good times with solids

I've had a few friends ask me how solids have been going with Sienna.

This is how they're going...

We've tried:

-rice cereal

-rice cereal with sweet potato

-baby oatmeal (I think it tastes WAY better than rice cereal)

-sweet potato

-sweet peas

No luck so far. She keeps her lips tight and turns her head back and forth avoiding the spoon. She ends up eating several bites, but it's not without some major coaxing and tricking on our behalf (making her smile and sneaking in a spoonful without her noticing!). We're so mean, huh?

My dad laughs and says this is payback (because I was a very picky eater). But I'm hoping she comes around to this eating thing really soon. We'll see...

6 months

So we are half way to Sienna's 1st birthday! I can't believe our baby is 6 months old already! It blows my mind how fast she has grown and changed. She is by far the best thing that has happened in our lives and she brings us a joy that I never knew existed. She is so much fun and her personality is blossoming.

She is completely in love with Colby our dog. She giggles and squeals when she watches him run around and play tug-o-war with us. She starts losing interest in us if Colby is around-she just stares at him, smiles, and reaches for him. Colby is indifferent. He's a little annoyed to have an itty-bitty hand constantly touching his face and body, but he never growls or does anything about it (thank goodness!). I think they will be great buddies in the future.

Sienna is doing amazing things these days like completely sitting up on her own. She loves it. I think she's very proud of herself when she can sit up alone. She loves sitting in front of her little kitchen set and touching everything that makes noise and sounds. Sienna also loves rolling around. She'll roll both ways, but if she rolls up against something, she'll get frustrated because she can't keep going in that same direction. She hasn't learned that she should roll the opposite way to get away from the table/dresser/tv stand/etc...But we know it time she'll get it!

Sienna loves reaching for anything and everything! When we hold her, we have to be holding her tight. She bends over and reaches for anything interesting. She is very aware of her surroundings and is interested in anything new. This makes her easily distracted when nursing her these days! She also loves sucking her bottom lip and playing with her little feet.

Sienna hasn't gotten any teeth yet, but at our last doctor apt, he said the back of her bottom gums were really swollen and he believes she's teething. So we'll see when that happens. I'm hoping it's not as terrible as some people say it is!

Last but not least, we started SOLIDS this month! The doctor wanted us to wait until she was 6 months old and we started giving her rice cereal last week. It went terribly! Sienna is definitely not a fan of this gooey stuff. Oh man, have we laughed watching her attempt to eat it. She won't even try to swallow it. The rice cereal just pools at the bottom of her tongue and she sits with her mouth open crying. Eventually she pushes it all out with her tongue. We've tried 4-5 times, all with the same ending...sad baby with a pool of rice cereal in her mouth. I thought, it couldn't be that bad...so I tried it...it is bad. It's real bad. No wonder she doesn't like it! We are going to try mixing in a little tiny bit of sweet potato tonight to see if we have better results. I'll let you know!

Right before her first bite of rice cereal

not so sure of this stuff

We have a video of her trying the cereal for the first time...if I can figure out how to upload it, I will! It's pretty funny.

New Wreath

I made a new wreath. I don't know what it is with me and wreath's lately, but I love my new creation. I think it's because I only have two wreaths-one for fall, and one for winter/Christmas. So I need something on the plain white door for the rest of the year, right?

So here it is: Ta-Da!

I didn't take step by step pictures of wrapping the wreath, so here's what I did. I took a plain white foam wreath and covered it with twine (or it's real name, "Jute" for the crafty world). Once I did that, I made these silk flowers. It was soo easy. I read somewhere on a blog how to make them and this is how:

First, cut three different size circles out of a silky material (I think mine was a silk/polyester blend to be specific). You don't need to trace anything, just eyeball it.

Then you light a tea-light candle.

Then you use a clothespin to hold one of the circles. Hold it just above the flame and you will see the edges start to curl up. Don't hold for too long or it will curl up too far and make a hole in the fabric (like this one almost started to do).

