Tent Time

We're Back! Last tuesday we headed out to the city of rocks, ID, a super-primo-groovy rock climbing area.  It is composed of large swaths of granite fins/domes that are medium grain, making for friendly crack climbing and fun face climbing (or both).  It was all a giant experiment as we had no idea how squeek would do.  Not only were we all sleeping in the tent together (in 35 degree clime), but also trying to climb as a duo (sienna makes an awful belayer).  As it turns out, we were more successful in the first endeavor than the second.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First we drove.  Googlemaps put it at 6.5 hrs, though it took us closer to 8.5 due to various baby-induced stops (and taqueria-induced temptations).  Squeek wasn't too psyched, but did fine.  we had borrowed a mini dvd player thing so she could watch harry potter if she got bored, but we didn't need it ("Peterrrrrr. This is why people think we're bad parents. Stop lying!").  Then we got to camp and set up our place.


Aftering pulling out the camp essentials,
we were ready for fun



getting ready for bed.

 though sienna took a little while to fall asleep (basically until dark), and required mommy to cuddle her to sleep, she slept through the whole night. not bad.  The other nights she fell asleep on her own, so momma and I could hang out and not go to bed immediately.  yeah squeek!  during nap times, we had to open the fly so that it didn't get too hot, but basically she would crawl around in circles for twenty minutes before falling asleep.  A few times we peeked in and she would be reading books to herself or stroking the sleeping bags.  Overall, not bad.


During the days we hiked around a bit.



Checked out the climbs.



We climbed around on rocks



We chewed on some dirt.  Actually,
we chewed on a lot of dirt.



we took a bath



We walked around a bit.







And otherwise chilled out!



 All in all a good vacation. we had to leave early because we were starting to get epic weather.  40mph winds with rain and snow.  Not fun. the utah desert was gettin blown to us, so we couldn't see the other side of the valley because of the dust.  we didn't get any pictures of climbing because, as it turns out, not only does sienna not belay well ("watch your brake hand!"), but she also is bad at photography.  She got one, but it didn't turn out well. 

The first climb set the tone.  I start out soloing up a chimney twenty five feet to the top of a boulder where the climb starts.  I choose left side in when it should have been right side in.  Then I make a long stretch over the gap to get my first piece in, which since it's been a while I don't trust and I have to extend for rope drag anyway.  Sienna, in the meanwhile, has occupied herself with fitting marble sized rocks into her mouth, and so mama is occupied with chasing her around to get them out of her mouth ("watch your brake hand!"). Sienna hates this, and proceeds to yell and cry. I climb up, trying to concentrate, and discover that while my strength is fine, my footwork is awful. It's been since two aprils ago since we climbed anything seriously, and it shows. So up I go a hand/fist crack with good smeary feet.  Then it starts raining and hailing.  Laura yells don't fall, trusts the grigri and grabs sienna to go under a boulder that is protected.  Sienna is screaming, though she finds some bat and pigeon poo to eat and is happy, until momma takes it away.  I'm nearing the top, having walked my three number three camalots up and up and up. I had read that there was a bolt near the top as the crack widened to number six size, but it's still a ways off and I'm runout.  The good news is that I can't hear sienna crying anymore, because I'm far enough away and because the wind has picked up. Unfortunately, what should have bee cruiser friction is runout sketchfest since now my shoes and the rock are saturated.  Additionally, my trail rope (the climb is 150 ft) and the lead rope are really heavy and dragging at this point, further precluding smooth slab climbing.  So I grovel up the 70 degree OW/chimney for the final thirty feet expecting to see some chain anchors as it levels off. Nope, and all my big gear is on the route, so I make a creative anchor and rap off.  Laura is feeling epicked, so I go back up to clean and downclimb the back side.  While the other climbs we do are better, all had an air of "we're in an epic, even though this is a one pitch crack climb."  We ended up deciding that it wasn't particularly safe so said we'd only climb on more straightforward, shorter, easier, and better baby-set-up climbs.  That's when the weather turned, though.  But, regardless, the climbign was fantastic there, and the whole place was beautiful.

