Category Archives: Juno!

Soooo, Miss J is seven

April 26, 2022 17:14 | Leave a Comment |

What to say? Juno is now seven years old. It feels like it was just yesterday that we were rushing around, organising her sixth birthday party in the local park.

The past 365 days have gone by in quite the blur, between Juno starting school to multiple lockdowns and us struggling to combine home-schooling with work. (But at least now we know that real home-schooling is absolutely not and never will be an option for us.) Juno did do okay in her first year of school. She really enjoys going, which I personally think is half the battle. She’s making progress – better at maths than reading and writing but baby steps…

It’s amazing to observe the changes Juno is going through. At first it was all about the physical changes but we noticed in the last year that they’ve slowed right down and the bulk of change is personality/emotional. She was already very definitely her own person but it’s remarkable to watch a person take shape and to start fully-fleshing out. And the changes can be so rapid, it’s just that we can’t physically see them.

So, anyhoo… it’s Juno’s birthday today. Seven years since she came into the world. Happy birthday bubba boo.

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72 months later…

April 26, 2021 17:14 | Leave a Comment |

It’s still kinda strange to think that this time six years ago, I was in hospital having just had a baby (which is why this was published at 5:14pm – the time Juno came into the world).

Juno is now a school girl. She started prep this year and it’s been an experience to say the least. Big changes for us all. We think Juno quite likes it but she doesn’t talk about it much. She’s much more keen to talk about after-school care, which she really enjoys – probably because it’s just like childcare and she’s free to play as much as she likes. Plus, they give her food which she’s rather keen on. (We’ve learnt to give her less food at dinner when she’s been to after-school care.)

We’re guessing she’s going along okay at school. We haven’t been called in for any chats or anything so she’s not acting out or anything. Not that Juno was ever one to act out. She has her moments but on the whole, she’s a pretty calm child. I don’t think she’s formed any close friendships as yet but she had a pretty good turn out at her birthday party in the park. I guess my experiences at school (pretty much all bad) make me want for her to have the opposite one.

Interestingly enough, it doesn’t seem to bother her much. If she wants to play with some of the other girls, she does. But she’s also content to do her own thing too, which I think it’s a really valuable skill to have. Having confidence to do your thing from a young age is a good thing to have.

We keep thinking we should sign her up for dance classes because she loves to dance but we both wonder how that would actually go. She loves making up her own little dance routines and I’m not sure she’d appreciate being told what to do. She’s very definite about what she wants to do. Sending her to dance classes might not be the best option as we don’t want anything to squash that individualism she has, which is pretty awesome.

So, yeah… Juno is six. Happy birthday bubba boo.

Juno’s please face. (Yes, it’s a Bluey reference.)




Butter wouldn’t melt…

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66 months

October 26, 2020 09:00 | Leave a Comment |

So, Juno is five and a half.

To get here has been a pretty crazy ride, especially this year. She and I both had iso birthdays. Instead of the outdoor BBQ at the local park for her, we had a small party over Zoom so her extended family could sing her happy birthday. I think it went okay but it’s hard to tell with a five year old.

She liked the cupcakes I made so I’ll take that as a win.

(I made six, they were all individually coloured with pink icing as per her request. There were unicorn cupcake patty tins and unicorn cake decorations. I discovered I really need to get a cupcake tin for baking because mine sprawled. They went out instead of up!)

While we haven’t minded not paying childcare fees, it’s been a tough few months. I feel like I haven’t really measured up as a parent when it comes to meeting Juno’s needs. I think I’ve discovered I’m not a “natural” parent, it doesn’t come easily to me. I’m constantly stumped for ideas to keep her entertained so I quickly give in to her demands to watch TV. I was so glad when it was announced childcare was being reopened for all children because at least that way she would be in the company of other kids again and not in front of the TV.

However, I don’t think anyone was equipped to deal with what we’ve been through this year so we’re definitely not alone in the child watching too much TV stakes.

Anyhoo…. Juno is enrolled at our local primary school for next year. Thankfully it’s got a decent reputation because we totally phased on this and it was well past the official enrolment period before we actually did anything. Ooops. But it’s not like we’ve ever done this before. And the rules say the school must enrol her because it’s the closest to us so we’re all good. Again, it hasn’t been a normal year. At all.

We’re lucky though. We’ve avoided getting sick thus far, Juno is a happy kid who’s growing up so fast. Much to be thankful for.

Yeah, when this happens the photo session is most definitely over.

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Now we are five

April 26, 2020 12:32 | Leave a Comment |

Today Juno is five years old.

