Four more days!!!

I can hardly believe it myself, but just 4 more days until Violet is CAST FREE!! We are soo excited around here we can hardly stand it!

Just for kicks, here are a few vidoes of her "turtle crawl" - watch as she carries around her purple shell while she crawls. She has amazingly strong arms and abs already. Crazy! And I have a feeling that she is going to TAKE OFF once the cast if off. Look out!





If you can spare some good "cast off" vibes our way on Monday we would appreciate it! It sounds like there is a 95% chance she'll get the cast off, but we are still a little worried about that 5% chance of an extra week or two.

Hopefully the next post will be of her long-awaited chubby little legs (which may or may not be chubby under the cast!)

Happy 10 Months, Violet!

And Happy Thanksgiving, a few days late! Violet had a lovely first Thanksgiving. She ate her Thanksgiving Banana before the rest of us sat down to dinner, so we don't have any pictures of her. Bad mommy!

Here are some pictures from today on her 10 month birthday:

Yesterday we went to her first Family Reunion. It was for the "Thomasma" side (my mom's family). Here she is with my grandparents. She thought the kids hitting the pinata were HILARIOUS!
Early last week I took her into the orthopedist's office. She had been acting funny lately and crying a lot at night which is not like her. I showed them a lump I had found on the inside of her cast right on her rib cage. THAT was why she was having trouble! Poor girl! So they did cut it out for us. I did ask if maybe, pretty please, they could just take the cast OFF since we only have two weeks left... but no, we've just got an "access panel" Oh well!
Jon and I went to Las Vegas last week with my family (Violet stayed home with her Oma Josten). We had a great time! Here are Jon & I having dinner overlooking the canals in the Venetian hotel where we stayed.
Here is me, Leah, Elvis (or a really good impersonator - you decide!) and my two "new" sisters Sarah and Erin. Elvis came to serenade my mom at her 60th birthday party in her suite one night with all her friends. We had a blast!

Hair Experimentation

I don't know why it took me so long to try Violet's hair out in pigtails! It is about my most favorite way for kids to wear their hair (and, uh, for me) and for some reason it never crossed my mind!

Here she is rockin' the pig tails. They looked a little devilish to me, so they didn't last too long...
But I did reather like the "nubs" that we came up with here. Once they were in she was happy as a clam with no hair in her eyes!
Her new pink vest and matching hat on a lovely fall day.
Obi has been especially naughty around the house lately, but he redeems himself with Violet. Here she carefully examines his ear. Later, she paid close attention to his paw while he slept. It was pretty cute!
Since Violet is awake more during the days, she end up spending some time in my office with me while I work. We've been testing out the "Play" part of the Pack n' Play.

Presto Cast Chang-o!

Today was Violet's long-awaited cast change! We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am this morning, and were home by 10. She did great! Here she is in the waiting room. She was awake this time so I got to wear some lovely scrubs and go back into the operating room with her while they gave her the anesthetic. We thought she should try on the hairnet while we waited. She looks smashing, don't you think?


This time it took her a while to calm down after waking up from the anesthetic, but once she ate she felt MUCH better. We got to go home after just a few hours (as opposed to last time where we were there for the majority of the day). The doctor says that her hip looks good and is growing just like it should. However, he did say she'll be in the cast for another 4-6 weeks. Yikes! Say a little prayer that it's closer to 4 weeks than 6! Then she'll probably be in a brace for quite a while after that. Anything is better than the cast so we're okay with that!

The new cast is very similar to the old one - it's still purple, and still goes down to the ankles on both legs. This one has more padding around her chest/back and ankles, which will be nice for her crawling adventures! It makes her legs look like she has purple, rather stiff bell-bottoms on!


This weekend we celebrated having only (hopefully) 4 weeks left of the cast by visiting my grandparents at their place on the Crystal River up north. Violet was on her best behavior and we had so much fun!
Playing Patty-Cake with Papa.

Violet and her Daddy by the Crystal River.No more smooches, Dad!!

Even thought most of the leaves had already changed and fallen, there were quite a few left to go. Driving around Glen Lake was like driving in a postcard!

I had really wanted some nifty pictures of Letty in the Leaves. She thought that was a silly idea. We laid her down and she kept trying to get up and only made this face:

We also got to visit my old horse Max! It was soooo great to see him - he is looking great and is living the LIFE with his new mom Julie! I was really missing him these last few weeks so it was great to get a good sniff of "au de horse" and give him some smooches. Here we are in his extra-large pasture.


He was VERY interested in Violet! It was really cute. She was a little skeptical of this huge "dog" that kept wanting to sniff her!

More Halloween Pictures!

It was a little wet and chilly on Halloween, but our whole crew braved the weather and went Trick-or-Treating anyway!

Here is my mom, my step-sister Erin, and Letty's Uncle Joel (it's a WIG!! He doesn't really have a mullet although I think he would if Leah would let him!) carrying our little Sugar Plum Fairy.

Was Violet ready for bed, or did the idea of her daddy turning into a mullet-wearing redneck terrify her? Who knows?