Sienna loved camping.  not only could she crawl anywhere and eat dirt, but she could be with momma and dadda always. and there were lots of dogs.  highly recommend the baby camping experience, especially when it's with such a sweet little girl.  We'll be doing it again very soon as we drive out to wisconsin.  hot dog.

Mother's Day

By the way, happy mother's day, and thanks scott and abbie for callin'.
It was laura's first.  she got breakfast in bed (it was gunna be, but she got up.  it's her own fault), and then free frozen yogurt at moberry, and then a big party (that she made brownies for.  thanks dana for the ooiegoowey fudge brownie mix suggestion. wow).  I hope that I was able to display my appreciation of your new state as a mother.  and happy mother's day to all such empowered individuals.  you make this world a better place.

Baby Steps

Auntie KT came to visit the other weekend.  We packed up our goods and headed over for an old-fashioned sleep over at le chateau Schoene up the hill.  Luckily, there was enough space (just barely), and we settled in comfortably up there.  Ms Kira thrilled us with her rendition of that favorite singsong "I'm a cat, you're a dog, and you're a mouse. meow meow meow."  In turn, sienna thrilled us with her gasps of jubilation. Above, she is celebrating the catching of the mouse by the cat, who in turn got caught by the dog.  True to sienna form, the dog got caught by the tiger (daddy was the dog).

Over dinner, sienna discovered that she can get what she wants faster if she walks, rather than crawls.  She was hanging out with mommy on the floor when KT snuck up behind her.  Sienna has a sense for these things and thwarted KT's approach by detaching from mommy and walking the five or six steps, unsupported, to KT.  Actually, I don't think squeek realized what happened nor figured why we were cheering. She repeated the endeavor later that night, and has since withheld her acrobatics.  We can get her to walk the few steps between us (again and again), but only right before bed.  It turns out that KT is a baby whisperer, and that she should really focus her professional efforts not on college-level athletics, but rather knee level athletics.  Way to go squeek!

On a related note, our pictures from this batch are not nearly as cute because her face is covered in bruises and wounds.  It turns out that even carpeted floors can do some damage (Laura is not here, but I'm pretty sure that she would want me to clarify that squeek is as cute as ever, which she is, despite her bruises.  I would counter-clarify that being cute isn't everything.  She would offer a reconciliatory counter-clarification that both agreed with my point but asserted her own, affirming that the world is neither black, nor white, but rather green and brown).

On this one you can see her teeth.  The configuration is the two front
bottom ones, and then the next out upper ones (if the internet is to be
trusted, that's the lower central incisors and the upper lateral incisors). 
She looks like a staple remover, though when I put her to the task
she only complained.

I'm not sure which one is Adam and which one is God.

It turns out that squeek loves the bling, perhaps more than auntie...
I've seen that look before, and it's not to be trusted.

Unwilling to repeat.

May Day

Happy May Day!!!

Another fine spring day in Montana.  Looking forward to a
superb morning ride to my last class before summer vacation.

I've got a bunch of posts to do, but let's start with easter.  Laura went up to boulder to help get the summer beds ready and then played cello at the easter services in Butte. 

Using the new backpack to get some hoing done.  Sienna
loves the backpack.  she's up higher so she can see much
better than in the other carriers.  and it's probably more comfortable
on her groin. Hey, I know she's flexible, but it seems a little
sadistic to fit her into some of these things.

squeek was a hit with the ladies.  she's like a magnet for
grandmas across the building.

pretty ladies. enjoying some brunch at the hot springs. 
I can't quite tell what squeek got served, but it looks
a little under cooked.



the spawn of peter cottontail



Unfortunately, daddy couldn't join because he was feeling a little sick...


Incidentally, this was the first cow tongue experience since the
accident.  I was proud that it could inspire one of my favorite
quotes, from susannah: "Are you tasting me or am I tasting you?"



Finals

Stats

Once again, I'll apologize for my overly frugal posting of late.  To me credit, it's not my fault.  The blogspot server wasn't letting me post.  However, I did some stats research, and it turns out you all love it when I don't post.  In the month of february, we got 572 hits. In march we had 557.  yikes!  I think I only posted, like, three times in that period.  August was third at 470, and December had 464.  Total, at this point, is 3,689 posts.  That's way more than I could expect.  However, I've just made it so that it doesn't track when I look, so I expect that the monthly hits will be cut by at least two thirds, since anytime squeek goes to bed I log on and look at pictures of her...if only I were kidding.


