Sienna, Scared of Santa

 

Santa came to Kids Count and all the children were very excited to sit in his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas...except for SiSi.  Cam showed me all the adorable pictures of the employee's children smiling at Santa, telling him their wishes, or at the very least, sitting uninterested in his lap, like Eloise!   Our little scaredy cat wouldn't go near him, even after he gave her a puppy and a candy cane.  How cute is that!?

 

 

Happy Halloween!

SiSi's Halloween almost got stifled by a nasty case of strep throat!  Luckily, Daddy and Sienna got on meds in time to enjoy the festive day.  Funny enough, Sienna's Halloween costume wasn't that different from her daily wear, since she is thoroughly obsessed with "pretty" skirts and dresses and has a definite opinion about what she wants to wear (and we are very glad that we are getting more wear out of Finley's old dance costume!).

Happy 2nd Birthday, SiSi!

Sienna celebrated her 2nd birthday on Grandma Brenda's actual birthday, which turned out to be an absolutely perfect day to revel in the sun.  We grilled burgers and ate sinful potatoes (thanks Grandma Brenda), salad and relishes (thanks Grandma Belva) and Mommy's favorite grape salad (thanks Grandma Julie).  Sienna loved each and every present she received and has been playing with them ever since (so has her big sister!).  She got a wand from Steve and Sondra (who couldn't be at the party but stopped by earlier to visit), a Sesame Street school bus from Auntie Megan, Uncle Phil, Sadie and Eliose, cogs and screws, a growth chart, and a super cool puzzle from Grandma Julie and Uncle Jimmy, super cute clothes and a baby doll from Grandma Belva and Grandpa Tim, a baby doll high chair from Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Kevin, an art smock from Auntie Annie and a little piggy book from Uncle Luke (Dunka Duke, as SiSi calls him).  After opening presents, we ate bee cupcakes and Sienna ate the candy bees off the cake.  Finley chose the theme since Sienna loves to sing, "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee."  We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the perfect late summer/early fall day. 

 

Now that she's 2, Sienna is really showing her personality.  We all love how she sings songs to herself while she plays - everything from "EIEIO" to "God Bless America!" (Great Grandma Joyce is smiling down from heaven on her for that one.). She's very loving to her babies and to her "Ninny" when Finley gets sad - although she also has a fierce temper and pulls Ninny's hair at the drop of a hat.  She goes on and on and tells long stories, although many of the words are indecipherable, but she definitely has the inflections down.  She loves Barney and watches his DVDs to fall asleep at night.  She LOVES the pool and has very little fear in the water.  She also loves to do gymnastics and she tries to copy every move Finley makes.  She does still hate loud noises like tractors and vacuums ("I scared.  I scared of tractors," she says).  She's just as sweet as can be and so huggable, even when she is standing on her chair and climbing on the table with a twinkle in her eye!  We love you, Sienna!

Apple!

The other night, the family was sitting at the dinner table, eating.  Sienna was in her high chair in between Daddy and Mommy and Finley was across from her.  We had been eating for 5 minutes or so when Sienna started reaching and saying, "Apple!  Apple!"  I kept thinking she was reaching for the salt and pepper shakers and that she thought they were apples - although I certainly knew she was smarter than that, especially since she can now count to eleven!  All of a sudden, a lightbulb went off in Daddy's head and he said, "I know what she's doing."  He grabbed her hand and she reached for mine, and we all realized that she wanted to sing the Johnny Appleseed song.  We had to sing it several times, of course, after that cuteness!  Oh, the Lord IS good to me :)

Ears Are Good!

No pics for this post, but SiSi had her ear-tubes-follow-up a couple of days ago and everything looks good.  She passed her hearing test with flying colors and improved a ton from her before test.  She clearly can hear because she asks Momma to sing any number of her favorite songs - ABCD's, Itsy Bitsy 'Pider, Rock-a-bye-baby, Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee - and matches pitch perfectly.  Naturally ;)

Pigtails for SiSi!

Sienna has had only a teeny weeny trim since she was born and Mommy thought it was much easier to let her "bangs" grow out while she is a little stinker rather than wait until she is older like we did with Finley.  After spending a girls' weekend with the cousins/aunts/grandmas in Sioux Falls (where she clearly had a blast in the pool), it was clear that she was very over her top-of-the-head ponytails.  When we returned home, Mommy caved and gave her a bigger trim of the bangs, which left her smiling from ear to ear.  This morning, we were able to put her hair in her very first pigtails ever and she left them in all day so she must have loved them as much as we lover her.

