Birdie Turns 2

Sienna turned 2 last Friday. I planned to make a nice afternoon of it and go to the park and eat cake and open presents and hang out as a little family. But ... it rained. Can you believe it? It rained. Of all the things to happen in Seattle! It rained.

So I picked up Adam from school and we came back home and ate carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The day really felt like my birthday since Birdie still didn't get it and I was in a celebratory mood.
So, I made the cake that sounded good to me. I spent a nice morning doing yoga at the gym after which I went to my favorite bakery and snarfed a pain au chocolat and strawberry danish. Sienna was there but she didn't really catch the feeling in the air. Oh well. Next year and beyond she will have plenty of say about the flavor and shape of her cake and an opinion about the day's festivities.
Since she was awake at 6:30 am that morning, I had plenty of time to think about the events at that time two years ago. Around 7 am Adam and I had hopped in the car to go to the hospital.
At 7:30 am we arrived and the nurses checked my cervix. It was dilated to a 9! An hour later, Birdie made her debut. I still can't believe how fast everything happened. After snuggling for a bit, she was weighed and checked and then handed back to Adam while I was served the best breakfast of my life! It was a magical day.
Birdie, while I neglected to do your hair on your 2nd birthday and these pictures will always bother me because of it, just know that at this moment in time you are my absolute favorite. You are sweet, silly, emotional, sensitive, hate loud laughter, a bit of a bully to other kids, attentive, love books, are obsessed with puddles and trucks, and also OCD. All of these traits are bundled together into this tiny little brain and body that make up YOU. It's all still so incredible that you are real.

Don't ever change, okay? I mean it! If your slippery "S's" go away, I will die.

35, 31, 24

I have another numbers post! Get excited!

Here's the obligatory pregnancy shot, me at 35 weeks (last week). Let's all take a moment to notice that:

1. Baby boy seems to be lying horizontally because that belly sticketh outward!

2. The lighting for most of my pregnancy shots is just bad. I wonder if someday when/if I'm pregnant again I'll get professional shots done. I feel a little weird about that.

3. My bathroom is ghetto.

4. Yes, I will wear stripes for all of my pregnancy self portraits.

Today Adam turned 31. It was a sunny day without clouds. Never before has there been a day like this since we moved here 8 months ago. Not an exaggeration. There are always clouds in the sky, even when it's sunny. So, it was epic. We went to the park. Sienna got mad.

It wasn't exactly cold enough for a parka, but she wore it anyway.

I made a lemon berry tart for instead of birthday cake and the candles spell out 31. What, you can't see it?

Sienna snatched a berry off the top.

And, finally, our leetle girly is almost officially 24 months old. This Friday she will be 2. I finally get why people always say, "they just grow up suh fast." I see it now. Two years ago she came into this world a raisin. Today she walks, talks, runs, hops, gallops, giggles, sings, knows almost all ABCs and numbers 1-10. Two years! It is truly a marvel.

More pictures to come at the end of the week to see if she will take kindly to her cupcake this year ... or not...

Spring and Other Things

We went to UW campus to take the obligatory family pictures with the newly blossomed cherry trees. We thought a Sunday afternoon would be the perfect time without too many students in the way. Wrong! Everyone and their Asian mother was there! Oh well, we took pictures anyway. We had just taken off our coats, so don't think this is real spring. It just looks like it.

I'm 33 weeks pregnant this week. Word!

This is where Adam spends his days, in Paccar Hall.

Snack break.

In other news, Sienna seems to have been reborn in the last few months. This time, she was delivered by a stork from the Planet of Sweetness, Good Sleep and Obedience. I don't know where the sweetness came from. She's one month away from being 2 and I've been gearing up for horribleness. Instead, she has graced our home with the sweetest, silliest, cutest little temperament. Sure, she can cry and whine with the best of them, but overall, you can get plenty of hugs and kisses and giggling from this girl. We can't get enough. We also decided to try crying it out again about 3 weeks ago for the first time since she was about 1. Miracles occurred, my friends. Miracles. She cried three nights for 1 hour each. The next two nights were 15 minutes of crying each. And the 2 weeks since then have been, for the most part, lots of uninterrupted sleep. Here's what happened to change things for all of us: she finally understands some things! We were able to explain that she doesn't get warm milk, and when she wakes up at night, she doesn't need to cry - just find bunny and duck (dunny and guck) and the blanket and go night night again. It's also helped that she is finally showing a slight attachment to something (dunny and guck). Now, she tells us what she's going to do every time she goes down for a nap or bedtime, "No cwying." Smart girl! Which leads me to her obedience. I can see that she really wants to please us. She knows what timeout means and if I'm getting short of patience with her, she'll say it herself, "Timeout? Timeout?" Maybe she's starting to like it! She is also a little peach when it comes to putting away her toys before bedtime and kneeling for family prayer (although she thinks nothing of getting up to take a lap around the kitchen or jump on the couch). But she tries. And it's soooooo cute to see her trying to be like us. Ahhh, I feel so good having another child at this point because I can see light at the end of the tunnel that is nearly 2 years of a little human who can't do or get much out of life. I mean, babies are cute, so cute, and I can't wait to snuggle a newborn again. But I am truly relishing the experience of watching Sienna emerge from babyhood into the complicated world of adults.

Well, with cherry trees blossoming and a perfect child among us, things are looking up around here. We've also got new carpet coming to replace our ghetto stuff and our landlord has agreed to cut down the tree out front (yay, more chances for sunshine inside). Adam has more time this quarter to get out on his bike and watch cycling regularly. I'm doing yoga a couple times a week and learning to enjoy walking on a treadmill (you can read!). It even feels warm outside from time to time! Come on real Spring. You are so close!

Visitors & Outings

This blog post is in backwards chronological order. I hate the old Blogger.

We've had a nice break recently with Adam being out of school for 2 weeks between school quarters. The sun came out a few times, we did a small road trip and we also had some visits from the grandparents.

Here's a recap:

Last weekend we went to Wenatchee to see Carrie and Nick and join in Ruby's third birthday festivities as well as new baby Lucy's blessing. Sienna attended her first birthday party! Princess time!

Singing songs and shaking maracas.

Loving the costume jewelry!
Check out that phenomenal cake!

Baby Lucy.
Carrie and baby Lucy during those "witching hours." Remember those? Seeing a newborn again made me chant inside my head, "ICAN'TDOTHISICAN'TDOTHISICAN'TDOTHIS." I just can't do this again. But it's too late! I'll be doing it again in 2 months! Help!

The last few days of Adam's break, it was so sunny and clear we took our coats off! GASP! We went to my favorite park in the area and enjoyed bubbles from The Bubble Man (a bearded dude in overalls who drives a purple van and brings out all his bubble gear for kids at the park to scream about), bubbles from our own little bottle (weak sauce compared to The Bubble Man), swinging, the view of the Puget Sound and Birdie's favorite fish slide.

And looking at "pwanes."




We spent a couple hours at the zoo one day. The zoo is still completely uninteresting to Sienna. Unless of course you throw in some "ice cweam" and some more "pwanes."

Adam's parents came for a visit! I was shocked at how fast Sienna took to them. Grandparents are magical. They feed the child.
They babysit while you go to the ballet.
They let you honk their noses ... over and over and over. Because it's just so funny every single time!
They take pictures. This is on an excursion over to Bainbridge Island.
They take the child on a walk and do that fun swinging thing ... over and over and over. Because it's just so fun every single time!
And they read stories! The best!
My mom also came into town several weeks earlier. As long as you've got a book to read, Sienna is all yours.

Thanks for visiting, visitors! Thanks for coming out, sun!