When Vivian Goes On A Bike Ride...

She supervises the loading of the bikes. 

 She stops to exercise.

Tries to wake up the ducks.

 Watches the trolley go by.

Digs in the dirt.

Throws sticks into the river.

Rides way ahead of Mommy and Elisabeth.

Crosses the train tracks.

Skeptically looks at the swan.

Says hi to her statue friend.

Leads David.

Gets passed by Julia.

Gets so excited when Daddy rides next to her!

Yeehaw

I'm not sure you knew this, but Vivian is a cowgirl. Or as she likes to refer to herself, she is a YEEHAW!

I did tell her that, when we got to the store, the gun needed to stay in the car because firearms are prohibited in public places. She said, "Otay, Mommy." She's very gun law compliant. And very Texas.

So Very Two

I realize that I just recently posted to tell you all how Vivian is a menace trying to torture me to death by being two years old, but, you guys, seriously...the child is insanely exhausting. 

Let me think about where to begin...

Today I bribed her into letting me put her hair into a ponytail by giving her a piece of gum. Later in the day, I bribed her to stop chewing on rocks she'd put in a cup by giving her a piece of gum. (I buy a lot of gum)

Yesterday, I was cooking dinner (Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie, in case you were curious) (and, yes, it was delicious!) and it was just me and Vivian because Evan had taken the other two to their respected tball/softball practices. I was getting ready to make the pie crust for the top of the pot pie (Pioneer Woman's Pie Crust recipe, of course!) and went to grab the butter I needed except I couldn't find the half stick I'd left out. Now, I am naturally forgetful so I started looking in the places I might leave the butter--refrigerator, by the mixer, all the counter space. I was starting to get frustrated when it occurred to me who was home with me. Not looking, but hearing her making noises from the living room, I asked: "Vivian, do you have my butter?"

"Umm...."

I walk in and she is sitting in Evan's recliner with butter she'd dug out with her grubby little toddler fingers smeared all over his chair.

 She is never still. Never. She still sleeps with us half the night and even in her sleep she is just such a wiggle worm. She needs gross motor activities on daily basis or she is a beast. I am so, so thankful for our trampoline and large yard. Sometimes she will wrestle with Evan or run laps around the inside of the house on days when we can't get outside. I am always so relieved when they go to the YLand at the Y because it's like the playlands in restaurants and she can climb and slide while I'm working out.

 She is just so contrary. I will ask her to throw away the banana peel she just carelessly flung onto the couch and she will manically laugh as she tells me no. But, I tell her, "No, Mommy wants to throw it away," and she will scream, "NO! YINYIN (translation: Vivian) DO IT!". Sometimes trying to trying to use reverse psychology to get her to comply from the get-go backfires, though. You just never know!

 She's really cute when she's sleeping though. Or when she's restrained in a car seat.

 

 Taking her in public is like setting my pet tornado loose on mankind. Today at the library, I was in line to check out books. Again, we were alone (having the older two around is a HUGE HELP when anywhere with Vivian because they are fabulous older sisters who are fully aware that the youngest one is insane in the membrane), so every time I would try to corral her I'd end up losing my place in line. Finally, I gave up and just prayed she wouldn't tear the ding dong place down. After she tipped over the two gaming chairs in the video game area and yelled at me while sitting upside down in one and pointing to the second chair, "MOMMY! THIS-A ONE FOR YOU!", she proceeded to bring me every recycling and garbage can in the library. You'd think there wouldn't be that many cans in a somewhat small library, but you'd be wrong. She managed to bring me 5 before I was finished. How lucky am I that the librarians found her cute and were so sweet about her wreaking havoc?! I reassured them that she trashes my home as well.

 Don't get me wrong, the kid is a hoot! She likes to have us tie pieces of fabric around her neck so she can be Super Bunny and then she yells out, "SUPER BUNNY, AWAY!!!" and runs laps around the house.

Her love of dump trucks is so sweet. She asks every morning to dress up (translation: get dressed) so she can go get her pal Mac and go play trucks. We have a book with little poems in them and one is called Dump Truck. She has the whole thing memorized.

She is really stingy with her hugs, kisses, and I love yous, so we all feel honored when she actually consents to being kissed and hugged or actually tells you she loves you too after you tell her.

 Sometimes I weigh the pros and cons to taking her places because we have a very small window of what we all refer to as "Vivian Time", which means we have about X amount of time on any given errand day before she loses her mind in public and goes into full destruction/tantrum mode. If you were visiting us you would often hear us say, "If we go both of those places, we may be pushing our luck with Vivian Time" or "We are wasting precious Vivian Time!" or "We're almost out of Vivian Time, let's just go home after this."

