Who loves yogurt?

Hazel was hungry and cranky before sitting down to eat. After 3 bowls of yogurt, 2 bowls of oatmeal, and 1 pear, she was back to her usual cheerful self.

Christmas

We had a delightful Christmas--lots of hustle and bustle and happiness (though perhaps next year we can manage a little more relaxation). There were too many photos for a blog post, so check out this picasa album if you'd like to see more.

A bat in the manger

On Christmas Eve, Juniper had her first public performance as one of the friendly beasts in the UUCA Christmas pageant. Was she a donkey, a sheep, an ox? No, of course not.




That's right. It's the traditional Christmas bat.



She first said that she wanted to be Batman in the pageant, but quickly agreed to be a bat instead.



During the rehearsal, she was upset when another kid told her that she couldn't be a bat, because bats aren't friendly. I comforted her by pointing out that bats eat mosquitoes, which is a very friendly thing to do. When the music director called for all the friendly beasts to come down, Juniper loudly proclaimed, "I'm friendly! I'm friendly! I'm friendly!"



We are pleased to report that the pageant was a success. Juniper stayed with the other friendly beasts and moved in and out of the "stables" when she was supposed to. Baby Jesus was not bitten by any mosquitoes. And there were no proclamations of friendliness during the actual performance. She had a great time, and her parents were probably more touched and proud than is justified by such a simple performance.

Merry Christmas

There are more Christmas photos to come, but here are a couple of photos of our happy girls on Christmas morning.

Is it real?

On a recent trip to Fernbank, Juniper met the museum's Santa-saurus. She was entranced. She petted it, hugged it, put her head in its mouth, and tried to figure out the nature of its existence.

Juniper: Is it real?

Aaron: What do you think?

Juniper: Well, at first I didn't think it was real. But then it sat down, so I think it's real.


She is very interested in determining whether or not things are real. We have clarified that superheroes are not real, jellyfish are real, and dinosaurs were real but are no longer living. She recently informed Aaron that, "the problem with superheroes is that they aren't real." They talked for a while about characters and fiction and how things don't have to be real to be good. She took it all in and then asked whether or not zombies are real. After Aaron told her that they aren't real, she thought about it for a minute and then told him that they are real, because she saw them at the DragonCon parade. He explained that the zombies at the parade were just people in zombie costumes, like she sometimes wears a costume. She thought about that for a bit, and then asked him which part of the DragonCon parade is the scary part.

"I don't think there is a scary part," he replied.

"But Ms. Paula said there was a scary part."

"Did you think there was a scary part, or was it just fun?"

"It was just fun."


In a separate conversation, she announced that when she grows up, Batman will be real, because she's going to be Batman.

Dog...or that

We recently got excited that Hazel had learned her first word when we heard pointing to a dog and saying, "Da. Da." She did this with a couple of dogs, but then we noticed that she was calling everything "da." Apparently, in Hazel's world da means "that."

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Rub-a-dub-dub

Rub a dub dub,
Three babes in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The pointer, the walker,
The superhero talker.
Turn them out, knaves all three.

Taking the cute up to 11

Hazel is wary of strangers but very affectionate with the people she knows and loves. (On an unrelated note, somehow I'd never really noticed just how very small her nose is.)

Yumm!

S-N-E-A-K-Y

Juniper: How do you spell the letters of a present?

Aaron: I don't understand. What do you mean?

Juniper: What are the letters of a Christmas present?

Sally: Like "gift"? Do you want to know how to spell gift? That's a word that means present.

Juniper: No. I want to spell something that you would wrap in Christmas paper.

Aaron: Like art? You might give someone some art for Christmas.

Juniper: Yeah!

Aaron: A-R-T. That's how you spell art.

Juniper: A-R-T is a good present.

Sally: I bet someone would be really happy to receive some art for a present.

Juniper: No, no, no. Don't say the word. Spell it. That way they won't know it and it will still be a surprise.


Perceptive kid. We did recently spell D-O-L-L as a potential present for Hazel and wouldn't tell Juniper what it meant, because we wanted it to be a surprise for everyone. After talking about giving A-R-T gifts, we went on to talk about J-A-M as a potential gift. Juniper was delighted to be able to talk about two gifts in a sneaky, spelling way. She expressed some pleasure in the fact that both A-R-T and J-A-M are spelled with letters that she knows. When we told Juniper that she already knows all the letters in all the words--that with her letters, she can spell any English word--she was amazed. There is an infinity of things Juniper doesn't know; it's perfectly reasonable for her to assume that of course there are all these other letters out there that she just hasn't learned yet.

Eruption!

We recently introduced Juniper to the wonderful kitchen chemistry of baking soda + vinegar. She and I made a flour/salt dough volcano around a bottle, filled the bottle with baking soda, water, and red food coloring, and set off our own mini-Vesuvius.



She liked it.

Owl + Owl

"It's an owl, just like I'm an Owl!"

