New blanket

newblanketblog.jpg

I wanted to make Sienna  a new blanket that was square and colorful (as opposed to star shaped and plain) for winter. I got this pattern from Lion Brand and used Homespun yarn. I started it in mid October (I think) and made it halfway through in relatively quick time but then Sienna got sick (something I really don’t want to remember!) and lost my mojo on it. I got it back last week and finished it! Woohoo! The orangey/green yarn in the lower right was some old yarn I had and I liked the color. I went out and bought the blue as an accent color and the other orangey/reddish yarn on the upper left. I thought I was buying the same color  but as you can see, it is not. I guess the old one I had was really old and probably discontinued. I had a total of 3 skeins as the pattern said that’s all I needed but I went a little too far across and ran out for the last edging (which is in a burgundy color) and the old yarn was probably not a full skein, which is why I need the blue to finish off the square! What a mish mash but I think Sienna likes it!

newblanket2blog.jpg newblanket3blog.jpgnewblanket4blog.jpgnewblanket5blog.jpg

Got You!


Got You! from Lisa on Vimeo.

bathhairblog.jpgeatblog.jpgyogurtblog.jpgchalkblog.jpgbloodyflickr.jpg
You should have seen the other baby! Just kidding! Sienna is a lover not a fighter!

Rockin’ Out

I took Sienna to a new pediatrician yesterday because I really wasn’t happy with the service of the current doctor regarding Sienna’s cough. According to the new ped. Sienna was missing some immunization shots that she should have by her 18th month! Ugh. And this doctor also wanted to give her a blood test for lead. Apparently, that is the standard when following the American Association of Pediatrics. He gave me 2 prescriptions regarding her cough and wanted her to get a chest x-ray. UGH! At least he was concerned that she still had this cough. I didn’t do the x-ray yet because we were there longer than I had expected and didn’t want to torture her anymore. We are going back Friday. Wish me luck! It sounds tramatic to me!

I only gave Sienna one of the medications. The other one might make her heart race and make her hyper. Don’t need that! She slept well last night! No coughing during the night! Woohooo!! She has also been in a pretty good mood today. Giving me unsolicited kisses! And this morning I caught her with yves’ headphones (which she is not supposed to take off of his desk!)

siennaheadphonesblog.jpgsiennaheadphones2blog.jpg

And then when I tried to get them back from her, she makes a dash!
siennaheadphones3blog.jpg
I guess she wanted gorilla to hear something!
siennaheadphones4blog.jpg

BTW, these were footsie pajamas that Sienna is wearing but I guess she has big feet because they were starting to get tight. I actually carefully ripped out the stitches in the foot and was thinking of a clever and crafty way to extend it since the rest of the pjs fit fine. Then Yves says to just cut them off! Well, now we know this is what happens when you just cut off the foot of footsie pajamas. And this is what I get for listening to him! HA!

She’s baaaaaack!!!

beautifulblog.jpg

With great relief and happiness, I think I can confidentally say that Sienna is back! There is still a little oddness here and there but is probably just normal behavior at this stage. Yesterday was an overcast and then rainy day so we just went in the back area in the morning mostly to straighten out the garage. Today was a bit cooler but sunny! Woohoo! We walked with Sienna down to the home center to pick up more air conditioner covers and she wasn’t crazy about being in the store (who can blame her?) but then it was off to the playground! The leaves were all over the ground and so pretty (even though there was wetness under that!) She was off and running up and down the slide and having a good old time. I started to head home and leave her to play with Yves so I can finish up the laundry. Soon after, I get a call that they are on the way home. Silly Sienna splashed in a deep puddle and then fell in it! She was all wet! LOL. It’s too bad playtime was cut short but apparently she didn’t make a fuss about leaving. She was in good spirits at home, babbling away and running around the house. She still has a little coughing at night that still drives us crazy and she’s starting to cry out at night. We don’t go in there though. It doesn’t last long, thankfully!

