Violet's Birth Announcement

My First Digital Scrapook Page

Digital scrapbooking is all the rage in my neighborhood now. Since I never really got into regular scrapbooking... even though it is awfully fun to buy the supplies!... I thought I'd give this a try. I still have a lot to learn, but here's my trial page, part of Violet's birth book I'm making. I'm not sure I'll have time before the Winkflash sale ends to do all the pages this way, so I might have to wait and do my next book this way instead. I like it though!

Sunday, Sunday

Well, everyone is doing better today (I posted early early this morning), and we had a nice day. The girls are still a little sick, but now having a few days of antibiotics in them, I'm confident they'll be feeling all better very soon. I had my most relaxing time at church in a long time with no little ones to look after. No goldfish to scramble for, no up and down the aisles or in and out of the foyer. Very calm!

Violet got to try on her booties Uncle Shad crocheted for her (for Cora actually! But we've pulled out Cora's clothes and it's so fun to have Violet wear them and remember all the cute gifts our friends and family gave us.)

Cora got all decked out for our walk. Too bad it was too hot to stay out very long!

Kevin made us all strawberry smoothies... mmm! Cora loved them, and sucked in her cheeks to get it all up in her mouth. What a good day!

And, you can kind of see Cora's haircut in this picture. It's really not that uneven... it was just extra curly yesterday morning. But at least the baby mullet is gone! It's pretty cute.

Sick Again

After a miserable week of coughing, runny noses, and sore throats, we took the girls in to the doctor on Friday afternoon. I guess we've been going to the doctor a lot the last few months, between feeding issues, well-child visits, and RSV.... when we pulled up to the building, Cora said 'doctor, doctor'! Cora and Violet are both are on antibiotics now, and he said they should be better before we leave for Portland on Thursday. Hopefully! We're supposed to avoid kids this weekend, so Kevin and I will do shifts at church again-- so I can play the organ and he can be there for Young Mens. It's just so sad to hear little Violet cough and choke on her mucus and hear Cora's bad cough waking her up at night and making her voice all hoarse. They gave it to me too! But of course, Kevin isn't sick, like usual. Good thing!

Newborn Pictures

We had Violet's newborn photos taken (www.vincentarts.com) a few weeks ago. Here are some of our favorites!

Cora's First Haircut

I finally got tired of Cora's scraggly ends and cut about an inch or so off the back of her hair. I was surprised at how noticeable the change was! Cute, and the hair lays much more nicely now. I'll have to post a picture later, because she was not sitting very still, so I need to do a little trimming. I guess I'll have to sit her in front of a new Curious George episode or do it when Kevin is home to get it nice and straight!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! Kevin and the girls made a special breakfast, colored a card, and treated me especially nice all day long.... what a fun (and relaxing) day! Here are the girls all dressed for church-- Violet in her tutu onesie and Cora in her Hawaii dress from Kissie and Pata. Cora gets so excited to go to church. Sunday mornings she chants "chirch, chirch, chirch" when we tell her she gets to go to nursery. Sometimes on other days of the week, she wants to go to church too! I think she loves nursery.... and she just loves wearing her dresses too!

Smiles

Violet has been giving us smiles all week! They are so cute. We have discovered that tickling her mouth with a burp cloth will bring lots of smiles. She has also been doing a lot more gurgling and cooing instead of her baby grunting and snorting. So cute!

Violet

Well, Violet had a doctor's appointment today. She is 22.5 inches long (75-90th percentile) and 10.5 pounds (25-50 percentile).

The doctor said that 60-65% of babies grow out of milk sensitivity at 2 months, 90-95% grow out of it at 3-3.5 months. He suggested keep a food and fussiness diary to more accurately tell what might be bothering her, and to try milk products every two weeks to see how she is doing. So that is hopeful! Maybe it won't last much longer at all.

Shower time

Cora's new favorite thing to do is take a shower! She used to hate it, but now doesn't mind the water running in her face. She loves to 'color pictures' in the steam on the shower doors and will say 'back, back' if I'm blocking the warm water from hitting her back. Violet likes the shower too! She also likes the warm water on her back and licking water off my shoulders. The girls and I have some fun mornings getting all wet and clean together.