Five!

It’s the not the day we were planning.

We had ideas of having yet another BBQ at the park, just like last year. I would’ve made a cake and we’d all sing happy birthday to the excited birthday girl. Then she’d get to blow out the candles.

It feels like a significant number, although I’m not 100 per cent sure why. Perhaps because it’s half a decade and it certainly doesn’t feel like it was five years ago that she came into the world. Time is tricky like that.

But global pandemics tend to put a cramp on any plans that were being considered. We’re lucky though. We’re all together, we’re all well and we don’t have the concerns that so many others do. It’s just unfortunate that coronavirus struck in the year that Juno was actually aware of what her birthday meant and she was quite excited by the prospect of having a party. But if that’s your biggest concern in life, I’d say you’re winning.

Instead of being surrounded by family and friends, it’ll have to be electronic party instead. Happy birthday will be sung by her family via a zoom meeting and there will still be candles on a birthday (cup)cake to blow out. But as it’s a cupcake, there will be just one candle which will hopefully not set fire to the cupcake decorations I got.

There will be time enough for plenty of birthday parties.






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Someone is four and a half

October 26, 2019 16:26 | Leave a Comment |

My brother told me ages ago that parenting never really gets easier, it just gets different. And that’s so true. Being a parent to a pre-schooler is so different from being a parent to a baby. It’s such a huge adjustment to get used to.

I mean, a pre-schooler talks back to you and you can’t really negotiate with them.

Bribery works though. Discovered that one pretty quickly.

On the whole, Juno is a pretty laid back kid. She has her melt-downs but all kids do. We had a phase where they were happening less frequently which was nice but in the last month or two, they’ve been happening more frequently which is really frustrating. I had been lulled into a false sense of security because I thought she’d gotten a better handle on her emotions.

I guess that means she’s a perfectly normal child. I know I don’t remember what I was like when I was four and a half but I’m guessing I didn’t have too great a handle on my emotions.

She’s pretty sassy and cheeky which has its moments of hilarity.

The grommets are out of her ears now so we’re hoping that’s the end of that. We want to her to start swimming lessons at some point and that’s an option now. Her speech is a million times better and she seems to be on track with her peers at childcare which is great. I do think there’s some very mild hearing loss though, although that may be selective hearing on her behalf.

Juno will do another year at kinder next year and start primary school in 2021. She could’ve gone next year but it’s obvious she’s not ready for school. Another year at kinder help with her emotional and social development so when she does go to school she’ll be 100 per cent ready.

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208 weeks, 48 months, 4 years

April 26, 2019 17:15 | Leave a Comment |

One day you wake up and you have a four year old.

FOUR!!

There is much truth to the saying the days are long but the years are short. It feels like only yesterday that she was being born.

I’m not sure where all the time has gone.

Juno is definitely a handful these days. She has already developed selective hearing and will ignore us if she wants to. It’s… frustrating. I hate having to repeat myself and then having to use that tone to get her to stop whatever it is that she’s doing which possibly involves her injuring herself. Sigh.

However, she is a pretty amazing little kid. She has this thing of using her hands and/or feet as characters and she gets them talking to each other. It’s hilarious! The stuff that she comes up with is so imaginative and funny. Often she’ll just come out with the craziest stuff, like there’s a dragon on the other side of the door but it’s okay because she’s a happy dragon and is playing with her (Juno’s) slippers. Which are shaped like unicorns by the way…

Hilarity often does ensue around here but most of the time I’m left in awe of how creative and imaginative she is. And how frustrating pre-schoolers can be. You can’t negotiate with a four year old. You really can’t. I’ve discovered that bribes work though.

Anyhoo… happy birthday to my little rockstar who, I’m certain, is going to change the world one day.

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Three years, six months

October 26, 2018 12:00 | Leave a Comment |

Time is a funny thing. Part of me still can’t get my head around the fact that Juno is three and half when it feels like it was just yesterday she were this totally adorable, wriggly, happy baby. Another part of me feels like it’s been way, way, waaaaaaaay longer than that.

This whole having a toddler thing is hard, much harder than when she was a baby. Juno really was a unicorn baby – slept through the night, happy 99 per cent of the time, laid-back and easy-going. I can look back now and see she really was the world’s easiest baby and we totally lucked out.

Suffice to say the transformation into a toddler has been… challenging. She’s not quite so laid-back these days and is very, very definite about what she want and when she want it. I’m sure this is all perfectly normal toddler behaviour and in comparison to some toddlers, she probably would be considered laid-back and easy-going.

