New York, New York

This weekend Jon's brother Trent got married to my new sister-in-law Heather outside Syracuse, New York. The wedding was overlooking a beautiful lake and was just beautiful. Here we all all dressed up for the wedding: It was pretty windy and my hair was blowing the opposite way that it should have. Thus my hand half-way up to catch it :)

Jon was a groomsman. It was nice to see him alllll dressed up :) And Violet too. I don't tend to put her in dresses very often!
Here is the back of Violet and her new buddy Jonah, Heather's nephew. They had a great time together.
Here are all the relatives from Jon's side of the family in front of the sign for the Inn. L-R Cousin Chad, Jon, Jon's mom holding Violet, Jon's Aunt Ellie, Uncle John, Cousin Tim and Mike.After the wedding, Jon, Joanne, Mike, Violet and I all took off for a roadtrip to New Jersey (5 hours away) to visit Jon's Oma. Here are Jon and Violet at the windmill in front of the house we stayed at.
In true Oma tradition, we all played Rummy Cub at night after dinner. Even Violet got in on the fun!
L-R Jon's Uncle Ed, Me with Violet, Mike, Uncle JJ, and Oma
Mike, Joanne, Jon, Me, Violet & Oma

It was a LOT of traveling with a toddler - luckily she did pretty well on the plane and car rides, but we sure are glad to be home!

In "Hip News" Violet is officially CONTRAPTION FREE!! She was wearing her rhino cruiser brace at night and naps for the last 3 months since getting out of her cast. However she is now allowed to go brace-free! I thought I'd be so excited about that - which I am... but also rather worried. She LOVES to sleep in a position that is not that great for her hips and it's hard not to worry about it. But she can't wear a brace for the rest of her life, so now is as good of a time as any! We're pretty excited to get done with all that stuff for a while.

Busy Weekend

We tried to break the record for "most events attended in one day" and I think we may have made it! :) This week Saturday was BUSY but so much fun! In the morning we drove to Boulder to check out their Farmers Market and Arts & Crafts Fair. I'm going to try to bring my bibs there sometime and we wanted to check out the competition. It was really neat!

We came back home and put Violet down for her nap, then headed over to her friend Jordyn's 2 year old birthday party. It had a fun ladybug theme and all the kids got to capture and keep LIVE ladybugs!

Violet checks out a ladybug in her ladybug keeper:Checking one out - a little too close for comfort!

Violet, Piper and Bryce. They are all in our playgroup that meets once a week. It's so fun! Hopefully Violet wasn't EATING a ladybug here... ah well, more protein, right?Jon takes Violet for a ride in the car:
After the party, we met up with Trent and Heather and rode bikes downtown to Denver's own Oktoberfest. Having been at the real thing in Munich a few years ago, Jon and I can say that it wasn't QUITE the same, but it had the major ingredients for a good time: Beer. German Food. And a band.

Uncle Trent takes Violet for a walk through the crowds:
Eating dinner in one of the big tents:
And a FUNNEL CAKE! Yum.Violet loved it too!
*Whew* It was quite a weekend! Even though it was VERY fun, I'm not sure I could take that every weekend!

Life with a toddler is never boring, is it?

No matter what I do, Violet insists on still eating her crayons. The other day she chomped on a brown one and it got all over her front teeth, making her look like she didn't HAVE front teeth anymore. My little one-and-a-half-year-old hobo:

One of Violet's favorite things has been to stand up by our big window upstairs and watch the birds and squirrels in the back yard and the planes up in the sky (which she calls "Baby" for some reason). I found a bird feeder that suctions onto the window and her and I waited and waited and waited patiently for the birds to arrive. A WEEK later (apparently our birds and squirrels are not starving in this neighborhood!) the squirrels FINALLY found the feeder and Violet has been glued to the window when they are snacking...
And last but not least, here is Violet in all her Violet glory. We were eating dinner and she got sour cream ALL over her hair. That was funny enough, but then she started dancing to the music, doing the sign for "done" (she was finished eating, apparently) and then showing off her latest eyebrow trick. All in the space of 19 seconds...

We love KITTENS!!

