Summer Tiiiiiiiiiimmmmee

Having fun this summer, though it's about to end.  School starts in less than two weeks.  Sienna is growing up into a little girl.  Her arms are nearly huuman-proportions, her face is less chubtastic, and many of her fat rolls are toned. It also turns out that she's hilarious.  Very good sense of humor, in addition to being adventurous, social, personable, trusting, a good problem-solver, expressive, creative, good memory, kind, thoughtful, playful, preposterously athletic, and cuter than hell.  Basically, over the last month I've come to grips with the fact that my daughter is a lot cooler than I am, more interesting, more engaged, and has many of the qualities that I wish I had.  I don't where she got them, certainly not from me, and I know she's going to teach me a lot.

No doubt, squeeker loves flowers.  It turns out she loves
to sniff them. At first we thought she was putting them to her mouth,
but realized that she just liked to sniff.  She'll make an excellent
left fielder.



"Here, have a go, it's delicious"




Here you can see it pretty well. Definitely more of a little girl
than a baby.  Kinda crazy.  But don't let that look fool you,
she still poops in her pants.



Ahhh, not the lense, not the lense!!





Sienna also loves playing with older kids.  She has no problem being out of her league.  Kids that are way stronger, more coordinated, faster, she doesn't care, she wants to be right in there with them.  Her cousin Yale also was fascinated with older kids.  I suppose it helps her push herself, and is more fun and more exciting than playing by yourself, or those that are less outgoing.  It'll be curious what she does with a younger sibling. Laura and I were just talking, and imagining her being bossy or disinterested.  But, I think of another kid similar to sienna who loves being an older sibling.  who knows?

I guess that's also why I've been less prone to write during my posts. When she was a baby, I felt a certain ownership.  She's my baby. Laura's baby. period.  But I don't really think of it that way anymore.  She's sienna. she's her own person, with her own lessons to learn and experiences to have, and I feel a little funny writing about her in the way that I used to.  Heck, we don't write about our spouses or friends in that way; they are, after all, their own people with their own voices and they don't need this stream of commentary.  Likewise, at the gut level, I don't think sienna needs a streaming commentary. She's not my daughter, perhaps, as much as I'm her dad.

 Just yesterday, she was playing with a much older kid, and she did a back flip of the bed.  nearly landed it, of course, and was fine, but it raises the issue of whether or not it's our responsibility to keep her safe all the time.  Yes, we should have been more prudent and we got lucky on this one, but she's getting older and less fragile and has the responsibility to herself to get hurt and make stupid mistakes. Perhaps we can give her the tools to make good decisions, or provide an environment that fosters the development desirable personality traits, or model and explore good morals with her, but ultimately it's her life and she is responsible for it.  If she wants to be reckless, or a jerk, there's little we can do about it but be unceasingly supportive and ensure she knows that we love her.  This is perhaps too early to really jump into these thoughts, as she is still very much a baby, but it's all a progression, not black and white. 

In other news, Uncle tyson just came out and we did the three day Headwaters Relay
running race with the team, "The Honey Badgers."  We kicked butt, and saw some
amazing places with an amazing team.



Honey Badgers Don't Care. Cate, Melissa, Mike, Ty, Dan, Me, Ben, Clara.
We'll miss you mike. Good luck at OHSU.