Life According to My Phone

A lot of things going on these days!

My in-laws are in town and June was able to stay home from school with her Grammy and Papaw Fred!

I have a seemingly never-ending DIY project in the works in the garage that will hopefully be done in the next year or so.

A lot of changes happening at work.

A lot of new developments for June, including opening doors, saying "bless you" and being afraid of dogs.

June fell down while playing outside at school and scraped her head, poor thing.

Tonight I held June a little longer than usual when putting her down for the night. I'd read a heart-breaking story in the news. (I won't share details, so much am I disturbed, but it's the case of the mom and the nanny and the two kids in NYC.) Anyway, I just needed to hold her a little tighter and let her know how much I loved her just then. And when I finally set her down in her favorite corner of the crib, she suddenly grabbed my wrist and held it with her baby grip firm. And I left my hand there, me giving her comfort, her giving me comfort, until she eventually let go and rolled onto her side. I think she was trying to let me know how much she loved me just then.

Those Blinds Are Curtains

That was an attempt at a pun with the whole "curtains" = gone/no more/outta here, but I don't think it worked very well. And I heard once that puns were the lowest form of humor. I don't think so. Bathroom humor HAS to be lower than puns. Puns are wordplay and words are for smart people, right? I'm ... losing where I was going with this blog post.

Michael and I got to a point where we hated the blinds that came with our huge sliding glass doors. They had to go. So go they did. 

Before:

After:

We...definitely like the idea. Not sure if we're going to stick with these exact curtains (from Ikea). I love the textured under-layer that lets light in while still giving a veil of privacy. The thicker, outer curtains just need something else. When they are pulled out it sort of looks like we have bed sheets hanging or something.

I've got another project in the works that will bring some color to the room, so maybe we'll tie that in somehow.

Anyway, I love the two-layer approach. I was telling Michael about my vision, and thinking of ways I could build a contraption to allow me to have two separate curtains hanging independent of each other. Then Michael says, "They sell those." Ugh, my awesome inventions are always already manufactured. My feelings of creativity diminish by the week.

Thanks to Michael for getting these set up!

And to our JuneHelper. She steadied the ladder for us.

Four Years

It's been four years since Michael and I said "I do." (Technically it's been four years and a day. Man, I really wanted to post this yesterday but never got the time to come in and complete it.)

Four years. Three residences. Two job changes. One baby.

And this has been the first full year of marriage where we've been parents!

Michael,

All the good stuff is in the card this year, but I'd like to make an addition. Thank you for loving me steadily and unconditionally. (Whenever I get to that place in "You Are My I Love You" that says, "I am your quiet place, you are my wild" I think of you and me...except, you know, opposite.) Thank you for forgiving the silly things I do, like spray painting in the garage and leaving all my shoes by the door. (Though I'd like it noted that June brings some of those out from the closet when she wants to go on a walk.)

Thanks for showing you love me in so many different ways. Like getting the license plate that allows us to drive in the carpool lane, then setting up a system where we'd switch cars each month so both could benefit from the lane, but then never actually claiming your month to drive the Prius. And understanding that tense moments on TV call for me coming over and having physical contact with you, such as The Walking Dead or Presidential debates.

I love you. And I will still need you, I will still feed you, when you're sixty-four.

Julie

I hope you don't mind if I link to the post (right here) I wrote las year for our anniversary. It was a simple little poem that I re-read and realize that I feel it just as much this year. 

We did such a romantic thing this year - we went back to CopperWynd for dinner! It's the spot we got engaged AND married. We sat out on the patio, along the path we all walked down to get to the ceremony. (Basically exactly where Dad and I are standing here:)

It was beautiful, lovely, romantic, fun. My parents even surprised us by sending a bottle of champagne for us to celebrate with! (Thanks again, Mom and Dad!)

And then we decided to go for a stroll, just like we did the evening we got engaged. We went through a little gate with this mechanism on it that I thought was just a child lock. We didn't even spend five minutes in that particular pool/garden area and we turned around to head back. It wasn't just a child lock, it was a human lock. There must have been some kind of timer set up to lock the gates at precisely 9:22 pm because we suddenly could not get out of the area.

Which led to the inevitable - climbing the fence.

Originally it was just Michael to see if he could get a better handle on the lock. When that proved fruitless, over the fence I went...in a maxi dress. Sure, I tied it up around my legs to provide more fluidity of movement, but I've had run-ins with stucco walls before, so this was no laughing matter.

...Except I laughed the whole time. Which is just how an anniversary should be, I think. And a marriage. That too.

