Dance Recital

Sienna had her 2nd dance recital!! She did so great and had so much fun being on the big stage. 2 weeks before the recital I was convinced she wasn't going to do it. She's going through an extremely clingy phase and refused to even dance at her weekly practice. For the next 2 weeks, Justin and I did our best to talk it up, showed her last years recital video, and had others help encourage her. I even talked to her teacher and we came up with a plan to get her on the stage. 

The night of the rehearsal came. Lucky for us we were allowed to sit with them backstage before they danced. When it was her turn to line up, she started to panic and cling to me but I was able to hand her over to her teacher and we were good to go! Once she was on the stage, she got the recital high and never wanted to leave it. Come actual recital night she hardly said goodbye to me when I dropped her off. 

We were able to take videos and pictures on rehearsal night. We also got to sit in the front row which gave a great view and she could see us to wave. On recital night we were in almost the back row. Sitting so far back made her look TINY on stage. I wish I would have taken a picture just for that perspective of it. When she got on the stage recital night she started waving/yelling Hi Mommy! Hi Daddy!! while looking for us. It was pretty cute. In addition to her 2 dances, she also did the finale, where everyone walks on stage and takes a bow. She stood up there shaking her hips, clapping and dancing the whole time. I didn't think we'd be able to get her off the stage. 

My cuties.

Being their crazy selves. 

After the recital with Papa and her rose.

Here's the 2 videos from rehearsal night.

More Dancing

We had parents watch night at Sienna's dance studio last week. She was so excited to have Mom, Dad and Kensi watch her dance. The class showed us how they stretched, tumbled, followed the leader and most importantly the dances they are working on for the recital.

Dancing at Disney

We spent the past week visiting Papa in FL. It was a great trip and we all had a lot of fun. I was pretty nervous about taking my busy, busy 10 month old on an air plane for 3 hours but even she did great. We did have the screaming baby for a little while on the plane ride home, but eventually she passed out.

One of my favorite moments was at Downtown Disney. On the main stage a dance line was performing a few dances. Of course Sienna and I had to watch. As soon as I set her down, she put her hands on her hips, started shaking them to the beat, and did her best to imitate the dancers on stage. She didn't stop dancing throughout the whole performance and instantly had a crowd watching her. People even turned around in their seats to see her moves. She ate it all up flashing her "I know I'm cute" smiles. I couldn't stop giggling.

Here's a couple clips.

 

20 Questions

I came up with a list of 20 questions to ask the kids every year on their birthdays. I tried to do this last year with Sienna but there's a reason why they say to start it at 3 and not 2. (It was a big fail) This year, I was very impressed she focused so long and answered all my questions. I'm sure if I asked her them again today most of the answer would be different but still fun!

My Dancing Queen

Before picture day.

Sienna,
I always dreamed of having a little girl who loved dance as much as I did. When I enrolled you in class last fall, I was hoping I wasn't pushing you into my passion. Lucky for me you seem to love it more than I could have ever imagined. Last week you had your first recital. I can't even tell you how proud I was of you when you got on that stage. Everyday since, you have asked when we can do it again and when you can go back to dance class. You felt so beautiful in your Belle dress and clearly loved it!

As we made the long walk from the dressing room to the stage, you walked on your tip-toes the whole time, holding your dress out like a princess. When we stood backstage watching the other girls dance before yours, you were in awe and kept [a little too loudly] exclaiming how beautiful they were. I had no idea how you would be on stage. When it was your turn, you went without hesitation and did your dance so well. Near the end of the dance you turned to me and asked "Where's Daddy?!?" Luckily, I was able to refocus you and finish the dance. After, we met up with Nana, Grandpa, Daddy, Grammy, Kristie, Mallory and Mikayla. Everyone was so proud of you!

The night was complete with hitting up Cherry Berry.

They only allowed recording on rehearsal night. Unfortunately the sound wasn't working yet in the theater, so the music is hard to hear. At once point you yelled out to the audience, "Daddy take a picture of me!" You can't really hear it, but will hear the audience laugh after. Crank up your speakers!

Sienna-isms

My favorite things that are coming out of Sienna's mouth this week:

I made a batch of Crystal Light last weekend and Sienna had to try it. Now everyday after work she asks if she can have some "Nemonade". Not to be confused with "Nemon Ms" (M&Ms)

She has finally found a love for flip flops. She calls them her "Flop Shoes." And has to wear them everywhere.

Chatter

I wish I could write down or video every single thing that comes out of this little girls mouth. I'd love to know where she gets this stuff. Here's a couple of my recent favorites.