Out of the Archives.  We were gunna send this to lakeside,
until we noticed that it makes it look like we live in the projects.

 The most interesting stat, however, is when one looks by post.  In second place is the opening post, "Let's do this."  With three times more hits is the absolute clear winner, "Auntie KT comes to town."  For all of you that know KT, this should be absolutely no surprise, as not only is she incredibly popular, she also loves looking at pictures of herself holding a baby.

Puppies!

Imagine this: there is a creature that is quadruple your weight, twice your height, furry, with sharp teeth and claws.  Now imagine that it is making loud agressive sounds at you.  What do you do?  If it were me, I'd be happy that I were wearing that diaper.  If you were sienna, however, you'd bark right back, and then chase this beast around the kitchen.  Sienna has met a half dozen dogs in her day.  At first, she showed no interest, probably because she was too young to recognize anything out of the ordinary about a dog.  Over the last month, however, she has met three dogs, and has pushed the envelope on how we define "squeels of delight."  Now she crawls around the house pretending to be a dog (which is fitting since her dad crawls around the house pretending to be a human).  Anyway, some more pics from seattle:

Sienna loved it when loonie babysat.  After all,
we don't let her stay up late watching john wayne.

Really Marcus? Are you that unstoppable.  watch out kelly...



There's the puppy!  Laura's teaching sienna to be
gentle.  apparently that's not inate.



Killin' It



You lions will recognize this... Aside from Squeek being almost
offensively cute, my second favorite thing about this picture
is that you can see skinny Matty J in the background.  see him?
next to nathan.

 I had a video that I was going to upload, but it's been long enough since the last post that it's not even relevent anymore.  Squeek was crawling across the kitchen floor chasing a little wind-up bug that was speeding away from her.  She is such a good crawler now that the footage feels like ages ago.  It's sorta like if you watchstar wars.  the cinematic technology is so progressed now that the story almost feels irrelevent.  It's not so much the special effects, but just how the special effects inform the storyline.  Jurassic Park, on the other hand, has aged surprisingly well.  I remember when I first saw that in the theater, with Oma, and the opening sequence was so loud that I knew I was in for a show.  Then all night in the Golf house I envisioned velociraptors stealthily coming up the stairs to the kids room.  Yikes, but Awesome!!!  I'm off topic...
So squeek is crawling very well and speedily.  yesterday she crawled from the far end of the living room to the office, where she knew she'd find me.  That's like 25 feet, with 3 turns.  Pretty impressive.  Also, she chased me around the house as I was crawling (and hiding behind corners to scare her)(she doesn't scare all that easily.  she startles, certainly, which is hilarious, but not scare. It's more like surprises, which she loves, and is a bonified way to get a smile out of her).

More impressively, though, is that she is pulling up on everything to come to a standing.  she even passed the blank wall test, the most feared rubric of baby agility this side of mount desert island.  (It's where you use a blank wall to come to standing.  super hard, requiring punishing core strength. try it).  She still isn't super at cruising around the room using furniture as a hand rail, but does it every once in a while all the same.  She also does the one-handed assisted walk.  quite stable. 

Oh! and how could I forget?  Sienna said her first word!  She was nursing before bed, and I kissed her goodnight and went to leave the room and she pulled off and reached out to me and said, "Da-Da."  Laura assures me that this was really cute (I don't remember because I passed out, hitting my head on the wall).  Then, out of respect to me, she proceeded the next day to call the fridge Dada, and the lamp dada, and the chair dada, and mama dada.  Some might suggest that this doesn't really count as a first word, since it's apparent that she wasn't actually refering to her dada by saying dada.  This, however, is BS.  As parents, we have the right to pick and choose these things as we see fit.  It's our right.  I'm already anticipating when she first walks.  She'll be on the floor playing with mama, and then I'll be headed out the door to go to class.  Sienna will reach over, pull herself up on the sofa, and then strike a strut in my direction, arms outstretched and smile glaring.  It's gunna be great.  And, it fits into my neatly constructed worldview that she loves her dada more than anything, except mom.    It's too bad I can't do a future-blog-post, cuz I'd put it up. 

