After a lot of reverse scooting, rolling, or just plain giving up, Violet has finally started crawling on all fours. She still needs a lot of practice, but I think Violet will be getting speeding tickets by the end of the week. As long as there are pieces of paper or microscopic specs to pick up, Violet will work her way across a room to get them.

In other news, Violet and Sadie are the best of friends. Or shall I say that Sadie will tolerate being pulled and poked by yet another small child?

Not many (actually nobody on their own) got the “Booger Barnes” reference from my last post. Before last week I wouldn’t have either. However, we seem to have started a new tradition in our home. That is we have been watching old episodes of Dallas most week nights. Thanks to Mike’s brother Dave we decided to start renting Dallas DVDs from Netflix. We just finished up Disk 4 of Season 1 that has episodes 10-12.

Let me tell you, times have changed on prime time television. Surprisingly, the styles have not too much. I suppose the fashion scene has come full circle because the tight, tapered jeans, belted blouses, and feathered hair seem to be quite prevalent these days. Political correctness was unheard of though, and boy oh boy did they get away with a lot. The Ewing lot had many servants and none of them were Caucasian. The assumption that women are too dim for anything beyond looking good and taking care of their men is also a common theme. The one thing that I do like about Dallas is that the women are “traditionally built” and have actual curves. No bony anorexics on this show. And, the booze! I don’t think there is one scene where someone isn’t drinking a glass of some alcoholic beverage. There is definitely no shortage of crystal carafes full of liquor. You’d also be hard pressed to find one episode where a main character doesn’t have a drunken outburst.

Which brings me to the whole point of this post, Booger Barnes. The name and character of Digger Barnes pops up occasionally in most episodes of Dallas. Digger Barnes is Pamela Ewing’s daddy (this must be said with a thick, southern drawl). He has some issues, namely with alcohol. If he does make an appearance in an episode, then he’s definitely inebriated and spewing fireballs of hate toward the Ewings. Apparently, he and Jock Ewing were partners in the 30’s, and Jock took credit and all the money for the oil that was discovered and later formed into Ewing Oil. As you can see, Dallas is sucking up much of my brain power these days, and the name Digger Barnes is on the tip of my tongue most of the time. So it’s not hard to figure out how I came up with Booger Barnes.

As a result of our Dallas viewing, Mike is now obsessed with J.R. Ewing. If you look at our internet search history, I’m sure you’ll find loads of J.R. or Larry Hagman search terms. Go figure.

In other news, Sadie has found a new bed. Speaking of Sadie, she goes in for her girly bits and paw surgeries next week. Keep her in your prayers.

I want to feel sorry for Sadie, but she has legs and could certainly run and hide if she wanted to.

The girls are absolutely smitten with Violet, and Violet the same with the girls. They spent all this morning happily cuddling with each other on the couch. Couldn’t ask for a better moment.

Two unopened bags of plastic Easter eggs used to sit on my kitchen table. Now there is 1 unopened bag of plastic Easter eggs on the table and 1 opened bag of plastic Easter eggs. More importantly, the opened bag of plastic Easter eggs is now 1/3 empty. Can you guess who the culprit of my dilemma may be?

The two bags of plastic Easter eggs. 1 unopened. 1 opened and 2/3 full.

1 missing egg has been discovered.

Another missing egg has been located. And this morning 2 more eggs have been found.

The perpetrator has since moved on to other adventures. This time it’s the removal of a yellow feather from a Mardi Gras mask made by Mimi.

Mimi models her handmade Mardi Gras mask. Notice the lack of a yellow feather.

Annie’s just glad she doesn’t have anything that Sadie desires. Yet.

In order for Mimi to overcome her plight of missing feathers she instead demonstrates her new skill, that of reading. We are actually very surprised that she’s moved to this next step in her education because she’s never been interested in academics. At all. In the least bit. Without much persuasion and arguing and gnashing of teeth and pulling out one’s own hair and giving up and bouts of despair and searching for non-academic sources of success for a non-academic child.

Violet has been certified to be a half-year-old baby and is on track for her milestones and size. At her doctor’s appointment last week she weighed in at 16 pounds, 4 ounces and was 26 3/4 inches long both of which chart at around the 50-60th percentile. Violet’s favorite mode of transportation these days is rolling over from one end of the room to the other and can do so with much swiftness. It occurred to me that I’ve been neglectful with the camera lately, so Vi and I did a quick photo shoot while the big girls played outside. It had to be quick because Vi got pretty fussy and wanted to feed and nap shortly after. Please note that the mustache is coming in nicely (this is what Mike refers to Vi’s strange cowlick in front).

Vi isn’t quite able to sit up on her own, but I was able to get a couple of shots of her sitting up before she toppled over. Why do all my babies roll over and almost crawl before they could sit up whereas it seems other babies sit up before they even roll over?!?

Violet loves getting put down on the floor so she can roll over and can really pull herself up high during tummy time.

This face was a first, and I’m glad I captured it. Too funny!

And had to include a smile. I don’t know if you can tell in the picture, but Vi has a way with her tongue. That baby can curl it in the strangest ways like I’ve never seen anyone do. Do I see a future talent (her daddy would be proud)?

In other news, Lucy approves of the new kitty.

And in other other news, they built a Monkey Joe’s in our town. Essentially, it’s an indoor playground that is full of bouncy houses. My cousin and his wife have one in Atlanta and take their kids there all the time. My Kenosha friends and I always thought we needed a place like that here since it’s too cold or snowy for playing at the park for 5 months out of the year. We finally got our wish and tried it out with the Johnsons last week. I don’t know how much time we’ll spend there because it seems every other family in Kenosha has thought the same thing as us, but we may stop by once in a while.