Violet's Uncle Mike got an adorable, fuzzy, furry, sweet little kitten recently. Violet, although incredibly fond of kittens and cats in books, is quite terrified of them in real life (remember the horses at the fair? Oh yes. Same thing.) The first time we took her over to visit the kitten, she freaked out.

This time, she was much better.

And here is what Gilbert (or perhaps Gilberta?) looks like when he/she is not in danger of being smooshed by an arm-flailing, screeching, pinching, hitting toddler:
The look of terror did not leave her face for hours. :) I don't think our house has heard the words "Gentle! Gentle!" so much before in it's 100 years. She actually did okay, despite trying to toss the poor kitten off her lap the first time we tried having her hold her. By the end she was indeed being gentle. And laughing hysterically as silly Uncle Mike made the kitten dance:


We now have a swing on our back porch and Violet will (and has) swung for HOURS. She is so happy out there!
And she is becoming quite the pro at walking. She is just not starting to prefer walking to crawling, which is very funny to see. Here she is touring the downstairs:

Our Grape Eatin' Girly

"Hi. My name is Violet. And I'm addicted to concord grapes."



And yep, finally when she's actually starting to TALK a little bit (we added "birdie" "baby" and "hot" within the last few days) she is also starting to sign! She does "more" for pretty much anything, and picked up "mom" and "please" this morning. Sure beats the old Toddler Grunt that I hear WAY TOO MUCH OF lately!

Here is a picture of Violet in her Rhino Cruiser Brace. She has been sleeping in this at naps and overnight since she got out of her spica cast more than 2 months ago. For the most part she doesn't mind it, in fact today when I set her down for a second before putting her to bed, she crawled over to her slide and went down, brace and all. She can also stand really good in it. It's funny because you can almost see her little brain spinning "Why does this feel so NATURAL to me, anyway?" :)
We are slowly but surely breaking her pacifier habit. It's TOUGH!! She had it a lot while she was in her cast because it made her feel better and I'd pretty much give her ANYTHING to make her feel better! But no we're trying to do just naps and at night, with the occassional car ride thrown in. Easier said than done!

Something I have learned about our neighborhood is that there are TONS and TONS of grape vines and peach trees around! I joke with Jon that I'm "going to the Farmer's Market" while I go outside or down to our landlord's house (2 doors down) to pick some fresh fruit. Our next door neighbor has the concord grape vines (the ones Violet loves so much) and there are so many that even I have been giving them away! Here is a shot of them today. Keep in mind that we've been picking them for Violet and ourselves at LEAST once a day for the past week.

Some peaches from next door and down the street:
And now that fall seems to be here, our sunflowers finally came up!
One lone zucchini. I seem to go through spells with them - either so many I don't know what to do, or just one at a time!
And no, you do not see pictures of my dear and sweet tomatoes. Why? Because I had so many, I gave them away!!! In March I will be kicking myself, but what do you DO with buckets of tomatoes? I guess I could learn how to can. Or make salsa.

p.s. if you've found this blog by searching for info on spica casts or hip dysplasia in general, please see the links on the right for a great forum and guide that can help!

Music & Mountains

We had an action-packed weekend! First we hung out at our own little music festival right in our neighborhood. It was PERFECT weather (sunny but in the 70's) and it was in a park so it was great to sit in the grass and watch the bands! Violet loved it!Singin' along
She also drew with sidewalk chalk
While Daddy looked on
Saturday night we got to go to a party at the home of the builder Jon is working for. It was really cool! They have a great setup. Violet really liked their very exciting Koi fish pond. I love how she's sitting in this picture! Later we all had a tasty lobster dinner. Violet did GREAT despite being up almost 2 hours past her bedtime!
On Sunday we drove to Golden (only about 15 minutes away) and up Lookout Mountain. First I have to say this: Jon and Trent RIDE THEIR BIKES UP THIS MOUNTAIN!!! I am not sure what sort of insanity takes over people that think this is a good idea. I am still trying to figure out how I married such a person. It is miles and MILES up uphill switchbacks. Sure, it's really pretty up there, but you kinda have to keep your eyes on the WIND-Y ROAD so you don't get knocked off by passing cars! Geesh!

Here we are at the top admiring the view:
This is the view we were admiring :) I am still in SHOCK that we live so close to the mountains. I think they are just the most beautiful thing!! Still gives me goosebumps when I round a corner and there they are. I hope that doesn't go away for a while!

