Since today marks 18 months since Siena was born, please click here to read the post HawkInWinter wrote about the day she was born and here to read a letter I wrote her when she was one week old. Both include thumbnail pictures you can click to see bigger, with captions.

Then come back here in the next few days to see pictures from her first birthday!

I was sick on Monday so I missed the first day of classes, making Wednesday my first day. I’m taking courses each quarter of this coming year to fulfill eight prerequisites I have left before applying to Ultrasound Technology Schools. If accepted, I will start in September 2011 and graduate in August 2013. Then Siena will be almost five, with another year left before kindergarten. I should be able to work two or three days a week as an Ultrasound Technician and make about what I was making as a teacher. I will be able to leave work at work though, not take home hours of paperwork that would keep me from my family.

The first step down that long path is across the threshold of the local community college, and that’s where I went on Wednesday. Later that evening, lucky wife that I am, my husband cooked dinner! That will be our plan for Mondays and Wednesdays the next 10 weeks.

Here’s my blog version of his recipe that yielded such delicious results:

Stir fry yellow onions and bean sprouts in sesame oil.
Use a combination of teriyaki sauce and soy sauce to fry up extra firm tofu, baby shrimp, canned bean sprouts, baby corn, scrambled egg, and mushrooms.
Mix into steamed rice, fold in some cold cucumbers and tomatoes.

If you want to do it exactly like HawkInWinter, be sure to use three frying pans, two casserole dishes, a bowl, cutting board, knife, spatula, and a rice cooker. They will pretty much fill a dishwasher.

So what do you think, does it make you want to go back to school too?

I’ve been adding to a list of our talking baby’s words and signs for a while now, meaning to post them. I think it’s time.

Signed Words:

• more
• airplane
• cat
• bird
• eat
• potty
• nurse

Verbal words and pronunciations, in approximate order learned:

• hi
• dog (daw)
• woof woof (woo woo)
• down (dow – and points vigorously)
• “grrr” used to indicate bears and snowmen, now is any animal whose name she doesn’t know
• cat (dat said in a high pitched meowing voice)
• ball (bah)
• e-i-e-i-e-i (has turned into yi-yi-yi-yo)
• ice
• light (ite)
• banana (naNAna)
• food (nana)
• baby (baaaybay) (her word for anybody under the age of, say, 12)
• bird (burr)
• santa (deh-deh)
• gives a kiss and says “muh”
• horse (huss)
• two
• egg (g)
• og (orange..the fruit)
• bye-bye (bah-buh)
• donkey (dogm)
• Dada
• Daddy
• Momma
• that (dat – usually means “I want that”)
• flower (fwow-uh)
• rabbit (wab-uh)
• moon
• balloon (boo)
• star (daow)
• fish (fiss)
• shoe (used to rhyme with cow, now sounds like szoo)
• airplane (wee!)
• snake (ssss)
• apple (a-poe)
• water (wa-wuh)
• duck/quack (kah-kah)
• pig (makes a snorting noise)
• eyes
• turtle (t-t)
• heart (haw)
• up (hup)
• on
• off (op)
• sock (with the “ck” sound elongated and guttural)
• please (pees – uses to respond to my question “Do you want help?”)
• bye-bye (bah-buh)
• car (cah)
• bear (bayo)
• Nemo (Mee-mo)
• candle (dat-doh)
• purple (pur-poh)
• Nonna and Papa (No-no, Papa)
• bubble (bubbuh)
• sheep/lamb (baaaa)
• write (wite wite/ite ite ite)
• milk (miccck)
• outside (sye)
• bounce bounce bounce (baw-baw-baw)
• phone (foe)
• color (caw-coe)
• cracker (caw-coe…yes, it can be confusing!)
• sunshine (suh-sye)
• toilet paper (“pull” because that’s what she does with it)
• flush (fwusss)

This week she has started putting two words together:

• two bears
• more flowers
• Hi Daddy
• two shoes
• help please
• two phones

Did you make it all the way to the end? All I have left to say is that I think I’ll stop keeping track now that I’ve finally posted these lists!

As a Special Education teacher, I loved watching students progress from parroting words, spoken or signed, to truly using language to communicate. Then again when they transitioned from communicating what they did or did not want, to communicating interesting things in their world – I loved that too.

As a Momma, I have delighted in observing Siena as she learns new words and learns to communicate with us. Her first word was “Hi” and it’s still the word she uses the most. She greets just about every person who crosses her path, and repeats her greeting until she gains their attention. Everybody we pass at the grocery store, at Mass, the Post Office, the doctor’s office, restaurants…she’s not satisfied unless every last person has made eye contact, smiled, and either waved or said “hi.” Even better if they declare how cute she is, or how friendly, or how happy.