So Much Love

Here you can see how Cora spends most of her days... trying to touch, love, kiss, hug, pick-up, and hold Violet. Consequently I spend a lot of my day saying 'don't touch the baby', 'the baby is sleeping!', 'only mama can pick the baby up!' and the like. Of course, we also spend a good portion of the day holding the baby together and looking at her hair, nose, ears, hands, and toes!

Visitors

Kevin's mom and sister came to visit on their way back from Spain too! We were glad they could come meet Violet and see how big Cora's grown.

Grandma, Cora, and Violet

With Keri and the new book of family members Grandma made Cora. Cute!

Cora and Violet before church in their new dresses from Morocco.

Sitting pretty.

Outtakes

This is why it's better to take pictures when Kevin is home and there are two of us to arrange and entertain the girls while trying to get a shot!

Update

Nope, our computer setup isn't fixed yet, but I figured out that there wasn't actually much software to upload to get our pictures off our camera onto the laptop. Hurray! None are cropped, since all we have is Paint to adjust pictures, but oh well. We'll be buying and trying out a new operating system this week to see if that gets our pc back on track. (Yes, we would LOVE a Mac, but since we're using our rebate to stimulate the economy -- Home Depot in particular!-- by finishing our basement, that's still on the wishlist!)

Saved

We got all our files off our hard drive! It looks like the hard drive is still good, and that it's an operating system problem. Hopefully if we reinstall the operating system we can get a few more good years out of our computer. We will see-- and keep you posted.

Meanwhile, everything is going well here. Cora loves her little sister! Cora makes sure Violet's arms are folded for family prayer. She tries to give Violet her binkie when she is crying... and lots of times when Violet's not crying too (I think Cora just knows she loves her binkie so much, she wants to makes sure Violet has the same pleasures). She always tells me thankyou when I give her one of Violet's diapers to put in the diaper pail-- she's a great helper!

Violet has been exhibiting signs of colic--she cries most evenings from 7 or 8 till 12 or 1am, the last three weeks or so. The only thing that calms her down is when we bounce with her on the exercise ball. This week is no-dairy week for me to see if it helps her out at all. I'm not a big milk drinker, but I didn't realize how very many things have dairy products in them! Violet's colic combined with a week of Cora waking up in the middle of the night-- teething I think-- has made a lot of short sleeping nights for Kevin and I! Thankfully, Cora slept through the night last night. Kevin took her to the pool yesterday evening to try to wear her out, so I guess it worked!

The workers hung all the sheetrock in our basement, and should finish the mud, tape, and texture this week or early next week. Hurray! We're trying to do our research and purchasing for the next few phases of the project. It looks like we should be on track to finish in June though (except the bathroom--that will be a little longer).

Sad News

Our computer went kaputz! It's been on a downward trend for a little while, but we still thought it would hang around for quite sometime. We I started it up on Friday, it said it was a no go. We're taking it in this week to try to recover some lost data--we do have a backup drive, but hadn't backed stuff up for about a month-- let that be a reminder to everyone! We'll cross our fingers for an easy retrieval and a fix for the PC, but we may be shopping around for a new computer soon. Until then, I won't be posting much with my only computer access as Kevin's old, functional but slow, laptop, that doesn't have a lot of our regular programs on it. Hopefully it will get sorted out soon!

Pure Sweetness

Grandpa's Visit

Kevin's dad came to visit and meet Violet on his way home from traveling with Kevin's mom and Keri in Spain (they got to stay an extra week and will be here to visit soon). Cora loved having Grandpa around to play with her outside, bounce her on the big exercise ball, help her reach the lightswitch to turn it on and off (a new and exciting discovery), and much more. We visited with family and the guys made major progress in the basement. All the insulation is in, the backing is up, and the rooms are almost all cleared out and dejunked.... the sheetrockers should be able to come next week! Thanks for coming to visit, play, and help Grandpa!

Cousins

Here are cousins Violet and Ayvri. They were born 45 minutes less than exactly one week apart! Don't they look so cute snuggled together in the same bouncer? They live so close together, I'm sure they'll be great friends! This picture was taken when Violet was 5 days old.
Below are Addy and Cora, sisters to Ayvri and Violet, and they are 2 months apart in age. This picture was taken when Cora was about 6 weeks old.

