Random Funnies

There are a few funny things I wanted to document before my ever atrophying memory loses them:

June's Birthday Terror:

June really seems to adore babies; she always notices them in movies, photos, at church, etc. And I once saw her playing with a friend's baby doll, so I thought that was a reasonable present to get for June's birthday. I asked my dad if he'd wrap up one of my old baby dolls (remember the American Doll Bitty Babies?) to give to June. But, being the doting grandfather he is, my Dad decided to go buy a very nice, new, high-end baby doll. An Asian one, for reasons that I believe are obvious (Asian babies are the cutest. Oh, and June is a quarter Japanese)

The only problem, of course, is that this baby is super creepy looking. And I'm sure it didn't help that we introduced it to June by telling her it's her cousin Lisako. So now Lisako is this small plastic creepy thing.

June would have nothing to do with it.

She would yell, "NO!" and back away from the doll. Rika, with her mild case of sadism, took to following June around with the baby.


My dad, undaunted, resolved to return with the Caucasian, less creepy baby doll.


But here comes a confession: I was a little worried about this. I mean, how would that sound to people? "My daughter doesn't like Asian dolls; only white dolls." Plus, I suppose I had to admit that there was a little part of me that has been worried my children are a little racist. Back when Dane was probably about 18 months old, I bought him a baby doll, too. I wanted a Cabbage Patch Doll, so I bought the cheapest one with yarn hair that I found on eBay. It is a mixed race baby doll, with lovely caramel skin tone. And so far neither of my kids have cared about it in the least.

So I worried, if June goes for the Caucasian baby doll, it might confirm my fears.

Luckily for race relations, June hated the white baby too.

So my kids may not have developed their maternal and paternal instincts, but they aren't racist.

Teat Time

June loves to play with Dane's little tea set. She can entertain herself for quite awhile pouring and sipping water, or occasionally punch.

She calls it teat.

"Mommy, I wan teat please."
"Mommy, more teat!"
"Mommy, I need teat!"

Adventures in Newsprint

I was taught at some point to clean mirrors and windows with Windex and newspaper, since it won't leave lint that rags or paper towels do. So I keep a stash of newspapers in the bathroom cabinet with the cleaning supplies. And since I don't actually subscribe to any newspapers, whenever I get those free mailings, I throw them into the cabinet.

One weekend we were all working together to clean the bathrooms, and Dane and June found endless amusement with their very own pages of the newspaper. They used them as pretend blankets, as mats to stand on, etc. At one point, Dane pointed to a picture and said, "This man is naked and has huge muscles," but when I looked at it, it was just a shirtless guy, so I didn't think anything of it. Then I noticed that June's page had a large ad for free HIV testing, and while I found it amusing that my toddler is playing with something such an ad, I again didn't think anything of it.

When we finished cleaning the bathrooms and I was gathering the newspapers back up to put them away, I noticed photos of a drag queen pageant and a bunch of scantily clad men posing on poles.

Apparently, the newspaper my kids had been playing with were pages from the Gayly. And while I support the right to free speech and all, we decided the pole dancing and cross dressing were topics to be discussed with our children at a later date. And probably not with visual aids.

Happy Birthday June!

June is now three years old!

That's right, it's been exactly a year since I posted last. Pay no attention to the fact that I have not posted Dane's 6th birthday . . . or Christmas 2013 . . . or the purchase of our first home . . . or ANYTHING in the past 365 days. But there's no time like the present to start up again. 

Let's begin by celebrating the many faces of June!

A. Boogie Down June

B. June trying to show us "I'm free!"

C. Silly June

D. Hammy June

E. Screamy June

F. Reticent June

G. Skeptical June

H. Sweet June

Daddy got up early to get June her favorite breakfast of sprinkle donuts. At first, June was grumpy at being awakened, but once Daddy showed her the donuts, she perked right up.

Then we had a birthday photo shoot, where June showed off her adorableness and her love for her big brother.

Then it was party time!

Rika and I slaved over the decorations and the pinata--it was fun and makes me want to make pinatas for every party!
We used this tutorial for the pinata and this one for the lovely flowers:

I actually tried to take great care to make sure the pinata wasn't too strong because I hate when little kids can't get through a pinata, but apparently hundreds of tissue flowers provide a lot of padding.

By the time Uncle Brady busted through the pinata, most of the treats inside had been pulverized.
Oh well, live and learn.

June got to chat with Grandma and show her all her presents!

Then cake! Delicious cupcakes! Perhaps the most delicious cupcakes in the world. I mean, I don't like to exaggerate, but . . . they were truly amazing cupcakes. And I don't even like cake.

America's Test Kitchen's Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes--carefully crafted to maximize the chocolate experience. Those people are geniuses. 

And Strawberry Cupcakes--the frosting tastes like a strawberry milkshake. 

Happy birthday to June!

June licked the frosting off of three different cupcakes, so I'm pretty sure she approved.

Every night, when I put June to bed, she asks me to read Curious George out of the paperback and then Curious George again out of the the hardback volume. Then, she asks me to sing "Firsa Baber," a.k.a. "For the First Time in Forever," then "Summer," then "Let it Go." She dances and reenacts the scenes as I sing. Then we carefully arrange all the figurines from Cars, Monsters University, and Frozen on the edge of her crib. Then she gives me a kiss, gives me a hug, and says "Goodnight Mommy, I love you. See you later," and blows kisses to me as I leave. 

