i took this picture and thought hmm, this looks familiar. sure enough, last year's new year's post started off like this. well, they say preschoolers like routine, right? the crumbs present last year were also still with us.
i spent the week before chinese new year in a cleaning/purging frenzy, to welcome my good luck since it's my year -- year of the horse! as you may remember, violet was born in the year of the tiger (we called her "tigs" for a long time as a baby), and kevin is also a tiger, so i let them put their attack instincts to good use on the carseat.
backing up to gregorian new year's eve, we hunkered down in the fort that violet got for christmas and watched the new york ball drop at 9pm.
violet was really excited to "stay up until midnight!" and enthusiastically participated in the countdown and cheering and kissing and toasting. she pretended to participate in the napping the next day.
the cheerful chirp of "i'm all done with my nap!" is a heart sinker in our house lately because she only announces it when hasn't actually napped. while she can skip a nap and not necessarily have an evening meltdown (which would have been guaranteed even a few months ago), we end up pretty housebound since we don't want to take her anywhere when she's got the loops. speaking of loops
she wanted me to take her picture after she rode her first roller coaster (toontown). we scored the front seat and she was so cute, play-screaming and giggling the whole time. she was very proud of herself.
other daredevil feats include the my gym zip line
and 'cootering down the driveway.
she pretty much doesn't want to scooter anywhere else now. she just loves going down the driveway over and over again. there are a couple of boys her age in the neighborhood with the same scooter, and they fly down the windy paths at the park. she doesn't want anything to do with that. i don't actually think she's afraid; i think she knows she can't do it (yet) and doesn't want to try/fail. i see the seeds of perfectionism sprouting already. we talk a lot about trying/practicing, but wow is it ever difficult to be encouraging without being pushy or a pushover. wax on, wax off, right?
one thing we never have to encourage is art. violet LOVES art all on her own. they set up play stations at school (reading, blocks, beading, dress up), and her teachers tell me that when she is given a choice, violet always chooses painting. her other favorite is scissors and glue. here she is last night at 9:15pm. "just one more page!"
her favorite things to draw (and make me draw) are max and ruby scenes, like this depiction of "ruby telling max don't hit the groundhog with a bat!" (!!!)
i love the dialogue bubbles. i took that picture awhile ago, and she has now mastered adding bunny ears.
violet and i were home with the charming norovirus for an entire week, and we dragged ourselves through michael's arts and crafts a few times for project supplies. i didn't get a pic of the bird house she painted, but here's "a family of bears"
and here's the valentine's card that she made for kevin:
i asked her if she wanted me to cut out a big heart, and she said, "i think daddy would like a stegosaurus." as you can see, it's on his bulletin board at work. she also made a card of "daddy's work" and it's all of these people with straight lines and frowns for mouths, more downtrodden than the staff of office space. when you unfold the paper, inside she's drawn a big rectangle with another straight-mouthed man within: "it's the TV show!" she's never seen the show, and i realized she thinks daddy is actually on TV on "his show" as we call it at home -- such a cute presumption, but also neat in its perceptiveness. a woman watching her at the grocery store the other day said, "she's kind of an old soul, isn't she?" if you're reading this, you know her -- is she? "she's sensitive," i said.
if you ask her how old she is, she'll tell you she's "a teenager." she loves to sit in my driver's seat and "drive us to disneyland to ride on splash mountain!" she's a teenager so she can drive and exceed the height requirement, see? ha! that's one i've picked up from her. it's like a country bumpkin "now see?" that i think she got from the berenstain bears, her favorite show right now. we play berenstain bears every day. i talk more in mama bear's voice than i do in my own, not even joking. for some reason my "mama bear" comes out as a butchered and breathy british accent. i cringe hearing myself talk. my "donald duck" is worse than ever, half batman, half satan. as violet and i danced and sang the alternating parts of "i just can't wait to be king," it occurred to me that my "zazu" would get my ass kicked in jamaica.
like a dwindling SNL sketch with no way out, i need to wrap this up, so here's violet with a pastry and "the jackson 5."
violet was really excited to "stay up until midnight!" and enthusiastically participated in the countdown and cheering and kissing and toasting. she pretended to participate in the napping the next day.
the cheerful chirp of "i'm all done with my nap!" is a heart sinker in our house lately because she only announces it when hasn't actually napped. while she can skip a nap and not necessarily have an evening meltdown (which would have been guaranteed even a few months ago), we end up pretty housebound since we don't want to take her anywhere when she's got the loops. speaking of loops
she wanted me to take her picture after she rode her first roller coaster (toontown). we scored the front seat and she was so cute, play-screaming and giggling the whole time. she was very proud of herself.
other daredevil feats include the my gym zip line
and 'cootering down the driveway.
she pretty much doesn't want to scooter anywhere else now. she just loves going down the driveway over and over again. there are a couple of boys her age in the neighborhood with the same scooter, and they fly down the windy paths at the park. she doesn't want anything to do with that. i don't actually think she's afraid; i think she knows she can't do it (yet) and doesn't want to try/fail. i see the seeds of perfectionism sprouting already. we talk a lot about trying/practicing, but wow is it ever difficult to be encouraging without being pushy or a pushover. wax on, wax off, right?
one thing we never have to encourage is art. violet LOVES art all on her own. they set up play stations at school (reading, blocks, beading, dress up), and her teachers tell me that when she is given a choice, violet always chooses painting. her other favorite is scissors and glue. here she is last night at 9:15pm. "just one more page!"
her favorite things to draw (and make me draw) are max and ruby scenes, like this depiction of "ruby telling max don't hit the groundhog with a bat!" (!!!)
i love the dialogue bubbles. i took that picture awhile ago, and she has now mastered adding bunny ears.
violet and i were home with the charming norovirus for an entire week, and we dragged ourselves through michael's arts and crafts a few times for project supplies. i didn't get a pic of the bird house she painted, but here's "a family of bears"
and here's the valentine's card that she made for kevin:
i asked her if she wanted me to cut out a big heart, and she said, "i think daddy would like a stegosaurus." as you can see, it's on his bulletin board at work. she also made a card of "daddy's work" and it's all of these people with straight lines and frowns for mouths, more downtrodden than the staff of office space. when you unfold the paper, inside she's drawn a big rectangle with another straight-mouthed man within: "it's the TV show!" she's never seen the show, and i realized she thinks daddy is actually on TV on "his show" as we call it at home -- such a cute presumption, but also neat in its perceptiveness. a woman watching her at the grocery store the other day said, "she's kind of an old soul, isn't she?" if you're reading this, you know her -- is she? "she's sensitive," i said.
if you ask her how old she is, she'll tell you she's "a teenager." she loves to sit in my driver's seat and "drive us to disneyland to ride on splash mountain!" she's a teenager so she can drive and exceed the height requirement, see? ha! that's one i've picked up from her. it's like a country bumpkin "now see?" that i think she got from the berenstain bears, her favorite show right now. we play berenstain bears every day. i talk more in mama bear's voice than i do in my own, not even joking. for some reason my "mama bear" comes out as a butchered and breathy british accent. i cringe hearing myself talk. my "donald duck" is worse than ever, half batman, half satan. as violet and i danced and sang the alternating parts of "i just can't wait to be king," it occurred to me that my "zazu" would get my ass kicked in jamaica.
like a dwindling SNL sketch with no way out, i need to wrap this up, so here's violet with a pastry and "the jackson 5."
