Curious Miss V Turns 2!

This year, Violet seemed to "Get" her birthday to some extent and it was so fun to see her excitement at balloons! cake! song! Adding to the fun were special visitors all weekend and a "strawberry" themed party!

I love to bake and started branching out around Christmas this year when I tried several new Christmas cookie recipes from the WE energies cookie book. I am already looking forward to the one coming up this November. I have never really done a strawberry flavored cake and Miss V's favorite fruit is strawberry so I tried a few recipes over the last month and ended up with a very moist and dense rectangular layer cake with buttercream frosting. The actual strawberries in the cake did the trick and it was really yummy! I added some of Violet's signature purple decorations and she was in cake heaven. She loved everyone singing to her.

Birthday girl's place of honor during the party (decorated by Krista!)

Party day breakfast...we did a big 1 shape last year and V did not want any part of eating the cinnamon rolls. Much different this year! She called them doughnuts! 

It was a sugar filled weekend. Her first successful ice cream cone on party-Eve!

Auntie Kellie and Uncle Ben came all the way from Virginia to celebrate. V was lucky enough to spend her first birthday with them too last year when we were all on vacation in Cape Cod. She really warmed up to Uncle Ben this trip!

No spill bubbles...good find Auntie!

Violet got some Peppa Pig coloring books and toys from them as well as a pair of Toms which are adorable. Finally, she got a Melissa and Doug laundry set with pretend soap, spray bottle, dryer sheets, ironing board and iron. She LOVES this, especially because she can screw and unscrew the caps on the soap bottles "all by herself."

Day after party lunch with Grandma Diane and Auntie Kellie

V is getting a little annoyed with the annual Becker girls pic now that she is getting longer ;)

Doing laundry in the tent

Grandma Diane got Miss V an indoor play tent which she loves crawling in and out of and bringing various toys and stuffed animals into. It is tight but doable for adults to join her too :) Grandma also got V some new tennis shoes and a Peppa Pig rain coat!

Top view

Grandpa Rick and Krista gifted Violet with a battery operated Minnie Mouse car she can drive herself! Jackpot! Her face just lit up when she saw it and when she realized she was in charge of driving. She kept looking behind her thinking, "who is pushing this?!" They also were the behind the scenes party set up crew the morning of...thanks guys!

priceless expression

Test drive on the road! Watch out World!

Back view of V's curls after Auntie braided her hair!

Miss V was also lucky to have Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Merry come to the party as well as cousin Jordan, Uncle Steve, Aunt Hope and karate friends Mr and Mrs Quirk, Mr. Hansen and baby Parker! Cousin Kristin and Brian visited the night before! 

V had several different birthday outfits and hairdos throughout the weekend. She is one loved 2 year old! Can't wait to see what this year brings...

Random Curious Fun

Tunnels/tents or anything you can crawl in and out of are most kids' favorites and Curious Miss V is not an exception. Stay tuned for some awesome indoor tent (birthday present from Grandma) pics! This day she was all about her tunnel and I just love her goofy, full-of-excitement smile. 

Here I come!

Standing is even more fun!

We have showed V how the tunnel can attach to the inside of her tent and that will provide hours of fun this winter I'm sure.  Seriously, garage sales are the best thing ever. I know I've mentioned this in previous posts :) A $5 tunnel=brand new fun.

Another random curiosity: Miss V could not help herself when her car seat was in the house after being shuffled to Grandpa's car a few weeks ago. She plopped herself down and inspected the buckles so carefully. She has been loving the buckles on her booster seat (no more high chair!) and has almost gotten them a few times. She decided that the car seat buckles were a tad too tricky and just started a game of "climb-in-and-out-of-the-car-seat-a-million-times."  She was in heaven!

Don't mind me: sitting in my car seat in the kitchen.

I remember when we got this seat when she was just a year old and it sat in our dining room for a few days before being installed. She was not even walking then and just pulled herself up on it and stared the seat down as if her willpower would magically lift her into the seat! Now we are starting to think about switching her to forward facing: TIME slow down!!

