Henry and June: Mar 1, 2009

Storm watch 2009.

UPDATE: 11:30 pm. It's now snowed an inch and a half. 312 closing have been reported. The doctor's office is closed, so June won't get her one year check up. And Wake Forest is now closed as well. Eat it up Wisconsin students. All the of students at Wake Forest live on campus and can't make it through a couple inches of snow. In our memory, there was one cancellation at Wisconsin and it was only for classes after 5 pm.

The storm of the century- for real this time.

There's a big storm coming to North Carolina tonight. They're forecasting 4 to 6 inches of snow. And not just the same 4 to 6 inches of snow that they're forecasted twice before this winter, but never came. It's really going to happen this time, just like they always say.

And because it's supposed to happen tonight, everything has already been closed for tomorrow. Check out that picture, already 122 closings have been reported, including every school in the state and most businesses. Mama's pretty sure that we're not going to get our picture taken with bunnies tomorrow morning- our appointment is at 9 am and the mall is probably already scheduled to be closed.

The TV stations are all over this story and are issuing some pretty crazy statements (in our opinion). They include "Snow will accumulate most in grassy areas and make driving conditions dangerous." (Dangerous in grassy areas?) "Make sure you have extra food and water on hand and an alternate heat source." (Too bad our condo doesn't have a fire place.) And mama's favorite "Snow will down trees, blocking roadways." Here's hoping that we make it through the night, and that no one gets hurt by the shower of trees falling on the roads. There may be 6 inches of snow after all.

UPDATE: In the time it took me to write this post, 68 more closings were reported. God help us.

Juner's birthday party- Henry.

We celebrated Juner's birthday yesterday with a party! We'd hoped for nice weather for an outdoor party, but a nasty storm has been in North Carolina since Thursday and it's been cold and sleeting for 3 days.

Miss Becky helped June open a present- a book about monkeys!

Juner also got some very cute summer clothes to wear- if it would only get warm! Thanks for the great presents everybody!

June and Audrey played on the floor.

And the big kids got to the important task at hand- decorating their cupcakes.

TJ, Henry, and Gracie did a great job, but were so busy having fun, most of the cupcakes were left behind (after the frosting was licked off, of course).

Since most of our parties in Wisconsin usually involved beer and cheese, we wanted our first
North Carolina party to feel authentic. So mama bought some Cheerwine for everyone to drink (it's a local cherry pop- excuse me- soda). Mister Andy said that he heard you were supposed to drink it with peanuts floating in it. The peanuts helped mellow the super sweetness of it, but at the end of the party, most of us decided we'd stick to Lexington barbeque if we wanted to act local.

Here's the big birthday moment. Don't worry- June didn't touch the candle.

And here's June inhaling her cake.

June by now is an old pro at cake eating and had her birthday cupcake demolished in no time.

She ate the first one so fast, papa gave her another.

And in the end, the only crumbs left were on her bloomers (which washed up well, despite the pink frosting that was ground in).

After a quick bath in the sink, June was ready to rejoin the party.

June and Audrey spent the rest of the afternoon feeding each other apple slices.
Mama was worried that things might got out of hand in our little house, but was pleasantly surprised that the three older kids spent most of their time playing quietly in the front room. She says the only one who was crazy was me. But I've been stuck in this house wince Thursday, hopped up on potty training and pink lemonade. What else could I do but get excited?

After the party, I helped clean up by eating the leftover fruit. Every piece got a clean toothpick and mama found out way too late that every dirty toothpick went right back into the clean toothpick pile.

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.