At first she struck me as extremely observant, delightedly pointing out dogs, bears, flowers, stars, moons, apples, bananas, and babies in cluttered or busy environments. I often have to look carefully to find the item she’s pointing to, marveling at her attention to detail.

Lately I’ve started to think of these incidents with an analogy. I picture that, for her first twelve months or so, Siena has been seeing the world in black and white, not knowing the names of the things she sees. Then as soon as she learned “flower” it was like every flower in her environment turned to color. It would be like having a Where’s Waldo book where only Waldo and his red striped shirt were in color but busy pages were shades of grey.

If there are only a few colorful items in your world, they’re going to grab your eye even if others don’t give them a second glance. Here’s an example. Ever since Siena learned “moon” she points it out in the sky and in her board books. She’s starting to see moon-like shapes though. She got a St. Valentine’s Day card from her Nonna and Papa with cartoon hearts with big white grins. At first I didn’t understand when Siena was pointing to the hearts and calling them moons, until I realized the crescent smiles looked like moons to her. Same thing the day I peeled a whole banana and showed it to her. And again when she nibbled her canned pineapple ring into a half circle. Both suddenly looked like moons to her.

I love watching her figure out categories and other complexities of language. It used to be that any dot or circle she saw was “ball”, including the heads on the icons for men’s and women’s bathrooms. Then we played with bubbles one day, and one dimensional circles all turned into “bubba”s and only spheres remain balls. There is an exception to her rule though. My favorite “bubba” is the clear plastic ball my drugstore trouser socks came in. When I first bought it she called it a ball, but now it’s her treasured bubble, supposedly because it’s clear?

Based on observations of how she groups her toys, she seems focused on the task of understanding the categories of plants, people, and animals. Her way of distinguishing something as an animal is by making a growling sound. If she knows it’s not a cat, dog, bird, or fish but that it is an animal whose label she doesn’t know, she categorizes it as “animal” by making a throaty “grrrr” sound. (At least that’s my interpretation of what she’s doing.) I laughed so hard the day she was figuring out her new figurine of Crush from Finding Nemo. He’s a turtle with flowers on his shell. She pointed to him and called him a flower – fwowuh. I said yes, he has flowers on his shell but he’s called a turtle. She seemed puzzled that a flower was somehow also an animal, and settled on meshing the two categories by using her guttural, growly voice to declare it “Fwowuh!”

She’s also expressed confusion about Baby Jesus having the same name as the Jesus on the cross at church. There’s a big wooden crucifix leaning against the wall of the room we use as a cry room in the back of the church. A while ago she pointed to him and asked, “Grrr?” as if to say, “Is that an animal?” I told her that was Jesus. She paused for a moment then exclaimed with a tone of recognition: “Baybee!”

She’s paying attention to the language at Mass, too. Soon after she learned the word “sun”, came the reading of the Prodigal Son. You guessed it – each time the priest said “son” Siena happily echoed with “sun.” Another time we were attending the afternoon Spanish Mass since we’d all slept in and missed the morning Mass. She heard the priest say, “manana” and grinned at me like she was in on a joke, and said “Momma!”.

Siena is reminding me of another reason I find language development so fascinating: it helps me see the world through the eyes of a child. Siena’s world is a pretty exciting place, full of friends just waiting to be greeted with a “Hi!” and a huge smile. I sure hope she maintains her joyful optimism as she discovers more and more about the world. I look forward to helping her reveal all of its colors.

length – 31 inches
weight – 20 pounds

I’m including some pictures of you at your appointment. (Click here to see pictures from earlier doctor visits.) For my own memory, here’s a snapshot of your development. I’ll use the areas of development we documented when I taught special education preschool.

Personality

Siena is a social little girl who greets most adults she sees, and particularly loves dogs, babies, and children.  She loves to dance (sometimes even while nursing) and is observant and persistent.  She likes to hold two matching items in each hand, and walks around the house trading items to find better matches. She might start with two wooden puzzle pieces, then trade one for a plastic dog to match the dog puzzle piece. Later she may set down the puzzle piece and pick up a second plastic dog.

Gross Motor Skills

Siena can jump in place, spin (from a standing or sitting position), walk forwards and backwards independently. She climbs up stairs using her hands and knees, and backs down stairs with guidance. When an adult holds one hand, she can walk up and down stairs, bringing her feet together on each step.  She consistently squats down and stands up without losing her balance.

