More Stepping from Sienna

Walking Bird aka Peg Leg

Urge to Update

I've got that urge again - the urge to purge. Like brain diarrhea. All coming out in spatters. Get comfy!

*Sienna is obsessed with lids. I fill my church entertainment bag not with toys - oh no - but with an assortment of plastic lotion bottles, shampoo bottles, lids without bottles, chapsticks, old make-up containers or anything with an interesting lid that she can flip open and closed or screw on and off. One time I gave her a small glass bottle with a cork lid that was formerly filled with bath salts and once she had enjoyed it to the fullest, she smashed it on the ground. Yikes! Bad idea. Also, it doesn't just have to be a bottle with a lid. It can be anything lid-like. Airplane tray tables are great; the handles on our desk work well. Something to remember when you're hanging out with her next.

*Sienna is walking! It is sooooooooo fun. I have five adorable videos that I'm dying to post but I don't have the right camera cord to get them onto the computer. Durn the technology sometimes! Anyway, she's up to about 10-12 steps at a time and her right leg is a bit stiff, so a good nickname is Peg Leg. Oohhhhh, it's so funny and cute and just .... uh! You know what I'm saying. She just kills me sometimes. But this milestone has not come without some encouragement (read: force) from me. I have been ready for her to walk for a couple months and am getting more and more anxious as we embark on a month-long road trip in August during which we will have only dirty gas stations and truck stops with which to get the small girl's energy out. I don't want her crawling all over grease-stained parking lots (which she will do, no problem, even if it is scalding). I want her walking all over grease-stained parking lots. Yes, even running. So I broke down and bought her a walker. Hey, I don't like to force milestones more than the next parent. But sometimes I just need the girl to get upright.

*Last summer at this time Sienna was 2.5 months old. I would run on the treadmill while she slept in the stroller at our gym while looking at the pool that is across the sidewalk. I would watch the moms and kids playing in the pool and it made me jealous that my kid wasn't old enough to understand the joy that is a nice, cool pool on a hot day. Now that the time is here for total pool enjoyment, she'd rather crawl all over the (scalding) cement, especially up and down the wide stairs leading up to the jacuzzi. My little dream of our pool fun kind of went poof! She's really no fun. Give her some sand and a gradual incline into water - now that she can do. It's crawling while swimming. The girl loves to move.

*Speaking of moving, we are headed to Seattle in 2 weeks. We're excited. We don't have a place yet but we're working on it. Then August will be one big roadtrip across Washington, through Idaho's panhandle, a mosey through Montana, a plunge into Utah and a straight shot to Denver and then repeat in reverse. Adam starts school at UW at the beginning of September and that's when I kiss our together time goodbye. I'm not looking forward to the craziness that is student life, but it's only two years, so I guess I will survive. Goodbye my LOVE.

*Every minute of Sienna's naptime the past couple months has been spent working on a new business with two of my friends, both named Cyndi with a y. It's an interior design business and I am soooooo excited about it. We are trying to square away many of the details before I leave so we can get up and running ASAP. We'll be a full-service design firm, but we're hoping to attract mostly online clients. Think of it as digi design. You fill out our online questionnaire, we put together a virtual design board of all the furniture, accessories, paint and materials you need along with the buying information, and we guide you on how to put everything together via email. Like I said, we'll offer the usual services of in person or phone consultation, but the idea is to be able to work with anyone anywhere. We'll charge a flat fee for our services and then you get to decide how much you want to spend on your materials. Make sense? I can't wait to get the website up to show you. You'll die. And then you'll tell everyone you know? Right?

*Back to the durn technology. We sent back our iPhones. Our decision to do so was threefold: 1. the phone function sucketh (dropped calls and fuzzy reception), 2. we don't need them, and 3. we can't afford them. Think: starving students. That's what we are. So thus endeth our dream of owning the most hyped thingamajig of all time. And thus endeth my scripture speak.

*Adam and I went on a real, live date last night. Felt good. We even paid a babysitter. Crizzazzy! Sushi with friends. They are Asian and adventurous, so they showed us many raw fish wonders. I thought I had tried sashimi before. Nope. I hadn't. It was good. Then they clarified this other thing that I thought was sashimi, but it was nigori. And then they rocked my world by saying that in Japan there is no such thing as sushi rolls. It's an American thing! If I didn't enjoy raw fish so much, I'd have cried on the spot. I would imagine that means there is no drizzling of barbeque sauce on tempura shrimp sushi rolls either. No TNT Roll. No Volcano Roll. No Hawaii Roll. And - gasp - no California roll. The indignity of it all! And then they made me eat sea urchin nigori. I thought it would be the last time we ever spoke to those friends. But then we all went to Baskin Robbins and my fudge walnut brownie chunk ice cream cone turned everything aright.

*I've been trying to teach Sienna to pucker her lips so she can kiss back instead of opening her mouth and trying to taste our puckered lips. She can't do it, but she did start doing one insanely adorable thing today: leaning her face in when we pucker our lips. She knows she wants a kiss, she just doesn't know how to give it back. Don't that just make you wanna have a durn baby? And use the word durn three more times?

