Misc cute stuff - the month of August

Here are just a couple of random pictures and videos that don't really fit anywhere else. All are from August.












Walking in Mom's shoes video


Kitty in the face video


First kisses

Does this fit me?

Trapped in Dad's shirt


The great chase!

Forest in Vegas (21-24)

Forest went to Vegas for a co-worker’s bachelor party. Yeah, he left his poor pregnant wife and 18 month old child home alone while he went off to a 4-day party!! Can you believe the NERVE??? Just teasing, actually, he more than “paid his dues” for the trip. Forest knows better than to just ask if I’m ok with him doing something like this – instead, he emailed me a “proposal” whereby, for 5 months before the trip, he 1) let me sleep in BOTH weekend mornings once a month, 2) got Sienna up and around in the morning (that’s my job, he puts her to bed) 1 morning/week, 3) gave me 4 hours to do whatever I wanted for fun 1 weekend a month AND 4) he paid for the entire trip out of his “allowance money”! I’m actually hoping that he plans another trip like this soon – it was VERY worth it from my perspective!

Sienna and I had a great weekend together. In addition to some quality time alone together, we visited our friends Marina and Catherine on Saturday and went to a Margaritaville party at a co-worker’s house on Sunday.

My favorite part of the whole thing though was that every time Sienna would say “Daddy” during the weekend, I would reply, “sorry honey, Daddy’s watching naked ladies dance right now” or “no, Si, Daddy can’t be here right now, he’s too busy losing all our money gambling, we’ll probably have to move out of our house soon”. She, of course, had no idea what I was saying – but I thought I was hilarious!

Oklahoma (5th) New Haven (11-13), Boston (15-16), Brussels (26-28)

August was a blur of trips and activities. On the 5th, I traveled to Oklahoma and back (wanted to spend as little time there as possible – though the people were very nice).

I attended a 3 day long training session in New Haven, CT for CogState the 11th – 13th. This was a packed, but fun 3 days. It was nice to see some of my friends from Australia and to meet the new staff in the New Haven office. I didn’t sleep much though, as I kept getting sucked into the Olympics every single night while working in my hotel room.

On the 15th, I traveled to Boston for about 24 hours to give a talk at an Investigator meeting for a drug study. I was teaching a group how to administer a couple of neuropsychological tests.

On the 26th, I traveled to Brussels, Belgium. I arrived early morning on the 27th, slept in my hotel room for about 45 minutes and then got on a train to head to the training site. The major highlights of the training were getting myself locked in a bathroom and having to pound on the door and yell for 10 minutes until someone heard me and let me out – and – trying to type in front of 10 people on a keyboard that 1) wasn’t in English and 2) all the keys were in different places!

Following all this excitement, I worked for 4 hours and then got back on the train to the hotel room, slept for about 6 hours and then got back on an airplane coming home! As my friends say….I’ve been around the world and seen absolutely NOTHING!

Sadly, the only pictures I have from any of these trips are these from the AIRPORT (!!!!) in Brussels!! ...I guess that just about sums it up..... :(

I did take some time out to buy some chocolate though. "When in Belgium...."

Little pubs like this one were all over the place.

Alzheimer’s disease dog show fundraiser (Aug 20)

Bailey was the clear "best in show" as far as Sienna was concerned!

The Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center held a doggie fashion show outside of my office to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association. I went and picked Sienna up from daycare for the event and Forest headed over after work. Sienna had a blast watching and petting all the dogs.









Ta Da!!!

Yeah!!

Oh the concentration....!!

Look Mom!!


After the show, we went to McDonalds for dinner.

Sienna's first happy meal

Remembering Gizmo (August 14th)

On August 13th, Gizmo started getting sick and acting lethargic. Forest was studying for a final exam and Sienna was asleep so I took him to the overnight emergency vet clinic. Labs showed that he was in acute kidney failure. In fact, his kidneys were in such bad shape that they actually had to dilute his blood down before their computers could read the levels of BUN and creatinine in his system.  They were literally “off the charts”, some of the worst the clinic had ever seen. We tried very aggressively to treat him and bring his kidney functioning back, but after about 12 hours, it became apparent that too much damage had been done and we had to euthanize him. We have no idea what could have caused this to happen. He was only 5 years old. Our best guesses are some sort of toxin (unlikely as our house is clean and babyproof) or a genetic disorder.

