It’s Feb. 1st!  I can’t believe Violet is over 9 months old now. At her last doctor’s appointment she weighed 20lbs 12oz (75th percentile), measured 29 1/2″ (95th percentile), and her head measured 18 1/2″ (95th percentile).  Apparently, like so many other things, the big head comes from Derek’s side!  In other related news, Violet’s first teeth poked through yesterday!!  The front bottom two finally showed themselves after months of chewing and drooling.  Accompanied by one maybe two slightly whiny days and the tiniest bit of diaper rash.

We are so lucky.  She is such an easy going kid!  She’s been clapping, waving and doing “So Big” for a couple of months now.  Her newest trick is pulling up to standing and walking through the house hanging on to mom or dad or whoever is willing to have a sore back for a little while!

Her other favorite things to do are pulling her socks off, which makes Grandma Suilmann exclaim “You blew a hoof!”, bathtime accompanied by mom’s favorite “towel-head” cuddle time, and telling lots and lots of stories.

Sadly, she has outgrown her jumperoo, but we’ve moved on to her Crawl, Cruise, and Go playgym that she got from her great aunts and uncles for xmas.  She’s just learned how to put the balls down the slide and loves to make the music go so that mom will dance for her–sometimes she joins in waving her fists and shaking her head.

Even though there hasn’t been a post, we did put xmas, New Year and other random photos up on the picasa website http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.d.anderson/ .  Hopefully we’ll get some of the new toofers up there soon, too.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!  Wishing you a day full of love and hugs and kisses and chocolate!

Love Derek, Clair, and Violet

My favorite things at this point about my little munchkin:  her faux hawk fuzz on the top of her head, her goofy raspberry noises, her ability to get her socks off so that she can have free toes, the back of her head, of course, her big open mouth smile that she gives to EVERYONE, the fact that she still adores Ninja even though he could care less about her, getting her to giggle from tickling her tickle spots, her uber fuzzy eyebrows–a trip to my eyebrow gal may be in order for her 12th birthday….poor thing and her crazy jumperoo jumping, I swear she is going to break that dang thing!!

OOOO…and on a little side note, the hair on the back of her ears has disappeared, it only took 6 months!

Now if only we could get her to consistently sleep through the night…dream on momma!

Love to you all!!  GO VOTE!

Clair

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

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. 

On the 4th of July, we went down to Wabasha for a Suilmann family reunion.  We stayed to watch the fireworks.  Normally, Clair and I sleep on the futon, but with Violet along, I got bumped down to the couch.  Mark and Sandy have a pretty comfortable couch.

Clair has started working on Monday nights, so we hired a baby sitter to cover the gap from when Clair leaves and I get home.  So far, so good.  She experienced a diaper blowout and didn’t quit.

Violet just keeps getting cuter.  She is over 13 lbs and 24 inches long.  Up there in the 95-97% for her age.  She’s quite healthy.  I think she is starting to laugh.  She loves flashing lights: tv, rainforest play area, flipping a light switch, the sun through the tree leaves.  She greats us every morning with a big smile and giggle.  It makes waking up a lot easier.

Violet and I have been watching movies together.  She usually falls asleep in her Boppy on the couch, so I turn on the subtitles and turn down the volume.  Last week, we watched Taxi Driver.  On Sunday, we watched The Incredibles.  I think that was more Violet’s speed.  I’ve got The Last Temptation of Christ sitting on the entertainment center.  I might have to wait until Violet falls asleep to watch that one.  I don’t want her thinking Willem Defoe is Jesus for the rest of her life.  He’s a good actor and from Wisconsin, but he was also the Green Goblin.  I could see how that would be confusing for a kid.  “Why is Jesus throwing exploding pumpkins at Spider Man?”  Good question, kid.

A lot has happened in the last month.  Clair got to experience her first Mother’s Day.  Violet went to her first recital weekend up in Chisago.  I got my gallbladder removed.  I think I got the raw end of that deal.

Even though the blog hasn’t been updated much, we have been taking a bunch of pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.d.anderson

We have updated our photo gallery with new pics from the last few days at home.

Highlights: Violet at her first bar; Ninja wanting to be held like a baby; Violet’s first bath

http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.d.anderson/FirstWeek

Now, Clair, Violet, and I are back home. Ninja and Violet are getting along nicely. Clair and I have divvied up the tasks: Clair does the feeding, I change the diapers. I’m getting pretty good at it. Violet screams like the dickens, but we’re learning.

We have a bunch of pics from the weekend. Instead of posting them all hear, it was quicker to upload them to Picasa, Google’s photo service. This link will take you to our photo albums.