One tired little girl- Henry.

Due to the fact that I have not been sleeping well as of late, Juner also hasn't been sleeping well. We were up late last night and up really early thing morning- before 7. I know it's not that early, but we're used to an 8 am wake-up in this house. All of this has been starting to wear down Juner and today she succumbed to sleep right in the middle of lunch.

Well, lunch was winding down and, as usual, mama was tending to me in the bathroom and left Juner in her high chair to throw baked beans while she waited.

But Gugger didn't make it that far and after a few minutes, mama had to wake her up to take her upstairs.

For my sleep update, papa took me to the store last night. In addition to buying me a new pair of flip-flops that I can put on all by myself (good night), he also bought me a new car and a bag of candy for the express purpose of bribery. Concerned that mama might actually throw me out a window on of these days, papa promised that if I stayed in bed at naptime and bedtime, I could get a treat. Last night, I was up three times, which actually is moderately successful. And today, I only got up once to announce to mama that I am too scared to sleep in my room alone. (June sleeps in mama and papa's room at naptime.) This made mama laugh because two nights ago I announced I was too scared to sleep in my room with June. And my books. And my cars. What a frightening life I lead. But mama hasn't heard a peep in almost 20 minutes, so I must be asleep. Looks like I'll be eating a peanut butter cup for a snack today!

Summer clothes- Juner.

Now that it is officially stinking, we've collectively shunned long pants and any sort of sleeve. Which, lucky for you, means a whole new collection of cute clothes and bare arms and legs.

Mama thinks she may start a new blog entitled "What June is wearing today" just so you can log on and drool over my chubby legs and fountain hair.

Who knew bending over could be so charming?

Unfortunately for Henry, his new blog would be entitled "If I have to come upstairs one more time..." and would detail the numnerous threats mama has made or has wanted to make because it's beena week without the nuk and Henry still refuses to sleep. Every afternoon and every night has become a two hour marathon session of screaming, getting out of bed, and mama getting very angry because Henry will not go to sleep. We thought this was supposed to get better over time.

North Carolina Zoo- Henry.

Despite the fact that it was 95 degrees this weekend, we decided to venture down to Asheboro to check out North Carolina's zoo.

Papa and mama were excited to take me because I've seemed especially excited about animals lately. When they told me we were going, I spent all morning listing the animals I wanted to see. Since the two big ones were elephants and giraffes, we started off our trip in the African part of the zoo.

The NC Zoo is different than others we've been to because it is focused more on creating a natural habitat for the animals, with paths around the habitats and viewing areas for visitors. This means the zoo is very spread out. But someone was thinking when they built the zoo, because all of the pats through the zoo are heavily wooded and shady, a plus for a 95 degree day.

Plus, they had cool exhibits about what it is like to study animals in the wild.

Mama and I went on a helicopter ride looking for elephants that we were tracking.

I was pleased to fly all by myself.

Mama almost packed us up and went home because as soon as we got to a viewing area, I immediately announced "Let's go see something else." Often times I wouldn't even look at the animal before expressing my desire to see a different one. Not so pleasing when you're pushing a double stroller 200 yards between viewing stations.

But I was nice and cooled it before mama threw me over the fence to the rhinos.

As usual, the coolest things we saw often weren't the biggest things. Mama was particularly interested in these frogs in the lions' habitat.

Too bad there's no sense of scale, because we swear these frogs were the size of dinner plates.

And what would a zoo be without huge bronze statues? Juner wasn't interested in getting her picture taken.

I watched for a few seconds when the lions came out.Papa spotted a garter snake (we hope) slithering down the path. But I was more interested in mama showing me where the snake would be on the map, and probably didn't even see the real one. So what if I find more pleasure pouring over a map and plotting our course for the day than actually seeing anything? I get that from mama.

Inside the jungle, I splayed a few games before mama accidentally slammed my finger in the door. My pain was only remedied by a banana and the promise of a zoo favorite...

...the carousel. As usual, I shunned the moving animals for a stationary post. But we were pleased to see that this bird's nest spun.

After lunch, papa treated us to a cool treat- ice cream. June was funny because she was trying to lick the cone like I did.

Everyone was eager for their turn, often proclaiming that mama was not sharing like she promised.

Eventually, June gave up licking and just tried to grab as much ice cream as she could.

The zoo was about 2 miles long and soon the heat caught up with June and she took off her pants and fell asleep in the back of the stroller clutching her water. It's going to be a long summer for June. Whenever she gets hot, she refuses to eat and will only chug cup after cup of water.

Luckily, she woke up in time for the highlight of our trip- the shuttle ride back to our van.

Lazy Saturday- Henry.

Juner's got a cold and a little fever and mama stayed up too late playing video games, so papa and i decided to let them sleep in today. When they both finally rolled out of bed at 10:30, they were in pretty good moods.

Look at how cute she is in her little jammies.

What a stinker. We stayed in and tried to keep cool because it was 95 degrees today. (In April no less.) But we managed to amke it the whole day without turning on our air conditioning. We kept the blinds closed and our little brick condo stayed pretty cool.

I didn't want to take a nap, but mama said if I did we could make pancakes and eat outside. I got my supplies out and decided to paint my pancakes with syrup.

And of course I licked the brush.

Juner hasn't been eating much since she's been sick, but at least she's not barfing like she normally does. She probably doesn't eat much because all of her food tastes like snot.

