Juno is 7 months old!

Our sweet little Juno turned 7 months old about a week ago!

This was a big month for her. She spent almost all of it in her Spica cast, which was not as bad as we thought it would be. Juno put up with it--she wasn't very happy during her time in the cast, but she wasn't miserable. One week before she turned 7 months, the doctor changed her cast to a broomstick cast, which is much more comfortable and allows her to bend at the waist.

We successfully weaned her off of prescription painkillers, which is an accomplishment because she got physically addicted to Lortab after her surgery. But she's clean now!

She started eating "big girl" food--rice cereal, carrots, applesauce, bananas, and crackers and drinking water from her sippy cup. She loves eating anything she can hold in her hand, but isn't interested in being fed by a spoon.

Part of the reason we started her on solid food is because she lost about a pound while in her Spica cast. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you only weigh 12 pounds, it certainly is. Her pediatrician is concerned, but I'm not (yet). All my babies are itty-bitty and all her muscles atrophied over the last few months, so it makes sense that she lost a little weight. I won't worry until she is cast free and not gaining.
Her sleep suffered while she was in her Spica, but she's getting back on track now and most nights she sleeps 3 hour stretches. That sounds awful for a 7-month-old, but after getting up every hour with her for 6 weeks, it is heaven.
Juno hasn't quite figured out the pincer grip (she still clutches things in her fist), but she can transfer things from hand to hand and put them in her mouth.
Juno has no trunk control or upper body strength to speak of, but she can sit up if she leans against the upper bar on her cast.

She may not have upper body strength, but she has some killer abs. She can lift her heavy legs all the way up and hold her toes while she is lying on her back!Overall, Juno is happy, healthy, and thriving. We are so grateful for her sweet, patient spirit! She is such a blessing to our family.

shake it up, baby!

Happy summer!

I'm always surprised on June 21st when I realize that it's the first official day of summer. Growing up in North Carolina, summer seemed to start much, much earlier--I guess since our pool was always open by mid-May. My birthday is the end of May and I always considered myself to have a summer birthday. Now that I live in Utah, I have realized that I most definitely do not have a summer birthday. My kids actually wore sweaters on Sunday--and that was June 19th!!

Anyway, since it is the first official day of summer, I thought we should start doing stuff on our summer bucket list. We decided to make ice cream--in a baggie! Super easy and super fun.

1. Mix 1 T sugar, 1 T vanilla extract or chocolate syrup, and 1/2 cup half and half in a sandwich ziplock bag. Seal the bag tightly.

2. Fill a pint sized bag halfway with ice and pour 1/4 cup coarse salt over the ice.

3. Put the sandwich bag in the pint bag (on top of the ice), seal, and shake!

We shook for about 5 minutes and then I put the bags in the girls' bumpiest push-bikes and had them ride up and down the driveway for a few minutes. That finished it off perfectly!

Mmmm, it was good!

Cleanup is great too--just toss everything!

an enchanted treehouse

We built a treehouse!!!!

I've had this plan floating around in my head for at least a year and I finally acted on it last week after I found a cheap used slide.

It's not very big--in fact, it's more like a platform with a slide coming down. Still, it's perfect for two little girls to climb all over.

There's a slide coming from the platform and a swing hanging from a branch over to the side.

It's the perfect little leafy getaway for eating lunch or reading!

I have a vision of turning this corner of the yard into an enchanted hideaway for the girls, filled with fairies and gnomes and butterflies to keep them company, and old stumps, rocks, and toadstools to sit on and entertain their guests. I was inspired in part by this darling fairy garden. And someday we might need an outdoor mud pie kitchen like this one.

And to start us off is this little toadstool, inspired by these. I made it out of a stump that we had to cut down when we built the treehouse and an old wooden salad bowl from DI that I spraypainted. I looooooove it. Isn't it darling?

guess I'll eat some worms....

This is an old picture of Tempe (from the summer of 2009), but it's what she looks like 90% of the time. This kid loves to play in the dirt. Nothing makes her happier than collecting dirt, rocks, sticks, leaves, grass, flowers, worms, bugs, and snails in a big tupperware bin in the backyard.

A few weeks ago Tempe was playing on the deck with a bucket full of dirt. She came in the house and said "Dad, did you know if you stretch a worm out too far, it breaks?"

And sure enough, there were several "broken" worms on the deck.

pink and purple striped girl

Can you believe 6 weeks has gone by since Juno's open reduction and Spica cast???

I can't!

But the calendar doesn't lie, and today Juno's Spica was removed and a new cast was put on. Her hips looked good enough for her to go into a different kind of cast--a broomstick cast. It's really two casts, one on each leg from thigh to ankle, held apart by a bar (or two, in her case!) Since it's only on her legs, she can wear normal diapers and bend at the waist! Woohoo! It's the little things that make me happy :)

Here's one last picture of her in her Spica cast. Jason convinced me that we should keep it, so I asked the doctor to save it for me. It actually doesn't smell bad at all--she doesn't sweat yet and we didn't have any blowouts during the 6 weeks she was in it. Right now it's in two pieces, but I'm going to tape it back together.

I was going to mark on her ankle at the bottom of her cast so that we could see how much she grew, but I forgot to. But I can tell you that she grew a lot.

And her she is in her broomstick cast! She's wearing a onesie so you can't see that it's only on her legs. It is so strange holding her without her big bulky cast. She's almost seven months old but she has no trunk control at all. It's like trying to hold a 3-week-old upright! I hope she gets stronger quickly and will learn to sit up soon. I think she will be much happier if she can sit and play with toys instead of laying on her back all the time.

So we've got 6 more weeks in this cast and then hopefully, that will be it!

hello, summer!

Tempe and Helena helped me put together a really fun get together for the neighborhood kids--a sidewalk chalk party! Check it out on my party blog.

{And I'd love some comments over there, too!}

Sidewalk chalk festival

Today we kicked off the summer with a fun party for the neighborhood kids.

It was actually 4 1/2 year old Tempe's idea. We went to a local chalk festival a few weeks ago and she has been asking me when we can have one of our own ever since. I thought the first week of summer vacation was the perfect occasion!

I kept it simple with store-bought popsicles (Scribblers--they are shaped like sidewalk chalk!), lemonade, and baskets of sidewalk chalk scattered around the driveway. The moms sat in the shade and chatted while the kids went crazy with the sidewalk chalk--and I was amazed by their creativity!

I made the invitation on Picnik and printed it on cardstock. I loooooove how it turned out!

We invited about 25 kids, ranging in age from 18 months to 11 years. This is the perfect party for a big range of ages. Toddlers to tweens love sidewalk chalk--actually, some of the moms were getting into it, too! We had a great time and I think it might become an annual tradition :)