Makeshift Story

...and a happy new year!

2012-01-11T22:49:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the first Makeshift Story blog post of 2012! Oh, 2011. I am not sorry to see you go. But I figure if I start things off with some positive words and wishes, it should hopefully set the tone for year to come, right?

Really and truly, however, this week has finally begun to feel like things are starting fresh - moreso than any other "new year" in recent memory. We are not settled yet (it feels like there are a million things left to unpack and set up still), but settled enough to feel like this is now our home. And you know what? It feels good. We have room to breathe here, I like the location more than I thought I would, and Juniper loves that she has her own "living room".


I can now just shut the door if I don't want to deal with clean up from such ambitious art projects right away!!

I started teaching at the gym again this week, which actually feels really good. Moreover, I've now taken Linden three times to the day care at the gym, and he's done really well. I never felt comfortable leaving Juniper at the gym day care (what if she needed me while I was teaching???), but this time around I don't have a choice. Clark is feverishly trying to get a million things done (finished and started) in the next few months, and therefore isn't as flexible to stay home as he was with Juniper. And truth be told, being able to take Linden and leave him there for an hour or so is actually incredibly liberating.

AND (I hate to say this out loud for fear of jinxing anything), but in the past week or so, all four members of this house have been more or less healthy. Hallelujah! Suddenly, *just* being completely sleep-deprived seems like a real break - a treat, even! Certainly, it makes the day-to-day easier when you're not worried about a stuffed-up cranky baby or a puking husband.

Anyway, I moan and complain about our ridiculously stressful end to the year (and trust me, it really, truly was), but I have to say that somehow we all managed to carve out a happy little holiday, complete with some of the Christmas traditions that I was bound and determined to have despite everything. Here is a quick peek into some of the festive, and otherwise fun things that have been going on in the last month or so. Enjoy!

Pre-Christmas Gatherings


Juniper eating her FULLY decorated cookie at Clark's Christmas Party

Juniper and Cheri light Juniper's lantern at Cheri's Solstice celebration

The four mamas and our big kids (l-r: Kerry and Patrick, Tawnya and Calla, me and J, Toni and Bella)

Christmas

A few shots of the Christmas tree. We had a very difficult time finding one, as we just were not able to do it until Dec 23rd, and everywhere was completely sold out. We finally found this one at Home Depot for 2$. That's right, two whole dollars. It was a bit of a Charlie Brown tree, but I was actually quite fond of it.

Juniper was sooo excited to decorate it!

The finishing touches

In all it's glory, with the star "on top"!

For some reason, I felt it was absolutely necessary to buy fabric and make matching stockings for all of us.

A few shots from Christmas, and the days following, when my parents and my sister Andrea came for a visit. Somehow we managed to find places for them all to sleep amongst the piles of boxes.

Juniper pauses from opening presents to chop some of her new vegetables

Three-eyed monster!

FINALLY, Honey has a proper bed (thanks to Ali!)

Andrea and Linden share a joke

Dad and Juniper play cards (check out homemade overalls #2...)

Mom and Linden hanging out and looking festive

And here are just some random shots I thought were worth adding:

Apparently, Clark's pistachio obsession is genetic.

Being swaddled RULES!

Juniper and Patrick peek out the window of Juniper's pretty elaborate"box house". One of the benefits of moving!

And finally, a video montage for you to enjoy.

When it rains...

2011-12-06T13:02:00.000-04:00

An afternoon at Hemlock Ravine

Oh my. I'm not sure how to begin to sum up the ridiculousness that has been the last month and a bit in a blog post, so perhaps I won't even really try. You kind of expect your first - oh, I don't know - six weeks or so, of your life with a newborn to be hectic, but lovely. Slowing down a bit to match your infant's schedule, readjusting to all the changes of a brand new family, basking in the miracle that is life... etc etc. The stars, it would seem, were not aligning for this rather idyllic sounding entry into life as a family of four. In fact, I can't remember the last time so many stressful things all piled themselves on top of each other. We've got the usual culprits: sickness (we spent the better part of two days hanging out with Linden in the emergency room a few weeks ago... not for an emergency, per se, but because he was having such trouble breathing. Diagnosis: broncialitis), and deadlines (Clark has some unforeseen and very poorly timed deadlines at school that he has been working like a maniac to accomplish before the new year).

"Oh my! Life is so very difficult on the outside!"

The biggest stresser, however, materialized a month ago, when we found out with some certainty that we were going to have to move. ASAP. Move? Move? " How is that even possible", you ask? I have been wondering the same thing myself. The problem is not with our place (oh, how I love this place, and this neighbourhood - it breaks my heart to be leaving it), but rather with the imminent demolishing of the warehouse directly across the street from us, followed immediately by the construction of an extensive condominium complex with underground parking. And how is this construction to begin? Two straight months of jack-hammering, Mon-Fri, 7am-5pm. Obviously an unlivable situation when I'm home all day with one or two kids.
You can not imagine the stress that followed that announcement. Trying to find a place to live (not freaking easy this time of year, with the restrictions that go along with a one-car family of four with literally no money), budgeting for a move we can't afford, submitting a rental application (almost as stressful as applying for a job!), negotiating for a mid-month move, directly before Christmas.... you get the picture. At this point, we have a place to live and a moving date - the trick will be how in the world we're going to actually get this place packed up and then unpacked again in the next week and a bit. It is next to impossible for me to get anything done during the day, as I seem to have birthed a child who will not sleep unless he is being worn and/or walked. But I have been slowly chipping away, and culling as I go... hopefully it will all come together at some point soon.

Anyway, enough with all that. This was not intended as a blog post to gripe and make everyone feel sorry for us, but rather to share some pictures and stories from some of the nicer moments in the last month. Because there have been plenty of those, as well. Besides, we have had much help, and will have more to come (thank-you to everyone! You know who you are!) Here are a ridiculous amount of photos. Enjoy!

EARLY DAYS:

Juniper helps Kelly (our midwife) with a post-natal check-up.

First bath! (Like his older sister, Linden love the bath)

Juniper, doing a sudoku on the toilet.( Incidentally, the current report is that she hasn't pooped in her diaper for 2 weeks!)

Juniper LOVES holding Linden.

My beautiful babies

The massive fat rolls have begun!

We've had loads of VISITORS:

Auntie Zsofi

"Deb" and Yvon


Josh and Martha (who now have a beautiful baby of their own, named "Freyja")

Christie and Beatrice

Grandpa and Grandma

Pat and Liz

Brad

The gang, out fir dinner at Mezza

Claire

Faye

HALLOW'EN!

Our little wizard (I knew there was a reason to hang onto that fabric for so many years!)

With her pals, Mickey Bella and Firefighter Patrick

Emptying the seeds...

... drawing the design...

... and the finished pumpkin!

Wait... where did that third pumpkin come from?

MORE RECENT

Linden enjoys a snack, at Hemlock Ravine

Three new mamas - round 2! You'd think we planned that timing! (wish I was wearing my ring sling)

The boys, chillin'. (l-r: Aven, Ewan and Linden)

Here they are again, older and wiser (l-r: Ewan, Aven, Linden)

Yes, I know - there are a lot of these shots. But look - they're both smiling!

Go team!

Now there's a smile!

"Oh hi. Am I not ridiculously cute in this sweater vest?"

Warm weather, following a large snow dump. Check out my first real pair of homemade overalls!

Four best friends (Isabella, Juniper, Patrick, Calla)

Seriously, look how large this child is. 6 week stats: 12lb, 12 oz; 59.5 cm

"Yup. Just chillin' with my big sis"

A lovely walk along Frog Pond. We brought our own frog.

AND FINALLY... (tell me you don't see the similarities!)

Baby Tara....

... and baby Linden

Linden James Richards

2011-10-19T15:34:00.000-03:00


Linden, sucking his thumb, on day 2!

It's been a good five days since we embarked on life as a family of four - high time I got my act together and did a "welcome to the world" blog post for little Linden! I was debating what sorts of things I should actually post about; how many pictures I should actually add… and decided to go heavy on the pictures; light on the post. But I'm always happy to talk details with anyone who's interested, so if you feel like chatting, let me know!

So, the (very) condensed version of events are as such: for anyone who read the last blog post, you already know that my water broke at 3:30am on Thursday morning. Thus began a VERY different labour and delivery than I had with Juniper. Throughout all of Thursday during the day, I had only sporadic contractions, and started to worry about being induced if the labour didn't actually pick up on it's own. As such, it turned into an incredibly difficult and exhausting day - from both a physical, and (particularly) from a mental perspective. But, when Juniper fell asleep that evening, and I laid down myself to try and rest, the labour did indeed start back up of it's own accord, and Linden arrived in the world at 3:03am on Friday morning, Oct. 14.

Mid-labour, very shortly after getting to the birth unit at the hospital

This being child #2, I had really and truly expected a faster, easier labour and delivery. That seems to be the norm from everything I had read, and most people I had talked to (except, for the record, my mother, who claimed that each subsequent birth was longer and harder than the last for her). Without going into details, I assure that neither labour OR delivery was faster or easier than the first time around. Also, I was denied the homebirth I had hoped for (due, once again, to kinks with the IWK midwifery program), and my midwife (the ONE midwife in operation in the HRM right now), was not on call for the birth itself. But, in the end, the doctor I ended up with was just lovely (as was our nurse), and, - most importantly - I was able to delivery a whopping 9lb, 10oz baby without any sort of narcotics, interventions, or (miraculously) any tearing or stitches. So I shall not complain. Instead, I'll bask in the afterglow of feeling incredibly lucky, and more than a little warrior-esque :)


Proof!

Very shortly after Linden was born. Hmmm... if I recall, I was VERY exhausted, and VERY happy to have him on the outside.

We stayed our requisite 6 hours at the hospital, waited for our midwife to come back on call in the morning to pop in for a visit, then we went home to a VERY excited Juniper. I wish I'd had a camera at the ready for when we pulled up, because she had the door open and her boots on before we had even stopped the car, and was running outside to meet her"new baby brother", with a HUGE smile on her face. As you might expect, she LOVES Linden, and it is all we can do to keep her from smothering him with kisses and hugs.

Juniper holds Linden for the first time

A seasoned pro. Linden doesn't seem to mind.

Seriously, look how long this boy is! 22'' at birth.

As you might expect, we've all been spending the last 5 days just trying to adjust to life with a newborn. This is something that's unfortunately been particularly difficult for me this time around... apart from all the after-birth healing that has to happen (much more painful this time than it was with Juniper), I also got hit with that stomach bug that Juniper and Clark had before I went into labour. It's as though my body was just waiting for me to give birth before it let the virus settle in. I mean, that is better than being sick as I went into labour, but seriously, how unfair is it to have the flu right after giving birth?

On the positive side of things, my mom is here helping, which, of course, feels completely essential at this point (especially at 6am, which is when Juniper has recently decided is the best time to get up for breakfast). Also, I am on the mend from both the flu and the after-birth stuff, so things are looking rosier all around. I have an appointment in an hour with my naturopath, to try and immuno-boost this whole family, and that will be my second foray outside the house since I've been home (the first being to take Linden back to the hospital on day #2 or a hearing test and a PKU). I'm actually looking forward to the fresh air and the change of scenery.

Just back from our trip to the hospital on day 2, before the flu hit me.

So far, Linden seems to be a very content little baby, except when he's getting his diaper changed. For whatever reason, he finds this VERY offensive. But Clark is trying to find Linden's musical preferences, which will hopefully placate him at the very least (so far, "Ocean Sounds" and "Pedro the Lion" are front runners. Obviously he has an eclectic ear). He is a nursing machine, and a champion pooper and pee-er (he's alerady managed to pee on his own head), and he is very, very patient with his older sister. He's also very, very handsome, if I do say so myself. And with that, I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures, and a little video to round things off.

The Waiting Game

2011-10-13T15:24:00.000-03:00

It is Thursday afternoon, Oct. 13. I was officially due four days ago, and I had suspicions that the full moon on Tuesday night might have coaxed this baby out. Apparently not. It has actually been kind of a rough last few weeks... if only because this house has been sick, sick, sick. We each got a cold, to start things off. Then, just as that was abating, Juniper got some weird virus (or something), that had her vomiting, feverish and very lethargic, finished off by a nice post-viral body rash. Then, when it was clear that she was over that, two mornings ago, Clark came down with a stomach bug. He seems to be over it today, thank goodness.

Luckily, we've had a whole host of people to help out - we had arranged to have this potential labour period covered so that there was always someone on call to take care of Juniper when the time came. Theresa was here for much of last week, then Faye came down, and she left this morning, to be replaced by my mother this afternoon.

So where does that leave us today, you ask? Actually, I think I can say that I am officially "in labour", to some extent. "What?", you ask - "in labour and doing a blog post?" Well, my water broke last night at 3:30am, and I started having pretty regular contractions, and I thought for sure I was on the fast track to having a nice day-time baby today. It was really quite ideal timing - Juniper at daycare, my mom on her way, and our midwife on call. But then the contractions petered off to sporadic, and this is where I've stayed all day long. So it it is still a waiting game, but a very different one than it was when I started this blog post last night. I'm currently just trying to not let morale dip too low - resting, walking keeping busy. Thus, the blog post.

Speaking of keeping busy, this has been the theme the last week or so - here are some pics from all the things we (and particularly I), have been doing as the countdown began.

1. Hang-outs!

This was actually from at least a few weeks ago, but cute enough to add:

Andrea and Dinesh and Faye were all here for Thanksgiving Monday:

2. Getting pampered:

Theresa spent days and days cooking us delicious food to put in the freezer:

3. Taking "artsy" shadow belly shots:

4. Being ridiculously industrious. As industrious as one can be while mostly sitting down and puttering around the house, that is. Seriously, you wouldn't believe the quantity of things I have created in the last week or so. Here's a sampling:

Bagels. I have had no interest in preparing food lately, except bagels.

