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!

Teeth and other things

Sienna is now the owner of two new teeth! The ones next to the top middle ones. She's my little vampire!
I haven't gotten a good picture of them yet. One popped out a week or so ago, and the second one on Monday. I'm sooo happy they finally appeared, because they have been making her so cranky at night.
We're trying to get her comfortable sleeping in her own bed, but it's difficult when she's in pain.
We're making progress though!

This past Saturday, we had a lot of mommies and babies (and a few daddies) over for a family get together. It was a lot of fun! The babies seemed to like Sienna's playroom and all her toys.Everyone brought really yummy food- I ate like a pig and we still have some leftovers.

On Sunday we went to a baby gear/ clothing swap. I was disappointed, because last time even though there wasn't as much stuff, it wasn't as crazy and was better organized. This time it was in this really tiny narrow room, and everyone attacked the piles of stuff like sharks and you couldn't even look at anything without being knocked into. One lady had two giant ikea bags and was hitting everybody with them. The quality of items offered wasn't as good this time- we didn't get very nice clothes unlike last time. I did find some books, and a sock monkey toy that Sienna likes. It was nice to get rid of some stuff, and hopefully someone gets use out of it. I know what we brought in was much nicer than what we took out. Oh well. Then after that we went to the aquarium. Sienna loves the sardines in the entrance.

Yesterday, Grandma came over and we went to the zoo. We didn't stay for long, but we had lunch and saw a few animals. Grandma even got to pet a tortoise! It was a nice day.

Grandma scratching the tortoise's neck!

And here's some more pics-- there's more in her gallery!

Looking out the window

having fun in a box

This weekend is a long one, so hopefully we'll do something fun!

Long awaited update

We've been so busy, I almost forgot about this blog! It's been over a month, sorry!
Sienna is 8 months now, and is still the most beautiful, smart, and fun baby in the world. We've been up to a lot of things, it's hard to know where to start.
 I finished the semester, so we've had a lot of time to play together during the week. We try to save the fun stuff for the weekend so we can hang out as a family.
Sienna especially likes the aquarium. We got a membership to the Birch Aquarium so we can go whenever we want. Sienna likes the moving fish, and also the kids that are always there on field trips.

Oh no, my baby got eaten by a shark!

We've also had to start childproofing the house. We got the cabinet locks done, and we've had the outlet things for a while. The outlet covers seem to attract more attention though. We just got a gate for the top of the stairs, now we just need one for the bottom. Sienna is a crawling machine, and this applies to stairs too. She can climb all the way up without stopping!

On Memorial Day, we went and hung out with the family. She was very good. She especially liked Uncle Gary's presents with the bright wrapping paper.

Here she is with Uncle Dave and Kelly.

 Sienna also got invited to her first birthday party! One of her friends, Cambria turned one, so we went down to the bay to celebrate. The babies all traded toys, and Sienna enjoyed chewing on a bottle of sunscreen. There was a pinata full of yummy baby treats, and we got to bring home a treasure chest full of goodies. It was a lot of fun and got me excited for Sienna's party!

Id add a pic of her w/friends but I dont want to post pics of babies without permission!

We've done a lot of work on her playroom. Eric painted a chalkboard wall and built a frame, and we just got some cubbie storage. But the best part of her play room is Bear!She loves to crawl up to him and give him a big hug. Me too.

Updates

Sienna is 7 months old already! She's getting into all sorts of mischief. I don't know if she's really purposefully getting into everything that's dangerous or off limits, but that's how it seems. She can crawl very fast now. Especially if she sees something she wants. If you ask her to come to you, however, she'll take her sweet time or simply refuse. She's so smart, she can shake the blinds at the bottom and watch the one's at the top move. She likes to pull stuff off the table, rip up paper, slap tables, and play with her toys. Some new foods we've tried are mango, carrots, and spinach. I have a really funny video of Sienna eating carrots..

She likes everything BUT carrots. She will eat them mixed with mango though.

Sienna got lots of attention when Grandma and Grandpa were here! They thought she was so cute!

