16 things

I am loving about this summer:
Oy.  Still catching up here.  

1) Juniper wanting to wear a swimsuit first thing in the morning.

2) The fact that I can open a zip-lock bag makes me a magician.

3) June bugs hungry for new books (thankfully, we'll soon be moving to a town with a library!).

4) The simple satisfaction of diapers on the line.

5) Juniper's hillbilly stomp.

6) Swimming lessons with my little crocodile.  

7) June bug's favorite sing-song chant: One, two, buckle my shoe.  Except it comes out as: One, two, bump-a-shoe, and she'll sing it half-asleep in the middle of the night.  

8) Words, words, words!!  Juniper now finishes the sentences from her favorite books and songs.  (The Sleepy Little Mouse, I'm A Big Sister and John Denver's "Country Roads".)  

9) J bug's obsession with her new monkey, which is actually a child harness I used last Wednesday at the airport.

10) Summer.

11) Finger painting.

12) That everyone gets a diaper.

13) The fact that our last-minute, why-the-hell-not veggie garden is doing pretty well.

14) Summer vegetables.  (No.  We didn't grow this one.  The corn, I mean.  Somehow, we did grow those crystal blue eyes.)  

15) The tiny kicking babe in my belly.

16) French Toast.

summer so far...

A synopsis in photos and words from the last month or two : )  


Oh, goodness.  Time flies when it's summertime.  But for you, a recap:

:: Father's Day: my aunt and uncle paid us a visit.  In Yellowstone they had seen nearly every animal there is to see , but not a moose.  Lucky for us, on a post-Father's Day Dinner drive we spotted a bull by the road.  There was a quiet bouquet of tourists standing around snapping photos.  At first, the moose was behind some willows and Juniper didn't see him.  But oh, man, when she finally realized what we were looking at she yelled, "WOW!!!"  Everyone burst out laughing and one man said, "That's what I thought but I wasn't going to say it!"  We are still laughing over that one.

Don't laugh at my man.  You'd look like that too if you were trying to wrangle a moose-excited toddler.  


:: Day with Dad:

Our little mushroom hunter learned to spot the well-camoflauged morel.

Side bar to the present moment: note her right hand...that month of dandelion-picking is not winning Juniper any brownie points with grandma's pansies.  


:: July 4th we headed north to visit the cousins,

Baby Sam.  Juniper has been way, crazy, into baby dolls...all of whom are named "Baby Sam".

As well as some old friends (and their new one).

Turns out, Livingston, Montana has a really kick-ass Fourth of July parade.  Floats from all over the state, old women twirling batons and really old men dressed as clowns.  Juniper (once she woke up) was enthralled.  Owen was trying his damndest to beat the older kids to candy.  

Juniper applauding.  


My brilliant idea (and there was no talking me out of it), was a visit to the hot springs.  But oh my, 90 degree hot springs on a 90 degree day = hot, sweating preggo mama and two lethargic, dehydrated toddlers.  (But I think Sam enjoyed it.)  

Juniper and Owen counting roses.  

Multiflora roses, Juniper, Owen, Baby Sam and Aunt D.  

:: Back home we've been working on the house (tile in kitchen, dining area and now master bathroom is DONE!!  Oh...except for grouting.  

View from our upper-deck; sounds fancy...it's not, but it does have a killer view.  We've spotted elk, mule deer and mountain goats so far.  Note to potential house-guests: this deck is off the designated guest sleeping quarters.  Sorry, no bed yet.  We'll work on that after we move in.   

 Mudroom is still a work-in-progress.  


:: Aside from home remodeling and swim lessons and play-dates, I've had to learn something new this summer: how to be a backyard mama.

Last summer, we camped, backpacked, day-hiked and day-hiked.  This summer, that kid-pack waist strap ain't going around this belly.  That rules out mom and daughter day hikes.  And any day my man has off, we're working on the house. But Juniper has adjusted well to the lack of far-flung adventure, opting instead for Osa's old pool in the backyard.

:: My man is optimizing what little time he has at home...

My husband has always done the night-night routine with J bug.  Here he is showing the three books he deems, "The Knock-Out Special". 


:: Also, after a day of pounding nails into hickory, we brought Juniper and celebrated 8 years of marriage, 11 years together.  (Wow.  Has it really been that long?)

Despite our busy summer, my man never fails to deliver wildflowers to yours truly.  


:: I am writing this from The Land-of-Plenty.  Juniper and I flew in to Grandma's house early, early Wednesday.  More on our visit here...soon I hope!  I have high hopes of reigning in some of my blog slack while visiting relatives.  No phone calls to make, not so many clothes to fold...you know.  

