Birthdays, Big Girls and Ballerinas

Birthdays
So, today is a big day in birthday world, and for once I'm not talking about Juniper... Sept. 21st is both Clark and my sister Andrea's birthday. Happy birthday(s)! Also, this was the big 3-0 for Clark - he's now officially an old-timer :) We had a very small little party last night with our friends Alana and Ian, complete with two different kinds of birthday cupcakes... if you'll notice from the photo, I artistically arranged them in a "3" and a "0". This was lost on Clark. He was trying to figure some fancy mathematical arrangement (5 times 6 is thirty? no... that's not it...) Ah well.

Also in honour of Clark's birthday, we took a day trip down to Wolfville on Saturday. We went to the farmer's market, wandered down main street, and went for a hike along the trails behind the botanical gardens. Besides being very cold, it was truly a lovely day, and we got to see how Juniper took to a semi-long car trip, in preparation for our jaunt down to Fredericton later this week. If Wolfville was any indication, Juniper was a dream!


Big Girls and Ballerinas
Somehow, Juniper is still growing like crazy... last week, she weighed in at 12lbs 2oz, which is officially 4 lbs past her birth weight. She's pretty much 50% bigger than she was when she was born! She's also 7 cm longer. This has meant that Clark and I had to sit down one day last week while Juniper was sleeping, and do a complete clothes overhaul, packing away all the newborn stuff that obviously will never fit her again, and pulling out a lot of the 3-6 month stuff. It was a little bit heartbreaking, but also fun to re-infuse her wardrobe with some new cute stuff. Here she is, modeling a couple of her new looks: "tomboy chic", and "pretty in pink/retro 80s legwarmer" (I ordered a bunch of baby leg warmers for her, which just came today. I love them.) Side note: yes, these were both taken today, one right after the other - I had to change her because she had a poo so big that it shot out the top of her diaper.



More than just growing physically, however, we're also really noticing her getting older. For instance, she smiles and coos and giggles all the time now. Sometimes she does this for me and Clark, but she reserves her biggest smiles for her really good friends, the light fixtures. Her best friend is the light fixture in the living room. I'm not even joking. She'll be all cranky pants, and then we'll turn her around and she'll crane her head back, look directly at the light fixture, and break into a huge smile, followed by a discussion. I'm very curious to know what they chat about.

Juniper is also now officially a thumb sucker. She's been working on this for weeks... a few weeks ago she would often try and shove her whole fist into her mouth, which would sometimes result in her finding her thumb and keeping it in there. Now she's mastered the technique. When she wants her thumb, in it goes, and it stays there for extended periods of time, often accompanied by vigorous sucking. She'll suck her thumb when she's upset and wants to soothe herself, when she's trying to fall asleep, or even just when she's happy and taking the world in. We'll have to one day break her of this habit, but for now it's really and truly adorable. And it means that she keeps herself happy and occupied for much longer than she was ever able to before. Apparently I was also an avid thumb sucker, and the only way my mother was able to break me of it was to tell me that ballerinas don't have buck teeth. That did it. I wasn't about to ruin my ballerina future for my thumb. Perhaps we'll have to break the same news to Juniper one day. Because of this whole thumb sucking/self-soothing thing, we decided to stop swaddling her the last couple of nights to see if she'd sleep for longer stretches. This would maybe actually work except that she sucks her thumb so noisily and vigorously (and accompanies it with so much grunting and snuffling), that she wakes me up in the process. So then I'm awake, waiting to feed her, and she's happily still asleep, sucking away at ther thumb. Perhaps we'll have to rethink this strategy...


Oh, and the last big girl accomplishment - she's learning to drive. Hopefully she'll be up to sharing some of the driving on our way to Fredericton...



More new visitors!
And finally, what would a blog post be without some new friends that Juniper was able to meet? Our friend Amber came over for a visit:


She met our friends Alana and Ian:


And she got to meet her great aunt Evelyn!



