Violet had a week for the record books. First major accomplishment: Science fair project! Ben and I gave her a junior lesson on density and she guessed how oil, honey, and water compared and tested her hypothesis. Ben did all the board layout and design work. Violet’s was the most “parent made” of all the kindergartners but really until 3rd grade it’s just practice.

For three weeks or so Violet has been collecting 100 signatures for the 100th day celebration at her school. This was a BIG project for a kindergartener. As bold as Violet can be it somewhat surprised me that she had a hard time approaching strangers for signatures. We took it to Rudy’s, the gym, church, HEB, the school playground and wherever else we knew we’d see a lot of people. The best audience was the school playground because parents of older kids seemed nostalgic about the project and happy to sign and of course the kids were obliging. All other places people were dubious and looking for the catch. I thought the project would never end but Violet “peanut powered” through and saw it to completion.

Also this week Violet was honored by getting nominated by her teacher for Principal’s Pride! I really think her teacher did a spot on job of highlighting Violet’s strengths.

Also, this week Violet had no inappropriate behavior reports. She’s gotten a few for talking at the wrong times lately and one for calling a boy “stupin” (what she thought was a loophole in the name-calling rulebook). This week we got two informal “wonderful behavior today” notes.

And today we celebrated Chinese New Year with the Families with Children from China crowd. Violet was asleep through most of the performances but woke up to participate in the lantern parade and see the dragon and lion dances. It was a fantastic way to end an awesome week!

Violet is standing with a red cardigan beneath the yellow lion and to the right.

Archer is growing up at light speed! We weaned this month. The first few days were way more emotionally difficult for me than I imagined. Still almost a month after the fact Archer is occasionally asking to nurse. The majority of the time he can be immediately distracted with yogurt milk or Yo-Gabba-Gabba. A month out for me and my eyes will water if I catch sight of a nursing mom.

I’ve gotten into the very bad habit of getting Archer a donut every time we go to the grocery store. He definitely associates one with the other now. The picture above is after I braved giving him the sprinkle donut.

At 21 months Archer says his first three word sentence “Violet play now”. I think he was trying to say he wanted to play with Violet at that moment. He said it as I was carrying him into his room to put him down for the night. A couple of weeks later and he said a second three word phrase. This time he was “bright light car” while seeing a video of a police car with flashing lights.

Archer is also learning letters. I have no idea how but he solidly recognizes the letter Q. He can identify A and often sees it in “the wild” like the A-frame of our new swingset. He was playing with his alphabet puzzle and picked out the “I” and called it mommy’s bed. Our bed does have a huge head and foot board come to think of it.

One day I caught Archer making this face while looking at Macaulay Culkin’s on the cover of our Home Alone DVD.

He recently had some ear (or maybe teething?) pain. He kept asking for a band-aid for his ear so I obliged. Then he wanted it off and it didn’t come off easily and he cried. I don’t think it helped. I was taking Archer to the allergy doctor and was prepping for the visit. Every time I said “doctor” Archer would make a sad face (see picture above) and say “head” in a sad voice while patting his head. I had no idea what he was talking about. A couple of nights later we read “No More Monkeys Jumping in the Bed” and I finally put two and two together. At the doctor visit Archer tested positive for peanut, cat, egg, soy, cantaloupe, apple, and pea allergies.

On a whim the other day I asked Archer to jump. My heart nearly burst when I saw his effort. I love it! He is growing up way too fast.

The jeep wasn’t the only thing Archer begged to ride 24/7. He also loved zipping around in this old golf cart.

And he had a blast playing in the dirt. This trip I introduced the kids to ant lions.

We were in Bushnell for Thanksgiving at my aunt, uncle, and cousin Katie’s house. We missed you D.J.! I don’t usually get pictures like these of hum drum every day stuff so I thought I’d share. Violet and Ben snuck away and were laying on a pile of inflatable mattresses playing a computer game.

Katie was WONDERFUL with Archer. By the time we left they had even developed some inside jokes. It was a wonderful visit altogether. Besides being able to spend time catching up, we also got to enjoy the new disco hot tub (lights, music, waterfall?!), outdoor movie watching, and my favorite cat in the world, Toby.

Violet really took to this dune buggy frame.

In addition to target practicing (this year with a bow and arrow), it has become a tradition to take family Christmas pictures while at my aunt and uncle’s. Here is the whole gang. My brother is standing behind my soon-to-be sister-in-law Julie!

Mom and Dad

BBV&A in Florida.

After Disney we headed south to spend Thanksgiving with Bethany’s family.

Violet with Aunt Becca and Uncle Chris. Aunt Becca is pregnant with Violet and Archer’s first cousin!

For some reason we got on the subject of coconuts before our trip to Florida. I have childhood memories of working for hours trying to crack a coconut so I told Violet we’d look for one while we were there. I have no idea if there are coconut seasons or not but I was thrilled to see coconuts galore streaming out of some unknown person’s curbside yard trash. I deftly snatched two for Violet; one for cracking open and one to keep.

Here’s a little video Ben made, edited, and added music to all on his phone. Violet got to show the video to her class along with the coconut she brought back.

Picking oranges is one thing Violet strongly associates with visiting Grandma and Grandaddy. She thoroughly enjoys this annual tradition with Grandaddy.

My parents got this jeep a few weeks before our visit. This isn’t the best picture but I feel it just screams sheer joy!

Still loving it.

Towards the end of December the leaves finally started falling. Violet had a friend over the two girls came up with the idea to rake leaves on their own for fun. I must say I had fun too watching them do all the work.