The Turner Girls go to Washington- Juner.

Mama and I left the boys at home and headed to Washington DC to go to Miss Leah's house.

Miss Colleen and Connor also flew in from Cincinnati for vacation.Since it was raining, we were forced to spend all day walking around a mall. Later, Miss Maggie came over and we had a fun evening at home.



Despite the fact that neither of us had naps, we stayed in pretty good moods, but our mamas still put us to bed early.
We had a good time, but also spent a lot of time fighting over toys. We weren't happy when they made us pose together.

My mom is so embarrassing. She made us take a bath together. I know she'll get this picture out in 15 years.

Despite being 3 months apart, we're almost exactly the same size.

But Connor doesn't have quite the same belly girth that I do.

Miss Leah gives bathtime a big thumbs up.

After we got our jammies on, we jockeyed for position at the window.

Then, the girls spent the rest of the night trying to get me to walk.

I'm getting better and took 7 steps on my own.

More pictures? Can't you just put us to bed already?

Connor and his mama snuggle before bed.

After we went to bed, the party really got started. Miss Maggie made and awesome chocolate espresso cake for mama's birthday and Miss Leah made an excellent chicken pot pie.

Good friends and full bellies.

Spring Folly and a party- Juner.

On Friday Gracie and Audrey came over for a playdate which turned into a cookout when Miss Becky revealed she didn't know what a bratwurst was (the atrocity!).

The party got loud when the Budnick-Hurrs showed up and mama spent the rest of the night yelling at kids to stop coming in and out of the house. Finally, papa turned on the tv to try and get Gracie and Henry to settle down.

Mister Paul and I settled in to watch Bob the Builder.

On Saturday we headed to Kernersville to the Spring Folly (also so we had an excuse to go out to supper at Cook Out, our favorite restaurant that serves burgers and Lexington style barbeque). We got to the festival a little late and the peculiar fair people were starting to emerge. But the police and fire equipment were still out on display.

Also on display were two cars that were in accidents.

Henry had a lot of questions about why there were car crashes and the cars broke. Mama tried to explain that they were probably driving to fast or not being careful. We went back to look at these cars 4 times.

We walked around and watched the live acts and searched the booths for bargains. Mama did buy me some new hand made hair barettes. The barettes I wear are all the rage down here, except most little girls wear huge bows that take up half their heads. We haven't ventured into that territory yet. On our way out we saw the most fun game yet. It was two water balloon launchers ponted at each other. We watched for a long time and ever got our legs wet.

We had to take a picture of June when we got home. This is the new dress she got from Aunt Girl for her birthday and it's adorable!

This morning mama and papa have given me a lot of attention to try and get me to walk some more (we're up to 4 or 5 steps and I giggle the whole way). We think Henry is a little jealous because now he insists on pretending he's a baby. It's worked out pretty well because he climbed in June's high chair and just wants to sit there and play cars.

Well, it's nice except when he demands that he pooped and needs a "diaper change."

Gracie's soccer game- Henry.

Mama was named the unofficial photographer of Gracie's soccer team- the Purple People Eaters. So yesterday morning, we got up and braved the light sprinkles (everyone there sat under umbrellas the whole time and it never rained- don't get us started) to go see Gracie play some soccer.

She tried to get some action shots for the video yearbook Mister Andy is going to make, but three-year-old soccer mostly looks like this.

Or it involves a little kid goofing off. This one spent most of the game singing into a dandelion.

This guy is the star of the team or at least the only one athletic enough to run and kick a ball at the same time.

Miss Becky grabbed Juner for a little fun.

What a pretty girl.

The four loudest kids on the block.

Mama and Miss Becky are counting the days until Gracie and I go to 5 day a week, 6 hour a day summer preschool. It's going to be the best summer ever!

Gracie gets some direction from Mister Andy.

Gracie's pretty good at soccer and ever scored a goal, but she was also very willing to sit out whenever she got the chance.

Audrey and I made a great cheering section. I was mildly interested in the game, but spent more time pretending to sleep on the blanket and yelling at people for waking me up.

April 30th, a day that will live in infamy- June.

