i haven't been on in a while. our computer is down, i think it'll be a while before it's "up" again. so i've stolen rachel's laptop for the night. :) anyway.

we are good here. mostly just moving with violet's pace... the new things she does seems to be how i measure time. (did that make sense? :) her latest thing is trying to escape my line of vision and try to make it to the stairs before i notice. grrrr! it's cute to watch her go up... not so cute to hear her "thump!" on the way back down. she can make it all the way up pretty easily, and in good time, too. and she does a fairly good job of remembering to turn around to back off the couch, but the stairs are harder, because she likes to turn around to see what's behind her, or if i'm coming after her. thankfully they are carpeted, as is the landing at the bottom. i've been trying to put the gate just 2 steps up, and pad the bottom with blankets, to let her experiment. it's hard to make myself do it, but i know she won't learn without the experience. so we trudge along. she's been very vocal... babbling all the time, sometimes quite loudly. but she seems to have no interest in mimicking words. her "friend" norah can say mama and dada and baby... and she's two months younger. i'm kind of jealous. i know she will figure it out in her own time. i'm just anxious to make a little sense of the jumble. the only word she even tries is "fsshh", when she get's enraptured with the fish tank. she loves those fish! she also really enjoys kicking this big beach ball we've got... and she has the most infectious laugh. it's great. she's also getting a little more used to the pool, but she's still pretty wary, especially at first.

anyway, so elisabeth is coming to visit in a couple weeks, and i'm pretty excited about it. we're getting a white dove, finally! i'm so excited. we've been planning to get one for a few years. but first, we still had the demon cat. then, i was pregnant, then violet was so little. we bought a cage a while back, like two years ago. and never got the bird to go in it. and then just this week elisabeth said someone brought one into the clinic, it had been found somewhere, but it's tame. anyway, they will need a home for it, so she's going to bring it to us. i'm pretty excited about that too. and the reunion. now that it's getting closer, it seems like it's been so much longer since i've seen anyone. ahh, i've gotta run. hugs to everyone... we love you, ruth, ian, and little violet.

hey, this was today. kind of boring, but oh well. i can't really make her perform, she's too young for that. :)