Toddlers Need Supervision

It's Monday again. Our Hawaiian vacation is over. Intramurals are over. 24 -hour babysitting service (grandma) is over. Being dog-less is over. And do you know what? It's not half bad! Being home can be sooooo nice sometimes.

Up at 6:45, Siena and I had a bath and started the laundry that had accumulated over a week of vacation and one crazy day of intramural playoffs and finals. I was putting in a load while Siena was collecting rocks in the side yard when I heard it: BOOM, *pause*, "waaaah!" Poor baby fell over into Shiloh's bike spokes and got a little scrape on her forehead.

After some consoling, we took Ruby on a walk around the block because Grammy and Poppy finally inaugurated her two-walks-a-day regimen while we were gone. Ruby is getting HUGE! And she has finally mastered "sit," "down," "leave it," and "stay." She's obviously still a puppy, however, with occasional puddles, frequent chew holes, and intermittent "bad dog!"s to prove it.

When 9:50 rolled around, Siena was feeling a nap. I put her down and got to work on some PhotoSoBello business that had been waiting for me all week. Later, we went to CostCo to restock, and Siena busied herself in our new Radio Flyer wagon from the Pannells while I unloaded the car. Again, I was shuffling things around in the fridge when I heard: BOOM, *pause*... and I ran out to the garage where Siena was laying on the ground before the even bigger "WAAAHHH" could begin. Note to self: Toddlers should never go unsupervised. I'm pretty sure she had climbed up on the seat of the wagon, stood up, and toppled over. I've had to tell her to sit down several times before. Oops. I should have known better!

As I was driving by Woodland Christian HS on my way to CostCo, I gave it a little wave and said, "Hi, old job!" The two blue-roofed buildings made me stop and think about how different my life is now, and feel really happy about my new job as Siena's mommy. She's growing up so fast! Everyone told me that she would, but those first few months seemed to drag by so slowly that I would just smile and nod and mumble something like, "Yeah, that's what they say..." though I didn't really believe it just yet. Now I have a sweet little girl - no longer a baby as Uncle Andy likes to point out - she's a toddler now! She does just that: she toddles around, rocking back and forth like a tiny, tipsy, old lady with a fresh, platinum perm. She smiles at almost anyone and readily waves while saying a sweet "hhhhiiii" or "bahbyyyye." (over and over and over)

Her vocabulary is growing and now includes: NO, noonoonoo (a much sweeter way to say no), dog, meow (cat), on, off, ite* (light), or fan* up (meaning down or up), in, uh-oh, ow-I (outside), bird*, ball, mama, grandma (sounds just like mama but doesn't mean me!), dada, mono (monkey), dodo* (dirty), mOH (more), good dog, there it is, and now hi ruby (though the last three are fairly unintelligible and recognizable only via intonation). I started working on please today, and she's already gotten the baby-sign for it down, though I'm not sure she fully understands the concept.

*accompanied by a baby sign

She's SWEET tempered and very flexible. Unless, of course, you cross her will. In such a case, our sweet toddler will scrunch up her nose, YELL, and either try to bite or bash her head on something. Sometimes she even punches herself in the face! Isn't she too young for temper tantrums? I guess not! She's also old enough to know what I mean when I say no, because sometimes when she's feeling a bit defiant she'll do something, hear me say no, do it again slooowly while looking at me to see what I'll do. Thus, the sweet babe is old enough for a little swat on the leg to let her know that I really meant no.

Our week in Kauai with the Nicholsons was great fun, really relaxing, and fully documented by at least 7 different cameras. Alas, all of the files are awaiting distribution on T's laptop. Stay tuned.

Kauai was inconveniently overlapping most of intramural playoffs, but despite our commitment to our teams, Kauai wins. We arrived home late Saturday night and Sunday was semis and finals day. Between Shiloh and I with CoRec Soccer, M Football, CoRec Football and W Football, we were at the fields from 3:45 to 10:30 without a break. We managed to eke out new t-shirts for championships in CoRec soccer, and both men's and coed flag football

Shiloh has started assistant coaching the Davis High JV basketball team so the next 10 weeks are going to be busy!

There's too much that's happened since we last blogged, so I'm not going to try to catch up in many words. Here are a few pictures to tell the story!

10.18.09 Apple Hill


10.22.09 Love for Mono


10.27.09 Chillin' with Ollie Holleman.


10.30.09 Cool Patch Pumpkins (Corn Bath")

Halloween costumes: Sam = Siena, Siena = Shiloh, and Shiloh = Sam.


10.31.09 Halloween at the Reeces'


11.1.09 Ruby




11.06.09 Team Handball Tournament


11.07.09 Kindall's Shower






11.10.09 Basketball with Luke

Also, business for PhotoSoBello has been pretty good! Check out photosobello.smugmug.com for more and sign-up for a Christmas card shoot for $50!


Baby: Emma Hull


Event: Hope Walks


Engagement: Daniel and Diana


Christmas: The Jaimes


Family: The Gladdings


Engagement: Kris and Allison


Wedding: The Etsalls

September-October

Catch-up blogs can be overwhelming, so I'll try to keep it simple. We've had a fun month since Siena turned one. At the end of September we got to travel to Cancun, Mexico and celebrate Dave and Alissa's 6-year anniversary with them at the Westin Lagunamar Resort. The Foresters had a tough time getting there, because little Sydney hadn't gotten a passport (a birth certificate and both parents used to suffice). They cruised from Fresno to LA at 95 mph, sweet talked both airline and passport-issuing agents, ran out of gas, and did it all on very little sleep. All this to say that Shiloh, Siena and I unexpectedly spent 24 hours in Cancun without our hosts, but, thankfully, they arrived Saturday afternoon fully prepared to RELAX. (Keeping it simple is going to be tricky, I can tell.)