As I'm telling her [nicely] what to do or not do...
Sienna: "Mama. Don't yell at me."
Me: "I'm not yelling. I'm talking"
Sienna: "Oooooooh" [in a very surprised voice]

Sienna grabs her guitar and looks at me...
Sienna: "Are you ready to rock?!"
Me: Giggles, "Yes"
Sienna: "Play your peeno! [piano]"

We were getting ready to go to daycare this morning...
Me: "I'm going to miss you today"
Sienna: Stops walking and faces me very seriously. "Mama, don't be sad."

Her favorite reply to anything you ask her to do is, "Not yet!"

She absolutely adores my belly. Whenever she is playing with her kitchen or food she runs over to me with the milk carton/cup/pitcher/pretend cup and says, "Baby, here's your milk!"

Dance Class

It was family visit day last week at dance class, so Justin came to watch. Sienna was ecstatic to have both Mom & Dad at class. Here's a few clips from it.

Little Ballerina

Ever since I found the book Best Ballerina Ever, Sienna has been talking about being a ballerina.  She loves having us turn on music so she can dance around. I was very excited when I found a Tiny Tots class for 2-3 year olds. It's a Mommy (or Daddy) and child class, half hour, once a week. Perfect! Sienna was so excited to buy a tutu and ballet shoes. Although every time I asked her if she wanted to wear them she said no. Luckily come the day of the class she was ready to put the outfit on.

Modeling her new leotard and tutu before class.

Showing off her ballet spins.

Despite not feeling great, Sienna was still excited for class. We got to the dance studio and she was ever so eager. Even willing put her ballet shoes on. We met the other little girl and boy in her class. As soon as we stepped into the dance room she froze. She was very scared and clung to me for the first 10 minutes. She wanted nothing to do with the mat activities we were doing. After the mat was put away each kid was given a spot to stand on and we learned a little duck dance routine. She didn't cling to me but wouldn't move at all; just watched everyone else. Finally we were given some free style time and she warmed up. The last part of class we she did everything and had a blast. She will still tell you she loves her dance class and can't wait to go back. 

Posing at the end of class.

Showing off her sticker that we all got at the end of class.

After dance class we had to head to the Drs office. While we were waiting for the Dr to come in I was distracting her and asked if we should do our dance routine. She knew all the moves and did them all with me. It was so cute to see. Tonight she came up to me, started doing the first ducky move and wanted to do the routine. I can't wait to see her next week at class!

Big Girl Bed

One thing on the checklist before baby was getting Sienna into a big girl bed. Ever since she turned 2, we have been playing up that she's a big girl now and this was her first big girl transition. Sienna has always been a great sleeper for us, plus she's very cautious about everything so I wasn't too worried this would be a hard transition. And I was right. We let her do some furniture shopping with us and help pick out the bed. We also talked about the bed for a couple weeks. She was so excited to sleep in it. The first night it took her almost an hour to fall asleep but she never tried to get out. She mostly laid there and played with her stuffed animals. We only had to go in there once to retuck her in. Even better the next morning we had to wake her up after 8! She's done great ever since, although hasn't slept nearly that late again. 

Her new dresser. Once she's potty trained she'll get a mirror with it.

View from the doorway to the right.

New bed!

Showing off her Minnie Mouse pillow case and sheets.

Loving her new bed.

2 Days of Partying for Turning 2

Finally her birthday was here. After [sort of] patiently waiting while many others celebrated their birthday, counting down the days, and talking nonstop about it, Sienna got her day. Her excitement was contagious as she ran around the kitchen yelling, "My Birthday!!" over and over again. Seeing her eyes light up and hearing her exclaim as she spotted every decoration that had been hung for her party was priceless. I wish I could say everything was perfect. But she was turning 2...while battling a cough that has kept her up at night. I didn't think I'd have to bribe her to eat her cupcake, or threaten to let her cousin open her presents, but such is life with a toddler.

Justin & I took the day off Friday to spend with her. I got up early to bake her chocolate chip banana muffins. We kicked the day off with some singing and a candle. She was ever so pleased.

We checked out the Children's Museum next. Of course her favorite part was the room with all the water stations.

She also had a blast spraying different colors on the wall. Yellow was her favorite.

In the evening she had her favorite dinner of Mac N Cheese, opened presents, and sort of ate her cupcake - after again singing and blowing out her candle. Gotta get good use out of it! Her favorite present of the day was a Minnie Mouse camera.

