when ees-nano was just 1.5 weeks old, sierra came over to our house to visit her.  i can’t remember where i was, but i wasn’t home — so i didn’t get to see her.    sierra lives far away (southern california), so i don’t get to see her very often.  lucky for me, she was in town this weekend and she came over to visit.  and  guess what!  sierra has a baby sister now, too 🙂

sierra and i both take good care of our baby sisters.  and we realized today that one of the most important jobs that we have as older siblings is holding up our baby sisters for  photographs 😛

sierra’s baby is sofia.  sofia mostly hung out with auntie jo and uncle dave (her parents).  ees-nano mostly hung out with mommy and dada.  that freed up sierra and me from our big sib duties to just hang out and play!  sierra is such a fun playmate.  we had a tea party with ees-nano’s toy tea set.  we played a game of one-on-one with my basketball hoop.  and we took turns jumping up high to grab the ribbon dangling from the helium balloon on the ceiling.  i wish sierra would move back to the bay area so i can play with her all the time!

did you notice that ees-nano’s name (sienna) is spelled almost the same as sierra’s?  and did you notice that they are wearing almost-matching outfits?  i have a feeling that when ees-nano gets a little bit older, she is going to look up to sierra like the big sister she’ll never have.

neither ees-nano or i had anything on our calendars for today.  i know, we couldn’t believe it either.  after tossing around a few ideas, we decided to take advantage of the unseasonably beautiful day and check out the farm (emma prusch farm park).  i had been there before for a boys’ day out, but i wanted to show ees-nano how cool this place is — it’s a farm and a park all in one.

one of the coolest things about the farm park is that the chickens and roosters roam around like pigeons.  funny, right?  they must have remembered me from last time ‘cuz they came to greet us as soon as we arrived.  i said hi to them with a cock a doodle doo (which sounds more like “caca doodoo”), but i must have said it wrong ‘cuz they ran the other way when i reached out to pet them.

when we entered the park, i ran straight for the big kid play structure (for ages 5+).  i climbed around and slid down over and over again.  ees-nano just watched.

dada eventually pried me away from the slides so that we could go feed the birds in the small animal area.  but it was closed!  so we headed over to the barn to say hi to the cows, pigs, and goats.  i moo’d at the cows and snorted at the pigs, but i didn’t know what to say to the goats.  the pigs were the biggest i’ve seen in my whole life.  one came over and put his face right up next to mine.  he could have bitten my nose off!  wait, do pigs have teeth?

after visiting all the animals, we went back to the playground.  but instead of playing on the big kid play structure, we went to the little kid area so that ees-nano could play, too.  mommy helped her go down the slide a couple of times, but she kept sliding too fast and losing her balance.  she almost conked the back of her head on the slide!  so i held her and slid down with her so that she wouldn’t fall backwards.  it wasn’t as exciting as sliding down the big slides, but it was fun to teach my baby sister how to play with me 🙂

what a fun family day at the farm park!

happy 7 month birthday to ees-nano!

things she likes:

• reading.  she likes looking at books and listening to me read to her.
• wheels on the bus.  she loves it when we sing to her and help her go “round and round”, “swish swish swish”, and do the other hand motions.  it makes her giggle like a little girl.  oh wait, she is a little girl.  i guess it just makes her giggle.
• sleeping on her tummy.  when she sleeps on her tummy, she sleeps through the night (6+ hours).  actually, i should say that mommy likes it when ees-nano sleeps on her tummy 😛
• pulling hair.  mommy doesn’t have very much hair left.  whenever i find mommy’s hair on the floor, i announce “mommy’s hair” and bring it back to her.
• hanging upside down.  she also likes flying through the air and doing back flips.  i think she’s going to be a gymnast.  or maybe she’ll be a circus act.

things she doesn’t like:

• laying on her back.  she gets all wiggly and flips over super fast.  i think she thinks that diaper changes are a game.
• crawling.  well, i guess it’s not that she doesn’t like crawling, as much as she hasn’t really tried it yet.  by the time i was her age, i was crawling everywhere and pulling myself up to stand.  ees-nano just lies on her tummy and flaps her arms and kicks her legs.  she doesn’t even try to army crawl.  i don’t get it — why doesn’t she want to follow me around the house?

whenever we go out, mommy always brings plenty of diapers, wipes, and a change of clothes for ees-nano and me. ees-nano gets a whole spare outfit in case of a diaper blowout. (although, now that she’s eating solids there’s really no chance for a blowout, but mommy still packs a full outfit out of habit.) i only need a change of shirt because the worst that i can do is spill on my shirt, right? WRONG.

