CO-Dependent

Sienna enjoyed her second vacation, this one to CO.  Before heading down, she got her shots, with which she did very well.  She screamed a bit, but that's probably because her daddy was crying so much and she doesn't like to see him upset. Recovery went well, though, and then we flew. Unfortunately, got sick while we were down there, maybe cuz of the airplane, or the shots.  Stuffy nose, coughing, squirty butt... but I'm fine now. 
We were wondering how she'd do on the airplane.  Going down, she was fine, but with her being sick she wasn't too psyched coming back up.  she had a slight fever so we gave her some tylenol, but that didn't seem to put her to sleep as everyone assured us it would. Instead, daddy got a very good workout bouncing her most of the ride (by the way, she's ten lbs now, and down to the 23rd percentile (from the 32nd at the last visit)).  I've never sweat so much on an airplane.  Also, momma held it together very well, putting aside her flying fears to set a good example for sienna. 

First we went up to see Karl from the guiding days, who seems very well (and burly.  Karl, where'd you get those guns. and that bad ass haircut). actually, very very well.  makes me happy. then we saw jon from bowdoin and o-land fame. he also seems very well (other than being unemployed and way over-qualified for any job).  he is our token bad-ass friend that paraglides.  we got to see him fly.


Hey Jon, hate to tell you but from below, you're chute DOES
look pink and purple, not red, blue and black.  Thus, no pictures of
flying (who's that in the pink suit?  He's good, but goofy lookin)

 then we climbed at boulder canyon:


Our first bolt-protected crack climb.  crazy.

 and finally we convinced jon to hold the baby.


Who started this, anyway?

 (by the way jon, erika is fantastic) And then the real soup du jour, we went and celebrated the joining together of Lolly (of Belize fame) and Brad.  we're so very happy for you two, and best of luck with everything!



Sorry guys, this was the best pic I got.  Apparently, Brad is far
sketchier than I ever realized, and lolly and alex are twitchy.  If you have
any better pics, send them my way.



Nice to see you alex, see you in december.  and congrats to you
and erik, who also joined together. sorry we missed it. you seem fantabulous.  Laura
also wanted me to mention that you look ripped. or cut.  whatever you
prefer

 We then went to visit the cousins chris and susannah, with their three tots.  turns out three is a lot more than one. Sorry we were so tired (we didn't get any pix), and thanks a million for the fine hosting.  This weekend, while exhausting, was a nice reminder of the important things in life.  many of these folks we hadn't seen in years, despite them being very important to us. love is lovely, as a wise man said. thanks for a great weekend.

In other news, sienna rolled over again, this time very deliberately, and she seemed to process her hands as being "her hands" for the first time.  she smiles like crazy, and really likes being home.  She doesn't really like being out of her routine, or more specifically, being on someone else's schedule.  not in an acute way, just a general unease.  see if that carries over to the future. hopefully we don't destroy any seed for a travel-bug (or is that a pupa?).

no, she's not a boy as everyone in the airport assumed.

Bree and the Baby Shower

Apparently we didn't have our stuff together enough to have a baby shower before sienna was born (well, except for the "don't call it a baby-shower" baby shower), so this last week while Bree was in town we went up to boulder.  Not only did we take a soak, but we also were graciously hosted by a number of fine folks from gramma dee and papa jim's churches in Butte.  We played a few games (I lost the suck milk from a bottle game. those little nipples are tiny! you can't get anything out of them.  kudos to babies that can.  I would starve), ate amazing food, and heard some great stories from the many grammas present.  We went around to say how old each person's oldest child was (to figure out how much wisdom is amassed between us all), and some were in the fifties and sixties, and one's grandkid was 31.  yikes, turns out they're a lot tougher than us, and a lot nicer (a million thanks for all the gifts and advice from everyone.  I don't know how we deserve your warm prayers. we feel quite humbled).  Dee mentioned that we birthed at home, and while some were interested, I think many in the room had done likewise (though, as we learned, not with nearly the medical support or knowledge we had).

At the baby shower.  we heard dee
was going floral, so sienna did likewise.



All our pictures were backlit, except this. Thanks mystery truck!
and perfect timing to catch the smilin babes.



So it turns out that babies float. Laura failed to mention this after
their last swimming session (didn't want to spoil the surprise).  For a while
I was pulling  her around,no support on the bum and not really any
on her head either. 
Needless to say, I am rather jealous.



Why did no one ever tell me that I had this much hair on my back.
C'mon guys, throw me a bone here.



The Leaf Season



The Foilage! Hard to tell, but these two trees really
were fantastic... yes, two trees you snobby mainers.
we take what we can get.



This has been social september for us.  Five visitors staying over and then five folks we visited in CO this last weekend.  I'm overjoyed that we have been able to see so many of our favorite people, but we are exhausted!  I just took a two hour nap, sienna and laura are still upstairs shnoozin (ended up bein an even four).  Of course, what do we do on our visits, but... stroll. and where do we go on our strolls... the cemetary.  especially since some of the only maples I know of are there, and they are in full regalia.



First off, this is kareen, one of our good friends

in bozeman.  she has entertained our strolls

and even gone to the outdor boulder with us:

kareen, you're a monkey, you need to climb more.

She also happens to be a petite woman that makes sienna

look very very large.