Saturday afternoon was her family party. We filled the house with everything Minnie. Sienna even wore her Minnie Mouse dress for the occasion. Oh the excitement! As all of her favorite people arrived, it continued to grow.

The awwww moment of the night. Sienna giving Ariana a hug. Ariana sort of gave her one back. They'll work on it.

Double owies after Nana & Sienna bumped heads.

She was most excited for her birthday cake. She told Nana at dinner that she wasn't going to eat the turkey and she would have cake instead. (Only on your birthday can you get away with that) Presents couldn't even compete with the birthday cake. Halfway through opening them, she completely lost interest and wanted to play with Ariana.

The cake was consumed, sugar highs were had, and by the end of the night she was exhausted. I think the day(s) lived up to all of her hype. All day Sunday she wanted to play with her new toys and she was still talking about eating more birthday cake. (She tried to not eat her dinner again in lieu of cake but it didn't fly this time) She also wanted to know whose birthday was next. Time to start a count down calendar for Justin?

Yoga

We were sitting around yesterday morning and Sienna started to do this routine. Took her a few times of doing it for me to realize she was doing yoga! I haven't confirmed, but she must have learned it at daycare. My favorite part is when she kicks her legs back. So cute!

Betters Never Win

Back when Sienna was around 16-18 months, Justin kept trying to teach her colors. I repeatedly told him she is waaaaaaay to young to learn that. She would repeat them, but had no concept of what it actually meant. I also told him everything I had read said they don't know their colors until they are 3-4. Justin of course disagreed and thought she could know them by the time she was 2.

And so started the bet. He bet me that she would know one color before she turned 2. Thinking there was no way that was possible, I readily agreed. The stakes? 2 hours of back massages. It was on.

And so began Justin's incessant teaching of colors. They talked about it when she got dressed, when they read books, when they did puzzles and especially when they colored. To my astonishment it worked. I was doubtful for a long time, but not any more. It started with grabbing a crayon and getting it right. I said it was a fluke. There were only so many times she could grab the yellow crayon and have it be a fluke. Then she started pointing out orange, and pink, and purple.

It takes a true woman to admit when she's wrong. So Sienna, I apologize. I will never second guess your intelligence and make bets against you. You already might be smarter than your mother (but I will never let you know that)

As a sidenote I read something last week that said kids who learn colors before 3 usually have parents who work hard at teaching them. I found it funny that it said they also usually learn the basic ones first like red, yellow and blue. Red is the one she still never gets and blue is hit and miss. She's a true girl loving pink and purple more.

Also do you know how nice 2 hours worth of back rubs would be for a pregnant woman? I think I need to find a counter bet...

Sienna's Secret

Sienna has some news to share!

It's official...we're having another baby! All those weeks when I claimed to be too busy to blog, some of that was true but some of it was me falling asleep on the couch at 8:30, too tired to think about turning on the computer. I'm 13 weeks now and feeling much better. Baby J is due January 18th and yes we are finding out the sex. I'll post the baby game again soon so everyone can get their guesses in! We keep asking Sienna if she wants a sister or a brother. It changes every time, but I think sister might be in the slight lead.

This pregnancy has been so different from the last one. I was much more sick the first time. I felt pretty rotten for a few weeks but after that I was just extremely tired. I am also craving completely different food. I wanted a lot of meat, especially hamburgers the first couple months. Now I have moved on to salty food, mostly chips! I am usually a total sweet girl too. I used to have at least a bite of something sweet after every meal. Not any more! I'm lucky to eat one sweet a day. Some days none. So so weird for me.

On another note this is also the first time Sienna wore real pig tails. So cute!

Kisses

21 months and already chasing after the boys. An older one too...a 5 year old!! We are going to have to watch out for this girl. Eli has always been one of Sienna's favorites at daycare. He's very gentle with her and watches out for her ever since she was a little baby. The other day Eli came late to daycare. Sienna ran over to him and said, "Eyo miss you!" She grabbed his face, turned it towards her and laid a big kiss on his lips. They both giggled after. Now every time Justin or I ask for a kiss she says, "No! Kiss Eyo!" Those 2 are trouble.

Thoughts by Sienna

Sienna is now vocalizing many of her thoughts throughout the day. She'll be walking around spouting off anything that's going through her mind. Sometimes she'll run 3 or 4 different thoughts into one sentence. It can get confusing. :) She also repeats a lot of what we say especially when you least except it. Here's a couple from the past few days.

This morning before daycare she was playing with her toys. She found her Minnie Mouse purse, put her keys in it, added her phone, threw the purse on her shoulder and started walking towards the door saying "Bye Bye Daddy." Justin asked her where she was going and she replied, "Shopping." So my daughter.

We decided it was time to take away her Nuk. She was only getting it at night and didn't really seem to need it. The transition has gone incredibly smooth. Whenever she would ask for her "Noo Noo" I told her it was all gone. No more Nuk. Now every time she goes to bed, as soon as we get near the crib she starts saying, "Noo Noo all gone. No more Noo Noo." and repeats it over and over. Not mad, just stating the fact.

She still cheers for "Go, Roger. Go!" That one might be stuck for a long time. Maybe we should stop encouraging it. 

Sienna's latest

Sienna's favorite activity right now is coloring. Her favorite expression is "I color. I color" and will repeat it over and over again until you get out the crayons. We even had to bring up her little table and chairs so she had a safe place to color. (instead of the floor like the pictures below) Once the first tile got colored on we put a stop on that.

Hard at work

She loves to lay down and color. Too bad she's only allowed to color on the table now.

Little Miss Independent decided she wanted to carry our leftovers home. As we were gathering up all of our bags to leave the restaurant, she grabs the shopping bag with the food that's as big as she is. She carried the bag all the way through the restaurant (only falling once), through the Galleria, through Creative Kid Stuff and would have kept going to the car but I insisted on carrying her. She still held onto the bag while in my arms.

About halfway through she figured out it was much easier to drag it.

Here's a short video of Sienna shopping with her bag. Sorry it's sideways. I don't have any software to turn it.

Great Conversations

Everyday on the way home from daycare, Sienna and I have the same conversation. It is one of my favorite moments of the day and it always makes me laugh.

Me: How was your day today?
Sienna: Good!
M: What did you do?
S: Addie!!! (Maddie)
M: You played with Maddie?
S: Yeah! Buh bye.
M: You said good bye to Maddie.
S: Yeah. Puppy, puppy.
M: Puppy's in your chair. What else did you do?
S: UKER!!! (Luker)
M: You played with Luker?
S: YEAH!! BUH BYE!  (voice gets louder with every comment)
M: Yes, you said good bye to Luke.
S: YEAH!!!!! (laughs) GO! GOOO!!
M: I'm going. What else:
S: I-YAI!!! (Eli)
M: You played with Eli?
S: YEAAHHH!! BUH BYE!
M: Whose your favorite?
S: (thinks for a moment) BIITTTAAAA!!!!

And then we are home. I love the randomness of it and how she knows all of her friends. Sometimes we get a few others in there too but those 3 are always mentioned. Today she even fit in Owen and Gabbie before we made it home.

Meet Puppy

I think it's time to introduce the world to Puppy. He's a rescue dog and has become Sienna's best friend. He goes everywhere with her. We can't even go upstairs without getting halfway up and hearing the panic that Puppy got left.

Ever since Sienna was little, Justin and I have tried to encourage a lovely for her. First we tried with Ted the teddy bear. He would get a few hugs but was nothing more than a crib buddy. Then she started bringing Lady the dog into her crib, but again there was no spark. At Christmas she got her little Elmo and Big Bird animals that she carried around, gave many hugs and kisses, and had to bring to bed. I thought this might be it. Until 2 weeks ago.

Puppy used to be Justin's from some work event. After sitting in a box for a few years, it was decided he needed to find a new home so he was put in the donation pile. A few days later, our ever-attention-seeking dog Conner rummage through the pile and pulled out a few things, including Puppy. Sienna grabbed him off the floor, named him Puppy, and they have been inseparable ever since.

They eat together.

Go to daycare together.

Get hugs from Daddy together.

I think Puppy is THE one. It seems to be more than just a phase. Now wish me luck finding a backup Puppy. His white fur is already stained and turning grey and his tag says surface clean only. No good.

Pillow Love

Kids like to sleep goofy. I think that's their thing. Sienna used to take all of her stuffed animals and a blanket, wade them up into a pile, and use them as a pillow. Between Big Bird's beak and Lady's hard eyes, it did not look comfortable. She also loves taking our couch pillows and playing "night night" on them.

We finally put 2 and 2 together; took the hint and bought her a toddler pillow for her crib. As soon as I opened the box it came in, she curled right up and went night night.

This purchase might've been long overdue. I still find her occasionally sleeping on Big Bird's head, more often she's on the pillow and loving it. Thank you Amazon!!