Two! My sweet, sassy Violet has graduated (overnight it seems!) from the baby stage and is in full toddler-hood now. Watch out world! She is full of energy and never sits still, and challenges my parenting skills by being a completely different child than her brother. I’m so glad I get to be her mom. Here’s an update of miss Violet at two years.
{Violet Lennon at Two}
Sleep – Violet takes one nap in the afternoon, usually from about 1 to 3. She goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 p.m. and on school days I have to get her up at 6:45 a.m. Lately I’ve had to wake her on those days, and on weekends she’ll often sleep until 7:30 or so. On her own, she decided to give up her beloved sleep sack but we’re still working on the pacifier. We dropped it for her nap but she still wants it at night. We’ve been talking about giving her pacifiers to her new baby cousin Harper, and we may do a little ceremony of putting them in a box and “mailing” them to her.
Eating – Eating is still one of Violet’s favorite activities. This is one of many ways she is different from Jona. While he eats to live, she is more of a “live to eat” kind of gal (just like her mom). In typical toddler fashion her tastes change from day to day, but for the most part she is a great eater. She loves ALL the fruits and typical kid-friendly foods like pizza and mac and cheese. However she also loves avocado, turkey, bacon, tomatoes, and hummus. She’s pretty good about trying new foods although if she doesn’t like something she doesn’t even want it on her plate. She’s not a big chocolate fan (can you believe it?) so for her birthday I made Snickerdoodle Bars (thanks for the recipe recommendation Anne!) and they were a hit.
Talking – Oh boy, I could write a whole blog post on what comes out of this girl’s mouth. She loves to observe everything around her, and name and talk about everything she passes. She likes knowing where everyone is all the time, as well as where we’re going. In the morning: “We’re going to Ms. Anne’s!” (Her daycare provider.) “Where’s daddy at?” “Where’s Jona at?” We’re trying to emphasize manners, as she’s gotten into the habit of saying “gimme” whenever she wants something. We’ll tell her to ask nicely, and then she’ll just go “Please gimme water (or whatever)?” She talks non-stop, and is constantly cracking us up with her little phrases. She gives us her opinion on just about everything.
Music – Violet loves to sing, dance, and listen to music. She loves the Barney theme song (“I love you, you love me…”) as well as other kid classics like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old MacDonald. She’s happy to listen to pretty much any music though. If there’s no music she’ll say “Alexa! Music on!” and “Turn it up!” Luckily it sounds more like “Awexa” at this point and Alexa doesn’t understand her yet.
Favorite things – Following in the footsteps of Jona, she loves superheroes, and she even had a superhero birthday party. We finally got her a Wonder Woman action figure, but until this point her favorite has been Hulk. She loves saying “Hulk smash!” She can name them all: Iron Man, Captain America, Venom, Black Panther… Jona has taught her well. She also really loves to color, although keeping the coloring on the paper is hard… so it is often short-lived. She’s fully in the stage of dumping everything out because it’s fun, so I’ll often walk in the room to find her in the middle of a pile of toys she’s dumped out of various containers. Oh boy.
Least favorite things – Apparently I should have vacuumed more when both of my children were babies, because just like Jona, Violet doesn’t like loud noises. Once she knows what the noise is though, usually she’s okay, although she remains firm about not liking the vacuum (including our robot vacuum, “Bob”). Not surprisingly for her age, she does NOT like to share with Jona. Also, I’m not sure why, but she is very anti-beard. Men with beards freak her out, and if a man with a beard smiles at her, talks to her, or even just makes eye contact, she bursts into tears and demands that I hold her. I have no idea where this came from. (Mustaches are okay though… two of her grandpas have them.)
Favorite books and shows – Violet enjoys being read to, although her attention span isn’t very long. She’s very squirmy and often wanders away while I’m trying to read to her. There are a few books that do hold her interest though. She loves Goose Needs a Hug (the Duck and Goose series) and pretty much has it memorized, Dr. Seuss’s The Foot Book and There’s a Wocket in my Pocket. I got an I Spy board book from the library recently, and she liked finding the (somewhat) hidden objects as well. She’s too busy to stop and watch much on TV, which is fine with me, but she does get to watch a little bit of Barney at daycare and she loves it. At home she always asks for “Cap America!” and she’ll watch the first few minutes of a superhero cartoon that Jona likes. She surprised me the other day and recognized Lego Ninjago on Netflix (a Jona favorite). I keep warning Jona that it won’t be long before she doesn’t want to watch his shows and they’ll have to take turns!
Jona and Violet – It’s been really fun to watch their relationship develop in the past several months. Jona is still the helpful big brother; he loves playing with her, sharing his toys and involving her in the little made-up games he creates. (Usually all about superheroes, of course.) However, now that Violet is older and talking, she has asserted herself as the dominant one in the relationship. Despite being much smaller, or possibly because of it, she typically has control of the situation. It’s pretty funny. She adores her brother and always wants to do what he’s doing, but the minute he tries to play with what she’s playing with, or sit with who she’s sitting with, she gets mad. Like I mentioned before, sharing is still quite a struggle. For the most part though, they play pretty well together, and their disagreements don’t last long. (Mostly because Jona gives in and just gives Violet what she wants. Sometimes he complains about it, but he hates to see her mad. They’re quite the pair.)
