A Letter from Grandma Patty

Dear Junie,

I so loved spending time with you last week. I'm so sorry that you fell asleep when your Mom dropped me off at the airport. I did kiss you and tell you I love you while you were sleeping.

You are so much fun. I loved digging in the dirt with you, playing in the park and rolling pie dough. I love your sense of style...a fancy dress (that you love) doesn't stop you from getting down with digging or spinning on your swing. Who cares about ketchup on your dress, life is meant to be savored.

I love how you spontaneously kiss me and I also love how you wrap your arms around yourself and exclaim, "I'm frustrated."

You and Zoe have SO much fun together. She can make you laugh like crazy and you love to mimic her every move. But, she can't get over on you. Oh no, not a chance. You let her know what is the deal.

I recently sent you a new fancy dress because your Mom said that the one you love is getting too small. By the way, you are amazingly tall and so skilled for a 2 year old. I bought you a size 3T and I hope it fits.

Your Halloween costume is to die for! You will be the cutest unicorn rider EVER. I wish I could be there to see you.

I look forward to spending Christmas with you here at my house.  That will be a special treat for me. I love you to the moon and back and all around the cosmos Junie B Jones Hilton.

Smooch smooch smooches.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooo
Grandma Patty

27 months

Hi Junebug!

As I write this you are over at Grandpa David's having your "Grandpa Day". This is when you pack up your pat-pat (backpack) and go spend the morning at Grandpa's. You LOVE this. You get so excited. This morning you packed up your bathing suit and your My Little Ponies (Maya Ponies as you say) and said, "I ready!"

 You are really talking now and it's 100% awesome. You were outside playing in the mud yesterday and you saw a daddy long legs and you said, "Mom! So scary! Spider! Daddy Legs! See?"

Your dad and I were talking yesterday about how cute we think it is that whenever you ask a question (like "who's that guy?") and we answer you ("that's our neighbor") you say, "oh yeah." Like you knew all along, you were just checking to make sure WE know. I love it.

You also say "settle down" when things get a little rowdy. At first we thought you were saying, "Shut it down!" which was hilarious but where on earth would you have heard that? Settle down is more appropriate anyway.

Sometimes when I give you a choice about what to wear you'll say, "YES OR NO! YES OR NO!" I can tell your sense of humor is going to be killer, kiddo.

You're almost done breastfeeding - you and Zoe both nursed until you were 2.5 I'm happy to say. It's such a bittersweet time (sappy sappy sap sap sap), but I'm mostly happy that we had such a good run and that now you're ready to be a big kid. Pretty soon you'll be potty trained and then start kindergarten and then grow up and leave me. But let's not go down that horrible road.

Oh, I love you to bits my little bug. I just can't even find the words to describe it, as any mother will tell you. Head and heart exploding? Being brought to your knees a thousand times a second? Insides turning to goo? I don't know. It just is, I guess.

You and your sis are the lights of my life. Please remember this when I'm old, crazy and totally bossy.

xoxox
Mom

Words and Phrases

Hi Junebug,

I seriously can't get enough of the things you say and the way you say them. When something goes awry, like you dump your plate on the floor accidentally, you'll say, "Oh my" - but you drag it out like, 'oh myyyyyyy'. If you can't get the door open or something won't come out of a drawer you'll say, "oooh --- no woot-ting" or "no wu-tang" for not working and you'll look concerned. I sort of like to think you're saying a big NO to the Wu Tang Clan. Maybe you're just more of a West Coast hip hop person. Who knows.

You don't call Zoe Doh-Whoa anymore - she's now Joey. And you call Jack "Jatch". You call all of your Grandparents "Gamma".

You are in love with your vitamins and you'll ask for them periodically throughout the day. You'll say, "Vie-me me." Too bad you can only have 3 a day. That's a lot of disappointment for you.

I think the thing you say the most, though, is "Me, too!" - you want to do everything the big kids do. It's adorable. Obvi.

I just wanted to update this so we'll all remember these cute little things you say. I love you, Buggy.

xoxoxo
Mama

A Letter From Aunt Jess

dear little junebug, 

I know what it's like to be the second kid and I know you're thinking - 'where are all my letters from aunt jess?'