Happy birthday, sweet Junie. I'm so happy you were born. 

Happy Birthday, June!

We interrupt these Frost reunion posts to bring you big news:

June is now two years old!

She was pretty reticent during our photo shoot, and all the close ups I took were slightly blurry, but oh well. The photos capture her little personality.

Because her birthday was on Sunday, we broke up the festivities over two days: swimming and ice cream on Saturday, dinner and presents on Sunday!

Jiichan & Baachan and Rika & Brady joined us at the pool. June didn't really want to swim, but she enjoyed the water. She even got a fun new water table from Jiichan and Baachan that she immediately took to playing with.

I'd like people to note the evidence that Mom was in the water, which almost never happens. She sinks unless she's got a flotation device, as evidenced above.

I tried to think of things June loves to make her day special. I decided bubbles would be a fun activity for the party, so I bought a GALLON of bubble solution and made fancy bubble wands in anticipation of THE BIGGEST BUBBLES IN THE WORLD!

As you can see, the bubbles were lackluster, to say the least. They barely worked with the traditional wand, let alone the big ones Joel and I had made.
But Joel added some dish soap and corn syrup to the mix, swished it around, and giant bubbles were born!

Dane had an absolute blast chasing the giant bubbles around:

June was...pretty much oblivious. She was so engrossed in her new water table and she didn't even notice the amazing bubbles floating around her. Observe:

But we had a lovely time, and she did notice a few of the bubbles after a while.
Everyone was kind enough to hang out with us TWO days in a row for June festivities:

Then, it was time for presents!
She got a very cute plush Noah's Ark toy from Grandma Frost

Jessie and Bullseye from Rika & Brady

Some fun water toys to go along with the water table, and some books that she really loves.

Also, some big girl undies, which she immediate wanted to put on:

Then, the cakes. I must say, I'm usually disappointed at how my layer cakes turn out, but both the regular cake and the smash cake turned out quite well this time:

Have you ever had the Berry Chantilly Cake from Whole Foods? It is delicious. I decided to make a copycat recipe, and it did not disappoint. I used a sponge cake recipe, and the texture was...spongy. I liked it, but it might not be for everyone. (Note, I doubled the recipe to make a three layer cake, plus a baby three layer cake.) For the smash cake, I used the same sponge cake with a chocolate buttercream recipe that we got from the restaurant at Joel's old work. Very buttery. And I tried my hand at chocolate decorations. They weren't super beautiful, but they were passable. I don't know, I've never had good luck (or good skill) drizzling chocolate beautifully. I mostly drizzle chunks and uneven lines. But June didn't care!

Then, candle time! June was wary, but she had a kind big brother willing to help her out:

It was a lovely night, and I'm so happy to have June in our family. What can I say about her presence? She has an amazing ability to drive you crazy and melt your heart, all at the same time. She is picky and demanding, snuggly and sweet, smart and spunky, strong and willful. She love her shoes and purse, which she keeps loaded down with about 20 cars. She loves to wear Dane's Spongebob fedora, and she is adept at drawing tiny swirls (sometimes on paper, usually on her arms and legs). She learns new words every day, loves getting pedicures (and, by extension, smudging pedicures), and is completely unpredictable in what she'll eat. I love that she now loves Toy Story, and I love her sweet smile and cute laugh. I am so happy to be her mom, and I can't believe she's already two. I love Junie. Happy Birthday, sweet baby.

Beachery

Having lived my entire life in completely landlocked states, there are couple of things about visiting the ocean that always surprise me:

1) The water really is salty
2) The waves don't care if you are small
3) Creatures you can't see like to hang around you
4) Sand gets everywhere and stays there almost forever

I don't mean to paint a negative picture; the beach was amazing. It was beautiful, relaxing, fun-filled, romantic, and full of jellyfish.

We probably had 30 jellyfish incidents. I got just a teeny sting on my ankle (right after stepping on something in the water that gashed my foot). But there were lots of other people who got some major stings from sea nettles.

You don't want to mess with one of those.

OK, now seriously onto the positive stuff.

We all arrived on Saturday to get settled, then went to church Sunday morning. A few of the adults took the kids on a walk down to the beach with strict instructions to do no more than wade in the water to keep the Sabbath day holy.

I'm going to give you three guesses as to how that went.

I love seeing the progression of how much wetter and wetter Dane's clothes get. And this wasn't the only time he went down to the beach fully clothed, only to come back completely soaked. Laurie Jayne told me that seeing Dane roll around in the surf was one of the purest expressions of joy she's seen. I wish I'd been there to see it.

This trip was June's first time to ever experience the ocean, and I think she lived it up. Every day, she excitedly asked to go to the "bubbo."

She loved playing with her cousin baby Ben. They are exactly one year and 4 days apart, but you can only tell their age difference by the length of their legs and the number of their teeth. I'm pretty sure Ben outweighs June by more than a couple of pounds. 

They played happily together. 

She did occasionally take advantage the wisdom of her age. 

Sweet Mariah really doted on June.

Dane loved playing with his cousins:

And enjoying the waves:

We were also able to get some lovely portraits:

 Hilton Head is a lovely place, and not just because of the water. Stay tuned for more reasons we loved our vacation!