mighty girl

This is Juno.
Here are some of Juno's favorite things: cars, trucks, trains, babies, playing house, t-ball, baseball, coloring, painting, football, dancing, basketball, tools, playing office, and cooking.
Do you see a pattern?
No. That's because there's not one. Juno likes both stereotypical "boy things" and stereotypical "girl things"--or, as we call them in our house, "things". I would hazard a guess that most kids are probably like Juno.
No need to label :)

June June

I need to take a few minutes and brag about my three year old Juno--or as she calls herself, June June.
She has made so much progress with her talking in the last few months--she's like a different kid! I have a "Quotable Kids" journal that I've kept for the past few years and lately all the entries are about Juno. That's so great! That means she's finally talking enough to be included!!
She has had a speech delay for a long time and was in speech therapy through Early Intervention from age 2-3. She aged out of that program when she turned 3 but still had a severe enough delay to qualify for services (spoken vocab of about 40-50 words, average sentence length of 1.2 words) so she started preschool twice a week. She has made HUGE strides forward in the past few months, though I really think it has nothing to do with her preschool (which I am not very happy with).
NO idea what her spoken vocabulary is now, but I'm sure it's in the hundreds at this point and she speaks in long complex sentences--8+ words. She's also had problems with articulation, but is getting better and strangers/non family members are able to understand her more and more every day. It's so much fun to be able to have a conversation with her now! I feel like I'm finally getting to know her as her own little person.
She has an old cell phone that's "her" phone and she's been making calls all day. Today she said "One minute, Mom, I text somebody." Jason and I have texting blocked on our phones, so I was surprised and innocently said "What's texting?" She rolled her eyes and said "O's and E's, Mom? Send?!" Dumb Mom can't even keep up with technology.
And tonight at dinner she was washing her hands in her soup and Tempe and Helena were laughing (Mom and Dad weren't). Juno got very embarrassed and said "Do not laugh at me, everybody!"
She's darling and has the greatest little personality that is finally starting to shine through--she's a fun kid!

help.

I've been neglecting my blog so much lately. I don't know why, it's such a great record of our family life and is immensely helpful when I make our family yearbooks! 
So I'm trying to get back into the habit of blogging more, just my daily thoughts and whatevs.
And I'll start with this post.
I need help.
Major, major help.
Juno is three. Until a few months ago, she slept from about 7:30-8:30 and took a 2-3 hour nap every day. Then, all at once, she dropped her nap and started waking up at 6 am every day. So she dropped 4+ hours of sleep pretty much overnight.
Most days she doesn't really need a nap (she can get by without one) and she still naps inconsistently--maybe twice a week. But getting up at 6 is really hard on the whole family. She won't play quietly in her room, so I spend the 6-7 hour getting up every 15 minutes and telling her to be quiet, leave her sisters alone, etc. We've tried putting a door lock on her doorknob so she just can't come out, but she can still open the door with it on.
I'm not totally opposed to getting up at 6 because at this point, my body now thinks that 6 is the time to wake up so I am not super tired, but it just makes the day so long. The only thing I can think of to do with her at that time is to watch tv and since she doesn't nap anymore, I need her to save her tv hours for midday when I need a break. Getting up for the day at 6 makes our days 1000% longer. It somehow adds way more time to fill than just an hour, I don't know why. It's really tough. I'm especially worried about how that would work when school gets out for the summer and I don't have anywhere to send my kids at 8:30. 
So, that's my first problem: how on earth do I readjust my expectations to starting my day at 6 am? What can we do that early in the morning??
My second problem is quiet time/naptime. 
I absolutely have to have 2 hours to myself in the middle of the day. It is necessary for my mental health and the well-being of my children. It will only get more important when I have a newborn in 3 months. Unfortunately, I have a really hard time relaxing when Juno is awake because I worry about what I will find when I come back downstairs. She's not the best about just watching tv and not destroying things. Also, her sister Helena is a bottomless pit who thinks you have to eat while you watch tv and will come in my room and ask me for a snack every 20 minutes of our 2 hour quiet time. I don't want her to eat a snack while she watches because a) it will be a huge mess that I have to clean up and b) she will still expect a snack at 3:00.
How can I make my kids quietly watch tv for 2 hours without constantly coming in and bugging me? Is 2 hours just too long? Do I need to readjust my expectations to 1 hour?
Please, throw advice at me. I am really stressing about how I will handle a newborn when I am getting up so early and not having a good mommy break during the day!

