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.)

Lego adventures

Thomas: I think we should go to Ireland.
Juniper: First, we need to go to New York because New York has some really nice dinosaurs. Then we can go to Ireland.
T: Ok. [pause] Where's New York?

Juniper and Thomas were fully immersed in a Lego dinosaur adventure when Violet arrived at our house this afternoon. Violet initially had a hard time integrating herself into their play. She got really frustrated and felt excluded when no one would tell her the rules of the game.

Violet: Why isn't anybody teaching me? I don't know the rules.
J: There aren't any rules. We just kind of made it up as we go.
V: Can I catch up?
J: You just do it. [hardly a pause] RAWWRH - this is a good dinosaur!!

Violet finally realized that there were no secret rules and went on to build an elaborate cave with flowers out front, a ruby and a trumpet on the top, a goblet that appeared to have juice but was really full of a potion that puts bad guys to sleep, a magic bow and arrow that only shoots bad guys, and numerous other features I'm sure I've forgotten.

V: This is fun playing with Legos!
J: I knew you might like it once you started.

Little girl in a big airport

I like that thing

Hazel was a bit envious of Luke's birthday present. She does like things with wheels!

Fangirl

I see it!

Hazel admiring the flowers?

Nope: "I see it aihpane! I see it aihpane!" Hazel is obsessed with all forms of transportation--buses, trains, trucks, cars--and airplanes might just be her very favorite. We recently attended a birthday party a few blocks away from a golf course where a PGA tour event was taking place. Hazel was enthralled by this advertising blimp that was circling above the golf course. Normally, planes aren't so low to the ground and don't stick around for so long.

Last Sunday at UUCA, Hazel had a meltdown and I was paged to pick her up from the nursery. I brought her into the quiet room, which has a glass wall that looks over the sanctuary. When Hazel saw the rows of people sitting, she thought that they were in an airplane and desperately wanted me to open the door so that she could also go into the airplane.

Super Hazel

She may have learned about being super from her sister, but the expressions on her face are all Hazel.

Juniper's last first day of preschool

 

I'll spare you my reflections on the passage of time and simply say that I am totally, completely, madly in love with my wonderful big girl.


Juniper's first day as a Chickadee (2 year-old preschool)

Juniper's first day as an Owl (3 year-old preschool)

And now she is a Lark (Pre-K)! We're looking forward to a great year with lots of good friends in her class and a fantastic teacher whom we adore.

Pool Shark

We recently attended a bar mitzvah reception at a pool hall. Juniper the extrovert would have been delighted even if the party didn't come with pool. The fact that she got to play a new game with sticks, lots of hard colorful balls, fuzzy green tables with secret tunnels, and cool triangle ball holders made it even better.


 
Several young children were on a mission to throw chaos onto every table where there was a serious grownup game (or pseudo-serious adolescent game) in process. A couple of moms finally had the good sense to declare one table the kids' table. We defended our table when it looked empty, promising would-be players that everyone's game benefited from giving up this one table.



 The only rule at the kids' table: no throwing the balls. Everything else was allowed.

 Really, everything. Shuffleboard, anyone?

Juniper was also pretty excited about the ice cream sundae dessert bar! We're pretty excited that she is now old enough to stay up well past her bedtime for the occasional fun event, with no tears or tantrums. She fell asleep moments after we got in the car, but didn't cry when it was time to leave.

Aminals and ossicones

Hazel recently had her first trip to the zoo, and she loved it! She was observant (Ephant eating. More eating. Ephant eating food.), enthusiastic (More aminals! More aminals!), and covetous (Want giaffe. Want zeba.).

The gorillas at the Atlanta zoo are visible from multiple spots, including one where the people are inside a building with a glass wall that lets you get a pretty close-up look at the gorillas outside. From inside the building, you can also see one of the observation platforms where people can watch the gorillas from outside. When we were inside the building, Hazel was convinced that the people on the platform were with the gorillas, and she emphatically wanted to join them. While pointing at the gorillas and the observation platform, she demanded, "In! In! People in. Hazel in!"

