9 months

My little Violet hit her 9 month mark on Jan 11th.  Of course, with that, came a little photo session and a visit to Dr. Isac (we get to go see our good friend Isac Simpson now as our kids' doctor!  he's working at Phoenix Baptist Family Medicine and he is so awesome! plus our kids really love him)  Violet is such a ray of sunshine in this family.  We all just love her like crazy.  She is always quick to laugh or smile, and she is a pretty good little snuggler too :).  She can't decide whether her dad or her big brother win the prize for funniest man alive.  But she's definitely decided that her mommy is her 'rescuer'...and, as a result, she has become quite the little Momma's girl.  Violet will frequently be seen crawling as fast as she can away from her brother and towards her mom, all while loudly exclaiming "momma, momma!".  She's learning pretty quickly to 'cry wolf' even the second that Sawyer comes near her.  And once those tears start to come...they flow fast!  And they are huge crocodile tears that just sit on her cheeks until wiped away.  But she is starting to learn how to hold her own a bit.  We keep telling Sawyer that, one day, Violet will be big enough to play more with him.  He just wishes she would be able to 'wrestle back'.  So do we.  Poor girl is gonna be one tough cookie by the time he's through with her!  Or possibly one paranoid little girl.  We're hoping for the former.  ;)  But honestly it's the moments when those two just sit and laugh at each other that make everything worth it.  I do believe they'll be good friends one day.  Sawyer just loves her a little too aggressively right now and Violet just needs to fight back!

Developmentally Violet is just about keeping pace with what Sawyer was doing at her age.  She's standing on her own now and occasionally looks like she wants to take a step...but doesn't care enough yet.  I'm glad.  Sawyer took a step at 9 1/2 months and I think she'll wait a little longer, thank goodness.  But that certainly doesn't slow her down much.  She still manages to follow her 'open bathroom door radar' as fast as can be and before I know it, the entire toilet paper roll is undone.  And the girl is pretty fearless.  If she sees something she wants...she lunges for it.  Even if it means diving off the couch or the bed or into the bathtub.  No inhibitions.  Her nicknames continue to evolve.  What used to be Vat...then Vat Vat...is now Vilerie, Vilouie, Vilouette, and most frequently, Viley.  (And of course, Booogey, to her father).  And some of you may remember me mentioning in the past that she was our little wart hog--always stuffy and snorty sounding!  Well that is getting a little bit better...but not much.  If she has even the slightest cold you will hear her breathing from across the room.  And she does this awesome little growl (especially when she wakes up in the morning)...you would swear that Chewbacca was in her bed!  We also believe that she has inherited the 'Larson Rasp' (check with Andrea & Erin Larson if you want to know what this sounds like)...her voice is always raspy and low!  It's pretty stinkin' cute, actually.  And that cute mouth of hers now has 4 1/2 little teeth in it!  (the top middle two are about to come through) As far as hair goes, she's got more than Sawyer ever did, that's for sure!  I'm so excited that it's growing I can hardly stand it!  She's still not the greatest sleeper in the world...but she's definitely not the worst either.  She always goes to bed without a problem...but still struggles throughout the night a bit.  It's getting better, however, and we're hoping to have her out of the pack n play in our closet soon and into a real crib in Sawyer's room!  Wish us luck :).

We feel so blessed to have Violet in our lives.  I'm so sad she's slowly leaving the 'baby phase'...but it is so fun to see her cute little personality starting to emerge! Here are the stats from 6 months (I missed posting these) and 9 months:

                                                    6 months:                                  9 months:
Height--                                       25.25 inches (22%)                  26.75 in (17%)
Weight--                                      16 lbs 8 oz (58%)                     18 lbs 1 oz (30%)
Head Circumference--                 43.5 cm (71%)                         45.5 cm (84%)


I had a fun little photo session with the kids one morning.  I'm still trying to learn how to use our camera.  Made a few mistakes with these but overall I'm getting better!  And practice makes perfect, right?  Besides  ,practicing is so much fun with these cuties!