Baby Book Bust

I am nearing panic-mode as everyday brings us closer to September 4.  Sienna will turn one year old.  Turns out, I am that cliche mom.  I am not ready.  I truly wish I could freeze her in time today at eleven months, two weeks, and four days.  The same way I truly wish she never had to get teeth (lucky for me, she STILL only has half a tooth).  The same way I wish she would fall asleep on my chest (she gave that up months ago).  My mother also gave me reason to panic when I saw the baby milestone calendar she filled out for me.  The calendar ended at a year, but my dear mother continued it on a piece of notebook paper describing in detail facial expressions and habits and funny moments.  Don't get me wrong, Sienna's baby book is mostly filled in (I am not completely inattentive), but not nearly to the detail that mine was.  So my guilty conscience has inspired me to describe in detail Sienna's personality, traits, etc.

Smiley Girl: Sienna started smiling around six weeks, and it seems like she never stopped.  Of course, she has her fussy moments, but so many people have said to me something to the effect of "I've never seen a baby smile so much" or "Is she always this happy?"  I remember taking her to spring training games and she would look over each of my shoulders and smile at all the strangers surrounding us.  Often, she won't stop smiling at you until you acknowledge her.  This also happens in grocery stores, target, etc.  Of course, it's a bit of a trap because as it turns out, if you DO acknowledge her, she expects you to continue to engage with her.  She's a bit pushy, I must admit.  This is the first smile I caught on camera on October 20:

The Scrunchie Face: I will never forget the scrunchie face.  I can't pinpoint when it began, but at around 7 months, I took a picture of it.  There is no other face like it, and she would do it all the time while simultaneously breathing very rapidly through her nose.  I loved it, and though there are remnants of it from time to time, she no longer makes the scrunchie face full out anymore.  Sad day.  Luckily I will always have this picture to remember it by (as a matter of fact, Matt turned this picture in to our credit card): 

The Jerk: Sienna began doing this head jerk thing when I would feed her solids.  I have no idea what it meant, but she would violently nod her head and blink her eyes, sometimes accompanied by smacking her lips together.  For a good few months, she did it on demand.  Now she doesn't do it as often, but thank God does occasionally.  I have tried uploading a video of the jerk, but it won't work.  Check facebook.

Sienna began waving, clapping, and crawling around 7 1/2 months.  Her wave was just priceless.  She waved backwards like she was beckoning you forth.  She mostly waves normally now (boring), but every once in a while she will regress to her original wave (the best).  Now she waves at everyone all the time.  Not necessarily for specific hellos and goodbyes, just all the time throughout the day.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again...Sienna has never met a stranger.  

If there was a prize for clapping, she would win it.  You need only to say, "Yay!", and she will drop whatever she is playing with and clap those sweet miniature hands together.

Sienna loves to be chased, and now that she is such an efficient crawler, she will give you a run for your money. "Sienna, I'm gonna get you!" will have her speeding off in a hurry.

Sienna has a huge mouth.  Maybe it's because she doesn't have any teeth, but nevertheless, it is oddly large.  At around 8 months, she put a whole ping pong ball in her mouth.  Slightly frightening, but hilarious.  She mostly sticks to water bottles now.

Sienna plays hard.  If she is not eating or sleeping, she is moving.  She pulls herself up and down, looks at her books, crawls to the window, climbs the oven, pulls tupperware out of the cabinets or tissues out of the box.  If she will let you hold her in your lap for 10 seconds, that is a small victory.  If she actually relaxes her body or lays her head on your shoulder, that is a huge victory.

Sienna loves to climb.  She first figured out how to pull herself up on our oven.  I posted that video in a previous blog.  Now she tries to climb everything.  At baseball games, she climbs the seats by either putting her feet in the cup holders or the slits in the back of the seats.  She can hold her own weight while hanging, so she will grab on to her pack n' play and lift her little feet in the air and try to gain a foothold on the meshed netting.

Sienna refuses to walk.  She stands on her own, cruises, and even climbs, but will not take a step.  What a stinker.

Sienna loves buckles.  In her high chair, she stares at the buckle and holds each piece, breathing very hard (which she always does when she focuses hard), trying to figure out how to put it together.

