Valarie Violet

So it's been a very long time, too long, since I've blogged. Not going to lie, I got bored of it. My life got very boring and there wasn't much to blog. When things aren't going on, I don't have the motivation to write about nothing.

Anyway, it's a month into the new year. I'm 25 years old now, and I feel like blogging. So here I am, blogging about my boring life. . .

. . . Actually, no. I don't want to blog about my boring life. I want to blog about my beautiful little 1 and a half year old.

Valarie is now speaking sentences.

"What is that?"
"What are you doing?"
"Nice to meet you."
"Go to work."
"Oh no, what happened?"

Valarie loves to dance and is very good at shaking her booty along with the music. She'll be starting dance in the Fall and I can't wait.

Sprouts is mine and Val's new favorite store. It is the only place I've grocery shopped since it opened. We have always had such a great experience there! I love that the main focus of the store is produce, it really helps us to make better eating choices. And every time we go they give Val some fruit to eat while we shop. She loves that part!

Val sleeps in a toddler bed. . . in our room. Halfway through the night she always ends up in bed with us. Not only is she a loud snorer, but she has night terrors. They're so sad. Several times during the night she begins screaming  and crying, but she's not awake. The only way we can soothe her without scaring her more is softly talking to her. Sometimes it can take up to an hour to calm her down, and she has no memories of these happening the next morning. She has them less when she's in our bed, and we've been wanting to move up to a king size bed soon. . . So call us crazy, but in the next few months our queen sized bed will move to her room and become hers. We're hoping so badly that'll help her night terrors AND help her stay in her own bed.

Valarie is in nursery and loves it. Shane and I were nursery leaders all last year, and this year they moved us up to the CTR 6 class. We were worried about Val being in there alone since she's ever only been babysat by her nana, papa, or aunt Brooklyn. She definitely surprised us! She says goodbye to us every Sunday and happily greets her teachers. We're so happy that she does so well in there!

One of Val's favorite things is animals. She loves watching youtube videos of animals being silly, she loves singing about animals, she loves making animal noises, she's close to obsessed. My mom took Val and I to the zoo today, she hasn't been since she was barely a year old. She loved it! The monkeys were definitely her favorite.

 "Mom! Elephants!"

 Hugging the sea lions.

 Watching the bears.

 She wasn't a fan of this gorilla.

 This zoo worker was telling us about this orangutan. Her name is Acara and she is the sister of the new baby orangutan. Both their parents died so they're training her to be a mother to the baby. The baby should be ready for the public in the next month or two.

 Mmmm. . . Fry sauce for lunch.

It was a beautiful and not crowded! We had so much spending the afternoon at the zoo with nana!