Learning Gospel Principles

Sienna just pointed at a picture of the Savior. Sean told her "that's Jesus" and immediately she folded her arms and bowed her head. :) She understands that we say his name at the end of a prayer. We were both very impressed. I love my little girl.

We have decided she might be old enough to understand simple family home evenings.

2 Nephi 25:26 And we ^atalk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we ^bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our ^cchildren may know to what source they may look for a ^dremission of their sins.

I have come to have a deep love for my Savior and I hope Sienna will develop this love as well. 

Oh no!

Chocolate

I had one of those rewarding mommy moments two days ago. Sienna and I were working on her actions words, and we set them down. Sienna went back, found the word spin, picked it up, and spun around. It was absolutely adorable realizing she knew what it meant. She was really excited when I showed her the word "in" and demonstrated what it meant. She was putting her hand in and out of a toy and then she moved on to putting her foot in and out of it. We got a free book from the library for doing their summer reading program, and Sienna is loving it. Ironically she brought it to me while I was typing that sentence. She also has a favorite necklace that she manages to find every day and she loves wearing it. It is the one necklace I don't ever wear and it is pink and purple....so I am glad that is the one she loves. Another fun thing that happened this week was that Sienna pointed at a bag of chocolate covered blueberries and said "chocola" I was so excited that I gave her a few.
Last night after Sean came home and said hi, he went upstairs to unwind, Sienna went to the bottom of the stairs, and yelled, "daddy!" over and over again. She is saying so many words and it is a blast. Her favorite thing to watch are the minions, and she can pronounce every syllable...although she usually shortens it to "mi" She also said, "more juice" yesterday. :) :) :) I am loving the rewards of motherhood.

Outside the theater after seeing Despicable Me 2

After spilling hot chocolate mix all over the floor and drawing some pretty pictures. 

trying on sunglasses in the children's place

Crazy Climber

What is Sienna up to lately? Mostly climbing. Climbing on the couch, climbing onto the table, climbing up the play set, climbing anything that can be reasonably climbed by her. If Sienna is happy as a clam in the kitchen I know it is time to go get her off of the table before she empties out the spices, pushes the scriptures and notebooks on the floor, and throws daddy's suture gloves everywhere.

Applause

For a long time I have been applauding Sienna for everything she does that I enjoy and guess what???? She has started applauding me when I do somethings she enjoys. The first time was a couple of nights ago when I got out the milk to fill up her bottle. She started clapping enthusiastically. I was so surprised that I stopped for a second....which made her very alarmed. Since then she has been applauding for other small things I do. When I turn on music, when I feed her, when I open the door let her outside. I love been applauded :) It makes my job seem so much cooler. She also claps when I say "Good" or "Good Job" because I always clap for her after I say "good job"

I have also noticed that she is really aware when people are talking about her. She has been for sometime but it is very obvious now and she always rewards people who compliment her with a cute flirtatious looking smile. She loves being adored, but I can't blame her because I love it too. 

Yesterday I finally let her try and use a spoon by herself and I was absolutely thrilled with the results. She knew exactly what to do with it and most of the food made it into her mouth. I am really impressed that she got it on the first try. Especially since I can count on one hand how many times I have assisted her in using a utensil and knowing she has never had the opportunity to try it before. 

Sienna has become more of a cuddle-bub and will now frequently seek my lap and sit contentedly while I hug her, read to her, or watch something with her. She wants me to hold her when she cries, which is a relief to me because before she would frequently refuse my comfort. 

She loves when I count her toes and will point at them when I stop. This has become her way of say again and is also frequently accompanied by the word "dat" 

Sienna's Zumba Fitness Skills have advanced increasingly. She can now shake her hips! She twists, stomps, shakes her hips, claps, and bounces along to the beat of the music. Her favorite move is when I say "Up, down" and she moves her arms up and down. The video shows some but not all and she doesn't usually fall down that much. 

Short Stories

The Woes of Sienna the Socialite

Sienna loves other little kids and is constantly trying to be friends with them. Some of these attempts go over really well and…some don’t. Here are a few favorites of the “gone wrong” style.

#1 After taking her first three steps she decided she was content to crawl  for the rest of the week. Finally  Sunday rolled around and at church she saw a little girl around her size walking around. I put Sienna down and she walked straight to the little girl. I was so impressed and thrilled! Unfortunately, the other little girl wasn’t and started crying and ran away. Undeterred Sienna kept following her, and the little girl would whine each time Sienna came close. I didn’t think this was a fit reward for what Sienna had done, but oh well. So we went in the hall search of more receptive friends, we found another girl who was just too fast for Sienna to get near. More successful?

#2 We went to WIC and there was a little Asian girl in a bright pink jumpsuit. I sat down and let Sienna free. Of course she went to go socialize. I told Sienna not to touch her, but she just smiled and touched her anyway. The little girl turned around and pinned her to the ground. Her mom reacted really quickly in getting her off and they began arguing in some language I didn’t understand. I guess I should have been worried, but I was just so shocked and Sienna wasn’t crying so I figured she was probably okay. I picked her up and told her “That’s what happens when you touch people who don’t want to be touched.” I set her down hoping she would avoid the girl, but she went right back over. Looked up at the girl and started into a loud babbling and smiling. The little girl looked at her mother and they exchanged a few words, but luckily no more tackling. Finally they called her mom back and I was relieved until Sienna ran after the little girl. Yes ran…..oh dear.

#3 Fortunately, the neighbor boys are very friendly, social, and cute with her…unless she wants to play with their toys.

A Two Foot Tornado

I was recovering from being ill when Sienna discovered the joys of the trash can, and while I ate my lunch she pushed the bathroom door open and covered the house with used tissues. She also pulled out half the kitchen trash and stuck the avocado peels underneath the couch. I keep waiting for some unknown smell to pop up so I can figure out where else she stuck things. Well, Sean came home a little early that day and after giving me a kiss told me, “It looks like a two foot tornado hit the house.” I smiled and said, “Yep, that’s about right.” 

Happy Birthday Sienna Bub!

Sienna is officially a one-year-old. We have been so blessed to spend the last year of our lives with her. She is such a joy to be with and take care of her and I love her more and more as time goes on. She loves books now and her favorite is the one Gram bought her "Goodnight California" She also adores her Christmas puppies from Aunt Sadie and Uncle Reuben. For her birthday Great Grandpa Brailsford gave her a Cat in the hat and he has added him to the gang. She drags him around every where and takes breaks from playing to give him hugs. She loves playing on the playground just outside our door and insists on climbing onto the slide and trying to climb up it. She is walking with the best of them and is quite the socialite. She can do the actions for baby shark, she waves hello and goodbye. She climbs on and up things. She bounces along to music and is a great Zumba Fitness partner. I don't know if she really can read, but she loves pointing to the words around the house and gives me a big smile when I tell her what they say.

Sienna can now tell everyone how old she is. She did it for two groups of people at girls night. 

Clapping with us--clapping for her.