Enna Do

Two cute moments today highlight the burgeoning independence of Our Little Girl:

Daddy picks her up at day care, and we're at the low gate to exit the toddlers' area. Daddy turns the doorknob and opens the gate, sending Siena into hysterics. "Enna Do! Enna Do! Enna Do!" So we close the gate, and Siena reaches up, turns the knob, and opens the gate. We walk through, and Siena happily forgets that she's left the gate open. Daddy reminds her that she has to close the gate. So she walks back and closes the gate--leaving herself in the play area, and Daddy on the outside. Clever girl, except that (1) Daddy can still open the gate; and (2) Daddy can still pick her up and carry her like a sack of rice to the car if she doesn't quit it. So we have our laugh, and head home to Mama.


The second episode occurred on our ride to a well-reputed Mexican restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. Toilet training has been a big part of our lives recently; we're always asking Siena if she has to go PooPoo or PeePee (leaving out the hyphen makes the words seem more sophisticated). So we're driving along tonight, and Mama and Daddy hear from the back seat "No PooPoo? No PooPoo?" I look back and see that Siena is peering inside the bottoms of her little plastic baby doll, checking out the scene just like we do to Siena. Of course, Siena didn't appreciate us pointing out that "Baby" goes PooPoo on the toilet, therefore so should Siena. But it was a cute moment, and a sign that someone understands that PooPoo does not belong in one's clothing.

Night of the Living Dead

Must've been a full moon last night. Took a half-hour to put Siena to bed; she kicked and screamed like I was trying to shove her feet-first into a blender. She fell asleep minutes before 9:00 p.m., but obviously was just waiting for the right time for her revenge: a quarter after three that morning.

We wake to the same screaming that I thought we'd heard the last of at nine o'clock. She's a smart girl: first she screams for Daddy; then she screams for Mama, ensuring that both of us will be at her service. Then Mama and Daddy come to their senses, verify that no monsters are assaulting our daughter, and leave her to get over herself. But after an hour of this--we can hear the dogs upstairs running for the far corner of the house--we give up and bring her into our bed.

It's a queen bed, and I'm not that fat, so I think of it as pretty roomy. But last night, I saw the value in a king bed. Siena "slept" between us, if by sleep you mean crawl around like your parents are a jungle gym. And I'm sure you know how difficult it is to get a good night's sleep when a midget's kicking you in the nuts. So when 7:00 a.m. rolled around, none of us noticed.

Mama just won another bout of Greco-Roman wrestling, so Siena's asleep for now. If she gets up again in the night, maybe I'll write you all as it happens. Mama does all the work anyway.

Mimi Do

Sorry I haven't written in so long, but it's been a hectic week. Not because my mother came to visit; she's the only reason we survived the week. No, it was hectic because I had the California Bar Exam Tuesday and Thursday, and Mama had midterms for her summer semester--which means that finals are in a couple of weeks, but that's another rant.

My mother came for a week of "Grandma Camp," as she called it--a week of constant attention to her one and only grandaughter, Siena. While Daddy and Mama attended to other matters, GranMary (we're trying to wean Siena off of "Mimi") would tend to SIena from about 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., often without a break as SIena doesn't like taking naps when there's company around. It was exhausting, even for someone whose reserves of affection are as inexhaustible as my mother. But GranMary couldn't have been a better babysitter--for Siena and us.

Siena always seems to enjoy a developmental spurt whenever family visits, and this time was no exception. Just before GranMary arrived Siena had begun putting together simple sentences, like "Enna Do!" or "More Please." But with GranMary around the sentences became more complex, and stopped being phrases she'd just heard from one of us.

Reaching up for her crayons atop the cabinet and yelling "I Need It!" Sitting in the shopping cart on an outing and saying to Daddy "Mimi Push It." Siena surprising us with a whole new vocabulary, including "Airplane," "Ock-pus" (we visited the Long Beach Aquarium), and "Pee-tr" (Daddy's laptop, which is not a toy). And Siena knowing on-sight at least a half-dozne letters and as many words. No doubt about it, Mimi inspired Siena.

Siena even stepped up her game in the bathroom. For some time, she's been willing to do Number One if circumstances had her in the right place at the right time with her diaper off. But after a week of GranMary's patient encouragement, Siena's tantalizingly close to actually (1) sensing when she has to go; (2) telling us about it; and (3) holding it in until we get to the toilet. Oh, and for all you new parents out there: the potty is a waste of time. Kids want to do what adults do, and we don't use a potty (and if you do, keep it to yourself)

But now GranMary's on a plane back to New York, Siena's back in day care, and Daddy has no excuse for not regularly updating this blog. So I'll see you soon--or at least, I should.