A Taste of Spring...

The past couple of days have been BEAUTIFUL! It is such a treat to be able to take Siena out of the car seat or out of the house without 20 layers of clothes and blankets wrapped around her! I think she enjoys it too...not so "marshmallow man" like! :) The breeze of fresh air in her hair and on her cheeks must be a great feeling...I know I'm enjoying it!
We have really great friends. We just inherited a really great jogging stroller from a couple who have a little one that is too big for the stroller. I didn't think it would be that big of a difference to go on walks/runs with that stroller in comparison to the one we have. Boy, was I wrong! It is so great! It even put a little added pressure on me to actually JOG with the jogging stroller - and that's a good thing. I love it! Obviously, Siena feels right at home in it too. Can't wait to use it all spring and summer...whenever that comes!




Siena also got to go on her very first wagon ride! Two very handsome little boys invited her over to go on a walk with them. Siena's a smart girl...she willingly accepted that offer! :) Bryce, being the gentleman that he is, pulled Siena and Brady around. It was darling! Siena loved it! She was bouncing around, looking all over the place. I think she was very excited to be free from arms, strollers, car seats, coats, blankets...freedom! After a little while, Bryce wanted in on the action, so he jumped in the wagon and took his brother's place. He was sharing toys with Siena and looking out for her. In fact, I heard Bryce say, "Seena, bugger..." (Siena, bug...). I turned to see what he was talking about and there was a bee on Siena's shoulder! Needless to say, that bee didn't live very long. Bryce...always looking out for his Seena! :) We certainly will have many more rides like that in the coming months!! Love you, Bryce and Brady...and Amanda!




We also went to the park with some friends this morning. It is another nice day - in the 60s again! Siena's little friends are a bit older than she is, so she did a lot of watching. But, I think she had fun dreaming about what she'll be doing soon! Bella, Samuel, and Luke were having a great time playing on all the outdoor equipment. (Baby Benjamin snoozed in the stroller.) Sure made me excited for the day that Siena gets to go down the slide and climb the ladders. That being said, I'm not wishing this time away for one second. Holding her in my arms, snuggled up in the pouch is a dream come true.












After all these beautiful weather pictures, should I mention we are supposed to get 6 inches of snow tomorrow???? I didn't think so either...but felt I should so I could remember the craziness that is KC weather these days. :)

Green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
It's holidays like these (among other things, of course) that make me miss teaching. Outside of elementary schools and the Irish bars, St. Patrick's Day just isn't that big a deal! I bet Matt that if he didn't wear green to work, someone - a student or another teacher - would pinch him or make some comment about it. I lost the bet!! :)
Since I can't feed Siena green eggs or green beer yet, we decided to be festive and eat some green peas. She's not a fan of the peas, so it was more of a "choke them down with some sweet potatoes" rather than a fun, St. Paddy's Day experience. She makes some really great faces though, and that makes it all worth it...for me, at least!


After eating peas for lunch, I decided to gather all the green toys and stuff that Siena owns into the living room. She has a lot of green things!! She's not very picky when it comes to which toys to play with, so she enjoyed the smorgasbord of toys to pick and choose from. I had fun trying to set all the toys up to take a picture...while Siena enjoyed messing them all up and knocking things down before I could capture the moment. We're a good team. :)
It was a good day. Even though the excitement for the day was not matched by a classroom full of 9-year-olds, it was a first experience for Siena...and that makes it fun. Matt and I were even able to "cheers" a green beer after Siena went to bed - even if we didn't go out to the bar, we can still celebrate, right?

Spring Break

Teaching is really a great job...maybe not quite as great as staying home with Siena (at the moment)...but the next best thing. Thanks to a little flexibility from some coaches and schedules, Matt was able to take off with Siena and I to Grand Rapids for BSHS Spring Break. It was such a great time to be able to spend some time with family...much needed.
We didn't have a whole lot of things on the agenda while up in GR - which was a treat. When we go up there for holidays, it's always so busy and rushed with running here and there. This time we were able to relax with family a little bit...it was so nice.
Driving up to GR takes 10 hours. We drove through the night again to play into Siena's sleeping schedule. It went perfectly. We drove straight to my aunt and uncle's house to spend the weekend with all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. It was something I was so looking forward to. We ate great food, made some interesting mojitos, played some Euker, played basketball, and of course, just spent time together. I couldn't ask for anything more. I really do have the best family in the world - we have a lot of fun together. And they sure loved little Miss Siena...and she loved them right back.
Once back in GR, we went out for drinks, shopped in darling little boutiques, ate lots of Yesterdogs, celebrated birthdays, enjoyed home-cooked meals, visited friends, watched "old men" basketball leagues (love you, Ken..and Matt!), held deep conversations, cried, laughed, drank wine, reminisced about being little at Grandma and Grandpa's house, had a encounter with tomato soup and Siena's curiosity, perused the zoo...it doesn't get much better than that! Can you ask of anything more? Once again, I'm a lucky girl...
Siena also had a great time up in GR. The first night was a little rough. Siena is getting old enough to realize that she is not in her own bed and in a strange, dark room. She wasn't a huge fan...and who can blame her? It took a little work to get her to fall asleep, but once she was in Dream Land, she stayed there till morning. After that first night, she was good to go. She tried butternut squash and prunes for the first time. (Yes, prunes were a necessary, intentional introduction...and yes, they did their job.) She loved playing with Oma's glasses, looking at the fish with Opa, sleeping in Grandma's arms, and laughing and hangin' with Auntie Em. Lots of fun little moments for Siena...and those who love her.
I wish I would have taken more pictures during the week...just to capture some moments. When I got home, I realized the only pictures we took were at the zoo. That was a fun afternoon. The weather was way warmer than it had been, so we took advantage of it and spent some time outside. Siena got to meet the monkeys, lions (I was honestly scared of those things!), snow leopards, brown bears, sea otter, fish, alligators, and a bunch of other creepy, totally disgusting snakes and reptiles that I didn't care for too much. She rode in her stroller and just watched all the animals. It made me very excited to take her again when she's a little older and she can understand a little more. I will be patient though! As quickly as she is getting the hang of sitting up, she's going to be crawling and walking before we know it!
A really great week..thanks to all of you who made it so special and meaningful for Siena, Matt and me. There are moments I will always remember...