carriagewalkblog.jpg

siennakissblog.jpgslideclimbblog.jpgupslideblog.jpg

Progress and Hope

I title this post progress and hope for 2 reasons. The first is most obvious. I was elated to hear that the candidate I voted for won! I am part of history! Go Obama!! YAY! I’d be jumping up for joy if I wasn’t so tired. More on that in a bit. The 2nd reason is because Sienna seems to be her usual happy fun loving self! WOOHOO! This morning me and Yves went to run errands separately. He took Sienna and no tears were shed whatsoever! Yay!!! I want to truly believe that the fact that she was up all night was just a fluke! Yesterday was the first day I did not give her the medicine for her cough/congestion. She still had a bit of a cough, mostly when she is sleeping but did not sound mucusy. Yesterday when she woke from her nap, she was coughing for a good half hour non stop. She was coughing when she woke up but was able to eat her yogurt snack. After snack, she kept coughing and ended up throwing up all the yogurt. Sigh. I had the doctor paged and he called about 2 hours later. He says not to give her any medicine and to wait it out. Ok. Big Sigh. I guess the medicine helped her sleep because she was coughing all night and crying probably because she kept coughing and couldn’t sleep. I went in there and consoled her and changed her diaper and read her good night moon and put her down. 2 seconds later, she’s crying. Yves goes in and tries to console her to no avail. Finally Yves gets up to watch the election coverage and ends up taking her out with him. She’s totally fine in the living room, coughing only once. He was prepared to sleep on the floor out there with her. When he asked her if she wanted to go to her bed, she opened her arms to go. She managed to sleep for a couple of hours and we were both hoping she would sleep in. Nope. Up by 6 am, I think. Full of energy. Like nothing happened. Me and Yves are kinda of sluggish but she’s all running around. Sigh.

A big sigh of R E L I E F !

Yves came home from his trip Sunday afternoon and I felt like just cuddling up in his arms and tuning out the world. But obviously I did not. I was nervous as to how Sienna would react. She was still napping when he got home so we were able to chat and catch up. The first sound Yves heard from her room, he was in there. He was anxious to see his little baby! I didn’t hear any screaming or crying and breathed a big sigh of relief! Aaaahhhh!!!! We played a little bit all together. Then I wanted to do the laundry, not because I really wanted to or that Sunday is normally laundry day, but mostly as a test to see how Sienna would react when I left. Big meltdown! Cry, cry, cry before I even made a move! I only told her I was going to go downstairs to do the laundry. My heart sank. I guess I was hoping everything would snap back into place. Daddy was home and all was right with the world. I did some reassuring. Yves tried to distract her and get her playing. It worked! I went downstairs and started the laundry! And she was fine when I came back up and each time I went back down. Whew! Ok. It’s all good!

Yves took off from work through Wednesday. He took care of Sienna in the morning and I didn’t venture out of the bedroom until breakfast started. I had a doctor’s appt. in the city on Monday so he took Sienna to the playground.  Another mini meltdown. Sigh. I tried not to get upset and Yves tried to reassure me that everything was going to be ok. And it was. As soon as they got outside, she was fine. They had a great time at the playground. Unfortunately my parents missed her by a few minutes. I was driving them to the airport to see Kenny before I left for my appt. They may be gone for a month! Oh well. Everything was fine with Sienna all day. Then when she saw me, she got a little clingy again. Sigh.

Same thing with Tuesday. Yves took care of her in the morning (she started crying at 4:30 AM! UGH!) but I came out before breakfast. Again, she was fine until I showed up and got all clingy with me. Still not as bad as when she was sick so I’m hoping that as the days goes on, she will get better with it. I’m so thankful Yves took these days off! We all went to the playground together for her normal Tuesday playdate with Jana and her girls Emma and Leah. Everything went well, even when we went out for lunch! Yay!

slidewithdaddyblog.jpgslidewithdaddy2blog.jpgslidewithdaddy3blog.jpg
Fun with Daddy on the slide
siennaemmablog.jpg
She was able to say Bye Bye Emma when she left!
hummusmessblog.jpg
Her hummus mess!