State Fair Fun

Kyle and I have not missed a Wisconsin State Fair since 2012 when we first started dating. Probably the most memorable year was 2017 when I was just 5 days away from giving birth! That year was strange too because it was legitimately cold! I remember wearing a jacket the whole time. And I had to take bathroom breaks very, very frequently!

For Violet's first State Fair last year she was blissfully pushed around the whole time in her stroller. This was pre-walking and she was still in the wonderful morning nap stage.

rough life

Cool girl ready for action 2019

Fast forward to this year and we have a marching, potty trained toddler leading the way! We started by trying some different flavored milk at the Bucks booth. She does not yet have the hang of drinking from a regular cup which resulted in some spills but she thought it was delicious none the less. And of course she had to sit next to the "teddy bear" for a picture!

Then we continued with breakfast in the Wisconsin products pavilion; our favorite. The breakfast pizza was gone between Kyle and V before I got a picture! Apple cider donuts are our other favorite. 

We moved on to the animals; my least favorite LOL. Curious Miss V was super curious however and loved every minute. She wanted to touch and pet everything.

There were some big tractors to climb on near the animals. V has always been curious of all things farm so she loved looking at these too.

In the big "scooper"

I could drive this thing no problem!

Dad did take V on the big slide too. I think it happened so fast she did not have a chance to react. We also enjoyed walking through the garden section and there were some kid games involving water and sand that V wanted to explore.  Lastly, we headed to the indoor shopping part and here is the hands down best piece of parenting advice I can give...don't take a stroller into the exhibit hall area...EVER! Under any circumstances!!! Needless to say we were out of there very quickly and learned our lesson! On to next year!

Like Father Like Daughter Part 2

I have a feeling this post title is going to have many "parts" as Curious Miss V becomes more and more curious about karate! She absolutely loves wearing her pink size 0 karate belt around the house :) We used it to "announce" her gender and name at a karate graduation a few months before she was born.

So proud!

It's a girl!

Throwback to my last class when I was pregnant. V was at it from the start LOL

She had her first chance to take a real "class" when Dad was at the zoo a few weeks ago for kids night. Any zoo members can come in and take a quick introduction class and there are demos by the current students/demo team. 

Listening intently to Dad's instructions

She marched right up and joined the kids. I love her legs-straight-out sitting method. She does this at school too when they read a book or do flashcards. She was the youngest in the group (it was meant for 2 and older) and of course was just a step behind everyone. She sat when they all stood and vice versa. Once she figured out what everyone was doing she copied right away.

I thought we were sitting tall like black belts?!

How do you do this?

She now knows what "block" means and looks like!

She looked back to where I was sitting a few times and her grins just about melted my heart!

This is the best night ever, Mom!

Needless to say, I had a very tired and unhappy V on my hands when the class was over and it was time to go. She pulled out her pitiful voice and was whining about "more karate" all the way back to the car. She could not stop talking about it the next few days! Stay tuned for part 3...(and 4, 5, 6...)

Future Marathoner?

Running: a sport I both loathe and love. Curious Miss V is always along for the ride! We did our second annual Cream Puff 5K last week at State Fair Park. Here is the selfie from last year's as I could barely get wiggly Miss V to sit in the stroller long enough to snap one this year.

I can't walk yet Mom, so this stroller thing is fine with me!

Miss V was 11 months old and fell asleep after mile 2. Much different story this year! I waited until the last possible second to strap her in before the start and she whined and tried to stand up in the stroller for the 10 minutes we stood waiting for the start. Once we got going she just kept saying "people running!" and pointing to everyone. She was quite content with the movement and settled in. We ran through State Fair grounds and onto the race track which is waaaaay bigger than a normal track. I felt like the big figure eight would never end! It is like Las Vegas...the next turn/corner looked super close from the distance but not the case! (did I mention it was like 90% humidity and it felt like my skin was on fire the whole way?!) There were volunteers with flags pointing which way to go on the course and Miss V copied them and looked back at me saying "go this way Mama!" She was ready to get out of the stroller about mile 2 and I realllly wanted to walk but managed to muster up some endurance from the good 'ole high school cross country days and heaved across the finish line where I immediately grabbed some ice from the water cooler and held it on my arms! Miss V helped herself to water and I barely heard a peep out of her the rest of the night. She LOVES water bottles!