Aunt Jenni and mama have been debating on whether or not old potatoes would grow mama stuck them in the ground. So she dug them out of the pantry (eek, it's been a long time since we've eaten a potato) and stuck them in the ground tonight. we'll see if anything happens.

We stopped at the farmer's market and picked up tomatoes and peppers. Mama got 4 cherry tomato plants because it's the only veggie that Juner and I always want seconds of.

On the other end is the onion patch.

From the left, we're growing sunflowers, radishes, and peas. On the far right are our two basil plants. And yesterday we planted more seeds for more basil and cilantro. Mama says all she wants now are a few more things for her herb garden, like mint and parsley.

Here's out little backyard, cluttered full of toys.

After supper, we decided to go for a little walk. Juner didn't do much walking, but did find some mud to sit in. You'll notice my boots again. I really like to put on my own shoes, but these are the only ones I can get on myself. It looks like we're headed down a slippery slope to buying a pair of crocs. Does anyone have any better solutions?

Can someone please get this girl a hair barrette?

Aunt Jenni, do you remember this cute yellow number from Evie?

We think Juner is starting to feel a little better today, but that nose just won't let up.

Spring is great down here. We've never seen blooms like they have in North Carolina.

Papa hosted a tickle party.

Juner couldn't wait to get her tickles. We like it when she laughs. She sounds like a wookie from Star Wars.

What a bunch of goofs.

Friday in Greensboro- Juner.

Yesterday we took advantage of the nice weather and headed to Greensboro to the Natural Science Center. We happened to catch Miss Susan on the one afternoon that she isn't working or in class, so we made her come along with us. I showed her my little house.

And she brought me some groceries.

We headed outside to their little zoo and Henry conquered this huge beetle!

The lemurs were out and acting funny.

And even humored Henry a little. But Henry didn't care as much about them as he did about getting to see the two Bengal tigers. When we got there, he had very specific instructions about where we all had to sit and watch the tigers.

Before we left, we had to go down to the basement to check out the two headed turtle.

They say that it shouldn't have lived past being born, but it's ten years old.

Outside supper- Henry.

Spring is quickly coming to an end. The weather forecast for this weekend is 90 degrees. That is officially the temperature when mama closes the blinds and retreats to her cold basement- arg! It's going to be a long summer in our above ground house. And the pool doesn't open for another month!

So we're trying to make the most of the last few remaining days before the paint starts to blister and are spending as much time outside as possible. I didn't want to go down for a nap today without my nuk. So mama bargained with me and said if I took a nap, we could eat supper outside. I did settle down, so we got to enjoy a feast of chili dogs, edamame in the shell (my favorite!) and strawberries.

Mama was in a particularly good mood and let us eat cupcakes that she froze after Juner's birthday party. They were still delicious. Eating her cupcake, June was business on top...

...and party on the bottom. Check out that bare skin. We're also calling this the "seedy underbelly of the Piedmont" or the "Thunder Down Under."
Today at school, my classmate Brock was hugging a kissing June and ended up tackling June and knocked her over. I guess this is the kind of girl guys like.

We didn't bother washing hands or faces after that red dye was smeared in, because June was probably just going to go eat dirt anyway. So the red stains head to toe plus this outfit really made Juner look ridiculous.

She spent a good amount of time pushing the big wheel in a circle.

Then moved on to pushing the army truck. Check out Juner's favorite accessory- the necklace I made at the EggStravaganza. I'm not in any of the pictures because it took me a hour to finish supper tonight. Most of the time I instantly decare that I don't like mama's cooking and then sit until everyone is done. Tonight, I wanted to eat everything, but just took my sweet time.

Papa found a caterpillar.

It was very exciting for two reasons. First, we have a Little Einsteins DVD that focuses entirely on a caterpillar's journey to become a butterfly. Second, our computer has a screensaver that cycles through pictures saved on our hard drive. Henry's favorite is one of Evie with a caterpillar on her arm. He wouldn't put it on his arm, but did let papa try it out.

Here's another video.

Meanwhile, June made some more crazy faces.

We heard some commotion over at the high school and decided to head over to watch a girls soccer game. We took the wagon and both liked getting pulled by papa. Grandma Seibert, we need you to come cut our hair.

The Spartans were being demolished by RJ Reynolds High School. Yes, that's actually the name of the school. Our town exists solely for tobacco.

I climbed the stands while mama tried to ignore the looks of other parents wondering how two kids were so poorly dressed and so filthy. I really like my rain boots because I can put them on myself, so I wear them alot.

Why would anyone think we're weird?

Per the leg warmers, they were supposed to stay up on June's knees to protect her when she crawled ont he concrete. Mama thought it was funny that June was wearig her necklace like a holster and couldn't figure out how she got it on like that.

Then we spent some time leaning over the bars looking down at the four foot drop onto hard concrete.

We're risk-takers.

Mama and I decided to walk around the track. I spent my time looking for more caterpillars. I found one that mama thought had been stomped and tried to wake him up from his nap, but no amount of blowing or yelling helped. Then I found a really big one in the pole vault pit.

Best friends.

Papa pulled us home and mama threw us straight into the bathtub. We left a ring that will have to be scrubbed.

On the bedtime front, mama and papa have decided that maybe they need to spend more time helping me calm down at night. This means that bedtime has an extra 30 minutes of stories and cuddling. Today there were no tears, but there were still about 10 trips to return me to bed. And I was even asleep by 10pm. Maybe we're turning a corner.