Lord of the Flies

In order to help my man work on our house, we've decided to enroll Juniper in daycare one day a week.  Today, I checked the place out.  I'm not sure what I was expecting...maybe a fairytale-like place with storytelling and finger painting and lots of toys.  What I wasn't expecting was a hard dose of culture shock.  It seemed so...dirty, institutional.  Lots of small, snotty-nosed kids running wild and a handful of older kids glued to the computers.  One boy yelled to another, "No!  That's MINE!"  And then there was the small flock of kids that reminded me of dogs at the pound.  All of them barking and wagging their tails and trying to show you how awesome they are so you will take them home.  One boy with a t-shirt soaked in drool followed me everywhere wanting to show me his plastic multi-tool.  Another girl wanted to show me her new shoes and brag about how she got to go swimming with her parents.  I felt like I was about to leave my kid at a day-time orphanage.  I was trying not to cry in front of the director; she was clearly very proud of her facility.

Any doubt I have ever had about our decision to arrange our lives so I could stay home with the youngin's instantly vanished.  Poof.  Any doubt I have ever had about what kind of role model I will be for my daughter as a piddly, stay-at-home mom (the world's most under-appreciated job), in lieu of a high-powered somethingorother...poof.  Any doubt I ever had about Juniper not getting enough socialization...poof.

I know this is probably not the best facility.  We live in a very small town and this is the only official day-care.  The neighboring resort town has an array of options to fit anything from a normal budget to deep, Rockefeller pockets.  But I'm guessing the normal-budget day-care even there is comparable to ours.  I suppose I was just expecting something better than what we have here at home.

Our visit to the daycare left me thinking about everything Juniper has that we take for granted.  I often have the grass is greener on the other side approach, thinking a real career and daycare are the best options...to be able to say I am a _____ (fill in the blank...caterer, nurse, professor, teacher...).  But.  At home, she plays in grass, dirt, water and wildflowers...versus a gravel yard with plastic play structures.  When she talks, there is an adult who listens and understands.  When she wakes from a nap she is greeted with hugs and kisses.  These seem like small things, but after our visit today, they seem huge.  

J bug is really into counting.  It started with flowers and moved on to everything else.  Her sequence generally goes..."One...two...ree...six."  


I found myself not asking certain questions because frankly, I didn't want to know.  We are planning to leave her there once a week until we are finished with our house.  Period.  The care-takers seemed kind and level-headed and really, that's all that matters.  And I know Juniper will love the place.

Actually, I was expecting her to jump right in and think it was the greatest place ever and protest when it was time to go.  But she surprised me.  She is not at all shy, but she did seem a bit overwhelmed.  If I could have read her thoughts, they would have gone something like this: Wow!  Look at all these kids!  Where ARE we?  Hey Mom, check out this plastic helicopter!  Who ARE these people?  Where are the parents?  Look!  A plastic egg carton.  Wow.  Why is this girl following me everywhere?  Help mom, she's got me cornered.  What the HELL are we doing here anyway?  And then she gave me the same look of uncertainty that Osa gave me the first time I left her at a kennel.  Needless to say, she didn't protest when we left.  Still, I am convinced that she'll love it, because ALL kids love daycare.  Right?

I try not to judge anyone based on their child care decisions.  Everyone has a different situation.  For many families, there is little choice involved.  I have friends who grudgingly send their kids to daycare everyday and hate it.  I have other friends who know stay-at-home parenting isn't for them and probably include thanking God for daycare in their bedtime prayers.  I know of others who are stay-home moms but probably shouldn't be.  I have yet to meet a family with the *perfect* situation.  And for us, right now, our best situation includes daycare.

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:: I wrote that ^ on Monday.  Wednesday we left Juniper at the daycare center and didn't pick her up until they were nearly closed.  You would be proud: I didn't even check on her at lunch (I thought checking would make it worse)...but I did have my cell phone glued to my leg with strict instructions that "if she seems overwhelmed, just give us a call; we're only a few minutes away."

Six years ago we installed a hardwood floor with a hand-nailer.  This time, we borrowed an air-nailer and, Holy shit!  We'll be selling the hand-nailer on e-bay.  


Meanwhile, my husband and I had our first all-day alone together for the first time in 21 months and Oh. My. God.  It felt wonderful to be working on a project together, just like old times (except at every break I would verbally wonder what Juniper was doing at that very moment: Juniper's probably eating lunch right now, I wonder what she thinks about eating alongside a bunch of kids?  They're probably trying to get Juniper to nap, I wonder if she will, etc.  I could sit down and watch a nine hour video of Juniper at daycare and never get bored.  Truly.  I wish I could have seen what she did all day.)  But there we were, at our new house, gettin' shit done.  My man gets to do this all the time, but for me, doing something constructive with my hands was a glorious change.

With the miter saw on the ground, I got to practice my "birthing squat" several hundred times a day.  My thighs are sore, but I think I've got it down.  