Yesterday was my first Mothers Day, and it was really nice. I got a waffle in bed, and we went over to Grandma's house and I made enchiladas and we ate cake. Sienna got some bumps on the noggin, but she was a very good girl otherwise,
My gift was a new camera!!!! It's halfway between an slr and a point and shoot and takes really good pictures.
Here are some examples:

Also I got from her daycare a picture of her with this poem on the back:

my mommy cuddles me

kisses me, hugs me and misses me

pampers me, praises me, always amazes me.

washes my clothes for me,

tickles my toes for me,

giggles and talks with me, 

and also goes on walks with me.

says 'sweet dreams' to me, 

sings sweet songs to me.

I'm  glad she belongs to me.

I love her so much! I'm the lucky one. Lucky that I have such an adorable, cuddly, happy, smart, and curious baby!

Also, be sure to check out Sienna's homepage www.siennajensen.com ! It's newly updated to have links to her gallery and this blog!

Where did my baby go?

 I know it's been a while since I've posted, I've had a lot going on.
So where's my baby? She's all grown up! Well, not quite, but getting there. I just started putting her in 6-9 month clothes. She still can't fit into some of her 3-6 month pants though, she's got short little legs. She's grown so much these past few weeks, it's truly amazing. She's crawling very well now. Sometimes she will come right towards you, but she likes crawling towards keyboards and mice best. She can crawl into my lap, and she often does when she's tired or she's trying to avoid going somewhere else. I'm glad she's able to come to us for comfort now when she needs it instead of just crying until we figure it out.

She's also able to stand! She can pull herself up and stand while holding on to something. It's sooo cute. She's also much better at going from laying down to sitting up. It's definitely time to babyproof the house. We have the outlet covers up, and already she tries to take them off. She also likes the thing that turns on the gas for the fireplace, so we had to remove the key.

Grandma and Grandpa are visiting from Japan for two weeks, so Sienna is getting a lot of extra attention. At first she wasn't so sure about hanging out with them but now she plays with them and goes on walks with them no problem. Today we're going to Coronado and the farmers market, so I hope we have fun! It's a beautiful day, just a little chilly.

We had a good easter, Sienna played with some eggs and wore a very cute dress. Next year maybe it will be more fun for her. I can't wait to dye eggs with her, fun!

I found out there aren't any summer classes available for me to take, so I'm going to stay home with Sienna for the summer. :)

I'll update with pics soon.

Spring Break!

 I'm on spring break finally! Yay, more time to spend with Sienna! Except, I'm sick.. :( I don't know why I keep getting sick, but it stinks. My  head is pounding and taking care of a baby when you're sick is really hard. For the most part Sienna has been pretty well behaved except for these bouts of unconsolable crying and screaming. I think maybe it's pain from her teeth or from her cold. :(
Yesterday we went to the doctor for Sienna's 6 month check up. She was a superstar! She's such a big girl, she's meeting all her milestones right on time. I might start putting a few 6-9 month outfits on her. She's almost 15lbs and just over 26 in long. She has so many cute clothes to wear. She's been in 3-6 for so long I'm tired of putting her in the same old clothes all the time. Some of her 3-6 pants are still too big for her! She must have small little legs and a tiny tushie. :)

We discovered the cutest thing about Sienna a few days ago: she's ticklish! ahahahahha I looove tickling her! Daddy gets the best laughs though.

My birthday's in 2 weeks. :)

movin' on up

Tomorrow's the big day-- Sienna's going to moving into her own room.  I have mixed feelings about this. I'm going to miss her very much, but at the same time I think she might sleep better in her own room. There won't be as many noises to wake her up. Our neighbor's dog is always barking, so hopefully she won't be able to hear it as much on the other side of the house. I'm just dreading having to get up in the middle of the night and walking all the way to her room.

On another note, I just made 10 pear cubes for 79cents! Making baby food rules!

6 months!