Sienna adores remote controls and cell phones.  She even points the remote at the TV trying to change the channel.

Sienna dances whenever she hears even a hint of music or melody.  She sways her tiny body and head from side to side.

When Sienna finds a pen, she looks for paper to write on.  

Sienna is as nosy (and noisy) as they come.  If she sees people laughing, she will very loudly yell out this very fake laugh just to be a part of the joke.  When she is nursing, she takes breaks (obnoxiously often), sits up, and waves and smiles at everyone in the room.  If she hears a noise out of place (a toilet flushing in a different room or a door opening and closing), she stops what she is doing, looks in the direction that the noise came from, and listens very attentively to figure out what or who it is.

Sienna has her mommy's (and daddy's) appetite.  I could have just fed her, but if she sees me eating, she crawls over, pulls herself up at my knee, and whines and fusses and demands until I give her some.

Sienna gets her fingers caught in the same drawers she insists on opening and closing in the bathroom nearly everyday.  I don't know if this makes her brave or foolish. 

Sienna has recently begun to imitate monkey sounds "ooooo...ahahah" initiated by her Granny (Matt's mom) and Aunt Nina and encouraged by all of us.

In conclusion (finally), I often forget Sienna does not talk yet because she is so incredibly expressive and I know her so well that I usually understand what she wants or needs.  Sienna is a force to be reckoned with.  She will either unwittingly charm your pants off with her big blue eyes and sweet smile or demand that you acknowledge her and be her friend.  What a gal.

Blog Snafus

I notice that the pressure to write brilliantly keeps me from writing at all.  I'm pretty sure that is NOT the point of chronicling your life via blog.  I want this to be a good balance between personal thoughts, noteworthy happenings, pictures, and the everyday details of my life.  And if I just so happen to have a wise or witty moment, that's all the better.  But the point is to write.

I actually had posted a blog on July 29th, but the layout was warped, and after several attempts to make it right, I unfortunately deleted it.  (Sigh)  It was a long one too, dangit!

So it seems after weeks of monotony and little writing inspiration, the last few days have been action-packed enough to write ten blogs.  So...we may have a mini-series on our hands.  

One week ago, we received the sad news that Matt's grandmother, Rose, had passed away.  Vince's mother, the same "Rose" Sienna's middle name comes from.  It was not completely sudden, but her passing was not exactly expected "any day now" either.  That Saturday was just the beginning of a whirlwind of events that only ceased yesterday.  Matt and I quickly realized that if Sienna and I were to fly down for the funeral (which was a given), it made the most sense for us to stay in Florida for the remainder of the baseball season because the Clippers only have six more home games this month.  The results of this conclusion equal packing up our entire Columbus apartment, wrapping up all the loose ends (canceling cable, gym membership, shipping packages out, etc), packing the 4Runner, and of course flying home with the maximum amount of luggage and a baby to boot...alone.  Needless to say, it was an exhausting two days. Mattie was incredibly helpful, which was a blessing because often in these types of scenarios, the "husbands" are not always able to help.

After we both arrived in Tampa, we drove down to Port Charlotte for Rose's wake and mass.  Despite the sad circumstances, it is always nice to see family and have a mini reunion of sorts. The time went fast and before I knew it, Matt was waking at 5:00 am on Friday morning to catch  his flight back to Columbus.

Besides the physically draining aspect of this week, there of course was so much emotional exhaustion, as well.  In baseball, this is the time of year, where players might get called up to the big leagues, so in all of the packing and planning, often that is lingering in the back of your mind, no matter how much you try not to think about it.  Then of course there is the fact that Matt had just lost his grandmother, which is an incredibly emotional time.  She was his last surviving grandparent, and I believe that fact alone made her passing all the more difficult. 

It's been a long, tough week and while Sienna and I get to stay here at home spending time with friends and family, doing projects around our house, and relaxing a bit, Mattie has to re-enter the daily grind of baseball during what I think is the toughest part of the season.  I can't tell you how often I have prayed for him in the last two days and wished that I could take his place, if only for a few days.  However, I don't think the Clippers would find that appropriate (even if I am more athletic than Mattie)!  And so I continue even through blog our ongoing debate about who is more athletic.