Monday, Monday

Cora flew her first kite with Kevin for our Family Home Evening activity on Monday night. It was a little too windy though-- we'll have to try again another time and maybe have a little more success!

Cora, Violet, and I went to the Children's Museum Monday afternoon. It was the least crowded that I've ever been there, and it actually went pretty well. Violet slept almost the whole time in the sling (thanks Liz, it has worked great for us!). It was a fun day! We just need to go back and do the Sesame Street exhibit one more time before it leaves Salt Lake the beginning of May.

Cora loved manning the ball tube that blows the balls up in the air. She was so cute, after she put each one in, she'd look up and watch it go, and say 'ooh'. Every time! She had a blast!

Violet had her two week appointment this morning. She has grown an inch, and put on almost TWO POUNDS in one week! Incredible! This puts her at a little over 9 pounds, which make her in the 90th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. The doctor said it was just her weight catching up, and that she looks great! He also said she could stay big for her age or go down, that by about 6 months she'll establish herself somewhere along the growth curve.

Kevin and Cora roughhouse together every evening before dinner. Tonight he taught her how to do a summersault and she picked up on it right away. She's been doing them ever since!

11 Days Old

Well, Violet is 11 days old today. Her umbilical cord fell off yesterday, so she got her first bath in the popcorn bowl in the kitchen sink today. Cora helped and Violet endured it.

Cora also was a little mischievous today, although I think she was just exploring. I was entering receipts in Quicken while Violet slept in the bouncer in our bathroom and Cora was playing. It was pretty quiet, but I thought things were alright until I heard the toilet lid shut. Ut-oh. I went in the bathroom to see Cora painting Violet's head with one of my make-up brushes dipped in the toilet. Poor Violet! Her first victimization by her big sister! At least she slept through it all. Cora and I had a good talk about toilet water being yucky and Violet got her bath. Hopefully Cora remembers her little lesson!

Cora really picked up on saying please and thankyou last week with Kissie and Pata here. Now she says it almost all the time, and even says excuse me and sorry occasionally too. It's especially cute to hear her say bless you when Violet sneezes!

One Week

Violet was one week old yesterday! We went to her doctor's appointment and found out her new one week stats. Violet has lost 6 ounces (down to 7 pounds, 6 ounces), which is totally normal, and she's in the 50th percentile for weight. She is still 20 inches long (so they must have been able to stretch her out well at the hospital!), which is the 80th percentile for height. So, we'll have to see if she continues along that growth curve and is taller than Cora as they grow up!

Family Time

Kevin, Violet and I came home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. My mom came on Monday afternoon and watched Cora for the night. Kevin worked from home and took time off the rest of the week, and my dad came Thursday morning to see Violet and help out too. It was a big help to have my mom and dad here! They played with Cora, held Violet, made meals, cleaned, helped out with our basement, taught us a new game (Ticket to Ride-- we loved it!) and we all had a lot of fun together.

Shad and Jen came to visit and see the new baby on Tuesday.

Cora was so excited to have 4 people to convince to play outside with her. Almost everytime she would say 'side, side' someone would go out on a walk or to turn on the Elmo bubbles or kick the ball around. She's been a little more fussy since we brought Violet home, so she loved the extra attention! She's also been getting more particular with what she wears.... she wouldn't go outside without her lifejacket on the afternoon we took this picture!

Kevin and dad also spent some time putting together Cora's early birthday present. Kissie and Pata had been saving her birthday and Christmas money since she was born for something big and special--- and here it is! Cora LOVES it! She will look out the window and say 'house, house, house' when she wants to go outside and play in it. It's been a big hit. Thankyou Kissie and Pata!


Checking for mail (she was delighted when she found some 'mail' from Pata in there later!).....filling up the flowerpots with water and trying to give 'drinks' to everyone...... even the box is a lot of fun.

Practicing opening the door.... enjoying the view from the front porch bench....looking out the window.

Cora loved having Kissie and Pata visit! She's been saying their names and asking for them every since. Thanks a bunch for all your help!

Hair-mates

Violet-- 4 days old........Terrah -- 2 days old

We should have done Violet's hair for the added effect! But you can see that she definately got her hair from me!

A few more hospital pics...

The three girls in the family!

Getting ready to come home.

Violet's first bath. She loved having her hair washed, and still loves her head being rubbed!