More Teeth for Baby Violet

Violet's been a little cranky the past couple of days. She's cutting more teeth. That makes 8 teeth for a 5-1/2 month old baby. Is that unusual? I'm not sure. My baby is 30 years old. I can't remember that far back.

Melissa spent the afternoon with her friend Heather whose husband works at the fire station with Jamie. If anything can make her smile, it's riding in the fire truck with her Daddy.

I think it might be against city policy to take a baby for a ride in the fire truck. But nothing about pretending to drive.

Happy 30th Birthday Courtney!

My sister Michele may be older (I love saying that) but her daughter is the youngest in our family (except for baby Violet). And today Courtney has achieved another milestone in her life and turned 30.

I can remember when she was little and was the wildest child you've ever seen. Compared with her brother Brian who was always so well controlled.

Even today Michele and Courtney are still very close even though Michele lives in St Louis and Courtney lives in Chicago. So Happy Birthday Courtney!

Daddy and Baby Violet

I post so many pictures of Violet and pictures of Violet with members of my family. Besides family pictures of the Taylors, I forget to post pictures of just Mommy or Daddy with baby Violet.

Today I was able to get a quick snap of Daddy Jamie holding his daughter. The last time I took a picture of just Jamie and Violet was Father's Day. By the way, Violet really does know how to clap. She still starts clapping when she hears Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggity Dog but she also claps for other songs and when she sees someone else clap. Besides "touchdown" Melissa wants to work on waving bye-bye.

Thursday Dinner on Tuesday

Thursday dinners will be sporadic for awhile until Michael gets a set schedule with his new job. Since he had tonight off, we went to Smokehouse Barbecue for dinner. Tuesday is usually the night Teresa goes to visit Dad so she decided to join us for dinner. Plus with the Labor Day holiday, trash is delayed one day so she has to put out Dad's trash tomorrow.

Violet likes her Aunt Teresa. Teresa can even hold her without Violet screaming "Stranger Danger".

September Goal - Learning to Clap

Two weeks ago I mentioned goals for Violet to achieve before she turned 6 months old. One of those goals was clapping her hands.

I bought her a Mickey and Minnie Mouse from Hallmark and the Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggity Dog song goes through my head all the time. Based on this video, can Violet really clap or is she just responding to the song? I'm counting it as clapping. Goal one achieved. Now we need to work on "touchdown".

Pre-Reunion Jitters

Saturday is my 40 year class reunion and I’ve been stressing about seeing my old classmates. But as one classmate wrote on Facebook “Everyone is getting older, it’s not just you.” Now I’m not an active Facebook poster; in fact I don’t post at all. Many years ago Michael created a Facebook account for me. It hasn’t been updated in over 6 years. But I do look from time to time and see postings from people. Some I know, some I have no idea who they are. Another classmate has asked everyone to post their senior class picture on Facebook. For those who have posted their senior picture, I look at them and think “WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?” I know my memory isn’t that bad but I’m hoping the reunion includes name tags.

Melissa has been helping me with an outfit for the event that doesn’t look too young, too old or too out of style. Let’s just hope it looks as good on me as it does on the hanger!

Michael - Harrah's Casino VIP Host

Today was Michael's first day as a VIP Host for Harrah's Casino. His day started with hosting a tailgate event for VIP guests. I am usually invited to these events so I was excited to be able to see Michael on his first day of work. The event consisted of guests ranking their preference of games they wanted to go to. My picks were not my favorite teams (I don't usually follow football) but which games were played when the weather was hot. My first pick was the Dallas game scheduled for September 15. When you entered the convention center you were directed to a table for that particular team. You won't believe it but Michael was assigned the Dallas table. Fate or coincidence???

I went up and gave him a big hug. There was another casino host sitting at the next table who made a cute comment - "No hugging the guests". We just laughed. After I picked up my tickets from Michael I went over to the other host and gave him a hug. I was a little embarrassed when I found out it was Michael's boss. But hugging is allowed with VIP hosts and guests.