Teton's Continued-Day Two

Peter pulled his groin on yesterday's hike, and his hamstring, so today we took er easy and hiked towards Death canyon, making it to the overlook.  There we saw a 161 ft deep lake and thunderheads. Pretty, and fun, with other tikes along the way and some Bowdoin students.  I was hoping to scope out some of the climbs up there, but we didn't make it that far.  The Snaz is there, and some others (this is definitely Laura writing, not peter).

A windy phelps lake

Then we went archering.  Sienna distintly did not like it, but we had fun.

Even Cupid Needs Practice

You'll note in the above picture, that the tetons are prime right now.  I may have mentioned this (This is laura speaking).  As opposed to this, two years ago, taken on the same day:

Taken from about the same place as those pictures from yesterday.
Teewinot, owen.

There are most definitely not enough cute pictures of those of us under two months old in this post, so here you go.  Thanks for hanging in there.

The Schoene's Do Vacation

Wednesday evening we drove down in our new rig (56 mpg. thanks christa and bryan) through yellowstone. unfortunately, there were many buffalo, one of which thought that the prius looked like a potential mate (sorry christa and bryan). further along, Sienna had her first poop in the woods. She'd peed before, but this was a real stepping stone. She was so scared and nervous, but she told us later that it really wasn't that bad. fun, even. She was giving all the signs, so we took her aside, pulled off the diaper, and there she went. Fantastic, except that we realized that we were breaking all the rules of leave no trace. oh well. We arrived at the Peterson's just after dark and settled into the fresh air of Moose, WY. We had been here two years ago on our climbing trip, and not only were David and Lorna nice enough to give us a bunk, but also to show us around and show us all the good spots. The tetons were covered in snow that august, so we didn't climb, but now they look quite enticing...

Not So Hidden Falls.We hiked there, turning
into quite the tourist trap (we were far more
popular than the falls), and continued around to
Stringy Lake. maybe seven miles. not bad

Grizz Patrol.

Like her daddy, not psyched about the cold water.

She did well the whole hike.  Slept the whole way, so ended up keeping us up that night.  Oh well.

Smitten

The first encounter

Ditto

That is soo freakin cute.  What love.

I just soiled myself. Tyson, unphased.

The gang

The Boys in MT

Guard Dog

Thanks for comin out guys. A lot of drivin for a little hangin.  Thanks for exploring Historic Bozeman with us. Good luck on your travels ahead. 

Mama on Main St.

Hahahaha, you didn't think that I was looking.

Laura assures me that she hasn't been drinking

Sienna assures me that she hasn't been drinking

Her Chariot

As we round out a month's worth of laughing, crying, and sheer blubbery, the real milestone can only mean one thing: she can ride in her chariot.

You will note the unique features of Sienna that make her amenable to such a raucous ride.  One: she has two evenly spaced shoulders around which the holster can embrace her. Two: her head is supported by a matrix of rapidly expanding muscle (from tummy time) and fat (from mamma). This is ideal for the 4-wheeling that the chariot is designed for. Three: she is equipped with an ultra-padded diaper that allows secure and comfortable crotch harnessing . Four: with four limbs spaced into the openings of the chariot harness, she can maximize her Disco Disco moves.  Here we see her practicing for a bulgarian rave (it's night over there).
ps, those perfectly fitted jeans in the background belong to one ms. Dana, who is moving to sunnier places this week.  She will be missed.

I stand corrected...

So, true to form, Sienna is her own little being.  I had mentioned previously that she most resembled katie, but after comparing that to baby pictures of her... well, there's really not much resemblence. I mean, they're both babies, but that's about it.  Maybe a nose... But then again, maybe I should be nicer before Baby Ninja KT kicks my butt.

Katie

Sienna

Peter. How sobering to see how I'll look in forty years.

As Sienna rounds out, she looks quite a bit more like Laura.  But still...

Cousin Yale. Similar in the chin/mouth region.
Probably some Thompson in there.

Cousin Saylor. something familiar, but may just be the hair

Not only do we not have one of Blair, but we know that she looks nada like him anyway.  We don't have one of Christa, though I'd be curious given Yale's similarity.

The closest we've got, though still a little unsatisfying.  Uncle Tyson.
Though as Sienna gets older, the less she seems like him.

 So in conclusion, Sienna is going to be her own person.  This shouldn't be surprising since none of the Schoene's look much alike, and Laura and Christa are identifiable as sisters but don't look much alike either. So there you go.