There is a lot of stress when using Daylight Vivian Time.

We're going to keep her, I promise. I just...need reassured that I am going to survive this child being two.

And wine. I need you all to tell the Wine Fairy that my house needs stocked ASAP.

Vivian the Menace

You guys, I need to talk about Vivian for a minute.

The girl is crazy.

This morning, Vivian asked for a bagel because Julia asked for a bagel. I toasted a whole bagel, buttered both sides, gave each child one half of the bagel. Vivian screamed at me for 5 minutes straight because I gave her a bagel. After 5 minutes, she nicely asked for her bagel, dropped it three times because she insisted on holding her own damn plate (not her words, but if she knew swear words, she'd freaking be a pirate with them), and finally ate part of the bagel and threw the rest on the floor.

 After the bagel drama, she went into the back room, scooped out some cat litter, put it on our futon, and then apparently ate some because she came out whining and holding her tongue. Cat litter, people. Thank the Lord we use the natural stuff made of corn and cedar, but I feel that the fact that the cats use the litter box to urinate and poop negates the thankfulness that the litter is natural.

Obviously, I lost my mind when I realize what she'd done. I screamed jibberish that in my mind sounded like "UUUUUUUGH! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?! YOU CAN'T EAT THAT!!!! YOU ARE THE GROSSEST PERSON ON THIS PLANET!" But, according to Julia, I basically just kept saying "Ugh!" and "Noooooo!".

I sent them upstairs to get dressed so we could go to the Y and I could dump Vivian off on unsuspecting caregivers. I cleaned up the mess, texted Evan that I was quitting being the mother of his children, and headed up to get ready myself.

I go upstairs into my room and realize upon entering that Vivian has already been there before me. She had swept everything off of Evan's nightstand, emptied my sock drawers, and was starting in on the contents of our sweater chest. Upon seeing me, she smiled a very ornery smile and said, "Mommy, I pooped." I chased her out of my room, texted Evan again, and tried to think of positive thoughts about Vivian. None came to mind, so I angrily picked up the mess and hurried to change. The quicker we got the Y, the more of a guarantee that I would not just leave Vivian on the stoop for the gypsies.

 I would like to say this is out of character for Vivian, but it is not. The child is crazy. She spends most of her time standing on our kitchen table (which we never let the other two do), trashing a room like a tornado, screaming in a voice so shrill I worry our wine glasses will shatter (and Lord knows I NEED those wine glasses to drink!). She requires more patience, more use of the phrase "be careful!!", more physical activity than the other two. She is our emergency room visit waiting to happen child.

But, oh my goodness, the child is adorable. She is stingy with her hugs and kisses, but we all trip over ourselves trying to receive them. She is the worst sleeper in the house, but can be so cheerful and pleasant in the mornings. She likes to cuddle on the couch and adores her older sisters (even though she totally tries to boss them around as if she was the boss of the Bonnett girls).

I guess that, even though there are days where I need a large "I am the mother of Vivian" glass of wine, I truly would not trade her in for the world.

Of course, I can say that now since she is quietly playing and not wrecking my house so my view is not skewed by her antics...

Vivian is 2

On February 22nd, Vivian turned two. I kid you not, I feel like she went from a tiny baby to a toddler very, very quickly. Look how much she has grown:

 Vivian is so very...Vivian. She can be unbelievably sweet as sugar one minute and a rabid monster the next.

Vivian at the brand new age of two enjoys:
Peppa Pig
Driving her dump truck all around our yard with her good friend Mak.
Riding her little car around the yard with her good friend Mak.
Jumping on the trampoline.
Screaming.
Causing ruckus during Mass.
Playing tackle football with Evan on a nightly basis. (You should see her tackle face!)
Carrying a purse with her to stores.
Cuddling her teddy as she is rocked to sleep.
Begging for snacks from the pantry all the live long day.
Tormenting the cats.
Tormenting her sisters.
Tormenting her parents.
Going to the Y and playing with the kids.
Rice with soy sauce.
Climbing the equipment at the park as if she were a chimpanzee.
Slides.
Shoes, especially her brown shoes and her pink boots.
Juice of the apple and orange variety.
Dumping all of her toys every day. EVERY DAY.
Sitting on our laps.
Taylor Swift's "Never Ever Ever" song.
Waking up at 2am and joining us in bed.
Bath time (especially with bath paints and crayons).
Her Santa pajamas (aka: her Ho Hos).
Dinosaurs.
Contradicting anything and everything we say/ask/request/recommend.
Making us "cheers" our cups at dinner time, boots if she is wearing some at the same time as you, glasses if she has sun glasses on, or anything else she notices that you share in common with her.

