A few things from November

Willa got some Legos for her birthday. Ryan helped her put them together the first time, then she begged to do them alone later. I sat by her and gave a little advice, but she's getting the hang of following the directions and coming up with something pretty similar to what it is meant to be.

Somehow a diaper (clean, I hope) made it into the washing machine. I had to take a photo because it was so hilarious how loaded with water it got. Those diapers can really hold a lot of fluid!

One of June's many illnesses this fall was Roseola. She seems to have a bad cold every other week or so. One week she just had a raging fever and all she wanted to do was lay on the couch all day. I was thinking I would take her to the doctor the next day if the fever hadn't broken. It broke that night and the next day I found this rash on her belly when I was putting her in the bath. I took the photo and sent it to my mom and Alyson and they immediately replied that it was Roseola.

The rash isn't painful at all, it appears after the fever breaks and you aren't contagious any more; it is one of the only ways you would know if you had Roseola unless you specifically knew to test for it during the fever. Poor June, I was reading up on it afterwards and basically it's a virus characterized by very high fevers. Kids are at risk for febrile seizures because their temperature can really spike. I feel bad that I wasn't more sympathetic to Junie and that I probably wasn't as vigilant in watching the fever as I should have been.

After much hard work and perseverance, Willa mastered the big monkey bars at the park. I'm proud of her for working so hard at it, while simultaneously dreading the next challenge she sets for herself. She gets very frustrated at her failure but will not take any help or suggestions.

During this same period she made it to the top of quite a big rock wall. I get so frustrated with this one because she just stares and looks at it, but she gets stuck about halfway up and starts crying but won't take suggestions about ways to go up or to get down, she just wants me to carry her down. Normally, I just let her hold onto the wall crying until she figures out a solution or jumps. Or when I get really annoyed, I rescue her on the condition that if she does it again with the same screaming reaction, then we are going home. I don't mind her trying, just the meltdowns in the middle of it. One time a random person rescued her. My main philosophy at the park is that the girls need time to explore their surroundings and try new things and I don't always want to be the one to rescue them from whatever they do. I want them to try to figure it out on their own. She's about 50/50 on the wall now. Here is after one successful ascent.

During all of this, June likes to find just the right stick and "fix" all the screws in the playground.

I also have this video clip of her running from park toy to park toy singing "You can do whatever you want, you can do whatever you want. This, or this, whatever you want." The freedom to do whatever you want must seem like Xanadu to a two-year old. 

One last cute thing about June. She calls herself Junie-bug and a few weeks ago I was explaining about middle names. For a while, if you asked her what her name was, she would say, "June Aunt Becca Daniels" for June Rebecca, it was totally adorable. Unfortunately, she's corrected herself and now says it the right way, but it was awfully sweet when her name was June Aunt Becca.