Sienna can talk....finally...well sort of.....

At our 15 month appointment, Sienna had zero (yes, as in "0") words. Well...she said "mama" and "dada" (but to everything including animals and inanimate objects) and "uh oh" (when she fell down, dropped things OR threw things).

The Doctor was a little concerned, saying that she should have 4 words (that she understood the meaning of) by that time.

Sienna must have heard her though, because she took the criticism to heart, and, by her 16 month birthday she had 9 words!!

#1 - Uh oh (if you count that - some do, some don't)
#2 - Ditee (Kity - can't you tell? Ok - neither could we for 2 months)
#3 - Baaah (ball) - and if you ask her to go get a ball - she will
#4 - Baby (her most clear word - the only one that needs no interpreter)
#5 - Dada! (said with great enthusiasm and emphasis on the 2nd syllable - we are 100% sure she knows who dada is)

#6 - mama (less convincing - she mostly says this when she is mad about or wants something)
#7 - Wow!
#8 - No! (Still sounds cute to us, but we have a feeling will get old fast)
#9 - Pupah (puppy, by far the cutest of all -and most recent)

Animal noises:
#1 - Howls like a wolf (really cute)
#2 - Barks like a dog (sounds suspiciously close to her monkey noise)
#3 - Moo's like a cow (usually just gets the "oooo" part - but sometimes the whole thing)
#4 - Mary noise

Sign language:
She knows the sign for "eat" - and uses it often.

Here are a couple of pictures - just random ones we have taken recently. I'll try to get a little video of some of the words soon

Sienna helps Mom unpack groceries. She knows which ones are hers, and where they go.

She LOVES shoes - of any shape and size!

4 generations together up in Gaylord in May 2008

June 7-8th Double JJ and Cheryl's House

Jammin' like Grandpa!

Forest and I had an owner's weekend at the Double JJ Resort so Aunt Cheryl agreed to watch Sienna for us. My parents switched the weekend that they were going to be visiting Cheryl so that they could be there at the same time. Everything went really well. Sienna was a ton of help with the repairs around the house. I think her favorite part was talking Lilly for walks. My parents bought a "cute little truck" for my dad to use in his new business.

We're ready, are you guys ready?

Chocolate pudding! THAT'S what I'm talkin' bout!!!

Aunt Cher, Sammy won't let me have my guitar back!!

For our part, we had a pretty good weekend at the Double JJ. The rodeo essentially got rained out, but we did get in almost a whole round of golf (Forest and my Dad golfed, I rode along and kept them honest on their scores) and got a chance to get to know some of the other owners of the resort.

High hopes

Our condo living room

Master Suite

Forest putts for birdie!

June 3-4 – Leiden, Netherlands

I flew to the Netherlands to do training for CogState the evening of June 2nd. I left about 9:30pm at night. My flight was very expensive for some reason (maybe because it was booked late), so when I checked in, I was given the option to upgrade to World Business Class for $200 or 15,000 miles. I chose to use my miles and treat myself. Well….I really never should have done that!! WBC is absolutely a different world. You don’t even feel like you are on the same airplane with everyone else. It’s not like domestic first class, which is really just coach with more legroom, wider seats and alcohol. In WBC, you have these pod seats that lay completely flat, on demand TV, gourmet meals served from actual menus (I chose the salad with vinaigrette, tenderloin beef tips, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, fruit and…..an ice cream brownie desert…does this sound like airplane food???). You also have hot towels and a little care package with socks, chapstick, toothpaste and brush, eye mask, comb, and a water bottle! Drinks are served constantly; computers can be plugged in….. Unfortunately (or fortunately), because it was so late, I slept for 5 hours of the 7 hour trips so didn’t make it through a single movie, or really get to enjoy my surroundings much.

Once in the Netherlands, I took a train from Schiphol Airport to Leiden, the town I was teaching the class in. I checked into my hotel, which was very nice on the outside – but a typical European hotel on the inside (i.e., tiny rooms with pretty crummy amenities). I realized later that the “hotel” had a total of only 9 rooms! Breakfast was included with my room, but was really disappointing. Apparently a standard Netherlands breakfast consists of about 15 different kinds of breads and crackers and varying types of spreads (including chocolate, hazelnut, honey, cheeses, peanut butter, liver paste and several other things that I wasn’t sure what they were because they were in Dutch and didn’t have pictures on them).