On her actual birthday, Vivian was having none of the normal birthday attention. She refused to acknowledge our "Happy Birthday!"s that we kept saying, refused to say she was 2 (she still won't say it), refused to be happy about cake and presents later in the day. This is typical Vivian behavior, contrary to her core.

However, when her dearest friends Dutch and Mak came over to celebrate, she was ready to be compliant. Dutch and Mak got her the pink lawn chair. She was so excited.

 She received lots of help opening her presents.

 Peppa Pig's tree house!

 See? Finally excited:

 She looooooved that we sang to her. She danced and had the biggest smile the entire time.

And now, my babiest baby is two. May she stay small and squishy as long as possible. I love you, Vivian!

That Baby

I know, three posts in as many days.  What is up? you ask.  Well, I'm ready to be back in the blog world.  After a much too long hiatus, I have found that I have things to talk about again. Some of you have very sweetly sent me messages over the months telling me you miss my blog and wish I'd start it up again.  Thank you, I truly appreciated the words of encouragement. So, forgive me as I try to catch you all back up on the goings on in our family life.  

Let's start with Vivian.  Ah, Vivian.

Vivian turned 18 months in August.  There are lots of words to describe Vivian--fun, crazy, stubborn, wreck-less, smart, sweet, cranky, cute. She's definitely keeping us on our toes, and some days I am holding on to my sanity by the skin of my teeth.

 Vivian refuses to be left behind.  If Elisabeth and Julia have something, there better be one for Vivian.  If Elisabeth and Julia are going somewhere, wait up, cause Vivian's going too.  She pushes her way into what they are doing whether she's been invited or not. This kid will not be a wallflower.

 She is at that stage where she is parroting everything we say, so we've all had to step it up in the attitude department.  Stub your toe and tempted to say that four letter swear word?  Better rethink it unless you want to hear that baby mimic you perfectly.  Vivian is incredible at being able to express herself.  Currently, when she wants your attention she'll say, "(insert name), come here!" in her tiny voice accompanied with a little hand gesture to emphasize her point. It's hard to not comply.

 Vivian's favorites:
Reading books.  She has four books that are must reads at bedtime and she spends a good amount of time during the day looking at books in the play area. Definitely winning her mommy over with the love of reading.

Her pig.  She has a stuffed pig that has recently become her favorite thing ever.  It goes with us places, sits by her when she is on the couch, and sometimes accompanies her to bed.

Running outside when Evan gets home from work.  She likes Evan.

The outside.  She often needs to run, jump on the trampoline, mow the grass with her mower, or get pushed in her car.  It's been so freaking hot lately that we can't just let her out, which infuriates her and makes her a bit of a beast. Thankfully, she and Julia enjoy running laps inside.

Not sleeping. Vivian is by far the worst sleeper I have ever birthed. She just loves sleeping with people  and wakes up throughout the night seeking us.  I'm pretty sure she'll want to bunk up with Julia, who is also a cuddler.  Maybe we'll get them a double bed and they can feel safe and secure all night long. But, for now, Vivian hangs out in her crib for half the night and by around 1-2am, winds up snuggling up with me in our bed.  Good thing she's cute.

 Vivian does not yet have a nickname.  When we write about her on texts, emails, or facebook, we refer to her as V, but we don't actually call her that.  To be honest, what we do call her is That Baby, as in, "That Baby climbed on the table again." or "That Baby just dumped my full cup of coffee again."  She's the daredevil of our three--pushing the laws of gravity daily, defying death at least once a week, living on the wild side.

 I will say this, Vivian is fun.  She is sweet and has a pretty mature sense of humor for a toddler. She loves giving out hugs and kisses.

 Vivian is Julia's shadow.  She does everything Julia does, says everything Julia says. I recently told someone, Vivian wants to be Julia when she grows up.

 They bicker, of course.  They often both "need" to have the same toy or sit in the same spot and there is no room for compromise.  But, for the most part, they are very sweet together. When I take the girls to our Y kid area, I am constantly told what a great big sister Julia is; she makes sure Vivian is ok and comforts her if Vivian gets upset.  They say that Julia includes her even when Julia's playing with other kids.  It is all things I have witnessed myself, but it's nice to hear that others see them being kind to each other too.

 Elisabeth is like a little mother to Vivian.  She is constantly telling me she'll hold Vivian when we are places or volunteers to clothe, bathe, feed Vivian.  Seeing them together is cute, because there is 9 years between them, but they have a special connection. I have no doubt that Vivian will rely on Elisabeth as a source of counsel as they get older.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, we kind of like Vivian.

 That Baby is going to be a lot of fun. :)