Say Cheese!

This weekend we got a chance to do something I've been wanting and meaning to do for a long time - family photos. We've never actually had professional pictures taken of Violet, or us as a family. Heck, the last time we had professional photos was our wedding. Now, there are several reasons why it has taken us so long. A) I'm lazy. I just haven't gotten around to finding a photographer. B) Photo shoots are expensive! I'm talking several hundred dollars a pop. I don't have that kind of money, or at least I have far more necessary things to spend it on. Still, I'm always jealous at the fun pictures that my other friends post.

Anyway, long story short, a friend of a friend turned out to be a photographer and offered to snap some pictures for us on the cheap, so we bit the bullet and booked a mini-session (baby steps, right?). We took Violet to the park today and had fun hamming it up in front of the camera. Hopefully some of them will turn out. (Daycare had picture day on Friday and Violet's were the worst! For a kid who smiles all the time - and this blog is proof, no? - she was stone-faced. I guess she didn't care for the photographers. But it makes me nervous about what these will look like.)

This weekend was also exciting for some other reasons. Mimi came up to hang out while I had another marathon grad school class in Athens. She brought with her gifts from Sweden, namely, several pounds of Swedish candy.

 Matt sent me this picture while I was at school to show me how much fun Violet was having with the new animal train Mimi brought up for her. I promptly showed it to all my classmates. Let it also be noted for the record that before Matt took Violet out to the store yesterday, he put a matching orange bow in her hair so everyone would know she was a girl, given her gender-neutral outfit. I gotta give him props for that one!

I'm also proud to say that my cousin Marcus is officially a children's book illustrator! I now have his first three books, autographed and all, and I actually managed to read them in Swedish. (Good thing they are written on a four-year-old's level!) Congrats, Marcus! They are adorable.

 How cute, right? And that's my cousin's name, right there on the front cover! I'm so proud. A little jealous, but mostly proud. I think this book is about Dojo going on a treasure hunt... (I never learned the word "treasure hunt" in Swedish, but I'm using our first grade reading strategy of looking for picture clues.)
 

Violet also learned to wave! We've been working on this for a while, and she's progressed to some frantic whole-arm flapping when she'd see someone coming (like her Daddy). But now she can do the finger wave! She still doesn't wave perfectly on command, but we've caught her at it enough to believe that yes, she knows what she's doing and it is intentional. She likes to wave at the cat a lot. (That is a one-sided relationship if I ever saw one.) Matt also got quite a few waves today, including a very sweet one at bedtime before I carried her up the stairs. "Bye bye Daddy," I said, and she opened and closed her hand at him with her head on my shoulder. Aww!