Action

We bought our first digital video camera about a year ago, but it hasn't yet seen much use. With the SLR ever-present, it's just been easy to overlook. We're trying to make more of an effort these days. This age is just so entertaining!

Beyond just remembering to utilize this additional piece of equipment, though, there was the matter of figuring out how the hell to get what we did shoot onto the computer, and eventually onto the blog. It may not be rocket science, but it does take a little time, and with a full time job, a fledgling law firm, a photography habit, and a toddler, it took us a while to get to it. But we worked it all out this weekend, and we're excited to share some footage of Violet in action on her skis as an introduction to the video element of the blog. Grab some popcorn and enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday: Waiting for Dada

Wordless Wednesday

Garden Prep Gone Awry?

No, we didn't go overboard getting the soil tilled for the upcoming growing season. We're getting a shinynew sewer line! It wasn't on the original agenda for this spring, but the raw sewage that flooded our basement a couple weeks ago prompted us to rearrange our priorities. For over a week now, our backyard has looked more like Beirut than Boise. Fortunately, we have plenty of playspace available right across the street at the schoolyard, so Violet isn't missing anything. And Atticus is hardly complaining about the several short walks he's been getting every day since his bathroom is under construction. Things are looking good for getting the yard put back together in time to get our garden in, but we'll be cutting it close. Which reminds me, I need to start ordering seeds . . .

Wordless Wednesday

"More"

This afternoon, once we were almost back to the lodge, we parked the Chariot and gave Violet the opportunity to ski again. She spent some time trying them out on her own, but what she was really interested in was a downhill run with Dada. He hauled her up a little hill and they cruised down together. Her response? "More."

Repeat three or four times and you have the end of our outing. I've got video, if only I could figure out how to post it. Until then:

Ski Baby

We've been taking Violet out on the cross country trails with us since she was about six months old. She rides in the Chariot Cougar trailer (using the cross country ski conversion kit) and Eric pulls her behind him. Last year, she never lasted long before the ride lulled her to sleep, but this year, she's been soaking up a lot more of the scenery. We typically stop about halfway through our trek to let her get out and stretch her legs, and as soon as she's free, she heads striaght for our skis and tries to stand on them. Somebody's been paying attention!

After she showed interest in our skis a couple times, we decided to pick up a pair for her. On our way to the local resort last weekend, we found some just her size that strap right onto her snow boots. At the end of our stint that day, we pulled them out and let her give it a try.

Violet took to skiing without hesitation. Not at all unnerved by the strange sensation of sliding on boards attached to her feet (am I the only one who is unnerved by this? really?), she took her Dada's hands and took off. Of course she's not skating away from us just yet, but she had no trouble shuffling along with his help. When he held out a pole, parallel to the ground, for her to hang onto, she insisted on taking it from him to use as it was intended. Like I say . . . somebody's been paying attention.

Things really got exciting, though, when Eric decided to carry her up the little hill next to the lodge and ski down with her on her feet in front of him. Got himself a decent workout doing that four or five more times - at Violet's insistence - until she got too cold to stay out any longer. (Too cold by Mama's standards; Violet would've been there all afternoon if we'd left it up to her!) Now that she's had a taste of one of her Dada's favorite things, I don't know how eager she's going to be to spend her time on the mountain inside the Chariot. At least we can use it with the bikes a little longer. She's not old enough to start riding a bike, right? RIGHT??

Wordless Wednesday: Violet's First Haircut

Wordless Wednesday

Halfway There!

On Violet's first birthday, I launched a year-long photo project: at least one photo of her a day, for 365 days. I post each day's image on Flickr, in a set I've titled Violet 365.

It's been quite an undertaking. Though many times I've found myself at bathtime/bedtime scrambling for a shot before the day is over, commiting to at least one capture a day has forced me to keep my camera close by, prepared for any photo op that might arise.

Enjoying her customary apple grocery shopping at the coop, November 5, 2008.

Doing a bit of her own shopping at the kids' market in the Discovery Center, January 17, 2009.

While the 365 photos are more snapshot than portrait, the project has also helped me improve some of my photography skills, through sheer repetition . . . and necessity. The onset of winter and its deficiency of daylight, for example, prompted my study of the Speedlite (external flash), and while I'll always prefer natural light, I'm so glad to be able to keep shooting even in its absence.

Hard to believe we're now more than halfway through! She's changed so much in the last 186 days, and I love that Violet 365 has documented so many of those changes, from her first steps to her first friend. Only 179 days to go . . . and I look forward to finding out what each of them will bring.

A few recent favorites:

Headed for the bath, January 28, 2009.

Hugging her baby doll, January 30, 2009.

Wordless Wednesday

High School Reunion

BFF. Could the preteen girls Mandy, Ginger and I were when we referred to each other that way - best friends forever - envision what that would look like in our 30s? When we were all married, all mothers?

It looked like this:

After more than seven years (the last time the three of us were all together in one place: my wedding), we met up in Dallas for five days after Christmas. Ginger, who now lives in Guam, was stateside with her husband Allen and baby Fern, and Mandy and I traveled from Oklahoma and Idaho, respectively, to Ginger's parents' place in Dallas . . . a much more manageable trip than the 24+ hour series of flights it takes to reach Guam.

Though we haven't really been able to hang out in recent years, we've stayed close (thank goodness for unlimited cell phone minutes). As soon as we were back together, it felt like we'd been living around the corner from each other, as we had growing up, all along. Fortunately, some things, like feeling right at home in the Haddock's kitchen and never running out of things to talk about with my oldest girlfriends, haven't changed.

