New year, even more fun ahead!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've written here. (Sorry!) 3 months almost.
Well, a lot has changed. I wasn't sure if it was possible, but Sienna is even more beautiful, smart, and fun to be around than ever.
Wednesday was Sienna's 15 month well check and she is 21.8 lbs, and 32inches tall. She's tall, skinny, with a big ole head. That's my girl!
We celebrated her accomplishments with a trip to balboa park. We had a nice picnic then went on a tricycle ride around the park. It was really fun, even though she fell twice.

I want to try and get out more with Sienna while I'm on break from school. There's a lot of things I want to get done around the house too (garden, cleaning, organizing) but the weather has been so beautiful- I should take advantage of it while I can! Plus, she really loves being outside. We went to the zoo with Gramma Monday, and are going again tomorrow. Sienna really liked taking the bus tour! She had fun standing on Grammies lap, didn't want anything to do with Mama!

I feel like we did a lot of fun stuff in 2011, but there's always room for improvement!

I've seen a few people do similar things, and since I haven't been blogging consistently, how's about a year in review?

January

Sienna is 3 months old, with chubby cheeks and a fuzzy head. This month she went to the beach for the first time. We joined a mom group, a baby sign class, and Sienna went to day care for the first time as I went back to school.

  

February

At four months, Sienna tries rice cereal for the first time- we come to the mutual decision that she is not ready for solid food yet. We celebrate our first valentines day together. We also go to a family bbq with our new friends, but Sienna is too little to interact with the other kids. As you can tell by the picture, she is also teething! Ooh, cold blue foot feels good on those gums!

March

This month, Sienna learns how to sit up on her own! She gets her first injury at school (bumped head) and gets her very own high chair! Unfortunately, she also got her first ear infection.

April

Wow, hard to pick just one picture for this month. This month Sienna starts to crawl, we celebrate our first Easter (with plastic eggs, a picnic with friends, and I pass down my easter basket to her), and her grandparents fly all the way from Japan to visit. Sienna also learns the joy of a piggy back  ride. I turn 22.

 May

We go to an art festival, the aquarium and the zoo. Grandparents leave, and we start making the spare room into Sienna's playroom. Sienna is standing and cruising and loves to walk around with assistance.

June

We go to the park and zoo a few times. Sienna can climb the stairs! She loves stacking blocks and we host a party at our house for all our friends. Sienna loves watching sesame street- especially elmo!

July

We go swimming for the first time at grandma's house. The water was too cold, Sienna did NOT like it at all. She slipped out of my arms into the water and that was it for that attempt at swimming. She makes friends with Charlie the dog. We go to many birthday parties for Sienna's friends. Sienna learns to clap, and has two upper teeth (fangs).  She also loves drawing on her chalkboard.

August

Our last month of summer vacation. We go to the park and the zoo. Sienna gets a new big girl carseat! Daddy goes out of town on work travel for the first time. We miss him but have fun anyways.  I start a new semester at school and Sienna gets to come with me! I get to visit her on my breaks between classes.

 September
We go to the beach and the aquarium. Daddy turns 40! Sienna likes to run around naked and also wear mom and dads clothes. She loves being silly and playing with all her toys. All this month we are getting ready for her birthday party!  

October
Sienna turns ONE!!! We have a fun little party, but Sienna isn't interested in presents or friends, just running around. We go to the pumpkin patch at Bates Nut Farm and pick out Sienna's very first pumpkin, and then we get another one later to paint on. Even though Sienna was around last year for halloween, this is her first time trick or treating! She was a little ladybug and we had a blast walking around the neighborhood. She especially loved walking up to peoples houses, but got scared as soon as they opened the door. She starts going to a new day-care. I'm sad because she's not at school with me anymore.

November
We go to Julian and get fresh apple pie and go christmas shopping. We get pictures taken of us, and Daddy goes out of town for a few days while we have fun at home. We have a nice Thanksgiving, but all Sienna is interested in eating is the cranberry sauce. She makes a huge mess though, and falls asleep right after. 

December
We go to December Nights at Balboa park, Sienna has a blast walking around looking at all the people. We visit Grandma in the hospital after her knee replacement. We lose Great-Grandma Alice. Sienna met her this time last year, where she said Sienna was cute. We help Grandma pick out the perfect Christmas tree, and meet Santa. We have a very merry Christmas!    

Wow, looking at all these pictures makes me nostalgic. A year sure goes by fast, and she grew so quickly in such a short amount of time. Next year I'm sure I'll say the same thing.   

All in all, 2011 was a great year but we are ready to see what 2012 has in store for us. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with this blog. There are new pictures up on her gallery as well.