Christmas ornaments 2013

Jason's mom got him and all of his siblings an ornament every Christmas. Jason and I have continued the tradition in our own family and every year we have fun picking out an ornament that represents our kids' year. I decided to start taking a picture of each child with their ornament this year and here they are!

Tempe loves loves loves cats and she is so excited that we have one. Her ornament has a little cat and says "Home is where the cat is". That definitely sums up her year!

Helena is such a little diva and she wants to be a rock star. She even dressed up as a rock star for Halloween this year! Her ornament is a very glittery "Rock Star" ornament.

Juno loves tools and has fun "helping" fix things around the house. She even has her very own jigsaw just like Mom's! It's hard to get a picture of a three year old holding an ornament up so you can see it, but hers is a hammer and wrench.

Big girl!

Juno started preschool yesterday!!

"Yes!!!"

How did it go?
I'm not quite sure. She can't talk, after all, so the only thing she says when we ask about preschool is "Um, play!"
Her preschool is through the school district so it's in an elementary school (not our neighborhood school, grrrr). As soon as I opened the door to the school building, she said "Bye, Mom," and let go of my hand and started to walk away. I said "Oh wait, let me take you to your classroom!" When we got to her classroom, she again said "Bye, Mom," and walked right in without a backward glance. And she was all smiles when I picked her up! 
And I was a little mopey while she was gone (Helena is home with me in the mornings, but she went to a friend's house yesterday) but it wasn't too bad. I do find myself thinking longingly of the days that I had three crazy kids at home and we spent our days at the library, the park, playing in the yard with friends, going for walks, at the zoo, and doing sidewalk chalk on the driveway. I really loved having a houseful of little kids home with me full time. BUT life goes on and we are in a new phase!

Happy birthday, Junebug!

Juno's three!!!!!

I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday that she was born. She is such a joy to our family and we love her so much!!
Juno is quite a little tomboy--her favorite things right now are balls (and "play ball", or soccer), tools, and cars/trucks/trains. She is a good little handyman. She helped Grandpa K fix our front door a few weeks ago (handing him tools and actually using a screwdriver!) Later that day, someone came over and said "Hey, your door closes now!" I replied, "Yep, we fixed it today," and Juno got very mad. She said "Hey, Mama! Papa! ME! Tools!" She didn't want me taking credit for her hard work, I guess.
She still has a pretty severe speech delay, but she has made so much progress in just the last month. She's like a different kid! Her vocabulary is still probably around 50 words, but she went from only saying one word at a time to using two word phrases most of the time and THREE or even four word phrases often! That is huge, huge progress! She's also talking a lot more spontaneously. Even with all her progress, she will be starting preschool tomorrow specifically for her speech. Her classroom is a mixed classroom, where half the kids are like Juno (with delays in various areas and IEPS) and the other half are just normal enrolled children from the community. There is a full time special ed teacher and a full time regular ed teacher plus an aide and the class size is capped at 12, so she will get plenty of one on one time and attention. She'll also meet with the speech pathologist every week to work on her articulation. Sidenote, I would just encourage anyone who has any concerns about their child's development to take them to Early Intervention for a FREE assessment! There's a reason it's called "Early" Intervention--most delays are so much easier to fix and treat when caught young!
Juno is definitely our goofiest kid. She goes out of her way to really make people laugh and be silly. Anyone who's ever met her has probably seen her "baba" dance, where she sticks her little bum out, shakes it around, and sings "Baba, baba!" It's so funny now but won't be funny when she's a teenager, so I should nip that in the bud.
Overall, she's happy, healthy, adorable, loving, kind, sassy (very sassy), funny, and we love her so much!

bang bang

Juno had a very strong reaction to seeing "Brave" for the first time last week. She was pretty concerned about the mama turning into a bear.
So later I asked her what she would do if her mama turned into a bear.
She kind of shrugged with a little half smile and then picked up a toy shovel, pointed it at me, and said "Shoot!"
Like, "Sorry Mom, I love you but you're a bear now, so.... bang bang."
Between that and Helena's frustration that no one was cutting off any Orc's heads in LOTR, I think maybe I have desensitized my children :(

Good morning!