A peaked cap for Juniper (I had looked for one all over and couldn't find one, so opted to try making it instead):

Housecoat. Again, I just couldn't find one, so I scrounged together all the bits of flannelette that I had, and made what ended up being "Juniper's Amazing Technicolour Housecoat":

A ring sling for Honey: it's way cuter with Juniper wearing it, but I'm sure I'll have more of those pictures in blog posts to come.

A celestial-themed mobile for the new baby:

Footed leggings for the new baby:

And finally - why not include a random video? I had wanted to add subtitles for those of you who aren't used to Juniper's toddler talk, but it proved a little bit too much of a learning curve for my current state of mind. Happy deciphering! And stay tuned - I can guarantee it won't be long now before a new little being will have arrived into the world.

Videos, please!

2011-09-27T19:29:00.002-03:00


Juniper rings the gong at Windhorse Farm

At the end of the last post, I promised there would some videos coming soon. Obviously "soon" is a relative term these days. I am currently over 38 weeks pregnant (!), and congratulating myself for doing even small tasks in my day-to-day. Juniper, however, is on high gear all the time, growing up at lightning speeds. She says just about anything she wants these days, sometimes pausing to formulate her sentence just so, or to search for just the right word. In fact, the other day, in a very teenage-like fashion, I went into her room when I thought she was waking up from a nap, and she turned to me, said "don't wake me up, mama", and proceeded to nap for another 45 minutes!

Anyway, I have put together a couple of videos from the last few months, and I'll throw in a few pictures as well. Who knows - this may or may not be the last post before bambino #2!

Faye and Brent come to visit:

This is what happens when you visit Alana and Ian: you get to wear a tiara and eat cake before supper. Life doesn't get much better than that:

All dressed up at Ben and Sarah's wedding:

Juniper helps her dad blow out the *makeshift* birthday candles on his cake...

.... and then proceeds to lick her plate completely clean (it was an ice cream cake, after all)

I love this shot: How Juniper was sleeping when I went in to check on her the other night!

And finally, the videos. The first one is a little montage called "step class" - apparently, Juniper has decided to follow in her mother's footsteps. She definitely has the moves, and the creative devotion to it. I really should have hired her to sub my classes after I got too pregnant to teach!

And then this is just a smattering of a bunch of stuff I haven't yet posted:

Birthday, vacation and more!

2011-08-08T16:09:00.000-03:00


The fairy princess with her fairy flower

It is early August, but it truly feels like I blinked, and summer came... and (I'm sad to say), left again. At least here in dreary, rainy Halifax. But as with any small child (especially one with a July birthday), Juniper lapped up every minute of it while it lasted. A good chunk of time was spent in Fredericton - I went down for a week and a bit while Clark did Shad Valley, and then he joined us there for another week when he was done. As it was just around the right time, we had (multiple!) birthday parties for Juniper, went swimming almost every day, got to hang out with some wonderful people we don't get to see nearly often enough, and just generally had a fantastic time. Here are some highlights from the last month and a bit - enjoy!

Looking For frogs with aunt Theresa

Professional kite flyer!

Juniper really wanted me to ride the horses... I told her "maybe when I'm not so pregnant".

Hanging with Simon and Noni at the park...

... and at Bob and Mary's

We finally meet beautiful baby Beatrice!

Water goodness at the Kollers

Juniper and Zack share some quiet catch-up time

"more, please, daddy! More, please!"

The next generation: me and Juniper; Christie and Beatrice; Erin and Zack

Opening her big birthday present...

Ummm... can you tell she loves her new wagon? (at Grandpa and Grandma's farm)

More wagon hilarity

This sums up her birthday... I made the skirt that morning, and she was the perfect fairy.

How to melt your mother's heart

And finally, a video to sum it all up. More fun stuff coming soon! Stay posted!

Summer!

2011-06-23T15:04:00.000-03:00

Well, it's officially summer, and therefore obviously high time for a new blog entry. So much has happened since my last post, however, that I feel very... daunted to say the least. So I'll try to keep things simple.

1. Juniper grows up.
Really and truly - as my belly has gotten progressively bigger over these last couple of months, Juniper has seemed to mature just as quickly. This is, of course, a mixed blessing - with all the new skills (especially communication), and independence, comes stronger opinions and frustration on her part. For instance, yesterday Juniper told me how she wanted her hair done ("little braids"), and sat still just like a big girl while I did them, but then had a HUGE meltdown when I tried to use the "wrong" elastics. These opinions (and potential for meltdowns) can extend very easily to other common-day occurrences such as which clothes to wear, what shoes to put on, what colour bowl she would prefer at any given moment, and whether or not she should be allowed to "drive" the car before heading out somewhere.

More than just being opinionated, however, Juniper has seen a lot of changes in these past couple of months. For instance, as of a few weeks ago, she is now no longer breastfeeding (!). I thought it might happen when I was a away in Winnipeg for a week, but it kind of gradually tapered off on its own about a week before I left. It was a pretty natural progression - I had no more milk left (due to the baby, of course), and so it's not like Juniper was actually getting anything when she nursed, anyway. She still brings nursing up a lot (usually at least once a day), but she doesn't ask for any - instead, she just reiterates what I told her - that the "nums" are gone from mama's breasts, but the new baby will bring them back. That seems to satisfy her, as does the knowledge that if she's interested, she can nurse again when the milk comes back.

Also, I hate to jinx a fabulous thing, but for almost a week now, Juniper has fallen asleep in her crib on her own, without anyone in the room with her, and has slept until at least 6am! (she still wants to come into bed at that point, but will usually sleep for another 1 or 1.5 hours, so no complaints). Here is a picture from the other night - she sometimes gets herself in these precarious positions, which seem to be one of the only things that truly wakes her up (so we try to keep an eye on it). She has a "big girl bed" set up, but we haven't transitioned her to it yet - I figured we'd ride this falling asleep on her own wave for a little while yet, until it becomes the norm.

Also, Juniper has taken a keen interest in the potty as of late. I don't feel like we're really and truly "potty training" - just following Juniper's lead and encouraging her when she wants to use it. When she is at Cheri's (her daycare provider, when she goes twice a week), it's especially fun, as it becomes a real social event. She and her buddies take turns and celebrate each others victories. At home, it's not just about peeing on the potty, however - sometimes it's more about tricking one of her obliging parents into reading a whole slew of books, or about helping teddy as he, too, attempts to potty train. Here is a little video of that phenomenon:

2. Farm weekend
When we went to Fredericton for Easter, we just weren't able to fit in a trip to the farm (where Clark's dad and stepmom live). So we decided we would choose a weekend in May, and make a special trip to just visit. As it turned out, it was a real Richards sibling reunion, as Brad, Theresa, Elizabeth (and Patrick) ALL showed up at one point or another, and there was a big dinner to celebrate Brad's birthday. Jam-packed action all weekend long - Juniper had a ridiculously fun time. Here are a bunch of photos:

Driving the tractor

Reading with Grandma


Canoe ride!

Towing the motor boat down to the water

Motor boat fun!

Fiddleheading

These wooden clogs were pretty much Juniper's favourite things. No exaggeration.

More shoe business.

Visiting with great-grammy

The Richards siblings! (l-r: Bradford, Elizabeth, Juniper, Patrick, Clark, Theresa)

Visiting Andrew in Sackville on the way home

Here is a little video montage I put together from the weekend:

3. Baaaaabbbbbbiiiieeeeesssss!

One of the most exciting events int he last two months has been our dear friends Zsofi and Will moving back to NS (Lunenburg, to be precise) - with their beautiful twin girls, Eva and Sylvie! Though it's a little over an hour away, we've still managed to have lots of play dates since they've arrived. Juniper LOVES spending time with the "baaabbbbbiiiieeeesss" - as you might imagine, there is a whole lot of kissing and hugging every time we get together. Here's a few pictures:

I meet Eva and Sylvie for the first time!

Storytime

Showing the girls a thing or two (Sylvie, Juniper, Eva)

4. Camping Trip

So, a couple of weeks ago, I took an almost week-long trip to visit our dear friends, Judith and Simon. They are currently living in the small town (or, I suppose, officially, VERY small city) of Winkler, Manitoba (but moving soon to Ottawa). The trip was Clark's suggestion - he pointed out that I'd never spent a night away from Juniper since she'd been born, and that I will be on duty for many, many months after baby #2 comes along. Ergo, I needed a break. So, with enough aeroplan points to get me there and back, the vacation came to being. I won't lie - it was actually really difficult to leave (there might have been some bouts of crying on my part), and I missed Juniper horribly, but I think it was, in the end, a really good exercise for everyone involved. I just relaxed, ate yummy food, gabbed, knitted, and SLEPT. And Juniper and Clark (and my mom, when she came down to help a bit later), had a grand ole' time. I don't think Juniper missed me one little bit. The big adventure was a camping trip that Juniper and Clark took together - brave man! I'm obviously not in a position to write much about it, as I wasn't there, but I will include some lovely pictures, which clearly indicate that a good time was had by all.

Ready for a hike! (notice her own backpack)

Close-up

Tent site

Splash! (throwing rocks)

5. The gang

As usual, there have been many a fun day lately spent with the gang. Here are some pics from one particularly gorgeous and fun Sunday not too long ago (Isabella was supposed to come, but couldn't at the last minute):

Our friend, Mr. Earthworm

The three gardeners (Patrick gets a turn with the worm)

Patrick, Calla and Juniper.

6. Day-to-day

Just a few random shots from life as usual:

One of our many swimming excursions (Tawnya, me, Ashley; Caleb Juniper and Calla)

Making muffins

Riding her bike!

Clark and Juniper's "secret spot" in the back yard

Here's a little video of Juniper keeping herself amused in the car by flipping through pictures on the ipod. I include it, because it seems like such a crazy example of the type of technology this generation of kids is becoming comfortable with - in this case, before their 2nd birthday!!!

7. And finally:

A contraband shot of baby #2! For those who don't know, unless you find yourself on the "high risk" floor at the IWK, you aren't allowed to get pictures from your ultrasound. We managed to get a contraband shot of Juniper (we just happened to have our little camera with us when the technitian left the room for a few minutes, and were able to take a picture of the shot she had left on the screen for us). So we brought the camera again this time around. Unfortunately, the ultrasound tech left us with a pretty crappy screen shot, but at least it's something! My best guess - close up profile of the head. And no, we don't know the sex, and won't until the baby is born. But I have been pretty convinced that I'm having a boy since the beginning. Let's see if mother's intuition is right the second time around as well!

April catch-up

2011-05-05T13:04:00.004-03:00

Happy belated Easter! I had actually planned to do a post before Easter, knowing full well that a holiday trip to Fredericton would warrant a post all it's own, but alas I never got around to it. So now I offer a condensed view of all of April. Here goes!

1: Juniper the handywoman!

Clark picked up this soft tool set when he was at Ikea earlier in the month, and Juniper has since taken her fix-it duties very seriously. On a side note, I believe that Juniper's hair has become an entity unto itself. It will get cut one of these days, I swear.

2. MEC ad...

Is it just me, or could Juniper and Patrick start a side career as Mountain Equipment Co-op models? Rain gear this adorable means that at least there is a perk to the seemingly endless rainy days we've been having around here.

3. Ride-em cowgirl!

Besides being just a cute snapshot of Juniper riding her beautiful rocking horse, I love this picture because it showcases her new-found interest in her stuffed animal buddies. It seems as though a month ago, a few choice animals suddenly celebrated an elevated status in her world (she had relatively no interest in stuffed animals before then). One of them is this teddy she got for Christmas - she will diligently find a pillow and blanket, and put him down for multiple naps during the day; he rides with her on her horse; and, having just acquired a hand-me-down doll stroller this past weekend, Juniper now spends a good chunk of her day strolling him around the house. Yesterday, in fact, (in the two seconds that I turned around to put something in the oven) I caught Juniper with Teddy and stroller down by the (already wide-open) front door . Apparently, they were about to go find "dada".

Though I don't have a picture of them, the other two animals that have become very important to her are a bunny and a sheep that she has decided to sleep with. A couple of weeks ago, she also decided that if they were all going to sleep together, she should also be offering them breast milk. Juniper now gets nursed twice a day - once when she wakes up, and once before she goes to bed. So, recently, we'll lie down to breast feed, and she'll loudly proclaim "BAAAAA!", meaning - "wait! Go get the sheep!", and then "bunny!" (ie "don't forget bunny"), and they both get first dibs at my breast before she does. Little did I know I'd be feeding three hungry mouths at once!

4. Drawing 101

Here is a little video of Juniper drawing. I don't know - it might not be as interesting to everyone as it is to me, but I find the whole process very cute. One quirky thing she's been doing (as you'll see) is referring to herself as "you". It makes sense - we address her as "you", but I have been finding it VERY difficult to explain using "me" instead of "you" to refer to herself - English sometimes makes no logical sense! Also, you see at the end of this video the way all videos seem to end these days - with Juniper jumping up and asking to "see" the shot. It means many videos and pictures are over before they even begin. I'm sure Juniper won't be able to fathom that her parents grew up with cameras that a) didn't take videos, and b) didn't show you an immediate image after taking a picture.

5. Ring Around the Rosie...

Toni introduced this to the kids at a playdate a couple of weeks ago, and Juniper has been obsessed with it ever since.

EASTER!

