1st ballet class, visit from Jiji & Baba, and a gift for new hobby from Jiji & Baba

"I have a fever."

Mandarin Orange Gelatin

Chopin & Feeling

Violet and I were listening to some Chopin tonight. After it was over I asked her "how did that music make you feel?". She said "beautiful" with a peaceful smile on her face. :)

Picnic

Violet is 3

Dearest daughter,
Today you are three years old. What a joy, what a gift it has been to have you in our lives these past three years. The time has gone by so fast that I can hardly believe just 3 short years ago you were a tiny babe in my arms. You bring us so much laughter and love. You remind us every day how important it is to be kind to one another and to show love to one another. Thank you for sharing your hear t with us. Thank you for allowing us to learn and discover along with you. I pray we can be a good example to you and that you will be a good example to others. You already have touched so many with your loving ways.
We love you and we cherish every day we have with you. We are never guaranteed another day and we feel so blessed that we have been allowed to share another year with you. May God bless you and keep you always. You are beautiful and not just because you are pretty. You have a beautiful heart that radiates through your smile. You have asked me several times these past few weeks if you will always be my baby. You have been excited about turning three but also I sense that you are timid about growing up. I want to remind you that no matter where you are or no matter how old you are, you will always be our baby. Even when your own hair turns silver and your grandchildren bounce upon your knee. You will always be our baby. We will always hold you and always love you. You asked us what forever means. It is a hard word to describe. But this is what I told you. Forever means it never ends, it goes on and on. When we say we love you forever we mean that our love for you will never stop it will never fade it will never disappear. Even if we are no longer together in this world, our love will continue on. You have started to ask so many questions these days. Your inquisitiveness and curiosity seems to be insatiable. You ask question after question and I know that you truly want to know the answers. Sometimes we don't know the answers to your questions and we have to look it up and learn it ourselves first. You ask questions about everything from "what is cement made of?" to "why do our hearts beat?". You ask why it rains and where the rain comes from. You love to learn and you love to "study". Recently you have been fascinated with anatomy. You started asking questions about your inner organs and so Daddy found an ap on his player that has 3d images and videos of different organs in the body. You have not stopped wanted to learn since then. You have watched the video of the function of the human heart about 30 times in the last 2 weeks. You often repeat what you have learned and often surprise us with the vocabulary you have picked up. You also wanted to know all about how babies were made and where they grow. So we watched a simple video about what happens inside the mommy's body when she becomes pregnant (without getting to graphic or in to too much detail about "the birds and the bees". Now you tell us that you are going to have a baby in your uterus when you get bigger. You love pretending to be a mommy and you love talking about babies. You have asked for a baby over and over. :)
You love pretending and you have a wonderful imagination. You love role play and love it when mommy pretends to be other people. Your favorite characters for mommy to play are "Francis" from England (he is a character in a book about school days around the world) Daniel the tiger (from Mr. Roger's) and Marco the mouse. Mommy uses a different accent and voice for each character. If I forget you say "Francis where's your voice? I can't hear it." You always make us laugh sweet girl.
On the day before your birthday we had a small birthday party for you with some of our friends. That morning you said "Mommy when I get to my party will I be 3? Will I be big and tall as I can be? Big enough to reach your stove?" You then asked "But can I still be your baby?"
For your party this year you asked for a kitty cake and mommy did her best to make it for you. We went with a kitty theme for the party and played pin the tail on the cat and a ball toss through a kitty's eyes, nose and mouth. You had fun and all of your friends seemed to have fun too. We also had lots of balloons and you and the other kids played with them in an empty room next to the party room. You ate lots of cake which you usually never get. Our sweet friends from Tono church sang you a song for your birthday. Megumi Sugawara and her 3 kids sang and she played the Ukelelie. They sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". You clapped and were so happy. You love music. When the party was over you cried because you didn't want to say goodbye to your friends. But we reminded you that if you don't say   bye then you don't have a chance to say hello again and saying hello is so much fun! You seemed content with that. You had a wonderful time and were very appreciative for your party. On the way home you kept thanking mommy and daddy for your party. We asked you what your favorite part of the party was and you said "eating cake and playing with Conan."
The next day was your actual birthday. You ended up having to stay home because you had a fever. When you woke up you smiled and looked into my eyes with your nose touching my nose and you said "mommy am I three now" We giggled and I said "yes you are!" With that we went down and had french toast for breakfast. You were sick but still so happy. We played and talked with family. Mommy tried to make you special food for your snack, lunch and dinner. You decided you wanted salad people for lunch dinner. Mommy did her best to make them for you. You were cheerful all day long and although we had to stay indoors you made the best of your day. At the end of the day I asked you, "Did you feel special today, Violet?" You smiled and said you did. I reminded you that you are special every day. Then I asked you what your favorite part of the day was. You replied "My not favorite part of the day was taking a nap. My favorite part was playing with you. I love playing with you, Mommy!" You sure know how to make mommy smile.
We love you Violet and we are so enjoying discovering the person that you have been created to be.

Here are some things you have been doing lately:
You love ballet and dancing in general.
You love reading and will read book after book. Your favorite book is still Zippity Zebra and the Windy Day.
You like to play soccer and you can kick the ball very well.
You love to sing and can sing your scales in solfege (Do Re Mi....) Your favorite song to sing right now is Scales and Arpeggios
You love to pretend to be a cat
You like playing with kitchen toys and you love to help mommy in the kitchen.
You can read the words "Mommy, Daddy, Violet, Love, bag, van, mad, at, sat, big, mat,hen
You can write your name with tracing dots and you can spell it out on your own
You jump and hop all over the place
You can count to 25 but also randomly say other larger numbers
You love to hear and tell jokes.
You still love to nurse and do it often.
You wear big girl panties all the time and you are doing well with night time training too.
You give amazing hugs and kisses and you love to love on us.
You love art projects and painting
You love learning and you love doing workbooks.
When you grow up you want to be an artist. (That is what you have been saying for the last 2 months) before that you said you wanted to be a doctor and a ballerina.
You speak Japanese and English and you love learning other languages too. You adored learning Chinese from Waipo last summer and you continue to ask me how to say words in Chinese, You also like Spanish.
You are a treasure Violet and we are always surprised by your wit, your humor, your kindness and your love.  I pray you know how much you are loved.
With love that lasts forever,
 Mommy and Daddy