Beauty and the Beasts

The family - minus my dad - went the to zoo on Saturday. It was so awesome. 

First, Kai took it upon himself to be the map man/navigator and had his map held out the entire time so he could show us where we were and where we were headed. 

I think we all see a future explorer/architect in our midst!

June was so great. She rolled around in her stroller for a bit but mostly wanted to walk while holding hands. Vivi was the one she mainly wanted to hold hands with, but she accepted Daddy and asked for Kai later in the day.

Michael and I are talking about getting a membership. Any zoo members out there? From Phoenix or other? Do you go to the zoo as much as you should considering your membership? I feel like we might not go as much as would warrant it. But man did June love to see those animals.

Probably the funniest part of the day was when we saw the monkeys. One came right up against the glass (June couldn't decide if she was glad or not) and Kai immediately decided to show the monkey the map. That monkey studied that map pretty hard, and it was decided that if a sudden monkey outbreak occurred and they managed to escape the zoo, we'd have a 5 year-old boy to blame for showing them the way out.

Finger Food

Since Michael was out of town, our little routines were a little set asunder while he was gone. 

A prime example of this is the morning ritual. It's not rigid by any means, but normally one of us sits at the table with June while she eats her breakfast. We'll switch off, the other person meandering around putting their lunch together or getting June's bag ready to go. When Michael was gone, I had to do all of this on my own. Which meant that June ate alone at the table. 

Which didn't always go according to plan. 

June does use a spoon, you see. She isn't the most accurate but she gets it in her mouth, and if we give her enough time, she can finish a whole cup on her own. This particular morning, however, sometime when I was toasting an English muffin or packing a bag, June abandoned her spoon and decided to dive in. 

I sent Michael a montage of these images with the caption:

"Spoons? Where we're going, we don't need spoons."

If you're wondering, yes, that is yogurt in her eyebrow. And yes, she gets it from her mom.

Oktoberfest the Second

Michael went out of town on a work trip and left June and I alone for about four days. I tell you, it certainly gave me a vast appreciation for single moms and any stay at home parent with a toddler!

On Saturday night I decided to take her to the Phoenix Oktoberfest downtown. Before this year I'd never gone to any Oktoberfest celebration and now I've been to two in as many weekends. The weather was nice and I had hoped to get outside to appreciate the outdoors (read: she would work off some of that ever-multiplying energy).

It was great. There was a big open area of grass that allowed June to wander and marvel at the bigger kids. There was food, dancing, dogs. The only problem was the chicken, who June named her mortal enemy upon first sight:

June wanted to dance, so I sat near the stage, but then she just wanted to hang out near the edges, overwhelmed by the bigger girls who were so interested in her.

I missed Michael a lot. Not only because he could have helped me carry all the food plates and set out the blanket to sit on, but because I know it would have been a really fun and relaxing family night.

Instead it was us girls and the Chicken Dance. Which June did want to join.

We danced it four times. Three were all in succession due to a Chicken Dance contest (which was due to immense turnout for the first dance). June hadn't technically made it into the final round of the competition but I wasn't about to make her stop, so she danced alone at the edge of the stage while the real competitors flapped their little 'wings' in the middle. 

Not one but two chickens turned out for this experience. 

June watched with horrified fascination.

June version 1.5

June at 18 months is such a fun, energetic little creature.

(June also enjoys taking things, which is why all of the pictures in this post are iPhone pictures. Our digital camera with the awesomely huge memory card - with pictures all the way back from our honeymoon - is missing. I am desperately hoping that we will someday find it hidden in a shoe or in a rarely-used drawer and I will get all of those images back. I'm trying not to picture it having been thrown away - another of June's favorite things to do - and now laying in a dump somewhere.)

She's become a little more picky as an eater. She could eat yogurt, carbs and fruit until the cows come home (who couldn't, now that I think of it?) but veggies and protein are becoming less appealing to her. We're still packing her meals for school. It's starting to be a drag.

She's talkative and silly. She has a lot of words and understands pairings. So she'll say "blue car" and "big dog" and "stinky June." Actually, she more often says "yucky June" and I have to correct her and say that it's the poopoo that's yucky, not June, and then she just says "yucky poopoo June."

She's also said "stinky Mama," so now I'm not sure if she is actually saying "silly" or if I am in fact stinky.

Her talking leads to really cute outcomes. Like when she points to the bigger duck and says "Mama duck" and I ask who the smaller duck is and she says "June." Heart-melting. Or when she says something with such an earnest face, like "buh-bye book," and I think she's saying she doesn't want a book, but it turns out she's asking to read the butterfly book and when I finally get it she is so relieved and happy.