i got all dressed up for gung-gung’s birthday dinner and we headed out to redwood city.  it was a long drive, and dada didn’t want to listen to “wheels on the bus” the entire way there, so he gave me his iphone to play words. after i played all of his games, i started watching youtube videos. when we arrived at the restaurant, gung-gung started to unbuckle me from my carseat, and suddenly… i barfed… all over the special outfit that i was wearing. WHOA! everyone was stunned because it came out of nowhere — i hadn’t been sick or fussy or anything. mommy asked me if i was feeling okay. i said yes. then i barfed again. and again. now i know first hand what projectile vomit is.

cousin zoey (and uncle jamie and auntie alyssa) had just pulled up and were waiting for us. i was covered in chunks of my lunch and afternoon snack. gung-gung said we should just go home because he thought i wasn’t feeling well.  but then i announced that i was hungry and everyone knew that i was fine — just carsick from watching videos during the drive.  what to do?

dada looked down the street and saw a CVS, so he ran over there to buy me some new pants.  meanwhile, mommy changed me out of my barf-covered shirt, and smeared chunks all over my face and hair in the process. GROSS!

so i got out of the car to brush the chunks off of me. i was wearing my clean shirt and jacket and barf-covered pants. i was very upset that my pants were dirty, so mommy helped me take them off and let me sit in the car while i waited.  (do you remember the days when mommy would have taken a photo of me in my cute outfit rather than half-nekkid and covered in barf?)

while i was sitting in the car half-nekkid, mommy got a text from dada saying that CVS didn’t have clothes my size.  she considered trying to squeeze my butt into ees-nano’s purple flower leggings, but lucky for me, dada texted again before that plan was put into action.  he had found an old navy a little farther away.

mommy had used half a pack of wipes to clean me (and the carseat) up as best as she could, but my hair still smelled disgusting. so after dada changed me into my new old navy pants, he washed my hair in the restaurant bathroom.

about 30 minutes later than planned, we finally sat down to dinner.  compared  to that adventure, dinner was uneventful.  delicious, but uneventful.  thank goodness.  happy birthday gung-gung!

mommy says that the moral of the story is that i shouldn’t watch videos while riding in the car.  i think the moral of the story is that mommy should pack a whole extra outfit for me when we go out.

remember how dada used to think i hated him?  that’s cuz  i wouldn’t say “dada” until i was 20 months old.  well, ees-nano has been saying “mama” all week.  mama mama mama all day long.  i’m trying to teach her to say “dada” so that his feelings don’t get hurt again.

i got your back, dada!

have you noticed that ees-nano goes to see the doctor a lot?  a LOT.  i have never been to the doctor except for that one time when i smashed my fingers in the door and i thought they were broken.  oh, and regular checkups, of course.  but i would even skip those if i could.

ees-nano has doctor’s appointments all the time.  there’s her regular doctor, her kidney doctor, her head specialist, and today she went to a new doctor for her skin.  (more on that later.)  every time she sees the kidney doctor, she is told that everything is fine but that she should come back again for monitoring… just in case.  it’s the same story with the head specialist.  i used to feel bad for her that she has to keep going to all these doctor’s appointments.  they are terrifying.  but then it dawned on me.  she likes it!

i think ees-nano has been making up all these issues so that she can meet lots of doctors.  and even though there is nothing wrong, she keeps going back so that she can keep seeing them.  i’m on to her.  she just wants to marry a doctor.

if you’re wondering, the reason ees-nano gave to get an appointment with a dermatologist is that the soles of her feet and palms of her hands are peeling.  mommy thought it was just normal newborn molting, but it never went away.  her regular doctor was stumped, but guessed that it might be athlete’s foot.  how silly!  ees-nano is not even athletic.  mommy put athlete’s foot cream on her feet for a couple of weeks, but that wasn’t helping.  plus, ees-nano has recently started sucking her toes.  so, no more cream.  and off to the dermatologist they went.

the doc took one look at ees-nano and announced that she has a mild case of atopic eczema.  he showed mommy ess-nano’s hands and all the lines on her palms.  he said that is common in people with atopic eczema.  mommy never noticed all the extra lines because she has them too!  apparently, that’s what’s causing the peeling on her feet and palms, too.  doc said that ees-nano will eventually outgrow the eczema, and in the meantime she should avoid environmental allergens.  he said to stay away from tide laundry detergent and use all free clear instead (we already are — dada is so smart!).  he also recommended cerave lotion because it replenishes ceremides in your skin, something that people with eczema have less of.  and that’s it.  the dermatologist must not have been cute because ees-nano didn’t say that she has to go back “for monitoring”.

i had seen joshua and connor plenty of times before, but we’d never really gotten to spend a whole day together just hanging out.  and that’s what we did today — play and eat — all day long.  my kind of day!