One year. October 3, 2011

This morning I got up, made Sienna some milk, got her up, dressed and fed, and sent her off with Daddy for her first day at a new daycare.
Last year on this day I held her for the first time. I remember it like it was today. I remember her face, red and wrinkly- but her eyes have always been those big brown almonds that I love so much. She came out screaming, then immediately quieted as she was placed in my arms. It is in these arms that she has spent a large part of this last year. We have snuggled, cuddled, napped, read, paced, and rocked. I can do just about anything with her in my arms. Open a locked door while carrying a school bag and a bunch of mail? Sure. Make a peanut butter sandwich? No problem. Run upstairs at lightning speed to turn off the off balance washing machine? Yeah, that too.
Then she learned to crawl. All of a sudden, she could move on her own! She didn't always need me to take her from place to place, although it was still her preferred mode of transportation.
At around 10.5 months she learned to walk. Walking is incredibly efficient- no rug burns! So Sienna became even more independent and sometimes downright squirmy in my arms.
Now not only does she walk, she power walks. She can zoom along at high speeds until she reaches a pair of arms willing to receive her or hits a wall or table (she takes after me).
But mommy's (and daddy's) arms are still her security blanket, and they will always be there to comfort her when she needs it.

One year seems like such a long time, but in reality it went faster than I ever thought a year could go. I feel so lucky to be Sienna's mom, and be able to watch her grow. The transformation from newborn to toddler is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
All those firsts we have witnessed, and all the ones we have yet to see are reminders of how wonderful life is, even when we're exhausted and Sienna is screaming.
My favorite time of the day is bedtime when I get to sit and snuggle Sienna to sleep. I love rubbing her back, stroking her hair, and rocking in the glider until she finally falls asleep snuggled close to me. It is during this time that I often marvel about how much she is grown and how quickly this past year has gone. She hardly fits in the chair anymore!

We have so much fun together playing, reading books, chasing each other around the house, singing songs, etc. Even though she has lots of toys, she still enjoys playing with random household objects more than anything. Well, almost anything. She has a love for stuffed animals, especially her little bear! She also loves monkey and teddy bear. Anything she can carry around.

Sienna has decided it is time to start talking and signing! She can say uh-oh, mama, dada, and up!
She signs "more" for anything related to food. I think I even saw her do "all done" once too. Exciting! She's definitely a smarty pants. :)

We're down to one nap a day, I don't know how it happened. Sometimes it's only half an hour, sometimes its closer to two hours. Since her schedule is changing to go along with daddy's instead of mine, she's going to bed closer to 6:30/ 7. She still seems exhausted by dinner time though.

This has been by far the best year of my life.
I am so glad we have such wonderful friends and family for Sienna to know and depend on as she gets older. We love you!

 

Still here!

Sorry for the lack of updates for the past few months! School has been a lot harder and a lot more stressful than I was expecting. Luckily, one class is already over so I can concentrate more on the others, although I still have a full load!

Sienna is almost one year old, and I promise to have a birthday [party] update next week. With pictures!
I'm at school right now so I can't upload anything, but if you go to sienna's gallery there are many many new pictures up from week 46-51. Check it out!

I will save all my ruminations of the past year for her one year post, but it is so hard to believe that she's already (almost) one! She has become such an intelligent, sweet, beautiful, and helpful little girl. So amazing.

Since I last posted, she has learned how to walk, talk, and sign. She can almost even run, but she trips in a matter of steps. She can say "uh-oh" "up" "mama" "dada" "doo"(shoe or doodoo). She signs "more" almost all day long wanting more food! Graham crackers and bananas are her favorites. She recognizes many many more words than she can say. We can ask her to go get little bear (her favorite toy) and she will go and find him and bring him to us. She knows milk and banana too, and gets very excited at these words. She knows the word go, bye bye(she'll start waving as soon as we say it), where, book, and yo gabba gabba(a tv show she likes).

In short, she is growing up so fast!

Her party is this Sunday, and I still have soooo much to do. It will be a blast though!

New Skills

Sienna has a lot of new skills that she would like to share!

She learned how to clap! It's sooooo cute. I had been trying to teach her the "more" sign by bringing her hands together. Well, she doesn't do the sign yet but she started clapping! Grandma came over and she just started doing it.

She's also learned how to give kisses! She already knows how to give hugs (she's a hug-a-holic) but now we get wet, slobbery baby kisses too! It's really funny, she makes a sound and everything. The only part she doesn't know how to do is close her mouth, hence the slobbery part. It's nice to know she can express her love for us.

Sienna also drew on her chalkboard wall for the first time! She only tried to eat the chalk a few times too. She also did a nice scratching sound to make our ears bleed.

I like this picture because you can also see her fangs. Too bad she's not Fang anymore! She's got 5 teeth now, with the 6th about to come down any day now. When Grandma was over we tried getting pictures of the fangs.