We met a dog named Coco on a walk and she would randomly mutter "bye Coco" to herself for a half and hour after that.

When her dad gets home we hear the garage door open and she turns to me with wide eyes and whispers, "Dada! Dada!"

She has tantrums. She'll see my shoes and want to go on a walk and will woefully cry and follow me around carrying my shoes. Those times are cute. The times where she just says a spiteful "no!" to everything and swats at the offered item aren't quite as cute.

She also laughs a lot, and has started this thing where she squeals and covers up her eyes like she just can't handle how funny the world is.

All she wants to do is go on walks and "go outside?" This weekend we've gone on four. You will be asked to go on a walk if you put on shoes, stand near any door to the outside world, start putting items together in the kitchen, if you hold shoes, if she sees shoes, if you step outside or if you say the words "outside" or "walk." Thank goodness it's getting so much nicer outside, especially in the mornings. She says "all done walk" when she's had enough but "no home" when she senses we're headed there too early.

When we go to get her up in the morning, she's just so happy and funny. She does this thing for about five minutes where she makes us laugh, rolling around wrestling Puppy, bouncing on her mattress or crawling from one side to another and then splatting on her tummy, and I have to make surprised remarks like, "I guess June is still sleeping!" and she has to giggle and roll over and reveal that she's not.

And she'll even hold still long enough for me to snuggle her sometimes. It's usually right before bed, or when I hold her and nuzzle her neck while she squeals and giggles, or when I ask for a hug and she allows it by coming over and resting her head on my shoulder. Those are the small moments that occur between the large expanses of chasing her around the house and the neighborhood. But when I tell her that I love her and then ask if she loves me, she nods and grins and gives me a kiss, and it's worth all the chasing.

18 Months!

Our sweet little girl is one and a half today!

In honor of the occasion, I'm finally getting around to posting a link to the video I made documenting her first year of life. It's probably a little long for random blog viewers (7 minutes) but I thought some of you might be interested in viewing. And I just couldn't bring myself to cut it down to fit into a single song. Without further ado:

June's First Year

A year and a half! That much already! Or, maybe that's all - only a year and a half? Surely this little spirit has been around much longer than that!

Happy half birthday, June!

Make a Splash

On Sunday morning, if you'll believe it, June was the last one to wake. She'd stayed up so much later than usual the night before and she ended up sleeping until 8, which is unheard of around these parts. She awoke so excited to see that Kai was still around and had just enough time to watch the end of the movie "Up."

Then our group headed to the splash pad in Fountain Hills.

So this is the time of year that I start seeing other people post pictures of themselves in cozy sweaters and changing leaves and pumpkin spice lattes. Yet here we stand in Arizona with daily highs still reaching into the triple digits. The water at the splash pad was a little chilly but it was so warm outside that the kids were willing to frolic in the fountains...and I was tempted to do the same.

I think Kai and June helped egg each other on when it came to being daring with the fountains. Kai would do something to make June laugh and June would copy him as best she could.

I die every time one of them initiates a hug with the other one. Neither ever says no. I hope these cousins always get along this well.

And yes, I enjoyed my morning with my family in our bathing suits, but I'm ready for the Fall. And I'm jealous of all of you and your sweaters. And your not sweating all the time in October.

Oktoberfest

In the past few weeks, JP has gotten the chance to do what few others before him have done...he has attended both the real German Oktoberfest and the second-best Fountain Hills Oktoberfest. Within days of returning from his European vacation, I set about hanging out with him and Kai and Michael suggested the festival held at the Fountain Hills park.

June got all dressed up to go, including her pigtails, which is her favorite way to have her hair done these days. 

We made the mistake of telling June she was going to see her cousin Kai. She doesn't really get the concept of delayed gratification and therefore sadly called out to Kai half the way there. It was worth it, though, to see how happy she was to finally see him. And to watch them hug the roughly 2,000 times they did that night.

The weather was perfect. The sun had gone down and coolness creeped up from the grass below.  

Soon after arriving we got beer and German food and set out the blanket to enjoy the surroundings. There was music, dancing, competitions and a wiener dog race.

Kai loved dancing to get June to dance, and June loved doing whatever Kai was doing:

Seriously, that is a mental snapshot for my memory book. JP and Michael were off getting food and I was sitting on that blanket watching June and Kai dance and run around, June plopping down and laughing because the grade of the hill was throwing her off balance...I was so content in that moment and for the rest of the night afterward.

Kai got to finish the night by jumping in all of the bounce house games while June walked her dad through the crowd.