Springtime adventures

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)

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.