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The weather was so nice this past weekend, it’s such a bummer that it’s going to rain the beginning of this week! Friday night we usually have date night but my dad had a cold so could not babysit. We decided to all go out for a family meal at the local Japanese restaurant. It was very nice! Yves got his usual sushi and I got a whitefish katsu bento box to share with Sienna. She really enjoyed the shrimp tempura!

They gave these special chopsticks to Sienna. I don’t know if I am the right person to be teaching Sienna how to use them correctly!

Grabbing for the shrimp tempura!

Then on Saturday we decided to go to Sunset Park to the playground and then have a little picnic with Bahn Mi sandwiches from our favorite place. Yves always gets the original and I get the chicken and an order of summer rolls where Sienna picks out the shrimp. Well, they didn’t have any summer rolls so decided to get her a meatball bahn mi. They are so cheap! Lunch for 3 under $12.

Relaxing with daddy

Here is an amusing video of Sienna eating part of the sandwich on her own. E-mail or leave a comment if you don’t have the password!

Sienna Eats a Bahn Mi from Lisa on Vimeo.

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Last Thursday, Geneva was kind enough to invite me and Sienna over for lunch along with Starr and her kids and Yan Lin and her son. It worked out well since the Little Gym was closed for Spring Break so our Thursday was free! It turned out to be a beautiful day! I brought over some chocolate lollipops (I had a lot!) and Geneva made pizza and Asian Noodle Salad and rice krispy treats and Starr baked some chocolate chip cookies. YUM!

A part time little sister perhaps? LOL. Sienna really likes Sylvie!

Sienna was really jamming with the guitar! Bopping her head around like she was really playing!

Dessert time! Can’t you tell?

Phoenix enjoying some chocolate!

Sienna chowing down on a chocolate chip cookie! (And wearing one of Nico’s crocs!)
AND some rice krispy treats!

Geneva and Sienna

Sienna doesn’t usually have so many sweets but it was a special occasion so I didn’t care! We didn’t get home until about 2:45 pm and Sienna fell asleep pretty fast in the car. Once home, I put her in her crib and that only lasted about 30 minutes! It was a fun day!

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Ok, this actually happened on the 4th and am slowly getting back up to date! Tommy is a friend of mine from back in the old drinking days. I met him through my old roommate, Peter, whom I don’t even talk to anymore! Tommy is a great guy and am very happy for him and Maureen. Maureen is great too!

We took Sienna to the church ceremony at Saint Rose of Lima. She was great! This is her 3rd wedding but the other 2 she was relatively young. She was so amazed and curious about all the sights in the church! When we were at the reception everyone commented about how well behaved she was at the church (I guess they didn’t hear us shushing her every few minutes as she kept singing!) The photographer even mentioned what a cutie she is!

The reception was at Douglaston Manor and we made it in time for the cocktail hour. The appetizers weren’t bad and there was even a hot dog cart! There was a nice view of the city. The actual dinner was eh. The staff seemed a bit unorganized. Half our table was eating their pasta dishes while the other half were waiting for there’s because they ran out! And then they ran out again so we got like the bottom of the barrel pasta. I ordered the filet mignon (not bad, edible) and Yves got the salmon. Of course, knowing Tommy, there was open bar and I admit that I indulged a bit. I even got Yves to dance twice! Unfortunately we had to leave before they cut the cake (they really stretched out the evening) because  we were concerned about my dad staying so late. We got home around 11:30. I had a nice time and didn’t have a hangover the next day!

Sienna singing!

Maureen was going around taking photos of everyone!

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Some cute photos of Sienna and Grandma that I wanted to post before I forget about them! It’s amazing how fast Sienna has grown!

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I am way behind in my postings! But I suppose before I get too backed up and overwhelmed, I guess I should just start with today! Starr organized an Easter Egg Hunt at Owl’s Head park. Everyone brings goody filled eggs, they get hidden and then the kids run off to search for them. I never did this as a child and am glad Sienna had an opportunity to experience this. She had a blast! I don’t know why I was surprised that she basically understood what to do, although she was a bit slow about grabbing the eggs. She made out pretty well but of course some of the older kids were faster so they got more eggs. I also made cupcakes from a recipe I got off of Paris Pastry (I did not do the cute bunny decoration). The cupcakes came out huge as I got confused (she had said she halved the recipe but posted the full recipe, she changed the wording after I inquired!) but still delicious! Sienna ate a whole one!

Some eggs hiding

Waiting to start!

Grab ‘Em Sienna!

Not a bad stash!

Waiting to dig into the cupcakes!

Yum! Sienna and Phoenix chowing down!

A close up of the cupcakes!

