Violet update

I know that much of this blog has been about Jack lately.  It's quite exciting to have a kindergartener in the house.  It really does change everything.  However, just because so much activity has revolved around Jack's new schedule doesn't mean that Violet still isn't very busy being a highly energetic two-year-old. It's hard to take a step back and write it all down.

Riding the euphoria of Violet so quickly learning her letter sounds using the Leap Frog "Letter Factory" video, I quickly obtained copies of all the subsequent DVDs in the series.  There is a "Talking Words Factory," "Talking Words Factory 2," and "Storybook Factory."  I thought for sure she'd be reading in a month!  Well, a two-year-old can thwart even the best-laid plan (which this admittedly was not).  Violet has decided that she doesn't like the Talking Words Factory videos.  I don't know what it is about them, but she will not abide them when they come on.  Fortunately, Jack enjoys them. I know that he can use the practice sounding out words, so it's not a complete waste of time to have gotten them.

Interestingly, Violet likes the "Storybook Factory" video, which skips ahead and starts teaching things like punctuation.  There is one part in particular where Mr. Websley, the cantankerous duck who is also a very demanding client, says, "My watch says 'tick-tock tick-tock,' not 'chit-chat chit-chat'!"  Violet finds that hysterical and will just talk about it randomly throughout the day.

She is, of course, learning more and more words and phrases every day.  Many of them are said with a fair bit of sass.  If we talk about doing something that she doesn't want to do, she often responds, "Probably not!" in this really funny sing-songy voice, as if she's taunting us.  She and Jack get into "Probably not!"/"Probably yes!" arguments a lot, mostly because Jack thinks it's funny to hear her say it.  She doesn't yet realize that he's teasing her.

Sometimes if we tell her to be careful to not do something that could result in her getting hurt, she asks, "Will Mommy be angry?"  That quickly evolved to: "Violet will be angry.  Mommy will be sad."

She likes to tell me, "Guess what? I have a question for you, Mommy!"  But she rarely actually does. I love when she's playing with her toys or just talking about something she likes, and she says, "That's really perfect" or "That's comfy cozy."

Today when her Storybook Factory video was coming up, she clapped her hands and exclaimed, "That's really perfect!"  But then she saw that it was only the menu and not the start of the show.  She shook her head, frowned, and said, "That's not perfect."

Her favorite things to do are eat and watch TV.  Sometimes I feel a little guilty about all the TV she watches.  She asks to watch TV first thing in the morning.  But I console myself that at least she only watches PBS or educational videos.  She's not exposed to a lot of commercials or inappropriate material.  I watched a ton of TV as a child, but I probably watch less than TV now than most people.

Her favorite toys to play with are her stuffed animals, her My Little Pony nursery (which was actually mine growing up), and Legos with her brother.  He gave her two Star Wars mini-figures, Princess Leia and Ahsoka.  She likes them, but she can't keep track of them.  They are really small, and she's lost them a few times already.  I think Ahsoka is missing her hair now, and we've already lost a Jar Jar Binks mini-figure keychain, apparently irrevocably.

One of the things that Violet likes for me to do with her toys is to make them say "hi" to her.  And then she says hi back, either with another toy or as herself.  I am not exactly sure why my involvement in this little scene is so crucial, but it is.

Currently, the loveys that are in the crib with her are Kai-Lan, Lulu, Elmo, Pooh, a baby doll that she got for her first birthday, and a plastic figure that she got from her Nana on their recent family reunion.  Sometimes she appropriates one of the Beanie Baby bears from Jack's bed as well. (I had to trade him a Lego mini-figure for him to agree to this.)  The interesting thing about these toys, though, is that she wants them all at her feet when she is sleeping.  They may not touch her pillow on pain of tantrum.

Speaking of tantrums and sleeping, bed and naptimes have been really difficult with Violet for the past month or so.  We had gotten into such a good routine for a while there.  We just set her in her crib and left.  But she has increasingly been demanding more and more songs.  Her current favorites are the Pecos Bill song and another little ditty from Elmo's Wild, Wild West DVD, "Over the Rainbow," the entire songbook from the original Winnie the Pooh movie, Elmo's Song, and what she calls "The Letter Factory" song where basically I sing "A/B/C says" and she responds "aaa/buh/kuh," and so on, throughout the entire alphabet.  (Other favorite songs, but not for sleep times, are "This Old Man," "Old MacDonald," and this song called "You Can Trust God" that Jack learned at his last vacation Bible school.)

The tricky part is when we try to leave the room.  She demands, "More songs!" or "Don't leave!"  Every now and then I can get her to go to sleep if I tell her just to take "a tiny little nap," even if it's bedtime.  Sometimes I promise that I will give her an M&M when she wakes up.  It's funny, because often when she gets up for the day in the morning, one of the first things she'll say to me is, "I had a tiny little nap."  She usually forgets about the M&M.

The one thing that Violet absolutely does not like is to be told no or to be scolded in any way.  The last few times I've had to be firm with you, she started bawling.  When I asked her why she was crying, she wailed, "You copied me!"  It took me a few times to understand that "copied" means "didn't give her her way."

I often try to schedule after school playdates, because Jack still has a lot of energy even after a full day of kindergarten.  Once the teachers start assigning homework next week and after-school programs start, we will probably have less time for the playdates.  In the meantime, Violet's nap schedule is all over the place.  We've been skipping them the days that we have playdates, but today she went down for a nap at 1:30 and didn't wake up until about 5.

Now that Jack is in school, she asks, "Where's Jack-Jack?" several times throughout the day.  She's also been saying, "When is it turn for me to go school?" and now she tells me, "I want to go to 'good morning' class."

We go to a sort of Mommy & Me class through the city's continuing education system every week.  We did it in the spring as well.  Violet loves those classes.  That is her "good morning" class, so called because the teacher starts off each class singing this little song that goes, "Good morning, good morning, good morning to you."  This incidentally is the same song that Jack's English teacher uses to start their day as well.

Aside from this, we are still trying to figure out what our weekly routine is going to be.  Monday mornings are currently open to random playdates, but Jack has his piano lesson in the afternoon.  Afterward, we have a playdate with friends who live close to his piano teacher.  Tuesday mornings, I swap babysitting with a friend so that we can each volunteer in our kindergarteners' classroom.  We have Violet's class on Wednesday mornings, and Jack gets out early that day.  Tomorrow, we are going to try this Mommy & Me dance class and see if that will be our new Thursday activity.  Then we have a standing playdate in the afternoon with friends.  Jack's school has parent activities every other Friday that I will be bringing Violet to, and then our church has formed a playgroup that meets afterward.

I am so lucky that Violet is such a good sport and pretty flexible.  It's definitely made the transition to our new schedule a lot easier.