A quick catch-up

My goodness, it's been a long time since I last posted. Things got pretty hectic around here - for a whole week, all three of us were sick with some sort of cold/flu thing, which really really sucked. Clark had it the worst, but that meant that I had to take care of everyone while feeling pretty crap-tastic myself. Then our friend Jane visited (more on that later), and then just last Sunday, Clark took off to the west coast (Portland Oregon then onto Vancouver) for a week and a half. So now my mother is here, helping me look after Juniper while Clark is away, which is pretty amazing. Especially since I fear the basement these days (this is where our friends the mice like to hang out), so mom has been doing all the laundry. She's also been cooking most of the meals, and taking Juniper when I have things to do. Basically, it's like a holiday for me as well... except for the fact that my holiday has mostly been spent as a nearly comatose zombie. Oh, Juniper - why do you keep me up so much at night??? It's not even that she wakes up; just that she cries out - ALL the time. Is it teething? Her stomach? Is she too hot? Too cold? All I know is that there have been nights that I've been awake for more of the night than I've been asleep. The other day, I could barely talk without bursting into tears, I was so utterly exhausted, and I couldn't even nap during the day, no matter how hard I tried. This too shall pass. In the meantime, thank god my mom is here.

Anyway, there is so much to catch up on... but I'm only really going to be able to manage the highlights at this point. Quick and dirty highlights. Otherwise it will be way too epic.

Highlight #1: Juniper takes her diaper off.

So last week, I put Juniper down for a nap with only a shirt and a diaper on. I didn't think twice about it. At some point, it sounded like she was awake - not because she was making any vocalizations, but because I heard rustling. I decided to leave her for a bit, then after about 10 minutes, I thought I'd go see what was going on. Not only was Juniper awake, she had thrown all the covers off of her (not an easy feat), turned herself 180 degrees, and -get this - had undone one side of her diaper and had it completely off that leg. She was, I swear to you, incredibly pleased with herself and her covert little operation. I wished I had had the presence of mind to snap a photo, but my first reaction was to check out the damage and put a new diaper on. After that, however, I took a shot to recreate her pose as best I could (but sadly, with the diaper fully in place):

Highlight #2 (not in order of importance, mind you): Jane visits!
One of our dear friends, Jane, had not yet met Juniper, and so decided it was high time for a visit. She came last week, and had lots of adventures, one of which included visiting our friend Christine and her 4 year old daughter Eowyn (who gave Juniper a rockin' hand-me-down poncho: check it out below). Here are a couple of shots from Juniper's visit with her honourary auntie.




Highlight #3: Some more food fun
I thought I'd leave you with a video that includes Juniper's new favourite thing to eat: rice. I gave her rice for the first time yesterday, and she just gobbled it up. The video also includes some after-dinner rituals that Juniper often partakes in. They are a good sign that she is done the eating and is moving on with things. These include: 1. giving an after-dinner speech. 2. raising the food to her forehead, and often smushing it in her hair (although this will also happen mid-meal). 3. Rubbing the food on the table, specifically on her right-hand side. This can often also happen mid meal, although at the end, it is usually also followed by 4. Dropping the food on the floor. She literally cleans off her place mat by systematically taking the leftover food and dropping it deliberately ont he floor to the right of her little chair. Hilarious.

That's all for now, although Juniper is very very very close to crawling, and can now completely independently pull herself up if she has something that is the right height. This means some serious child-proofing that is going to need to happen very soon around here, but it also means some new great posts to come. Also, Juniper has a new look, that seems to be coinciding with a relatively new saucy attitude that she's developing. The look involves Juniper closing her eyes, and crinkling her nose in disgust. I will do my best to capture it in all it's glory. Stay tuned!