Sienna: Five Months

Dear Sienna,

Time is flying so quickly and five months has come and nearly gone with you. You are the happiest little girl with such bright curious eyes. Your big blue eyes sparkle and dance when we are exploring the world and they are usually the first thing about you that strangers comment on. You are so interested in the world, Sienna. 

Eating: 3.5/3 hour schedule during the day. You dropped the dream feed at four and a half months. We were shocked when you slept through until 7am after we dropped it cold turkey. To be honest I miss that quiet feeding time with you, but we still go in your room most nights to watch you sleep. You started eating solids this month and after a week of seeming ready, but not quite getting the hang of them you really took to eating real food and haven't looked back. You can't get enough of sweet potatoes, sweet peas, and oatmeal with prunes. I'm amazed at how much you have enjoyed everything you have tried. You look like a little baby bird asking for food when you eat and we just love watching you enjoy your food!

Sleeping: Doing great overall. 7pm-7am with three long naps. 

Playtime: You want to be anywhere your brother is and your eyes are on him at all times when it comes to playing!

We love you so much, Sienna!

Family Dinner in Scottsdale

Loving the sunshine!

World's cutest baby in the world's cutest swim cap!

Big blue eyes

Your "twin" 

Your first flight

First trip to Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Ranch

Loving the water, in your brother's frog suit

Sibling love

Happy Two Years, Asher!

This post is so overdue. Blogging isn't a priority right now, but I don't want to let this special event pass by without a mention here.

For Asher's 2nd birthday we had a small birthday celebration with grandparents and a few aunts and uncles at our house. It was a very low key celebration, but I did have a lot of fun bringing out every Elmo and Sesame Street related item we had for the occasion. I even got Jeremy, Sienna, and me Sesame related clothing to surprise Asher with after he woke up from his nap before his party. He still talks about when Daddy wore his Cookie Monster shirt, Mommy wore her Oscar the Grouch shirt, and Sienna wore her Elmo dress to his birthday party.

At two, Asher, you are such a joy to our family. You bring so much enthusiasm and excitement to everyday activities. Family dinner, bath time, working in the yard- everything that includes you is sure to be filled with laughs and fun! You and Sienna are growing closer everyday. You love to get her up from her last nap and feel it's important to remind me to feed her! You love to bring her toys and show her what you are reading or playing with. I can't wait for you two to play together soon.

Your favorite people are your immediate family and both sets of grandparents. You love to talk about what you think they are doing when they aren't with us. According to you, both sets of grandparents take a lot of naps and fly on a lot of airplanes when they aren't with us.

You love to go to play with Coralie twice a week and you know the schedule enough to tell me when it's a day at "Ah's house." I love hearing about what you did at her house and you are getting so good at recounting much of the activities you do there.

As you enter into 2 years old you are using less and less of your Asher-isms and I'm sad to see them go! You still use "wa-wa" for airplane even though you have no problem saying airplane. You also prefer to call Coralie "Ah" even though you can say Coralie fine.

Some of my favorite Asher-ism's we seen come and go are:
'ain = train
"I o you" = I love you
God book song = when you request I play "Father Abraham" in the car
Jesus see you song = when you request I play "Jesus Loves You" in the car
"Ina" = food (we have no idea where this came from)
nore = more
guck = book
"Asher, Elmo, Baby Ua, Nap" = when you requested a nap with your Elmo and Baby Beluga stuffed animals
"Baby 'Ua" = Raffi's Baby Beluga song
"Baby Cece" = Sienna
'ienna = Sienna
"I go Grandma, Papa, Meow House"

My Heart

Today Asher's teacher Miss Caroline sent me this picture of my sweetheart holding a bunch of flowers. I opened it up on my computer screen and saw my precious first born's sweet, tender, and hopeful eyes looking back at me. My heart did a fast forward to my son grown or nearly grown and someday giving flowers to someone with that same sweet, tender, and hopeful look on his face. And then of course my crazy post partum hormonal self did what many a crazy post partum hormonal self does- I thought about the fact that this little boy is my heart and one day someone will probably hurt his heart, because let's face it- being hurt and rejected are parts of life. Thankfully we are resilient creatures, but that doesn't mean we can or even should avoid being hurt or rejected at different points in our lives. A life without any hurt or rejection is a very isolated life and not without its own form of pain and I don't wish that isolation on my son. But My God, that doesn't mean that my heart can't break a little as I think of that future hopeful, tender, and sweet grown man who experiences hurt and rejection down the road. It also doesn't mean that I can't quickly daydream of destroying the person that hurts and rejects him too, because I certainly couldn't qualify as crazy post partum hormonal without a bit of totally ridiculous anger towards an unknown person could I? :)

I love you, sweetheart and I am so grateful for the hope and kindness you bring to our family. May you always be quick to share that hope and kindness with others.

Love my hood!

I let Asher feed them- let's hope they don't take up residence in my front yard.