Siena was a champ on the planes - slept almost all of every leg. Each way we had a 3+ hour layover in Atlanta (yes, Cancun is almost that far east!) and here are Shiloh and Siena, passing the time in an airport nook.



Aaah, finally made it! Here are two VERY happy travelers.



A view from one pool, looking back at the entrance to the hotel. Turn 180 degrees and you see...



... us, at the edge of the infinity pool. If you stand farther back from us you can't see any sand and the pool seems to extend forever into el oceano.



We spent a lot of time at the pool and beach, but one eventful outing was taking the local bus downtown to Super WalMart for some groceries. 7 pesos = almost 50 cents apiece



Our trip was successful! Once inside we spent almost two hours picking out fruit (large selection), meat, cheese (viva manchego!), milk (unrefrigerated and boxed), etc. When Alissa and I arrived at the front of our check-out line (the boys were entertaining the girls on a kermit car ride), we were given a dirty look by the attendant. I tried to explain, "estamos juntos" as she looked concerned by our two full carts. Then she said something that I understood as "express line." Oops. She took us anyway but was not amused when Shiloh came over later and said something about "oh, we thought you meant ten BAGS, not dies ITEMS!" (Or something like that in Spanish.) To our credit, the line was VERY poorly marked. ;)



The trip home was considerably more crowded and expensive, but a taxi was required to hold us and all of our bounty.



This shot is only slightly misleading. Though the boys had access to the TV 24 hours a day, they actually watched very little, and even indulged their ladies by watching Pride and Prejudice with them one night. Our men trump Mr. Darcy any day! (And don't get me wrong, I understand just how high of a praise that is. :) )



Inspired by her friend Sydney, Siena got very close to officially walking on our trip. She would often take 5-6 steps to bridge a span of ground - usually that separated her from whoever the closest person with food was.



Other highlights included petting a shark and a sting ray...



...visiting an aquarium...



...watching a VERY cool dolphin show...



...seeing some old Mayan ruins (from afar) on Isla Mujeres (because we'd rather put our pesos towards more helado (ice cream) - it was SO hot!)...



...exploring Isla Mujeres by golf cart...



...swimming while waiting for our food at El Tiburon restaurant...



...releasing baby turtles into the ocean at night (and having Dave take a flash picture to capture Alissa's excitement, even though it was prohibited)...



...eating out at Italiani's...



...watching Sydney eat, and much, much more. Thank you Foresters for such a wonderful vacation!


We arrived home on a Thursday night, Shiloh worked on Friday, and then we headed down to Atherton to see my parents and pick up Ruby. Saturday night around 11pm, Siena seemed to get a hang of the whole walking thing.



Then it was back to Davis to settle back into normal life. Normal life includes...



...going on walks with the cousins...



..."mowing" out back with mommy and avoiding Ruby's playful tackles...



...dancing, eating, dropping things, and proclaiming, "uh-oh"...



...working on my photography business...



...having friends over (Luke Steidlemayer stopped by when he was in town, which actually happened before we left, I think)...



...visiting Impossible Acres' pumpkin patch and petting zoo...



Luke petting goats



Shay holding a bunny



Siena sharing chips...



...with Zeke and Elena in the wagon

And that brings us up to last weekend when we went out to the Morgans' vineyard for a Western/Cowboy/Show/Music/Dinner/Fun event that they hosted there. It was a lot of fun!



Simple? Not so much. But who's life is simple?

ONE

Siena is officially ONE. That means she can wear a bike helmet. And face forward in her car seat. And eat/drink foods with cow proteins. And honey. And strawberries. And chocolate cake.

Siena weighs 22.3 lbs, has 8 teeth, and is moments (or possibly weeks) away from walking.

I've been REALLY bad at uploading videos, so instead of going back 5 months and picking the best ones, you can just come over and watch them. Be thankful for September. :)


Piano Book



One Step



Big Girl Laugh



Legit Steps



Birthday Cake



Happy Birthday Song



Siena's Birthday Party



Pushing Walker



Dance!


Laundry Pusher



Birthday pictures coming soon...

Ruby Red

The newest addition to our family: Ruby Red Sorbello. She's 9 weeks old, weighs about 15 pounds, and is the cutest little red bull mastiff you've ever seen. On Tuesday Shiloh called me to say that he found some fawn female pups available (not the fawn male he's always dreamed of since Trouble died...) in an Elk Grove litter. We went to check them out and accidentally fell in love with the only red puppy there. So we brought her home. Without having a crate. Or food. Or a leash. But we're all the happier for it!

I thought raising a baby was going to take a lot of work. I figured raising a baby AND a dog was going to take TOO MUCH work. Ruby is proving me wrong as she's already seemed to learn the important command to "do your business" and sleeps nearly 22 out of 24 hours each day. Around dusk she has moments of playfulness, but the rest of the day she is MELLOW, as a good bull mastiff should be. You know you're tired when you don't realize your ear is soaking in your water bowl.

You might wonder how Siena feels about Ruby. Well, do you remember her first word? That's right, "dog." She wakes up every morning and from every nap, repeating the word of her very favorite thing in the world (other than mommy, daddy and food, of course). Yesterday while Ruby was napping, Siena checked out the new toys.

Then Ruby woke up and took back what was rightfully hers. (See background.)

Later, Ruby was checking out Siena's toys and they had a back-and-forth several times with this toy cube until Ruby gave up. (But Siena continued to dangle it in front of her nose.)

Bull mastiffs need good socialization with other dogs (after 16 weeks) and people, so come over and pet her! Nat and Willa came over after "water day" at Redwood Day Camp (at FBC) on Thursday.

And a few cute ones to end on...