OK, that's all for now, but check back next week, as we'll undoubtedly have lots of Fredericton stories and pictures to share.

ahhhh.... fall.

Well, well. It seems that after a month straight of visitors, I have suddenly become a little too lax with respect to blog updates. But just because there aren't multiple pictures of various people holding Juniper to post, it doesn't mean that there hasn't been loads going on!

Let's itemize, shall we? (makes me feel like I'm being especially organized and productive).

1. BOB
And no, I don't mean my dad. I mean the expensive stroller from Mountain Equipment Co-op that we finally just went ahead and bought. We had been agonizing over this decision for a VERY long time. Like, long before Juniper was born. As you can see from the picture, it is a rugged stroller, meant to be able to handle trails etc. And it is also meant to be a good jogging stroller. AND, it has an attachment, that allows you to attach a car seat, making it infant-friendly.


This all sounds lovely, but then we were given the gorgeous Bebe car (a fancy-dancy stroller) as a hand-me-down from Agi and Josh. Problem solved! We got a wonderful stroller and didn't have to spend all that money. We had Juniper out in it very early on (as you can see from one of our very first blog posts), and she seemed to like lying in the bassinet as we strolled along.
We quickly discovered, however, that while it is a lovely, fancy stroller, it is also somewhat big and heavy. This isn't a big problem if you are strolling around the block, but it came to mean that that's ALL we felt we could use it for. We could only barely fit it in our little car, and there was no way I could handle it by myself. So once Clark started going back to school, I started to feel a little trapped - I couldn't take Juniper anywhere that necessitated strolling.

So... we just bit the bullet, went ahead, and got the Bob. Yes, we're gear heads, and no, we didn't really have the money to spend, but I'm happy to report that we have had it out every single day since we got it, and we all love it. We've explored the trails around Point Pleasant and Hemlock Ravine, we've strolled down to the Hydrostone and around Fort Needham, and I've taken Juniper on adventures by ourselves (like... to the grocery store). It has helped that it has been absolutely freaking gorgeous around here the last couple of weeks - this is my favourite time of year!!


In any event, I think that the Bob will be well worth the money. I'm very excited to take her orienteering with it, and Clark is already envisioning lots of daddy-daughter jogging when she gets old enough.

2. It's official!
This week saw lots of official Juniper-related things happen. For instance, we got her birth certificates in the mail (side note: we ordered two - one "large copy" one, and one "smaller" one so that we could have one to go in a wallet. Turns out they have done away with the different sizes - the only difference is that the "long" one has information about Clark and I as well. Good thing we freaking ordered 2! What a rip-off! Very sneaky and mis-leading). She also now has a SIN card, and I just put both her and Clark on my MUN health coverage (she's booked a massage already :) Just joking.) Maybe all those things aren't especially interesting to anyone else, but I thought there were at least somewhat note-worthy. Sadly, I have no picture to accompany them, so here's just a cute one of Juniper.


3. Six weeks
Today, Juniper is six weeks old. Six weeks!!! This means that we just had our last midwife appointment, which I'm sad about. It also means that she has been going through another growth spurt - ie, she has been hungry way more often (ouch!), and crankier than usual, although I think she's maybe coming out of it now. Her baby acne isn't nearly as bad, although the cradle's cap between her eyebrows has been very angry and scaly as of late. But I've seen an improvement in that in the last couple of days as well. As of yesterday, she is now 11 lbs, 10 ounces! As you can imagine, she's a lovely little chub-ball. She has even outgrown some of her newborn outfits.

4. Visitors
Although the steady stream of first-time away-visitors has come to an end, that doesn't mean we haven't had some more new people for little Juniper to meet. Our friends Cristina and Dag came over with their little six-month old daughter, Ida. They only just moved back to Halifax, and so it was the first time we had met Ida as well. It will be wonderful to have another baby close by! They also dropped off some lovely toys and playthings that Ida has outgrown, and Juniper seems to be thoroughly enjoying so far (especially this little vibrating chair).