She also responded to her name. It was in the airport on the way to seattle, and a very friendly lady (too friendly?) followed us around saying, hi sienna. Surely enough, sienna whipped around to see who it was.  She has since responded somewhat predictably, which is surprising since we never call her sienna, but instead refer to her as squeek, or squeekalicious, or ms squeek, or squeektastic, or squeekathon, or squeeker, or squeekie two shoes, or sir squeeks a lot. 

at the pike place market.  we paid the fish guys ten bucks to throw
her like she was a fish, and they did.  they had such a good time
they gave us twenty back.

so yeah, went to seattle.  interviewed at UW, and got some omie/loonie baba time.  Fun stuff.  laura had strep, so she was tired and achy, but rallied for: zoo, sounders game, strolls, dentist visit, filling (dada), birthday party, visits with friends (marcus/kelly, cody/meredith/hans, alex/eric/adam/kassia, ty/patience/katie/graeme, saradel/mike, harry/kelly/marsh, chris, and probably more but can't remember because I've never been that social in my life), shopping downtown.  Good times, and of course seattle was fantastic. 
To stop beating round the bush, we heard back from UW, and we got in, and after mulling it over, we have accepted!!!!  so it's official, there's another dr schoene on the way, though this one will be meaner and more spiteful, and more prone to prescribing meds to family.  so we'll be in bozeman next year, then move to seattle to be there for the next three years.  hot diggity.  we are very excited.  they called on the phone and I had the lady repeat it on speaker phone so that laura could hear her say "you have been accepted to UW medical school."  then we hung up and started balling like little children.  no, more like adults that were really happy.  Sienna thought we were super wierd.  then  we drank champagne and started trying on UW SOM memoribilia.  omie found me an appropriate zip-up hooded muscle shirt.  Go Dawgs.  can't wait to take laura to a football game.

she likes the bubbly

so that's about it.  we've been partying ever since.  talk about a cheap date...

had to include this. so this trip was kinda a trip...
here she is in the high chair that I used, and we
bathed her in the tub that I bathed in, and read books
and played with toys that I grew up with.  kinda wierd, and
kinda awesome.  also really really dusty.

amoxicillin

Oh boy, so much to report.  First off, to get your appetites appropriately wetted:

so much has happened in the last few weeks... where to start.  We left off with sienna crawling and me getting back from oregon.  Well, the week before that she was congested and feverish and diarrhea-ey and rashy/eczyma-ey.  Poor girl.  so she wasn't exactly sleeping the best (since she couldn't breath), which gave her 12+ extra hrs to exercise her lungs and vocal cords.  This means we weren't sleeping, and by the time I got back from oregon, we realized why she was crawling.  Sienna was distraught to be away from us, so anytime we'd pur her down she'd double over to crawl back to us.  How cute, but also kinda sad.  Well, then this last week we noticed her bottom two teeth coming in.  so finally, she's officially teething, and it explains all of this.  poor girl.  but wait, yesterday we noticed that her left eye was red and green mucus was coming out.  bummer.  When I was in belize, I got the conjunct-a-junk, so I could recognize it well.  yup, she has pink eyes, so we took her in to the ped doc, and she had a look at her ears and sienna flipped out.  yup, ear infection too.  Aaahhhh, so that explains it.  well, along with everything else.  She has managed to have everything that could make her go off, within reason, all happen at once.  poor girl.  but now she's on antibioticas, and feeling much better.  back to her usual self because she actually wants to play with things.  We've also learned just how fearless she is.  when she pulls herself up to standing (second position), she often immediately launches into walking without help.  Despite some bonks, she is unperturbed and continues on with her antics.  crazy girl.

