Sunday was Tammy’s baby shower held at Alison’s place by Prospect Park. Needless to say, beautiful views! (And also needless to say, stopped by the Christie’s Jamaican patty place and brought some patties home for dinner.) I did not bring Sienna with me, although she was more than welcome. There were 3 other babies/toddlers there.
I got her the diaper changing pad that goes on top of the dresser and the orange cover (of course) that covers it. They were both on her registry. I also got her alphabet links because I love links and they come in very handy. I don’t have the alphabet ones but they are really cute! I also got her a monkey vibrating hanging toy. After she opened the gifts, we did crafts! Stephanie set out plain white onesies, fabric paint and brushes. I got on a roll and made about 6! I was having fun!
Opening one of my orange wrapped presents. 🙂
Let the crafting begin!
Well it looks like I exceeded the amount of pictures for this post! I’ll have to post the pics of the babies there another time!
Last Thursday it was 70 degrees outside and needless to say, absolutely beautiful! We got pizza, Sienna’s first time and I knew she would like it. Especially the fresh mozzarella pizza! Starting her off right! LOL. Me and Sienna hung out in Marine Park while Skippy got a long overdue haircut. We went on the swings but didn’t stay too long on them as I think Sienna loses interest in it. Or maybe it’s me?
Saturday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and felt like the 60’s. We went to Michael’s since I had a 50% coupon and took the opportunity to go to Trader Joe’s and also try out the shopping cart cover I finally finished!
It works!! I didn’t doubt the pattern, just my abilities to follow it. LOL. If you look at it closely (in person), you’ll see all the character in it. And I’m not talking about the Elmo fabric I used. This was my first time using bias tape, using elastic (my thumb hurt from threading it through) and the buttonhole feature on my machine. Let’s just say I still need a lot of practice in all those areas. LOL
Since it was such a nice day, we decided to grab some lunch at Nathan’s in Coney Island. Yves got 2 dogs and I decided to get a cheeseburger to share with Sienna. She didn’t really care for it and happily ate her jarred food (which she only seems to do outside of the house!). We did not share the hot dogs or fries with her. Figure there is plenty of time for her to try that junk food! We took a little walk to the rides and she really got a kick out of seeing them and the arcade area.
Sunday was the opening of the much publicized Brooklyn Flea. We were meeting up with Joy and Brenda, who had tickets to see Sharon Jones across the street at the Masonic Temple. The main reason for meeting was to finally try the famed Waffle truck. Which wasn’t in the truck for the flea market. It was good!! Me and Yves got a waffle with maple syrup and then a cinnamon one with nutella. Joy got the cinnamon with dulce de leche and Brenda got the regular with fudge. I think Brenda’s fudge was the best one. Sienna enjoyed some waffle too!
We also ran into Carrie, who was very excited to finally meet Sienna. It was a lot colder that day than Saturday and overcast so we did not really roam around the market. But it’s going to be there every Sunday so I didn’t care.
Sienna had a playdate yesterday with Mirabel, Virginia’s daughter. I met Virginia through the yahoo group I belong to. We went over to their house because Virginia also watches a neighbor’s little boy on Friday mornings. It was great to get out of the house and out of the neighborhood. When we got there, Hazel was also there, another little girl we met briefly when we first met Virginia and Mirabel. All the toddlers were within a few months of each other in age. It was great fun!! Sienna had a blast!
Sienna and Mirabel
Cutie Hazel crawling down the hallway.
Now it’s Mirabel’s turn!
And here comes Sienna!
Since Virginia watches Ezra every Friday, we plan on joining them every Friday as well. I feel very relieved and happy that Sienna will get to be with playmates her age. Plus it seems to knock her out. She fell asleep on the way home even before I got around the block! Here’s a cute video I took of everyone playing. If you need the password, please leave a comment and I’ll send it to you!
