Juni at 2 1/2 years old

Oh the sweetness, the sticky sugary adorableness wraps around my little finger and melts my heart.  Juni could charm anyone with her little voice and huge bright blue eyes and fluffy angel hair. Her itty bitty body is perfection in it's bubbly cheerful enthusiasm. She is snuggly, she strokes my face and says, "mommy, i missed you." She says, "I wove you so much mommy." When I do things for her she says, "of fank you fank you mommy." When I ask her what the magic word is she says, "um.. pink." When she says her name, "Jewiper" it is cute beyond description. She wants to see herself in the mirror and when she does she says, "Ta Da!" If someone gets hurt or is sad she is the first to be there with a hug and kiss, especially if it is Teig.
When I ask her why she did something she says, "because mommy no." Imagine pure angelic innocence and that is Juni, but a while ago she was introduced to a little tempter sitting on her shoulder telling her of her independence. She has decided she will get her way. She will not be told no and she will hold out till the bitter end.  Juni wants to wear swimsuits, (pronounced "wissoot:" only. She will refuse any other clothes. This began back in March when we swam for spring break at the pool at the hotel. Since then she has also been obsessed with goggles and often won't leave home without them.  If I persuade her or manage to wrangle her into other clothes besides swimsuits, she will hide under the table, take them off and put on her swimsuit- often backwards and inside out.  Juni loves to color, but only with markers, and mostly on walls, doors, our wood floor or herself. In one photo here, she is covered in marker, but that is not a one time event. In fact, she will hide anywhere she can if she is able to locate my make-up bag and "do her make-up." I think she uses markers  as make up as well. One time she put maskara on pretty well without a mirror! She hates to let me do her hair, but if I finally do get her hair done, she will run around showing everyone her pigtails very proud. Juni does not like crayons except to eat or take the wrappers off of. Without fail, she will locate all the pink and purple markers or crayons and carry them with her until I snag them back and hide them again. Then when she cries to paint or draw I am such a huge sucker for anyone that wants to make art, I'll bend over backward to let her be creative.
One of her favorite ways to be creative is with her food. Granted, because I am not strict enough with her, the problem is worse, but the girl loves to smear, smash, squish and mash everything I give her. I won't tolerate the throwing, but I usually don't reprimand the messes besides to say, "yucky Juni, keep your food on your plate, use your napkin etc. We also wrote a family song called "Don't squeeze the cheese, because it's one of the messiest things she does. She can turn a cheese stick into a painted countertop in 3 minutes. I have said for about a year that she is talented at changing the form of her meal into something unrecognizable while putting absolutely none of it in her mouth.  She is hard to feed.  Lately she will eat cottage cheese, pizza, quesadillas, mandarin oranges, peaches, raisins chicken nuggets and hot dogs. Pretty much anything else is bound to fail and be everywhere.  When I ask her what she wants for breakfast it is always , "hot gog."  When I say no, she will refuse anything else and then wait until I'm not looking, open the fridge, grab a hot dog out of the package in the bottom drawer and eat it cold. (GROSS)!  She loves cookie dough and actually calls all cookies, cookie dough. This photo is of Teig and Juni sneaking some cookie dough off the counter. Teig and Juni are best little buddies. They miss each other when Teig goes to preschool. They give each other cute little hugs and kisses. Teig is extremely rough with Juni, but Juni is super tough. She doesn't typically fight back but she definitely won't put up with mistreatment and she stands her ground. With three brothers she has learned to stick up for herself and be a strong woman. There is nothing shy about Juni.

 She has a wonderful little friend named Lydia.  They are so cute together. Last year Lydia's mom, Rachel watched Juni and Teig for me for 4 hours once a week for almost 4 months. It was a huge service to me and I will be grateful forever to her. I got to go to art class during that time, and Juni and Lydia have become great friends. One day last month I was bringing Lydia to our house and she said, "Juni, you say words now??" Juni exclaimed, "Yes!" in the most excited voice. It was adorable.

Juni loves her sunglasses and calls them "gassy". If she experiences ANY sun in her eyes, she is immediately calling for her "gassys". Starting when school started, Juni needed her own backpack to be like her brothers. I love to see what she packs in her backpack. She is seldom without a phone, a swimsuit, a pink stuffed animal of some kind, and her "gassys". 

When the boys went to Disneyland they felt bad that Juni stayed home. They picked out an Elsa dress, tiara, wand and gloves for her to wear. When they got home, they all surrounded Juni (including uncle Michael and Uncle Dave) and watched and videotaped a very ceremonious, queenly presentation of the gifts accompanied by the "let it go" soundtrack. Juni was very somber and queenly as she carefully put all the items on and then spun lovely circles around the room showing off her new attire. It was incredible.

We had a rough morning this morning.  After refusing breakfast but spilling her fruit drink and making pictures in it with her fingers, she got into the markers and Paul's hair gel before 9 when I accidentally fell asleep on the couch after reading to them. I dressed her a few times, but she undressed each time. I ended up taking her to drop off Teig at preschool in her swimsuit a coat and her boots.  She sheds her shoes the minute I fight her into her carseat each time, so this time I insisted that she pick up her boots before I carry her in. She put up a major fight. I decided that since I had time, I would let her know she would not win every time she had a tantrum. I stood my ground and waited until she picked up her boots for me to carry her in. She stood her ground and refused. Finally I sat down to wait, then she sat down to wait and then she fell right asleep. HA, Kids win anyway. I carried her in, asleep without her boots.  What a girl.