Sandy Baby

A couple weekends ago (apparently i only blog about things 1-2 weeks after they actually occur) we took Sienna to the park since the sun was out! We have definitely gotten our share of rain (which is very much needed). I remember the feeling after endless weeks/months of gray, wet yuckiness in Washington, when the sun comes out finally, and everyone is out in shorts and sandals and in the best mood ever... This sunday was like that, but not quite that extreme... Russell's softball team was getting together to practice and sign paperwork, so we headed out early to let the kiddo play... It was her first time playing in the sand, and boy did she have fun! She dug her hands in it, picked it up, threw it, and even ate a couple mouthfuls (yuck!)

I see many summer days at the beach in our future, and have NO problem with that! I am a beach lover, and am so grateful to live close by!!

A year ago...

I was 37 1/2 weeks pregnant and looked like this:

It pretty crazy to think back to those days in contrast to where we are now. I had just started maternity leave and was ordered by my dr to be a "couch potato". It wasn't bedrest, thank goodness, but I had to take it easy because my blood pressure was creeping up. I was seeing him every other day and each time wondering if I would be ordered an induction, and we also knew that we had a big baby (or "solid chunk o' baby" as my dr would say) and she had been head (or "coconut" another dr term) down for weeks...

The fun part was collecting 24 hours worth of urine to test protein levels for signs of preeclampsia. The ultrasound showed a healthy baby, but bloodwork and pee was needed. Can you imagine how annoying it was to collect pee in a "hat" in the toilet, then transfer it to a big jug that has to be on ICE on the bathroom counter? Oh and at this point I had to pee every two minutes! That's a lot of pee, so much that the first huge jug was almost full the next day with a few hours to go, so we had to go back to the hospital to get another one! It was a sign of true love when we returned later with both jugs (wrapped in garbage bags) which the hubby carried for the hobbling prego through the parking lot and hospital!

Luckily everything checked out ok with the tests. We spent the next two weeks stationed at home on the couch and getting all the final preparations done. I remember looking at my huge belly as I got more uncomfortable by the hour, wondering if it would be "the day". I would go through freak out moments (nervousness, anxiety, fear, frustration) but tried my best to relax. More than anything I wanted to get out of the house, take a walk... What a weird feeling of being so ready and prepared but also completely NOT ready to face the unknown of parenting. I am a huge planner, so the anticipation was killing me (along with every imaginable side effect of late pregnancy). Now I wonder, how do women make it PAST their due date, I can't even imagine how much worse it gets!

Fast forward to today, and our baby girl is almost ONE WHOLE YEAR OLD! How can that be? This little girl...

Planes, Tanks, and Automobiles

This is a way overdue post, seeing as it was over 2 weeks ago, but better late than never. For Christmas, Russell's grandma got everyone tickets to the Estrella Warbird Museum and their Flight Simulator. Sienna had lots of fun checking out the planes, sitting on tanks, and looking at the car exhibit (and was really attached to her pop). She also is a fan of sailors, (like her mommy).

11 months old!

As of last week, Sienna is 11 months old, just under 3 weeks till the big ONE!! Is it possible to pause time for just a moment, let me catch my breath? I have been going through old pictures lately, and it really is something to see the changes month to month, remininsce and reflect... I am still in shock out how our family has developed, the beautiful baby we have and the incredible little girl she is becoming, the pure, endless love we feel. I never could possibly imagine how amazing motherhood could be, even with its challenges.

When I look at pictures of those first weeks, sometimes I hardly recognize her... Its just shows how much she has grown, and how she is visual evidence of just how fast time has flown. I just hope I can always remember those early days and the big events of her first year (our first meeting, the way she first looked into our eyes, her baby smell, her first smiles and laughs, etc. etc.) Thank goodness for our video camera! We have been watching a lot of our family videos, and Sienna loves watching them too!

Sienna is at such a fun age! I can't be too sad about her changing and growing when the new phases and milestones are so darn exciting (and frequent)! She is learning at such a quick pace, it really is incredible. She is SO curious, wants to touch/examine/figure everything out!

