viola

The Moon Learned to Walk

We made a moon costume for Viola this year, since the moon is one of her favorite things. She loves to ask what kind of moon is out ("is it a crescent moon tonight, mama?") and gaze at the full moon when she should be sleeping ("are the clouds fuzzy?", "mama, you have moonlight on you!").

A punching balloon turned out to be just the right size to use as the base for our papier-mâché. The whole family participated in painting on the craters.

To get ourselves in the spirit, we got some Dia de los Muertos books from the library and went to a festival at Tacoma Art Museum where we saw some real Mexican papier-mâché and decorated some sugar skulls.

Of course we also carved a pumpkin. Viola drew the face, saying, "he has so many noses!" Joe did most of the carving, but Viola punched some of the nose holes with a screw driver.

When the day came, we hurried home on an early bus to have enough time for trick-or-treating before it got dark. Viola was excited to put on her costume but there wasn't much time to get her to pose for a nice picture.

We made a little display with our sugar skulls and some candles. Joe quickly altered her Easter basket with a bat silhouette. And we were off for our first trick-or-treating!

Viola was unsure at first, especially since the first house we visited had a super scary display of moving skulls, coffins, and spiders on the porch. She tried to run away but her costume prevented her from moving quickly down any stairs. I caught it all on video, which I'll upload later. After that, though, she got into saying "trick or treat!" and especially into receiving candy. Once she got her groove in walking with the cumbersome costume, she kept saying "the moon learned to walk!" and otherwise using the third person to narrate her movements in character.

We ran into other groups of trick-or-treaters, most of whom said "look, it's a moon!" (Some others said "uh, a snowball?") We traversed our block, not even crossing any streets, and then decided it was time to go back home and hand out candy. Viola felt otherwise, but we finally convinced her.

When we got home Viola had a great time eating candy, which she hardly ever gets to eat. We had made the amateur parenting mistake of not feeding her dinner first, so we had to incorporate M&Ms into our soup and crackers. ("I call them emma-ems, mama.")

Viola was not interested at all in handing out candy, but as usual we had plenty of trick-or-treaters. After dinner Clark came over, and there was a moment of synchronicity between the robot and the moon. The moon was still mostly interested in candy, however.

Photos by V

Viola loves to grab the camera from us and take pictures. Lately she has managed to capture some images with discernable subject matter. I find them quite delightful. I know what you really want to see right now is Easter pictures, but I'm giving you this instead.

Here I am in the yard, while we were shooting bubbles from the bubble gun. Look at what a giant I am to her!

She started acting like an art director, telling me to shoot the bubble gun right at the camera.

Here's some bubbles in the grass.

A handful of self-portraits.

And a recent party we attended.

Surprised

We've learned a new emotion from Snoopy: surprised.

Usually this is followed by being really surprised (emphasized by rice and beans remnants around the mouth).

This is then followed by being happy:

Parts of speech

I've been entertained lately by the way Viola makes words into different parts of speech.

"I got ponytailed!"

"They're goodnighting."

"It's too slicey."

"It's summer in my eyes"

2 Years Old

Hey everyone, Viola turned two about two months ago. Here we are singing happy birthday to her at my parents' house, with her Uncle Adam and Aunt Stephanie:

I'd say she's pretty pleased.

UPDATE:
Here's more video from her actual birthday. It was a weeknight but Joe managed to make cupcakes and I threw together some icing (who knew actual frosting took so long to make?).

Viola with Violas

These and other pictures from our trip to Portland last month (for father's day/Joe's birthday) over in the photos section. They're all mixed in with others from this year; I suppose it's time to start a new album. Viola just turned 19 months!

I knew this day would come

Viola has completely lost her wrist creases, one of my favorite baby-parts.

Here she is sporting them at 8 months.

Also at 8 months, with uncle Adam in Boston. Look at those things!

Photographic evidence shows that she was developing them by at least three months:

And by four months they were in fine form:

Last month in Vegas (1 year, 5 months). No evidence of wrist creases whatsoever.

More Shoes Please

Viola and Jess went shopping. Viola had to try everything on before bed. The shoes, not the jammies. Before bed, meaning laying down and not sleeping. Must have been overstimulated at the mall, Nordstrom sale and all. Mama's shoes, jammies, and trying to wink. Ok, I forgive you, you charming little devil.

Beach!

Titlow Beach has lots of rocks you are not supposed to eat...

and lots of rocks you can barely pick up.

Mmmmm, snack time! Crackers and apple sauce taste better at the beach.

Sand castles are fun! But do not mix well with eye rubbing.

Wooooo, woooooooooooo!!!! Train so close and loud, Viola likes them much better in books rather than in person. Me too.

I don't have anything in my mouth, especially not a sticker

I just remembered these photos that my friend Jenny took of Viola on Valentine's Day while she was helping me figure out our new camera. There are more (without stickers in mouths) over in the photos section. Jenny photographed us as a new family last year and is going to shoot us again next weekend (she has a new website for her fabulous photography business here). This gorgeous red sweater was knitted for Viola by her great-grandma.