This picture does NOT in any way depict our parenting skills...just our sense of humor and Matt's ability to use Photo Shop. :)

Sitting Up and Sweet Potatoes

Siena is really getting after things these days! I just love watching her grow more and more every day. She is such a joy to watch...and it forces me to look at the world through the eyes of a child. Who would have thought mashed up sweet potatoes or sitting up all by yourself could be the greatest of things? But they are...
I have decided to take on the task of making Siena's baby food. I really love to cook, and although I can't make great pasta dishes or pieces of meat for her (yet), I thought it would be a fun little adventure for me to take on. I tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist, so sometimes I find that I make it way more difficult than it actually has to be. But I think that may be a common thread in a number of things I do. :) That being said, it's a really great feeling to finally sit down with a small hunk of potatoes and see how she reacts to the new tastes and textures. I never thought I would get so excited.
We started out the first couple of weeks with boring, ol' rice cereal. After 2 weeks of that, I went to the store, bought 6 huge sweet potatoes, cooked them up, threw them in the food processor, and distributed them into little baby ice cube trays to freeze. It's super handy! I just make up a ton of little cubes, throw them in a freezer bag, and now I can just pull them out whenever she's ready to eat! It's great! She really caught on super quick. She of course made funny faces and got the food all over the place, but I didn't hear any complaints! I have fed her sweet potatoes in the morning for 4 mornings in a row, just to make sure she liked them and had no allergic reactions to them. So far so good! Next on the list is avocados, or as we like to call it, "baby guac". It's been really fun to watch her get the hang of eating and start to really enjoy and look forward to food.
At first, she was more interested in playing with the food and the spoon. Now, she actually lets me feed her, and just sits there waiting for the next bite.




Also, in the past week, Siena has decided to sit up on her own. It was kind of an all-of-a-sudden thing. One day she was still pretty wobbly and you couldn't leave her to sit up on her own. Now, she's a pro! It's fun to see her sitting up, playing with her toys, and gaining enough balance to reach for things around her. Every once in a while, we hear a little clunk, and she's toppled over on her side...but even that doesn't seem to bother her too much. I think she feels like a big girl too..or in this case, a big koala bear. :)
Man, Siena's growing up fast! The best journey ever though...

Our Little Snow Bunny

The weather has been crazy this winter! But I must say, it has been beautiful. Blame it on the Michigan blood flowing through my veins, but winter is a really great time of the year. I love the days where it's super cold, crisp, and sunny outside. When you breathe in the air, it feels good going through your lungs. Bundled up in a cute scarf and sunglasses...my favorite. We had one of those days earlier this week. Siena needed to know what that wonderful feeling is like.
We bundled her up and headed outside. What was especially cool was the trees. A few days prior, we had a rain/snow wintery mix. Because we got some rain first, when the temperatures were above freezing, the wet rain ended up freezing on the trees. With the bright sun and blue skies, the tree limbs look gorgeous! It almost looks like they have Christmas lights on them. Driving down a street with big trees on both sides was so pretty to look at...they were like ice sculptures lining both sides of the road. Stunning. Our trees in the back yard were no different. A nice little moment to capture...







PS. A funny little side note...watching Siena with mittens on is quite funny. For that young of babies, they don't make mittens with thumb holes. So, it's almost like she's wearing a sock around her hand. Being that she puts everything in her mouth, including her fingers, it was a strange mystery to her why her fingers felt so weird in her mouth and why she couldn't reach out and grab for things like she normally does. She kept looking at her hand wondering what on earth was blocking her fingers! They sure looked cute covering her little "sausage links", but I'm not sure what a fan she was of them... :)

Photo Shoot!

Siena and I were lucky enough to have Matt home all day yesterday due to yet another snow day! Kansas City hasn't seen a winter like this in a really long time...lots of snow and lots of bitter temperatures. I guess I can't say I'm complaining...for now. Come the end of May, I may wish they weren't still in school making up all the days they had off in the winter. Oh well...
We certainly used our time off together wisely - we created an in-home 6 month photo shoot! Matt takes some really great photos and has a really great eye for it. So, instead of paying a lot of money for professional baby photos, we had a really great time creating our own. Siena was a trooper too. She played along with all my "outfit changes" very well and even gave us some great smiles. Granted, I was jumping around behind Matt like a maniac trying to get some big smiles out of my child, but I have learned that babies make adults do ridiculous things...why should it be any different for a photo?! :)
Speaking of ridiculous, I have to admit, Siena definitely got the last laugh. In the photos with the white bloomers and white bow, I decided not to put a diaper on Siena. I didn't want those ugly things to ruin a cute picture. Everything was going so great, and my favorite pictures ended up being of her in that outfit. She was smiling and having a good ol' time...I found out quickly just how much fun she was having. She peed all over the black sheet she was laying on...and her white bloomers were soaked! No wonder we got such good smiles from her! I had to laugh - that's what I get for wanting the "cute, no diaper" look. :) Oh well, makes for a good story, right?
So, without further ado, I present to you...Siena Grace, 6 months old. Photos taken by Matt Marble Photography. (I got a really good deal on the photo package from the photographer...) :)