Our friend Ramzi, who was in Halifax for the week, also managed to stop by yesterday. Juniper was a perfect little lady, and refrained from spitting up on, or otherwise soiling his dapper work clothes (never a given).


Also noteworthy is that my parents decided to make a quick trip up for the weekend - mom especially needed a Juniper fix before they head off for Vancouver this coming week. The timing was good - we got to celebrate my dad's birthday when they were down.

And... that's all for now, folks! Keep checking back!

New Album!

As promised, here is a new Picasa album, with an assortment of photos taken since we posted the last album. Nothing much new to report today, except that Juniper was a lovely little girl, as per usual! Tomorrow we have an appointment with our midwife, so I'll have to update the blog soon with her new weight and other such details.

To find the Album look in the "Photos Albums of Juniper" link to the right, and the new album is called "Juniper_Sept_2". Happy browsing! As always, we love comments...

Birthday Girl!

I suppose I should keep this entry short, as I have yet to choose and post a backlog of photos in a new picasa album, which I'll never do if I gab on and on. But I had to at least update the blog after a very busy weekend for little Juniper.

First was a visit from her last set of grandparents - Bill and Barb - as well her great aunt Anne, who also made the trip up. A good time was had by all! Juniper was able to show off her new talent a bit - that is, giving big, genuine smiles to lucky onlookers in response to funny faces or noises or big smiles. Who could ask for more than that?



She also met her friend June (and June's parent's, Tetjana and Jeff) for the first time, which was loads of fun. June in particular (almost 3 years old) was quite tickled by the experience, squealing periodically "it's a baby!", and doing her best to hold Juniper.

Then, of course, there is also the *small* detail that Sunday was Juniper's one month birthday! It was actually quite a big day - after spending the morning visiting with all the aforementioned guests, our friends Martha and Kyla came over, bearing gifts and a homemade birthday cake! What a wonderful surprise! Then, Clark and Juniper and I went for a walk, and sang "Happy Birthday" en route, as the clock hit 5:52pm mid-stroll. We took a picture to commemorate, but it turned out rather underwhelming (especially because Juniper was fast asleep by this point).


Now here it is, Tuesday already - the three of us are off to a breastfeeding clinic that is held every week. We went a couple of weeks ago, but Juniper decided to sleep through the whole thing, so it wasn't quite as useful as it could have been. Of course, she's fast asleep now, but I'm hoping that she'll wake up hungry before 11:30, which is when the clinic is over. Stay tuned - a big photo album will be posted very soon!

From coast to coast...

Juniper just passed her 4 week milestone. That's almost a month... in fact, on Sunday, it WILL be a month. I have absolutely no idea how that happened. It seems that every time we go to change or bath her, she has gained an extra leg or arm roll, and her little cheeks go from chubby to chubbier. Add to that a perfect little curl that sticks up on the front of her head after her hair has gotten wet, and she is about the cutest little baby that ever existed. Not that I'm biased.

In the week since I last posted, Juniper has (as has become the norm) met a bunch of new important people in her life. (oh - I just heard some shocked sounds coming from upstairs - apparently, Juniper just managed to plop her entire foot in a fresh diaper of pooh. I bet she's pleased with herself).

Anyway, on Friday night, my sister Andrea flew all the way from Vancouver to meet her little niece, and was able to hang out here until she flew back again on Monday. A short visit for such a long distance, but she got some quality Juniper time, so it was definitely worth it! Also, this was all in the middle of hurricane Bill, so we were worried that Andrea wouldn't even be able to make it over here for hang-out time on Sunday (she was staying at Carroll and Stephen's), but luckily Bill's bark was worse than his bite, and we didn't even lose power. Juniper was like "this is a hurricane? Whatevs". (Although to be fair, much of Halifax did lose power, including almost every street around us. How did we escape? Who knows? We celebrated by doing laundry and watching a movie.)

