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!!"

Arachnophilia

My heart skipped a beat when I thought that Hazel was eating toothpicks. Oh wait, it's just a plastic spider. No cause for concern.

We recently witnessed a perfect example of the fact that babies really will eat anything. While drawing with sidewalk chalk, Juniper took an exploratory nibble, grimaced, and had no further interest in eating chalk. Hazel, in approximately 15 clandestine seconds, managed to chow down on enough chalk to turn her mouth two different colors. When we fished the chalk out of her mouth and wouldn't give it back to her, she was enraged and inconsolable.

Superhero in action

Hazel (quite literally) buries her nose in a book

One of Hazel's favorite activities these days is to pull all the board books off the bookcase and then sit reading in the middle of her book mountain. The books keep her so occupied that I've even been able to make dinner completely uninterrupted a few times!

Reminds me of what Juniper and Violet were up to at about this age.

From the archives: Stone Mountain

From Cheryl, Jason, and Violet's visit last winter. Hazel was just a little bundle, and Henry was still in utero.

The whole family!

While were visiting California in July, Janet got the rare picture of all four of us.