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.. :)