Our baby girl is six months old!!! I can't believe that much time has gone by already. She's growing up waaaayy too fast. We go for her 6 month appt on Thursday, so I'm not sure how big she is, but she's almost about ready to switch into 6-9month sizes.
She's rolling back and forth, although most of the time she seems to get stuck on her belly which makes her mad. She's also able to scoot around to reach stuff, although it's more in a backwards circle path than a straight and direct path. (it takes her a little longer to grab the mouse or eat the keyboard, but she's gonna do it). She can get up on all fours (knees and hands) and rock back and forth, so I think we might have a crawler soon! She does that and then falls on her belly and raises all fours off the ground, then gets back up. It's so cute!
Another thing she can do is sit up unassisted! It's so nice being able to plop her on the ground and have her sit there. Sometimes she leans on her hands, but she's getting much better at being able to balance, and even catching herself before she falls. Her favorite game is the walking game where we hold her hands and she "walks" back and forth between us. She loves this game because she loves to stand. If she's not up, she's not happy.
Another big development is her first two teeth! The bottom two teeth have popped up (and oh man are they sharp) so Sienna is, as always, chewing on everything. As of last night, they are just barely above the surface, but the first one started to come in about 5 days ago.

Still when we go out people comment on how beautiful she is nearly everywhere we go. I happen to agree, so here are some recent pics! :)

already getting into mischief!

 We love you Sienna!

New stuff + Ear infection

It's been a really busy week! Every week is really busy, but this week has been tiring for some reason. I account it to lack of sleep. Sienna hasn't been sleeping well lately since she developed her first ear infection. :( I took her into the doctors office last Tuesday for a bad cough, and she came out needing antibiotics! I'm glad we caught it early though. She never got a fever, although she felt hot to me a few times. We have a really crappy thermometer and it doesn't help that our somewhat good one is on the fritz after being slapped around by Sienna a few times while it was under her arm. Through it all she's been in a pretty good mood, although she gets a mid-day slump and the evening grumps.

Some good news is that we finally got a highchair! It's soo much easier feeding her now! She also likes to sit in it and play with her toys. The first time I put her in it she immediately threw her toys off. Practicing for the real thing!

Sienna in her chair

 Sienna tried sweet potatoes for the first time 3 days ago! She didn't like it at first, but if I mix it with her milk she takes it a little better. She loooveees cereal though!

Also, I don't know if any body else uses igoogle, but there's a gadget that lets you read all the new posts of the blogs you follow right on your home page. It's pretty neat!

First Sign!

This morning Sienna signed milk! I SWEAR she did. She was lying next to me in bed and fussing a little so I looked at her and asked her what was up, and she put her hands out and did the sign for milk! I was so excited that I jumped out of bed even though I was really tired and got her her milk. It really cheered her up. :) I really wasn't expecting her to start signing any time soon, I figured it would be when she was 9 months or so, but she surprised me. She never opens and closes her hands like that so I'm sure she did it on purpose.
Good job Sienna! Mommy's so proud of you, my smart girl.

Unfortunately from there the day kind of went downhill... Sign class went great, we even went for a walk, but we came home to cat pee on the floor, 5 loads of laundry to be done, a sink full of dishes, and basically the whole house needs to be cleaned. Thank goodness we're going out to eat tonight because I don't feel like cooking. Sienna's been so good and so patient while I try and get stuff done. I'm glad I have her to make me take mandatory play and cuddle breaks. She was in the carrier for a while but she woke up and wanted out and is now sleepy again so I have to hold her to sleep.
I just wanted to say that I love, love, love my babyhawk carrier. I think we're going to start doing back carries soon. Sienna always wants to see whats going on so she twists around and it throws off my balance.

When she was little- her legs and head stick way out now!

Also, I'm going to update my blog either tonight or tomorrow with a new project! :) Check it out!

Pics

here are some recent pics of the baby!

 

 

She's just so pretty!

having fun at Kelly's party

Sienna at sign class

Also, I made a blog of my own! You can find it here at http://skye-projectmom.blogspot.com/. It's for all my projects and stuff like that. Check it out.