Easter this year was very... mixed. I shouldn't say that - Juniper had a ball, and so did everyone who got to spend time with her, which was really the whole point of going. I, however, got incredibly sick with some form of bronchitis or pneumonia, and was just miserable the whole time. Also, because I was so sick, I didn't get to see my cousin Claire and her new(ish) little boy, our friend Christie and her new(ish) little girl, or my grandmother - I didn't dare expose the very young or old to my plague. Boo! But on the upside, I had loads of people to help take care of Juniper while I sat in a corner and hacked up a lung, and there were many adventures to be had by the healthy folk. Here are some highlights:

1. Market madness!

No visit to Fredericton is complete without a Saturday trip to the market. As you can see, my sister Andrea (far left) made the trip home for Easter, which is the first time she'd been able to come home from BC in over a year. We also got to hang there with my brother Paul's son David (right next to Andrea), and my sister Kelli's family (Ali, Ethan and Sawyer, and Jamie at the back).

2. Pretty dresses

The weekend before we got there was the bi-annual M.O.M (mothers of multiples) sale in Fredericton, and my mom managed to score a bunch of beautiful dresses. These are just a couple of them, but I was more than happy to have such a good excuse to dress Juniper up.

3. Hanging with the cousins

Boy oh boy, does Juniper love hanging out with her older cousins. This is especially true of Ali, who Juniper clearly idolizes. Ali was all she could talk about before we even left for Fredericton, and then she couldn't wait for some quality one-on-one time.

4. Egg decorating

Juniper was just as big as everyone else this Easter, participating in an afternoon of egg decorating fun. We tried some natural home-made dyes this year (using turmeric, blueberries and beets for the three primary colours). It didn't work as well as the professional Ukrainian dyes we used in years past, but I felt much better about Juniper being involved this way. Maybe I just have to perfect the technique to get the vibrant colours I was hoping for - I'll try again next year!

5. Backyard fun

Juniper LOVED hanging out in the backyard this trip, no matter what the weather offered. This was especially true if there was someone (or preferably multiple people) that would bring out the wheelbarrow. Here's a little video of some of the seemingly never-ending wheelbarrow shenanigans:

6. Easter egg hunt!

And finally, an Easter post couldn't be complete without some footage of Easter morning. The bunny had hidden mini eggs around the living room, in conveniently low and pretty obvious "hiding" places. I wish I had had the camera at the ready for when Juniper first climbed the stairs, because she had a hilarious (and somewhat unsurprising) reaction to the scene: Stuff as many mini eggs as humanly possible into her mouth as fast as she could, and then run away before anyone could tell her to stop. She spent a full five minutes or so trying to process the great gob of chocolate in her mouth (drooling chocolate and unable to speak), before we were able to convince her that the real object of the exercise was to find the eggs and put them in her bag. This is a video of when she first made that transition - unfortunately, my battery died just after that, so I didn't capture the pure joy of the egg hunt that ensued. She loved it so much that we spent the rest of the trip doing multiple egg hunts - she would grab a handful of eggs, give them to one of us, and then hide her eyes while we placed them around the room. She'd them squeal with delight as she found them, put them in her bag, and then demanded that we do it all over again. I'm thankful that this all happened at my parent's house, because if it was here, she might have expected daily Easter egg hunts for the whole year!

A long hiatus... and news!

2011-03-29T19:26:00.000-03:00

I believe this has been the longest hiatus I've taken since starting this blog up almost two years ago (two years???), but I have a good excuse. I am (drum roll....) pregnant again! I am about 13 weeks along at this point, and I can safely say that this is the first time in almost 2 months that I haven't felt like complete and utter crap. Like, 100% useless. If it was this bad last time, I have forgotten the details, or else I wouldn't have been nearly so gung-ho to give it a second go. On Monday of last week, I thought I had turned a corner... I had Juniper all by myself for the whole day, and we did some baking (first time I had felt like touching anything in the kitchen in many many weeks), and then BAM! at around supper time, I got hit with one of the most awful stomach viruses I think I've ever had in my life. I'll spare you the details, but it was wretchedly terrible. Then Clark got it, and then Juniper. It is only today, over a whole week later, that I feel it has truly left my system.

Juniper, enjoying the fruits of our labour

Anyway, I won't spend any more time complaining, but trust me - no one would have even wanted to read a blog post from the last couple of months. Also, I'll be honest - I have not done nearly as much photographing and video-taking as I normally would. So unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of goodies to share with you... just a few pictures, and a few pretty cute videos. But that's better than nothing, right?


From a party at the Sharps' (Patrick, Isabella, Juniper, Calla)

I got a genuine smile by asking Juniper if she had "tooted".

And finally - some videos! This first one includes some "musical moments" from the past couple of months - a choice few of many.

This second video is a sampling of how well Juniper takes care of her rocking horse. Sure - she likes to ride him, but there's a lot of care involved in owning a pet!

This last video is of Juniper CLEANING. Honest to goodness. I have no idea where she gets it from. But as soon as she gets a tissue in her hand, there are a LOT of things that need to be cleaned. Or maybe dusted - I'm not sure. I didn't even know what dusting was until I was like 8 years old.

That's all for now - hopefully I'll be a better blogger in the weeks to come - especially with the added incentive of spring. My guess is there are a whole boatload of new adventures just around the corner!

Winter musings

2011-02-07T21:46:00.002-04:00

I don't have anything spectacular to blog about today, but it seemed appropriate to pull together some of the wintery things that have been going on around here - especially since we are now fully committed to February (how in the world did that happen so fast?)

Full on winter storm

One activity that always just seems so much more appealing in chilly winter months is knitting. As such, I bought some really pretty yarn over Christmas and attempted my first knitted dress (for Juniper, of course!) Knitting baby and toddler items is just so satisfying - a relatively big project is so quick and painless compared to anything adult. Anyway, here is the dress, from the front and back:

I'm already working on another one, in a slightly bigger size, from yarn that I hanging around. I'll post if it also turns out!

We've also been having loads of weekend get-togethers , which usually deserve at least a picture or two!

Trio!

Calla and Juniper

And... what better way to beat the chilly winter than swimming! I haven't yet found a way to actually take swimming pictures and videos without ruining the camera, so here are a few adorable change room shots:

Back at the home front, Juniper likes to keep warm by putting on all her outdoor gear, all the time. Or maybe she just likes the practice - these days, we have to add quite a bit of time onto the whole getting ready to go out routine, because Juniper usually categorically refuses to let anyone help her get her gear on. Like, meltdown material. I think she considers it a huge insult.

Though it doesn't really have anything to do with my "winter activities" theme, I thought I should probably add this picture of the day Clark decided to dress him and Juniper in identical outfits***. He claims he "didn't realize". Yeah right. I caught photographic evidence.
(***Edit from Clark: I didn't dress her. She choose those clothes from the wardrobe herself. It was much like trying to get her outdoor gear on - she wouldn't let me intervene.)

And finally, what better way to enjoy winter than getting outside? I'll leave you with a couple of pics from a recent sledding adventure on Citadel Hill, and a video with some shots from said sliding adventure, as well as Juniper's first skating adventure!

The gang!


Patrick was strapped in. He didn't have a chance.

Some video fun!

2011-01-25T10:03:00.000-04:00

This is now what Juniper does when I take out the camera. (*cough* HAM! *cough*)

Today is Juniper's third full day of day care. I'm doing quite well, if I do say so myself. No tears yet, and last time I only cried once. I'm one tough lady. Things around here have been on the upswing lately, having weathered Juniper's first true stomach bug. She had started off with a few days of pretty nasty diarrhea (which I attributed to teething, as she is simultaneously breaking 4 molars and another top tooth), but she followed this up by waking up at 1 am last Monday night, and vomiting every 10-15 minutes. I was freaked out enough that I called the nurse health line (811), but of course I was just told to treat it like a flu, which it was. Since then, Juniper's system has completely returned to normal, and she is eating like I've never seen. She shovels food in like you wouldn't believe... perhaps a growth spurt? Or maybe I'm just a particularly fabulous cook :)

Really and truly, Juniper is growing up fast. Right now she is REALLY into testing her boundaries, especially with me. She'll do things specifically because I asked her not to (and then make sure I see her doing it, sometimes pointing directly to whatever bad thing she is doing if I'm too unobservant to catch her on my own). She also wants everyone to participate in everything. For instance, if i give her a kiss, she'll then direct everyone around her as to who should be kissing who. I'm supposed to kiss Clark. Clark is supposed to kiss the person next to him. That person is supposed to kiss Juniper, and then kiss me. So far, this hasn't been socially awkward, but that potential is there! There have been more than a few times in the last week that I've been tempted to act on my mom's suggestion to throw Juniper on a bus heading to Fredericton! Just kidding, of course. Sort of.

Anyway, I promised videos, and here they are! Enjoy!

CHRISTMAS MEDLEY

FUN AT THE FARM

BIKE REPAIRS

Happy New Year!

2011-01-17T22:38:00.001-04:00

Well, here it is, halfway through January already... 2011 is off to a speedy start! When you have a child (especially a young one, I would imagine), everything seems new all the time, but really and truly this year feels like the start of a bunch of changes. For instance, last week Juniper spent her first full day at a day care that she's going to start attending twice a week. Apparently, she had a blast - she is there with her good buddy Patrick, and Cheri (the day care provider) is really very wonderful with them. Clark dropped her off in the morning, then went back around lunch to help put her down for a nap (to see how she did), and then picked her up again at 4:30 or so. No problems whatsoever. I, on the other hand, sat at home and was more than a little weepy throughout the whole day. I'm going to have to get over that asap, as one of the biggest reasons for doing this is so that I can actually get some work done on my thesis. Hard to do that if you are calling for updates and crying all day long :)

Anyway, I thought it was high time to post some pictures and stories from over Christmas and these first couple of weeks of January. I'll be brief, so that I can actually get it done.

I'll have some videos as well in a day or two - stay posted!

Christmas: Fredericton

Visiting my grandmother Doris

Ali was SO good to Juniper!

Riding her hand-made rocking horse (from her Grandpa Bill)

Christmas dinner (Steve meets Juniper for the first time!)

Juniper meets Matt for the first time!

Mmmm... brunch at Liz and Pat's

Juniper meets her brand new second cousin, Alexander

Play date with Zack!

Christie's baby shower

New Years: At the farm

Playing with her great-grandma

Juniper found this little bike, originally made for her great-grandmother 90 years ago!

Hanging with grandma and grandpa

My Birthday Party!

The party kids (Caleb, Isabella, Juniper, Patrick, Calla)

Presenting the fabulous homemade chocolate-mint ice cream cake

Half-way eaten!

A close-up of Juniper's new dress

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T21:20:00.003-04:00

Juniper gives a seminar on chopstick use

Twas the night before Christmas... and truly, the house is very quiet and tranquil. We are currently at my parent's house - they are at a party, neither of my sisters could make it home this year, Clark is reading a book, and Juniper is fast asleep. I thought this would be the perfect time to put together a little Christmas treat... that is, some pictures and video montages from the past month. A little December smorgasbord, if you will.

1. Swimming adventures
Earlier this month, my friend Ashley (and her son Caleb) invited me and Juniper to go swimming at the Spryfield community pool. Believe it or not, this was the very first time I had ever taken Juniper to an indoor pool. She had a ball. Unfortunately, of course, I have no pictures or videos from the actual swim, but here is a before and after:

2. Christmas parties!

There are always lots of parties on the go in December, and this year was no exception (especially since Clark's department always has two!). Here are a few shots:

a. From a lovely brunch at our place. Check out these old-timers compared to this amazing shot from last March. March photo


Baby party!

b. Departmental party #1. Juniper took a real fancy to the Christmas braids.

c. Departmental party #2: Juniper stands trepidatiously on the outskirts of the eager Santa-worshipers. Clark's department does this thing where you wrap a present for your kid and then Santa brings them all in his bag and hands them out. When Juniper's turn came, and I tried to put her on Santa's lap, she dug her nails into my arm with a death grip and didn't let go. Can't say I blame her! She did, however, know exactly what to do with the present when she was safely away from the scary old man.

3. Snow! Yes, we actually got a bit of snow in Halifax, and it even stuck around for a few days. It was all pretty new to Juniper, but she soon discovered some of the joys that snow can bring. Here is a little montage of her first adventure:

And then later that day, Clark and Juniper built her very first snowman in the backyard!

And finally, a few videos to keep you amused. The first is one I call "bossing Bob". Not many people get away with bossing my dad around, but Juniper somehow manages. Mostly, she likes to make sure he is participating in everything that is going on. For instance, when we were driving around Corsica, Juniper would always demand we sing to her, and if my dad wasn't singing or at least clapping, she'd tell him to get his act together. How would she do that, you ask? Well, my parents decided that Juniper will call them Mary and Bob, and of Juniper's limited vocabulary, Bob is one of her favourite words. "Ba!", shell yell. "BA!" I never did catch her in the car, but here she is, during a dance party while we're skyping with my parents. If she notices that dad isn't clapping along and participating, he gets strongly admonished until he does:

The second video is one I call "reading". Juniper LOVES to read. She knows the sign for book, and will perform it repeatedly until you stop what you're doing and read to her. Sometimes, however, she'll settle for reading to herself, which is perhaps one of the cutest things you'll ever see. What is particularly interesting, however, is that we noticed that there is a very marked difference between the way she reads her normal English books, and the one French book that my mom bought her while we were in Corsica. Check it out:

And finally, here is a montage of a whole bunch of cute things I've been meaning to post. And with that, I will bid everyone a very very merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a great New Year!

Corsica Part 3: All the rest

2010-12-02T11:41:00.004-04:00

Juniper helps make decisions

Sit back, relax... I've decided to just cram all the rest of my Corsica blogging into one final post. Here is a map so you can follow along when I mention some of the bigger cities and towns as I write about them. Here goes!