SO I mentioned that Sienna was sick and pretty much got better by Sunday. Well, I caught her cold and have been dealing with it all week! I guess I was overdue since this was the first time I got sick since Sienna was born. I could deal with the stuffy nose, it’s the cough that is driving me up the wall. Especially at night. I am a lot better but still not 100%. I hate being sick!
So we are chugging along with Sienna’s new eating habits. We are giving her more of the stuff we eat with minimal success. She really wants to feed herself and rarely wants any sort of bottled food except if we are out in a restaurant. Strange. She’ll push it away at home but when I went out to lunch last week with my parents after going to BuyBuyBaby, she ate the whole bottle of jar food! Besides grilled cheese, she also likes french toast and cheese omelet. I baked some breaded chicken cutlets, she ate some but not much. I made her a little turkey burger while we ate the bigger version. Not so great. She didn’t care much for the mashed potatoes either! Well, we are going to keep trying! Hopefully I’ll have more energy this week as I get back to my healthy self!
Here’s a video I took about 2 weeks ago (I think). I thought I posted it already but didn’t. Just leave a comment if you need the password.
Sienna got sick Friday night (the 21st) with a stuffy nose and a little cough. I knew she was coming down with something earlier that day because she was sneezing a lot. She cried out a couple of times during the night and at 3:30, we couldn’t take it anymore, she kept crying out every few minutes. We got up and I tried soothing her and rocking with her and that worked but when I tried to put her down again, she would cry. I decided to read her Goodnight Moon and then put her down. That might have worked for a few minutes. Essentially, I ended up rocking with her for the remainder of the morning and Yves tried to get some sleep. When he woke up, he took her for her morning bottle and routine and then I tried to get some sleep! Thankfully she was all better by Sunday! Whew!
When Sienna went for her 1 year well being check up on the 14th, the doctor said she can basically eat whatever we are eating. I was so excited! Woopeee! I thought life was going to be easier now that I didn’t have to wonder what I was going to make for her. I was feeling guilty about giving her the jar food, besides which there is not much variety, but now I didn’t have to wonder! Or feel guilty! YAY! She’ll just eat what we are eating. Simple. As. That. HA! I don’t know why I thought it was going to be simple as that. Besides her being totally messy and most of the food ending up everywhere except in her mouth (Skippy is totally lucking out!), she takes about three times as long to eat now! I guess I just thought she was going to be like us and eat what was in front of her in a very straightforward manner. I must have had a temporary brain fart! I seriously do not know why I thought that it was going to be that easy.
I started off giving her pieces of cheese. She was into that! But I wanted to give her something more than that. I made her whole wheat pasta with peas and butter. Yes, I know. I don’t like peas. Yves doesn’t like peas. But it’s easy to give to her and it’s a vegetable. It was met with a lukewarm response. She sorta ate it. When I tried to give her more the next day. She wasn’t having it. She likes grilled cheese and it was something I didn’t want to end up giving her every day. She’s had it about 3 times last week. I made ground meat with lentils for me and Yves and she seemed to enjoy it the first night. And even the second night. But not the third.
I know it’s going to take some time for this and I know we’ll get through it! I wish it didn’t drain so much energy tho!
Here’s a video that goes with the top picture. If you don’t have the password, please leave me a comment and I’ll send it to you!
Even though we had a celebration for her on Saturday, we couldn’t let the official day go by unnoticed! My parents got her a cake from the chinese bakery. I guess they don’t know how to spell HAPPY. LOL. It was the first time we had a chestnut filling and it was very sweet. Grandma and Grandpa M sent a birthday card that she got yesterday with a gift card to Toys R Us. Woohoo! Grandma and Grandpa C got her a toy vacuum. We gave her an Elmo stretch doll and a wooden drum.
Not a fan of the hat (or any hat!)
Blowing out the candle
Munching away
Sitting on Grandma’s lap while Grandpa and Daddy set up the biggest gift of all….
