7 teeth and counting

Juni has a little icky sinus action this week, but she's been getting through it pretty well. She continues to take a few steps at a time, and gets so excited when it works out like she has planned! I have to work quite a bit extra this week while my boss is out of town and I think we are both missing each other quite a bit, but Papa is doing a great job with the extra hours he has with her. He manages to get 3 times as much done when he is home with her as I can.

She had her 12 month check-up at the pediatrician and the orthopedist this week. Both went well, except for the shots in her poor little arms. Poor girl. :( 

Happy 100th Post ;)

Walking, Climing, Oh My!

Yesterday Juni took four steps on her own between her Papa and I. I'm sure she'll be running around this place in no time! We were still watching her close today to see if she would just get up and take off, but instead she has taken to crab walking :)

Then, this morning, she climbed up onto the couch all on her own. I looked over at her in shock and she just squealed and smiled so big!

I started pulling pictures for her next scrapbook (6-12months) and I couldn't believe how tiny she was at 6 months! I feel like she was such a big girl and doing so much then, but is so much bigger and doing so much more now! Ahhhh, I guess I will feel like this for the next 100 years :) Life of a Mama.

Birthday Week/Nebraska Family Time

Thank you so much to everyone who came to Juniper's party and sent her cards. It was such a great week and we were all so thankful to be able to spend it with family. We made it "home" tonight and Juni is sleeping the night away as I post this. I plan to do new things with the blog. I kept my Monday tradition for 53 weeks and I am ready, as many of you probably are, for some new ideas. I'll do my best to post regularly and I'm sure Juniper will continue to give me great material.

52 weeks

Ahhhh, I'm teary eyed already and I haven't even started the post. 52 weeks. In 2 days my baby girl will be one year old. I can't believe it. I love her more than I ever thought I could. She is strong and sweet and tenacious and joyful. Looking back where we started, I can't believe how far we've come.

This past weekend we traveled home to Nebraska to be with our families for Juniper's first birthday. Since it is only Monday, we haven't gotten a chance to see everyone yet, but Juni is enjoying every minute of making new friends with her family. She was sweet as could be on both flights as well as Easter church the next morning. I couldn't have asked for more out of her. I was amazed at how well she traveled and got along with such little naps.

A few new tricks she's been pulling out of her sleeve the past few weeks...
*sorting laundry (watching Mama pull laundry out of the big pile and throw it; she can do that too!)
*giving hugs
*clapping
*taking advantage of Juicy's toys (especially the balls with noise makers inside)
*hugging and kissing her animal toys
*getting down from Papa's lap on her own

Bathtime continues to be her favorite time of day. When she hears Papa start the tub water she will crawl in by his side and call for Mama to get in the tub with her. At the end of the day, bathtime continues to be Mama's favorite too. From the days of little Juni getting out of her harness, only for her bath, to the days of splashing and learning to blow bubbles under the water, it is a skin to skin time that we both cherish.


sadly, Juni's Grandma's computer is not reading my SD card :( I'll edit the post later with the pics from this week :)

Don't forget, Juni's party is this Saturday!!

51 weeks

Miss Juniper has had a great week with lots of new experiences. We bought her a walk and ride toy at a second hand store. She not only loves to walk with it, but loves when her Papa pushes her around the house on it. She often pulls it out of her toy corner all on her own so she can get up and around with it.
She is trying new foods all the time, but her new favorite of the week is beans! She couldn't get enough of them. Just plain beans, with a little salt mixed in. Who knew? :)

The beginning of the week was raining and raining, so we were happy to have to sun come out the end of the week. On Thursday we had a play date at the Oakland Zoo. It was the first time Juni or I had been. Of course they don't have as many animals as Omaha does, but I felt like the animals they did have were well taken care of and had lots of room compared to most zoos I have seen. It was nice.

She had another good week at swim. She achieved another goal (sitting in the shallow water, comfortably, unassisted). Of course, Juni has been sitting up since she was 6 months old, but she had been keeping her Papa close in the pool, until this week. She was making friends, waving, and sitting all her own without a care in the world.

A couple of times this week she gave me closed mouth kisses. She went back and forth between slobbery ones and pucker ones, but it is fun to see the things she is learning and realizing at this age. Today she went to the front door and then pulled her baby carrier off the shelf and started "talking" to us. So, we took her for a walk. I'm not sure if we were reading too much into it or not, but either way, we enjoyed our family walk!

I've been wondering how she will do with large groups of "strangers" when we are home as she is never really around large groups here. She and I were invited to a bridal shower on Sunday and Juni did so great. She was well behaved, friendly, and smiling the whole time. She let the ladies hold her and play with her without much reservation. I'm so thankful to have such a friendly gal.