Sienna is 3 years old, Sydney 4 months!

Not sure if I am really up to maintaining this blog (2010 seems to have escaped me!), but since my last post I got pregnant and had baby Sydney! Ha! a couple photos below.

Sienna's 2nd Birthday party

Tea Party with a Twist

Sienna and Mommy

Sienna with her aunties

Sienna and Daddy

I don't think Chris or I have really stopped to realize that we have been parents for 2 years now! Her birthday is the 27th, but her party was this past weekend, just a small party with no other kids so that she could be the center of attention, just how she likes it! She was having the time of her life yelling at the AFC/NFC finals matches on T.V. with everyone else ("oh, fumble!"), and was very polite when opening presents, putting the wrapping paper in the trash bag and saying thank you to everyone who gave her gifts. The funniest thing is that she wanted a spoon to eat her cupcake (well, the frosting) after she blew out the candles. Very different from last year's demolition of her cake! She was very excited to hear everyone sing the "Happy Birthday" song for HER, since she has had lots of practice singing it for others at her daycare, to the point that any time she sees a candle or a cupcake, she says, "oh, happy birthday!" Needless to say she was wiped out by the end up the day, and went to bed early, I think she slept for almost 12 hours last night - if we hadn't woken her up, who knows how long she would have slept! I only have a couple pictures because as hostess I always forget to take pictures, but auntie Jenny got some good ones too, so we're good. Thanks to everyone that made Sienna's day a happy one - the attention is the best gift she could ask for!

December 2009

Surprised she sat on Santa's lap! I wasn't going to push it by telling her to smile!


Helping build nana and pop pop's golf bag organizer.

In her Christmas dress before heading to church Christmas Eve.

At the daycare's Christmas party with all her friends.

On the carousel at Fashion Island, after taking our family Christmas photo.

Ah, December. Fun times, but glad 2009 is over. We ended up all getting the stomach flu in the days leading up to Christmas Day, so I do not have too many pictures of the season. The best Christmas gift for Chris, Sienna, and I was the gift of health! Sienna loved the Christmas lights ("pretties"), sang Jingle Bells a LOT, and had the cutest way of saying Santa Claus. She also liked saying "elf." Wish it could be Christmastime all year long!

Just Love This Time of Year!

The fall season is upon us, everyone is healthy, and we are very excited for the upcoming holiday season!

Here are just a few photos of Miss Sienna, now 21 months old, from this Halloween season. She is growing up so quickly, I think being around 2,3, and 4-year olds at her new daycare has something to do with it! She loves reading books aloud to herself, sings all the time, and wants to do things by herself (like put on her shoes, for example).

We didn't go trick or treating tonight - thought about it, but since we went to the mall earlier, and took her pumpkin with us, she got to see other kids dressed up and did a little trick-or-treating there. And when the ONE group of kids that came to our house tonight were getting their candy, Sienna didn't seem that interested. So, we played dress up in the house tonight! She already had 2 Halloween dress up parties at her daycare too. Next year we will venture out. Happy Halloween!

Sienna is 1 1/2 years old!

Our little girl isn't so little anymore! Well, she's long and lean, to be exact. 22 pounds, 32 inches, which was something like 15% weight and 74th percentile height. She's happy, she's energetic, and she's practically vegetarian, although she is finally warming up to chicken fingers with ketchup! loves her fruit and veggies and (yuck) soy cheese. Still allergic to milk!

Summer has been fun, she's a good little shopper with mommy, and loves to run around on the field outside, bark at dogs, and try to shoot hoops on the basketball court. she sings a few songs, like ABCs, pat-a-cake, the elmo song, 2 songs i made up, and the words and phrases keep stacking up! let's see: hi mama, bye mama, thank you mama (that's my favorite, because she does it in the cutest, girliest, southern accent way!), same for dada, gama, cheese, no-no, hey, uh oh, okay, all done, all gone, see ya, okay bye, kitty, ruff ruff or papa = puppy, nice to meet cha (sort of!), elmo, baba, appy = sippy cup, uppie, num nums, wa wa, juice, ....i'll just stop there because even if i keep trying, i'm sure i'll forget something! 12 teeth still, last time i checked!