For the first week of our Corsican adventure, our home base was the capital city of Ajaccio. We were within a short walking distance of downtown Ajaccio, but our apartment was perched atop quite a steep hill, meaning that Clark and Juniper and I were happy to do the trek up and down as much as needed (the town itself was at the very bottom), but my parents were not necessarily always up for the climb. This meant that quite a few times, Clark just ran back up the hill and brought the car down to pick us all up when we were ready to go home - a much saner solution than trying to find parking (see previous post).

Trying to get perspective of how high up we were compared to the town down below

We did not do as much in and around Ajaccio as we had originally planned, due to the general discombobulation with my parents arriving three days late, etc. But we still managed to fit quite a bit in, and Clark and Juniper and I in particular really became familiar with the immediate downtown area. There is a big outdoor market every morning, boasting mostly local produce and cheese and patisseries and charcuterie and some other typical Corsican items. There was also a small but adequate grocery store which we went to pretty much every day were were there - not only for the food, but also for the ridiculously cheap local wine (we sampled a few bottles that were a whopping 2€15 - less than 4$!). Right across from the grocery store was a large town square that we always stopped in to let Juniper run around (it was too steep to let her run around anywhere close to the apartment). This wasn't the most relaxing of activities - it usually meant a lot of damage control. Juniper was particularly fond of practicing going up and down whatever steps or ledges she could find, and trying to squeeze herself through railings that stood between her and the depths below. During the busier times of day (ie, when school let out), her main goal was to put herself right in the middle of the pick up soccer games, bikes, and scooters that zipped their way around the square.

The town square

Besides walking around the downtown and the old city, sightseeing and a little bit of shopping (I got a few nice tops!), we also spent some time in the Museé Fesch. This is a relatively small museum, featuring mostly Italian paintings (it has the biggest collection of Italian paintings in France after the Louvre). It also has some artifacts and other pieces, many of which are associated with Napoleon. (Napoleon, of course, is Corisca's most famous son, having grown up there). The museum's big claim to fame is Botticelli's "Virgin and Child":

One of our first group trips was a short jaunt to "Les Isles Sanguinaire", which you can see here in the background behind me and Juniper, and then a better view of them on their own. Along the way, there is also an impressive Genoese tower that you can climb right up to if you desire - which, of course, Juniper and Clark and I did. Here are some pictures from that adventure:

Another day we braved the crazy crazy mountain pass driving to find "Les Calanches" - some amazing natural rock formations just north of Ajaccio. They were, as you can see, very impressive, and well worth the visit. You can maybe also, however, imagine what it was like driving to see them. This was one of the instances that I was very very happy to be there in the off season, as there were relatively very few people on the road, and we had our choice of places to stop and check out the scenery along the way. Apparently, in high season this particular stretch is just crawling with people and vehicles, and it is very difficult to find a place to stop. I think I would have honestly been too worried about a collision or being forced off the road and spiraling into an epic death to have enjoyed them at all had we been there during peak season.

We also found our way to a remote little beach we had heard about, which ended up being lovely, albeit deserted. It was a cold and windy enough day that no one (not even Clark!) felt tempted to venture into the water. Well, except Juniper. She would have run headfirst if she'd been allowed.

Our second week was spent living in a little villa in Porto Vecchio. This was a swanky resort-style place, boasting pools and tennis courts and access to the water, and only a short drive from Corsica's most famous, most photographed beach, called Palombaggio. Apparently, in the high season our apartment (chalet?) went for a base price of 2000€ a week, not including extras like towels and sheets etc. You could rent jet skis for the day for 500€. You get the idea. It only cost us 500€ for the week, with the extras (towels, sheets, internet, crib, highest), all thrown in for free. However, you could pretty much see the tumbleweeds rolling by when you looked out the window - it was a ghost town. The tennis courts had their nets down (and no rackets to be seen), there was no one to rent any water crafts from, and the chalet was freezing cold. These buildings were obviously designed to keep heat out in the summer, but offered little by way of keeping you warm. So again - a trade off to be there in the off season.

The view from our balcony

There were, however, lots of adventures to be had in and around Porto Vecchio. One of the most memorable was a day trip to a town on the southern tip of the island, called Bonifacio. What an amazing place! The whole town is built on top of these crazy white limestone cliffs, and the main old portion is completely encased in what I would describe as castle walls. Obviously, it is a town that has long felt the need to protect itself from outside invaders and sieges, and has historically been quite successful in those endeavours. This is the same town that I had mentioned previously as possibly being one of the places described in The Odyssey.

The fortress wall around the city

Basically, we just spent the day wandering around, though there were some cool spots, that were, of course, closed for the season. One such attraction was "Aragon's staircase" - a very steep, impressive 187-step staircase inclined at 45 degrees, that is carved out of the limestone and winds it's way down to the water. It was most likely carved by monks to provide access to drinking water, but legend says that when the King of Aragon besieged Corsica's southernmost town in the 15th century, his troops dug up the famous staircase in one single night. We got to see it behind a locked gate, but that was the extent of it.

This is NOT Aragon's staircase. But it is a cool old staircase we encountered.

The town itself, however, was impressive enough on it's own, and simply wandering around was enough to fill the better part of a day. We only thought of it too late, but it would have been lovely to also have taken a boat trip that took you tours of the caves and other attractions around the harbour… we might have gone back one afternoon, if not for some 'car trouble' (more on that later).

You can see Bonifacio in the background

You can see it in the background here as well

Limestone cliffs

Limestone Cliffs in a different light

Also, Bonifacio was the second and last place we were able to actually sit down for a meal out. We had lunch at this lovely little restaurant, and I ordered a local specialty, called "Aubergines Farcies à la Bonifacienne". Delicious! For dessert, it was shared crème brulée infused with chestnuts. Far and away, the best I've had. I have to say, however, I think Juniper enjoyed it more than all of us put together!

Juniper ponders the menu and makes her choice

The cute little restaurant

Juniper was VERY into this creme brulee

Other highlights around Porto Vecchio were some day trips we took in and around these tiny, windy mountainous towns, to various different locations. Though the driving was, as usual, a bit harrowing, I have to say that seeing these little towns and villages, and the breathtaking scenery along the way, was perhaps just as interesting as the destinations. We went to a fascinating museum in Levie, boasting the remains of 10000 year old woman, among other ancient artifacts. It was a small museum, but extremely well put together, and, moreover, open! They were quite pleased and rather astonished to see us, I think :)

Though it was officially "closed for the season", another wonderful sight were some ancient ruins in the Alta Roca region. There was a short 20 minute hike to get there through what I can only describe as a Tolkein-esque, magical forest, and the ruins themselves were in really very good shape. They were apparently where people used to set up shop for trading, bartering etc. What's more is we were able to get a view of the famous "needles" from there… something we had tried to accomplish earlier in the day at a different location (the town of Zonza), but had given up due to the massive fog and clouds that obscured the view. It was like a wonderful bonus surprise to the day! It's too bad my parents missed out on that one, but the hike was a little too rocky for them (ie, big, slippery rocks), and the site itself would have also likely been too difficult to climb up on once they got there. Here are a bunch of pictures.

The magic forest

Climbing boulders

Some of the bartering rooms

At the top of the ruins, with the needles in the background

Close-up on the needles

Clark and Juniper and I hiked our way up to another ancient site one afternoon - this one is much less visited (likely due to the crazy steep 30-minute climb to get there), but was just as impressive. Dating back to 2000 BC, it was again a place were people traded and bartered, and I believe also to where they retreated under attack. It was very well preserved (apparently many of these sites were not even discovered until the 1960s), and the view from the top was fantastic. You could picture, without much difficulty, what it would have been like to be there 4000 years ago.

One of the rooms (with perspective on size)

Of course, we also visited the famous Palombaggio beach, which I had mentioned earlier in this post.

Apparently, during peak season, you literally can't see the sand for all the people squeezed onto it. Certainly, it was beautiful, but not very nicely maintained in November. We spent maybe an hour there - it was, again, too cold to go for a dip, but Juniper tried to break free and catapult herself into the water every chance she got. Here's a couple of little video clips from that day:

Other than these day trips, much of our evenings, at least, in Porto Vecchio were spent making supper and cleaning up (my mom did much of this, bless her soul), and then playing cards after Juniper went to bed. Oh - and eating way too many cookies and chocolate (I found this mint chocolate that was better than any I had ever tasted. We went through at least a bar a day). There was a whole afternoon that mom and Juniper and I spent stranded at the chalet, while dad and Clark brought the car in to be fixed… Clark had mistakenly put octane in a diesel engine, and then driven around a bit. Oops. That was a costly mistake, but at least it was fixed without incident or repercussions.

Then it was back to Ajaccio for a night to reorganize and pack, and we were up at 4:30am to get ourselves to the airport for a 6:55am flight to Paris. Carolina (our landlord for the Ajaccio apartment), had arranged it so that we could drop the car off at the airport, which was amazingly convenient, and saved us a whole lot of hassle and money. In fact, I can't say enough good about Carolina and Eric… they went out of their way to be kind and helpful before we even got to Corsica, and then went way beyond the call of duty once we were there. (If you'll recall, for instance, Eric was my guardian angel when Juniper and I landed in Ajaccio). If anyone reading this is ever thinking of going to Corsica, let me give you their contact info - I highly recommend them!

And then - the flight home. I won't go into great detail, because I'm still mad, and we're still waiting for compensation, but like I said flippantly in the last post, there was only one major incident, where Clark and Juniper and I were almost not allowed on the flight. I wasn't exaggerating. Basically, Air France/Delta (they're the same company now), did a very good job before we even left Canada of screwing up our tickets. This didn't cause a huge headache until the Paris-Montreal flight… but as we were pre-boarding, the attendants said we didn't have a proper ticket for Juniper. We were ushered off to the side while the whole rest of the plane boarded, and after phoning here and there, finally decided that Juniper couldn't get on the plane until we coughed up an extra 250€. Not for her own seat, mind you - just to let her sit on my lap the whole way. This was a ticket we had already paid for, but which Delta had mailed to us AFTER we had left for Corsica. It was like they had taken us hostage, and we literally had to hand our credit card over while they dictated the numbers into the phone. Then they let us dash madly for the already boarded flight just before they took off. Despite the 4:30 am wake up and the 10 hour lay-over in Paris, I had been feeling fine up until that point. From there on (ie, the 7 hours to Montreal, the 4 hour lay over there and then the flight back to Halifax), I had a massive massive headache, and spent the whole time trying not to vomit. I'm still livid. We'll be getting that 250€ back for sure, but they'd better give us more than that as well. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, we made it home, and we're now mostly de-jetlagged and back to business as usual. I'm really glad we did this, and that we were able to bring Juniper. She was such a great little traveller, and I think she really enjoyed herself. She especially loved bossing my dad around - not many people can get away with that :)

I'll leave you with a little video from our lay-over in Montreal on the way home… Juniper always found ways to amuse herself and others on all our layovers. It's too bad I didn't get a video of her insisting that this nice french couple in the Orly airport (who didn't speak a word of English) read her a bunch of books and give her a puppet show!

Corsica Part 2: A Corsican overview

2010-11-28T14:54:00.000-04:00

We're home! It was a very lonnnnggggg 24 hour trip home, but Juniper was as good a little girl as you could ask for, I had 3 people to help me, and there was only one crazy major incident where Clark and Juniper and I were almost not allowed to board the plane from Paris to Montreal. So really, what more could you ask for?

Perhaps before I launch into some of the details and highlights of our two week adventure, I thought it might be interesting to first give a more general overview of Corsica, and the trip as a whole.

I've said this already, but Corsica is a stunning island. I asked one woman I met along the way if she'd ever been to Canada, and she replied (paraphrased and translated, that is) "no - not many people from Corsica travel that much - why would we? We've got the mountains and the water, and all four seasons - the sun and the snow and the autumn leaves. Life is good here". I can understand the sentiment. The mountains are truly this massive backbone that winds its way from one tip of the island to the other, smack down the middle. Some of them are almost as high as 3000 metres above sea level, boasting snowy, glacial tips.

The water is the Mediterranean sea, which is just as clear and beautiful as you would expect, and can be accessed from any number of sandy beaches.

There are many towns, of course, that have been established along the coastline, but I was surprised by the number of towns that also exist, as if by magic, clinging along the steep, rocky mountainous cliffs. Much of Corsican architecture, especially in these smaller, mountainous towns, consist of what appear to be centuries-old stone buildings, still in use - making it feel as though you have truly stepped back in time as you wind your way through their narrow streets from one crazy mountain pass to the next.

The history of Corsica is incredibly rich, and long. Though it is currently part of France, it has passed hands more than once, and consequently been under siege a number of times. There are constant reminders, for instance, of the time it spent under Genoese rule, in the form of distinctive Genoese defensive towers that pop up all along the coastline, many dating back to the 16th century. Certainly, however, the history dates much farther back than this. For instance, Clark and Juniper and I visited sites that have ruins dating back to 2000 BC, and all five of us made the trip to a town called Bonifacio, which is thought to be one of the places described in The Odyssey (more on these adventures later).

Genoese tower

There is clearly an independence or "freedom fighter" undercurrent that runs through the island, both in organized form - ie, the "National Liberation Front of Corsica", and also in more vernacular forms. For instance, all the signs indicating town names are written in both French and Corsican, but many of these (especially in the smaller towns), have the French spelling either blacked out with spray paint, or shot through with bullet holes, or both. (I really should have gotten a picture of one of these, but didn't). There is also a fair bit of "freedom"-related graffiti around, and some clearly sympathetic/hero-worship attitudes towards one relatively famous contemporary independence fighter named Yvan Colonna who allegedly shot and killed Corsican prefect Claud Erignac.