when we got to their house, they were waiting for me to start a game of pokemon.  joshua explained the rules to me, but i didn’t get it.  mommy tried to help me, but she didn’t get it either.  so we moved on to bakugan.  boring.  instead, i searched their playroom and found a bunch of their old toys that were more my speed — a fire truck, some cars, a shape sorter, and a toy drill.  i even found some toys for ees-nano to play with.

joshua is 6 and connor is 4.  all the games that they wanted to play didn’t really look fun, but they seemed to be having a blast.  i watched from a distance at first, and after awhile, i wanted to joined in on their fun.  the boys didn’t just share their toys with me, they taught me and showed me how to play with them.  i guess that’s what it’s like to have a big brother.  big brothers are pretty cool, huh?

mommy said that she got a glimpse into my future — pokemon, bakugan, ray guns, beyblades, and all kinds of boy stuff.

dada was more interested in how well joshua and connor played together and entertained themselves.  they are about two years apart, just like me and ees-nano.  dada hopes that ees-nano and i will play together like that when we get older.  sorry dada, but i doubt it.  i think ees-nano will be more into her bobble-headed hello kitty.  and i’m not down with that.

last night, mommy and auntie judy went to the sharks game.  mommy told auntie judy that she could pick one kid to bring to the game.  so ees-nano and i made our cases.

this was my pitch:

• i dress for the occasion.  i have a sharks t-shirt, a sharks hat, and a sharks fleece sleeper.  i even have an entire shark outfit so i can dress up as a real shark.  all of ees-nano’s outfits are pink.  and pink is basically light red.  and red is the color of the opposing team (chicago blackhawks).  uncool.
• i am always prepared.  i have earmuffs for ear protection (and cheek-squeezing).  ees-nano has none.
• i have team spirit.  i know how to do the shark chomp and yell “go!  go!  go!”.  (i learned that from watching football, but it applies to hockey, right?)  ees-nano’s yelling just sounds like “eeehhhhh!!!”.
• i am low-maintenance.  i can walk to and from the seats by myself and i can eat arena food.  baby sister needs to be carried everywhere and she needs to have special food packed for her.
• i play fair.  ees-nano already went to sharks game without me this season.  it’s my turn.

ees-nano took a different approach and appealed to auntie judy’s sensibilities:  “i will be a fantastic wingwoman and sit still on your lap all night.”

i think it’s clear from the photos who auntie judy picked.  *sigh* she had her at “wingwoman”.

at least ees-nano was true to her word.  she sat still all night, and she got the attention of all the boys sitting around her — except for the ones wearing enemy colors, of course.  one guy held her hand and one even took a photo of her.  and by “her”, i mean ees-nano, not auntie judy.  so what did auntie judy do with these guys after ees-nano got her the in?  no idea.  they won’t tell.

auntie judy, whatever you did with those guys, i hope it was worth it.  i’m going to remember this!

ever since ees-nano came along, i’ve had to share all my stuff with her.  she uses my car seat, stroller, and crib.  she reads my books, plays with my toys, and she even wears my clothes.  i don’t mind at all.  i didn’t even mind when mommy started mushing up my veggies for her to eat.

but about a week ago, ees-nano got teeth.  she has two little bottom teeth coming in.  and to help soothe her gums, mommy started putting my fruit into my mesh feeder and giving it to ees-nano to chew/suck on.  nooo… not my fruit!  i told mommy no.  i told her that those were kyden’s strawberries.  and kyden’s apples.  and kyden’s pears.  but she didn’t listen.  ees-nano loved them and chomped away.

and then for the next few days, ees-nano screamed in pain whenever she went poo-poo.  also, her butt was red and irritated.  we think that the acid in the fruit changed the pH in her poo and that it was hurting her when it came out.  apparently, this can happen with babies who have extra-sensitive skin.  so, ees-nano stopped eating my fruit and now she’s all better.  she’s happy, i’m happy… everybody wins.

i told her to stay away from my fruit.  i hope she learned her lesson.

ees-nano found her tongue recently. i don’t know why it took her so long, but now that she’s found it, she won’t stop showing it to everyone. and everyone thinks it‘s sooo cute. i don’t get what the big deal is. it’s a tongue. everyone has one. and how come it’s cute when she sticks out her tongue, but it’s a no-no when i do it?

and while we’re on the topic, there are lots of things that ees-nano does that are sooo cute that i get in trouble for. like when she grabs my feet, it’s cute. when i grab hers, i get a very stern “be gentle”. when she blows bubbles, it’s cute. when i blow bubbles in my milk, my milk gets taken away. when she kicks her legs wildly, she gets encouraged. when i thrash around like a wild shark, i’m told to stop (especially when it’s during a diaper change). when she smacks someone in the face, it’s cute. when i do it, i get a time out.

i think there’s a double standard around here, don’t you?  no fair!