Meanwhile, Juniper smarty pants informed a giraffe caretaker, "I'm very smart," and was treated to a lesson about ossicones (the horn-like protuberances on the top of a giraffe's head). Our little scientist was delighted. Part of me wants to teach my daughter some modesty and help her learn that it isn't really polite respond to a simple question about what giraffes eat by telling everyone how smart you are. But I suspect that modest four year olds are far less likely to have in-depth conversations about giraffe biology, and I'd rather cut off my toes than squash Juniper's curiosity and love of learning. As someone who supports activities to encourage girls' involvement with science, technology, engineering, and math, I feel especially protective of Juniper's love of science--but I confess that I do still cringe a little when she proclaims how smart she is or how much she knows about topic X. I mostly ignore the pride issue, hope that will sort itself out as she gets older, and try to shift the conversation from smarts to learning (how fun it is to learn new things, the fact that she knows about topic X because she reads and asks questions, and how cool it is that there is so much MORE she doesn't yet know about X).

Chaos!

We typically use our blog to share our children's adorable moments and proud accomplishments, but lest we be accused of painting a too-rosy picture of family life, here's a story of the madness we sometimes have in our house.

One day each week, I watch all of the kids in our childcare swap (Juniper, Hazel, Luke, Violet, and Henry). On this particular day, Violet was not yet home from school, so I had Juniper and the three toddlers. In the brief moment it took me to go to the bathroom, Hazel managed to bite both Luke and Henry--hard. Both boys had nasty bites and were understandably very upset. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I suspect that Hazel didn't want to share her crayons. While I was comforting the boys and giving Hazel the standard lecture about not biting, I heard Juniper call out from the bathroom: "Maaaahhhm, I had an accident. I got a little poop on my underwear." (For the record, Juniper has been fully potty trained for almost two years. I can't remember the last time she had a poop accident.) I scooped up Hazel, unwilling to leave her alone with the boys, and went back to the bathroom. Juniper was sitting on the toilet, and there was in fact a little poop on her underwear, and also a little poop on the floor where her underwear had fallen. I was scurrying about, cleaning the floor, starting a load of hot wash laundry, stalling Juniper's requests for help wiping, when I heard Hazel vehemently yelling, "NO COLOR! NO COLOR! NO COLOR!" I dropped whatever I was doing and hurried back to the dining room, afraid she might be about to bite one of the boys again. Hazel, passionate lover of order and propriety, was aghast at the sight of Luke coloring a large blue scribble all over the dining room wall. "No more crayons," I announced. "We do not use crayons for biting. We do not use crayons for coloring on the wall. We use crayons for coloring on paper. No biting! No walls! All done crayons!" I left the three toddlers whimpering by the now crayonless table and finished my laundry, my cleaning, my wiping. Start to finish, all of this took less than five minutes. And five minutes later, we had all moved on to some other activity, the crayons and poop and biting forgotten in the wonderful amnesia of the very young. The nice thing for me about having a day's worth of chaos all packed into a few moments was that I didn't even have time to be frazzled or upset. I was basically working on reflex, and by the time I had a moment to think about what was happening, it was already done and fodder for a laugh and a good story.

Joys of Summer

Luke Skytalker

Luke: Horse.
Sally: No, Luke, it's not a horse. It's a... I'm not sure what it is. It's like a horse, but it's not a horse.
Luke: Donkey!


This is one of Luke's favorite toys at our house. Anyone reading this a big enough Star Wars geek to give Luke the correct vocabulary for his "donkey"?


Update: It seems fitting that Luke's dad identified this mount as a ronto. Thanks, Mark!

Underwater

Aaron recently got a new toy. No, it isn't an expensive underwater camera. It's a waterproof bag that holds one of the cameras he already had. We've really enjoyed the nearby community pool that opened earlier this summer, and it's fun to get some pictures of the girls in the water.

Juniper is well on her way to being a swimmer. She's confident in the water and comfortable putting her face under the water. With a push or a jump start, she can swim a few feet.  



Hazel the water child is in her element at the pool. On our most recent trip, she invented a new and delightful game. She pointed at the ladder and demanded, "Up with stairs! Up with stairs!"



After climbing up the ladder, she toddled over to the edge of the pool and happily jumped in...

...over and over and over again. After several rounds of this, she was saying "Ready. Set. Go!" and jumping on go.