Obviously some things have changed, though, the most significant being that we're all mamas now. Mandy's girls are the oldest of the group: Madeline is five and Lola is two. Violet is nine months younger than Lola, and ten months older than Fern, Ginger's baby girl. Watching the four of them together was so much fun, and watching my friends as mothers was even better. Despite distance and obvious differences in our day-to-day lives, Ginger, Mandy and I are so in sync when it comes to parenting. They are one of my most valuable resources on all things baby-related; we can spend hours discussing everything from how to fix stinky cloth diapers to whether kids really need cow's milk. They may be thousands of miles away, but they are as much a part of my life today as they were when we practically - or actually! - lived together.

It was a wild few days, though not in the college bar-scene way. These days, the craziness comes from trying to coordinate 3 or 4 different nap schedules and still make it out of the house before five o'clock. Our New Year's celebration consisted of a champagne toast with Ginger's parents, Fern and Violet asleep asleep in Ginger's and my arms as the clock struck twelve. It was nothing like it used be, and better than we ever could have imagined. We can't wait to do it again.

The next generation, left to right: Lola, Maddy, and Violet.

Wordless Wednesday

Baby, Give Me a Sign

Violet has a lot to say. She’ll chatter animatedly to any available audience . . . she just doesn’t include many recognizable words in her conversation. At 17 months, her verbal vocabulary consists of "mama" and "dada," "hi," "baby," "no," and variations of "cat," "nose," "belly button," "cracker," "I see you," and "Casey" (her favorite friend). But she isn't limited in communicating by language - she can sign!

We started baby sign language with Violet when she was about 7 months old. Initially, we introduced just a few signs associated with her favorite activities: nursing and eating. She picked up the sign for “all done” first (waving her hands away from her body), providing a conclusion to mealtime we much preferred over the previous method of dumping whatever was left on the floor. Next, she added a sign for “drink,” adapting our example of a thumb to the lips to pointing with her index finger at her mouth while tilting her head back.

Other signs, like her sign for “nurse,” she created all on her own. I had been demonstrating a version of the sign for nurse that used a sweeping motion of a flat hand from the shoulder down over the breast, symbolizing letdown. Violet never picked up the sign I showed her, instead coming up with something entirely different: her sign for “nurse” is an index finger pointing into the middle of her opposite palm. Emphatically. It's similar to another version of the sign for "more" - which makes sense since nursing is the one thing she always wans to do more of - but ultimately what sign is used to represent any particular concept doesn’t matter as long as we know what she means.

Signing "sleep."

Recognizing and responding to your child’s needs is a fundamental principle of the AP philosophy; sign language provides our baby an additional tool for expressing those needs when she can’t find the words. It also allows her to tell us about what she’s observing and experiencing – signing “dog” when we pass one on the sidewalk or hear barking outside, signing “hot” to describe her dinner as steam rises off the plate.

Violet has about 20 signs in her regular repertoire now, and she makes good use of each of them. We continue to show her signs for common objects or things she shows a special interest in, letting her decide which she wants to add to her “vocabulary.” Even as she can speak more words, she may continue to pick up additional signs and “talk” to us in a combination of words and signs. Whatever she wants to say, and however she chooses to “say” it, we’re listening.

Adapted from original post at API Speaks, January 8th 2009.

Changing the Subject

Violet got a break from her role as model and muse last weekend when she spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa, freeing up both me and my dining room for a maternity photo shoot with my friend Leslie and her family. We set up the seamless next to Violet's play kitchen, which kept Leslie's almost four year old, Sienna, happy in between shots.

It was nothing like my sessions with Violet, who I couldn't pose if I wanted to. Typically, I wouldn't want to, because I prefer to capture her more candidly, but I'll admit it was nice (if a little nerve-wracking) to be able to give my subjects some direction. It was a great opportunity for me to work outside of my comfort zone, and so much fun to be a part of memorializing this family as they wait for their newest member to arrive!

Of course I couldn't resist shooting a few more frames of Sienna as we wrapped up the session - is this kid photogenic or what?

Thanks again, Leslie and family!

Wordless Wednesday: Change Has Come to America

For No-Cry Solutions for Common Parenting Challenges, Check with Elizabeth Pantley

I first encountered the gentle guidance of Elizabeth Pantley when I added The No-Cry Sleep Solution to the stack of books on baby sleep that grew beside my bed during Violet's infancy. As Violet grew, but the length of her sleep sessions did not, I thumbed desperately through its pages in search of a remedy to her restlessness. While in reading it I never discovered the silver bullet I'd hoped to find (I'm not sure there is such thing as a compassionate quick fix for sleep at those stages), what I did take away was what I really needed: reassurance that someday my baby would sleep longer than three quarters of an hour, without our resorting to strategies we weren't comfortable with.

Pantley's approach is the antithesis to perhaps better-known "baby-trainers" like Ferber and Weissbluth - worse yet, Ezzo - who are adamant that every baby is the same and should sleep on the same schedule. Instead, Pantley understands that babies are individuals, and should be respected and responded to as such, even at night. Since she also recognizes that prolonged sleep deprivation can be painful (putting it mildly) for parents, she proposes a plan for helping ease little ones into sleeping longer stretches in a way that the whole family can live with.

Fortunately for the child-centered set, Pantley has provided additional advice on tough topics in her other books: The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers; The No-Cry Potty Training Solution; The No-Cry Discipline Solution; and her latest - The No-Cry Nap Solution: Guaranteed Gentle Ways to Solve All Your Naptime Problems. Each of these volumes adds a much-needed AP perspective to conventional parenting literature; I look forward to adding several to my own bookshelf.