Growing up

Sienna is growing up way too fast, and I'm happy and sad. I'm happy that I get to watch her grow and learn and play more interactively, but I'm sad that already she's not my little newborn anymore. I'm afraid to blink and have 5 years gone by. She just keeps getting more fun though, so it helps.

Big thing: Sienna started eating solid foods last week! We still don't have a high chair so it's a little difficult and messy feeding her, but she seems to really like it. For now she's only eating 1/2 Tbs of brown rice cereal in 2 Tbs of formula once a day. I want to start veggies, but I really want to get the high chair first. coughcoughericcough.... Anyways, it's really cute watching her eat. She opens her mouth really wide when she sees the spoon coming. She's getting better at keeping it in her mouth too. The first time was hilarious, she kept smiling and the cereal would just drip out. For some reason we didn't use the soak proof bibs the first two times, so that was a learning experience. So I got a book on baby food making called Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. So far I've only had the opportunity to read a few chapters, but I find it really interesting, and I can't wait to get to the recipes. She suggests making your own cereal, but our pediatrician advised against it because of the iron fortification of commercial cereals. The authors reasons for making your own is that most commercial cereals are made using white rice, but we bought organic brown rice cereal from Happy Baby Food. So I don't feel bad.

Soooo busy

We have all been very busy. Sunday was our cousin Kelly's birthday so we went over there for a party. There were a ton of kids and I was surprised that Sienna didn't freak out over the noise. She likes the excitement, and watched all the kids yell and run amok. What did frighten her were the dogs! Every time one of the dogs walked by she screamed. This is odd because she does not have the same reaction to my mom's dog. However, Charlie is a small dog, and the dogs she was afraid of are big and black. It was just kind of funny because I've never seen her be scared of something before. I've seen her be scared of movement and loud noises, but never something physically in front of her.
Grandma also came over on Saturday to play, and let mommy get some homework and some gardening done. Although in actuality I hardly got anything done in both areas. I guess every little bit counts though.
Friday we were supposed to get our passports taken care of but we forgot to make the appointment, so we'll take care of that in April. It doesn't look like we'll be flying anywhere any time though.

Sienna is still trying really hard to sit up. She is so squirmy, it's almost impossible to hold her to get her to nap.
Supposedly she's doing better at day care, the teacher said that on Wednesday she only cried a little in the morning and then watched and even played with the bigger kids! I'm so happy she's starting to adjust. I feel really bad that she has to go, but it makes me feel better that she's doing ok now.
Eric gave me the go ahead to make the downstairs extra room into a play room for Sienna!!! I cannot wait to get started. I've made a few sketches and I have a general idea of how I want it to look. We're still debating on whether or not to install wood floors first, but I have a few ideas floating around like a chalkboard wall, toy chest, little table and chairs, shelves and cubby spaces for storage. We'll see.

Sienna's week

This has been a very hectic week for all of us. Eric started a new job, I've just had a bunch of exams (ok, not a bunch-- only two), and Sienna is still getting over her cold.
On Monday she had her first accident at day care. The teacher left her sitting on some cushions and she fell forward and hit her head on the wall. No big, except the wall has picture frames on it with different textures and stuff the babies can look at. Poor thing had an L shaped mark on her head.

I felt so bad for her, there was a small bump,but it went away fairly quickly. It's not her first knock on the head, nor will it be the last, but it was the first that left a mark, and the only one that wasn't our fault.I was so freaked out, I didn't know if I should take her in to the pedi or not, but she was acting normally so I took some pics and cuddled and kissed her and figured she was ok.

Then Tuesday we went over to Cayla and Joanna's house for a play-date!
Sienna was a little fussy (as always around other people) but Joanna thought she was something to play with. It was so cute how she kept trying to grab at her. Soon Sienna will start sitting up and playing with toys more so she'll be able to enjoy these play dates more.

Today Sienna had her first outside nap! I did a little work on the garden and then lied down on the blanket with her on the grass. It was quite lovely.

Sienna's been scooting backwards, rolling around, and talking a lot. It finally seems like her hair is growing in. It looks a lot thicker. Yay! Tomorrow is baby sign class, and Sunday is our cousin Kelly's 11th birthday party, so we have a busy weekend.