(It's hard taking a picture and trying to wilt the fabric at the same time because it wilts up very fast!)

Keep turning it around until all the edges are sealed and curled.

Continue for the other circles.

I used Fabric glue (Fabri-Tac) to hold them together. Just a little dot of glue works.

After making all my flowers, I simply used fabric pins that I had had, and pushed them into the wreath. I love this because, I can take them off and change it up with other flowers or anything else throughout the rest of the year.

The final product:

Since I have plenty of fabric left, I'm planning on making some little flower clips for Sienna! I think the flowers are adorable!

Hanging out

This past Tuesday, Sienna and I hung out on the front lawn waiting for Daddy to come home from work. The weather had been amazing earlier in the week and it was starting to change-the clouds were rolling in. It was still relatively warm and we enjoyed being outside together. She loves looking around and being outdoors. Here are some pictures of our sweet Sienna and the sky, which ended up giving us an amazing sunset!

I love this picture because in the background you see Garth chasing after Colby! Colbster is the little while dot above Sienna's forehead.

Now he's listening to Garth...only because Garth has food and Colby is hoping for a bite (which he never gets...yet he tries to look so sweet and innocent, hoping we'll give in).

By the end, we were down one sock-Sienna loves taking off her right sock and inserting it straight into her mouth. Then she plays with her foot.

Gorgeous sunset

Valentine's Day Wreath

Once Sienna was born, I found that I was sitting on the couch a lot, while nursing her. It would take 30 minutes and I would be doing it every 2 hours in the beginning! I realized I had a lot of time on my hands while I was sitting there. So I started reading blogs! I would start reading a friends blog and then click on someone they follow...and it would go on and on. While doing this, I started finding some of the most creative women out there! There are several blogs I look at regularly now, while feeding Sienna. So they have definitely inspired me to be creative again and I have also found some amazing and easy recipes on these blogs. Well, I decided to make a craft I found from the idearoom.net. I made a felt heart wreath for Valentine's Day. Click Here for step by step directions on how to make this wreath.

5 months

5 months already! Wow! Sienna just continues to be such a joy to Garth and I. We love her little personality that is showing more and more each day. She is so incredibly sweet and lovable. We love how she smiles and giggles all the time. However, I have noticed that she is starting to figure out this whole camera business. I can have her smiling and giggling, but as soon as I bring up the camera, she gets so serious. Every time I go to snap the shot, the smile is wiped away and it's serious time! So, you just have to trust us that she's full of smiles and giggles that just melt your heart!

Sienna has found her feet and boy does she love them. She touches them, grabs them, and likes to play with them in her bath, while playing on the ground, and she attempts in the carseat-but, after many struggles and grunts, she finds that cannot reach them! She also is rolling over a lot more now. She hasn't rolled from her back to her tummy, but every time I put her on her belly for tummy time, she rolls right over.

Another new thing for Sienna is any time we are holding her, she leans over to the side or backwards with her arm stretched wide trying to touch anything she sees. She wants to touch everything. If Garth is holding her, she's reaching and leaning towards me. If I'm holding her, she does the same thing for her daddy. It's cute, but we really have to be holding her tight because she obviously has no sense of fear and just leans all the way back. She is a strong girl and she is loving finding the ways her body moves and what she is capable of!

For many of you who do not know, Garth has changed jobs. He got an offer from Citizens Business Bank that he was very excited about and therefore resigned from Merrill Lynch last month. Garth is now the Vice President of Investment Services for the Central Valley. He is doing the same thing, being a financial advisor, but he does so for 12 banks in the valley-from Bakersfield up to Stockton. He is really enjoying it so far and as I type, he is on his way to North Carolina for some training for 4 days. I am already missing him!

Here are some recent pictures of our precious little one with her serious face :)

Nana and Sienna

love her

Loving those feet

Showing off an adorable tutu outfit from Auntie Heather