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.