Up!

Sienna started recognizing the sign for up! She gets so excited and flails all her limbs until we pick her up.
We've been signing with her for about maybe a month now and this is the first sign that she's definitely recognized. The other ones we use the most often are mom, dad, milk, eat, more, and hungry. Sometimes I'll use cat and all gone too.
I'm really bummed we missed sign class this past week. At first I didn't think she liked it, but nowshe's starting to get it so I'm going to try and be more consistent. It blows my mind how smart she is already and she's only five months old!
Here  is a site I like that shows a video for each word. I find it difficult to figure it out with just pictures.

In other news, Sienna is definitely starting to get interested in solids, two days ago I sat down with a bowl of cereal and her in my lap and she put her whole hand in it. She always tries to grab the food on our plates or the drinks from our cups. Eating dinner is hard because one of us is usually battling her for food while the other one scarfs. I can't wait until we get a high chair. When it comes I'm going to try solids again. I was sitting her in the bouncy before but that's way too hard. This is what we ended up with:

believe it or not but the big spot on the left is where she had just wiped her face, and immediately after this pic she wiped it clean again. :)
Anyways, I think I'm going to try cereal one more time and then I'm going to try either sweet potatoes or avocados. I'm soo excited for my garden so she can eat all our home grown organic produce! :D

5 months!

Yesterday Sienna turned 5 months old. I can't believe how fast she's growing. It seems like just last week she was sleeping all day wrapped up in a little cocoon, now she's pulling her socks off, smiling, sitting up with some support, and always cooing and talking. So Grandma came over to see Sienna and they had a lot of fun playing together. Sienna is really warming up to Grammy now!

I found this really cute headband at Target for her, it's just a little too big.

Happy 5 month birthday baby girl! You are SOOOO loved.

Sick baby & new accomplishment!

After the BBQ I noticed Sienna had an unusually stuffy nose. Well, she has a ton of boogers and I can't clean them out. Her nostrils are waaayy too small for the aspirator we got at the hospital, and I ordered a nosefrida, but it hasn't arrived yet. It should be here today, but its already past 4... :( It looks suuuupper gross to use, but I'm looking forward to cleaning out those boogies so she can breathe.

In other (more important) news, Sienna said "mama" last night!!!!!!!!
She was chewing on Eric's finger and then she said mama. :) I know it was just babble, but it's the first time she's said anything coherent other than the occasional hhhhii.
So basically, I win.

Also, she scooted backwards! Last night she did it a few inches or so, but this afternoon it was like a whole foot. I was entering gifts to grow points and I kept having to move my computer until finally she hit the dresser! She's growing sooo fast.

siennajensen.com has been updated with new pics and videos (which still need to be organized).
:)

EDIT: The videos are now organized and have descriptions. It was so fun watching them all. It's funny looking back and seeing how Sienna used to look. We always thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world, but she looked like an alien! Never noticed that before, I guess parents always think their children are the most beautiful no matter what. We're lucky though because it's true.

Catching up

There's so much going on in our lives it's hard to know where to start...
Sienna will be 5 months on Thursday the 3rd, and I don't know where the time's gone. Every day she grows some more, and it's amazing watching her acquire new skills.
She wants soooo bad to sit up on her own. We went to a BBQ with our mommy and baby friends and she wanted to sit up and play just like them. She strains so far forward that her face ends up near her feet. She'll get there soon.
Here's a pic of her at the BBQ with her friends:

About a month or so ago (I can't even keep track of time properly) Sienna started drooling really bad and putting everything in her mouth. We think she's in the beginning stages of teething but no white bumps yet! I'm going to miss that gummy smile.. :)

1st post

Looking at other babies' blogs, I thought it would be a good idea if Sienna had one.
She already has her own website www.siennajensen.com but it is only an archive of all our photos and videos.
I try to write down stuff that happens in our daily life, but it's pretty hard to do it consistently.
So anyways, this is devoted to the beautiful baby girl Sienna, and our family life.
I'll try to update soon with pics!