So what is she up to now?

*Moving everywhere! On Saturday she took her first STEPS! She took up to four tiny steps from Daddy to Mommy several times. I know she will be truly "walking" in no time, when she really decides to go for it. But at this point, she gets around SO well in other ways including crawling at alarming speeds and cruising anywhere she can, crawling over things, climbing on things, etc etc. We have to keep our eyes on her every second, and places we didn't think she could get to, she does! She is standing on her own, and loves pushing her walker toy, across the whole house. When it gets stuck, she yells and bashes it into the wall, doorframe, couch, etc. She definitely has quite the temper when something isn't working the way she wants it to!

*Eating! She still loves food, most everything! This month, she is really over purees, eating from a spoon by us, as she wants to feed herself. New foods she has tried and loved this last month include strawberries, freeze-dried mangoes, blueberry waffles, wheat bunny crackers, graham crackers, cottage cheese, black/pinto/kidney beans, and and cheerios. She mostly eats table food, whatever we are eating, which is so nice and convienent... Her fav of those meals we have made include minestrone soup, veggie pasta, spinach orzo salad, and whole wheat pizza crust.

*Growing! Most of her 12 month clothes are too small or getting close to the small side. So we are moving towards 18 month sizes... No official weight, but according to our scale she is about 22 pounds. I am sure with her increasing-every-day activity level, she isn't putting on as much weight as she has in previous months.

*Playing! Her favorite toys are her stacking cups (go dollar section at target!), her activity center barn (she knows where the eggs go, and "feeds" the cow), 2 push walkers (see above), ball popper, and books! She has always liked moving her books around, taking them off shelves, but now she actually treats them like books- opening them and looking through them all by herself! She also loves loves shoes (has been obsessed with them as long as I remember) so we might be in trouble in the years to come... but she is always carrying one around, or picking them up and going through her shoe pile. Other favorite things to do include emptying out her entire laundry hamper, pretending to feed mommy, dancing (full body and head bob), bathtime, playing with/patting/proding/poking Ozzy, and going for runs with Mommy and the pups (she watches them run next to her stroller and laughs hysterically)

*Talking! She is still very verbal and loves blabbering on and on. She mimics sounds very well. She now says "bub bub" for bottle, mumma, hi, dog "duh", and both dogs names (i am pretty sure) shasta is "asha" and she just said "ahh" for ozzy last night while patting his head! And she seems to say sh*t every other second! She also points ALL the time, and it does help show us what she wants! She blows kisses, leans in for kisses, and waves when asked. Just way too cute!

That about sums it up for now! I have so much fun with her, and love her personality more and more every day.

Our Snow Bunny

Last weekend was Sienna's first trip up to the snow. Russell's family has an annual trip to Yosemite for his Dad's Birthday, which is Valentine's Day- his dad is such a cupid ;) It also works out well to be over President's Day weekend. We haven't made it up there the last few years, in fact the last time we went was NINE years ago when we had been dating just 2 1/2 months, and it was the very first time I met Russell's family. I will have to dig up an old picture and tell the story of that trip! Stay tuned...

Kiwi and Kristy came up from San Diego pretty late Thursday night. I had to work Friday, got off a little early and we headed up to Oakhurst, it took about 3 1/2 hours... At the hotel we met up with Lolly, Pop, Joey, Travis, David, the Rabeners and the Pollingtons. We had 4 family suites right in a row. Sienna was really over the car, tired and hadn't eaten dinner when it was her normal bedtime, so we stayed back while everyone went out to dinner. Then we just hung out in the room with Kiwi and Kristy (and some drinks).

