cheeeese!

violet's "smile for the camera" features adorably squinched eyes and nose... and dear god, look at that underbite. this particular type of malocclusion is well chronicled in photos of yours truly at this age. i can see the writing on the wall for munchie, and it's a sketch of a medieval-inspired torture device known in the modern world as the palatal expander.

blissfully unaware of her orthodontic fate, violet is big into giving hugs these days, at least to stuffed animals and people she likes. there is nothing more heart-melting in our lives than her little monkey hugs.



the fallout from the hug love is that violet continues to "wrestle" with her "friends" at "school." have i written about this yet? some weeks ago, her primary care provider delicately asked if we liked to "play wrestle" at home. usually they see this behavior in kids with older siblings but are baffled as to where violet has picked it up. as i was stuffing her jacket into her cubby yesterday, i turned to see our little stone cold steve austin hug the unsuspecting baby elijah to the ground. "smackdown!" i shouted as i cranked up some metallica on my speakerphone and violet threw up her arms in "so big!"

in a similar takedown, "gentle hands" has rocketed past a certain f word in my most used daily vocabulary.

also problematically, violet likes to hug-down the dogs, whose names she has just started saying. in a reverse of the classic pirates of the caribbean scene where the prisoners beckon to the dog holding the keys, violet taunted her favorite WWE opponents.



thankfully "roo" and "peepee" don't care much for her plastic things. she's always chasing after them with what she thinks are generous offers -- foam blocks, crayons, clean socks -- and doesn't seem to understand why she doesn't get the same reaction as when she offers them 95% of her dinner.

speaking of my anxiety over her caloric intake, violet is being transitioned out of bottles at school. reassuringly, she is excellent at this:



but as her teacher noted upon emailing this photo to me, when violet was asked if she wanted a little more milk, she said "no!" (featured here is the accompanying ASL sign for "hell no!")



"LOL!" ended the email, but i'm sure you can guess who was not LOL!-ing.

in other news, violet really likes to scribble lately.



a big favorite is to slap her hand on the magnadoodle and demand that i trace it. i thought this was a pretty cool trick that i'd taught her, but once again, school schooled me.



as promised, in her la-z-boy:



"i'd like to order a cheese pizza, hold the pizza."