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What a crazy week it as been! All routines and regularly scheduled play dates went out the window last week but all for good reason! Sienna’s grandma was in town! We were just a quick stop for her as she was on her way to Bangkok to visit Liz and her family for a month! We were glad to have her for 2.5 days, especially Sienna! There was some excitement with Air Jamaica losing my MIL’s luggage! UGH! Another reason to hate Air Jamaica, as if this incident wasn’t enough! Thankfully, they found it (it was left in Kingston!) and sent it on the flight that arrives at 10pm Monday night. And it arrived at our house at close to 5 the next morning (after a 2:15 am phone call!)I had a mixer Monday night so was pleasantly surprised to come home at 11:30 and find Yves and my MIL still up. They were waiting for Air Jamaica but finally gave up at midnight.

We did some shopping at Ikea and Target and Kohl’s while she was here. You’ll have to check out Yves’ blog for photos. I didn’t take any! Yves drove her to the airport on Wednesday afternoon and she arrived safely in Bangkok (via Hong Kong) the next day or so…My parents came back from Denver Tuesday evening so there was quite some back and forth to the airport!

Besides going to the mixer, I managed to make a quick stop at a craft swap meetup to unload some of my unused craft stuff (and get some more to replace it so it didn’t really help to clear up space!, finished up a couple of crafts and go to the dentist! Then there was Tommy and Maureen’s wedding on Saturday. So things have definitely been a little crazy! I’ll have some photos of crafts and the wedding this week as I think things will be back to normal again.

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Warning! Mushy mother stuff in this post!

As each day passes, I feel more and more grateful and thankful and lucky that I have this time to spend with Sienna. She is such a good girl and a marvel and a wonder and she has helped me stop and look at life instead of just whizzing on by it. It is so amazing to see her grow and learn and to just be. Of course not everyday is all sunshine and roses! There might be times I want to scream out loud (or even quietly) or times I wish to be left alone to craft or shop or just laze around. I am not a saint after all! But honestly, I can’t see my life without Sienna. And I look forward to crafting with her and shopping with her and just being lazy with her. Being a parent is really fucking hard but as the cliché goes – it is worth every minute of it. And you really don’t truly understand it until you become a parent yourself. And it might not be evident right away either. It really is becoming more apparent lately. I guess because she is becoming more of a personality and we are beginning to see ourselves in her or maybe it’s just that the initial shock of becoming a parent is starting to wear off. HA!

I’m mostly writing this post as a reminder to myself for those days I might want to scream or want to be left alone to craft or shop or just be lazy (or when she becomes a teenager and I wonder what I have gotten myself into all over again – shudder!!!) And to remind myself that there are those out there that are not as fortunate. I know this little girl whose mother probably needs a reminder like this. I may not know the whole story but from where I can see, this mother doesn’t seem to spend more than a couple of hours (if that) with her daughter on a daily basis. Understandable for a single working mother. But then she shuffles off her child to someone else to take care of every weekend. Every weekend!  I don’t know when she spends any significant time with her own daughter. That is sad. I don’t think she realizes she’s missing the wonder and amazement and excitement of seeing your own flesh and blood develop into a real person. To see your child mimicing what you are doing and want to be like you. To see her learning and seeing your morals being instilled – and carried out! – by her. Hopefully one day soon she will realize what she is missing and change her attitude and realize you can’t pick and choose when you want to be a mother to your daughter. And hopefully this little girl won’t get tired of waiting for her mother to be her mother. This reminds me of a sad story told to me by some other moms. They were in the playground with their kids one day and a little girl came up to them practically begging for food because she was so hungry. It turns out her mother was busy making out with her boyfriend on the bench to pay her any attention! The unfortunate aspect of both these situations is it’s the little girls that will be suffering the most and that makes me cry.

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This is what greeted us when we woke up this morning! Uh, Happy Spring!
But it cleared up by the time we headed to the library. Still no sun tho! And just this past Wednesday it was 60 degress and Sienna was happily swinging in the playground (on a big kid swing too!)

Edited to add: the sun did come out later! Right around 2ish.

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Saturday we made a quick stop at Toys R Us to pick up a bike helmet for Sienna before going to the playground and lunch at Five Guys (see Yves’ post on that). We got back later than usual so putting her down for a nap was unsuccesfful so we went outside to try her bike and helmet! We stayed out for about an hour. I think it will take a few tries before Sienna can really get the bike.

The helmet is a little too big so it helped to have her hat on underneath.

Yves did a lot of pushing

Skippy hung out in the car

Yves was making a few adjustments on the bike so Sienna strolled away

Sienna came back to give some assistance

Forget the bike! Look at the cool tools!

And going back to pushing the carriage! She loves pushing that thing!
Please leave a comment or e-mail me for the password!

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