Then, shortly after Clark dropped Andrea off at the airport on Monday, his brother Bradford arrived from Fredericton. Brad was the last of the Richards siblings to meet little Juniper. We all went downtown on Tuesday, and Juniper was the perfect angel, sleeping peacefully in her sling as we wandered around and poked into stores. I hate to get used to it (in case it changes as soon as I utter it aloud), but so far Juniper has, by in large, been a dream to take out and about - there is a definite sense of freedom to have such a well-behaved little lady when we have errands to run, or even just want to get out on a walk.


Brad left on Wednesday, and then that afternoon we had a lovely visit from my cousin Claire, and her husband Scott, and their little boy Evan, who is just over a year old. They have been vacationing in Lunenburg for the week, and made the trek in to Halifax to meet Juniper. It was wonderful to see them, and Evan is so grown up! I can't even imagine that Juniper will be that big some day in the not-to-distant future.


And what else is there to report? Well, my mom left on Sunday, but not before we were able to celebrate her 60th birthday with Carroll and Stephen and me and Clark and Andrea, and of course Juniper. Calling birthday dibs, no one else was allowed to hold Juniper for the evening, but it was her last chance to snuggle for awhile, after all.



On Wednesday morning, we took Juniper in for her hearing test (it is something, I think, that they routinely do before people leave the hospital after delivery, but of course we hightailed it out of there much faster than the norm, so they asked us to come in for the test). Her hearing, of course, is just fine. Then, because the test was so short, I figured we should take advantage of Juniper sleeping, so we went to my gym, and I got to hit the elliptical for a full 30 minutes! It felt wonderful to be moving again. Clark sat just outside the gym in the seating area of the Superstore, and I was on call in case she woke and was hungry, but she slept the whole time, and then even let us get some groceries before we went home. Amazing!

Also, Thursday and Friday of this week marked the first time since Juniper was born that it was just the three of us hanging out for the day. No visitors. It was a little surreal, but I'm happy to report that it was absolutely doable - we got on marvelously! This all changes tomorrow, however, when Juniper will meet her last set of grandparents (Clark's dad and stepmom, Bill and Barb), as well as her great aunt Anne. They are only here until Sunday (that is, if tropical cyclone Danny doesn't pack too hard a punch), and then I think that is actually the end of the scheduled visits from away. For now, that is. Juniper is obviously very popular.

Next week marks the first time we are going to try really integrating some reality back into our lives... that is, we will officially be on our own for the foreseeable future, and Clark is likely going to be going back into his office at school - at least part time. I'm nervous. We'll see how that goes!

Three weeks already??

Check out the new photo albums at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/clark.richards