Juno thought she didn't have enough syrup for her french toast sticks, so she refilled her little bowl all by herself!!

How is your morning going? 

cute little two year old

Juno is at my favorite age--she's two and a half!

Two-year-olds are just so fun. She's getting so independent and she also loves to help Mommy. She's still not talking a ton but she's getting there. She loves watching 'Baby Signing Time' videos. She signs all the time now--unfortunately, we don't watch the videos with her so I don't know what she is trying to say. It sure is cute though!

Here she is blowing bubbles....

... and here she is in her "office"! She reminds us of Jason's little sister Katelyn because she likes to play office. She sets up the portable DVD player, Jason's old phone, and a couple of books on this chair or on the coffee table and types away. 

Juno's speech therapist

As my kids get older, I realize more and more that each one comes with their own challenges, but for some reason they didn't come with a manual! Helping them reach their potential is my job and I want to do my best. Sometimes that means I need to get outside help. If you're looking for a therapist Fairfield CT, here is a great place to try!
Juno is a few months past her second birthday now, and her total word count is up to about a dozen, most of which sound identical and rely on context to be understood. The average two year old has a speaking vocabulary of about 50 words and is putting words together in 2-3 word phrases/sentences. So you can see that she's quite a bit behind.
Her speech delay is severe enough that she qualifies for services. She's been in speech therapy for about five months now and we have seen a huge improvement in that time! Juno's therapy includes monthly hour-long visits with her speech therapist, which we do in our home, and a weekly singing group with other kids in her age range. Some of the other kids in singing group also have speech delays, but there is a wide range of delays. Juno really enjoys both singing group and when her "talking teacher" comes. Her speech therapist basically just plays with her for an hour with all kinds of fun, interesting new toys. Here are some of the things she has asked us to be doing with Juno:

• Give lots of choices. "Do you want your red cup or your blue cup?" Even if Juno doesn't verbalize which one she wants, we reiterate "Oh, you want your blue cup!" when she points or gestures towards it.
• Lots of repetition. "You need help? I will help you. Here I am, helping Juno!"
• Sign and speak simple words. Juno's picked up a couple signs and is now transitioning into trying to say the word as she signs it, like "please" and "help".
• Lots and lots of pretend play, like feeding babies, playing with farm animals, cooking, etc.
• Acknowledge that she is saying a word, even if she is pronouncing it wrong. For instance, Juno calls water "wa-wa", so when she asks for wa-wa, I say "Sure, here's some water for you!"

Like I said, she's improved a lot since we got her some help. I'm so glad we made that choice! She even said her first "sentence" the other day. The cat was in the bathtub, drinking out of the faucet, and Juno was very excited. She grabbed me by the hand and dragged me over, saying "Kitty eat wa-wa! Kitty eat wa-wa!"

This is a sponsored post, however all opinions and views are my own.

mean girls

How do you bully-proof your kids?

I know that no kid is truly bully-proof--everyone deals with teasing, gossip, and being picked on by peers--but how do you prepare your kid for it?

Today while I was doing laundry and tidying up upstairs, the girls were busy downstairs with their own project. They gathered all the big throw pillows and chair cushions from around the house and piled them in the corner, then brought armloads of books and plopped down to read.

I think... not know, but think... that you prepare them by making  your home a haven from all the hardness and bad feelings in the outside world. A place where they can always feel secure in their own divine nature and just flat-out awesome.

It was my idea to add a fort. 

We used the fort kit that my sister-in-law Erin gave Tempe for her birthday and added the tunnel that Juno got from Santa as the entrance. Inside, our globe light added the perfect ambiance for cuddling and reading.

I think you prepare them for it by helping them build enough self-confidence to feel good about themselves no matter what others are saying about them. Enough self-confidence to step in and stand up for someone else who is being picked on--and to stand up for themselves and only surround themselves with friends that are nice and treat them well.

Normally I make the girls clean up their fort after a few hours or after dinnertime at the latest. Today we needed more time. More time to read books, send secret messages with walkie-talkies, cuddle, and be together. More time that hopefully reinforces self-confidence and a sense of security.