Well, I had quite the busy year - I moved all the way from NYC to SF, which, I think will be way more awesome for you to come and visit. Well, until you're in your 20s and then you'll really want to go to New York probably. I will give you tips. And then you can tell me all about your adventures. 

Aaaand, I started an office - which is insanely time consuming but certainly no excuse for slacking on Aunt duties. THOSE, are sacred. 

I had the best time with you in Palm Springs for our girls get away week-end! I hadn't seen you since October when you came to visit me - we'd been getting by on video chats - which - your big sister Zo would pretty much always take over - like big sisters do....

I was thrilled to hug on you in real life. When I landed in Palm Springs, you picked me up at the airport with your mom and Zo, but you were fast asleep in the carseat. You were sleeping hard - so when another person magically appeared in the front seat when you woke up, I think you were quite skeptical. You gave me a look like this:

But, as we are all Bauer-Greenes, you got on board. 

Oh man, you are super adorable and smart and funny. You weren't talking much then, you call Zoe Doe-woah and you say Mamma , yes, no and namah means everything else in the whole world. I quite like your simplification of things. Why bother with all the fuss of words really when you could be hauling water from the pool to the sand?

You look up to your sister so much, which is definitely something I can relate to and MAN, does she also give you grief. The good news is, you'll be excellent friends when you get older, but watch out, because she will  always want to boss you around. Forever. Even when you're 34 and she's 37. 

You are pretty rascally and get into just about everything imaginable. At the pool, you were super hilarious carrying buckets of water to the sand with a look on your face like...'ugh, another day at the coal mine' 'ho-hum - gotta make the donuts.' You also enjoy eating condiments with a spoon. 

We had fun swimming in the pool and you are a FEARLESS jumper from the side of the pool into our arms. It was completely awesome. I would go on vacation with you any day bug.

You also comepletely ruled when we went to the toy shop and you danced for about 10 minutes to an elmo cell phone and then put every purse on your arms and then dropped them all on the ground. GOOD RIDDANCE PURSES - you're getting me down.

Just so you know - you're my mini. It's weird how much you actually look exactly like I did when I was little. I wonder what you'll look like as an adult. You're like 2.0. The more awesome version perhaps?

I can't wait to see you this summer little bug and swim in the lake with you and show you that we love ice cream EXACTLY the same amount. 

I love you so much and basically explode from your awesomeness when I see you in photos that your mom sends me all the time.I can't wait until next time!

Love, 

Aunt Jess  

Junie B 2 year old

Hi Bug!

You are the cutest little kid. LOOK at you. WOULD YOU LOOK AT YOU?!

You are talking all the time now. I was a little worried (let's face it, your mom's a worrier) that you were behind on the language but you're totally not. At all. You're talking up a storm and you say the CUTEST things. 

The other day your dad said "I love you" and you said, "Ah La Loot!" You also say "weesh" for fish but you call our little fish Reilly "rye-ee" and you just recently started asking for Shtawbees (strawberries). You end a lot of your sentences with Mommy - "pees Mommy!" so much so in fact that a lot of times you call Daddy 'Mommy' and if you've recently spent a lot of time with your dad you'll switch it. "Yeah, dadddeeeee" (only you say it to me).  

When you don't know where something is you'll put your little finger up to your mouth and say, "hmmmmm". So cute. 

And, yes your favorites numbers are still 2 and 9 but you can say 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9. Not sure what you have against 4, 6 and 10 but whatever. I'm sure there's a reason you ignore those. 

You're are growing like crazy, too. At your 2-year-old appointment you were 36.5 inches tall (some people say that you'll double your height at 2 so you would be just over 6 ft! YESSS!) and 30 lbs. BOSS.

You are still rascally but you're not quite as dangerous in your rascally acts as you used to be. Now I can leave you and Zoe in the playroom for a while and not worry that you're going to put a handful of Barbie shoes in your mouth or climb the play kitchen and jump off. 

We're not the only ones that love you. Ticks also love you. I have pulled 4 ticks off of you in the last few weeks and I have NEVER pulled one off of any of the other kids. This might land me in the loony bin. But you are pretty irresistible so I guess I can't say I blame them. If I was a tick I'd attach myself to you, too. 