Is she back?

siennaslideblog.jpg

So far today has been the best day this week with Sienna. Yesterday we were all ready to go to music class and I was really excited to get her back to routine. I think she would have really enjoyed it as I played the cd for her that morning and it made her smile and dance and clap. Right before I was about to get her ready to go, she had a big coughing fit and threw up. A lot! She had done that earlier in the week but didn’t throw up nearly as much. I had to change my clothes, her clothes and clean up the big mess on the carpet and the sleepy chair. Up came her breakfast with the specks of blueberry, orange juice and mucus. Lovely, eh? So instead of music class, we were in the doctor’s office. He prescribed some medicine to dry up her nose as that was probably what was making her cough (the mucus from her nose dripping down into her throat). She slept relatively well. I thought I heard her talking around 3 AM but I could have been imagining it. She was definitely crying at 4 AM but stopped and I actually had to make noise around 7:30 AM to wake her up!

She still shows signs of some clinginess and telling me no and having little tantrums but nothing nearly as major as earlier in the week. Perhaps I’m just extra sensitive to it now. I took her to the playground today as I was anxious for her to get some fresh air and be able to run around. It went pretty normally! Dare I say? Things are looking up. Plus Yves got an earlier flight home on Sunday! Yay! Unfortunately, now my dad is sick with a stuffy nose and sore throat! Yikes!

Clingy toddler

It has come to my attention that I have a clingy toddler. Sigh. I briefly read about this in passing and where I thought Sienna was clingy before, I didn’t know nothing! I don’t mean to dwell so much on the down side of parenthood but I’m just trying to document everything we go through, including the downs (which really are not that many, keep fingers crossed!) There were signs of progress as far as her cold was concerned. Last night was the first night since Wednesday that she slept through the night. Not a peep out of her. Yves even went in to check on her before he left for the airport and she received him well. There was a bit of whining this morning because she wanted to watch tv. Since this was the first day on my very own, I decided to pick my battles and this one I wasn’t even going to battle. I let her watch Sesame Street. I figured I would do things backwards so took a shower and had some computer time. It was even looking good at breakfast where she ate some blueberries and half of a banana. Then it started. The constant crying, the whining, the arms up to be lifted. At first I gave in but she was even struggling with me in my arms. I didn’t understand. I broke down. I tried to rationally explain to her that we had to help each other out. I was briefly able to google ‘clingy toddler’ and discovered that the constant crying and wanting to be held by only mommy and not wanting to be 2 feet away was normal. Some moms mentioned they couldn’t even cook dinner because their toddler just wanted to constantly hang on to them. Sigh. Normal. Of course some toddlers don’t even go through this stage. And some have it full force. That is my world. Some useful links: the short version of what the do and the longer version. She showed signs of clinginess before and it didn’t really last long, not like this. I can’t help but wonder if I pushed it over the edge because she was sick and I catered to her. I just have to deal with this. One hour at a time, one day at a time. Wish me luck!

Where is my child?

 siennapalsblog.jpg
I can’t wait for Sienna to be back to her old self again! Me too! Me three! Me four!

As I mentioned briefly last week, Sienna is sick. I was hoping by this time, we would be back to our normal routine and her illness would have been a distant memory. Somebody else had other ideas. So, Wednesday she felt warm and her nose was stuffy. It was already planned that my parents were going to be here and I was going to run some errands. By the time I got back, she was not napping and had a higher fever but tylenol seemed to help.

Thursday I really thought she was getting better (she’s usually over something like this in a day or 2) and even napped in her crib. I took this opportunity to run into the city to get some film for Kagero‘s photo shoot on Sunday while my parents were here. I was really fast because I made it home 15 minutes after she woke up.

