This is my new favorite picture of Ben and Archer.

Violet drew this picture on the back of my brother’s wedding RSVP. It is of him and his bride-to-be holding their baby (she is not pregnant btw) who Violet is requesting they name Calissa.

This came in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago. Whenever Archer saw it he’d say “mama tv”.

And this is as good a place as any to note Archer has a thing for hair. Several times throughout the day I hear him request (demand) “mama hair down”. Usually I’ll ask him to say please and then I’ll let out my pony tail. I don’t know what is stranger, the fact he wants my hair down or that I oblige my toddler’s hair preferences for me.

Ben took this picture of Violet during their morning commute to school. The few times I’ve been responsible for this drive have resulted in her getting tardies so I’m very glad Ben has this job. Violet looks too cool for school in this picture.

I got my first call from the school nurse. It started with a “it is nothing major but…” which did help ease the lump out of my throat. Violet fell off a high bar and onto her face at the playground while trying to do something tricky. When I picked her up from school that day she assured me that tomorrow she’d get the trick right. I was super impressed at her determination but tried to temper it with a reminder to please be safe.

We’ve been adding to our garden! Now we’ve got strawberries, onions, broccoli, bell pepper, and tomato. Archer likes to say hi to the strawberries and onions and fights with his sister over who’s turn it is to water.

And one more picture from this day because I just couldn’t decide which was cuter. He can hip-pop out a pose just like Violet.

This is the valentine Violet prepared for her classmates. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine. Advice if any readers out there ever want to make one like it… glue stick! We used tacky glue but it made everything buckle.

It seems like every week of kindergarten brings at least one super special activity. I cannot believe how many wonderful things Violet gets to do. For Valentine’s Day the kids were to bring in some of their parents’ fancy clothes for a tea party. I found a short dress of mine for V to wear and on the morning of she added the boa and gloves from her dress up box. Violet’s teacher made it extra special for the girls by applying blush and lipstick to their sweet little faces. Violet was stunning. In fact one of the other moms commented to me that they teared up when they saw her because she was just so “over the top”.

And here is my little Romeo. The shirt is a hand me down from a friend and I LOVE IT! Archer loves his red shoes.

Ben and I had a memorable date night. His parent babysat while we got massages at the Chinatown center. I am pretty new to massage. Wow! Let’s just say at one point I had a very muscular adult male fully perched on top of my upper back. Painful, yes at that moment, but otherwise wonderful.

Violet is now 5 and 1/2!

All year long Violet has been enjoying celebrating her classmates’ birthdays during school. Her birthday is in the summer and I hated that hers wouldn’t be celebrated the same way. I asked her teacher if it was okay to bring in cupcakes for her half birthday. Apparently Violet’s was the first classroom celebrated half birthday!

Here she is when her fellow “Beach Balls” (name of her table). The kids were super excited for her. They didn’t care that it was just a half birthday.

Of course we celebrated in our traditional way at home too, with half a cake.

Archer has been making cakes with candles out of blocks and playing “happy” for a month leading up to this. While Violet’s candle was probably still dripping hot with wax he grabbed it and deftly inserted it in his slice.

Halfy Birthday Violet!

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.