celebrations

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.

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?).

Cherry blossom viewing, yes please!

Last weekend we met up with the Gardner family for some hana-mi, or cherry blossom viewing, on the UW campus.

The trees were glorious in the early evening sun, and the grass was carpeted with petals.

We ended the evening with a sushi dinner. Viola ate lots of rice and nori nd avocado, and wowed everyone by scooping up mouthfuls of yogurt with a spoon, all by herself. Here's hoping that my working in Seattle will mean we see our Seattle friends more often!

Reunion

Joe came back from his two-and-a-half week trip to an ecstatic Viola, who ran across the baggage claim with arms outstretched to greet him. It was one of the cutest things I ever saw.

The images are blurry, but the emotion comes through.

She set about pointing out all the spots on the terrazzo floor. This took a while.

She also pointed at papa with both hands, just in case I missed him. As if my relief at him being home wasn't palpable.

One year ago today

Happy birthday, Viola!

Month 11

Month 11 is upon us, and the mad skills just keep coming. Viola took her first unaided steps on November 11th, and she can now walk successfully for 5 feet or so.* Last night she even launched herself toward the crib from a standing position at a wall. Once she learns to stand up from a sitting position on her own, we're done for.

Here she is standing all by herself in the yard this weekend. She keeps herself balanced like a tightrope walker, with lots of arm movement.

The next skills we hope she develops are sleeping skills. Specifically, going-to-sleep skills, and staying-asleep skills. And ability-to-sleep-away-from-a-warm-lap skills. Any of these would be an improvement.

We closed out the month with a fun Thanksgiving celebration. Viola met her second cousins from Montana and kept them on their toes.

*(Some video of the first steps is forthcoming. That's Joe's assignment.)

Another year older?

If you find yourself wondering if it's my birthday, please don't hesitate to check the Is It Jessica's Birthday? site.