Grandma Sandwich!

March 29, 2014 (8 months and 3ish weeks)

Last weekend the Wick family came down to see Grammie and Grandpa Jer Bear! Auntie Lyn was down too. On Saturday the whole crew went out to dinner at a great place in Fresno with Great Grandma. Grammie Anne gave Sierra a beautiful dress to wear (thank goodness, because Sierra wet her previous cute outfit on the way down from Davis).

Sunday was a birthday brunch for all of the March birthdays in the family (and family friends too... so many). Anne had been planning and prepping for it all week.  Fruit salad, quiches, meats, mimosas, Lyn made salmon cakes... so much food!

I love the 4 generations pictures!

Anne's friends all came too. They are all great to talk with. Nancy took tons of great photos for us. What a life saver (we forgot our camera). Sierra had a blast. All of the guests got a kick out of watching her crawl around everywhere, and Sierra was up for entertaining too! We gave her a bunch of differnt foods that day. She was making new faces with her new meals, breathing in through her scrunched up nose and  pushing out air through her pursed lips.

What an amazingly devolpmental week it was?! Sierra has been eating foods with her fingers (and sometimes insisting on it, which makes it harder for Papa and I timewise). It was so nice to take a few days off this week and be with our baby. I brought her to a few "play sessions" with other moms and their babies. I saw Bailey and the girls on Wednesday too. Sierra LOVES kids, and she especially loved seeing Etta toddle around everywhere (she is almost 1). I think she picked up some cues from her on how to eat.

She is eating just about everything now and is becoming increasingly independent. She often takes her stuffed animals and brings them on "adventures" with her. She looks under the automan and then she sticks her stuffed animals' heads under to see what's going on. It is absolutely adorable.

She stood up from the ground unassisted about 10 times just today! What an independent little lady!

We came down again for an extended weekend. Gus took Friday off, so we left late Thursday night (unfortunately half of the trip involved her screaming). We made it though... very happy to arrive close to midnight so we could wake up at Grammie's and Grandpa's.

Today was Great Grandma Maribeth's 87's birthday! We had a great time hanging out with her at her apartment. Grandma seemed to enjoy herself too!

She really seemed to enjoy Great Grandma's whistle on her key chain. Everything she likes to play with lately has been all of the "non-toys" type of things (keys, catalogs, napkins, etc). She is especially fond of tearing up the catalogs.

After that we visited Grammie Anne at her work. The kids in the library were great! They all loved seeing Sierra. One sweet young girl immediately began reading to her. I could tell Sierra was starting to get overwhelmed with the attention and began to grab for my leg and hide behind it when she was uncomfortable. It was great to see Anne in her element, the kids love her there. 

 Her 3 top teeth are causing her discomfort even though they cut through 2 weeks ago, so she is wearing her amber necklace again. It is emotional watching her grow up so quickly before my eyes, but I must say I truly do love this age. I feel so lucky to be able to take vacation time to be with her, watching her grow brings me so much joy.

Adventures with Boo and JuJu!

3.21.14

We had adventures with Auntie JuJu (Julia) on Saturday! We went for, what we thought would be, a mellow (1.5 hr) run at the Yolo County Bypass with our big boy dogs and Sierra! Well, apparently the area we run in gets open to cows during the wet season... and the trail was completely rutted up. So it was a little bit more difficult than expected, but Sierra faired exceptionally well. She is a trooper afterall; at least when she's hanging out with Mom and Auntie JuJu! Our (first) babies had a marvelous time together. Taj and Oso are great buds now! They love hanging with Sierra too. Taj is equally as gentle as he is curious about Sierra. Julia and I had a great time catching up and running together! Photo credits: Julia

We had Auntie Lyn over for dinner afterwards to thank her for all that she has helped us with. We think she had a good time! (We recently set up kitchen toys for Sierra so she can be occupied while I cook food).

Gus and Sierra were able to practice their guitar skills in the mornings that I was around before work, and played beautiful melodies together (well mostly Gus - he is trying to learn new songs for Sierra on his guitar).

He also decided to climb up onto the roof and take some pictures! I love the man, Mr. Angus Wick! It speaks to his nature to climb up on the roof to take pictures.

Ohhhh, St. Patrick's Day (for an almost all (or at least that's what I'll tell ya') Irish lass) it came and went with a blink of an eye... that is except for the ridiculous onesie I put on my baby! Yes, I do care that most of my heritage (besides those Vikings) came from Ireland in a weird and strange way.

What can I say, we love being parents... and I think it is a good bet to say that Sierra loves being our baby. 

Can't get enough of this ONE!

3.14.14 - 8 months

WHHHHAT?! Really, is she here already? It's not like 8 month is some crazy milestone marker, but it seriously gave me pause. Does time truly go by this quickly? The answer that I keep coming back to is, yes, yes, it does.

Last weekend we made a colossal trip to Arcata; leaving in the morning on Saturday and returning on Sunday evening. Phew... it was a quick turn-around. The drive was wearing on all of us. We were in constant entertainment mode for Sierra (books, toys, peekaboo, songs, songs, more songs). She wasn't exactly happy to be on a 6-hour tour of northern California on either occasion (going up or coming back). We skyped at the hotel to Grandpa and Grandma Pieper for the first time (the first time they have all met each other). It was awesome to bring her to the ocean on both days; I could tell she really took it in this time. She really seemed to like the waves and the new scenery. We will share a love for the ocean, I'm sure. She didn't even mind the light drizzle that soaked her little head. There will be so many crazy adventures that our family will have together, and it lifts my heart.

She truly is a smart girl. So engaged and very interactive (not to mention her "natural physicality"). Now it's all about interacting with Mom and Dad. She just loves to be around us, and look at us while we do our normal tasks. She really liked seeing her Nana and Auntie Lauren on skype mid-week. It was nice for all of us. She loves her baths too.

Her crawling has taken on a different form at times; she straightens her legs and crawls on her hands. She also periodically lets go of whatever she is stabilizing on and balances on her own while she is standing up. She really is starting to look more like Dah Dah everyday too. Her head shape is much like his. I see little parts of him in her and vice versa more often to my delight.

Two more teeth cut through this week, on the top. She is drooling full force, but generally coping well with the pushing through. We are mixing up our foods for her in our wonderful baby food processor. Trying avocado with tomato, pears with apples and peaches, mixing cooked oats into yams, and actually just pulverizing rolled oats into a powder to start using instead of the packaged stuff from the store. It's all fun with her. 

The mornings I am home longer with the family, I cherish. We all feel better on those days.

After picking up Sierra from daycare today we went to meet up with AUntie Lyn. We got some food from the grocery store and ate together outside. I left my keys attached to a grocery cart, but didn't realize until we went to leave. So we went grocery cart searching. Always something fun when the girls get together!