Today at 5:52 pm will mark little Juniper's third week in the world. Unbelievable! It might be difficult to tell from the photos, but she has grown significantly over these three weeks... we had a midwife appointment yesterday, and she is now 9lb 8oz! That means that in a week and two days, she gained one whole pound (she was 8 lb 8 oz at last Monday's visit). Mom and Clark and I had been marveling over how much she had grown, and how much chubbier and older she looked, but when we took guesses as to how much she had gained, none of us guessed that much (for the record, mom came closest at 9lbs 5 oz). So much has happened since the last post, I don't even think I'll remember half of it, and certainly won't be able to comment on everything. But I'll do my best, and let the numerous photos that we'll post fill in the rest of the blanks. 1. Important visitors... As I mentioned in the last entry, Juniper had some important visitors over the weekend. She met her first set of great-grandparents (Ron and Elizabeth Wybou), her grandmother Deborah (Clark's mom), her aunt Liz (Clark's sister), and her aunt Faye (my youngest sister). What a wonderful visit! Juniper was dutifully passed from one willing set of arms to the next for lots and lots of snuggles. Clark and I were well taken care of, having our suppers made for us, laundry hung on the line, and lots of other nice perks. There are lots of photos from that trip (see the picasa album in the "links" section), but here are a couple. On Monday, Juniper also also met her honourary auntie Erin, and her new friend Zack (Erin's 7 month old cutie). Erin and Zack live in Ottawa, but have been visiting Fredericton for the last couple of weeks, and made a day trip up so that we could visit and meet each other's respective children. We also got to visit briefly with Erin's parents, which was great. Then, this afternoon, we had a wonderful surprise visit from her honourary cousins, Simon and Noni, and of course their lovely parents, Agi and Josh. We also had some nice visits from Haligonian friends (Martha, Lisa and Ben)... everyone wants to meet beautiful little Juniper! This morning she had her morning snuggle with her grandmother Mary (mom came back on Tuesday, and will be staying until Sunday morning). And tomorrow, my sister Andrea will be flying in all the way from Vancouver just to hang out with Juniper for the weekend. Juniper won't know what's going on when it is eventually just me and Clark hanging out with her during the day! 2. A breath of COLD air It has been HOT in Halifax. Really, really, really hot. On the one hand, it's hard to complain - we've finally had a stretch of what can legitimately be called summer. On the other hand, it can be impossible to escape the heat in this old house - especially as the heat accumulates day after day. Poor little Juniper has had heat rash on her little bottom - so much so that we decided to temporarily switch back to disposables to see if that makes a difference (at least until it cools down a little bit). I don't know if they are really any cooler or not, but there is certainly less fabric. She also has some baby acne on her face (breaks my heart!), which becomes incredibly hot and angry looking as the heat of the day progresses. We had just been trying to tough it out, turning on fans where and whenever we could, and finding coolish breezy spots in the backyard for some diaper-free time whenever possible. The worst, however, was always going to sleep at night - our bedroom is on the upper floor, where the heat is at it's worst. Then, our lovely next door neighbours (/landlords), Erika and Wesley, suggested that as a gift celebrating Juniper's arrival, perhaps they should get us an air conditioner. Oh. My. Goodness. You can't even imagine the difference it has made!!!! We installed it in the bedroom, and it has meant that we don't die of heat in the night, and also that we have a place to escape to if it gets too hot during the day. Such a thoughtful, wonderful gift! I already notice a difference in Juniper's little face. They also bought it on just the right day - when Clark and Wesley were installing it (at like, 9pm at night), it was over 30 degrees in the bedroom, and this would have just gotten worse as the days progressed. I think I'm tired now... we would have been absolute sleep-deprived zombies at this point if we hadn't had the respite when we did. 3. Food, food, food! We've been sooooo lucky... basically ever since Juniper was born, we've had people cooking us some amazing meals every day. I kind of forget what it's like to cook our own meals :) In the beginning, Zsofi cooked up a feast of various different culinary delights, and left it for us to eat in the days to come. Then, while my mom has been here, she has made us supper and put together lunches pretty much every single day. And on the weekend, Deborah and Liz and Faye all pitched in to cook for us. Now my mom is back, and the goodness has started all over again. The problem had always been that there just simply wasn't enough freezer space to actually store anything for when everyone has left, and it's just the three of us. Consequently, I've been researching small chest freezers, but not wanting to shell out the money, or to pay for something potentially old and sub-standard from Kijiji. Magically, it would seem, our problem was just solved... as it turns out, Deborah had an old freezer taht she was willing to part with, and it fit in mom's vehicle, so she brought it with her. And what's more, it (JUST) fit through the door and into the basement. So this afternoon, mom and Carroll have been slaving away, making a bunch of freezable food to leave with us (now that we have a place to put it). How wonderful is that? I hope I have the chance to be so wonderful to someone someday! 4. Some more firsts... a) Poop. Well, although it has been well established that Juniper immensely enjoys being able to pee and poop while her diaper is off (especially if she can manage to get it on someone in the process), the other night was the first time she was actually able to shoot poop across the room. I'm not even joking. Her timing was impeccable... it was in the split second between when Clark had one diaper off and the other about to go on, and *boom!* out it shot. It hit the wall a few feet away, managing to get the change table and everything else in it's path, and then dripped its way down the wall and onto the carpet. I really wish I'd gotten a picture, but at 3 am, I was mostly just doing damage control and trying to clean it up. Ah well. You'll just have to picture it for yourselves. b) Restaurant! So, last night marks the first time since Juniper is born that we went out to eat. Clark and mom and I headed down to Jane's on the Commons for a delicious meal, with Juniper in tow. It's a very small space at Jane's, so I wasn't entirely sure how I would deal with the whole breast feeding issue if it arose, but I was determined to give it a go none-the-less. Up until our food arrived, Juniper lay happily in her sling that Clark had carried her in on the way there. Then she started to get a bit fussy, and woke up just as the food was arriving. It looked as though I would have to make some snap decisions about how to feed everyone (Juniper included) all at the same time, but as it turns out, all she really wanted was to snuggle into her mom - she wasn't as starving as she had originally made us believe. So I held her against me with one arm, and ate with the other, an she snoozed happily until we were finished eating. What a doll! And even though she certainly was hungry by that point, she remained very good-natured until right before we got home. You couldn't ask for a more well-behaved little girl than that! (she then made up for it by not letting us sleep last night from 3am onwards, but you got to take what you can get, right?) Well, that's all I can think of for now - I'm sure I'm missing lots, but it's hard to remember everything. "Update the blog" seems to be on our to-do list every day, and obviously it's never as easy to find the time to do it as we think it will be. I'm always shocked to look at the clock and see how much of the day has gone by!

