V and E

Sunday, September 14, 2014

First Week of Daycare

This week Violet started daycare. The daycare is affiliated with the University of Michigan health system and is overall pretty wonderful. She is in the "honey bunny" room which is basically kids up to about 10 months. She's been there one week now and so far things are going very well. She's been eating well and most days she is pretty worn out by the time she gets home so she has been sleeping much better. She has some new friends and has already warmed up to her teachers. One of the best things is this giant buggy with twelve seats that everyone in the infant room can sit in and take a ride around the place. We could not be happier.

A few pictures from her first day

Some other random photos from this week

Saturday, September 13, 2014

We had a chance to spend a week at the cottage in Canada with my parents. It was a glorious week once we got there. Angela, Violet, and I went through Detroit/Windsor, and we ended up in bumper to bumper wonderfulness for over an hour. As it turns out, Violet has a serious issue with the Ambassador Bridge, traffic, and/or customs agents, and she pretty much screamed nonstop until we finally got over the bridge. Angela's efforts to entertain the baby were nothing short of heroic. Our nanny from last month had given us this CD of Celine Dion singing songs about her kid, and sadly, Violet really does calm down most of the time when we play it. However, it rather definitively did NOT work in this instance, and if you will, picture us parked in traffic at the peak of a long bridge, in international no-man's land, baby screaming, forcing ourselves to listen to Celine Dion. It was a real peak experience. I also wish someone had video of my conversation with the customs guy. I like to think that I was able to nonverbally communicate the emotionally intense state of our vehicle, and he let us through pretty quickly. It may have had something to do with Violet giving him a piece of her mind from the back seat.

However, our time at the cottage was rather tremendous. Lots of swimming, reading, baby snuggling, and good eats. My parents are saints, and we remain extremely grateful for their willingness to spend some vacation with us. Violet didn't sleep great, but she was a peach during the day. Also, thanks to Papa, she did get her feet wet in the bay for the first time. The trip back was almost completely uneventful, and Violet much prefers the Blue Water Bridge through Port Huron/Sarnia.