Holy shmoly — does three just seem SO big to anyone else? Juno Bug is just her own little person now. She has grown so much since six months ago when I wrote her two and a half year update. Since then a lot has happened — she moved up to a new classroom in daycare, became fully potty trained, found out she is going to be a big sister and moved bedrooms!
Juno has so much personality — she cracks us up CONSTANTLY. Everyday we say, “where did we get this girl from?” She recently has started replying with, “from the Remi factory!” (No idea where she got that from). She has a mind of her own and still knows exactly what she wants when she wants it. She is obsessed with baby dolls and she is going to make the very BEST big sister come March or April. She loves Baby Pickles (named after the ridiculous amount of pickles I’ve been eating) in my belly so much already — she wakes baby up every morning by screaming at my belly, “WAKE UP BABY PICKLES!”, and before I leave for work in the mornings, she insists on giving Pickles a hug and a kiss too. She even has her own baby in her belly, didn’t you know? The other day I said to Juno that she needed to get her poop out because her belly was looking really big and she quickly replied, “No mommy, that’s just the baby in my belly!”. Ha! She got a new baby doll (who she named Pie Pie) for her birthday that cries and babbles and sucks on a pacifier and bottle and she is OBSESSED. She takes care of her all day long ever since she got her. She changes her diaper, puts her in the bumbo to feed her while we eat and is even teaching her how to go potty on the toilet. My hope is that once Baby Pickles is here, Juno will just be on full time baby duty — just kidding … but seriously, she is going to be the best little helper with baby!
We recently had her three year check up and she is just growing so much right now. She’s exactly 36 inches tall — seriously how is my baby THREE feet tall — 40th percentile for height. She’s 26 lbs 3 oz and has gone up in her percentile for weight to the 8th percentile which is a huge jump from being in the less than 5th percentile a little while ago. Her BMI is only in the 2nd percentile, but at least she is growing and she’s gone up from less than the 1st in BMI in just a few months! She just outgrew all of her shoes and now is in a toddler size 7! Lots of her 2T pants are getting a bit short on her, but so far, we have yet to find any 3T pants that will stay up on her little waist.
We’ve still been dealing with and managing some tummy issues and since it’s been almost three full years of this we are feeling somewhat defeated. Our lives still just constantly revolve around poop. Before becoming parents we never would have imagined how poop can be your WORLD. Her constipation is just so severe and nothing we do seems to help it. We’ve seen two different Pediatric GI specialists at two different hospitals and have had SO many tests done, all of which come back normal. The only thing they are able to tell us is that she needs daily laxatives. Pooping is still really traumatic and she’ll do anything in her power to hold it on for as long as possible until we are forced to give her a suppository which just starts the cycle all over again. As I write this, we are currently on day EIGHT of no poo. Ugh. As soon as the holidays are over, we are going to do a full elimination diet of the main major allergens, and from there, hopefully we will be able to pinpoint more of what is going on or what the root cause of all of this is. We just feel like that there HAS to be something going on with what she is eating and I’m determined to find the root cause because we can not keep filling her little body with daily chemicals to get her to go, which don’t even help! She’s had to have so many suppositories in her little lifetime that now she gives her babies suppositories when she changes her diapers and will say “it’s okay, baby, it’ll only hurt for a minute and then I’ll hold you. This will help you feel better soon” — literally this breaks our hearts! What two/three year old even knows the word suppository?!
We’ve also been noticing that she’s been having some allergies and asthma over the last six months so we addressed that with her pediatrician as well. When she’s outside running around she will have these coughing and wheezing fits and no matter if she is inside or outside she is always itchy — her nose and eyes are always bothering her to the point where they wake her up throughout the night. Juno’s doctor thinks the two of them might be related so she ran an inhalant panel in which we learned that she is highly allergic to dogs (NOOOO — we have the biggest and hairiest dog of ALL time who is Juno’s VERY best friend) and she is also highly allergic to alternaria alternata (an outdoor mold) and mildly to cats. Because of this we followed up with an allergist and asthma specialist and are putting some new protocols in place to hopefully help Juno sleep, stop itching and all around feel better. We are making a strict no-Remi in Juno’s bedroom rule, putting an air filter in her room plus the main floor of the house, and are starting her on Flonase and Zyrtec daily. Not to mention daily vacuuming and couch-rolling. Allergy shots are likely in her future once she is old enough. Goodness! Anything for our girl though!
