Fun with dad

(No, her teeth are not deformed. It's a bit of bagel.)

I see fishes.

While Janet was here, she, Aaron, and the girls went to the Aquarium.


They were captivated by all the fish. "I see fishes! I see more fishes!!"


The next morning at breakfast, Juniper was excited to talk about the fish on Janet's mug.

To the library

Visit from DeeDee

Janet (Aaron's mother) was here for a long weekend visit. She and Juniper had a fantastic time together.



Scraping slime mold off of a fallen branch in the backyard.



Reading "the big yellow book." This is Sally's tattered childhood copy of Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever. It's larger than most of her books and has a yellow cover, hence Juniper's name for the book. It's one of her very favorite books right now. She'll often ask us to talk about stories or characters from the book. ("Talk about Uncle Willy was a monster." "Talk about Sergeant Murphy/Huckle/Tanglefoot." She doesn't seem to have picked up on the fact that Lowly Worm is the star.)



Did we mention that it's one of Juniper's favorites? Janet happily spent much of her visit snuggled up on the couch reading and re-reading the big yellow book.

Setting up the tree

I'm sure this is the first of many Christmas posts to follow. Juniper really enjoyed helping Aaron tighten the screws on the Christmas tree stand.

Visit from Aunt Ann & Uncle Keith

Despite the fact that we don't live near any of Aaron's family, Juniper will get to see lots of Brooks/Dill relatives this holiday season. Last weekend her great-aunt Ann and -uncle Keith spent a night at our house on their way from Texas to Maryland. We all enjoyed the visit, and Juniper was particularly smitten with Ann.



Ann let Juniper play with all of her toiletries and try on her very cool sunglasses.


Juniper enjoyed getting to play with Ann and Keith's two dogs. Most of the dogs in Juniper's life are much bigger than she is; the little dogs were obviously a treat. "I softin' it. I bein' gentle." She was, indeed, very soft and very gentle.

Mmmnh...

Juniper has discovered the joy of the mixing beaters. At this point it's just whipped cream; the fear of toddler salmonella means that Sally has at least a few more years of not having to share the cookie dough.

Note the shirt necklace. Juniper has solidly entered the stage of "wanna do it by mysef." She was on the verge of being sad that she couldn't put a small stretchy shirt on over her thick and puffy fleece, but we managed to turn it into an exciting shirt necklace and distract her from the sadness.

Rainy Day Violet

Where did this big girl come from, and what did she do with our baby Violet? She's a wonderful big girl, and we love her dearly, but we don't understand how it happened so fast.

Jorge the Vampire Robot

One of the fun things about being an aunt and an uncle is getting to introduce our nephew and nieces to things like cardboard box robots. The vampire part, though, that's all Jorge.

Thanksgiving, part 3

This is the last one, we promise! Is it obvious how much we enjoyed having Juniper as an active participant in our Thanksgiving holiday?

Happy Thanksgiving from Sally Honeycutt on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving, part 2

The day before Thanksgiving, Violet and Juniper helped measure out and mix the dry ingredients for pie crusts. Thanksgiving morning, Sally, Aaron, and Juniper made apple pie.



Flour everywhere!



Violet studiously and seriously moved the flour mix back and forth between cup and bowl for about half an hour. Kayla helped to clean up everything that Violet spilled.



Juniper was a good mixer, when she didn't get distracted by her desire to eat the flour-sugar-salt mixture.



Rolling out the dough. (Thanks, Sunanda and Richa for the chapati roller, which doubles nicely as a child-size rolling pin!)



Juniper enjoys her first Thanksgiving dinner. (Yeah, she was here for Thanksgiving last year, but she didn't eat any of the food and certainly didn't have any awareness of what was going on.)

Thanksgiving, part 1

Last weekend, we went to Nature's Harmony Farm to pick up our Thanksgiving turkey.


Juniper had a fantastic time running around the fields and seeing all the animals.



The only downside of the day was that she didn't understand why she couldn't touch all of the animals. A particularly pathetic moment was when I carried her away from the pigs, while she desperately squirmed and tried to run back to them, sobbing, "I NEED TO SOFT THE PIGS! I NEED TO SOFT THE PIGS!!!"



But she did get to soft a peacock, a baby chick, and a couple of farm dogs.



We saw cows...



...and, of course, turkeys. The toms were all showing off and trying to impress the visitors. Birds like this are obviously the inspiration for the ubiquitous image of the Thanksgiving turkey.



The toms weren't the only ones with personality.



