Happy Earth Day!

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!

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!