Aunt Jenni, start saving up your ice cream money, because you owe me a blizzard.

I've been showing off by standing on my own lately. Mama decided it was high time that I start walking on my own, so last night they got out the cattle prod started some intense training. Henry tried to help motivate me with my blankie, but that kid is intense. If I walked to him, he'd probably just jump on top of me.

Grandma Cooper thinks I've been able to walk for months, but am just too stubborn to do it for anyone. Who would think I'm stubborn?

Finally, I took a few steps. This is the best that mama and papa got on video, but they said we can still count it.

Bedtime update- June.

We're willing to try anything to get Henry to go to sleep.

We heard about sewing a nuk inside a stuffed animal. That way, the child still feels close to his nukie and has a new lovey to make him feel safe. So we found an extra nuk around the house (actually, Henry found it on top of a very tall dresser- it's like he has a sixth sense for nuks). Then Henry picked out a stuffed animal- a truck, of course.

Then we opened it up and bid the last nukie farewell. Henry was excited about feeling for his m nuk inside the truck for about 2 seconds. Now he tolerates having the truck in bed with him, but it certainly isn't a comfort.

We're mostly past sobbing inconsolibly every time Henry goes to bed and have just moved on to getting up about 15 times before finally settling down and going to sleep. It's driving mama crazy because she has missed most of her shows from running Henry back up to bed. He never comes down during commercials.

We've also tried bribery in the form of candy, matchbox cars, and the promise of visits with his friends, but to no avail. Our latest strategy is the old exhaustion method. We got him up at 6 am this morning and are hoping he'll just bo too tired to fight. But in our experience, the more tired Henry gets, the more energetic he is.

Despite our frustrations over bedtime, we still find Henry mildly amusing from time to time. Here's a few funny things he's said this week. To mama's displeasure, he has become very aware of what other people call their parents. When talking about other kids, he is very careful to refer to their parents as "mommy" and "daddy." He also thinks it's a very funny joke to call mama "mommy." She doesn't like it as it took her long enough to get Henry to stop calling her Becky.

Yesterday on the way home from school, Henry was chatting nonstop (what's new). Our favorite topic after school is what we'll eat for lunch. Usually it's peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese and pickles, or bagels with fruit on top. Yesterday, Henry focused in on vegetables, proclaiming that his favorite vegetable was baked beans and he'd never have to eat anything else again because beans are a vegetable and he chooses baked beans. Mama argued with him for a while that baked beans are really a legume in sugar sauce, but he wouldn't hear it. Luckily, he still agreed to eat his corn before he got his bowl of baked beans.

On a cross-town trip, Henry announced that he needed to pee. As we were only a few minutes from home, mama asked if he could hold it until we got home. He decided he wanted to stop and use a restroom in a gas station. Because I was with them, mama did not want to stop and try to deal with two kids in a nasty gas station bathroom. But could he please hold it until we made it home to our potty? This launched Henry into a 5 minute lecture on how "those buildings have restrooms with toilets. Our house has a bathroom with a potty. I don't want to go to the bathroom, I want to use the restroom." Luckily he talked so long he forgot about aving to pee until we got home.

We try to give Henry positive reinforcement as often as possible, becuase it feels like we spend most of our time yelling at him and saying no. Apparently, this is already annoying for him because yesterday mama applauded him for making a good choice and he chastised her not to say those words because "good" and "choice" are bad words in this house. Unfortunately, the phrase "What the heck?" has passed his strict standards and is often muttered under his breath.

Finally, after lunch today, Henry told mama that his belly hurt and that he had to stop eating or he might throw up. Mama was a little concerned, but he didn't mention it again. When she put him up to bed, he was actually quiet and didn't come out for a while. She patted herself on the back that we might actually have a breakthrough. But 2 minutes later, Henry came downstairs and lifted up his shirt to show a belly covered in band-aids. He said the "George stickers" (our band-aids have Curious George on them) made his belly feel better and that it doesn't hurt any more. Mama wanted to take a picture, but it a drill sargeant about not encouraging Henry to get out of bed. So she just sent him back to bed. The good news? He hasn't come out again and appears to be asleep!

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.