Happy 1st Birthday Violet!

They say the time goes by faster with each kid, and so far I totally agree.  I can hardly believe that my little girl is already one!  It feels like each 'stage' has been shorter than it was the first time around.  And it makes me sad!  I think I just wanted to have Violet stay my baby forever.  Especially because she's been such a snuggler and a little Mama's girl.  But now that she's officially advancing into 'toddlerhood' I think I am going to be ok with it.  There are fun things to look forward to with each stage. And I hate to admit it, but, even though the adorable baby face is slowly starting to dwindle away...I think she is just getting cuter everyday!  So here's a little bit about Violet on her 1st Birthday:

Vi started off the big day with a bang.  She slept 12 straight hours without making a peep!  That is a first in her lifetime.  She has been a little bit more difficult in the sleep department than Sawyer was.  Up until about a week ago I was still struggling with a 3-5 am wake-ups.  But Violet officially stopped nursing last Friday and since then I could tell that we were headed for a breakthrough!  Let's hope it continues :)

Violet took her first steps around 10 months.  She was pretty lazy about it for the next few weeks but when she hit 11 months she decided it was time to stop playing games and she went for it!  Honestly I was hoping she would wait a little longer, but she's happy to be able to keep up with her brother somewhat.  And I think he's happy about it too.  ;)

Our little girl is turning out to be quite the drama queen.  I'm sure it has something to do with a certain almost 3 year old that lives here.  You can't blame her for being paranoid when she's getting pushed down and wrestled with everyday of her life  (he does love her, though!...just wants to play).  But it's starting to turn into a boy-who-cried wolf scenario every now and then...we have to be careful to make sure we actually witness what happens before we blame Sawyer for Violet crying.  She's developing a tendency to exaggerate things a bit.  We're working on it :).  

We think that her raspy voice is here to stay.  And we love it.  

Everyone in this family loves to make this girl laugh.  It's such a funny and infectious laugh.  There's nothing better than hearing it.  

She's a teething maniac.  At this point she's got 4 on top, 3.5 on the bottom, and 2 molars breaking through.  At least it makes for easy eating.  :)

She's been somewhat of a picky eater.  For a while there the only thing I could get her to eat was cheese and hot dogs.  We are slowly adding a little more variety to that diet.  I still haven't gotten her to like milk, but she loves water.  And she gets plenty of yogurt and cheese to satisfy the dairy requirements.  I finally convinced her to like fruit a couple weeks ago...I was pretty happy about that one.  And this girl loved sweet potatoes in baby food form, and still loves them roasted and salted a bit.  

Violet is a lover.  She snuggles and hugs quite a bit (although I can see that changing here soon as she gets more independent :( ).  She does have a little 'man-phobia'.  But you just have to work a little harder and she'll come around eventually.  

Right now the only words (aka sounds) in her vocabulary are: mama, da, 'ssss' (for sawyer), no-no, boo.  She loves to wave her little wrist in a back and forth motion.  And she knows the signs for 'all done' and 'more'  (kind of).

HAIR!  She has hair!  Well...more hair than Sawyer ever did at this age.  And I'm ecstatic about it.  I've even begun with the pigtails already.  So stinkin' cute.  

So there's a little scoop on Viley.  We all love her to pieces and we can't imagine our family without her.  It's so crazy to think that a year ago we were just getting to know her.  I feel so blessed to be her mommy and to have her in my life.  Happy Birthday Violet!  We love you!

And here are the stats:

Weight-- 20.15 lbs (30 %)  Height--2 ft 4.25 in (18%)