We took her on our first family theme park adventure to Sea World, which I'm really glad we did because it got us out of town for the day, and it's really toddler friendly! We were wiped out by the end of the day, and we were only there for about 7 hours! The plan is Disneyland on my 30th birthday August 10th, but with family members too, so we will see how that is! Funny how I HATE Fantasyland as an adult, but have this newfound excitement for Dumbo just because of Sienna. And the Casey Jr. train. Ah, but will I be able to go on Indiana Jones and Space Mountain?? I really need a date night at Disneyland, but not until it's decorated for the Christmas season! It's been too long!

I'll attach some more recent photos below (or above, which ever it ends up being) so you can see how she has grown since my last post. Her hair is getting longer, I think she'll get her first haircut before I go back to work in Sept! Thanks for reading!

lol ttyl

Mommy is finally on summer vacation, so maybe I will update this site more often! I have more recent photos to upload, but until then, here are a few from May that I have not shared...

If Sienna could really text, she'd probably type "okay c-ya, ba-bye!" This photo is from the end of April, when she was just turning 15 months. It was the first day we brought home the little chair she is sitting in.

The photo above was on Kentucky Derby Day 2009. Had the hat, had the dress, had the horse - why not? :)

This photo is of daddy and Sienna on Mother's Day (they match, sort of).

Little missy brushing her teeth like mommy. She catches on quick! 12 teeth as of 17 months, but I think she's working on some more right now (really drooly on Father's Day and today!)

And mommy and Sienna in AZ for Memorial Day! Okay, see ya, bye bye!

Sienna Dancing

This is a quick clip of Sienna showing off some of her dancing moves, filmed by Auntie Jenny. It was back in April, and she had just turned 14 months. Most of the video is sideways (does anyone know how to rotate video clips?) but it's still cute nonetheless!

Wow, it's been awhile!

Sienna today, 4/18, eating her graham cracker cookie.

Sienna at her 1st birthday party.

Sienna on Easter Sunday before mass waving "hi!"

So, I guess that work, play, TV and sleep have been more important than blogging! In sum, Sienna has more teeth (11!), her hair has grown longer and fuller since her 1st birthday at the end of January, is allergic to cow's milk so her bottles are soy, favorite word is "bye bye!" and "dada," funniest moment was her picking up the breast pump things and putting them to HER chest and making a pumping sound (grandma mccown says we have to get a video of it and send it to America's Funniest Videos)....her 15 month dr. appt. is Tuesday so I'll know her new stats soon! Oh, and she is a dancing machine, I need to put a clip of her dancing on here!

All is well at 67 Stepping Stone, hope all of our friends and family are healthy and happy too!

Enjoy the photos!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009!

Sienna had a great holiday season. She didn't pull down our fake mini tree too often, she enjoyed opening presents (especially gift bags with tissue), and she would have partied until midnight on New Year's Eve if I let her (well, maybe not, she really does appreciate bedtime now!). She was a good girl at church on Christmas Eve (no crying, but a lot of babble), and looked pretty in her dress that Nana bought her before she was born! We've been in Arizona since the 27th, and will be going home on the 3rd. Dad's getting in all the golf he can, and Sienna is enjoying the crawling and cruising space that a one-story house provides! She is so full of energy, talking up a storm, so inquisitive, social with others, a good shopping buddy, crazy in a restaurant high chair! My favorite moments with her from this season are probably her hugs (she gives good ones now!), and watching how happy she is pushing around her new grocery cart. And dressing her up, of course! I've already stocked up on cute holiday clothes for next year! :)

Thanksgiving - 10 month old Sienna

So I haven't sent anyone updated photos of Sienna since, like, September (sorry, gotta work now!), so I thought I would post her most recent "birthday" picture. Thanksgiving was her 10 month birthday, which explains her stylish pilgrim turkey head decor! She has changed so much even since then, and has quite the little personality. 6 teeth, 4 on top and the 2 on the bottom (I think I sang "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" enough that they finally came in!). And she's practicing her walking moves for all the family members that will be around her for Christmas, so watch out! Her balance improved so much just from yesterday, I think she'll be running by New Year's! :)

Party girl!

Sienna's 1st presidential election sure was a historical one! We threw a party at our house to celebrate the likely outcome together with friends (thanks so much to everyone that came, it was a great time and so good to see some of you that we haven't been able to hang out with for awhile!). Sienna was so happy and entertained with all the people in the house, it was awesome. She is such the social butterfly!