And if all else fails, have a movie night and watch "Mean Girls". 
That's my plan at least... what's yours?

3 kids in a bike trailer

I've received lots of emails and comments about this post from people looking for a way to put all three of their kids in a bike trailer. I updated this post with more information about the sling I use.

So one of the things that I was most worried about when Juno first went into her Spica was the stroller situation. Luckily, the bike trailer that my wonderful in-laws gave me for my birthday 3 years ago has been a lifesaver! Helena was just a little baby when I got it, but I remembered seeing someone in Laramie with some kind of infant sling in their bike trailer at a park. So I logged onto the Laramie FreeCycle page and asked if anyone knew what they were called or where I could get one. Much to my surprise, I received one in the mail just a few weeks later--for free! Isn't that amazing that someone would send a total stranger something so expensive that they could have resold?

Anyway, it is perfect for Juno's cast. I originally had it in a side position, but her legs stuck out too wide and bumped into the side of the trailer, so I moved her to the middle. And even better, Tempe and Helena fit in the trailer with her! Going for walks hasn't been this pleasant in such a long time. I can actually walk at a normal pace instead of taking three steps and then turning around and saying "Come on! Keep walking!!" over and over.

Some more info on the bike trailer sling: My bike trailer is a Copilot (it has a picture of a kangaroo on it). The sling is made by Chariot and is designed for use in Chariot trailers. Here's one on Amazon. My bike trailer isn't compatible with the Chariot sling, but I just cut a slit in the fabric at the bottom for the sling straps to go through and wrap around the bottom bar. It was very easy to figure out how to get it to work in mine--I'm not familiar  with other brands of bike trailers, so I have no idea how easy it would be to use a Chariot sling in other trailers. 

Disclaimer: The Chariot infant sling is meant to be used in Chariot bike trailers that are being used as strollers; it is NOT meant to be used with an infant when the trailer is being towed by a bike. It is also NOT meant to be used three across in a trailer. My trailer only has two seatbelts, so my older girls were not strapped in when I had all three of them in the trailer. I DID NOT use it as a bike trailer in this function, only as a stroller. Use at your own risk!!

Juno is two!

I think I might cry while writing this post.
My baby Juno Kate is no longer a baby (to anyone but her mother, that is).

{Just about 10 minutes old in this picture}

Today is her second birthday!! I can't believe that it's only been two years since she joined our family; it feels like she's been a part of it forever. She adores her big sisters and her "da" (and maybe me, too) and we all adore her. She is developing such a funny little personality and she is definitely a third child! I'm constantly surprised by how independent she is.
She is constantly climbing, running, jumping, and bouncing around the house. No one would ever, ever guess that she had (has?) hip dysplasia and spent 1/4 of her first year in a body cast. She has a follow-up next week, but as far as I can tell, her hip is doing great.
She has a severe speech delay. Most 24 month olds can say around 50 words and are putting words together in 2-3 word sentences. Juno says a grand total of three "words", has three signs, and has made up multiple gestures which she uses to communicate with us. She's never babbled in strings of consonants or babbled with inflection, although she does grunt with inflection. For being nonverbal, she can actually communicate very effectively through pointing and her signs/gestures. I almost always know what she wants. And she definitely understands 95% of what we say to her. She starts speech therapy through Early Intervention in a few weeks and I know that will really help get her to where she needs to be. In the meantime, I almost enjoy that she's nonverbal because I feel like it will keep her my baby a little longer!

Juno loves this BYU sweatshirt that was Jason's when he was two. She wears it every chance she can get and throws tantrums when she sees me putting it in the laundry basket. If I'm not careful, she grabs it out of the dirty clothes and hides it in her room so I can't wash it. 
She is not afraid of letting you know when she's mad. She furrows her brow, shakes her finger in your faces and says "Bop! Bop bop bop bop bop BOP!!" or shields whatever she thinks you're stealing from her with her body and screams "Bop! My, my, my!" With two older sisters, she had to learn to defend her property pretty early.
We are so grateful for Juno and the joy she brings to our family and home. Odds are she'll be our last child, so I'm trying to enjoy every single little moment with her. She's a fun girl!

Juno in a nutshell (or a really long photo bomb)