We are finally recovering from Violet’s first cold.  Anytime her nose would plug up, she would start screaming.  I guess that makes sense, but it is painful when she is sleeping next to you on a Saturday morning.  It’s like an alarm is going off.  Who is bombing us?  Then we’d bust out the big blue suction bulb.  That would work to suck out the snot, but it was like baby waterboarding.  We’d only use it whenever Violet was already turned up to 11.

Yesterday we took a trip with my parents to see the fall colors up in Taylors Falls.  It isn’t supposed to be 75 and sunny in the middle of October.  When I go to look at the folliage, I expect it to be 50 and overcast.  Sweater wearing weather.  Maybe even with a hot coffee in hand.  Instead, we were worrying about sunburn and staying hydrated.  It was still very fun.  As always, pictures are out on our Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.d.anderson

Yup, slackers here.  I’m sorry.  Here is an end of summer recap.  In random order.  

Violet LOVES the state fair.  One more generation hooked.  The sights, sounds, and smells intoxicated her.  

Violet is now in the 95th percentile for height, 90th percentile for weight, and 75th for head size.  This means she’s finally growing into her huge round head.  ”Thanks, Dad,” says Violet.

The summer was a blur.  Clair is back to work on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday nights.  We found out that a great way to spend a Friday or Saturday night at home is in our backyard around the fire pit.  Violet gets to sleep in her own bed, and we get to relax out of the house.  If anyone needs to get rid of any burnable wood, we’ll take it.  Otherwise, there are a few firewood services I’ve looked into.  Firewood from the gas station is just so damn expensive.  

Oh yeah, the Packers just beat the Vikings for the 5th time in a row.  Good bye, Brett Favre.  Hello, Aaron Rodgers.  

Ninja and Violet are starting to interact.  Violet thinks that Ninja is the coolest thing in the world.  She giggles everytime he comes near.  She always wants to pet him.  Nowever, nuerotic Ninja is very much afraid of her.  He will lick her feet, but if she moves towards him, he runs away.  

Three weeks ago, Violet learned how to growl.  Two weeks ago, Violet learned how to shriek.  Last week, Violet learned how to make a noise like a cat trying to pass a furball.  All of these noises are made when she is happy, which is all the time.  This includes 2 am and 6 am.  Some nights are not fun for Clair and me. 

Clair and I met with the doctor yesterday.  It turns out that baby is in no hurry to come out.  She is slowly starting to drop, but nothing to get excited about.  I’m guessing that the due date of Apr 26 is going to come and go with no news.  The doc said that if she doesn’t come naturally by Apr 30, we will schedule the baby to be induced on May 2.  So at least we have a locked in go-live date now.

To try to kick starts things, Clair is eating spicy foods.  Yesterday she had curry from Pei Wei with her mom.  Also, Clair, Ninja, and I went for a nice long walk.  It was so nice out, we went down to the St Anthony Main riverfront (across the river from the Mill City Museum where we got married) and had a picnic.  Then we walked across the Stone Arch Bridge.  Ninja was loving it.  So many new smells.  Once we got to the other side, Clair had to duck into the Guthrie to use the facilities.  After that and a short break, we were able to get back to our car before sunset.  It was a damn nice night.

For those of you wondering what it looks like on a residential street in Minneapolis at 11 pm after a snowstorm, here you go.