That night was AWFUL as far as Sienna sleeping. I know she was out of her normal routine and comfort zone but she has traveled before and done great, so we were not expecting her to wake up at 1:30 and be up until 4:00! She wasn't fussy, just AWAKE! And David was sleeping in the other bed in our room, so we couldn't just let her cry in her pack 'n play or turn on the lights or TV... (although we should have cause he obviously wasn't sleeping, poor guy). So we gave her a bottle (haven't given her a night bottle in months) and brought her into our bed where she blabbered on and poked our faces and snuggled and wiggled... It wasn't until partway into her second bottle 2 hours later that she finally fell asleep... and what seemed like 5 min later it was time to get ready to head up the mountain... I guess we are extremely lucky that its the first time she has done that at night, not even as a newborn, but she is such a solid sleeper these days, it was completely out of the norm. I figure she was just too excited to get up to the snow!

Badger Pass is about an hour from the hotel, and 40 min or so into Yosemite park. It was clear and sunny all weekend, roads were clear, but there was lots of snow up there, and it was such a pretty drive through the park (minus me feeling carsick). I really want to go back in the spring and check out more of Yosemite.

I was in no way going skiing or snowboarding (on the last trip, the only time I have tried and almost killed myself 12 times) but everyone else but Russell's parents did. We had a fantastic spot to hangout on the upper deck overlooking everything. Sienna was dressed in a full snow suit (could barely move, Christmas Story-style) and I got some pics of the first time she sat in the snow.

After that, it was too warm, no coats needed! She luckily took a decent nap in her stroller, and was in a great mood (if she was half as tired as me, she hid it well). My Aunt Mimi and cousins Kristina, Brittany, and Dani live close by so they came up to ski and see us, so that was fun! And Sienna had tons of fun playing with everyone.





Everyone got in lots of runs, and we called it a day in the late afternoon. After letting Sienna play in the snow, she crawled around- even after losing a boot, got partially buried by her Daddy, and tried to take off the mittens getting in her way...

That night, we all went out to pizza and hung out at the hotel pool and hot tub. Sienna did wake up a couple times that night, but went back to sleep easy and was way better than the previous night. But again, poor David. She was going off of way less night sleep and less naps and being out of her normal routine, but all in all she did well.

Sunday was Sienna's first Valentine's Day! I mean it was Mike Molina's Birthday. Russell and his brothers growing up always told their girlfriends, that it wasn't Valentine's Day, it was their Dad's birthday, lol. Russell and I have never gotten into V-day either, I just think its too commercialized, and not that big of a deal, you should feel love everyday. So a few years ago, I think when we were engaged and on a super budget, we started our tradition of spending $5-$10 on the cheesiest gifts we could find (and we all know there are plenty of those). And I win every year! So in the past its been chocolate fish saying "you're a keeper", stuffed monkeys, chocolate frogs, lip shaped chip clips, "I Love You" mugs, and golf balls with cheesy pick up lines... This year Russell made me a rose in welding class, not cheesy but really cute! And this year I was forced to shop at Von's the night before so I found a Frog Prince for Sienna, and for Russell there was NOTHING. So I got him a heart box filled with hershey kisses and hugs, and a box of Wheat Thins with Easy Cheese. Now that is CHEESY! (Wow, huh?) But it worked cause he loves that gross stuff and it was a nice snack in between snowboarding... And this year Valentine's Day did have more meaning, just because of Sienna and how much we love her, and how we want to make sure to keep our relationship full of love! It's easy to focus on the baby, and forget to tell each other the simple "I love yous" and make sure to have time for us...


So after a lot more skiing/boarding for everyone and a lot more sun, we called it a day a bit earlier than everyone to get Sienna a good solid nap. I then took her to the playground at the hotel where she played with wood chips and leaves (and only tried to eat them twice), slid down and tried to climp up the slide.



That night the whole group of 16 went to a close-by BBQ restaurant (yum!) The next morning after breakfast, we stopped at my Aunt Mimi's house to visit, then made the trek home.

It was such a fun weekend, filled with fun people and some more firsts for Sienna. Her first time staying in a hotel which she had SO much fun exploring (but didn't sleep very well). Also her first time in the snow and her first Valentine's Day. Oh, did I mention it was her first time in a beer box? haha!


And we will definitely be doing this trip every year!! Next time maybe i will try snowboarding again, and you know Sienna will be riding down the slopes soon!