Juniper Update

Juniper has decided that she has reformed taste buds and refuses baby cereal and pureed or smashed foods of any kind. She’s a girl who knows what she wants, what can we say? She’s recently discovered that she does in fact like avocado, banana, carrot, sweet potato, chicken breast and grits!  The jury is still out on butternut squash, I think it’s because when cooked it mostly turned to mush. (Remember she’s not a fan of smashed food?) She has entered the stage where you can’t possibly feed her fast enough so meal times have included lots of loud yells and banging of fists.

Getting ready to go for a walk

Another realization that this child has had….she’s no longer a baby and doesn’t want to play on the floor with baby toys! So, she’s anxiously awaiting her own boxes from Amazon with some new “big girl” toys. Apparently toys on the floor are only for babies.  Until those toys come she has decided that it’s acceptable to stand in the living room inside her baby bathtub it just so happens that it’s the perfect height for her.

Sunshine

We’ve been enjoying what seems like endless amounts of sunshine the last few weeks. The official sunrise is somewhere around 8:45AM, but predawn/dawn light begins around 7:45ish. (We count that as daylight time because during winter that predawn light is what our sunrise looks like) The official sunset time is a little bit after 9:00PM right now but again it’s dusk for much longer than that, typically 9:45-10:00ish. We’re gaining approximately 5+ minutes of daylight per day right now.

We’ve all made the mistake of not realizing the time until after 10PM because of the sun. Our living room windows are on the west side of our house so the afternoon/evening sun lights up our living room until the sun has completely set. We can read by sunlight in the living room until at least 8:45PM.

Junie can't wait until we buy her some sunglasses! The sun is SO BRIGHT!

Check out this picture I took around 9:21 on Thursday.

 
This is the same view out our living room window just a few minutes 

after 9PM last night.

We went on our first of hopefully many walks during the week of spring break and have been on a few since we’ve been back to school. Sunshine is a soothing balm to the soul, feeling the warmth of the sun on your back while you’re walking make me realize how much I’ve missed the sun. Junie is a huge fan of getting outside, during the winter she only left the house if we were going somewhere or she was skypeing with her grandparents. She’s getting much better at breathing in the wind; but it’s still a struggle for her.

A little bit of everything

We went to Anchorage for Spring break on Saturday morning. We spent a few days there getting some things checked off the to-do list and just enjoying some time away. Something that we don’t mention often here is that life in the village can be rather grueling at times. We don’t mention it because we don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression; we LOVE what we do and where we live. However, there are times that not being able to get away from it all becomes overwhelming.  We’d hit one of those times where there is no escape from work because the lines between home life and work are so easily blurred here. We have both spent several hours working from home on weeknights and working extra duty hours on the weekends to supervise student activities. Since coming back from Christmas break we haven’t had any days off, teacher friends know how absolutely grueling the month of February can be! Before Christmas we had a vacation day on the calendar for February but because of the inclement weather we moved that day to help everyone get out of the village ahead of the storm(INSERT HYPERLINK). So, to say that we are ready for a break is an understatement. February has felt like the month that would never end.

We had cookies one weekend and Junie decided she must have one of her teething cookies
anytime one of us had a cookie.

On a positive note Miss Junie is growing like a weed and learning new things everyday. In the past few weeks she has discovered that food is indeed good, coats mean mama and daddy are leaving, she’s learned to wave goodbye (before the door shuts), and has been talking up a storm. Her current favorite phrase is da, da, dah, day, which of course she says when she wants to be rescued from her mean mama who is making her take a nap or go to bed or fill in the blank! J This last weekend we had to lower her crib mattress to the lowest setting because she’s finally figured out how to pull herself up and look over the edge of the rail. Her favorite position currently is standing.

Junies favorite Valentine's Day presents from Nana and Grammy--the cards!
Anytime they are within reach she is grabbing them.

Happy Valentine's Day 2016!

Cheering on 'Uncle Ben's' Boilermakers to a win!!!

Well baby visit at the clinic.

Spring Break

Spring Break always seems to come at the most perfect time during the Spring Semester. You know, that time when you're just totally burnt out and done with school? Yea-- that time! We were able to get away and head to Anchorage for a few days for break. It has been absolutely lovely. No cooking...no dishes...and Target?! What more could a girl ask for? (Simon appreciates the no cooking and dishes a little more than I do, but Target, that's all me!)

Waiting for the plane to arrive in Goodnews--Junie was so excited for Anchorage
she woke up at 6:45 and decided not to nap!

The Bush Plane--Junie's favorite place to nap!

We left Goodnews on the first flight on Saturday just to make sure we'd make it into and out of Bethel on time. Well good news for us--the plane was almost exactly on time and we made it to Bethel much earlier than we'd planned AND there were open seats on the afternoon jet to Anchorage. So, instead of sitting at the Bethel airport for 8+ hours, we were there for not even an hour and hopped on the plane to Anchorage. Getting into and out of Bethel in such a short time is a total blessing--we were SO thankful to arrive in Anchorage early in the afternoon instead of late at night. We got the first thing checked off of our to-do list, Simon's haircut!

Another perk of the early flight--an open seat for TOYS!

Trips to Anchorage are always interesting- they are equal parts fun and business. It seems like we always have things to buy and places to go when we come into Anchorage, but we always make time for some fun things too. This trip we've checked everything off of our to-do list and even had some fun swimming, eating some favorite foods and checking out the craft exhibit at Fur Rondy. Juniper was a big fan of our swimming..I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Riding in the grocery cart is so fun!!!

The Carnival at Fur Rondy. Look closely just to the right of the ferris wheel is a bush plane.

Simon sold some of his fox pelts and also traded some for a pretty sweet hat. Juniper also thought that it was a pretty cool hat--while we were driving Tuesday morning she reached over and snagged it unbeknownst to us. When we parked I walked around to the back and saw her with it up near her face looking pretty closely it. As soon as she saw me she put it down by her feet. Her face said, "Who me?! I didn't have the fox hat, Mama." The picture is hard to see because the sun was shining in our faces.

Not to worry we got out of the sun right after the picture.

The week before Spring Break, Junie decided that she does in fact LIKE food. She's been tolerating eating food for the past month or so, but now she's officially a fan. If you're eating it she probably should be too. Here's a picture of her trying to get to our dinner on Monday night. Some of her favorite time is the continental breakfast at the hotel- she's a hotel celebrity! The breakfast hostess is always waiting with a smile--Junie loves the attention! Getting out is kind of a big deal for her. On average, she sees 4 people per week and 3 of them live with her. She LOVES to watch people when we go places. As long as they don't touch her or get too close she's happy.

Breakfast at the hotel

Watching us eat dinner Monday

We met our State Mentor, Carol, for lunch at Moose's Tooth, the most famous pizza place in Alaska. Junie enjoyed it even though she could hardly see the top of the table! #shortpeopleproblems

Can we go? I'm ready to take a nap!

We head back to Goodnews in the morning on the 6:15AM flight, whew--I'm tired just thinking about getting up that early. Stay tuned we have several more posts ready to publish during Spring Break!