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

Juniper B. Rascal Pants

Hi Bug!

You are so rascally that I am out at the bookstore updating your blog because I just can't get much done at home. Right before we left you got into the butt cream and rubbed it all over your hands and had a little taste. Yuck. And earlier today I took a little video of you outside trying to make your getaway up the hill. That's your thing lately, you just go walking away from the house up the hill. I have an inkling that you might be trying to get to the mailbox but you never know. You might be trying to go to school or walk into town.

 You are talking more all the time. There are things you say that I understand - understand in that I know what you're trying to say but I have no idea what you're actually trying to say. Ha.

For example, today when you wanted to get out of the swing you said, "Au jus" - JUST like au jus the meat juice stuff. It means you're all done or you want to get out. You also say something like this to mean you want to go outside.

When you want to nurse you say, "Nuh!" and when you want to switch sides you say, "ah too" which I guess is other? I don't know for sure. You call the iPad the "iPee" which is what I have started calling it too - its just funnier.

You call Zoe "Zoe-whoa", which is probably the best name for her ever since WHOA. Zoe! Just...whoa.

You say whoa and wow and yay a lot, which is awesome. You're sort of always wowed and pleased. It's a great way to be, kid. Keep that up.

You and Zoe have really started playing together, which I love. Since I am so close with your Aunt Jess, I am all about the sister-love. You really hold your ground with Zoe and often times you're the one beating her up. She's very patient with you, which is really sweet. She's officially a better big sister than I was at her age. But to keep it that way I would recommend you stop pulling her hair.

You go with the flow really well, kiddo. We went to "France Cancisco" as Zoe calls it to visit Aunt Jess and you were such a great traveler. Thank goodness for the iPee.

Jess and Michael moved to SF from Brooklyn in June and we were all super excited to be visiting her somewhere other than NYC. Don't get me wrong, New York is great. Just not so great to visit all the time with kids and you know, the fact that everything costs money there (even breathing air and peeing)  and she never had enough room for us to stay with her and everyone's mean and they act like you're in their way and out to ruin their lives. Anyway. She moved to SF and got an apartment with enough room for us to stay, and the people in France Cancisco are so laid back and hippie-ish. The guy at the hot dog cart (where they also had veggie dogs) looked right at me when it was my turn and said, "What'sss uuuupppp?" Score one for SF.

Then we went to Branson for Thanksgiving with the Hiltons and we had Zoe's crazy 5th birthday party and you just coast along like it's all no big thang. Just anotha day, yo.

I am SO excited for Christmas with you, beanie. You're going to LOVE it. You are already super excited about all the little advent goodie bags and you hold the purple reindeer we have, prancing them around saying, "NAY! NAY! NAY!" I hope it snows. Right now it's like 65 degrees and it's December 4th. Ugh. Kansas City really nails it in the spring and fall but man, it gets summer and winter ALL WRONG.

I love you, little punkin. So so so so so much it hurts.

Election 2012

Dear Bug,

Guess what? Obama was re-elected!

I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I knew I was nervous but until today I didn't realize how nervous I actually was.

You were born into a world where Obama was already President. Lucky kid! And I'm so glad that he will be the POTUS for the next 4 years. I really believe he is a capable leader.

Sure, we're not in the best place as a country but we're in a better place than we were 4 years ago when he took office. We're making progress. Most of all, I feel so relieved that we have someone in office who believes that gay people should have the same rights as the rest of us. Someone who believes that women can make their own reproductive health decisions. Someone who believes that we all should have access to affordable health care.

And not only was Obama re-elected, we have 18 women in the Senate. We have our first openly gay woman Senator. Elizabeth Warren was elected! Claire McCaskill beat Todd Akin! It was a great night for us, Bug. Particularly for you young people. I feel good about the road we're on for your generation.

PHEEEEWWWW.

Today Zoe called her Junebutt

Dear Junebug (or Junebutt),

I'm sorry again that I update this so infrequently. Life is crazy and I'm also old. 37 in a few weeks! 

You are growing up so fast. I can't believe you're almost 19 months old. And before I forget - here are your 18 month old stats: 

Weight: 25.25 lbs (81%)

Height: 33.5 in. (92%)

Nice.

Right now you are totally trying to be just like your big sister. You see her on the iPad so you've figured out how to navigate around it. You grab it say, "Mine!" ELMO!" and find your way to the PBS kids app. Like a boss. 

You are also learning how to run. It is so cute I could die but is resulting in quite a lot of falling and scraping your poor little palms. 

One of my favorite things that you do right now is you laugh this funny little "he he ... he he" laugh when you're going to get something you want like chocolate or a yogurt or to nurse. It's the best. 

I'm surprised, I have to say, that your humor is so sophisticated. The other night your dad went to a Die Antwoord concert in Lawrence and I stayed home with you guys so you slept with me (you normally sleep with him and I sleep in Zoe's room) and you woke up at 3am and pulled on my shirt (your usual signal that you want to nurse) and you said, "MOO". Um? Really? We're going there, huh? Some people have said that you should stop nursing when your child is old enough to argue with about it. I guess one could argue that you should stop nursing when your child is old enough to make fun of you for being like a dairy cow. Still, we're nursing until you're 2. Lucky kid.

You are talking quite a bit. It's cracking me up the things you say, though. You don't say any of your sibling's names but you say Elmo and Dora. You say the same thing for outside, iPad and all done. It sounds like "Ah-thoo". Your most favorite word is NO. You've got that one down. You say wa-wa-wa-wa for water. You don't say yes, but you say "yeah". You've got all the animal sounds down although you always say "neigh" for unicorns and zebras but I'm not sure I can correct those so let's just go with it. You say baby, pee-pee, up, buckle, mine, apple, and I'm sure a lot of other words that I can't think of right now. 

In a few weeks we're going to visit your Aunt Jess is France Cancisco (as your sister says). I am super excited to see her but I'm worried you won't sleep. You're not a fan. You sleep the best for your dad, but he's not going. Wah.

Travis says you're a lot like he was - you're totally rascally. Every time we go over to Liz's, you dig up her plants and sneak into her room and put toothpaste all around her phone. You pull stuff out of the garbage, draw on the floor with crayons, and climb up on the toilet and grab sunscreen out of the cabinet and squirt all over the floor. But we really can't be mad at you because you have the sweetest little curious demeanor - you're all, "what? hey! I'm just growing my brain over here. Just a little explorer." And you have this thing you do where you cock your head to one side and smile this sly little "you know you love me to pieces" smile. It's pretty awesome.

You are so much fun, little Bean. I love that every single day I get to wake to your little "ooh - I get to nurse!" laugh when your Dad brings you in to me. You make me so, so happy. I love you so much sometimes I think I might freak out.

Love,
Mama