Fine Motor Skills

Siena has a proficient pincer grasp, points spontaneously, scribbles with an age appropriate grasp, and makes several gestures in sign language that require finger dexterity. She seems to prefer her right hand. She often attempts to hold two things in one hand but does not yet squirrel small items in her fist.

Adaptive Skills – Self  Help

Siena can take off her socks and can unfasten the Velcro closures on her shoes. She tries to put clips in her hair and hats on her head. She can remove hair clips, headbands, and hats.  She helps with dressing and undressing by pushing her arms through sleeves, stepping her legs in and out of pants while steadying herself against a parent, holding out one foot at a time for socks and shoes, and uses her arms to push a shirt over her head when a parent is pulling it over her head. She holds still for several seconds to get her hair styled and watches quietly as her nails get trimmed. Siena sits on a pottty seat on the regular sized toilet at each diaper change, and claps for herself when she urinates in the toilet about once per day.  She moves a toothbrush back and forth in her mouth, and is working on tolerating a parent brushing her teeth for her. When prompted, she will imitate  ”cleaning up” by putting her toys in a designated container. She likes to wipe her high chair tray with a baby wipe, and is growing increasingly tolerant of her hands and face getting wiped.  Siena tends to make a screeching or  ”eh-eh-eh”  noise  is frustrated, and is working on signing or saying “Please” in  order to request help appropriately. Siena feeds herself with her fingers and practices with spoons and forks. She drinks from an open cup, held by an adult, with some spilling. She has some exposure to drinking from a straw and from sippy cups, but resists holding her own cup. She does hold a CamelBak brand waterbottle with an internal straw, which doesn’t require tipping the waterbottle in order to drink. She currently drops her cup and fingerfood on the floor to indicate she is done eating, and is working to replace this behavior by asking for “down.”  She currently responds to a prompt when asked if she wants “more” or “down” but is working on spontaneously making her request to get down before throwing things.

Adaptive Skills – Following a Routine

Siena used to protest strongly when getting into her carseat, but now accepts the straps and moves a toy from one hand to the other to assist with getting into the straps. She seems to anticipate each element of family routines such as waving goodbye when Daddy leaves for work, being lifted up to touch lights on her way to bed, or reading books and brushing her teeth while sitting on the potty.  She gets frustrated at times if we try to skip a step but does not demonstrate rigid adherence to a routine.

Social Skills

Siena has been described as “the most personable baby I’ve ever met”  by a woman she sits near most weekends at Mass, as “so social” by strangers, and as “the family extrovert” by family members.  She takes toys from playmates and also offers toys.  She enjoys playing “chase” with other toddlers and children.   Siena brings books to her parents to read to her and plays simple turn-taking games such as fetch, peek-a-boo, and “gimme five.”  She giggles when she offers food to a parent, kisses her stuffed animals, or has her stuffed animals kiss each other (or her shoes, or the wall…)

Cognitive

Siena activates simple musical toys, enjoys put-and-take toys,  removes pieces from wooden non-interlocking puzzles and attempts to put them in but gets frustrated easily. Much of her independent play consists of moving toys from one surface to another, rocking them on the rocking chair or rocking horse, placing them in containers and scooting containers around. She does some spontaneous sorting toys by category, such as putting all the plastic fish toys in one group, the wooden puzzle pieces in another group, and the stacking cups in another. She loves board books, especially turning the pages (forward and backwards) and pointing to or labeling images she recognizes.  She does not yet identify her body parts, but when asked, “Where’s your nose?” will point to the nose of the person who asked the question.

Communication

Siena has an expressive vocabulary of about 35 words, signs 5 words using baby sign language, and demonstrates a growing grasp of receptive language. She communicates her wants and needs through a combination of single word utterances (not yet putting two words together), vocalizations, gestures, and signs. She uses language both to make requests and to label items around her.  She tries to imitate new words.

We love you so much Siena! All 31 inches, 20 pounds, and sixteen months of you! You’ve grown and learned so many things right before our eyes. I wish I could keep you from growing up and hold onto this precious toddler stage a bit longer, but then I suppose we’d miss out on the rest of the things you’re aching to learn and discover each day.  Go ahead then…keep growing…just not too quickly, ok?

Half birthday block party -

I was waiting to publish the block party post I’ve been working on, because I wanted to figure out how to include some pretty adorable video that’s too large to upload with our blog software. It looks like the best video choice would require uploading to and streaming from YouTube, but without the permission of all the neighbors appearing in the video, that doesn’t seem quite right. So in a few minutes here I’ll publish that post, sans video.

