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Thursday

Parental Advisory

For Christmas, Grandma and Pop-Pop gave Sienna a Raffi CD. I loved Raffi as a child, so I was excited to play the CD for Sienna. The very first day we put the CD on in the car, there was a request from the back seat to hear Track 7 "again Mommy?" I was surprised that she was listening to the actual lyrics and was understanding what the words were, but I knew why she liked the song. She knew a lot of the words in the song and it was silly. If you are not familiar, welcome to the Sienna's current favorite tune, "AikenDrum"...

There was a man lived in the moon, in the moon, in the moon. There
was a man lived in the moon and his name was Aikendrum.

And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle. He played upon a ladle and
his name was Aikendrum.

And his hair was made of spaghetti spaghetti spaghetti. His hair was
made of spaghetti and his name was Aikendrum.

And his eyes were made of meatballs meatbalss meatballs. His eyes
were made of meatballs and his name was Aikendrum.

And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle. He played upon a ladle and
his name was Aikendrum.

And his nose was made of cheese cheese cheese. His nose was made of
cheese and his name was Aikendrum.

And his mouth was made of pizza pizza pizza. His mouth was made of
pizza and his name was Aikendrum.

And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle. He played upon a ladel and
his name was Aikendrum.

There was a man lived in the moon, in the moon, in the moon. There
was a man lived in the moon and his name was Aikendrum.

Ok, it's cute, right? She loves pizza, cheese and spaghetti so I understood the facination with Mr. Aikendrum. I was fine with it until we had to listen to this (and ONLY this) every time we got in the car. The whole song is 1 minute and 15 seconds so technically, you could listen to it nearly 50 times in an hour.

I hadn't heard about this song until now, and I wondered if it was based on a folk tale or story. I decided to "google" Aikendrum. This is when the Parent Advisory warning comes into effect. This is was my result from my google search. (I'm serious - don't let your children see this.)

Ready?

Eek! Isn't that the worst? Ok, so that you don't have nightmares for a week, here is a picture of Sienna playing Bee-Bee-Boo! (Peek-a-Boo)

For some reason, this picture is a little creepy. I think I am done blogging for today.

Wednesday

Hanging out...

We have been hanging out at home recently. Mostly because it is COLD out. And windy. With snow all over the place from December's snowstorm. Plus, it's COLD out. Did I mention that already? Fortunately, the new kitchen is a big hit.

"Microwave-ing" her "wa wa" (translation: wa-wa = water)

Making a nice warm pot of lemon coffee.

Checking out the warm Wa-Wa.

Cutting an apple to go with her side of lemon and pizza.

Apparently it is sunny at this fine dining establishment. (By the way, someone should clean up the messy fireplace. It's bad for business...)

In addition to Sienna's recent culinary interests, she is also pursuing photography. In case you did not know, in order to take a photo, you must follow this specific process:

1. Put on your purple shoes (usually on the wrong foot).

2. Put on your silver necklace.

3. Tell Mommy to "Mile!" (the "S" is silent?) or say "Cheese!" and take the photo.

4. Take off the silver necklace.

5. Take off the purple shoes.

6. Repeat.

After a long day of cooking and taking photographs, she needs some well-deserved pampering at Salon A'la Daddio. Here are Daniel's most recent looks for her:

So cool.

Tuesday

Looking sharp

I think I mentioned that Sienna is not quite into a "Dress-Up" stage yet, but apparently accessories are appropriate.

It makes sense...I also wear sparkly-glitter shoes, a summer hat and bathing suits as purses when I go to the grocery store.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! (A little late.) Christmas was really fun this year. Sienna doesn't really get it yet, but it was still fun buying her gifts. I actually had suggested that we should "all" (a.k.a Grandma and Grandpa) go easy on gifts for Sienna since her birthday is next month, but I am not sure anyone honored that request. Here is the tree with all of the gifts for the whole family.

This is the same tree with JUST Sienna's gifts. Excluding the Play Kitchen from Grandma and Grandpa that did not fit under the tree...

The adults did the gift exchange on Christmas Eve after dinner. Sienna was not in a super-happy mood on Christmas Eve, so we put her down to bed and we let her open up gifts on Christmas morning. Here she is surveying the situation.

Let the unwrapping begin...

The KITCHEN!

She always yells "YELLOW BUS!" when we are driving around town, so she had to have her one of her own, of course...

Her beautiful dress from the North Carolina De May's...She hasn't let me put it on her yet but for some reason she likes snuggling with it, lol.

Uh oh. Uncle Dave is "sick" - thank goodness she has her new Doctor Kit.

Just an aside...Is it normal for a mother to be jealous of her daughter's hair? 'Cause I am.

Jessie and Lee stopped by during one of their 400 family gatherings that they were attending that day.

Fun with Daddy...

Fun with Pop-Pop...

Sienna's school bus sings a song when you push on the little driver's hat. She loves dancing to the song. She likes everyone to wave their hands in the air (like Pop-Pop is demonstrating) and she dances making the same (serious) facial expression each time.

Fun with Uncle Dave!

Jumping - one of her favorites...

More fun with Daddy. She always yells "Wook, Mommy, Wook!"

Daniel assembled her play kitchen when we got home. It was the perfect size since we don't have a lot of extra space.

Cookin'.

Having coffee with Daddy.

Merry (belated) Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!

Monday

Snowstorm '09

We got a "for-real-cancel-school-for-a-good-reason" kind of snow storm the weekend before Christmas. Daniel was leaving to go out of town on a hiking trip (yes, in a blizzard) with a couple of friends. So I decided to bring Sienna over to my parents house over the weekend. I told Sienna that when she woke up in the morning that there will be snow! And there definitely was...

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I wanted Sienna to go outside and play in the snow, but she wasn't into it. (I think she might have remembered last year's experience.) When Daniel was done with his riduculous camping-in-a-blizzard trip was over, he came to my parents to get snowed-in with us.

In the morning, the snow had stopped and I really wanted to go out and play. Apparently Sienna trusts Daddy in the snow, and she finally agreed to give it a try. So Daddy, Grandma, Sienna and I all bundled up on Sunday morning to get outside. (Yes, my little shorty still fits in last year's 12mo snow suit.)

It was actually a beautiful day and my parents found our old sled that Dave and I used when we were little. So the princess was pulled all around the driveway.