We took Juno out of daycare the end of October, and it’s been honestly really nice to have her home and to not be sick for the last couple of months. We were going to pull her out for my maternity leave in the Spring anyway and decided to do it early because she was constantly sick and not feeling like herself. We felt like we were spending so much money on daycare and couldn’t even send her very often because she would come down with weekly colds. She now spends one day with our sweet babysitter, Ms. Jacklyn, who Juno adores, three days with her Yaya which are Juno’s favorite days, and she gets to have Fridays with her daddy for special Juno-Daddy time — they do all the things that I don’t do like eat lunch at In & Out, go to Cabelas to look at the animals and fishing poles, go to Home Depot, and she even takes really good naps for him — what the heck! It’s been working out really well for now! Juno sometimes talks about school and misses her friends and teachers, but for now, this feels like the right thing for her and us. We just signed her up for pre-school and she’ll start preschool in August after my maternity leave is over and then we will also need to start figuring out baby care soon too. Crazy to think we are going to have a pre-schooler AND a baby before we know it!
This summer Juno truly became a fish! She has been taking swim lessons since last January or February and this summer she wanted to go to the pool almost daily. I’d say we went maybe 4-5 times a week throughout the summer. She loved it and became such a good swimmer. She could jump in on her own, touch the bottom and make it back up and hold onto the wall all on her own. She could hold her breath for ten seconds and swim sections of the pool by herself. Every time we were at the pool she would go go go without stopping. She still is so sad the outdoor pools are closed right now, but Yaya takes her to the indoor pool quite a bit and also takes her to her weekly swim lessons on Thursdays while I’m at work. She loves it!
This Fall we tried to do all the Fall festive things we could even though this mama was not feeling well from being pregnant and working full time. We went to the most darling little pumpkin patch on a girl’s outing with mama and Yaya, painted pumpkins, carved pumpkins, did Fall crafts with her cousins and Juno baked a LOT with her Yaya. For Halloween, Juno was Tinkerbell and she wore the exact costume that I wore when I was the same age! My mom used to hand-make and sew all of our Halloween costumes growing up and she kept most of them so she pulled Tinkerbell out, fixed it up and got it all ready for Juno to wear on Halloween. While she was SO stinking cute as a little Tink, Juno really could have done without Halloween this year. We went to a trunk or treat the day before Halloween at a church and an adult was dressed up as a scary wolf with a scary mask on and Juno lost her ever loving mind. She clung to me and made me hold her the whole time — she was SO terrified of the scary wolf. So, when Halloween rolled around she was afraid of the tick-or-treaters and kept saying “no more trick or treaters. No more.” So, we learned that Halloween just really isn’t Juno’s favorite holiday and I am totally okay with that. Who needs to get candy from strangers anyway? She did decide on Halloween evening that she wanted to go to two of our neighbors’ houses so after already having her jammies on, we put back on her Tinkerbell costume and walked next door. As soon as the neighbors opened the door, she walked right into their house. HA! I guess we should have explained that you just stand at the door and don’t just barge in. It’s a good thing we know and love our neighbors! After getting a couple of pieces of candy from them and one other house across the street, she was ALL good to return home and not have to do Halloween “ever again”! She continued to talk about Halloween for weeks afterward and was still scared. Every night while laying in bed she would say, “Halloween’s all over? No more scary wolf? No more trick or treaters, right, mommy?” It was so sad! Next year, we might just skip the whole holiday altogether - ha!
