Happy birthday Juner!

It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since we welcomed June into our family.

Mama, who was convinced she was having a boy, and never made the decision whether to name him Walter or Simon, is still shocked at her little girl and how REALLY different it is raising boys and girls. (By the way, papa always knew he was getting a Junebug, so he never stressed about picking a bay's name.)

Our little family has really changed in the past year. Look at how little Henry was! What were we thinking having another baby so soon?

Back then, Juner didn't do much but lie around and sleep.

But now at one year, she is full-time stinker.

She spends most of her time making messes and emptying out everything, including toy bins, cupboards, and drawers. She's not walking yet, but it getting very sturdy on her two little legs. And she is very proficient in climbing stairs and sliding down on her belly. She also maintains her enormous appetite. She normally eats more than Henry, which isn't really saying much. But as she gets older, she is becoming more picky about what she'll eat. She will still eat pretty much anything, with the exception of the following:
-Avacados
-Green beans
-Hot dogs
-Any kind of bread
Mama's beside herself that June won't eat bread, because it's a big lunchtime staple in the Turner house. Papa thinks that June is joining in a no-starch solidarity with him.
Mama had a few old dresses from when she was a baby and got them out for another photo shoot.
We had to do this one inside because it was raining outside.
June had a great time laughing it up at papa.
And is apparently 1 going on 15, judging by this dirty look she's giving her brother.
We're determined to let her bangs grown out, but after a month of never bothering her hair barrette, Juner now refuses to keep on in.
June LOVES music, so she's very fond of her Little Einstein June doll, which sings classical music when you push her belly. (Henry likes it too and sings along, so now we here "Hi, I'm June. I love to dance." about 300 times a day.)

Henry wanted in on the fun and sat still for about 3 seconds to get his picture taken.

Some of our loyal readers have voiced concern over the fact that Henry is being potty trained with pink training pants. We'll give you the Madison excuse first: We're not pushing gender roles and want Henry to be comfortable in whatever he chooses (he does prefer the pink underpants to the blue ones we have. But so help us if he starts wearing pink polo shirts with the collar popped). But Henry's so entrenched in his cars and construction vehicles, he doesn't have time to worry about what "girl stuff" is. Here's the real reason he's training in Annalise's old underpants: training pants are expensive! They're $7 for 3 pairs! Sorry Henry, but no one else in this family has underpants that expensive, and we don't even have to worry about accidents. So, since they're transitional underpants that will hopefully only last for a few weeks, he gets the pink ones. Then there's a full stock of Thomas and Car movie big boy pants waiting for him.

Since we're on the subject, potty training is going great! In the 4 days we've been working on it, there have only been 2 accidents. And both of them have occurred when Henry was alone while mama or papa were putting Juner to bed. Henry has been told many times that he'd get it if he runs in while Juner was trying to go to sleep, so we think that's the reason for the accidents.

And something huge happened last night! Henry pooped in the potty! We were all very proud of him and made a very big deal out of it. I guess there's a lot to be said for a kid who waits for ever to train. This has really been a very seamless transition.

Back to the photo shoot. Mama loves this dress (Grandma Seibert, did you make this one?). But papa thinks it's a bit old fashioned, even for a 27 year old dress. So he made a lot of wise cracks about it.

"Mama wore this dress for the first time she met Johnny Tremain."

"Paul Revere really liked this dress when mama wore it on her first date."

In the end, June preferred to lose the fancy dresses and just stick with the fancy panties.