Cover Model

It will have no effect on whether or not Violet 'wins' but she does have a gallery at Parents.com and has been entered in their 'cover model' search contest. If you would like to give her your recommendation, visit www.parents.com and click on "Cover Contest" and then search photos for Violet. Today she was the first picture on the second page of Violets--who know there were that many Violet's in the world?!?

Anyway, we're not betting the house or our retirement on Violet's chances, but it's kind of fun, and gives us a chance to show off our little girl to people outside of our friends and family circle.

Thanks!

Yankee Doodle

If this works, here is a video of Violet 'singing' Yankee Doodle'. And no, we did not teach her this through rote memorization...it's just what she has picked up through listening to the story.

And yes, she is convinced that Yankee called it macaroni...and cheese. Hope you enjoyed this video!

Slacking into Summer

"hi. order two sausage pizzas peas"

My apologies for slacking the last few weeks; it seemed like the end of the school year would never come, and then it was here and there was so much stuff to do! Add that to a little bit of stress concerning job status due to the budget issues Michigan as a whole is experiencing, and I think you can understand why blogging ended up on the bottom of the list of things to do.

That's not to say that things haven't been happening at Possibility Manor--quite the opposite in fact. Violet seriously becomes smarter (and consequently, a little scarier) EVERY day, wowing us with her ability to speak in sentences, her polite manners (not sure where that one came from...), and her ability to be uncannily quiet when she's drawing on her carseat with the markers I let her take with her to to the store. oops. She's also become quite the helper; this week she helped me plant flowers by putting them in the holes I dug, and carrying them to me from the patio. Not sure if the flowers actually lived through that ordeal yet, but it's definitely a time of great memories.

Now that summer is finally here, it is going to be incredibly fun. Violet is a little daredevil, but a little princess as well, and it's fun to see both Ben and I coming through her little personality. I really need to figure out how to put movies on this thing, so there's a project for the upcoming weeks.

To end this post, some of the 'accomplishments' we've had in the last month or so:

1. Reciting alphabet through G
2. Speaking sentences with a subject, verb, and direct object...example: there was sock that got left behind in the last day of school clean up process and Violet says: "Sock fall on the ground". or "Violet ride in Andy's stroller."
3. Semi-mastered jumping.
4. 'reads' "The Hungry Caterpillar"
5. 'sang' parts of Yankee Doodle this morning...I REALLY wish I had the camera for that...it was so cute.
6. Identifies the letters X, V, T, O, and F in print. (don't ask me why those letters...),
7. Loves to COLOR and WRITE. (YAY!)
8. An amazing ability to imitate and copy things that Ben and I do...and unfortunately, they're not always so cute!

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I could think of right now. To end, here are some recent pictures:

Smelling the tulips--a true Dutch girl


our lovely "Ogurt face"


Our author and illustrator in the making


The world's two biggest Cubs fans


Mommy's shoes


Cubs and Iowa...two of Violet's favorite things!