The story of Violet

This is Violet. 

Mia got Violet for her first Christmas.  Violet knows Mia's name, favorite food, favorite color, favorite animal, and much more.  Violet has traveled to Salt Lake, Idaho, Colorado, even Hawaii with Mia.  Everywhere Mia goes so does Violet.  For about 10 months Violet sang Mia to sleep every night and it wasn't uncommon if Mia woke up in the middle of the night for her to play with violet and they'd have their own little conversations in her bed (It's true I've heard it in the middle of the night).  Around October Violet's batteries died.  It took me a couple weeks to replace them but sadly the batteries lasted less than 2 weeks.  A week or so later I replaced them again and the same thing happened.  I came to the conclusion it was Violet and not the batteries (they were from 2 different packages and 2 different brands).  I had determined Mia's friend would now just have to be a silent stuffed animal.  However Violet still went everywhere Mia did.

When we went to Idaho for Christmas of course Violet came along.  On the morning of the 26th we woke to a sad sight.  Mia had thrown up in the middle of the night and as you can see Violet was one of the targets.

It wasn't that much and it was already dry because Mia sadly slept in her own vomit (I promise I'm not a bad mom she just didn't let us know there was a problem).  That morning Mia clearly didn't feel good and was carrying Violet around with her.  As gross as I thought it was I didn't have the heart to take her dog away to clean it.  I figured I'd clean it up at nap time.  Like I said it was all dry.  Mia climbed up on Monty's lap with Violet and started grabbing at her paws.  Clearly she was trying to get her friend to talk to her.  It was kind of sad to watch but I was also impressed that she remembered the days when Violet talked since it'd been a couple months.  She started to grow frustrated and then grabbed Monty's hand, put it on Violet's paw, squeezed again and then looked at Monty with the look of "Daddy help me."  That was all it took.  Monty looked at me and immediately said, "We need a new Violet."  After she was spoiled for Christmas we head out the day after Christmas to get her a new dog.  Sadly, we couldn't find one in Pocatello.  We checked 3 different stores and they were all sold out.  However, the first thing we did when we got home the next day was go to Walmart and get a new Violet. 

 In the past year Violet apparently got a little bit of a makeover.  It took a few days for Mia to take a liking to the new Violet but eventually all the singing and fun times took over and she realized she had her old friend back.

The old Violet quietly slipped away never to be seen again and Mia once again has a friend to sing her to sleep and talk to in the middle of the night. 

Happy New Year!

Christmas

For Christmas this year we went to Idaho for 5 days.  I was a nice and relaxing get away and we had lots of fun spending time with family.  We had a wonderful Christmas and Mia was definitely spoiled.  We kind of knew that was going to happen since she really didn't have many age appropriate toys.  She's definitely loving all the new toys and books.

So Mia is totally obsessed with shoes.  She tries to put on all shoes she sees and loves walking around in shoes that are 12 sizes too big.  Growing up instead of stockings our family had boots.  My parents still have them and Mia recognized them as shoes.  She kept playing with them and trying to put them on so finally we stuck her in two of them.  Needless to say she couldn't walk but she thought it was pretty cool.

Christmas Eve Mia got to open one present.

 It was new jammies! Mia also enjoyed playing with the toys Grandma had saved from when I was growing up.

 After Santa came

 Mia coming out Christmas morning.  Notice the change of clothes...she soaked through her diaper and her new jammies were all wet so she didn't get to open presents in them.

 Checking it out.

 She was pretty excited and kept smiling, squealing, and even giving hugs.

 Her very own flashlight for camping.  (She actually got too flashlights and the one from Nana and Grandpa is much cooler cuz she can turn it on herself and it growls).

 Our little family Christmas morning.  Monty makes the rest of us look like slackers.

 Mia got a phone and she knew just what to do with it.

 Mia liked ripping paper but didn't quite get the whole concept of presents yet.

 Told you this girl was spoiled.