As you can imagine, this was a CRUSHINGLY SAD blow to us. Gizmo was a real member of our family. We referred to him as “your brother” to Sienna. He was always there sleeping wrapped like a purring hat around Forest’s head at night and meowing at the door while he took showers in the morning. After his death, Frodo (who we weren’t sure would even notice) became quite “needy” and wandered the house sort of lost and whining for weeks.

I bought Gizmo for Forest for his 24th birthday. I found him online at an animal shelter and, when he was about 8 weeks old, we went to pick him up about 2 hours away from where we lived. One of my favorite memories was the trip home that day. Forest had tiny little “Mo” sitting on his knee the whole way home. Forest was sneezing, red-faced puffy and had tears forming in his eyes because he was so allergic to him! He tolerated this for weeks though, until his body adjusted and eventually Gizmo could sleep literally on his head without any problem. Now that’s LOVE!

We’ll miss ya Mo!!


Gizmo meet Sienna, Sienna this is Gizmo

How to swaddle a cat, by Forest Caveney

My home has officially been invaded!

Do you think anyone sees me?

I looooove fuzzy blankets!!




Hey! Do you think any of this loot is ours?

Frodo will miss you, Mo

for lots of reasons

18 Month Birthday (August 13th)

Sienna turned 1.5 years on the 13th of August. Unfortunately, I was traveling and Forest had class, so we didn’t have much of a party. Sienna’s 2nd favorite babysitter (next to Kelsea, of course) watched her and they had a great time running around the yard and playing. I took a few videos and photos when I got home (after her bath).

Video - 18 month birthday

Sienna at Logans and visit to Grandma’s (August 2, 3)

Sienna and Cousin Kelsea

We left Sienna with the Logans for about 24 hours while we attended an emergency owner’s meeting at the Double JJ (they filed for bankruptcy). As always, Sienna had a blast doing lots of fun stuff. They say that she is getting easier to watch now. I say…just wait until #2 is born!

On Sunday, we all went over to my Grandma’s house to spend the day with the extended family.




What a great fort!

Peek-a-boo!

Alpenfest Weekend - July 18-20

As usual, we went up to my parents' house for Alpenfest weekend. My Mom sewed Sienna a dress (my Dad designed the trimmings) and we bought her a Queen Sash. She was the hit of the Strauss running around charming everyone in her path. We kept hearing, "oh look at that cute little girl" everywhere we went. It was fun just to walk up and down the street and watch people watch her. She even got her picture taken for the Gaylord paper AND another taken with the REAL Alpenfest Queen!




My Aunt Gayla is one of the Alpenfest organizers so she set it up so that Sienna would sit on her lap during a live TV news interview. Unfortunately, the interview and Sienna's nap schedule conflicted, so we didn't make that.



Sienna loved to watch the bands on stage and dance and clap along. When no band was on stage, she would climb the stairs and run around on the stage herself!

Dancing to Yankee Doodle

She also got a balloon animal from Rosco the clown, but she tried to eat it and it popped!










We tried a merry-go-round ride, but it was really too fast for her (I actually had a hard time staying on my feet!) and she just pretty much looked terrified the entire time!



On Friday, we went to a local park to hang out with Angie and Linda and their kids. That was a lot of fun - it's always good to see them. Linda and I went and had ice cream on the Alpenstrauss and got "caught up" on things.

While in Gaylord, we also went to the farm where my Mom co-ops and saw a donkey that had been born earlier that morning. That was really cool - though Sienna wasn't so sure what she thought of him! We also had a blast catching chickens, swinging on the rope swing, playing with their "soccer dog" and picking veggies and strawberries.

Sienna meets a 9 hour old baby donkey





Other than all of this, we spent the rest of our time just relaxing and playing at G&G's house.

Hopefully this is how she continues to use this!
















Driving Aunt Gayla's cart