At Juniper's preschool, all of the classes are named for birds. This year, she is an owl. This photo is a few months old, taken the weekend before she started school. She was very excited about her new class.

Let me in that bath!

Can you tell which photo is Juniper and which is Hazel?







Hazel's love of bath time is immense and enthusiastic. When we tell her it's time for a bath, she will excitedly and quickly crawl to the bathroom. She bounces and squeaks when she hears the water running and will try to climb into the tub. She helps to get ready by pulling off her shoes and socks and by stepping out of her pants, once we pull them down past her diaper. Once in the tub, she loves all of it--playing in the running water, splashing, kicking, pouring. It's all good.

Juniper's enjoyment of bath time these days is a little more complicated, full of the negotiations that characterize her 3 year old life. Aside from needing a little help reaching the very back of her long hair, she can fully clean herself. Her ability to get clean far surpasses her motivation to get clean. We try to back off and give her the space to do it on her own, with occasional intervention to promote a reasonable bedtime or avoid excessive filth. Sometimes we strike the right balance; sometimes we don't. I'd like to think we're getting better at finding that balance, but the real solution to our occasional bath time dramas probably has more to do with Juniper's maturation than with our parenting skills. I have no doubt that we will get there one day.

And, for the record, the first photo is Hazel; the second, Juniper.

The Dark Knight at Rest

Happy birthday, Hazel

Last Sunday was Hazel's first birthday. She had a fantastic day, though for her the birthday shenanigans were largely incidental.



Over breakfast, we opened a couple of presents that had come in the mail. Hazel was far more interested in her toast.



Those of you who know Hazel well are familiar with the scowl she gives to unfamiliar people. She wasn't quite scowling at the lit candle, but she was definitely a little suspicious of it.



With her public health mom, Hazel's "cupcake" was a sugar free pumpkin muffin sweetened with apple juice and frosted with cream cheese. At first, the muffin didn't seem to register as food. She played with it and smeared the cream cheese, but expressed no interest in eating it.



Once we broke the muffin into smaller pieces, however, she figured out what to do with it and fully enjoyed it. (The next morning at breakfast, when the muffins made their second appearance, she enthusiastically started signing food, food, food!)



Contrary to the photographic record, Hazel did not in fact spend her entire birthday in her high chair. After lunch, she got to play outside for a bit, which is one of her very favorite things to do.



And Kelly read her some birthday books from DeeDee. Reading is another favorite activity, right up there with eating dirt.



All in all, it was a good day.

Hazel is one!

It's hard to believe that she's gone from this:



to this:



Birthday party photos to come soon.

Fun times at the playground

Happy Halloween!

Let there be cuteness!



Not yet walking, Hazel is delightful as a 4-legged creature. You'll have to imagine the cow in motion.



Normally on our blog, we try not to have too many pictures of the same thing...



...but our moderation and good sense have been destroyed by the cute powers of Super Cow...



...and her trusty sidekick, the Green Lantern. (Juniper did christen Hazel Super Cow, but I'm sure she'd insist that Hazel is the sidekick.)



We went trick-or-treating with Juniper's friend Thomas, who got hooked on the "Ghostbustards" at the DragonCon parade.



I think we can safely say that 3 kids, 4 parents, and 1 grandparent all had a good time.



Juniper and Thomas got a lot of smiles, and there were far too many indulgent adults who encouraged them to "take as much as you want to."



Thomas was very excited to come across this house, obviously in need of his services. He dutifully busted the ghost on the front door.



Juniper was excited about the candy but didn't actually eat very much on Halloween night.



For both kids, playtime was obviously far more appealing than candy. (Just don't ask how much candy she ate today, without Thomas to distract her from the loot.)

Kiwi monster

Apparently, she's perfectly happy to eat a kiwi--skin and all--like an apple.

Happy Monster

Green Lantern Reporting for Duty

Juniper is ready to join the Green Lantern Corps (and to go trick-or-treating):

In brightest day, in blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight

Let those who worship evil's might,

Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!

Hat, bat, bit, bath, sit, sad

This evening on Skype, Violet showed us and read us a long list of words she had written. She was really reading, sounding out some words and recognizing other sight words, not just reciting a memorized list. Her writing is delightfully legible. When she held her paper up to the camera, we could read every word on it.

My brain has a hard time understanding how this fat, waddling force of destruction and need turned into that accomplished little kid proudly and determinedly reading her words: hat, bat, bit, bath, sit, sad. Thankfully, my heart has better sense and no questions about how she got from point A to point B. No questions, just an overwhelming sense of wonder and gratitude. It feels good to love someone this much, even when it feels bad to have someone you love this much be far away.

More superpowers

Don't ever let anyone accuse Juniper of being timid in her pursuits.



"I'm Superpower Girl, and I can turn into animals. This button turns me into a spider, and this one's a bat, and this one's a shark."



"I'm Captain America, and I can stop bad guys with my shield!"



"I'm Ladybug Girl, and I can do anything!!"