Melt downs and quiet days

Yesterday was a very quiet day. In fact, it has been the first day in a very long time that we have not left the house. It was warm and sunny and glorious outside, and so we took advantage in the morning before it got overwhelmingly hot, and took Juniper in the back yard for an extended amount of time. Our goal was not just to have her in the nice fresh air, but also to allow her little bum to go diaper free for as long as we could. She doesn't yet have a full fledged diaper rash, I don't think (as it doesn't appear to bother her), but there are enough little red spots that we thought it would be a good idea to let her air out. So we did just that. She seemed to enjoy herself immensely, especially because she was able to pee and poop multiple times without a diaper, and go through a ridiculous amount of blankets. Her crowning glory was some projectile poop all over her father (right after I had warned him that she was probably due for a poop, and had been ignored, in case anyone was wondering).

The quiet day was kind of a necessity, as she had had a couple of pretty over-stimulating days in a row, and was due for some respite. In particular, Wednesday was a little too intense for her... we spent the afternoon in Bedford and Sackville, at a couple of baby-type stores I had been wanting to go to. I desperately need some nice, staple pieces of nursing gear, and I also wanted to check out some stuff for Juniper - most importantly, a convertable car seat that we had been meaning to get for some time. She has been using an infant car seat up until this point (we bought it cheap from a collegue of Clark's, and therefore knew it was safe despite being second-hand), but we had known all along that we wanted to actually invest in a seat that would last her until she could be front facing (babies notoriously grow out of infant car seats before they are actually ready or supposed to move onto front-facing seats). So we bit the bullet and bought one... we may end up using it right away, or we may wait until she gets a little bit bigger. We'll see.

Then we drove back to Halifax, picked up an order of Thai food, and brought it back to Carroll and Stephen's. En route to get the Thai, Juniper had meltdown #1. She was hungry, trapped in a car seat, and as hard as I tried, I could not manage to safely get breast to mouth with her in her seat and the car moving. So there were some pretty heart-breaking wails that we all had to endure until she found her fist for awhile, then until we got to Carroll's. Then it was Juniper's very first dinner party, with a whole bunch of people who were very happy to see her and hang out with her, and Juniper was relatively happy there, but then on the way home again, she had meldown #2. It was amazing, however... when we got home, her piercing wails turned off immediately when we walked in the door, almost as though she sensed being home again, and could finally relax.

Anyway, we have a whole lot more to post at this point, because Juniper has now met a whole lot of very inportant people in the last two days - her paternal grandmother (Deborah), her aunt Liz and her aunt Faye, and her great grantparent's Ron and Elizabeth Wybou.