But back to the new skills.. Sienna can also now open plastic baggies! I know, suffocation hazard, we definitely watch her when she's playing with a bag. I put some toys in a gallon size bag and she has a lot of fun opening it and taking the toys out.

Hmmm, I thought there was something else but I can't remember it right now. In other news, Sienna has officially made the switch to 12 month clothes. I put a pair of 12 month jammies on her last night and they were tight! I'm going to have to stretch everything out so she can wear them.
We have two birthday parties to attend this weekend, fun! We're going to be very busy.

Picture update soon to come on her Gallery in 41st and 42nd week. Keep an eye out for new July videos as well!

Toilet paper girl

Yesterday Sienna had her 9 month well check. I know, she's already almost 10 months, but her doctor wasn't available until yesterday. It was not a fun appointment. She cried almost the entire time. For a minute she was acting like she wanted the doctor to hold her and then she decided that it wasn't what she wanted. Definitely stranger anxiety!
She said that Sienna was ahead of the game developmentally, she was surprised to hear that she's already standing and climbing-- we may have an early walker! I keep thinking that any day now she's going to take her first steps. She really seems like she wants to but loses confidence at the last minute. I don't want her babyhood to end yet, but I'm excited for the new adventures having a toddler brings.
She is 17 lbs 11oz, and 28 inches tall, so we get a little extra time before we have to buy a convertible car seat. She cried so much when she was on the scale, she even tried to jump out, it was crazy.

Later yesterday evening I started feeling sick. I think Eric brought something home from work because he was complaining about a sore throat and then I got it. I hope Sienna doesn't catch it because it could set off another ear infection. There is some leftover fluid in her right ear, but it is clear so we aren't treating it just yet.

You might be confused with the title of this blog post. Toilet paper girl? That sounds a little weird. I'll tell you what's weird. A baby with an obsession with toilet paper. She crawls in the bathroom, tears off some squares and eats it. Several times a day. Sometimes she goes in and unrolls the whole thing. Today I was doing dishes and she comes up to me with something white hanging out of her mouth, and lo and behold! A fat clump of toilet paper. I try and keep the bathroom doors closed, but I've been in and out a lot lately flushing fleas down the sink. I don't know why she likes to eat it, but she does. I don't think she's swallowed any yet, but you never know. As Eric says, I don't really want to know what kind of stuff she's eating when we're not looking.

Silly baby.

There are new pics uploaded to her gallery under 39th, 40th, and 41st week. Soon there will be videos as well, we just need to convert them to flash!

Tomorrow is a picnic potluck to celebrate the end of baby sign class in PB. Fun!

Hanging out with Gramma

This past weekend was very big for Sienna- her first sleepover! She stayed over at Grandma's house Saturday night and Eric and I were able to go on a date. It was nice that we could eat dinner unrushed and without distractions, but it was also a little lonely without the baby girl. We both were sad when we got up in the morning and she wasn't there. Sienna wasn't very happy about it on Saturday night, but she was happy and herself on Sunday morning. I picked her up in the afternoon and she was playing with Grandma, Charlie, and lots of toys!

A few days before that we were over at Grandmas to go swimming! It was a very hot day so we didn't get the pool set up until the late afternoon. It was quite the scene putting it up. I had Sienna on my back in the Ergo and she didn't appreciate me bending over or the pine needles prickling her head. We were trying to hold the sides up but they kept collapsing. Finally we got in, and Sienna didn't like the cold water! She was ok sitting on my lap though, so that's what we did until.... Sienna fell in face first! Bad mom moment of the week right there. She was ok though, hardly freaked out at all.

Sienna in the pool with Grandma!

Sunday we went to Sienna's friend Joanna's first birthday party! It was a lot of fun, Sienna enjoyed the pool a lot more, although everyone else was done swimming by the time she got in.
Yesterday Grandma came over again and we hung out at home. Sienna loves her Grammy!

so pretty!

There are new pictures on Sienna's gallery under 39th week, so check it out. There's more to come soon when I upload pics from my camera as well!

Standing and Holiday Weekend

Sienna decided it was time to stand on her own. She can only do it for a few seconds, but it is SOOO cute! It seems like she falls down on her bottom as soon as she realizes what she's doing. A few times she's stood up by herself, but mostly she pulls herself up on something and then lets go. Pretty soon she's going to be taking her first steps, sniff..

We decided not to go see fireworks this year. Sienna goes to sleep at 8pm so she missed them all. Next year maybe we'll go down to the park, or at least out on the street to watch them. We were able to see them from our bedroom window though.. kind of. Our neighbor's roof was right in the way. Argh!

That's pretty much it. We got some much needed relaxing in.

Soon I will update about our trip to grandma's, but I need to get my camera back first!