And it came to pass, this post finally ended. Goodnight.

Scenes from the Weekend

Courtesy of iPhone 4.

Great as a camera, but will it ever be a phone?

Enjoy.

Book Review: Final Salute

Hey all. It's random book report time. I just finished this book called 'Final Salute' and I want to write about it before my mind moves on to the next thing. Jim Sheeler, a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, followed a Marine Corps 'casualty notification office' for one year as he went about the delicate duty of delivering the news of Iraq War casualties to wives and parents. Sheeler tells the stories of five Marines, each killed in Iraq. He takes readers through the Corps' process when a soldier is killed, from the moment of death until long after the burial.

Obviously, this is a crushingly sad book, one that has caused me to reflect on the true cost of these nearly decade long wars. I teared up repeatedly at the heart wrenching accounts of young wives - several of them pregnant - distraught and inconsolable at the news of their husbands' deaths. As sad as these moments are, it was just as inspiring to learn about how the Marines care for their dead, escorting them home from the field, never leaving the casket's side until the last shovelful of dirt has been laid on the grave. Once the burials are over, 'Final Salute' details the various ways that families deal with their grief. Some try to forget, some try to remember. One of the most interesting was the tradition of a South Dakota Indian tribe, who mourn for a full year before releasing their loved one's spirit to dwell with its ancestors.

Sheeler clearly had no agenda. He sought only to tell the story, without political overtones. I truly detected no desire on the author's part to convince readers to support or oppose the war. His motive for writing was to help readers - who, admittedly, remain wholly untouched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - to remember our dead.

Bottom Line:

Read this book if: The closing scene in 'The Grapes of Wrath' made you grateful for what you have.

Don't read this book if: The closing scene in 'The Grapes of Wrath' put you in a month long depressive funk.

Purple Eye and Other Things

*Sienna is no longer bottle or breastfeeding. This means she has no other source of comfort except her dad's tube of Burt's Bees. Sometimes she lies down on the carpet to relax and enjoy it.

*My ear piece kept falling out when I was talking to my sister on the phone the other day. At her urging, I taped it to my head. Much better.

*We (that includes me) watched the NBA finals. Despite my feigned protestations on Facebook of sports-watching, I sometimes actually really like it. I wanted Celtics. But whatever.

* Here's our sweetest little Bird in a springy dress made by her aunt Heather.

*She hit her eye on the stairs yesterday (she's a star at going up; coming down is a different story) and it was purple and swollen today. Giant :(

*Though it does match her dress nicely. :)

*This girl does not hold still. It's impossible.

*The springtime (I guess I mean summer) photo shoot did not last because she kept crawling out of the shot.

*Sienna gave her daddy a card today along with a ceramic heart with a hand print. The card read, "Um. hi Dad. Hi. (In the corner: Sorry So Sloppy with that big "S" at the beginning.) I just learned to write. Pretty smart. I love when you come home from work and make that crazy face with the eyes. Crazy silly. I love you, you are nice and love me. Love & Licks, Sienna." She can't talk or walk or even pucker properly, but she has decent grammar and perfect spelling. We're pretty proud.

Some Shaky Steps

Sienna has taken a few steps here and there. Her most is four. She is still such a fast crawler that she is often uninterested in walking.

Here are a couple shots of her efforts. (It helps to give her something shiny to hold on to or tantalize her with.)

Beach Bird Part Deux

This is a mash up of photos from recent visits to the beach and a local water park. Sienna could not be more cute in her new ruffly little bikini. I suppose I will teach her about modesty at some point, but not while she has that delicious, round belly. If you find that The Bird is missing someday, just know I have gobbled her up.

Here's daddy and The Bird in the baby pool. She really loves the water and just gasps and smiles after being dunked.

This was her first encounter with a swing! (I call these diaper swings.) You can tell she likes something if she opens her mouth to its widest point.

Still as pasty, pasty white as ever.

Great beach hair, Bird! Tousled perfectly!

She's been hanging out a lot with a younger man named Hunter. We need to keep an eye on these two.

At the beach, she crawled all over the place and ate a lot of sand.

Her first experience with watermelon. She likes the rind.

P.S. If you want to see Beach Bird Part Un, click here. She looks so different in Part Un (she was three months old then) and yet still just as scrumptious.

Still Poking Around

I just realized I only did one post in May! Now that is some serious blog neglect. I have my camera to blame. It refuses to transfer all the photos I took on my trip to Utah/Idaho to my computer; it only transfers some. I feel naked blogging without pictures, but I will give it a shot to give you a little update on our lives.

*We are still waiting for Berkeley to decide if they want to accept Adam to business school. If they take him, we could be moving up there at the end of this month because school starts in August and we'd take July off to visit family and play. If they don't, we'll be moving to Seattle for UW at the end of July and take August for family and play. So that is the news: there is no news. Oh, and Dartmouth and Stanford said no. Did I mention that? Well there you have it. At least some schools can make up their minds and let you move on with your life.