Friday she seemed to go backwards. She still had a stuffy nose and was coughing more. She didn’t want to nap in her crib and fell asleep in my arms in the sleepy chair in the living room (thank goodness for Tivo as I watched Grey’s Anatomy while she slept). Friday night was sort of crazy. We cringed everytime she coughed but when she started crying at around 2:30 in the morning and would not stop, it was unbearable. She again fell asleep in my arms in the rocker in her room. I was a bit of a zombie while heading to Zack’s mark of birth ceremony as the official photographer upon Tammy’s request. A huge banana berry with energy boost from Jamba Juice was actually very helpful! Again, I really thought she was getting better on Saturday as she let me leave for the ceremony and even seemed in good spirits (she had been very clingy and only wanted mommy to comfort her). Yves said she was and then just turned on him suddenly. She also fell asleep in his arms while in the sleepy chair in the living room. I called the doctor and took her in on Sunday with my dad. (Yves went to the photoshoot on his own-turned out to be a beautiful day). Sienna was actually happy in the car and even in the waiting room, playing with the toys and hanging out with grandpa. The doctor checked her all out. Her throat is fine, her lungs are fine and her ears are fine. Everything was in her nose and she’s on the tail end of her illness so did not want to prescribe anything for her. Only suggested we elevate one side of her mattress to help with her stuffy nose and some fresh air. Took her into the back area in the afternoon. She had limited energy and she didn’t seem as happy to be outside as I thought she would be. Sigh. Going to bed Sunday night, I thought for sure we would be getting the first decent night’s sleep in a few nights. I must have jinxed it. It was the worse night by far. She started crying at 10:40 and would not stop no matter how we tried to soothe her. She only stopped when I picked her up and had her in my arms. I was prepared to have her sleep in my arms the whole night. I just wanted her to sleep because if she sleeps, she’ll get better. She kept fidgeting while I was in the rocker. I went out to the sleepy chair in the living room.More fidgeting. I looked at the clock and it was 11:30 ish. I gave up on the idea and thought I convinced her to go back in her crib to be with froggy and bunny rabbit. It didn’t last long. The 2nd time I tried to elevate her mattress even more by puttiing one of our old pillows underneath (Yves had put some wood underneath) and relented and gave her some Tylenol. She just wanted out of the crib and in my arms. Back to the living room and it was around 1:30. More fidgeting and she even sat up.  I thought maybe my shirt was too itchy for her to relax on and tried to move it up but she was still fidgeting. I recited Good Night Moon to her and put her back in her crib. She cried at first but stopped pretty fast. I don’t knkow what happened but she ended up sleeping till 6.

That brings us to today. I let her watch 2 hours of Sesame Street and in an attempt to get back to normal, shut it off after 2 episodes. Well, she had a fit! Cry, cry, cry and pointing to the tv and the remote and to me to put it back on. Yves took off since he has to leave tomorrow and won’t be back until Sunday because of work so we decided to take her with us to run some errands in the neighborhood. Cry, cry, cry all the way in the carriage. Cry in the post office, cry in the drug store, cry on the way back. So I took her home while Yves finished up the errands. I tried to get her to go up the stairs on her own but she wanted to be carried. I didn’t want to. She was breathing fine and only coughed sporadically so I felt she was mostly over her cold and wanted to ween off babying her. What a struggle. I sat at the top of the stairs trying to get her to come up to me. Cry, cry, cry, whine, whine, whine. Sigh. I tried to compromise and went down past halfway. Nope, no can do. I finally gave up after 20 minutes and carried her up. Crying stops. It was then that we realized that her teeth must have really been hurting her. Her incisors are due to come in and another mom told me they were the worst of all the teeth. I gave her teething drops but it was the teething ring from the fridge that seemed to calm her down the most. Lunch was a failed attempt and I had to sit her in my lap so we can finish our lunch in peace. She was falling asleep in my lap at the table. We thought for sure she would not go down in her crib but I whispered to her if she wanted to take her nap. She slid down and out of my lap and walked toward her room!! I put her in her crib and she has now been asleep for the past 30-45 minutes. BIG SIGH!

Zoo who!

ppzroosblog.jpg
Kangaroo and wallaby
As I mentioned before, we took Sienna to the Prospect Park Zoo on Sunday. It was a bit windy and cold but we bundled her up and she seemed to have a good time! Yves was the photo taker on this excursion so no pictures of him!
ppzwhablog.jpg
You want me to do what?

I know this photo is blurry but I love the look on her face.  The light in the back is a little hole you can peek through and see the other side. Yves was trying to get her to do it but she wouldn’t.

ppzducksblog.jpg
Watching the ducks and making duck sounds.
ppzbaboonsblog.jpg
Baboons!

ppzbaboons2blog.jpg
Look over there Sienna!
ppzmoooblog.jpg
What sound does a cow make Sienna?

ppzstairsblog.jpg
Sienna climbed all these stairs by herself and if we let her, would have climbed down on the other side and go around and probably back up this way.

ppzhi5blog.jpg
a high-5 for going up all the stairs!

ppzgoldenkrustblog.jpg
And lunch at Golden Krust!

« Previous PageNext Page »