Summer Sienna

These pictures are from a photo session with my good friend, Kelley Conley Reiter, and they truly capture my little stinker, SiSi.  This summer, she has grown and changed so much.  She continually surprises us with new words, phrases, and skills.  She is a very good talker - last week she told me, "I'm scared of the tractor," after our neighbor was mowing his lawn.  She is a total copycat of her big sister.  She studies Finley's every move and repeats everything she says and does.  Sometimes, this worries me...  She is nearly fearless (minus the tractor and riding on Grandpa Kevin's boat) and I'm sure she's going to be a gymnast.  She loves to walk, one foot in front of the other, on the curb that surrounds our park, and she leaps and jumps right on the curb.  When she falls down, she laughs and gets right back up.  Finley has been learning how to do backwalkovers (spotted by me) and of course, this means Sienna is, as well.  She's actually really good!  Sienna also has been sleeping in her big-girl bed for a couple of weeks now.  Some days, it's easier than others, but most of the time, she goes down pretty easy and she always stays in her bed all night long.  One of the funniest things SiSi does (in retrospect) is that she throws full-on fits, much like her father!  One day, I went into her room after she was sleeping, and she had destroyed her room.  She had thrown every single book from her bookshelf around the room, knocked over her lamp and the ipod player, tore every kleenex from the box, and spread her toys across the floor.  When she gets really mad, she screams a high-pitch scream, makes super tight fists, and grits her teeth while she shakes.  If anyone is near, watch out, because your hair will get pulled and you will get scratched.  Luckily, her sweet little personality comes out very quickly once she gets her anger out.  We love her so!

No Pics but Many Updates

Since we just got a new computer, all of our pictures are unaccessible, but since I had a minute and a fast computer, I thought I'd give a quick update.  SiSi is a regular talker these days.  On Friday, May 19, she said her first full sentence with intention when she said, "I want a book," while I was changing her diaper in the morning and then, she was off!  The next day, she opened up the refrigerator and pointed the the pickles and said, "I want a pickle!"  She now sings "Twinkle Twinkle", the "ABC's" and the other morning I caught her with "The Lady with the Alligator Purse" in her lap and she was saying, "In came doctor, in came nurse."  This morning she was cracking Finley (who she calls "Ninny") and I up by making her angry face.  She grits her teeth and makes fists and tenses her whole body until it shakes.  Then, she laughs.  She is one funny little stinker!

Sienna's Favorite Words

Sienna is growing up faster than ever and has started talking.  Every day, a new word or phrase surprises us and even if she doesn't quite have the phonetics down, she definitely has mastered the inflection of many words and phrases.  Among her first words and phrases were "Uh-oh," "Where'd it go?," "Tickle Tickle," and "All done/gone." Lately, she has been saying, "Up and down," from her favorite book "Elmo Loves Opposites."  Every day when Daddy and the girls get home, she points at the big evergreen and says, "Tree!"  She has loved the word "shoe" for practically as long as she has been wearing them.  She loves to tell you what a lion says ("Rarrrrr") and what sounds a monkey, doggy, rooster, horse, chicken, and lamb make.  She points at all of her facial features and makes it evident that she knows exactly what you are talking about at any given moment. 

Besides all of her communication advances, Sienna has also told us that she is no longer a baby by refusing to sit in her high chair many days so that she can sit at the table in a big chair next to her sister.  Also, before we lowered the crib a couple of weeks ago, Sienna proved to be quite the athlete when she climbed out of her crib and wandered into the living room.  She always keeps us on our toes!

Sienna's Nose-Picking

Sienna, ever the little stinker, was a nose-picker for awhile.  Thanks to the great teachers at Kids Count, she is no longer a true nose-picker, but a comedic nose-picker.  The other night, I was reading a Sandra Boynton book to her where a little hippo kept saying, "Ew!"  Throughout the book, Sienna kept picking her nose.  I thought she was up to her old antics, but then I realized she only did it when I said, "Ew!"  Turns out, she's a perfect Pavlovian and every time you say "Ew!" or "Acky!" or "Ick!", she will stick her finger in her nose... and grin at you. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2012 is here and I'm sure we are going to see big changes in SiSi throughout the course of the new year.  For now, Sienna is 16 months old and she is full of tricks!  Though she's not talking much in English, she is certainly conversing in her own unique way.  She does say, "Hi!" very enthusiastically when she comes home every day, she says "Daddy" over and over, and she "reads" her favorite books, like Snuggle Puppy, Goodnight Moon, and her Farm Animals book.  Her favorite activities involve emptying the bottom kitchen drawer of its contents multiple times a day, removing the books from all the shelves, hiding treasures in the cabinet under the tv in the kitchen, throwing whatever she can get her hands on, dancing to music, and playing with her big sis.  She still loves to eat most everything - the only thing she won't eat is macaroni and cheese.  At SiSi's last doctor's appointment, she weighed 21 pounds and she has moved out of her infant carrier into Finley's old car seat.  One of mom and dad's favorite things about SiSi is how easy she is to put to sleep.  Every night, we curl up in her rocking chair, read a couple of books, say goodnight to the things in her bedroom, turn out the light, before she reaches for her crib.  If there is any crying, it's very minimal.

Except on New Year's Eve!  After 3 big Christmas celebrations, she must have figured out what she was missing when she was sleeping because she woke up just before midnight and didn't go to sleep until 4am!  Of course, Mom and Dad LOVED this after enjoying the company of the Peterson clan all day, if you know what I mean ;)  All in all, though, the holiday season was fun and eventful with this little toddler, as anyone who knows her would expect.