We feel really lucky that there's a local farm where we can buy free-range, heritage turkeys, a rare thing in a country where almost all meat is produced on factory farms. It also made for a really delicious Thanksgiving meal!

Mama's girl

Yup, she's adorable. But before you think it's just another cute picture of Juniper, take a close look at the colors and the rounded photo edges. 1970's. This is Sally at 15 months. For comparison, here are a few photos of Juniper at that age.

Toddler Love

In case we haven't gushed enough about Juniper and Violet's friendship, here are some absurdly adorable photos of the two of them loving on one another.



Note Violet's interesting alternative to conventional footwear. Shoes are the one thing the girls just can't share, so when we left Violet's shoes in her parents' car, Aaron had to get creative. She's wearing a pair of Juniper's sock, covered with a pair of men's athletic socks.




When Juniper fell down and bonked herself, Violet came up to her, gave her a kiss, and told her, "It's ok, Junper."

Juniper discovers black-eyed peas

This video is from early September, but Juniper continues to enjoy black-eyed peas whenever they are served. We're lucky that she is such an adventuresome and enthusiastic eater! I sometimes fear that our very vocal delight in Juniper's approach to food will somehow condemn us to a second child that's as picky as I (Sally) once was, but for now we're enjoying our very omnivorous family.

Black-eyed peas from Sally Honeycutt on Vimeo.

Juniper chows down on rice, apples, raisins, and BLACK-EYED PEAS! (If you look closely, you may notice that there aren't many black-eyed peas left, since she was studiously picking them out and eating them first.)

Towel Dress

Halloween Sunflowers

We continue to benefit from hand-me-downs from Violet's cousins. These sunflowers are the perfect toddler costume. It's a fleece hoodie--warm, easy, and adorable. Just pair with brown pants and you're all done.


Both girls were having a great time on the tire swing...



...but Violet had more tolerance for spinning than Juniper.

Why?

J: I want some more peas.
A: If you finish those peas, we'll give you some more.
J: Why?
A: Because we're nice to you.
J: Why?
A: Because we love you.
J: Why?
A: Because you're our daughter.
J: Why?
(pause)
J: Because I'm a cutie-patootie.


Completely unrelated, but this morning Juniper came up with a great, complex, and grammatically correct sentence:

"I want to take my shoes off so I can put on my robot socks."

Serious girl

Slumber Party

Friday night was Cheryl & Jason's 5th wedding anniversary (congratulations!) and Violet's first night away from Mom and Dad. We wanted to make sure that she had a really good time and would look forward to her next overnight visit.



Bath time was extra fun with bubbles. Violet was having such a good time that she didn't even mind when we washed her hair and face.


Long after the bubbles faded, the girls were still playing with toys and having a blast.


Violet's rocking was more roller-coaster than lullaby.


Well past bedtime, the girls were doing somersaults and other gymnastics. Running so fast, stomping, dancing. All sorts of exciting things we normally don't encourage during the (supposedly) calm time between bath and bed.


Sort of back on track with the normal bedtime routine, the girls absconded with Sally's book and went off to read by themselves.

They were obviously delighted to see one another first thing the next morning. We read and played and jumped in bed and had blueberry pancakes for breakfast. All of the Honeycutt-Dills agree that Violet can spend the night any time she wants to!

Reading with Gramps

Gramps and Amala (aka Norman and Sue) came for a visit this weekend. Juniper was a little suspicious to start with, but she warmed up to them quickly. Extensive repetition of Bear's Day Out is a great way to earn her trust!

Violet Fashionista Redux

You really want to wear this hat. from Sally Honeycutt on Vimeo.

If you missed it, here's part one in this series.

Victory!

The toddlers are definitely winning the shoe war. Parental logic and cold feet have proven completely ineffective. Next step: we escalate to double-knotted high tops.

This time last year...

Packing, moving, and now unpacking hasn't left us with much time for other activities. We're starting to settle in, and glad to be in our new house.

In the meantime, here's a fun video of Juniper playing in the bath last October. It's amazing how much she's changed in the past year!

Bathtime, October 2008 from Sally Honeycutt on Vimeo.

Peek-a-boo

Wheeee

House renovations

We're doing a few home repair/renovation projects before the big move. Most of them are behind the scenes (fixing some pipes, reinforcing the living room floor, adding insulation, etc.). However, we do have a few fun projects mixed in with the more practical ones. Our biggest one is opening up the wall between the kitchen and dining room.

Before:

Standing in the kitchen, looking toward the dining room. (That's our real estate agent in the doorway.)

In process:

Same view, plus a big hole.


From the dining room, looking into the kitchen.


After photos to follow...