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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!
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Yesterday was Sienna’s 2nd birthday! I can’t believe how time flies! We did not have a big blowout party for her (I will not feel guilty! I will not feel guilty!) but as usual, my parents bought her a cake from a chinese bakery. Can you believe they did not have Elmo but only Big Bird? Don’t these Asians know who Elmo is? Besides the fact that he is RED (considered a lucky color in the Asian community). In any case, I bought these little Elmo icing decorations at the craft store to put on there. Only 1 fit! The cake was a mixed fruit cake and while the actual cake was moist and soft and the icing wasn’t too sweet, they were really stingy with the fresh fruit! Damn recession! We bought her a Sesame Street Medical kit, little Ernie, Elmo and Cookie Monster figurines, a Little People tractor set and a Sesame Street coloring book and crayons (washable!) Yves has a cute video he took , see his blog here. My parents told me they were going to get her a tricycle but came back with a bigger bike with training wheels! I am not sure how fast she will learn to ride. We still have to get her a helmet. She was really excited for the bicycle!

Blowing out her candle

Where’s the fruit?

Her face is red from Elmo

Presents!

My parents bought her a singing dogs birthday card that Sienna kept playing over and over again. Gee, thanks Mom and Dad!

Showing off her card

Excited for her bike!

We have to put air in the tires! Man, I am so not ready for this!

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This is about the 4th time we have taken Sienna to the Prospect Park Zoo. The last time was quite chilly and Saturday it was in the 60’s so it was much nicer. She is definitely more active and seemed to enjoy it even more than last time. I had wanted to do something special as a way to celebrate her birthday and was originally thinking of going to an indoor animal farm out on Long Island (White Post Farm) but I think the zoo was a better, closer option because of the weather. I’m trying not to feel guilty about not doing a special shin dig for her birthday. I’m telling myself that she’ll have lots of big blowout parties when she gets older. We also went to Golden Krust for lunch by the park. It was bad. I don’t know if it was just a bad day for the beef patty’s or if now we are used to better pattie’s but we’ll have to remember not to go back there again. The Golden Krust by us is far better!

Sienna pronounces this guy as “owww-wal”

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Moooo! from Lisa on Vimeo.

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Last week I had quite a bit of extra me time that I almost feel guilty, like I was abandoning Sienna! Of course, there was the Martha show on Wednesday that Yves was kind enough to take off for and take care of Sienna. See what they did here. Then on Thursday night, I went out with Starr (Nico’s mom and Sylvie’s too) and a few other moms to celebrate Starr’s birthday (hers is on the 11th, a day before Sienna’s!) sans kids! This was the first time I hung out with Starr without the kids. At first, it seemed so surreal! We went to St. Germain‘s for snacks and dessert. I ordered a side dish of ratoutoule (sp?) because I never had it before! (It didn’t look very appetizing when it came, like brown mush, but it was tasty!) Then we ordered 4 different desserts to share. YUM! I forgot my camera or else there would have been photos. UPDATE! Starr posted a couple of photos from the evening on her flickr here and here! From what I can remember, there was chocolate ganache, a pear/chocolate tart, chocolate tart and apple tart. And that is actually the order in which I liked everything. I had such a nice time with everyone and I’m going to convince Starr we should do this more often! (I’m sure I won’t have to twist her arm!)

Then Friday, my parents had lunch with Sienna and put her down for her nap while I went shopping with Jana (Emma and Leah’s mom)! This is also the first time we hung out sans kids! We went to Wendy’s for lunch (a special treat for both of us!) and then shopping at Kohl’s. We spent the whole afternoon doing that!

Saturday night we had date night (it’s usually Friday’s but since my father watched Sienna during the day, thought I’d give him a break-HA!). We went to Sahara’s on Coney Island Avenue. Each time we go (which is only a couple of times), we wonder why we come back. The food isn’t that great, mediocre at best and the crazy thing is, it was crowded! See Yves’ review here. We are sure to remember not to go back this time!

We went to the Prospect Park Zoo on Saturday. I’ll post pictures soon. I also have a bunch of crafts to share soon.

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Last night, the snow started around 6pm ish (it had to be at least after 6:30 since I walk Skippy around 6 and all was clear). They said it was going to snow all night and into the morning and the city was due to get anywhere between 6-12 inches. I don’t know how much we really got, but we got a lot! It’s the most so far this season. All previous snowstorms was just a tease. I was hoping Yves would get word that he didn’t have to go into work but he didn’t find out anything (and turns out it was a delayed start). Instead of driving in this snow, we canceled our Monday playdate and went to play in the snow in the driveway/back area. It was cold! And still snowing! And there was a lot! Regardless of all these facts, I still had a hard time telling Sienna we had to go inside after 45 minutes. She cried tears of tears each time. She LOVES the snow! I promised her that she could come out again when Daddy came home. That seemed to work.

Telling me to open the door!

The stroller wasn’t so much fun this time around.

Or the soccer ball!

She kept falling in the big piles of snow. It was uneven because of the wind.

Snowing again!

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Now, this is snow! from Lisa on Vimeo.

As promised, she came back out again when Yves came home and helped him put away the snow blower thingy.

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Ok, so I don’t want to be accused of being one of those parent’s who thinks their kid is all that. But honestly, I think my kid IS all that! HA! Case #1. Last weekend we went to Kohl’s to do some shopping (our mission to find some long sleeved shirts for Sienna was a failure – of course all the Spring stuff is out and the Winter clearance was a mess!). Sienna found this purple bunny, see Yves’ post here, but we did not buy it for her. This past Saturday, we went back to Kohl’s. It was cold and we didn’t have any better plans and Yves wanted to get a sports jacket (success!). Well, not 2 minutes in the place and Sienna starts calling out “Bunny, where are you?” (The ‘where are you’ game is a recent development, it’s really cute to hear her say ‘oh, there you are!’) Now, really, how could she have possibly remembered that the bunny lived there? It was a whole week between visits to Kohl’s! Is that a normal thing to remember something like that?

Case #2: Yves’ razor hangs on the wall by the sink in the bathroom. Yves bought new ones because he didn’t like the one he had and replaced it on the wall. Sienna points to it and says ‘ooh, new one daddy!’

I’m sure more signs of genius will occur. Stay tuned! HA!

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Here are some photos I took in early January that I forgot to post. There was a thankfully short lived period where Sienna wanted to brush everything. It started with her dolls like Elmo and Abby and then she graduated to Skippy and Neo (when he lets her!). Then she would brush her hair right after! Yuk! HA!

Here she is laying down next to Skippy. Skippy really needs a haircut! His eyes are in there somewhere!

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