*Adam's collarbone surgery went well and he is finally feeling back to normal. He's even going to start cycling. Tomorrow. Pray for him. No more crashes!!!

*I'm really happy to be done with Sienna's first year. So many times I thought, "If we could both just make it to the year mark alive, it will be a huge accomplishment." And we made it! It's so nice to look back and see what a first year in a baby's life looks like. It actually makes me feel like I could do it again. Through each stage I thought I knew what I was doing and was even enjoying all of it. But looking back, I was oblivious and blindly feeling my way through a whole new world. I'm sure when Sienna turns two I will look back and think the same thing about this year. One thing I can't get over is how brutal newborns are. And I loved that stage when I was going through it! But looking back: no thank you! I love their snuggly helplessness, but the neediness and round-the-clock-feedingness is just .... WOW. Brutal. I really love my little independent-moving munchkin. Next up: walking!

*Do you ever notice that just when one show season ends, another one starts up? Happens all the time and it still surprises me. I just finished Parenthood and 9 by Design and was glad to be having a TV break. And now! So You Think You Can Dance starts up again. It's too much. I am over it. I'm not watching until they whittle it down to the good dancers. And for the record, Glee makes me uncomfortable. It's the lip syncing and teenage awkwardness. That's all.

*I started an Etsy shop. I sell button earrings. You should check it out: SiennaBee.etsy.com.

*Things I will miss about Southern California:

+The weather - It's the one true constant in life. 70s, shorts and a T, an ounce of humidity. Except for October when it's hotter than blazes and January when there are two rainstorms.

+The beach - We are 20 minutes from it. You can't beat that.

+Irvine's master-plan - Sidewalks, strip malls, edged lawns, repeat. You want a perfect-looking community? You move to Irvine.

+The shopping - I could literally sit on this couch and think of anything, ANYTHING I wanted and, if I had the funds, I could walk to my car, get inside, turn the key and drive somewhere and have the thing in my possession within 25 minutes. That kind of freedom and power will never be present in my life again.

+The ward - Full of smart, inspiring people.

+Good style - People care about style here. I'm not usually one of them even though I can try all I want (my pitfall is that I consistently choose function over fabulous ... sorry). But I really enjoy seeing people who are stylish. Makes me happy.

+Beach hair - In that same vein, there is none of this flat-iron-to-death look. That's not an option because of the humidity. You will have wavy, sea-breeze-blown hair, and you will like it!

*Things I will not miss about Southern California:

-The weather - Can I get a season once in awhile??? The repetitive sunshine is like a thorn in my side - no, a thorn in my EYE. I can apply 80 SPF sunscreen all I want and wear my wide-brimmed hat, but I can nevuh, NEVUH, escape the sun! It's just part of the package. I want to try to convey to you the deep-set depression that comes around November and December when all you want to wear is a scarf around your neck and all you want to feel is the biting wind at your cheek.

-The beach - I came to a conclusion the other day: I am okay without the beach. It's dirty (sand in your undies, without fail, every time), it's salty (I just drank some ocean water on Monday and it's not just kind of salty, it's like I need an umbrella like that Morton salt girl, except I need it for my mouth). I like to think I'm not talking myself into disliking the beach. But I totally am. As was made clear to me when Adam asked me, "If we could afford one of these beach houses (at Laguna Beach), would you stay here?" UH --- I give that 100 OHYEEEEEEEAAAAAAUUUHs.

-Irvine's master-plan - I need more of a willy-nilly planned community. And no leaf blowers, please.

-The shopping - Let's be honest. I don't have money for shopping. So why bother having it nearby? (You better believe I excel at window-shopping, though.) I'm excited to get back to living someplace where it's a more common past time to go hiking in the woods than hiking around Saks in stilettos.

-Good style and beach hair - It will be nice not to feel the pressure of this materialistic county. And I'll be honest, I want to flat-iron my hair someday soon and not have four huge waves instead.

*You'll notice my lists are the same ... except for the ward part. Adam and I have also made some great friends beyond the ward and we'll carry these relationships with us into our next phase of life. As I/we have moved from place to place over the years, it's interesting to see who I/we have kept in touch with over the years. I love it. Hopefully we will keep gathering and keeping friends wherever we go.

Birthday Time!

Adam's 30th picnic. A picnic at the park with friends and ice cream cake. Sienna tries BBQ chicken and watermelon for the first time. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

Sienna's early 1-year-old cake smash. She did not eat one bit of the cupcake unless I gave it to her, just dropped everything on the floor. In the video you may hear me say, "WHAT A SHAME!" Someone needs to learn how to appreciate the wonder that is a Sprinkles cupcake. Oh well, I ate what she dropped. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

Bathtime Babble

In the bathtub is where you'll find The Bird around 7:15 a.m. every morning. I think I may be the only person in the world who does morning baths instead of nighttime baths for the little one, but in my opinion it is the best way to start the day: clean and fresh smelling. I love her sleepy little eyes and her happy demeanor and, of course, the babbling that always ensues.