In terms of language, I spoke almost entirely French the whole time I was there. I am not nearly as good as I used to be, but evidently good enough that I could understand and be understood. It was actually refreshing to not have people respond to me in English, as is inevitably the case in Quebec.

I hadn't realized this before we got there, but Corsica is actually a very popular tourist destination - particularly (and unsurprisingly) for French mainlanders and Italians. One of the towns we stayed in, for instance, goes from a population of 7000 to 80000 in peak tourist season. November, however, is NOT tourist season. This is likely weather related - It was relatively chilly the whole time we were there (it averaged about 15 degrees), and it was often rainy and foggy. As I will describe in greater detail in subsequent posts, this was both a blessing and a curse… it meant that we didn't have to battle tonnes of other people to see sites, and things like accommodations were significantly cheaper. But it also meant that there were many many things that just weren't open. We'd wander into the town centre, with all these lovely looking shops that had "fermeture annuelle" in the window. You'd go to a restaurant - closed. Museum? Closed. That got frustrating pretty quickly.

Also frustrating is the French custom of closing everything between 12-2pm. Or 3, or 3:30, or basically whenever they feel like opening again. So the stores and sites that were, in fact, open in the off-season were often not open when we were wandering around. This often also meant restaurants. You would find very few restaurants open at lunch, and then the ones that opened for supper usually only opened at 7:30pm…. ie, when Juniper had gone to sleep. Consequently, we ate out only twice the entire time we were there. Seriously - twice. Good thing we had booked apartment-style accommodations! Also, I thought I'd be eating lots of fresh, local cheap seafood the whole time I was there - wrong again! The supermarkets didn't even carry fresh fish, and when you found it (for instance at the market), it was ridiculously expensive. Perhaps that is also different in the peak
season.

One of the two restaurants we ate at. The fish was fresh, but I'm not used to getting it whole.

There were, however, always cafés and boulangeries open, with beautiful baguettes and pastries, and we took full advantage. Chocolate croissants and fresh warm baguettes were often a daily occurrence.

Also ubiquitous were a large range of local cheeses (usually sheep cheeses) and local charcuterie (smoked meat). One of the most popular of these was Figatellu, or pork liver, which, to me looked as gross as it sounded. Charcuterie was one of the few things I was just not interested in trying.

Our day-to-day involved a lot of driving to various different towns and sites. This was not as easy as it sounds. First off, here is a picture of our car - mom booked it from Canada, with the intent of getting something big enough for all five of us (including the car seat) and our luggage. Though it was big by European standards, what we ended up with was, in truth, a hatchback only slightly bigger than our little Suzuki Swift at home. That meant that those of us in the backseat (ie me and mom, with Juniper's car sea in the middle), were squished in so tightly that we couldn't move, and had no hope of doing up our seat belts. Mom and I both got very used to lifting ourselves up and over just in order to get the door closed.

Secondly, driving in Corsica is more than a little ridiculous - both in the city and in between towns. Ajaccio, for instance, (the capital city where we stayed for the first week), was built long before cars, and therefore the streets are very narrow with no real places to park. This does not stop the locals - the cars are parked bumper to bumper all through the city streets at all times of the day, and often you'll find multiple cars on the sidewalks, and double parked in the middle of the street. This makes negotiating traffic especially difficult.

Driving between towns is another thing altogether - due to the mountainous terrain, the roads are… insane. They snake their way up and down cliffs - these tiny narrow roads with solid mountain on one side, and sheer drop-offs on the other. Guard rails? Only if you're on one of the "major highways". Usually it is just a few bricks between you and your death. The turns are all hairpin, and therefore also blind, and the Corsican drivers, to quote our guidebook, "drive with a panache that verges on the irresponsible". I couldn't have said it better myself. Here is a little video - don't watch it if you get motion sick!

OK - that's enough for now. I'll do at least one more post (maybe two?) with some pictures and stories from our actual travel adventures. Stay tuned!

Corsica Part 1: the ridiculous travel story

2010-11-21T16:49:00.002-04:00

Here we are in Corsica - in fact, we are on our last few days. There is, of course, much to blog about, so I'll just start with the first few days.

So, let's start at the beginning. Months ago, Clark got accepted to do this special workshop for PhDs and Post Docs doing work in internal waves. It was taking place in this tiny little town in Corsica (a French island just north of Sardinia), called Cargèse. Of course, I was dying to go. The problem: I didn't want Juniper and me to go with Clark and then twiddle our thumbs for two weeks in a tiny town while Clark spent the whole day in lectures, but I also didn't want to wait until Clark was done and then do the entire crazy voyage alone. Then my mom had a brilliant idea: she and my dad would come with us… that way I'd have help for the journey, and we'd meet Clark after his course so that we could all vacation together.

Hah.

The day arrived, and we had an elaborate plan whereby mom would drop me and and Juniper at the airport with our luggage, then drive all the way back to the city to drop the car off and have her cousin Carroll drive her back, so that she didn't have to leave the car at pay and park. We got to the airport at 1pm, for what we thought was a 2:30 flight. This was actually really pushing it, as driving to Halifax and back would eat up an hour. Mom decided to risk it. Then, after she had gone, I looked at my ticket - the flight was boarding in 20 minutes. They had changed the flight to 1:40pm. I hustled me and Juniper through security, and on to the plane; dad waited outside of security for mom. The short ending to this predicament: my parents didn't make the flight. I cried as we took off.

On the way to Montreal (first leg of the trip), I started reassuring myself "certainly, they'll make another flight before we have to board for Paris", "everything will be fine - I won't be doing this alone!". When we landed, however, and I called, mom broke the news that there were no more flights to Montreal for THREE DAYS. Then I really cried - enough that some nice woman asked if there was anything she could do for me. No, no there wasn't.

So here I was, with Juniper and a ridiculous amount of heavy carry-on (three bags), and a stupid umbrella stroller that my mom had bought on Kijiji whose wheels kept falling off, and Juniper refused to sit in. And I had to find my way out of the terminal, back to check-in to get a boarding pass, then back to the gate. Then was the loooonnnnng flight to Paris, where I couldn't even get up to go to the bathroom while Juniper was sleeping. At least I had a couple of empty seats beside me… when I got on at first, they had stuck me in the middle of the middle section, but luckily moved us after the flight had filled up.

So, then we arrive in Paris. I find my way to the baggage claim, and there comes my bag, Juniper's bag…. and then along comes my mom's bag and my dad's bag as well! I had been told with absolute certainty (and condescension) from the woman in Montreal that there was zero possibility of this - that my parents' bags would be heading back to Halifax if they had even left there in the first place. WRONG. Now, here I was, having been travelling for over 12 hours. I hadn't slept in over 24. And now I had Juniper, three heavy pieces of carry-on, a stupid non-functioning stroller and FOUR full pieces of luggage.

The next obstacle was to get from the Charles de Gaulle airport to Orly airport, clear across the city. Though it was 85€, I decided to take a cab, rather than try to negotiate the shuttle. I somehow got everything into the cab, and then spent two whole hours in rush hour traffic (at 6am - go figure!)

Finally, we arrive at Orly. I desperately wanted to get this luggage sorted out - to check it in and get yet another boarding pass for our last flight, to Ajaccio. So I stood in line, corralling all this luggage, until finally I got to the front - only to be told I couldn't check in until 1.5 hours before the flight. Not only that, but I had to figure out how to get an infant pass for Juniper, because they had failed to send us one, and for whatever reason, the guy couldn't do it for me - I had to find a service desk somewhere. I couldn't even go to the bathroom or change Juniper's diaper… I couldn't fit everything into the freaking bathroom.

So.... 1.5 hours before the flight, I go to check the baggage. Of course, I had two extra pieces. I was told it going to be 110€… per bag (I think. Maybe it was total). In any event, my jaw dropped. "These bags were never supposed to come without my parents - what am I supposed to do with them?" I pleaded. There was some back and forth and chatting amongst themselves, and consulting this person and that person and bringing out the calculator, and finally we sorted it out for 26€. Of course, then I had to go stand in another line to pay it, and then FINALLY I was allowed into the gate. The bags were checked. I had managed to check my email very briefly (I paid a fortune to access a computer at the airport, only to have the freaking power go out 4 minutes later), but it was enough time to see that Clark was going to try and leave his course early and meet us at the airport. There was finally an end to this madness in sight.

The flight to Ajaccio was lovely. Juniper slept almost the whole time, and we had a whole row to ourselves, and the view was spectacular. We landed, and I had this huge smile on my face… until I realized that Clark wasn't there. He wasn't there. It hit me in that moment that I was completely screwed. My mom had taken care of the arrangements for our Ajaccio accommodations - it was an apartment we were renting from a woman named Caroline. Not only did I not have the directions to the apartment, it wouldn't have mattered if I did, because I didn't have the key. I didn't have any contact info for Caroline. I didn't even have a freaking coin to get a trolley for the four suitcases I was now responsible for. I just sat down, utterly defeated. I had made it this far, and I had no idea what to do.

Then, like a knight in shining armour, this man came up out of the blue and asked "are you Tara? My name is Eric". "Are you with Caroline?" I asked. Yes, he was. Up until this point, I had no idea Eric even existed, but at that moment, I could have kissed him. Eric took care of the trolly. Then he drove us to this little beachside restaurant, where Caroline was waiting. They sat us down with a bunch of their friends and ordered lunch (Juniper and I sampled the fish soup).

Caroline took this picture. Eric is the man directly in front of Juniper in the blue shirt.

Then they left us there because they had a meeting. I was relatively bewildered, but happy that things seemed to be under control. Then Eric came back an hour later, drove us to the rental car place, and helped me get that all sorted out. Then I followed him through the crazy streets of Ajaccio in the new rental car, trying not to lose him while careening through roundabouts and trying to keep Juniper from crying in the back seat. We snaked our up up some ridiculously steep, narrow, windy streets, and finally - we were there! At the apartment! He showed me everything he figured I would need to know, then the buzzer rang - it was Clark. Finally!! The crazy crazy crazy adventure was over.

Juniper posing on our wrap-around balcony.

We spent the first couple of days wandering around Ajaccio, buying groceries and getting the lay of the land. Three days later, my parents arrived. The rest, they say is history… or perhaps, just fodder for some subsequent blog posts. Here are a few photos from those first few days. I promise, the next posts will have much better text-to-photo ratio, but as you can imagine, I don't have much photo documentation to accompany my travel story. Stay tuned!

More views from our balcony: showcasing the city with the mountains and the Mediterranean, and the phenomenal sunsets.

Yukkin' it up at the town square

Happy Hallowe'en!

2010-11-01T20:32:00.002-03:00

A little ladybug waits for her friends to arrive

This will be a short post, but I thought it might be popular to see some pics and videos from Hallowe'en. Sunday marked the first day I was completely solo (Clark left on Saturday for Corsica). So what did I do? Threw a party, of course! It was a bit dicey in the lead up - both Juniper and I have been pretty sick. But I felt I was on the mend enough on Sunday to invite some babies over. Really, how could I resist? Patrick couldn't make it in the end, but we got to see Jolene - she and her mom Sairah are currently visiting Halifax for the week, having moved to BC 5 months ago.

Calla, Juniper, Isabella and Jolene

And finally, I'll leave you with a Hallowe'en video, which *may* include a little dancing. Enjoy!

Autumn goodness

2010-10-23T15:25:00.000-03:00

It's been way, way too long since I last posted.... I've got what could be many posts' worth of September AND October highlights. In my defense, it has been very, very busy around here. However, in one short week, Clark is heading off to Corsica (France), and then Juniper, me, and my parents will be following a week and a half later. So I must really post now, before we embark on a whole new adventure.

1. Clark's birthday!
We had a lovely crepe party in honour of Clark's 31st. Lots of crepes and babies and awesome friends - what better way to spend a day? As you can see, Clark was VERY excited about the whole thing.

2. Fall orienterring

We have taken advantage of some of the fall orienteering that has been happening around the province. This picture is from one such adventure, where Theresa came with us (and acted as photographer). This was not actually part of the course - we spied a waterfall off in the distance, and went to investigate. It was well worth it, despite meaning that we came back late.

3. Elizabeth comes to visit!

Clark's sister Liz decided to take a last minute trip to come see us for a weekend before Thanksgiving, which was such a lovely surprise! Here are a couple of shots from the beautiful sunny Sunday that we went downtown for a stroll.

4. THANKSGIVING

It gets all caps, because, as always, it was epic. Every time we go home for Thanksgiving, it is epic. We are only ever there for a few short days, and somehow have to fit in five gabillion dinners, and even more visits. Consequently, I informally swore off Fredericton thanksgivings for a least a little while, but then, at the last minute, off we went. Why, you ask? Well, this is the first year that Clark's dad and step mom were hosting a thanksgiving dinner at the Richards family farm, so we felt it was important to go. Don't get me wrong - it was loads of fun, and Fredericton in the fall is pretty much the best. But we left even more exhausted than when we arrived. Here are some highlights.

a) Down at the farm

Out for a stroll in her beautiful new coat, ladybug boots and matching plaid tam and dress

Helping grandpa pick potatoes


Exploring a washed up tree by the river


Tete-a-tete with Witty the kitty

Hanging with her step-cousin Ciaran. Check out the matching ensemble!

b) Fredericton visit


Hours of fun was had in this wheelbarrow.


Exploring a bug. Very shortly after this shot was taken, it went straight into her mouth.


More wheelbarrow fun - with Evan! (My cousin Claire's son)


Apple picking!