My water! Open!

I never get a cream puff during state fair because I think there are way more delicious choices and don't like to fill up. But, both times doing the 5k I wolfed that thing down like it was gold. Somehow so delicious after a run. Strange I know. Miss V on the other hand, she took a swipe of the powdered sugar and went back to her (my) water bottle.

Hmmm...not bad

Yum!

The funniest part of the whole night was when we were walking back to the parking lot, which took forever because of course Miss V just had to walk (again, way different from last year!). She was holding our finisher ribbon and studying it. I could see her wheels turning. Finally, she said excitedly, "LION!" because the fringe-y circle part looked like a lion's mane to her- LOL!

Stick a face in the middle and you've got a pink lion?!

I am gearing up for my first 10K in September in Peshtigo and it is a no stroller course but I think Miss V will watch all the runners from Grandma's house, much like I did as a kid every Historical Days weekend!

New Berlin Park Series: Lions Park

After a 3 week start-to-finish encounter with shingles for Mom, we just got back to our park visits today! It was a beautiful, low humidity day. We ventured a whole 2 miles (probably less) to Lions Park.  As per usual, Miss V saw the playground and marched right over and said "Oh! Cool!" We did the swings first of course.

Miss V looooves climbing stairs and these were pretty big steps for some small legs!

So determined to do it herself!

She just realized that there were other kids on the swings!

Miss V's adventurous side comes to a halt at the top of a slide. She still will not go down without me. And although it is sometimes a squish, I will take a lap rider down the slide any day :)

You don't really think I'm going to actually go down this without you mom...?

It wouldn't have been a park experience without some strange animal "rides."  I don't know what it is about these odd creatures that kids like!

Scary looking eyes! Miss V did not care!

Oh Violet! Please do not put your mouth on that OMG!

We stopped to explore a stump and the baseball diamond on the walk back to the car. Curious Miss V. was naturally curious about both!

Another picture Mom, really?!

She listened about staying on the grass! I could just picture little footprints all across the diamond...

This is what summer in Wisconsin is all about to me! Nice afternoons at the park with a curious almost 2 YEAR OLD!!!

Nostalgia Round Two

Curious Miss V, Grandma and I had the chance to go to Bay Beach this weekend! It was my first time back since I was probably in middle school. I remember Mom, Kellie and I waiting and waiting for the ferris wheel and tilt-a-whirl and Dad watching in the shade. He would take us on the bumper cars and big slide. All four of us enjoyed the train with views of Lake Michigan. V enjoyed it just as much!

Look! The train is coming! 

It did rain a little so I didn't get a ton of pics but it was cooler than anticipated which was nice and there were not many lines. As a kid I remember the lines taking forever! Miss V did the baby swing on the playground first and had a great vantage point of the train route and loved just swinging and watching and listening for the train. Once we got her to the line she was excited and ready to go. She kept saying "move! move!" as we were waiting for all passengers to load the train. A big ole grin stayed on her face the entire ride. Then we went to the kiddie rides which she loved just as much. 

Go this way boats!

Big girl

I just could not believe how grown up she looked sitting in these rides by herself. For some reason I thought I remembered that adults could sit with the kiddos but that was not the case. I strapped her in and went behind the fence and she did great. A little bit of concern/stoicism at first and with the "faster" rides, but no crying! 

Hang on!

Don't mind me...just sitting here driving this race car...

She really got the hang of the steering wheels. Miss V was not the happiest having to get off each of the rides and kept saying "more cars! more boats!" and would just march over to the next ride with that determined, arm-swinging walk of hers.

How does this bell work mom?

Both Grandma and I took her once on the carousel or the "horsies" as she called it. Pure joy riding on that one, bummed I didn't get a good pic. Miss V talked about our trip the rest of the day and told Dad all about it on video chat! Such a fun place; I'm looking forward to taking her again and doing some of the "bigger" rides!