Routine

Every night, right before I hop into bed, I sit on the floor of our bedroom and no matter WHERE he is, Odie knows and comes and lays in my lap. I then spend about 10-15 minutes rubbing his belly and scratching behind his ears ❤ Tonight he was a bit feisty because he RAN over and peeked his head around the corner of the bed to 'tease' me into playing with him and his felted baseball (he LOVES that ball! I found it at Marshall's for $4 and its the FIRST toy that he can't seem to chew to pieces!). I love you Odie❤

Odie's magazine debut

Our Odie participated in a free photo shoot for a local photographer (Susan Sabo) right before Christmas. Susan is doing a project called 'as a child I dreamt of dogs' where she is combining old school Polaroids with poems about pups. She offered a free photo shoot and 9x9 photo of our choice in return for some pictures of our handsome Odie and rights to do whatever she wants with those photos. I quickly said 'yes!' as Matt rolled his eyes and smiled :) Now I'm happy to announce that she submitted part of her project to a magazine called 5x5, that supports artists and we received our copy in the mail yesterday!!! Odie is officially a star!!! Well, in the eyes of local artists since he was ALREADY a star in ours ❤

Family Fun

We laid low over the weekend to ensure little Violet got better... And it rained all weekend! It was nice and cozy :) Today, she is 90% better and just has a teeny tiny cough left!

Sunday night I met family in Pomona for dinner while Matt stayed home and put Violet to sleep. That night my mom and dad came home with us to Long Beach to spend some time :) It's hard when family lives so far away, but it's so nice when they're here! I worked a half day on Monday and then spent the rest of the day with them and Violet (V stayed home from daycare). Then my dad left to drive back to Palm Springs to see Jacob before driving back to Arizona to fly home to Seattle. My mom stayed another couple of nights and got to spend time with Mel and some night catchup time with Matt, V, Odie, and I. She left this morning and its always so hard to say goodbye because the time between each visit can be so long. Thank goodness for face time and the phone! (But nothing truly beats a real life hug... And my parents give great ones).

On a crazy note, our "great" sleeper decided to wake up 3c each night for the past THREE nights!!!! Each at the same time every night!!! 11, 2, and 5... Thanks V (dripping with sarcasm here folks)! We've got one night without visitors before Violets great grandpa comes on Thursday night (till Saturday), so we're turning the monitor off and sleep training her back to normal ;) I just don't have the heart to make our guests listen to her scream :(

Another Blanket ❤

I've finally finished another baby blanket for a friends baby :) She was born on November 11th so it's a bit late! They kept the gender a surprise so I waited till she came before I finished because if it was a girl... Well... You know me and my love for all things girly! I had to add ruffles and some flowers ❤

We Found It!

After lots of searching we found the park that we're going to have Violet's first birthday party at and it's AMAZING! The evite will go out shortly! Oh man is this place a dream!!

A pirate ship?! Check! An island with trails and canons?! Check! Little village huts with play equipment inside?! Check! Tube slides?! Check! A 'regular' playground, too?! Check! Lots of grass for running around in?! Check! A paved path for kids to ride bikes?! Check! Leashed dogs allowed (for Odie)?! Check! Ducks you can feed (from afar so you don't get chased)?! Check!

... Just a dream ❤

10 months old!

* I can crawl around like a little lady bug
* I can go from sitting to crawling and back to sitting again!
* I can do tall knees and I'm getting better at tall knee walking!
* I am losing my chunk! But don't worry, compared to your average baby I'm still a little chunky :)
* I'm still a little shorty
* I'm starting to fit back into my 6-12 and 9 month clothes!
* I can drink through any straw!
* I'm trying to learn to open cup drink and no matter how much I start coughing and sputtering, I keep going... Despite mamas attempts to stop me!
* I can eat almost anything! ... Anything!!!
* I am head strong and determined :)
* I still love: pointing, giving high fives, clapping, bouncing, flying, kisses, cuddling, my carrier, chasing Odie and licking his fur (yup! They try to stop me, but I'm too fast!)
* My hair is getting soooo long! ... And curly!
* I'm in a big girl car seat

First Cold

Happy Martin Luther King Jr day! Our plan today was for me to work from 7:30-9:30 and then we had a family trip to Disneyland planned since Matt has the day off. Well... Poor Violet woke up with her first cold :( She's had a yucky cough, minor fever, and has been out of sorts and sleepy all day. We knew we made a good decision to stay home when she wanted to nap at 9:00 and then at 1:30. She napped for over 2 hrs total which is NOT like her... She's more of a 30 minute 2x a day kinda baby. And she has a little rash on her chest which I thought may be a food allergy on Saturday... But after consulting the family doctor (Melyssa), we learned that its very common for infants to have a rash when they get a cold... Maybe she's been fighting this cold since Friday/Saturday? Poor thing :( Matt's going to stay home with her tomorrow ❤

I just hope we didn't get anyone else sick since we went to a princess birthday party yesterday. Violet ended up playing by herself most of the time (the other kiddos were about 3 yrs old and very fast moving) so hopefully that helped. But we also went out for tea with 3 other friends and 2 babies...

...

I just took a 2 hr break to put Violet to sleep (konked out cold by 7 pm), organize my pantry (just got some new stackable baskets!), bake some cornbread, do the dishes, make Violet more baby food for this week, and take a shower :)

A Friday off with My Babies!

Lets say that slow starts to a morning are the BEST kind ❤ Today Violet and I took our time waking up, then went to the aquarium in the morning and walked around looking at all the fish, penguins, sea otters, and such :) After that, we met Matt for lunch at this Italian deli we love (Rocco's)... Violet enjoyed little bites of Matt's meatball from his meatball sandwich :)

At home we took Odie on a walk and then gave him a bath ❤ He was stinky because it had been almost 3 weeks since his last one!!

Big girl

Violet is now in a big girl car seat! We decided to go with a Britax Boulevard for safety, comfort, and size :) This car seat is going to be with her for a LONG time! Because of that, we got her a fun print :)

Today Violet is 10 months old!!! Ill take her 10 month pictures later tonight when I get home from work :) I can't believe it!

Messy face ❤

When babies feed themselves, my heart just melts ❤

Handmade Gifts

One if my coworkers gave me a beautiful Christmas present which she embroidered herself :) Isn't it lovely?!