Ah, but here's the real news that I couldn't wait to tell.  Laura fed her pizza.  A couple weeks ago on the blog I was joking about feeding her pizza...joking.  well, laura had an epiphany saturday night and said "hey peter, what if we order some pizza" (you have to understand, this is the first time this has happened in 9+ years of being together.  needless to say, I laid an egg, and out sprouted a monkey with cymbals.  While laura was being distracted by the banging monkey now circulating around the room, I dialed up the pizza co., whose number I had memorized just for this moment. I also went to the secret stash of cash that I had been saving for about 7 years in order to pay the pizza guy at just this moment.  needless to say).  Anyway, we were enjoying our pies and sienna was on laura's lap and of course sienna was trying to grab her pizza.  To my amazement, laura sez "you want some pizza? okay sweetie," and proceeded to give her pizza.  sienna sunk her little fingers into the velvety cheese, watching tomato sauce squirt up between her nails.  The look of joy on her face was unmistakable.  My mouth dropped wide open, and as the monkey marched over my pink tongue which had unrolled onto the floor, laura looks up and says, "wait a minute..."  It was at that moment that i came to know heartbreak for the first time.  It was as if someone had flipped a switch and all the stars and moon went dark and all the crickets stopped chirping, and suddenly you were only aware of the overwhelming loneliness emitted by the nothingness of  empty space-that was sienna's expression.  people talk about not wanting to traumatize their children.  I guess my question is, what if the child is already traumatized. what then?  I guess we'll find out.

It Moves!

Finally, she put all the pieces together.  She has even one-upped the rest of us by yelling as she locomotes.  As it turns out, she has never crawled without screaming.  I am fairly sure that this means that she'll have a future in tennis.  She first made the jump on monday, and has motored around a number of times since then.  i was in portland for an interview, and laura calls with the news, also saying that she stood up by herself on the same day (and promptly toppled over).  I have yet to see this, so I'm skeptical, but luckily laura shot this superb video.  Surely a youtube classic.

cool, laura has plans for more videos, including the wiggling butt as she runs to the bathtub.  Cute!  that's it.  waitlist at reno.  lame.

Highlight Reel

Here we see two of my favorite things about Sienna.  The first is that anytime that you give something, it goes immediately to the mouth.  Laura interprets this as sienna giving "Bises" to the object, which is certainly endearing, but I disagree.  I think that her spirit animal is a tiger (like tigger), and that she is ferocious, stalking her prey in the midst of the moonlight.  The jury is out, for now.  Secondly, she also lowes flapping those arms.  It's a little different than the duck dance, as it's more violent and directed.  More of a baby bird learning to fly.  I'm pretty sure that her future occupation will involve these movements.  For example, she may be a judge, and thrill in banging her gavel.  "Order!"  Or perhaps a carpentress, who shuns the use of those newfangled nailguns.  Or, obviously, a boxer.  This would make particular sense since all her clothes are pulled up high, sorta like how boxers wear their shorts.  (if you can think of any other appropriate vocations for such actions, please "comment").  Regardless, if you get the chance to hold the squeek, BE CAREFUL.  she's been giving momma black eyes, and I've been getting calls from social services.  not good.

All I can say is, future boyfriends, watch out.  your destiny may well be written in this video, complete with her throwing you aside and going for your fancy car keys.

snacks

So we're gunna try something a little different. Rather than uploading the videos directly, we're going through youtube.  Is that a bad idea? anyone?  If you would like to subscribe to my video service, my user name is "buttsniffer1000."  (apparently all my usual usernames were taken).  okay here we go:
so here are some rapturous moments in the life of ms sienna

While yale loved the rice cereal, sienna has not, though it may be more of a texture thing than anything else.  we're making all the food with a little handheld grinder thing (thanks mama suze!), which leaves the texture of most everything a little grainier than you would get in the store. that may be why avocado is such a hit:

I'm not entirely convinced that she is eating it all, given how much comes out.  but, we look down and the bowl is gone and her face isn't too bad, so it must get in there somehow.  Either that, or her "feeding the dog under the table" skills are way beyond advanced.  I could see it going either way.

