Teamwork

Sorry, it's another crazy hair blog, but I never get bored of Sienna's post-nap hairstyles...

Fortunately, she found her brush.

Sienna gave it a good try but she wasn't making much progress. So mommy helped. 

That's better.

You can dance if you want to...

Easter!

We had a great Easter Weekend, even though Daddy was out of town.  Daniel spent the weekend with his Dad and two cousins hiking in Vermont. In the snow. Purposefully. I know, I don't get it either. 

Anyway, Sienna and I spent Saturday night with my parents at Dave & Kerry's new place in Arlington and Aunt Sue (who was coming to visit for the week) met us there. We had a pizza party (ate and laugh then ate and laugh some more) and then we all had brunch at my parents on Sunday morning. First we had brunch (crepes, sausage & egg casserole, biscuits, coffee cake - so good!) then we followed the gigantic meal by giving each other large quantities of candy.

It was a little chilly for an outside Egg Hunt for Sienna, so I made one up in the house. 

When the Egg Hunt was over and she had consumed handfuls of Cheerios and Yogurt Melts, she did a puzzle (thanks for the puzzle, Aunt Sue!) with Kerry...

Played with her "bracelets" (plastic rings) with Aunt Sue

Then helped Grandpa do some work.

(I love her little crossed feet in this picture...)

Just when we thought all of the excitement was over, we got back home and the Easter Bunny had come to our house for Sienna (by way of Aunt Janis & Uncle Bob in NC :0) ). 

The Easter Bunny brought her a new toy too!

We had a great weekend even though Daddy isn't allowed to leave us on Easter again :) But I am such a good wife - I could have totally pretended that my family gave me all of that candy but I saved a LOT of his and shared it with him when he got back. Isn't he lucky to have me?

Sienna's Baby Dedication

Ok, I know I am behind on our blog but I have a good excuse! We had a Baby Dedication for Sienna on April 5 and I wanted to post the pictures, but I don't have any! I forgot to bring my camera like a dummy and my friends Rika and Yulianna (ha!) sent me slide shows but I am not smart enough to take a photo out of the slide show to save the individual photos. I will try to upload more pictures once I figure out what the heck I am doing. In the meantime, check out the graphic Neil Arey (my former co-worker) made for her dedication. We love it - he also made it poster sized which we have hung in our living room right now. The hot pink doesn't really go with our brick-red walls, but it is hanging out there until we decide where we want to keep it.

Sienna took her bow out of her hair on the way to the church and therefore it is probably lost forever. (Or eaten, who knows?) I would like to say that after I brushed her hair that it was more controlled, but it wasn't. She has mommy crazy hair...

We throughly enjoyed the Dedication - my two ex-bosses from the youth ministry organized and performed the dedication. It was so great for us because it was personal since Dale & Kent have been so involved in our lives as well as Sienna's. Check back - I will add more pics when I get them!

A little under-the-weather...

Last week Sienna got her first real-life, big-girl, totally disgusting stomach flu. It was pretty awful, but she is definitely feeling like her old self now. The thing that was so surprising was that she was so cuddly! I am not saying that I was glad that she was sick, but since she rarely snuggles with us, we had to take advantage. We even broke our "no TV for Sienna rule" to let her watch a DVD with Daddy, but she didn't make it very long before she was asleep. 

I think she weighs more than the safety limits on her infant bouncy chair, but we were breaking rules left and right so what's one more?

I called the doctor on Monday because although Sienna hadn't been physically "sick" since Friday, but I was afraid she might be dehydrated. Surprisingly, the doctor suggested giving her some yogurt. Something about the cultures in yogurt would be good for her system...? Well I followed the doctor's suggestion and it seemed like a good idea. Sienna seemed happy when she was eating it...

But then...

When I was putting Sienna to bed she started to make a gagging noise. I turned her around to face me so I could see if she was ok (bad bad idea) and she was not. She lost her yogurt and most of her purple Pedialyte ALL the front of me. All over my face. Unfortunately my mouth was not completely closed. I have to admit that the whole vomit-on-Mom experience was new to me and I'm not sure about the yogurt suggestion (Perhaps I had offended her Pediatrician the last time we visited?) Next time I'll stick with old fashion toast and chicken noodle soup.

The good news is that all bodily functions are back to normal and miraculously, I never got sick from Sienna although Daniel did. Daniel mentioned that perhaps he shouldn't been kissing Sienna's face when she was sick. (Ummm, yeah - I would agree.) However, even though Daniel was achy, feverish and nauseous he whispered from under all the blankets to tell me that it was totally worth it.  :)

Clemyjontri Park

Aunt Jessie and I took Sienna to the park last Saturday. It was warmer than it has been in months and there is a new GREAT park about 15 minutes from our house so we took her there to run around. It seemed that every parent in the Washington DC metro area decided to go the the park on the same day, but it was fun anyway. I always worry about taking Sienna to crowded play areas because she is so tiny & most of the time the other kids tower over her as you can see...

Here are a few of our favorites from our girls day out :)

The park has a Maze for the kids to run through. One particular wall has a hole in it so that you can cut through to a new part of the maze. Sienna saw the hole and started "toddling" towards it...and then she just went right through it. Partially. Her belly was resting on the inside of the hole on her tippy toes on one side and on her fingertips on the other side. It was so funny! Here I am...Mommy to the rescue!

Thanks for the pictures, Aunt Jessie!

Here She Goes...

Well, since she started her "zombie" like steps about two weeks ago (arms out in front, eyes focused straight ahead, steps slow and carefully measured) she has definitely picked up some speed. She loves walking and rarely crawls anymore. I was actually trying to capture her crawling in this video. She used do this funny move where she would crawl around the room, stop mid-crawl, wiggle her head and bottom back and forth like she was dancing, then continue on crawling. We never got it on video so I am trying desperately to get it before she gives up crawling entirely. However, I LOVE that she is walking. We put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs so she is contained to the kitchen and living room and I can get a lot more done. It is so fun watching her little head bobbing through the furniture. 

For those of you who read the blog about her first birthday, Grandma & Grandpa M. bought her a balloon with Little Nemo on it and she is obsessed with balloons...particularly her Little Nemo ("fishy balloon" as we call it). It is STILL floating around our house but the string fell off so she always wants Daniel to get it for her off the ceiling, as you may have noticed in the video :) She is so much fun!

Alfalfa

I couldn't help it - I think this bedhead is even better than the last...