Detour

On the way home from a recent trip to the library, Hazel insisted on stopping for a reading break.

She was delighted to sit on the sidewalk and read--especially when there were cars in her book and cars on the road. ("Car-car. Car-car! Car-car!")

After about 10 minutes, I convinced her to start walking again. Initially she thought this was a terrible idea, but once she realized she could hold on to her books, she was willing to head on home.

Quotable Day

 It's always fun to listen to what Juniper and Violet have to say, but today was an even better day than most.


Violet: My favorite bird is a hummingbird.
Aaron: Why?
Violet: Because they are small and pretty.
Aaron: What about you, Juniper. What's your favorite bird?
Juniper: Vultures. Because they eat dead things and are good for the earth and the environment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Juniper (pointing to two cartoon bees): I'm a mix of this one and this one. I'm a cross breed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Violet (quickly spinning a globe on its stand): It must be getting dizzy because my hands are getting dizzy.

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Juniper: How much do you love me?
Violet: More than I can say.
J: All the way to the edge of the universe?
V: No, more than I can say. That means so much you can't say it.
J: All the way through a zillion universes, and all the way to one more?
V: More than that. That means more than anyone can say.
J: I love you all the way through a zillion, billion, million, zillion universes and into a whole new universe.
V: I love you more than that, because it's more than anyone can say.

Fun and squishy

One day we will learn that toddlers don't get the concept of wading. Hazel had a terrific time on this recent walk around the Decatur Cemetery, until it was time to leave and everything was all bad.

Is that what I think it is?

Why, yes, in fact, it is Juniper petting a baby kangaroo in a pouch. (Thank you, Fernbank Museum, for being such a great place for kids.)

Choppin'

Hazel has discovered the joy of helping in the kitchen. When we're cooking, she'll drag a chair up to the counter, wailing "Make! Make!" until she gets herself into position. She loves to stir, chop, and dump ingredients into a bowl, but she gets very upset when we take "her" food away to move on to the next step in the meal prep. I will admit to sometimes giving her a banana to chop or some rice to stir, just so that we can handle the real food and get dinner on the table.

Hazel is definitely her own kid, with a personality that's very distinct from her big sister's, but I think any child growing up in this house would be interested in cooking. Juniper was doing much the same thing at this age (though she was much older before we discovered these fantastic kid-safe choppers).

Look, Daddy!

Self-portraits

Medusa No. 1

Medusa No. 2

Medusa No. 3

Charmante

Abstract No. 14

I'm working with the artist on a major retrospective of her work. (There's never any telling what will show up on the camera after Juniper's had my phone for a while.)

Super Juniper

I rest well at night knowing that my home is fully protected against bad guys; do you?

Like father, like daughter part 2

Today was Juniper's first day of summer camp. The camp is at her preschool, but with different teachers and a different structure to the day. She's also in a different classroom. She's in the "bumblebee" class, which is a mix of familiar friends and new people. This evening over dinner, we were asking Juniper what she thought of her first day of camp.

S: What did you like most about being a bumblebee?
J: That it's different!
S: Different how?
J: Different toys...and...things.
A: I know what you mean, Juniper. My favorite thing about something new is often that it's different.

18-month checkup

Hazel: 25 lbs, 32.5 in., healthy and developmentally on track
Juniper: still the soundest sleeper in the family

This photo was taken after she fell asleep on the way to the pediatrician's office and made the transfer from car to waiting room. My mom had been a little worried that seemingly sleepy Hazel might fall asleep in the car. Hah!

On an unrelated note, the galactic tie dye shirts were made by the girls' Uncle Grier. Juniper is always delighted to wear her space shirt, and extra delighted when she can get Hazel into her matching shirt at the same time.

Into the Woods

Hazel's no longer always interested in being right beside her mom, dad, or sister. At a recent trip to the park she left the playground and set off to explore on her own. She got as far as the bridge (which leads to a parking lot) before Aaron went and retrieved her.

Like father, like daughter

I've been holding on to this photo since last fall, intending to post it along with one of the photos Juniper took while she and Aaron were on a nature photography walk in our backyard. We seem to have lost that memory card, so I'm going ahead and posting this photo solo.

Relaxin' at the playground