Here's the cemetary, with Bree and Marcus (overland and bowdoin folks)

great to see you guys and hear that you, too, were o-land rejects (or
more specifically, TC rejects)

Look at us, we're cute!



Hey dad, watch where you stick that finger.



Double-Duty

Who says you can't do homework and entertain a baby?  And... 100% on the quiz that day.  nice.

Tromping around wearing boots like gaston...

Now that she's doing the assisted stand,
we got her some hand-me-downs.



extreme close-up



side-ways, sorry.

Toilet Training

Given how my family loves to tease me about their fantastic failure to potty train me, we've started early with Sienna.  (I would like to say in my defense, that I was potty trained, and then KT came along so I unpotty-trained myself for attention (and hello, parental divorce), and realized that my plan was brilliant because soon I was given gummy bear incentives to re-potty-train.  If I went cold turkey, I would have not gotten those gummy bears, so I drew it out.  While some may chide that my actions were a sign of neandertal-like behavior, I'm pretty sure that it was a signal of my future brilliance (as evidenced by my ability to woo laura.  I used similar tactics of pooping in my pants, and it worked fantastically in convincing her to be my bride)).  Anyway, here's the picture.


She's become resistent to sink pees, but she's taken to the bucket
(inspired by memories of the yurt, perhaps).



Little privacy please.

This week we probably caught a dozen pees, and one poo.

More Smiling

Why take a picture, when you can take a video?  Not only have we documented a smile via stills, but also on the big screen.

And more...

still working on getting her coos in there.

Got It!!!

I'm a big girl daddy.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  Daddy is back in school full-time (and working in the ER), so it's been busy.  Working on med school applications, and about half way done with the secondarys. not bad, now wait for interviews.

Margot-Bear

Laura's high school friend (and friend to all the birds and beasts of this world) was driving across the country with a friend and stopped by for the night.  Margot seems great, and I hope we can go visit her in the very near future.  We shall see.  Good luck campin' (don't suck as much as we do), and good luck starting school up again.

Margot also had a shake shake wiggle wiggle
dance that Sienna  loved.

She's from Arkansas. Can you tell?
(Laura was comfortable in a tank-top here)

Squeek!

Doin' the Duck Dance

Hey Marcus and Kelly, thanks for the duck hat.  she loveloveloves it.

Sorry there haven't been more videos. All the videos I was taking were in HD, which don't upload well, so I kicked it down a few notches to make it work. Sorry it's sideways. I don't know how to fix that.


Other misc.:.

This might be the one for Bowdoin Magazine and Inside Lakeside

She's been smiling, but we can't seem to get it on camera.
Today she broke daddy's heart and, before he went to work, he
kissed her cheeks and she gave a big smile.  Aw Puddin'.

First Climb, at a Hot Boulder

Thanks Mike, because you make it all possible.  The three (four) of us took labor day and went to Bear Canyon.  No bear sightings, but we did find a canyon for our first outdoor climbing excursion.  It was, shall we say, all hands on deck.  One climber, one belayer, and one baby entertainer.  She did well, but didn't get many pictures because everyone was occupied.  Also, given that it was our first climbing since May, I for one got SOOORrE.  5.9 can really take it out of ya'. Mommy has gone running three times in the last two weeks, and daddy's been playing racquetball, but tit turns out we are only meager specimens of our past.

Watch out for that tree. Ouch!

Laura's batching sienna outfit. oh yeah, by the way, for those
that don't know that color orange is the color sienna, from whence
the baby was named.

Gettin' after it!

First Swim, at Boulder Hot Springs

While daddy was at work, mommy and baby went up to Boulder to go swimming.  Despite a jealous daddy, they had fun. They got her changed into a stunning bathing suit.  It's a good thing daddy wasn't there, otherwise he may have had to do some beat downs of all the oggling boys.  She liked the water (which was in the nineties somewhere), and seemed relaxed despite the approaching lightning storm and strong winds.  They went inside to dodge the storm, and she fell asleep so that when they went back out, she just slept through the second dunking.  fun stuff.

Fun!

Back to School

Captain's Log, stardate August something 2010. Of course, given the previous post, rain moved in and we spent the next day driving around imagining the sites.

She ran to the top of this hill to the Rocky soundtrack

We also did some of this

Zombie Baby Sleeps Soundly

And the next day we headed home, going through the park.

Hiyaaaaaaa hubaabItzebabaaaaaaa...

She remains undecided about the steam. Real warm, and then
real cold as the wind blows it away.

Ah, yes, there's the wind

These jacuzzis don't need jets

No more paint pots, just home sweet home. We detoured through
St. Petersburgh to pick up this cool outfit.

Overall, she seemed to like the vacation, though not as much as mom and dad.  The ride home was somewhat interesting because we kept popping out of the car to see the sights.  Like a good triathlete, she wasn't psyched on the transitions, and unfortunately there were many of them (by the way, her three sports are wiggling, sucking, and singing).  Likewise, she seemed a touch off in Jackson, maybe because we were out of a routine, or maybe because we were poking her in her sleep for fun.  Dunno. 
Also forgot to mention two big milestones: before jackson, she found her thumb and sucked it.  Now she often goes for it, but she's not very good at sticking it out for easy sucking.  Secondly, during tummy time she rolled from her front to her back.  I assume that this is way flukey because she isn't supposed to do that for months.  we'll see.