I'm not sure how this dreamy lighting happened, but I love this shot (in my parent's dining room)

5. Back at home

And here we are, back at home, getting ready for our big European adventure. My mom just left this afternoon, having come up for the week to help with Juniper while I got a bit of work done. This means that I was absent from most of the adventuring (and therefore pictures)... but perhaps I'll ask her for some of the good ones a get in another post before we leave. We'll see. Another pretty awesome perk of my mom being here this particular week was that it coincided with the Pop Explosion, meaning that Clark and I got to go on two dates - to a New Pornographer's show, and to a show that featured Basia Bulat playing with the NS Symphony. Amazing!

Juniper diligently puts some new shelves together

I'll leave you with a little video - I know I've already posted footage of Juniper dancing, but - well - it's one of her favourite things to do, and I think it's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Just for fun

2010-09-18T21:54:00.000-03:00

Enjoying some watermelon during our 30+ hours without power post-hurricane

I promised some random videos - here they are! The first includes the various incarnations of Juniper's current favourite song... our musical rendition of Sandra Boynton's book Barnyard Dance.

This second video is just a montage of some of the games and other things Juniper has been amusing herself with these days.

And finally... here is what Juniper looks like after she inevitably takes out her hair elastics. Her hair is getting out of control!

Half-naked mad scientist!

Naming Ceremony

2010-09-14T12:46:00.000-03:00

The guests of honour, chatting it up before the ceremony.
I'm pretty sure I overheard Patrick saying:
"... and then I TOTALLY body slammed the guy!"

As I said in the previous post, one of the biggest August highlights for me was the naming ceremony. It started out as an inkling of an idea that we thought would be nice for Juniper, and grew into a wonderful event to celebrate all four little friends who have spent so much time together in the last year: Juniper, Calla, Patrick and Isabella. Unfortunately, Isabella was sick and couldn't make it, but she was there in spirit!

A lot of work went into pulling this off (mostly because of all the little things Clark and I decided to do for it), but it was well, well worth it. For instance, here is a dress that I made for Juniper, front and back.

The design is, of course, a Juniper bush.
I felted it onto the front after it was made.

Check out the pigtails!
Seriously, do you get any cuter than that?

So what is a naming ceremony? Good question! We basically just wanted to be able to celebrate the kids; to welcome them into the world, and into this wonderful little community that they have become a part of. Each family prepared their own special "presentation" of sorts for their respective child, and then we all did a few ceremonial things for the kids, and had some readings. Here is a look at the program:

This is a picture of me explaining all of the ceremonial things we set up on the table. We had Juniper incense burning, as a means of cleansing, purifying and protecting the physical and spiritual bodies, and banishing negative energies. Next to that was a sweetgrass candle, used to welcome in good influences. Each child was passed through the smoke of the Juniper first, and then the sweetgrass candle. Also, all three kids had their own special blessing stones. Each stone was passed around to everybody at the ceremony, so that they could bestow blessings or well wishes or positive energy or vibes, or whatever they wanted. The idea, of course, is that the kids will have these stones for the rest of their lives.

Sidenote: Kerry and Clark and I (and of course, Juniper and Patrick), went to Crystal Crescent the day before the ceremony specifically to let the kids choose their blessing stones. Juniper, however, found it difficult to stay on task.

Juniper's final pick

The day was absolutely gorgeous - sunny and warm and green and lush. The kids were also champs - for the ceremony itself, the potluck afterwards, and then the extended hangout after that! Here are a few pictures from the day:

Tawnya, Jeremy and Calla

Kerry, Kenny and Patrick

Our wonderful guests: Carroll and Stephen, Jane and Mike,
Kata, Bill and Barb. My mom couldn't make it at the last
minute, but skyped into the whole ceremony from Newfoundland!

For anyone who actually took a good look at the program, you'll see that there was a "Tara, Clark and Juniper surprise". Out of everything we did in preparation for the ceremony, this "surprise" was far and away the most time consuming, but I'm so so so happy it came together. For months, Clark and I had been working on a board book - a story about the four kids and the adventures they dream up. We bought blank board books, and labels to stick in them. Then I wrote the story, and Clark did the illustrations, and we both filled in the colour. It was way way way more work than we had even anticipated, but hopefully it will be one of those things the kids will be able to look fondly back on one day. Here is an example of one of the pages - this is the Juniper example.

And that was basically it! We had a scrumptious potluck afterwards, and then later that evening, we celebrated Barb (and my mom)'s belated birthdays with some ice cream and cake.

Juniper, relaxing with a hand-picked carrot, post-ceremony

Stay tuned - I'll hopefully have some random videos up before long!

August highlights

2010-09-10T20:48:00.002-03:00

I'm a little shocked, but August has now come... and gone. The heat snap is over, and fall seems to have settled in for real this time. Although I am later getting around to this post than I had meant to be, it seems somewhat fitting to pay a little homage to August and all the highlights it entailed.

One of the biggest highlights was our naming ceremony, but I think it deserves it's own post. So I will leave it out for now, with promises of a full report in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here are a few pictures and short little explanations to go with them.

Here is Juniper sporting her birthday card and adorable apron from her auntie Zsofi. "Wouldn't this picture have been more appropriate with her birthday post?", you ask? Touché. But the reason I thought I should include it is because Juniper decided - I kid you not - to make this my desktop photo. I'm not entirely sure how she accomplished it, but she saw my computer open, and with a few well-placed keypad strokes, changed my desktop from flowers to this particular photo of her. True story.

Once upon a time, I thought that innocent little Juniper would pretty much never be allowed to have sugar in these early couple of years. However, I quickly realised that she would absolutely not put up with being denied the opportunity to share whatever Clark and I were eating. Sunny day ice cream? You'd better believe it. Don't worry - she didn't get her own cone - we all shared this one.

Here is Juniper, taking care of Calla, as usual. One of Juniper's most endearing qualities is how keen she is to interact with everyone - especially kids - and how attentive she is to their needs. She loves to share whatever she thinks someone wants - in this case, obviously Calla really needed a ball :) And while she truly is like this with most kids she meets - even complete strangers - she is especially attentive to Calla. Case in point:

Seriously - how cute is this?

We love getting visits from Theresa - especially Juniper, who gets loads of attention. We see Theresa enough that I sometimes forget to take pictures, but I'm glad I got this one - I think it is especially sweet.

Though this may seem silly, I'm proud to say that Juniper has mastered the concept of smelling - rather than just eating - certain things. Here she is, trying out her smelling powers on a pretty yellow flower in the back yard. She also feels she needs to "blow" her nose every time she becomes aware of a tissue box. I'll have to catch that one on video at some point, because it is truly adorable.

This picture and the next one (and opening picture on this post, for that matter) are all from an adventure we took one day to Economy Falls, and then to a Gem and Mineral show in Parrsboro. Clark and Juniper were very brave, and went for a dunk in the icy waters, as you can see:

Here is a shot from a hike that we went on with Tawnya, Jeremy and Calla, in the Salt Marsh Trails. Who did we encounter but a very rotund, happy seal sunbathing just off the path. Check it out!

See that cigar-shaped mass by the water on the right? Seal!

And finally...

I thought this shot was amazing for any number of reasons. It is actually from the naming ceremony day, but I couldn't resist tagging it on to the end. Patrick is SUPER into eating that block, and Calla is realtively unimpressed with yet more fawning attention from Juniper. And there's Clark in the background, trying to get a shot from behind, but I think mine was way better :)

Stayed tuned - I promise to post about the naming ceremony post haste.

Some daily tidbits

2010-08-17T12:24:00.002-03:00

I thought I'd just do a quick little post about nothing in particular - just some day-to-day stuff that's been happening around here. This opening picture is Juniper doing what she seems to enjoy immensely - that is, kissing. She loves to kiss. Me, Clark, strangers, her stuffed animals, and particularly adorable little boys, such as Patrick!

There is much to do in a day, however - one cannot spend all of her time kissing. For instance, helping with the yard work is one of the chores that she has taken on since reaching the big 1. Clark figured it was about time.

After work, time to relax...

... or perhaps try and climb into, over, around and through things that you really shouldn't be getting into.

And finally, here is a picture of Juniper's very first goose egg. Considering all the rather extreme monkeying around she does in a day, this particular accident was relatively innocuous - I wasn't there, but Clark says she was running around with a remote control, and then tripped and fell onto the remote with her forehead. Random! Then later that day, we were downtown, and she tripped on the concrete and got a bloody nose. Poor thing.

Pictures are great, but what's a day-to-day post without a video montage? Enjoy!

Happy birthday, Juniper!!!

2010-08-09T16:03:00.000-03:00

July 30th marked a rather epic milestone - little baby Juniper became an officially grown-up one year old. I still can't believe it. We had been toying with the idea of staying in Halifax and just having a nice quiet low-key celebration, but then decided there were enough reasons to go to Fredericton that we would flip that idea on it's head and go for broke. Like usual, this meant full-out, non-stop activity, jam-packed into less than a week. I've got more pictures from this week of birthday goodness than I know what to do with, so I'll try and keep my explanations minimal.

Juniper's actual birthday (a Friday), was spent in transit. It was not without celebration, however - we stopped in Sackville NB for a short but lovely visit with our good friend Matt Brennan and his girlfriend Anna, who are living in Scotland, but home for a few weeks of vacation. Oddly, we would not actually be able to overlap in Fredericton, but they were in Sackville for Sappyfest as we were passing through, so we jumped on the opportunity to connect. Here we all are, with Juniper holding her newly acquired "Highland Coo".

Also on Friday, Juniper got to meet our friend Sean, who was in Fredericton visiting for vacation, and leaving the next morning.

Barkeep! Another on the rocks!

Then on Saturday, we hightailed it off to St. Andrew's for my aunt Suz's wedding. Juniper, of course, was dressed for the occasion - here she is sporting her birthday gift from my mom and dad - a hand smocked dress and bonnet.

Here she is at the reception afterwards, having found a chair that was just her size

Juniper's actual party was on Monday. My mom hosted a lovely brunch, and Elizabeth (Clark's sister) made a delicious, fancy cake for the occasion.

Crazy sparkler!

Juniper loved the cake, but wouldn't eat it until we gave her a fork. True story.

Here's a shot of the four kids at the party: Simon, Noni, Juniper and River. They refused to all look at the camera at the same time.

The next day we headed to the Richards family farm to visit Clark's grandmother. It was a slightly overcast day, but that meant that Juniper had an excuse to wear her brand new one-piece rainsuit from her Grandma and Grampa Richards (Bill and Barb). There *might* have been a bit of a photo shoot... I couldn't resist the combination of the rainsuit and the farm. I'll post a few of my favourites - I'd be interested to know which one is your fave!

Of course, Sunday and Wednesday (the only other two days that I didn't account for yet), were also very full. Here are a few pics:

One of Juniper's favourite daily activities: going to the back yard and picking my dad's high bush

blueberries.

Juniper's new "padded swimwuit" from my mom. Flotation built right in! It was, unfortunately, a bit of a fail. Juniper hated it, and we had to take it off shortly after getting in the pool.

SPLASH!

(much more fun without the suit)

Group hug! (with Simon and Noni).

Modelling her birthday gift from Andrea - what she thought was a dress for a 12-month old, but was actually a shirt for a 12-year old! I'm going to try and alter it. The bow that goes with it, however, is pretty darn cute

OK, that's all for now. I have loads more non-Fredericton-birthday related things to post, so stay tuned!

summer fun

2010-07-25T21:12:00.000-03:00

Well, there are no massive milestones to post about, but seeing as it is going to be Juniper's FIRST BIRTHDAY in less than a week (?!!!?), and we are leaving that day for some Fredericton visiting and festivities, I sense an epic blog post in the making. As such, I figured I might as well offer an interim post with some summer coming and goings.

Last weekend was Juniper's very first boat ride - we took a ferry over to McNab's Island, which none of us had ever done before. What a wonderful day! I spent the time learning about medicinal herbs, and for the most part, Clark and Juniper hiked around, exploring the island. I particularly love this shot of Juniper in the magical forest:

This past week, we were lucky to have a lovely visit from Ramzi and Allison and their adorable little Faris, who now live in Ottawa. Faris even agreed to some nice long snuggles, as you can see. I know sounds cliché, but I can barely even remember when Juniper was that small!

Other than that, we've been going on summer walks in the park, having get-togethers and parties with the baby gang, and we've been taking fun road trips, like our spontaneous jaunt to Wolfville yesterday. Really, the only real struggle we're having right now is still a sleep issue. Once Clark finishes reading the book, we're thinking about giving the no-cry sleep solution a try. I'll keep you posted!

Just to leave you with a bit of video, here's a couple of random things from the last few days.

the videos, as promised!

2010-07-16T08:04:00.000-03:00

Well, it has now taken a *little* longer than a few days to post those videos I was talking about. Really and truly, however, it wasn't my fault... for whatever reason, the "insert video" function in blogger stopped working. I figured I'd give it a couple days to work itself out, and in the meantime, my computer died. So here we are, weeks later, and I am working on a brand new computer, with all my old files, and though Blogger still isn't working properly, I have found a new way to embed video.

As such, here is the one I created awhile ago - a little montage of the various ways Juniper and I kept ourselves amused on the looooongggg road trip:

So what's new in the past few weeks, you ask? Juniper is now all about the walking - as far as she's concerned, crawling is for chumps. That is, unless it is crawling someplace that she shouldn't be getting into, such as under the coffee table or behind her crib, or in the disgusting little crevice between the toilet and the wall.

We survived Clark being away at Shad for two whole weeks, and have spent loads of time in the backyard, and on various adventures. Here's a glimpse:

Naked gardening!

Hanging out at the Pow Wow on the Commons

Play date and hiking adventure at Ashley and Caleb's

As for Juniper - she's really and truly a grown up little girl now. She is very smart, highly opinionated, and more than a little mischievous. She will helpfully show you where your belly button is if you ask. She lets you know she wants a homemade yogurt popscicle by looking at you pointedly (and grunting) while pulling at the freezer. If you tell her how pretty her hair looks (and it really does look adorable these days - the humidity makes it all curly), then she'll remember that she has a hair clip in, and pull it out, then run away from you while shoving it in her mouth. And she has developed quite a palette - plain is out, flavoured is in. Plain sweet potato fries? I don't think so! Curried sweet potato fries? Can't shove enough of them in her mouth. I kid you not.

Anyway, I haven't captured all of that, but I have at least assembled a taste of our day-to-day. Enjoy!

Epic trip... and happy belated father's day!

2010-06-24T21:33:00.012-03:00

I had meant to do a father's day post (even just a short one, to acknowledge the day). I had meant to have our whole trip up long before now. But I've just been so. very. tired. Exhausted. Unable to do much else with my evenings or Juniper's naps than just sit catatonic or crawl into bed. But I realized that this blog is just one of those things that i really have to keep on top of, so here you go: a VERY quick and dirty highlights reel of our epic road trip.

1. Halifax-Fredericton.
We stay one day.

Highlight: Juniper finally meets her great uncle Bill! (My dad's brother - can you tell?)

2. Fredericton-Montreal.
Longest drive of the trip. Despite having the trip made especially lengthy due to getting stuck for and hour and a half in Montreal rush-hour/construction madness, Juniper is a trooper. We only stop twice. The first time in Edmunston for a picnic; the second time just for a gas stop outside of Quebec city. Here we are picnicking:

We were in Montreal so that I could present at a Folklore conference. It was definitely a different experience for me having Clark and Juniper in tow, but I was very glad we did it.

Highlight #1: Juniper goes swimming for the first time!

Highlight #2: Juniper gets to meet our friends Erika, Tick and Thom, who were very gracious to host us. I think Thom (a robust 2 year old) was a big inspiration for Juniper taking her first steps!
Also, Thom and juniper became VERY good friends! :

Highlight #3: Juniper takes her first metro!

3. Montreal - Ottawa:

We were in Ottawa for almost a week, while Clark presented a poster at an Ocean Sciences conference. We stayed at a hotel by the Byward market, and got in a huge amount of visiting!

Highlight #1: Lots of Jane time! We were lucky to see Jane a bunch while we were in Ottawa, and she even gave us a tour of her current workplace (ie, the Supreme Court of Canada). Somehow, the Chief Justice of Canada, The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, happened to wander into the clerk's office while we were there, and Juniper completely won her over.
Here is a picture of Jane and Juniper in Jane's lovely sun room - I know it's blurry, but I liked it enough to post it anyway.

Highlight #2: Erin, Mish and Zack. The happy family had us over for dinner, and Mish got to meet Juniper for the very first time!

Zack and Juniper got pretty intimate towards the end of the evening...

Highlight #3: Amy, Lauren and Scott. Our old friend Amy moved to Ottawa a long time ago, and has, in the meantime, had two beautiful children. Obviously, it's been awhile since we've seen each other, but we had a fabulous morning with the three of them. We missed meeting Amy's husband, John - hopefully we'll get to meet him next time! Little Scott is only a few weeks younger than Juniper.

Highlight #4: Allison and Faris!
We were very excited to meet our friends' Allison and Ramzi's new little son Faris while we were in Ottawa. Only 2 months old, Faris was not only adorable, but a perfect host as well (despite Juniper tired grumpiness while we were there).

Highlight #5: Christian. Another old Fredericton friend now living in Ottawa is Christian Maillet. We met him for lunch on one of our last days there.

4. Ottawa - Toronto

Finally done with our respective conferences, our next stop was to visit our dear friends Zsofi and Will in Toronto. We had not yet been to their new place, and I was especially anxious to see Zsofi, as she is well into her second trimester of a twin pregnancy! We decided that Juniper and I would take the train, and then Clark would drive up later that evening after his conference was done. That was Juniper's first train ride - 5 full hours on a very crowded train. Not ideal, but she was at least happy to be able to walk up and down the aisle and smile at everyone a whole bunch of times.

Here's Will trying his hand at baby carrying:

And here is the gang in Zsofi and Will's beatiful sunny dining room:

Besides spending some wonderful time with Zsofi and Will, we also got to spend an afternoon with Clark's aunt Barb, who got to meet Juniper for the very first time! Ironically, we also spent the afternoon with Theresa, as she and Andrew were also in Toronto at that point.

5. Toronto - Fredericton

We decided when we were planning this trip that really the only sane option was for Juniper and I to fly back to Fredericton, and have Clark drive back and meet us there. This made sense on a number of different levels - Juniper would spend an hour and a half on the plane (her first plane ride!), rather than 18 hours in the car. Also, it meant Clark could spend a day with some colleagues in Rimouski, QC on the way. To sweeten the deal, Zsofi decided to fly back with us, so that she could get in one last Fredericton trip before she was too pregnant to go anywhere :)

Highlight #1: Zsofi's baby shower! My mom organized a baby shower when she learned that Zsofi would be coming home, and hosted it in my parent's living room. Here is a nice shot of Zsofi and mom:

Highlight #2: Juniper is introduced to the world of bubbles!

Highlight #3: Hangout time with my (pregnant!) cousin Claire and her adorable two-year-old, Evan. Evan spend most of the time running away from Juniper, who would try to kiss him and take his toys. Here, however, was a rare moment where they were peacefully chilling:

6. Fredericton - Halifax.

And now we're home. We've been home for just over a week, and as I said at the beginning of this post, I am 100% exhausted. A three week road trip with a 10 month old is quite an endeavour, if I do say so myself! That, and sleep has been at a real premium lately. This is something we are going to have to figure out, because you can only function for so long with consecutive terrible night's sleeps. Maybe I'll do a sleep post at some point.

(Juniper sporting an early birthday gift from Claire)

This weekend, Clark is starting two weeks of Shad Valley - that means two weeks of 24 hrs/day, 7 days/wk. I'm more than a little nervous. Luckily my mom will be here for the first week... the plan is to let me get some thesis work done, but I might spend the first few days just sleeping.
Which is what I should be doing right now. So I shall sign off. But there are a couple of videos I want to post, so stay tuned - I'll do that in a couple of days. I'll leave you with Juniper eating her new favourite thing: homemade smoothie popsicles.

On the move!

2010-06-09T19:52:00.004-03:00

It's been awhile since I've posted, but with good reason - we have been on a reatively epic road trip. The three of us drove from Halifax to Fredericton then onto Montreal for a few days (I was presenting at a conference there), then to Ottawa for almost a week (Clark had a poster at a conference there). Then Juniper and I took Juniper's first train ride to Toronto to visit Zsofi and Will (Clark drove later that day), and then just today, Clark left for Rimouski QC to do a bit of work with some colleagues, and Juniper and I took Juniper's first plane ride back to Fredericton. We'll hang out here until at least the end of the weekend (Clark joining us likely on Friday), and then well all drive back to Halifax on Monday or Tuesday. WHEW!

Obviously, I have tomes worth of posting to do, which I'll get to over the next little bit. Just to give you all an exciting highlight, however, I wanted to post this short video, of ... wait for it... Juniper's first real steps!!! A little over a week ago (a day or two after her 10 month birthday), Juniper decided it was time to try out some freestyle walking. She has been soooooo close for awhile, but I think was given the incentive she needed after spending some quality time with a few 1.5-2 yr olds. She still hasn't mastered the art yet, but she's getting better and bolder as the days go by. More to come soon!

Two new videos...

2010-05-20T14:24:00.002-03:00

As promised, here are a couple of videos of some recent Juniper goodness. The first is one I like to call "fancy arms". We have been doing some signing with Juniper for a few months now, but she prefers to use her own form of sign language to communicate. One particularly useful sign is her various forms of the "double arm wave". To the unskilled observer, these migh just seem like flailing arms. Those in the know, however, are able to pick up on the more subtle nuances :)

And secondly, here is a little montage I've entitled "getting into things". This little phrase aptly sums up Juniper's m.o. these days. She likes to test things more and more, and will immediately imitate an action that she sees us doing if she finds it interesting. For instance, her obsession for the last week or so has been to get into the liquor cabinet - a door she didn't even realise opened until she saw Clark do it. We now have baby proof things on it, which frustrates her to no end. I could have added a million different video clips, but here's a few just or fun. Enjoy!

A little bit of everything

2010-05-17T21:07:00.008-03:00

Oh my goodness. I had meant to do a Mother's Day post... I had meant to do a "happy 9 months" post, I had meant to do a number of posts in the last month that only happened in my head. So instead, here is a big mish mash of photos with no real underlying thread. I will also post some videos in a couple of days, so stay tuned!

Teeth!

Well, I promised a photo of Juniper's rogue tooth when I could get one, and here it is! The big update, however, is that this handsome little tooth now has a mate poking through directly beside it. Is there anything cuter?

Fish lips

Juniper is now a master kisser. In fact, you can say "Juniper, can I have a kiss?", and she'll actually come over and plant one on your cheek. Or your nose, or maybe even your lips. In the meantime, she likes to practice, and has gotten her fish lips down to a science:

Biking Adventure

A few weeks ago, we took Juniper on her first biking adventure. We loaded her into our hand-me-down bike trailer, and headed off to the BLT (Beechville Lakeside Timberlea) trail. Juniper was enthralled for the first half, and then a big tired cranky pants for the second half. The poor thing was desperate for a nap, but couldn't fall asleep with all the jostling and newness. It was good fun, however, and I'd love to do more this summer.

Fancy Dresses

Juniper recently got two gorgeous dresses - a polka-dotted floral number from my mom (she got it on their recent trip out West), and a bohemian-style combo (that I wish I owned!) from Clark's mom's friends from Fredericton, who dropped by to meet Juniper when they were all visiting Halifax a couple of weeks ago. Both dresses looked so adorable that I had to take pictures:

Juniper hosts brunch

Our friend Kerry had a job interview, so her son Patrick came over for the morning to hang out here. Seeing as this was the perfect excuse for a party, Toni and Isabella, and Tawnya and Calla came over as well. At one point, all four kids were sitting around the table eating brunch. How could I not document the occasion?

Hard at Work

Juniper had been getting rather annoyed having to share our computers all the time, so we finally buckled and got her her own. To be fair, there is a lot of work the Juniper needs to get done in a day - emails to write, reports to finish... really, it never ends.

Swing!

It was lovely yesterday, so we went on a walk around town. We stumbled across a park, and realised that Juniper had never ever been on a swing. Obviously, a problem that needed to be solved. This opens up a whole new world of play options... parks, here we come!

Shower time

Juniper is a girl who loves her baths, but it struck me the other day that it might be worth getting her used to the shower. Consequently, Clark got a surprise visitor, and Juniper had a mini adventure. Result - she liked it! More showers to come!

Out and about

We have been on loads of adventures around town lately... this past weekend, for instance, we spent most of Saturday downtown, socializing. One stop we made was at a Just Us with Kata, and Juniper was enthralled by the fish that were hanging out behind us:

And finally...

hehehehe. No explanation necessary.

Check back soon for some great videos!

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T20:57:00.005-03:00

Taking a nursing break on a family hike a couple of weekends ago

In honour of earth day, my big plan had been to make Juniper a special little earth day outfit... I had visions of a cute little dress with a planet on it or some such thing. However, my sewing machine has been dying a slow death, and I decided to bite the bullet and just splurge on a new one, which only arrived today. So perhaps the earth day dress will materialize... just not in time for earth day itself. Ah well. Here was my compromise: Juniper sitting in the grass in earthy greens and a floral dress. Not bad!

So, what's new since the last post? Biggest headline: Juniper is on her way to officially being among the toothed! I tried very hard to demonstrate this in a picture, but there is only the tiniest little stub poking through at the moment, so it is simply too elusive. But when it truly shows itself, I'll be sure to post it asap. She is quite behind in this respect - many of her little buddies got teeth a long time ago. But apparently I was also late breaking teeth, so perhaps this shouldn't be overly surprising. In lieu of a tooth picture, here is a picture of some of said buddies. I know I post pictures of them all the time, but aren't they all adorable?

And just for kicks (and because it's quite something when we're all together), here are me and my mom buddies on a walk in the park. Somehow, completely independently of each other, we all got exactly the same stroller - same colour and everything!

In other news, Juniper can now get just about anywhere - and anything - that she wants to. She crawls wherever she needs to go, but her main shtick these days is pulling herself up on everything she can possibly reach, and seeing what new (and preferably off-limits) things she can get her hands on. It is really and truly exhausting trying to keep up with her. We have put gates on the stairs, but still have a ways to go in order to really and truly "baby-proof" things. Wires, garbage cans, instruments - anything that looks like it is likely not a toy and at least slightly dangerous are the top prizes.
As relatively tame examples (the regular more dangerous ones have me running for Juniper, not the camera), Juniper was thrilled when she got the opportunity to help sort the Lock & Lock drawer:

And was quite pleased with herself when she discovered a tissue box that had somehow made its way to the floor:

She also enjoys walking her way from place to place (as long as there is something to hold onto), and even practices letting go sometimes to test her balance. Here are some videos to demonstrate:

(Balancing)

(Walking)

And just because it's too cute NOT to post, here are some particularly choice snippets from a duet that Juniper and Patrick played this weekend:

OK, that's all for now - I want to publish this while it is still, in fact, earth day. More soon!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-05T21:48:00.009-03:00

As an Easter treat, I thought I'd post an entry with loads of pictures. As such I think I'll try, for the most part, to keep the writing to a minimum, and let the photos tell most of the story. That is, if I am capable of keeping the writing to a minimum. We'll see.

