summer fun

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!

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!