Chatty Cathy

To say Vi is a talker is an understatement. Strangers comment to me all the time on how talkative she is. Violet really loves to give the whole store a play by play of what is going on around her. She is sometimes shy when she first meets people but for the most part that is gone in about a minute and she will just start telling you all kinds of things. Here are some of the funny ones we have gotten lately. 

1- Mike always says "come on" when he is buckling Vi into her carseat. He struggles with the buckle a bit. So now Vi says "come on dad" all the time. It's pretty funny. She also says come here.

2- I taught Vi what poop was last week. I have been trying to explain why we do certain things like change diapers and clean our ears. Ya know, all the really fun things that kids cooperate for. So now Vi will inform me by saying " Uh oh poop mom. Bye bye poop". It is nice because I always know when she has a poopy diaper. 

3- When Violet wants you to move she will say "pardon me". That one kills me every time.

4- When she wants us to pick her up she will say " want to hold you mama"

5- This one isn't really anything special but she has started saying " Hey dad". She thinks she is a teenager or something. She also say hey guys or hello everyone.

6- Violet refers to herself with everything these days. Violet's shoe, Violet's milk, Violet's seat, and on and on all day long. She likes to tell everyone which one is theirs. 

7- She sings happy birthday, twinkle twinkle, and counts to 10.

8- she says bless you mama or bless you dada when we sneeze and of course bless you Violet when she sneezes.

I'm sure there are some good ones that I am forgetting but I'll have to add them in later. Life is starting to get funny around here and I love it! I snapped a few pictures of Vi in these jammies she has. She was killing me with the belly popping out and the total bed head. She also has this strange obsession with sticking her face in the rug in her room. She is a weirdo. 

Holland Tulip Festival

Last week there was only one day that would work for us to go to Holland for their annual tulip festival. So we climbed in the Allen's minivan and made the trek. The weather was kind of cold and we were a little underwhelmed with the amount of tulips. I had been to the one at Thanksgiving Point in Utah and just kind of assumed it would be big like that. It was still really pretty and such a cute town. We really love visiting it. The kids got to ride a 100 year old marry-go-round. We tried on wooden clogs and got a tour of the windmill from the 1800's. We also got to go into their little market and try on lots of awesome fur hats. The guy running the place was a character to say the least. He informed us about how the FBI has all the records of the heads of PETA and that they are a terrorist group. It was interesting... We got dinner and fudge in town and watched some dutch dancers take over the downtown streets. It was a really fun day and I'm glad we went out and saw it. Here are a bunch of pictures of our outing. 

Jolly Holiday

Mike had a week and a half off for his time between 2nd and 3rd year of dental school. The weather was going to be pretty bad throughout the entire eastern United States. So we decided to just stick around and do things we had been wanting to do locally but hadn't really gotten to do yet. We also did a lot of house projects, which felt really good to get out of the way. We went to the Eastern Market in Detroit. This is a huge farmers market that Detroit is kind of famous for. We walked around checking out all the food and plants. There were seriously gorgeous flowers everywhere. We tried a few things from some food trucks. We got some of the best Mexican food we have had in Michigan thus far. Mike got some crazy jalapeno limeade that I could not handle. There was the cutest group of girls singing to earn money for a trip to D.C. that Vi could not stop watching. We also checked out this amazing letter press store, where I got a letter press of Michigan for our house. There were 2 twin boys in the shop who were probably 4 and they were obsessed with Vi. They kept hugging and kissing her. It was very cute but she was a little hesitant about the whole thing.

Next we made a trip to Frankemuth, Michigan's little Bavaria. It was a cute little town full of super tacky decorations. We tried chocolate cheese, an assortment of cheese spreads and saw a huge general store that made me think of Vermont and visiting my Grandparents. We got lunch and tried an assortment of German food and our waiters and waitresses were decked out in their German clothing. We listened to the bells in the bell tower and walked around the streets. We drove through a darling covered bridge too. Then we hit up the largest Christmas store in America ( so they claim). It actually is huge and I couldn't believe how it just kept going and going. We found some hilarious ornaments and I wish it had been closer to Christmas time so we could have gotten our ones for the year. Then we hit up the really good outlets that are just 10 minutes from there.

Next we made a trip to the Toledo zoo in Ohio. This was Vi's first time to a zoo and she loved it!!! She was obsessed with the polar bears and seals. She loved the monkeys and gorillas. She also really loved the elephants. This was the perfect age to take her for the first time because she knows all her animals and loves to look at pictures and books of them. I think seeing them in person kind of blew her mind. Toledo has a Del Taco so mike got some lunch on the way home and was just so pleased.

We also painted Violet's room and hung out with friends. We made s'mores and played golf. We painted our kitchen table and chairs white and hung blinds. We watched a movie almost every night. We also tried a few new places to eat in Ann Arbor. It was a very productive week and it was so fun to have Mike home. I never want him to go back after he has had time off. Vi was eating up every minute she could. Here are a million pictures of all our events.