Violet at 21 months

Even though I already did a little Violet update in my last post, I figured I'd do another one to mark the occasion of her 21st month. It's crazy to me that she is just two days shy of the being the exact same age I was when my sister was born. I remember thinking the same thing when Jack was the same age - there is NO WAY I would have been ready to have another baby with one this age. Violet is very sweet and relatively easy (at least relative to her closest relative :) ), but she is still very much a toddler with all the demands that one entails.

Even though she is much more mild-mannered and mellow than her brother, Violet very much knows what she wants when she wants it. The fact that she is so verbal is mostly a blessing in this regard, because it isn't difficult to understand what she is asking for. The difficulty arises when she wants something we don't want to give her. I am trying to teach her that hitting me is not an appropriate way to express her disappointment and frustration.

She is definitely in the stage where she wants to do everything herself. "I do it!" is something we hear all the time. She is also developing definite opinions about her wardrobe. She prefers wearing dresses to anything else, and she loves shoes, especially boots. There was one day she had me change her outfit three times. Every time I put her in a dress or a skirt, she twirls and twirls to see the skirt billow. I was such a tomboy that it's funny to me that I have a daughter who is so into fashion.

She also very much has a sweet tooth. She has had so much more junk food than Jack ever did at this age, and she clearly loves it all. She will often (like today) just spontaneously ask for a cookie or some ice cream or candy. I don't know why she thinks she'll get it, because she really only does if her brother is having some at a party or as a dessert. But I guess she figures there's no harm in asking. Funny girl.

Food-wise, she loves broccoli, cereal, berries of any sort, and eggs. Anything she sees anyone else eating, she wants, but she actually doesn't eat it unless she really likes it. This can be pretty frustrating, especially when it's something that Jack likes and she really doesn't. She'll want it, because she sees that he has it, but I know she'll just end up wasting it if I give her any. Sometimes I try to get Jack to just give her a little bit of his just to keep her quiet, but then he sometimes complains that he doesn't get the whole thing, which I think is fair. Waffles and string cheese are frequent sources of this particular irritation.

The other thing that Violet does with regard to food that I really don't love is that she always wants a "new" piece of whatever she is eating. So, for example, if she has a cracker, she will frequently take one bite and then ask for a new one, even though she still has plenty of the original cracker left. It kind of reminds me of Ramona in "Ramona and Beezus" by Beverly Cleary. There is one part in that book when Ramona just takes one bite out of every apple in the refrigerator, because "the first bite is always the best one."

She is much smaller than Jack was a baby. When my friends pick her up, they frequently exclaim how light she is. I guess I'm glad that, of my two children, it's the girl who is littler.

She loves games where we bounce her on our lap or rock her back and forth. Her current favorites are "The Grand Old Duke of York," "Old Joe," and "Rock-a-Bye Baby." The weird thing about the first one (which is a bouncing game) is that she does thing where she asks for it, we start it, and then she starts saying, "Owie owie owie!" And then she starts scratching her knee. Then she'll say, "Itch! Itch!" to get me to scratch it for her. She always does this on that particular song, and I don't know how this became a routine for her. Regardless, if we sing any of these songs once, we have to do it over and over and over. "Again!" she demands endlessly.

She constantly says that she has owies on her legs or knees, and we're not really sure why. She does often fall and scrape her knees, particularly when she's in a dress, but she says it regardless of whether there is a scrape or bruise on her legs. It's a little disconcerting.

I love how sunny she usually is and how everyone seems to love her. People tell me all the time that, after having met her, their little girls will rename all their dolls "Violet." More than one mom has told me that they think of her as their special friend, because she's so friendly and snuggly. She also has several admirers among Jack's little boy friends. They will frequently take her on play structures with them or push them on swings. Sometimes Jack is really protective of her. "Don't push her too high!" he admonished one of his friends who was pushing her on the swing. But sometimes he's completely oblivious to what's going on. She usually goes with the flow, but she is also very good about letting people know when she wants to be left alone.

It's so amazing how different yet similar children can be. There is definitely a feeling of having been through a lot of this before with Jack, but in a very good way. There's a familiarity that breeds confidence while still enough that is uniquely Violet to make it special in its own right.