VISITS

Over the past week and a bit, we've had a relatively large number of wonderful visits. Some of these were planned and highly anticipated, while others were unexpected treats.

1. Theresa
Though we are very lucky to see Clark's sister Theresa relatively often (she lives a 2-hour drive away in Sackville, NB), it had been a month since her last visit. Here she and Juniper are yukin' it up in the living room:

2. Elizabeth and Ron:
On a random weekday last week, we got a call from Clark's maternal grandparents (who live in PEI), letting us know that they were going to be in Halifax the next day. So when they rolled into town at around suppertime, we all met at Opa's for some yummy Greek food and some catching up. Juniper was really and truly happy to hang out with her great-grandparents, and celebrated the occasion by eating more food in one sitting than we had ever before witnessed. Here's a couple of shots from that meal:

3. Ashley and Caleb
My friend Ashley popped me an email the other day, asking if Juniper and I would like to join her on a hike near her house. I was very quick to accept - not only was I happy to have the excuse to hang out, but I was very anxious to meet Ashley's little 9-week old boy, Caleb. Also, it didn't hurt that Ashley and Caleb live in a particularly beautiful town called Duncan's Cove, which promised a stunning hike in the expanse of protected coastal area. As you can see from the photo, it was a particularly foggy, misty day, but we still all had fun, and even saw a seal flapping about on the rocks! I'm already excited to go back (maybe when it's a bit sunnier?)

4. Elizabeth, Patrick and Bradford
We had a particularly wonderful Easter this year, as Clark's sister Elizabeth, her husband Patrick, and Clark's brother, Bradford, all made the trek from Fredericton to spend it with us. Juniper was mighty happy to be lavished with constant attention (perhaps this is the Leo showing itself early?), and Clark and I were thrilled to be able to hang out, chat, play games, and eat good food with such lovely people. Here are a couple of shots: Juniper in the centre of attention (as usual), and then what I call the "album cover" shot (walking down Agricola after a gorgeous downtown shopping day).

And just for fun: here is Juniper hanging onto Clark's ear. This is what she likes to do when she is on his shoulders, although often she grabs an ear in each hand, much like riding a horse. Then, when Clark least expects it, she likes to bend down, and give the ear a good chomp.

HIKE

I also wanted to post pictures from a lovely hike we took on Easter Sunday (sadly, after our Easter guests had already left for Fredericton). We went to a place we had been once before, called "Polly's Cove" (and yes, I really do mean "Polly's Cove" - it is similar topographically, but much less trafficked and more remote than it's famous neighbour, Peggy's Cove)

First off, because I love this picture so much, here is Clark and Juniper, with the rocky coastline in the background:

And here are a couple of shots we took when we stumbled across a nice big patch of Juniper, just waking up after it's winter slumber. Juniper seemed genuinely interested in exploring her namesake:

She was also interested in exploring the other terrain when we stopped for a rest:

JUST FOR FUN!

Finally, I'll leave you with a few things that I thought would be fun to post. The first two are from our sunny back yard - the last couple of days have been so summery that we've finally been able to take advantage of the yard to let Juniper play and explore. Here she is, trying to figure out how to work the screwdriver (no doubt in order to help her dad tune up his bikes), while deftly ignoring all of her real toys:

And here she is, sporting a couple of new summery outfits: a rockin' Sesame Street onesie from Jane, and the skirt from a MEC skirt/jumper combo that Theresa couldn't resist buying for Juniper when she in Halifax (and of course, her tried and true rainbow babylegs):

And finally, as it would feel wrong to have a post without a video, here is Juniper helping me put away her fresh load of clean diapers. Whew!

Springtime adventures

2010-03-28T22:27:00.006-03:00

Spring is here - or at least it was for a full, glorious sunny warm week or so. But even though the relatively frigid temperatures have reappeared, it seems as though the brief promise of the changing seasons has brought with it a number of changes around here as well. Juniper is learning and perfecting skills at a pace like I've never yet seen, and the glorious days we were given were well used on some much-needed outdoor adventures. And so before all these new and wonderful things become just a distant memory rather than full of excitement (like they are now), I'll try and jam-pack them all into this one blog post. Here we go!

1. Adventures
Last weekend was absolutely amazing. Almost-summer temperatures, beautiful sunny days... the kind of conditions that beg for as much time as possible in the open air. So on Friday, Juniper and I, along with four other moms and baby pairs, took to the woods for a hike around Withrod lake. Here we are, before setting off:
(in order, l-r: Sairah and Jolene, Tawnya and Calla, Kerry and Patrick, Angela and Finley, and me and Juniper):

The hike was absolutely fabulous, despite the fact that we completely missed the trail at the beginning, and then lost it again somewhere in the middle, which meant some relatively serious bushwhacking with babies strapped to us. But it was all good.

When we stopped for a snack and a rest, Juniper was completely enthralled with the dirt and twigs - every time I turned my head, she was busy trying to stuff them in her mouth (ie, in the picture above). Even when I gave her snacks that I had brought, like banana and rice cake, she seemed to prefer them after they had rolled around a bit in the dirt. Ah well. Builds the immune system, right?

The next day, Saturday, was even more amazing weather-wise. So when we woke up, we made a snap decision that it was time for a trip to the Valley. Our plans: go to the market, and then figure out somewhere to hike. Luckily (and just as I had hoped), we ran into our friend Matt at the market, and lo and behold he already had plans to go hiking with some friends, and invited us along. So Clark and Juniper and I got some goodies at the market, had a picnic overlooking the mud flats (see above), and then reconvened with Matt to tag along on the mystery adventure hike. Although Juniper slept for a good part of it, she also got to do some exploring - in particular, she loved touching all the different needles and barks that the trees had to offer:

The hike itself was unreal. It was in a ravine, with these huge, tall hemlocks and steep embankments and little rushing waterfalls. I didn't even feel like I was in Nova Scotia anymore - it almost felt west coast. Here is a particularly telling picture of the landscape (and don't worry - Matt didn't actually venture across):

Later in the week, though the weather wasn't quite as nice, we still had loads of fun - in particular, the four original breast-feeding support moms and babes (all of whom have kids almost exactly the same age), were able to meet for a get-together at Kerry's.
(l-r back: Toni and Isabella; Me and Juniper l-r front: Tawnya and Calla; Kerry and Patrick):

It is so much fun to see the kids playing together at this age - not only is everyone particularly cute, they are also so interested in each other, and exploring, and they are developing such unique, strong personalities. This is my favourite shot of them, for any number of reasons:

As I said when I posted it on facebook: "I love this picture of the four kids. Patrick is like "awwww, yeah. These are my ladies". Calla is obviously about to lick Isabella's face, and Isabella is a little nervous about it. Juniper, oblivious to all this, is trying to figure out how long she has to sit there before she can get into something she shouldn't be getting into."

2. New skills!

So, as I mentioned, Juniper seems to be developing and honing new skills at light speed. She is very mobile now, crawling when she chooses to (although rolling is still a viable option). She has also mastered getting from lying down to sitting, using an improvised downward dog (obviously learned from observing at all the mom and babes yoga) :) Here is a video of both these new accomplishments:

Juniper is also super keen to be walking. She can balance herself for a good few seconds completely unsupported, and if you offer her your hands, she is off to the races:

Oh - here is a video that I forgot to post last time - I caught Juniper's penchant for removing her own diapers. I've learned to only give her the opportunity when it is supervised, because obviously the temptation is irresistible!

And finally, Juniper is making leaps and bounds in the world of food. In the last two weeks, for instance, she suddenly decided that she not only knew how to operate a sippy cup by herself, she could could also hold her own glass. This whole glass thing took a bit of practice, as you'll see, but she is now quite a pro.

We have been trying to introduce new foods as much as we can, as she has been growing tired of some tried and true favourites. And when Juniper decides she doesn't want to eat something, she has also developed lightning quick abilities to toss it on the floor. She has gotten very good, however, at knowing what she can manage to "chew" and swallow, ("chew" is a relative term, as she has yet to break any teeth) and what is simply too big and needs to be spit out. She has also gotten good at separating and spitting out the peels of things like apple and prunes and pears when they are difficult to swallow. Most recently, she has started being able to pick up small things pincer-style and get them to her mouth. Here is a new favourite: peas. Oh, the joys of peas. They obviously go right from mouth to stomach whole, as they have been showing up that way on the other side :) Although she experiments with picking up single peas and delicately moving them to her mouth, she mostly just likes stuffing them in with abandon:

And finally, I'll leave you with a shot of Juniper after one particularly fun meal, of which she managed to get a bit of everything on her face (unfortunately, the bit of pea that was stuck under her nose dislodged just before the photo was taken). The real beauty of this shot is her face, hands and arms, died bright purple from her first encounter with blueberries. She LOVED them, but seemed to get just as much enjoyment from rubbing the leftover juices all over her face, her neck, and into her hair as she did from eating them. Luckily, it was Clark who took care of the bath that night.

Alrighty, here we go.... (or: one mother of a blog post)

2010-03-16T11:25:00.011-03:00

I'm at that blogging point right now where there is just so much new stuff that I feel very daunted by the task of trying to put everything in. Yes, I've certainly been there before, but I swear that it is especially hard to keep up with Juniper these days! Perhaps I'll start where I left off last time: all of Juniper's new tricks.

1. On the move
I had mentioned that Juniper seemed to be close to crawling, and that perhaps I'd be able to show some footage by the time I posted. Well, she's not actually crawling at this point (although she often pulls herself to her hands and knees, and sometimes her hands and feet), but that doesn't mean she's stationary. Instead, she has developed her own way of motoring around: rolling. Yes, I know, the whole rolling thing is old news, but Juniper now rolls with determination. She rolls with a mission. And she rolls from one end of the room to the other if it suits her. Here is a little example of her daily romping about:

2. Standing
For many months now, Juniper has enjoyed bouncing, and every time she was on our lap, we'd give her some time to use her legs, making them very strong from a young age. More recently, however, she began showing an interest in pulling herself up. At first this was assisted - any time she was sitting, if you held your hands out to her, she would immediately try pulling herself to standing (with a little help, of course, from the person who was holding her hands). Now, however, she is a pro at getting herself up. As long as she is sitting in front of something that is the right height for her, she grabs a hold, and up she goes. Then she likes a little acknowledgment - perhaps some cheers and applause - and she'll look to see what fun things she can do from her new vantage point. Here's a little montage of some examples:

3. Scrunchy face!
Well, this isn't so much a trick as a new thing that Juniper has been doing for a few weeks. It goes along with her increasingly saucy attitude. At various point throughout the day, Juniper will scrunch up her face, make pursy lips, and then breath very quickly in and out of her nose. It is ridiculously cute. It goes quick, so it is hard to catch, but here are a few shots that my mother and I were able to capture:

Juniper is also now waving and clapping, and she is a pro at giving herself water out of a sippy cup. We had thought we would just forego the sippy cup and get her used to drinking out of a glass, but I liked the idea of her being able to do it all herself. Unfortunately, I don't yet have these skills on film, so I'll have to save them for the next post.

Besides new skills, another blog-worthy event was a recent unexpected adventure: this past weekend we took a bit of a whirlwind trip to Fredericton. There was a bit of a last-minute family reunion of sorts on my side of things: all of my sibling were going to be home at once, which essentially never happens. Especially exciting was the fact that Juniper got to meet her uncle Michael for the first time. Mike (who lives all the way in Vancouver) was the only sibling (on my side and Clark's side) who had not yet met Juniper.

And here is Juniper, Andrea, mom and dad, all dressed up on a beautiful spring Fredericton day:

Also on that trip to Fredericton, Juniper got to meet my aunt (her great aunt) Susan, who was the last immediate family member on my side who hadn't yet met her.

On the eating front, Juniper is now a pro. She gobbles up just about everything we put in front of her, and her digestive tract has adapted to the point where she now has official big girl poops. Not nearly as benign as breast milk poops, but pretty exciting none-the-less :) Her new favourite things to eat are reconstituted dried prunes and apricots, which I'll either give her to eat on a rice cake or on a special spoon (that she manipulates herself), or just in globs on the placemat in front of her. No matter which way, it ends up as a ridiculous mess, which Juniper never seems to mind (until it comes time to clean it off her face and hands, that is).

Another fun new thing: now that the weather is nicer, Clark has been getting up most mornings, and taking Juniper for a jog. Juniper doesn't squeal with delight, but she also seems to tolerate it nicely, so that's a good sign. The Bob (that is, the brand of stroller that we got) works perfectly for this. And Juniper has been sporting her new, and oh-so cool shades. Here is a picture of Clark and Andrea taking Juniper for a run when we were in Fredericton (not with the Bob, but with the stroller we keep at my parent's house):

And here is a close-up of Juniper and her shades. As you can see, they are not yet her favourite thing in the whole wide world (but she looks adorable):

And finally, the biggest recent change is that we moved Juniper from our room to her very own bedroom. This was a bigger change than you might think. I cried the first night we did it. But the way we had had things set up was that one side of her crib was off, and the mattress was attached to our mattress (ie, we were co-sleeping), which was fine when we were all there, but I wasn't comfortable leaving her like that on her own any more (what with her mad rolling skills). So we had to put the crib together for real anyway, and decided that if we were doing that, we might as well also try moving it to her own room to see if she slept better. Result: no. But she's also not sleeping worse. And it is, admittedly, nice to be able to put things away and whatever else we want to do in our room while she's sleeping. We have some decorating to do in there yet, but when it's done I'll take a picture and post it. Also, if we end up getting anywhere close to a real sleep at some point in the near future, I'll blog about that as well. But I think this is probably enough for now.