In November and December we tried to take it easy as much as we could since this mama has still been very pregnancy sick, but we also tried to do some holiday things as well. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a turkey dinner at our house with both sets of Juno’s Grandparents. Juno made Thanksgiving placemats, Turkey hats and garland. This month she made a gingerbread house, saw Santa (she asked for a pink watch, a pink bike & a pink iPad case), and baked a lot of cookies! This December it was so much fun to see all of the Christmas magic through her eyes — she was at the best age to really experience Christmas this year! While our Christmas plans didn’t go as expected with Brandon testing positive for COVID right before Christmas Eve, we still tried to make the best of it. So, on Christmas Eve, we baked cookies at home, decorated some for Santa, relaxed and read all the Christmas books before bed. Juno was worried because she didn’t think we had a chimney so I had to carry her outside, show her the actual chimney and explain that the chimney leads to the fireplace in the basement where the stockings were. Juno loved leaving out cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer and while I was laying with her before bed, she kept shushing me and would say “Mommy, be quiet … Santa isn’t going to come if you’re talking to me!” Ha! On Christmas morning she woke up and screamed, “Did Santa come?! Daddy wake up!” She was so excited! We opened stockings, ate homemade cinnamon rolls that my parents dropped off on the front porch for us the night before (along with Christmas Eve AND Christmas dinner — cannot thank them enough!), opened presents and played with all of Juno’s new toys. She was so funny because she would open one present and play with it for the next 30 minutes before wanting to open another one. Unwrapping gifts took us all the way up till quiet time! We stayed in our Christmas jammies ALL day because we had nowhere to be and mama and Juno took a long nap! It was actually really nice to not be running around on Christmas Day, even though we missed our family like crazy and wished we could have been there. We just get to have multiple Christmases now!
This week we have all still been in quarantine, but we have done a lot of home-organization, taken long naps every day, played outside when we could and watched ENTIRELY too much TV. Not necessarily the winter break I had planned, but we are so thankful to all be feeling good and to have all had very mild cases. I’m also so thankful to have doctors that call and check on me and the family as well!
On Juno’s Third Birthday I asked her some interview questions (these are also on the chalkboard in the photos below but just in case you can’t read them well…). Here’s what she had to say:
What is your favorite thing to do?
“Play with my dolly!”
What makes you happy?
“My paci”
(Please help us — this girl’s love for her pacifier runs deep and we have tried EVERYTHING to get rid of them. And I mean everything! I don’t think anyone truly understands how loud and unceasingly this girl can scream. I’m not kidding when I tell you we have let her scream for FIVE hours before and on a separate occasion strapped her in the car and drove her to the ER because she was screaming so horrifically loud and relentlessly. So, if you have any ideas, I’m all ears! And I’ll also give you a dollar if it’s something we haven’t tried yet).
What makes you sad?
“When mommy leaves”
Who do you like to play with?
“Pie Pie (baby doll), Ellie, Raleigh, Barrett, Adelaide, Micah and Lillian”
If you could go anywhere, where would it be?
“Cabelas!”
What is one thing you are good at?
“Swimming”
What is your favorite memory from this year?
“I had my birthday party!”
If you could spend the day with any person, who would it be?
“Mama! I love you, mommy!”
What do you want to be when you grow up?
“I want to be a doggy!”
What would you buy if you had a million dollars?
“Another Remi dog!”
JUNO’S FAVORITES:
COLOR
Pink!
BOOK
I Am a Juno-Saur-ous! Or Fancy Nancy Christmas
OUTFIT
Anything with a tutu!
SONG
Anything that I can dance to
ANIMAL
A Reindeer
TOY
My baby doll, Pie Pie!
FOOD
"Anything!"
TV SHOW
Fancy Nancy, Paw Patrol & Rainbow Ruby
(Juno wanted to wear her Gryffindor sweater for her 3 year old session — this HP loving mama couldn’t say no (obviously)! What do you think — is she more like a Hermione or a Luna Lovegood?)
(See how much she LOVES her best friend that she is allergic to? Ugh, my heart!)
Juno Elizabeth, we don’t know how you are now THREE! It’s true what they say — the days are long but the years are short. We remember the day you were born like it was yesterday — it was the best day of our lives and each day since then has gotten better and better because of you. Not a day goes by where you don’t make us laugh, smile and feel so loved. We hope we make you feel the same way. We are so proud of the little person you are becoming. It’s been so much fun watching you grow and get bigger this year. Daddy says your twos were the best year so far — you became quite the daddy’s girl and your personality grew threfold— and we cannot wait to see what your next year has in store for you! There is no doubt that you will continue to blow us away. We love you so, so much, June Bug! Happy 3rd Birthday, Beautiful Girl!