Spoiled rotten- Henry.

Mama is worried lately that perhaps June is receiving special treatment. As the first child, it was all rules, all the time with me. But June has the perfect set of circumstances- first, she's a girl and super adorable; second, she's the second child and mama and papa have mostly given up; third, the new baby is almost here and mama is just too tired to care anymore. That's how June gets away with stuff like this:

Yup, she's eating cereal at 10:30 in the morning while watching episodes of Dora on the computer while wearing her Precious. This never would have happened to me. Next, they'll let her eat crackers on the couch.
The Precious has become a real problem lately. June insists on wearing it every day. This is all new to mama, as I've never cared one way or another about clothes (except costumes, which I hate). Everyone assures mama that it's totally normal for a kid June's age. So mama tried to go along with it and said June could wear whatever she want. So June picked the Precious 4 days in a row. It's absolutely beautiful, but not really the most practical dress for going out in. It's enormous (and hangs down to her belly button) and mama doesn't want it getting super filthy. So after 4 days, mama shoved it in the laundry bin and told June to pick out something else. June picked out a vintage 28-year-old mama dress complete with long sleeves and lace collar. But mama let her wear it. Now mama has cleaned out the closet of all impractical and out of season clothes, so she doesn't have to fight June anymore.

Mama doesn't feel much like cooking anymore, which means we get to eat out more! Last week, papa brought home roast beef sandwiches, which we both loved! And mama and papa feel much better feeding us roast beef than McDonald's chicken nuggets, so they only feel moderately guilty about how bad our diet has gotten.
One night, in an effort to pry the Precious off June, mama found an Evie hand-me-down in the closet- a Dora nightgown!
June was pretty stoked and now requests her "Dora Precious" every night. This works out nicely for June, because it is a rare day that June is up before 10am. She must have mama's night-owl gene in her, because it always takes her at least an hour to calm down after she goes to bed- no matter what time she goes down. And this results in the late mornings. But it works out well for the Turner summers. Mama is also not sleeping well (thanks, baby Gus). She usually is up til past 2am, then tosses and turns (slowly) until around 6 or 7, then finally falls asleep for a few hours. Papa has been great and gets up and spends a quiet morning with me while the girls sleep. We are all going to have a very rude awakening come September while school starts back up.

One morning when I was at Vacation Bible School, June wore her Dora nightgown all morning and sorted beads into little bowls. She accessorized the outfit with two mismatched rainboots. She had been wearing her old rainboots, but they are now painfully small, so mama had to dig out her new boots for this fall.

Here's an old video we forgot to post from when we were home in Marion. June is getting very good at sound effects and even came in and fired a squirt gun at mama complete with Star Wars blaster sound effects. Where does she learn this stuff? I still don't even understand that guns shoot anything but water.

This movie is only 3 seconds long, but has a very brief payoff at the end. And this was probably June's only smile all week. It was a rough one in the Turner house. June was in a terrible mood. She didn't want to get out of bed. She didn't want to wear what anyone picked out. She didn't want to eat what we gave her. And all of that was sandwiched between major whining and temper tantrums. Not our normal Gugger.

Though she can't really communicate to tell us how she's feeling, mama and papa think two things are at work. First, June likes routine. We had a nice schedule going all year. They dropped me off at school, headed to the gym (or just "Donna" as June calls everything gym related, in honor of the wonderful woman who runs the day care). Then they came home and Junie got to watch a little Dora while mama took a shower. It was fun and predictable. But this summer, there is no schedule, so June is all out of sorts.

Second, and we could be wrong, but we think June knows something is going on. Although we don't think she understands that a new baby is coming, she senses things are rapidly changing and she is NOT okay with that. In an effort to curb her anxiety, mama and papa have been trying to give June more special one-on-one time. This seems to be working and she's been much more pleasant in the last few days.