Maybe Sienna will be as patriotic as mommy when she grows up too!

Yesterday was also important for Sienna because it was her 9 month dr. appointment. She weighed in at 18 pounds, 8 ounces (41%), and is 28 inches long (62%). I think she's longer than that, the nurse was really quick about it, but it's not like I'm going to bust out the tape measure to see for myself! She is such a cutie, laughs alot, clicks her tongue, gagaga, plays a version of hide and seek/chase me around the coffee table, etc. Again, I have tons of pics that I've been meaning to send out from the month of October, so hopefully I'll do it before we leave for Arizona this weekend!

Happy Halloween from Sienna

Our Little Pumpkin!

Sienna turned 9 months old this week, and enjoyed her week of Halloween festivities. We went to Strawberry Farms' pumpkin patch the weekend before, and then on Halloween hung out in the house with our "little dragon." To explain the costume, 1) it's funny, and 2) she does this growl sound on occasion, so when Chris saw the costume he had to have it (even though it's for a boy!). No trick or treating, we will wait until next year! Besides, mom and dad have enough leftover candy since NO kids came by our house!

Happy Halloween!

New "stuff"

Sienna is growing up so quickly, so lately we've been packing up toys she's outgrown, and purchasing things for the "next stage." Well, not much, but we bought her a new car seat (which doesn't fit in Chris's car properly of course), and lots of new pjs and some fall season clothes, bigger jars of food, etc. We saw this cool bilingual table thing at Costco, but we are holding out for now...

We also wanted to show off Sienna's new toy box, made especially for Sienna by Grandpa M! Maybe we will paint something on the front of the box one day, but for now she is liking pulling up on it and banging the top. Oh, and of course she is most interested in the dangerous corner edges, which she tries to chew on. Lovely. All of these pictures are from last night - her jammies are still a little big for her, but she's in between the 9 and 12 month size clothes right now! She has a runny nose again too - I'm tired of trying to clean snot off of a squirmy baby!

The last new thing we are getting (delivered tomorrow) is a new washer - how exciting! :) If you already know the story, it makes more sense, but it's been broken since Memorial Day. They got it working, but not properly, in July, and finally Best Buy has done what's right and is replacing our lemon washer. I feel sorry for the guys that will have to pull out the old one, and put the new one in, since everything is upstairs! So wish us luck that everything goes smoothly.

Looking forward to our first Halloween with Sienna! You'll have to wait to see what she will be dressed up as...All I have to say is "Chris picked the costume!" We plan on going to Strawberry Farms soon to show her all the pumpkins, so hopefully that will happen in the coming days, and we will share the photos as soon as possible!

Adios!

Time flies!

Hey all,

It's been awhile since I've posted updates on "baby Sienna," and even though I emailed everyone photos recently, I thought I should catch up on what's been going on in our lives since the beginning of August! In sum, Sienna is like a little kid now, crawling, standing, and sitting with ease, and beginning to try to stand up without holding on to things. And finally at 8 months she is cutting her first 2 teeth, the bottom right one, and the top left one, but not the top center left one (if that makes sense!). She is so active, but lots of fun, and easy to tote around places.

So for those that don't know, I went back to work in September, after being off for over 8 months! Going back to work was easy, being in the classroom again was not odd at all, but finding the time to get anything done is the tricky part. I am constantly in a hurry on my free time at work, then rushing off to pick up Sienna from the sitter (which has been going well, it probably only took her about a week to adjust!), then playtime with Sienna basically until she goes to bed at 8pm. And by then I'm so tired, it's hard to get myself to do work. I do if I absolutely have to. It's pretty much impossible to work while Sienna is awake, since she'd end up eating students' papers, or try to knock down the TV while I plan lessons. :) Sure, Chris could watch her, but he's just as tired as I am, so we try to just spend time with her together, and take turns chasing her around. Overall things are going well. But I am looking forward to the holiday season for sure!

The best part about being back at work is that it is making me lose weight! Yay! 6 pounds shed in a month, 7 more to go. Not too worried about it, but thought I'd share.

Okay, time for bed. Sienna will probably be up any minute - yes, still wakes up, once, sometimes twice. Happy October! (Can't wait to dress Sienna in cute warm outfits!)