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!

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.

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!

Little socialite (and other updates)

Along with being all grown up and smart and strong and gorgeous, Juniper is also quite the little socialite these days. Mostly, this involves hanging out with her buddies at yoga and whatever other activities where we all get together.


Yoga is, in fact, now becoming one of the rarer group activities, as the kids are at an age where it isn't as easy to cart them around when and wherever we want. I suppose I can only speak for Juniper, but naps are very big these days - I think it's safe to say that no one is willing to wake their child from a nap or sacrifice a nap in order to go to a class... after all, they will just inevitably just be grumpy the whole time if they're tired.

Also, Juniper is now not nearly as happy to just be plopped somewhere to play by herself - she feels that people should be paying attention to her. So with these factors all combined, it is often quite a bit easier to get together in a hang-out social scene. A group of us has been getting together pretty regularly, and besides being fun for the adults, it's also a riot to watch the kids interact. It is only within the last few weeks or so that they have actually started acknowledging each other. Sometimes it's just some exploratory touching (mostly faces), like Patrick and Juniper here:

Other times, things get a little more intimate, like the big series of kisses that Calla figured Juniper needed:

And a lot of times, it involves the sharing and stealing of toys:


Here's a little video montage of some interaction - enjoy!

Of course, Juniper is happy to go to any party, even if her little friends aren't there. Last weekend, for instance, the three of us went to David and Nina's to visit and check out their awesome new house. This was the first time Juniper had ever really got t spend any quality time with them, and they were very fast friends!

On the eating front, Juniper has now tried a large variety of food, but it seems as though her particular favourites are sweet potatoes, apples and avocados. Here she is, just eating lunch with the gang at a Greek Restaurant, when Clark's mom came for a visit this past weekend. She chowed down on cucumber fingers while everyone else ordered souvlakis :)

While it is clear that Juniper manages to get some food down (as evidenced in her more interesting diaper changes), meals are still mostly about experimenting, learning and playing at this point. I've put together a little video montage of all the non-eating activities that also happen... that is, drinking (she hasn't taken to a sippy cup, but LOVES it when you give her some water in a glass), eating everything BUT the food, and banging/mushing the food around. That's all for now!