Starting solids -

In the past month Siena has tasted baby rice cereal in a variety of thicknesses,  as well as mixed with both expressed milk and water. She’s tasted guacamole when we were eating out at a deli, which prompted me to later try avocado as a finger food at home. (So many delicious avocado chunks ended up on the floor that I decided to wait for better fine motor control before trying again. I didn’t mind sacrificing Rice Chex though, so I’ve been getting those a bit soggy and letting her practice her pincer grasp with them instead. They stick to her fingers better, so more make it to her mouth.)

Here are a few cell phone photos, for what they’re worth:

Even with her limited repertoire, she makes her preferences known when it comes to eating, lemme tell ya! I had read in Child of Mine that’s it’s good to hold the spoon a few inches in front of her to see if she’s ready for another bite, and to wait for her to indicate that she’d like some more. The book said she’d indicate that she’d like some more by leaning forward and opening her mouth.  Siena didn’t read the “indicating that you’d like some more” section of the book though, so she tells me she’s ready by grabbing onto the spoon and helping my hand bring it to her mouth! Just yesterday she fussed and kicked when I offered the spoon, and I realized she wanted more Rice Chex instead!

Starting this blog -

I have enjoyed using this blog as a venue for sharing updates and pictures of Siena, but I wish I didn’t have to spend so long on each post. Hawk in Winter tells me it will get faster as I become more familiar with the code, particularly when it comes to arranging the pictures the way I want them.

Maybe by her eight month birthday we’ll have pictures of OUR family in the header, rather than the ones that came with the theme. ;-D

The very next morning after we lowered her mattress a couple notches (for safety’s sake since she’d started pulling to a kneel) Siena started pulling to stand!

“Just reach… and pull myself up…”

“Ta-DAH!”

The first time she pulled to stand, I expected her to last a few wobbly seconds on tiptoes, but she was pretty solidly flat-footed for a good twenty minutes!  Enough time for me to call her father, take pictures, take video, play peek-a-boo by popping up from below her crib, and finish folding and putting away her laundry.

During that time she cruised from the front…

to the  corner…

to the side!

So instead of fixing her upside down bumper, I just took it off. According to the parenting books and websites (and the tag on the bumper itself) it’s Very Important  to remove it as soon as baby pulls to stand in case they start to use it as a step to climb up and out.  I’m starting to think that was premature though because so many times now she has fallen down from standing and bumped her head on the crib rails. Much crying ensues. Poor kiddo needs to learn how to safely get down from standing. She’s had quite a few head bumps when crawling around and trying to kneel, too.

Gravity has NOT been Siena’s friend this week and there has been plenty of crying – seemingly more from frustration and possibly fear than from pain. Even a minor tumble she would’ve brushed off last week is now met with a pitiful meltdown that seems to say, “Again? I can’t believe I fell down again! Life is SOOOO hard I just can’t stand it!”

Poor sleeping probably hasn’t helped the crying situation much. I suspect she’s falling asleep while standing up, gripping the crib rails and crying, so of course once her body relaxes she falls and crashes. Which leads to more frustration and tears. But even if I go in when she’s still standing and gently lay her down, she cries even harder and pulls right back up to standing again.

And so, gravity, we have this to say sing to you: She gets knocked down. But she gets up again. No you’re never gonna keep her down! (Sung with a British accent, a la Chumbawumba, of course)

• On Friday, we’re hosting a May Day block party so we can meet more of our neighbors. We have a little park on our street, and with the spring weather there are more and more families outside playing. I’ve wanted to do something to meet our neighbors for a while now (and just wasn’t up to waddling my third-trimester-pregnant-self over to each house with cookies when we first moved in) and figured the week Siena turns six months old is as good as any. It will be a B.Y.O.Picnic event, but we’ll supply the cupcakes.

• Which brings me to the second way we’re be celebrating – by offering Siena her first taste of rice cereal! (Sorry Siena; you’ll have to wait another six months for a birthday cupcake.)

• And finally, you are looking at the third way we’re marking the day – with a new blog! So far, the first six(teen) months of Siena’s life have been documented at blog.hawkinwinter.com. As it says on there, “We are husband (Hawk in Winter) and wife (Little Red Hen). We are photographers, new parents, conservative Catholics and love living in the Pacific Northwest. This blog is an outlet for our life updates, random thoughts, and rants when our feathers are ruffled.” The mission of that blog remains unchanged, but HawkInWinter will be the primary blogger there and I will be the primary blogger over here. We will do some cross-posting when our subject matter overlaps. This new arrangement allows HiW to have a seamless transition between our main website and blog, while allowing me to choose dynamic, “cutesy” backgrounds and all the Momma-blogging widgets my little heart desires.