Indy in Winter

There's something about snow at Christmastime. 

I know that it might be different when you live there and have to deal with the inconveniences of snow on a daily basis. I know I got to enjoy my white winter and then go back to Arizona where the sun is shining and it's merely sweater weather. And I know that it was a little after Christmas when we were there, but still. There's something about snow at Christmastime. 

I kept finding myself staring out windows. I couldn't wait to get out and play with June in it. 

We had a very cozy stay with my in-laws for a few days. Our time was filled with home-cooked meals and seeing the family and we even squeezed in a date night! (My dearest love saw Les Mis with me and I think I need to see it again because I was just squealing through the whole thing. In between the open sobbing, that is.)

One of my favorite nights was when my parents came to visit for an evening. We ate, played games and ended up having a tournament of leg wrestling on the living room floor. 

For some reason June adores her cousin James. She's generally pretty shy around other people when she first meets them. And even once she opens up, she's not particularly fond of other people holding her. But she would walk up to James with a book and sit on his lap as he read to her. She would shimmy up next to him and sit on his lap as he played games with the girls. It was so adorable.

Lauren and Meredith got June a book that has buttons that make little sounds to go along with the story. There are these three buttons that play about 15 seconds of songs. Amira, Saige, June, my mom and I made up some dances to go with each one and did nothing but the dances for about 90 minutes. This picture depicts us doing "the superhero" and you can glimpse June lifting her arm in the back. 

Moments Not on Camera

June is hyper aware of cameras and phones these days. You can’t take out either without her dropping whatever she’s doing and running toward you saying, “Pictures? Pictures Junie?” She wants to look at pictures and, more specifically, videos of herself. Obviously a narcissist. Because of this, I don’t have as many pictures of some precious moments because I don’t want to ruin the moment with her distraction. So since I won’t have recorded memories of these things, allow me to describe.

Right before bedtime, when the lights are off and June’s all drowsy and pajama’d, we have a family hug. And most of the time, June will reach her hands back behind us, one behind Michael’s head and one behind mine, and push our heads together so we kiss. June makes me and Michael kiss. It’s…the strangest, cutest, funniest little thing I’ve ever seen. After we kiss, we both turn to her and give her tons of tiny kisses on her cheeks and she giggles.

Every once in a while, when someone says the words “big girl” or “baby,” June will insist on telling people she’s a baby. “No big girl, I baby.” If you ask her if she’s a big girl or a baby, she’ll say “I baby” every time. Sometimes I try to coach her. “Don’t you want to be a big girl? Isn’t it more fun to do big girl things?” “No. No big girl. I baby.” It cracks everyone up when they hear her say it. I have no idea where she’s getting this from. Does she sense that babies get lots of love and attention? Is there a book they read at school about how great it is to be a baby? Is she remembering how I sometimes cradle her and sing, “You’re my little baby, you’re my little baby”?

The other morning before work, I was headed out the door and asked June for a kiss. I squatted down in front of her and she leaned in and kissed me on the lips. She then leaned in and kissed me on the nose. Then she placed her sticky little hands on either side of my face and turned my head to the side so she could kiss one, and then the other, cheek. The she kissed each of my eyes. And then my eyebrows. All of her own volition. Since then, I've gone through the gauntlet of pointing to different places on my face and having her kiss them, but I never want to forget that first day when she did it all on her own. 

The Snow and a Sled

And there was snow. So much snow. 

The funny thing is that Danville and even other parts of Indianapolis didn't seem to have quite the layer that we did. It was like the gods of winter said, "Let there be sledding at Grammy and PaPaw Fred's house! But also safe roads in general."

Circumstances for sledding didn't align until our third day there. Day One was for traveling. Day Two was for Illinois. And though Day Three was for family, it was also for the powdery white. (We also did some playing/sledding/adventuring in the woods on another day, and this post will feature documentation of all.)

So without further ado, I present unto you PICTURE OVERLOAD 2013. 

And let me say to my mother in-law, this: Judy, I hope you won't be mad that I posted this, the awesomest of photos. The looks on you and June's faces make it seem like you were going down the steepest of glaciers, so I won't comment on the actual grade of the "hill."

Danville at Christmas

The day after we arrived in Indiana, our little three-person family drove out to visit my family in Illinois. It was a quick 24-hour visit, but we squeezed in some memories and cheer.

Some of my favorite memories:

June holding hands with my dad and jumping and falling to the floor while Dad sang "all fall down!"

The whole family eating at one table at Steak N Shake.

Grandma Helen bringing out a stuffed dancing monkey that my Uncle Dan gave her at at Christmas past. June l.o.v.e.d. that thing. She would bring it from one flat surface to another and watch as it danced and made crazy monkey noises.

JP opening up an awesome collection of items during the take away game and wearing the contents for the rest of the night (see below).

Hearing my Grandma Helen tell us about her early years of marriage to my Grandpa John. (The more I hear about those two, the more I feel like Michael is like Grandpa John, which is a good thing.)

And now, some of my favorite photos:

At the Steak N Shake:

Four generations!

Check out the last time we took one of these:

Holiday Travel

This year's holiday travel was great on the way out and pretty tough on the way back.

We considered our options on this flight. June being under two, we could still have her as a lap baby and not buy her a seat at all. But after having an open seat next to us on our last flight together - and seeing what a lifesaver it had been - we decided to bite the bullet and buy her a seat. 

Then came the choice to buy a restraining device, bring a car seat or try to try to sneak by without any device at all. 

We went for the car seat and were glad that we did. While everyone else was boarding, we pointed out that everyone had their seat and that June had her special seat. She liked her chair, slept a little and was otherwise a very good little traveler. 

It was fun - my mom, dad and brother were all on the same flight. They had all been upgraded to first class so this picture was taken when my mom came back to visit:

Traveling back home was another story. We were seated in what appeared to be an airborne daycare with babies all around, including a squalling baby across the aisle. June had a hard time falling asleep and an even harder time staying that way. 

I'm sure it wasn't the last time we'll have some issues flying with toddlers. Luckily the times had back home were good enough to make up for 4 hours of stress on a plane! Picture overload to come!