:: When I picked Juniper up she looked hot and exhausted, but barely registered my appearance.  She looked at me and asked for milk.  (Oh my...it's been so long since I've posted!  Juniper drinks cow's milk now with just a nip of mama's milk before bed.)  Then she went back to pushing two baby dolls in a swing.  She DID NOT want to leave.  I finally had to pick her up and she kicked and screamed and clawed my face.  I think the care-takers were a little surprised to see such behavior come from the "absolute peach" they'd been watching all day.  When I got her in the car she was thirsty and famished.  I handed back every last piece of food I could dig from my bag with her asking, More? More? all the way home.  But...they got her down for a nap!  And she played so well with the other kids!  And she was such a joy!  And she talks so much!  And she was an absolute peach!

She did so well, and we made so much progress on our house, we decided to leave her two days a week.  But I have to say, when we bring her home from the Lord of the Flies free-for-all, she is a tad crazy.  Wednesday night she talked and sang non-stop during dinner, then pulled my hair and clawed my face when I tried to get her to sleep that night.  Thursday night she was cranky and cried a lot.  So apparently, she's a daycare peach and saves all the other emotions to unload on us.

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:: But anyway.  Other than the ginormous emotional switch to daycare, Juniper has been so funny and wonderful and growing and changing faster than we can keep track of.  We have had so much fun over the last month (and I have so many photos!) that I'll need to write some catch-up posts.  (Along with that turkey camp post, right?)      

Nothing beats naked bike rides with dad.
                    

June so far

Yesterday, my mom reprimanded me for neglecting the blog.  Believe me, I'm trying.  The thing is, I think I sleep more than Osa did.  (Does that mean our new baby will be a good sleeper?  Wink, wink.)

Juniper soaking up the morning sun, talking on her "phone."  

::We've had a good June so far.  We miss our old girl, especially the spit-shine job she did on our kitchen floor, but everything around us has been so blooming with life....  As they say, Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

My sincerest thank you to everyone who sent us your thoughts over our loss of Osa.    

This week has been off-and-on oozing and drizzly.  Bright green leaves dripping, birds the hot colors of fire flitting around our house--orange, black, red, neon yellow.  Some days I feel like we live in a tropical rain forest.  But other days we have hot sun and give ourselves chores outside so we can stay out well past naptime.

Scrounging up "mulch" for our last-minute potato patch.  

Sunning diapers.  

Helping in the garden. 


:: The other weekend, we had an awesome time in the hot sun with old friends.  Celebrated a 4th birthday at a good friend's house that is like a built-in carnival complete with 3 kids, 2 cousins, jungle gym, sand box and trampoline, topped off with some pig-chasing and horse rides.  

Juniper was all smiles her first time atop an ungulate.

The birthday girl (and her little brother).

:: We spend drizzly days trying to decide on paint colors.  Check out the future home of our new kitchen and dining area:

The contractor's almost done--then it's our turn, yikes!  


:: In the bag of maternity hand-me-downs was a package of disposable premie diapers.  We pulled out a couple just for fun and, turns out, put-the-diaper-on-the-Kenya-doll is Juniper's favorite indoor activity.  She can do the sticky tabs herself, but if left entirely to her own devices, the diaper often ends up on the wrong body part.  She loves diapering her dolls and animals and begs for us to help pleading, Open? Open? More? More?  She also loves cleaning them and blowing their noses.  And--just lately--her bear and dog have been going poo-poo and pee-pee on the potty.  (This could be our big break-through as Juniper has been on a potty boycott.)  

:: We've colored before, but she wasn't really into it.  Now, she asks, Crans?

That said, we're still working on the ONLY ON THE PAPER bit.    
  
:: Juniper now chooses at least one piece of her own clothing for the day and nearly always checks herself out in the mirror.  She is always pleased with her own reflection.  Can't say we disagree.

:: It's nice having a garden for an outdoor chore even if our harvest is a moot point because we'll (hopefully) be moved.  

Besides, sometimes you run into cool things like your first salamader:

This is Juniper trying to say "salamander."


Verbally, Juniper is basically a parrot.  She has several hundred words and will try almost anything on for size, occasionally stringing two together.  Our personal favorites are her own name, Ju-per and, WOW!!  Today, she was climbing into a canoe (on the ground, not in the water) and told herself, Careful.  

:: Yesterday it rained nearly all day, and then this:

Our hillsides are bursting with balsamroot, but down here on the cottonwood floor it's mostly grass--with one exception.  There is one large, lone clump of balsamroot squarely at the base of a cottonwood.  I've noticed it from the highway.  It's so perfect, it almost looks as though it were planted.  So bugs and I headed out to find it.

Juniper: Flowers!  Wow!  Pretty.  

  
'Night everyone.

Also, I haven't forgotten the long-lost turkey camp post : )