Misc. (Peter's getting philosophical)

Laura sez: it's an odd thing that we know so much about this little person, but have no clue who she'll become. Laura refuses to make predictions, other than she will undoubtedly be squirmy.  Things we've noted, though: she is open-minded and not averse to trying new things. she is trusting, but not particularly social (maybe too early to tell), she likes to cuddle, but also values her independence time. Perhaps most importantly, she seems content and happy. she's easy to calm. she likes to be outside and on the move, loves the wind and blustery conditions. seems engaged with the world.  It's also odd that these kinds of descriptions are not usually the ones we'd use to describe adults, even though they likely are subconsciously how we define each other (versus she's smart, athletic, outgoing, talkative, and all the other adjectives that I'm not convinced actually tell you about a person).  Maybe when we're babies we are really broken down into our basic natures and it's easier to see each other and not be distracted by those values that our culture emphasizes.  As laura put it, right now we don't see what she's good at, but rather simply who she is.  Maybe those things that we come to use to define ourselves later in life are more arbitrary than we assume. Who cares that laura and I like climbing? Does this fact inform us of who we really are? Dunno--an open question.

The other day we had a big afternoon thunderstorm. We put her
by the window, and she just loved watching the trees sway and
the neighbors' toys fly by. Not disturbed by the thunder at all.

Supposedly they see high contrast.  Since she never blinks, and
has really glossy eyeballs, it gives us an opportunity to
literally see the world that she does via the reflection of the world
in her eyes.  Why is she calmed? Oh, it's the outline of the plant
in the window.

Nananananaaaa

Yerp

Note Laura's left shoulder.  Awesome!

She's Huge!

Rebecca, our midwife come over, and gave sienna a once over.  It's official-she's a giantess.  She went from 7#2oz at birth, down to 6#12oz a few days later, to a whopping 8#4oz at three.5 weeks.  Fantastic.  She went from the 16 percentile for US babies to the 32 percentile.  A visit with the pediatrician the next day gave us the percentile numbers.  Good luck Dr. Lowe on your birth today! See you in a few months.

"Why don't we use the Metric System, Rebecca?"

"Because we don't like to be told what to do, do we?"

Then grampa Lee came to visit from CO and TX.  We went for some walks and celebrated the start of Ramadan by abstaining from, well, not food per se, but wheat products. It went well, and we look forward to the month ahead.  Unfortunately, grampa came at a time when ms sienna was a little on the fussy side, so he heard her exercise her lungs more than usual.  That said, they had some excellent conversations together regarding the weather and the geomorphology of the Gallatin Valley. Sienna brought up the excellent point that it's difficult for most humans to be as topographically visionary as geologists given our inability to comprehend geologic time.

On Peet's Hill.  In the background you can see the Story
Mill, after which ms Sienna is named (middle name)

Go Boston!

In other big news, Sienna took her first bottle splendidly.  Auntie Christa
sent out a breast pump, and it worked quite well. Now, Dada and all the
grampas can enjoy the thrill of the feed.

Omie Comes To Town

Taking a break from the Seattle weather, Omie came to Bozeman to check in and make sure Sienna was proper.  She wasn't disappointed, as Sienna put on her best imitation of a non-sleeping and semi-fussy baby she could. I was impressed, and am still reeling from the shock. We went to the farmer's market, the Sweet Pea Parade, and ate enchiladas. Unfortunately, our camera died so we couldn't capture any moments (the enchiladas were delicious), but omie's fancy camera sufficed.

Omie hold, and amazingly momma and dadda can cook a meal!

Sienna's de facto stare.  What A Big World!

They match.  Oma would be proud.

Both Grammas!

 

                       Dancing Dadda! Makes everyone happy. and tired...

Just Me and the Girls

Today, we lounged.  We tried to go hiking to Blackmore Lake, but, one, missed the trailhead and ended up somewhere else, and two, forgot the moby wrap carrier and realized that the hike would be short. It was also way too sunny, and Laura was burning, until the thunderstorm moved in and we ran away. Despite the hike's brevity, it was still exhausting...

Follow Me. Oh wait, you have too.

Sienna opted NOT to go swimming today. 

Daddy, my legs are tired.

Proud Daddy

A Long Goodbye

So KT left, but was two hours late from her expected departure time because... well, because she did this for two hours:

So Entertaining.
sorry K, the other pictures got erased because
our camera loves to erase pictures randomly.

Peter went back to work on monday, and gramma dee came down to help while he was gone.  Some conclusions:  sometimes, only a gramma can do the job; peter likes baby better than work; baby likes peter better than work; momma likes peter+baby better than work.  She's been a bit fussier over the last few days, perhaps cuz she knows dadda's not around, but maybe she's just been gasier than usual, maybe it's because she's getting baby-acne and the Clearasil isn't working. hard tellin' not knowin'. Omie comes on friday.  Hot Dog! Can't wait to see you omie: