Chalk wall!

Hans turned the half-wall between our kitchen and living room into a magnetic chalk wall for Siena. She loves to play with the magnets on the fridge, but it's right next to the stove and not a good place to play while we're making dinner. So we gave her a new spot! She loved drawing on the wall and loved erasing even more!

She was really pooped after her chalk adventures! It may have set a record for holding her attention!

Never too soon to learn to use an allen wrench!

We got a new sofa bed at Ikea and Siena helped da da put it together. She was much better at translating those goofy picture directions than we were!

First Playdate

Last week Siena got to have her first playdate with her future suitors, Anthony and Xander. See how they are already fighting over her? She can't decide between them. If only they'd stop drooling over her! (ha!)

Just cute

Siena started crawling up the steps a few months ago, but now she likes to linger on a step and look around and take a seat. We visited our friend Amanda and her new baby today who has lots of steps so Siena really likes her house...

Early signs of artistic genius

Siena is getting better and better at "drawing" with her crayons. Here, she's showing her buddy Barb how it's done.

New favorite game

Long ago, our kitchen pantry became one of Siena's favorite rooms in the house. She loves to go in there while we're cooking and play with bottles and make crunchy sounds with 100 calorie snack bags. Now she's added another dimension, she now loves to go in and close the door.
She thinks it's funny if you knock, but not so funny when it latches and she can't open it back up! Anyway, she gets endless entertainment in there!

In this picture you can also see her lovely bruise on her forehead. She wants to move faster than her feet will go and ends up going splat...

A Real Baltimore Day!

Siena was indoctrinated as a true Baltimore girl today. We took her to the National Aquarium and we had a great time. Siena loved the brightly colored fish and would try to lunge out of the baby backpack when she got excited. The shark tank and dolphin show were also big hits. We had one sleepy girl on our hands when we left!


On the way home I got a craving for crabcakes, so we topped off Siena's day with her first bite of the bounty of the Chesapeake (even though this crab came from Mexico). She loved it!


Lastly (how much excitement can you take in one day?), my mom gave her a bowl and plate set yesterday and she has been playing with it constantly. She will take the spoon and pretend that she's spooning food from the bowl onto the plate. We were pretty amazed at her understanding, so after dinner we gave her some yogurt in the bowl and let her feed herself. She took the spoon and got some yogurt and then spooned it onto the tray, but about every third spoonful made its way into her mouth. We thought it was a pretty good first try!

So pathetic

Siena came down with a wicked stomach flu last week and kindly shared it with mom. Somehow dad, who was alone with her the night that the excitement really started, somehow escaped.

We'd done the whole cold and ear infection thing, but this was a whole new world. Must have been so horrible from her perspective--what's happening to me??? Out of the whole experience has emerged a new appreciation for laying on the couch--something she never even attempted before she got sick.

We're all feeling better now. We actually took her to the doctor today because a few fussy days and ugly nights made us suspect an ear infection, but thankfully there wasn't one, but her top teeth are about to pop through--causing all the commotion.

We officially need to apologize to Barb who unknowingly came to our house for the super bowl and left with our horrible virus. We feel so guilty--we really thought it was gone! Please forgive us...