Oh, This Baby!

July 29, Moments Old

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6 Months!

Oh, this baby! She is 6 months old today. I can't believe how fast 6 months has gone by. She slipped quietly and gently into our home, our family, our lives, and it was as if she was always here almost instantly. She is the sweetest little person. She loves everyone she meets, she loves to laugh and be jolly. She is a precious, pure, and gentle soul. We all love her so. Oh, do we ever.

She is not  Mama's girl like her sister was, she is happy to spend time with anyone. She practically leaps from my arms when her Daddy reaches for her, she talks to anybody who looks at her and is happy cuddled in their arms. But her sun rises and sets with her sister. Oh, how she worships and adores Penelope. Watching her every move, laughing when she laughs and crying when she cries.

The next 6 months will most likely bring tastes of new foods, crawling, first steps, first teeth, first words - although that last one, I don't know. Today Pen opened her much read copy of Madeline to read to Violet and Vi said in a very excited voice "La Line!" Which sounded to both Pen and me very much like Madeline.

The last 6 months has not been without it's challenges, but we are all so very happy to know and love this delightful little girl. This wonderful, tiny person. She gladdens each of our hearts daily. Thank you, thank you for being here in our lives little Violet, I can't wait to watch you learn and grow for the next 6 months, and for the rest of my life, for that matter. Just not TOO fast, o.k.?

More Winter

Outside our back door the morning after the last snow storm.

Boats in downtown Bristol

Icy Rocks on Bristol Harbor

The Harbor is beginning to freeze!

Woods in Colt Park



Colt Park



Colt Park

Cold Seagulls

Snowy Gate

Ice Art We Made

Our Snow Girl, Holding a Muffin

Her Name is Stella

Lost in Horse Land

Playing with blocks

Bear Bum

A Barn For Her Horses

Reading Madeline to Violet

There is so much snow here that they are filling trucks with it and carting it off (I don't know where) and trash day was pretty funny - nowhere to put the garbage so it sat atop heaps of snow or right in the already too narrow from snow streets.

We have been enjoying the beauty of it, and trying to be o.k. with being trapped in the house with colds and coughs. There has been a lot of quiet play on the floor, and lots of books being read. I might add that this week I had the sheer brilliance to declare that there would be no movies, D.V.D.'s, or Netflix for Pen for an entire week (the ban will be lifted on Monday) because of some very bad behavior. I will admit I have almost regretted that decision as everyone became sick and thought how nice it would be to all just snuggle on the couch and watch a movie together as the snow piles up. It was only almost a regret though because it is really so nice to not have to hear "can I watch a movie?" all day long, and then hear the whines and protests when I say no. And with the heavy knowledge that there's not a snowball's chance in hell that she will get a movie until Monday she has been quite good at finding other ways to occupy herself.

There has also been a lot of tea drinking, echinacea, horehound, elder flower, linden flower, thyme, and chamomile infusions and tinctures, and compresses for the one to little to ingest the herbs. And good home cooked meals made with  hefty amounts of garlic.

There has also been much napping, and with none of us keeping a schedule anymore we have fallen into a better, I think, pattern of sleeping a little later in the morning, napping in the afternoon, and going to bed just a little bit later at night. I am trying so hard to enjoy the moment, but if the truth be known, no one will be more glad to see the spring than me. When does that groundhog come out to tell us how much more there is to endure anyway?

Damn! It's winter!

My Pretty Girl

Snow Plants

Disappearing Fire Hydrant

Ivy on a Tree

Snowy Hydrangias

Red Snow Berries

Giant Snowy Boxwood

Pretty Snowy Yard

Disappearing Snowy Horse

Swans

Beautiful

Pen inching in for a closer look

Pen and Birds on the Beach

Beautiful Snowy Door in the Wall

Snowy Waterfoul

Snowy Angel

Cutie

Happy in the Snow

There is no denying it. We are really having a winter this year. Snow storm after snow storm. It began in the early afternoon yesterday. Steve came sliding into the driveway shortly after it began, parked the car, and we have been home ever since. While he and Violet were napping Penelope and I went for a walk down to our little beach. It was full of all kinds of waterfoul. It was so quiet. There were no cars out. The snow was falling so thickly, everything was beautiful. I pulled her in the little sled that our cousin Melissa passed on to us last year. She was cozy and happy while we walked through our quiet, snowy neighborhood. We stayed at the beach for quite a while, we were a little bit under a spell of wintery magic. It was so nice to spend the time with just her in this quiet, magic way. Violet has been very sick and much of my attention has been on her. Pen has been very understanding about it, and a little worried about her sister too. Last night Steve took a turn holding Violet while Pen and I read a big pile of books together in bed and after I turned off the light she said "Thanks for having a special time with me Mom, it was so much fun", and it made me want to cry. We used to have so much time together like this, and now it seems so hard to balance everything, and I'm lucky if I can read to her uninterupted for more than 10 minutes. But every now and then we are blessed with an unplanned, quiet bit of time, just the two of us together. And I know I'll treasure the memory of our snowy afternoon at the beach watching the swans and ducks and geese with her little mittened hand in mine forever. And I think she will too.