The city of Leiden was really very nice. I simply could not get over the fact that there are very few cars on the roads and bicycles and mopeds everywhere!! You see about 100 bikes for every car. In fact, standing on the sidewalk next to the road, you could watch the road for about 5 minutes before you even saw a car!! Gas is about $7/gallon there, cars are expensive, and the city has done an incredible job of providing places for bicyclists to ride (every street has a bike track on both sides of it).

Besides the bicycles, there were these amazingly huge (the picture doesn’t do this justice) windmills around the city. And…of course…you have “coffee houses” every few blocks (walking past one I nearly got knocked over by the cloud of marijuana smoke that came billowing out)…but their presence is far more subtle than in Amsterdam. Overall, Leiden seemed like a very quaint and classy place.

The people of the Netherlands, as a group, seem to be very friendly, speak perfect English (every child takes English, French and German in school – most people I ran into were happy to talk to me and practice their English), and are in incredible physical shape! I saw literally 2 people who would qualify as even slightly overweight while I was there (and they were together and probably tourists). I am sure this comes from all the bike riding and the fact that most of them eat very lightly at breakfast and at lunch.

The clinic that I visited (to teach at) was among the best I have ever seen. The people were incredibly intelligent and organized. I wished that I would be working with them myself (I was actually covering the training for someone who is based in Australia). Because they were so good, the training was effortless and we finished early. This allowed me to travel home a day earlier than expected.

I arrived home at 7pm on Weds night – only to find that someone had swapped my child with a white Asian baby! It seems that Sienna got bit by a mosquito right between her eyes (and on her hand and forehead) and it swelled up terribly to the point that her eyes looked half closed. Her forehead also had a huge bump on it that she was scratching (try to tell a 1 year old not to scratch!!) Forest, upon waking her up earlier that morning and seeing her all swelled up like that was convinced that she had been bitten by a spider overnight and he started making arrangements to take a day off work and a trip to the doctor. Daycare convinced him that it was probably just a mosquito bite and, with a little help from Google and some pictures on a few peoples’ blogs, he calmed down some (but still did make a trip to the pharmacy to ask if there was anything that could be done to help – which there isn’t).

Other than the mosquito bite incident, Forest and Sienna fared well for the 2 days I was gone (with a little help from our main babysitter when Forest was in class).

I’m glad to be home and am looking forward to staying here for a while. No big trips planned for the near future…well….except the Double JJ Ranch this weekend and Florida 2 weeks from now….and a few of trips to Gaylord….and the Rothbury Music Festival on July 4th weekend – but other than that….we’ll be home all summer.

My hotel....


...room left something to be desired (yes, this is the whole thing)



This picture doesn't even do this justice. The bike area was 3 times as large as what is seen here.

Go to the hospital in style!

Leiden City Center

A typical road (notice the bike path on left is almost as large as the road itself)

Bikes were lined up in front of all stores like this

Weekends of Memorial Day and May 31st

The world looks cool through shades!

Memorial Day weekend was spent at home, but not lazily. Forest had class on Saturday (can you believe that???) so we were “grounded”. It turned out to be a good thing though because we had a TON to do around the house. We made a long list of “jobs” and got most everything done. I even planted my veggie garden (my friend Sara came over and helped – we are doing a mini co-op this year because Forest said I couldn’t have a garden again unless I got help with it!).

Mom!! I think Dad has finally totally lost it!!!

The weekend of May 31st, Forest and I went up to Mt. Pleasant to clean apartments. We had a great group of tenants this year – not a single eviction! We have resigned all except 1 of the apartments (about par for the course for this time of year) for next year. This may be the last year we go up to do some of the cleaning ourselves (Forest is hoping so at least!).

While we were in Mt. Pleasant, Mary, Gary, Kelsea and Trevor watched Sienna for us. The stranger anxiety is really improving, so she warmed right up to them immediately (she may also be remembering them better now in between visits) and (reportedly) didn’t cry a single tear when we left!! It seems that everything went really well. She slept well and ate them out of house and home! One of the cutest things was that they got out this old slide and set it up in their living room. Sienna was a pro by the time we got back on Sunday, she would climb up – stick her legs out, sit down and fly down the slide and land on her butt laughing! The Logan’s also taught her how to bark like a puppy and “what does Mary say” (pat hand on mouth while making noise). Kelsea swears that Sienna said “Kelsea” at one point, but we’ve yet to hear that repeated.

Is this thing stable????

Personally, I prefer something with a heavy drum beat



YOU eat it!



A bigger nose would be helpful!




Reading upsidedown is a skill, you know!







...and....here is what the parents were dealing with while Sienna had all that fun!!