Artist at Work

 

Happy Fall

A few months late, but who doesn't enjoy a toddler at a pumpkin patch?

Blast off for Mars!

On a recent trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Juniper learned about the Orion mission that plans to send humans to Mars in about 25-30 years. She's planning to be on board.

That's enough

It's not always fun to be a parent, or to be a kid. A stomach bug swept through the Honeycutt-Dill household last week, and we had some pathetic kids. The most pitiful moment of the illness was when Hazel, in the middle of throwing up, proclaimed, "That's enough. That's enough. That's enough."

Lots of sleep, lots of screen time, and lots of hot wash laundry.

Campaign messages we can all agree on

Juniper: "I agree with Barack Obama that you should not put your feet on the table. Or spit at other people."

 

Happy Halloween

It would be hard to overstate Juniper's excitement about Halloween this year. 

 Office Thomas, Hazel the Duck, and Juniper the Friendly Witch all had a very good time trick or treating. (Though there was one wolf costume that made Hazel cry. She calls it a teddy bear and is still talking about it.)

Hazel was confused by mama's makeup, but she did describe it as "fancy."

Hazel stole the show this year. Lots of people commented that she was the cutest thing they'd seen all night, and at least one woman called her husband out to take a look at Hazel after we'd left their porch.

 Hazel enjoyed getting "presents" from all the houses we visited.

Toddlers with lollipops are gross.

Four-year-olds with  lollipops are also gross.

The witch leads the way.

Not pictured: Aaron, who as Peter Parker incorporated his camera into his costume.

500

It's hard to believe that this is our 500th blog post! (We've even had a few posts from Juniper.) A couple of years ago, we did a round-up about our first 200 blog posts. The three hundred posts since then have covered some big events in our lives.

Hazel! I got pregnant, and we had a second daughter, and she's terrific! She celebrated her first birthday and will turn two next week. In the past two years, Hazel has gone from an adorable lump to a solid, chunky log to a quirky, delightful, and independent little kid. She went from mewling to signing to a few isolated words to two-word phrases to full and complex sentences. (Did you hear the one about the time Juniper stepped in the mud puddle and it was messy and Hazel didn't touch it but she saw it with her eyes? If you answered no, then you probably haven't seen Hazel in the past few weeks.) She learned to crawl, and then to walk, and now she even runs. She's discovered the joys of good books, good food, and good friends. With interests like that, we'll keep her!

Juniper started preschool, just kept getting bigger, and started pre-K this year. She's made lots of good friends and had many great adventures at the Oakhurst Cooperative Preschool. Her love of learning and discovery is--quite literally--a blast. Over the past couple of years, she's had life lessons and science lessons. But no need for super hero lessons; we've never had a bad guy attack, so clearly, she's already doing a great job of keeping us safe.

Our extended family got bigger (and better, and cuter) with the arrivals of Luke and Henry. Our extended family got even better when DeeDee moved to town and the Delaneys moved back to town. We've celebrated holidays in traditional and non-traditional ways. We've visited family from Virginia to Texas to California, and have enjoyed numerous day trips here in Georgia. We've also had wonderful times at parks, pools, libraries, and playgrounds close to home.

The girls are adorable together and clearly enjoy each other's company. Juniper is a terrific big sister, and it's heartwarming to see how much Hazel adores her (and how well deserved that adoration is). We really couldn't have asked for more. We've seen our girls grow and learn new skills that are at once amazing and ordinary. We are sometimes exasperated, usually satisfied, and always grateful. We enjoy having this blog as a place to share our girls' lives with family and friends; hopefully you also enjoy reading it! We occasionally hear from people that you follow our blog or get comments about a specific post, but we really don't know who is out there reading this. If you do read our blog, we'd love to hear from you in the comments or in an email - just to satisfy our curiosity! (Don't worry, grandmothers, even if the two of you are the only ones reading the blog, we'll still keep it up.)