Downtown Denver is on the right
Other than that, Violet sure is walking everywhere! Especially in the house. Outside is still pretty scary what with the concrete and all that jazz. She is getting really good though and can even do a fancy "pivot" to get going the other way. I'll have to get more video of that soon - it's so cute and she is SO proud of herself!

She's walking, she's REALLY walking!!

After a few weeks of teasing us with a step here and there, she TOOK OFF tonight!! Here is our little walking rascal:


You may notice what we use to entice her - PACIFIERS! Works like a charm!

We also got a bike seat and she has been going for some rides. Here she is getting ready to go with her shades on...

And now looking like a baby alien with her helmet. She seems to like it but we switched it from "my" bike to Jon's and now even if she is sitting straight up her head hits my back. And I've found out that they don't call this the Highlands for nothin' - there is an ever-so-slight incline coming back home that is KILLER for out-of-shape me. Especially toting 25 extra pounds.

We also went to the zoo with Violet's second cousin Tobin. They were very cute together and Tobin is such a nice kid and is great at sharing his snacks :)


And lastly, you may have noticed I've added some pictures of my bibs on the right - I hope they aren't too annoying! :) BUT I also started another blog for my Hip Violet Etsy site. The first post talks about how I got into sewing, and now I'm hoping to keep it updated with new things I've been making. SO in case you just can't get enough, you can check on www.HipViolet.Blogspot.com too!! There is also a link over to the right :)

Our DNC Experience... and some Violet too

The Democratic National Convention has come and gone, but we're still talking about it over here!

We were lucky enough that my mom was able to get us into a couple of events. We literally got to "hob-nob" with some senators and lobbyists which was way too cool! Jon and I rode our bikes downtown each night and walked around downtown in the crowds (which grew considerably as the week went on!).

The first night we went to the Young Democrats party (just up my alley, huh?). It was really cool to be a part of everything! We ended up hanging out in the VIP area with my mom, Guy, and two lobbyists who have worked with my mom over the years. It was really cool to get the inside view on politics and politicians, plus what lobbyists actually DO for a living ;)

Here is a picture of the MSNBC tower that they had set up just when we walked over the bridge to downtown:
Jon and I with Union Station in the background:

The next night we met my mom and Guy downtown again. I had NO celebrity sightings myself, but they both saw their fair share of the rich and famous. Apparently Matt Lauer ate dinner right behind them. We only missed him by a few minutes! Ugh!

Anyway, night two brought us to the nifty rooftop bar at Tamayo. Here it is from the outside. Ironically Jon and I had walked down this street the night before and said how cool it would be to hang out up there!This party was sponsored by the NAR and was all about Sustainable Real Estate. It was a carbon neutral event ;)

They had a really awesome band play called Hot Tuna. Maybe you've heard of them. The two dudes on the left were the bassist and guitarist for Jefferson Airplane. The guy in the middle is in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. They played AWESOME blues/bluegrass/folk music which was right up my alley. The bar was pretty small and my mom and I were standing right up front for their first set. It was SO COOL!

We also had a birds eye view of all the goings-on as people made their way back from the convention. There were a lot of protesters out, which made for interesting people watching as they got in some pretty heated arguments with people walking by...Thursday night we watched Obama's speech at home. I had gone to Target earlier in the day and people were already walking to Invesco Field or setting up parking areas. We only live a few miles from there. As the speech ended and they started letting off fireworks, I ran outside to check and sure enough, we could see them from out on the street!! And we weren't the only ones, most of our neighborhood was out standing in the street watching it happen. It was a fitting end to an awesome week!

And in Violet news (this isn't nearly as exciting, I suppose!) but she can fit her hair in a ponytail! Isn't it about the cutest thing? I love her little curls.

I had left her Pack n' Play in the corner downstairs and she did this all by herself - she climbed up on it and sat and read her book for a while. It was so cute!
Still not a lot of progess on her walking. She did walk almost all the way across the living room today to Jon, but refused to put on a repeat performance. Silly!

She also *gasp* finally did her first sign the other night for "more" - and said "hot!" which was very cute. We're slowly but surely adding to her list of words! I was pretty proud of her for doing a sign too, I admit I haven't worked on them as much as I should!