So here is the food post for Sienna’s birthday celebration on Saturday! First I prepared the patty dough Thursday night. This was my first time making dough of any kind and first time using shortening (which is kinda gross!). I realized the next day that I was short on shortening (*giggle) as the recipe called for 2/3 cup of Crisco and I only put in 1/3 cup. Oh well! I went ahead with it anyway and it still tasted fine!
Friday I rolled it out to fill and even though by that point I already read the recipe at least a half a dozen times, I was doing it wrong. I did not cut them into 16 pieces first but I realized my mistake pretty early on and did not waste too much time rolling out a big slab of dough! Rolling took some getting used to and since I didn’t have a stockinette I had to keep flouring my pin.
And here they are all filled up! Patties with ‘character!’
Saturday morning I worked on the pork dumplings, a recipe I got from Everyday Food and Yves teased me about not being a true Asian! I’ll have my dad teach me one day because his wonton recipe uses shrimp. I’m not a good shrimp handler so I would need help with that! Anyway, it’s really easy!!
Here are the patties cooked. Doesn’t really look much different than before!
Cupcakes pre-frosting. I also had an icing malfunction. I wanted to write out Happy 1st Sienna but the 2 frostings I had just sputtered out of the tube. So I just put sprinkles on them. Oh well!
Here are Brenda’s sinfully yummy bacon cheddar muffins and Theresa’s beautiful zucchinis (you know you are a real geek when you call produce beautiful!)
I haven’t updated my blog all week and it’s because I finally relented and joined Facebook from Richard’s invitation. It’s actually kind of fun and I got sucked in playing the music challenge and the never ending movie quiz. Sigh. Well, if you are on Facebook, let me know and we can be friends! 😉
So Saturday we had a little celebration for Sienna’s first birthday, which is officially on Wednesday. Can you believe it?? There are so many pictures to post, I’ll have to divide it into 2 posts. I made Jamaican beef patties from scratch (even the dough!), pork dumplings (my own filling!) and cupcakes. I also put out brie. Can you get the reason for this international food smorgasbord? Brenda made bacon and cheddar muffins (yum!!), Theresa brought asparagus salad (yum!!), Tammy and Mark provided the punch and since Joy was a late addition she just brought her big mouth. LOL. I’ll do the food post later.
As you can see, she really took to Mark pretty fast, just like she did with Peter last week. Hmmm, I guess we shouldn’t worry about her comfortness with males until she is older…HA!
I think Sienna was a little confused about what was going on and probably wondered why there were a bunch of people standing around staring at her! She didn’t really have much of a reaction to her birthday hat or her birthday cupcake or blowing out her candle. LOL. I gave her her cupcake and in true Sienna fashion, threw it on the floor but after she had some frosting. I picked it up and just gave her the insides and of course, it got messy!
She’s probably thinking ‘this is not my usual fare…but I’ll try it’
Here’s a video of the cupcake eating event. If you need the password, please leave me a comment!
We had to do a wardrobe change after the cupcake so she can open her presents and not have cupcake and frosting everywhere! I thought it was appropriate to put her in the cupcake shirt that Tammy and Mark got her for Christmas!
Sienna really made out good! There was a gift that came for her during the week from Fed Ex from a company in Brooklyn. There wasn’t a card or message that told us who it was from so we were calling it the mystery gift and joking that Sienna went online and ordered it for herself. We found out it was from Yves’ parents! They ordered it from amazon and I guess from a third party so they didn’t have the option to include a gift card. It’s the little push thing that she can also sit on. She also got a cool ball blowing toy that also plays music from Joy, musical maracas and 2 super cute dresses from Brenda, a cute outfit and book from Theresa and a crocodile xylophone from Tammy and Mark. Hours of entertainment, that is for sure!
It really turned out to be a great time for everyone. And I’m really happy Sienna got to enjoy her first birthday party with some very cool friends of mine. I did not want to have a big blow out party so I did not invite a ton of people so I’m glad people showed up despite the rainy weather. My patties and dumplings were well received too!
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