I love you SO much, little Bug. You are so sweet and so funny and it's so fun to be your mom. 

I love you. 

xoxox

Mama 

Junebug 23 months

Hey my little bug!

I really should be writing on this blog all the time because you're saying and doing new stuff all the time but you're also a total rascal. Me sitting at the computer pretty much signals to you that it's time to start tearing everything up.

Up until TODAY when you wanted to nurse you would say, "nuh". Then suddenly today you said, "nuh-se". Yay!

You are absolutely adorable in every way and it's funny - everyone admits that you're a rascal but that you're the sweetest rascal they've ever met. A little snuggly peanut.

One of the funniest things (I think) that you're doing lately is that you don't say "I don't know" you say "know". So I'll say, "Junie, where are your boots?" and you'll say, "know." It's like you're just flat out denying the question...where are my boots? NO.

I yanked Zoe out of her preschool last month and you are loving having her home all the time. It really has done wonders for your relationship; you're playing together so much more and you get up to some hilarious shenanigans. One of your favorite games is playing with the monkey leash - one of you gets buckled in and the other holds the leash and you run around the house. Here you are playing beauty parlor.

You have turned into a great little traveler. We drove up to Michigan to see your Grandma Patty and have a little winter in February (little did we know that right when we'd get back, after a mostly dry couple of months, it would dump like two feet of snow on Kansas - what?) and you rolled with everything like a champ.

Your favorite snow activity is eating it, hands down. You like sledding (we'd all pile in the sled and you'd say "DOH!" as in GO) and you're sort of meh on the snowpeople but eating snow - that's tops for you. I guess I'm not surprised since you still love to eat crayons and dirt. Zoe would be all over sledding and making snowballs but you would just lay on your belly and stick your tongue in the snow. So cute.

You love to accessorize - you love necklaces, sunglasses, shoes and you've taken to wearing underpants over your clothes. It's all delightful.

                

I love you so much, little bean. You are really and truly the sunshine of my life, if you want me to quote Stevie Wonder. Which I'm sure you don't. Sorry, I'm your mom. I get to do this kind of thing.

Love,
Mama

21 months

Dear Bug,

Here's a picture of you wearing your favorite dress, which you want to wear all the time and usually layered with some other awesome outfit. Why only wear one cool thing when you can just pile them on top of each other?

I just wanted to write something quick here about what you're doing and saying these days because you are SO CUTE.

Your favorite show right now is Dora (doh-wah), of course just after you got a whole bunch of Elmo stuff for Christmas. Oh, well. You like to say, "Mama! Wee-wee! Doh-wah!" (Mama - tv! Dora!"

You call Zoe "Doh-whoa", and when she's at school you ask for her all damn day. You'll say, "Doh-whoa?" and I'll say, "Zoe's at school." and then you say, "NO."

This sister thing is so bittersweet. It's particularly hard for me since I was the big, bad sister. I remembered being totally annoyed with your Aunt Jess. But now I look at you and Zoe and the one I really feel for is YOU. I watch you watching her and wanting to do what she does and it KILLS ME! You just think she's the greatest thing ever and she just rips stuff out of your hands. Not all the time of course - and she's much better than I was - but you know. Ugh. She loves you, though, and I know that once you're a little older you guys will probably be best buddies.

You continue to be a huge rascal. You still eat dirt and actually just now you poured your drinkable yogurt on the kitchen floor and started licking it up.  You took your shirt off in a restaurant the other day. Rascal! Here's a snapshot of one of our days that your dad put on Facebook:

Junie took the PB&J that was handed to her and threw it across the room. Then she walked over to the junk that Chelsea had just swept into a pile from the kitchen floor, pulled something from it and ate it. Right after that, Zoe came up to Chelsea and said, "What do you think you're the only one person in earth?"

The other thing that has been making me laugh is that when we change your poopy diapers you say, "Eeeewwwwwwwww." It's hilarious. Please never stop doing this. 

Ok - see? Short today because we have to run to pick up Doh-whoa. I love you to bits little girl. I could just eat you up. 

Love,

Mama