Snowbabe

As a christmas gift, opa helped us get a ski set-up for the stroller.  While everyone else in MT resigns to the bitter winter reality of observing the holiday poundage grow and grow, Laura has been out and about teaching sienna how to ski.  as with strolling, she enjoys it, so much so that it puts her to sleep.  I have a hard time empathizing with this reaction, but apparently it's normal.  I only wonder if it will continue as she gets older, and anytime the movie is just starting to get good, or checkers is just get interesting, or right before she makes a catch... she falls asleep.  Hope not.  That'd be a bummer.



follow me



we keep her pretty bundled, and she usually gets too hot.
apparently, she has her daddy's body heat.

it works like this. it's a lot lighter than sleds that
I am used to pulling:



Apparently, I've been training a lifetime for these moments

 We have some excellent videos, but blogspot is being a brat and won't let me post them. sorry.
what else? she is army crawling.  she can get across teh room, though only very slowly.  it's only a matter of time before she realizes that she can keep her upper body off the ground with only one arm.  once she's realized that, we're screwed.  I have a feeling that she will not be one to sit still.  Laura is baby-proofing the house as we speak.  First on the list is this creeping plant we have, which we love, and its shoots creep along the floor, but now she is going over to it and trying to rip the leaves off and eat them.  not good.  this is also right next to the basket of choking-sized rocks/shells that laura insists on keeping around.  that'll have to go too.  our biggest problem is that many of our bookshelves have things on them, and  I know that she will try to pull herself up on them (by the way, she is pulling herself into a standing position from sitting if you set her up right), and then the question is whether or not the things on the shelves will stay put.  frankly, I don't know, and unfortunately we just don't have a place for these things because our apartment is full.  hrmmmmm.  also, the wedding statue is going into the closet.  sorry dad.  speaking of which, went to watch the super bowl at papa brownie's, and at first sienna loved the football game, but quickly found out that watching 6 yo kira do wind sprints across the tv room was far more entertaining. particularly the barking like a puppy part.  what else? tufts put me on deferred decision, whatever that means.  they emphatically said that it's not the wait-list.  my guess is that they would take me, but since i'm not from maine they need to see if there are any mainers that they think are as good as me from future interviews.  so more waiting. no word from anyone else.
I'll work on trying to get some videos up. we've got some good ones.
Oh, here's an amended post item...a ski video.  waren miler, eat your heart out!

Pizza

Laura won't let me feed sienna pizza, even though we got the official go-ahead from our pediatrician.  Supposedly the recentest studies are indicating that withholding certain foods do not decrease rates of allergies, and in fact may increase them (too soon to tell for sure).  Therefore, if sienna is going to be a schoene, it is imperitive that she not be allergic to pizza. therefore, I'm needing to sneak it to her.  She loves it.  We also passed the carrots, apple, squash barriers. 

this one was sent from the wilson from when
we were in seattle before christmas.

Strides

Though she didn't like sweet potato much, or mango, she has embraced carrots and...
you guessed it, Avocado!  loves it!

So, come back from east and have dropped into survival mode.  turns out I signed up for a class in billings. I don't know how that is even possible, but I did, so needed to figure that, and many other things out.  But, back in the swing.  more importantly, sienna is also back in the swing. all the usual stuff mentioned: eatin, rollin, 'most crawlin, and otherwise causing a stir.  also went to the pediatrician, and she is over 15 lbs.  that means she's gained eight lbs, which puts her and I neck-to-neck, as I've gained about nine. I think I'm gunna pull ahead this next week, too.  I mean, with the super bowl coming up.  She does, however, definitely have me beat in the height and head department.  I can't raise a candle on her there.

Do note sienna's overwhelming joy, and my sweatpants.  oh, and thanks bryan for the shirt.  it's a keeper!

What else? that's about it.  for those of you keeping score, got waitlisted at UVM. no other word.

more hawaii pix

Here are some pics from the rest of the fam. Definitely some good ones: Thanks!


sienna with omie. cute!



feeding the fish. sienna was entranced



sienna's new beau, graeme



auntie kt et al



no, kt is not naked.  But yes, sienna is missing her pants.



opening stocking on xmas. Thanks mama suze!



sleepin babes.



sienna's first white sand christmas



I've got the department of fish and game on the line. They seemed
unconcerned about my fears of this lobster attacking my baby!



Holler if you've heard this one: What's orange, and sounds like a parrot?
A carrot!



The traditional hawaii picture.  Thanks graeme for shooting it, and thanks
Ty for smiling. oh wait, you're not...
(I found one, just one tyson smile amongst all the hawaii pictures. classic)



daddy likes the fish too.  this was around
when we started calling sienna shark-bait.