Greek Yogurt - Blueberry

Violet's newest favorite food: blueberry greek yogurt. I was having some for breakfast the other day and offered her a bit. I was suprised that she actually liked it, and now whenever I eat it she shares with me. She seems to like vanilla as well, but blueberry is her favorite.

For those who are interested in Vi's diet, she also likes vegetarian baked beans, whole-wheat bread, hard-boiled eggs, fresh blueberries, fresh nectarines, chickpea curry (thanks Amy!), vegetable fritatas, black beans, veggie lasagna, and trout. I'm sure there are a handful of other things she likes lately, but that is a good representation.

Mike has now been in Chile for over a week, and we've got almost 2.5 weeks to go. We miss him a lot. Violet really likes to hear his voice over Skype, though, and is even more excited when the video capability works out and she can see him.

I thought I'd post a few (OK, a lot of) pictures of home, mainly for Mike, but also for the rest of you that would like to see what our place looks like in August. And a few of Violet, just for fun.

This afternoon's thunderstorm.

(Sunday was very stormy - we got over an inch of rain!)

Corn in the garden.

Doh! I'm done with my curry already!

Comments, Comments, Comments!

Come on people, we thrive on comments here at the Zattiero-Wojcik household. Don't leave us wondering if we're the only ones reading Violet's blog!

Below, pictures from our latest visit to JCPenney Portraits. Many of you (family) will be receiving some in the mail. You can also request the link to view them all online, and order any that you'd like.

Stuck Under a Chair, or, Violet Likes Her Freedom

Violet has been crawling around quite a bit lately. She is getting quicker and more skilled at crawling, scooting, and sitting up on her own, in fact. And she loves to pull herself up to standing. I think we're in for a lot of excitement (trouble?) soon!

The other day I was sitting at the computer and Violet was playing with CD cases next to me. Pretty soon she had crawled under my chair. I didn't think much of it, as the chair base is open on two sides and has cross bars on the other two sides. Easy to get into and out of, I presumed. Well, I presumed wrong. Violet soon decided she was helplessly trapped, and started howling.

Once I snapped a few pictures (future evidence for Violet's case that her Mother tortured her as a child, I'm sure) I turned Vi a quarter turn so that she could crawl out from under the chair. I didn't realize, however, that the top of the chair seat was even with the top of her forehead. So when she tried to crawl out, she bumped the very top of her head. That, of course, meant that she was still (and forever, apparently) trapped under the chair. Then she really started howling. Ah, the tragedies of childhood.

(This is just before I turned her, but shows where the seat bumped her forehead.)

As well as playing with CD cases (pulling them out of the CD rack, swatting them around, etc.), Violet also has discovered the wonders of the dog and cat toy basket. She can spend quite a lot of time pulling each toy out of the basket, inspecting them, shaking them, talking to them, and then dragging them around the front rooms and hallway.

Lots of fun at our house!

Walking !! (?) -- with help

Her is the little bug using her legs but getting visibly tired. Because more video of Vi is always better than less video of Vi I have included Take 1 and Take 2. I love that her tongue hangs out of her mouth as she concentrates, brilliant!

Camera dump

This summer was a blur of activity. Short of actually looking at the calendar, I would put a six-pack of beer on the fact that we were away from the house more weekends than we were home. Let's see...

1. We went to Angie and Amber's wedding,
2. Visited with the Pollard tribe,
3. Visited family,
4. Hung around the house,
5. Went to the Cache County Fair,
6. Visited lots of friends,
   
7. And went to the farm stand on "Utah's Fruit Way", hwy 89.

I'll let you figure out which pictures are which.

Sheep kiss!

Cherry earrings at Mike and Karin's beautiful house on the Logan River.

Yeah, baby... the Polish Crested chicken takes the win!

A very mellow Champion Steer.

Listen for the snorty pig!





Sitting on the Dolny family's countertop entertaining herself.

Teething Biscuit Fun

I recently decided to give teething biscuits a try. I found some organic, whole wheat biscuits that looked like a good place to start, and here are some of the results. Rest assured that this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding messy baby face. The real lessons I learned with this experiment are that teething biscuits A) are incredibly messy, B) apparently give Violet a great deal of excitement due to their easy-to-feed-yourself factor, and C) taste good. For evidence of the last lesson, see the final picture in the series...

Happy Violet

Yummy Biscuit, Beginning of the Real Mess

Want to try my biscuit, Mama?
(And yes, I did try it...)

One of Mike's cousins (Hi Kristen!) mentioned once that she loves messy baby face pictures. So to add to the fun, I thought I'd include the following pictures. Violet has also recently tried refried beans and fresh tomatoes. She seems to really enjoy the beans, but prefer pureed tomatoes to fresh. Maybe that will change once the tomatoes in our garden ripen up...they are sure to taste better than the ones from the grocery store. Oh yes, and special wardrobe (bib) credit goes to Gramma Dawson.

Yay for Messes!

Do you like messes?
Do you want some on your face?

Mmmmnnnn, I'm hungry now...

Time for Baby Gates...

Well, I suppose it is now time to finally purchase baby gates. This is what I found Violet up to this morning:On the up side, I suppose it is a great thing to find her already working on her musical sight-reading skills...

We also had a weekend adventure revolving around a bike race that Mike rode in on Saturday, the Laramie Enduro. We drove to Laramie, WY, on Friday, but got a late start. We then realized that Mike's estimated 6-hour drive time had not taken into account the fact that we had a baby with us. So we really ended up taking a 7.5 hour trip. As we approached Laramie, we saw an amazing thunderstorm slipping over the state border into Colorado. (side note: we really miss Colorado) We proceeded to watch the storm make a U-turn and head back toward Laramie, and hence our campsite. Once we got our tent up, we realized that A) we didn't have any food for dinner, and B) it was about to start pouring down rain. So we headed back to town to hunt down some food and were treated to an amazingly powerful thunderstorm. Once we arrived back at the campsite, we realized that our borrowed tent leaked like a seive. Honestly, most of our gear was wet, there were puddles on the tent floor, and it was getting cold fast. So Violet and I took the term "car camping" at face value and slept (albeit uncomfortably and intermittantly) in the car. Mike braved the tent with Trooper, and somehow managed to stay almost dry.

The thunderstorm/downpour lasted about three hours, but once the sun came up everything started to dry out a bit. It turned into a beautiful day, and Mike had a great time riding his 70-something miles on a single speed bike. Here he is just after finishing the race:



We left Laramie Saturday evening, spent the night in Green River, WY, and then got home on Sunday afternoon. Long weekend, but worth the trip.

Today, Mike left for a business trip to Vernal, UT, and Violet and I helped our friends Maegan and Ryan partially move into their new condo in Logan. They are college (U of I) friends, and most recently lived in Redding, CA. They moved here for grad school and had no idea that we had moved here last year. What luck for us - we have new/old friends in Logan now!

Well, that's about all that's new here. Happy August!