For us though, it came as a bit of a shock and we definitely weren’t prepared for it. I guess we thought that Juno would continue to be the unicorn child – cooperative, happy, extremely cute and lovable. She’s still all those thing but maybe a little less cooperative then what she was. It has been amazing to see her personality emerging and to listen to hear rapidly developing vocabulary. She is a sweet, lovely little girl. (But if you asked her, she’s not a little girl, she’s a big girl!)

But the shouting. Oh my gosh, the shouting and angry tears have started. I do not enjoy being manipulated but there’s nothing we can do about it. Knowing it’s an important developmental stage is not helping. We’re working on trying to stop her shouting at us when we don’t do what she wants but I have a feeling we’ll just have to wait it out.





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We have a threenanger

April 26, 2018 16:12 | Leave a Comment |

Happy third birthday to our threenanger, Juno.

It’s certainly been an interesting ride.

You’ve gone from a chilled-out, calm baby to a defiant, adorable, intense and fun-loving toddler.

You are definitely a child who knows her own mind and wants what she wants. Immediately. With no delays.

It’s amazing to see your personality forming and you becoming your own person.

I get that where you are now is an important developmental stage but gosh, you can be exhausting when you want to be. All we can do it ride it out and live in hope we’ll survive it.

Having said all that, you’re an awesome little kid. You have such a bright spark inside you. You just shine.

And to be honest, we all know you totally own me.

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Time is just flying by

October 26, 2017 09:00 | Leave a Comment |

So hard to believe that my little baby is now two and a half. Juno is definitely not little nor a baby any more.

A lot has happened in the last six months.There have been two sets of grommets in her ears to help with her persistently blocked eardrums (first lot didn’t take and had to be removed). The change has been startling.

Physically she’s come on in leaps and bounds. She always seemed okay but I never noticed that she wouldn’t actually climb that much. At the playground she would stick to the easy stuff and avoid anything that required her to use her entire body. But that’s not the case now! Now she’s a little monkey and wants to climb stuff that’s way too big and hard for her and she has to be guided towards more appropriate things. Most toddlers are absolute klutzes so we put it down her disinterest in climbing to that rather than anything else but it appears we were wrong. She obviously had wonky balance so was reluctant to do too much physically.

Her speech is also coming along albeit far more slowly. We have two and three word sentences now which is good but there’s still a lot of babbling going as well. She had a hearing test about three months ago which showed a huge improvement from where she had been. Interestingly though, help – which she was saying clearly – has become pout or pelt. Not sure what’s going on there. I’m constantly saying help to her and she will repeat clearly but when she asks independently, it comes out as pelt. Eh… I’m sure it’ll resolve itself. We have an appointment with Juno’s speechie in two weeks so we can discuss it then.

I have to be more careful in what I’m saying as Juno now seems to hear everything and will often repeat what I’ve said. Um yeah, that’s not so good for someone who’s been known to swear like a trooper. Really don’t want her dropping the f-bomb at childcare. I think I might get questions about that.

Speaking of childcare… The other big event in Juno’s life is that her childcare centre moved into brand new purpose-build digs. The new centre is amazing. The old one was just that – old and very rundown so it’s wonderful to see the kids in a brand new environment with new toys and play areas. It’s also more convenient for me so I’m pretty happy about that, although I think I might be the only one.

I initially thought we might avoid the terrible twos but no, they struck with a vengeance about three months ago. She’s still a pretty calm little kid but when she loses her cool, wow does she lose it! It still baffles me that someone so small can make that much noise. Mostly we try to ignore them when we know she’s faking it but when she really loses it, the only thing to do is try to cuddle her until she calms down. Unfortunately food bribes also work but I only get that one out when I’m desperate. I’ve really learnt that that there’s no reasoning with a two year old who’s mid-tantrum. Sometimes nothing will work except letting her get it all out.

It’s amazing how quickly she is growing up. I’m not sure where the last two and a half years have gone.

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104 weeks, 24 months, 2 years

April 26, 2017 06:00 | Leave a Comment |


Happy second birthday to my bright, hilarious, chatty, wild-haired, adorable Juno.

It’s still so very strange to have a piece of my heart running around independently of me. You are can be so many different things all at once – precious, annoying, shy, loud, quiet, sad, happy, fierce, silly, sombre.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided it was a good idea to try and have a child and it has been so much harder than I thought it would be. But it’s also been, by far, one of the most rewarding things I’ve done. You’re an ace little kid.

Don’t let the world change or extinguish the brilliant spark that’s inside you.

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