The last 6 yrs.

These last six years have been the most rewarding in my 26 years. Watching and guiding the growth of my little one has been the greatest privilege yet. I'm enjoying this journey, and hope the next 6 years will be as sweet as the last. Here is a little montage of Sienna at various ages:

bun in the oven.


first day home.


three months old.


6 1/2 months.


9 months.


first birthday.


Christmas 16 months.


in BeBe's shoes.


day at the beach. 1 1/2 years.


second birthday.


New Year's Eve 28 months.



third birthday.


Easter 3 yrs old.


4 years old.


5 years old.


5 1/2



My daughter is now six years old. A first grader. A big girl. I have never felt any older than the day all this happened.

Victory!

I survived my first semester or grad school and honestly, it was touch and go there for awhile. Between being maxed out on my credit card due to the hold up on my student loan for the first three months of school (I couldn't buy any text books!), to the teacher who changed something everyday: due dates, adding new assignments, discarding assignments, the number of points an assignment was worth - that class was a hot mess. In the end, I came out of it relatively unscathed. The two week respite before the summer semester started was too short, too filled with drama (you don't even want to know), and unproductive overall. Jobs are scarce, and I fear I will be stuck in this girl/woman limbo for much too long. The first week of summer school and my second semester is already over. Due to a technicality in the clinic, I will not have any clients this semester.... So I won't graduate a semester early either anymore. Which blows. But of course being who I am, I have to find the sliver lining in any situation, so at least my course load will be lighter, and therefore much more manageable. I'm just ready to grow up. I want a job, home, stability, all of it. For me and my little lovely. Soon come... soon can't come soon enough. Enough of my rambling... here's a picture of Sienna for your viewing pleasure.



She's going to be six years old in August, but she has developed the attitude of a 15 year old out of no where. She's quite the little comedian though... I love my spoiled little princess :)

It's been awhile...

since my last post. Lots of things have changed. I've gotten my bachelor's degree and started grad school at UCF, we moved, Sienna's switched schools, and Sienna's BeBe (and my mom), has left us with PaPa to North Carolina (hence the move for us). Needless to say it's been crazy over our way. Here's a recap:

party time

first field trip

dress up in dance class

Snow White

Happy Halloween

Merry Christmas

plane ride to NC

Happy New Year

Abby's baptism

life at Daddy's

My Dancing Queen

So the extra curricular activity I have enrolled my daughter in is a pre-school combination dance class, (obviously). My daughter is a wiggle worm, who has about a 2 second attention span, but I watched in amazement as for 45 minutes (the duration of the class), as she actually watched and imitated her instructors almost the entire time. I was supremely impressed, was drew the conclusion that I have a kinestetic learner on my hands, so with that knowledge, I'm going to attempt to teach her things in a much different manner. Here are some pics I snapped of her before dance class, (they're a bit all over the place, she was very excited and wouldn't stay still for very long for me. She's so amazing...

It's happened. My child is five years old. I don't know where the last five years have gone, it's really flown by. The old adage "time flies when you're having fun" is so cliche, yet things become cliche because their is some truth to it. So my baby has been an infant, a toddler, a preschooler, and now a school aged kid. All I have left to look forward to is puberty, the teen years (:::shudder:::) (which are filled with some cool stuff like sleepovers, homecoming and prom dress shopping, etc), early adulthood, and grandkids (j/k), lol. Happy Birthday sweet little girl!

Bittersweet

Today was my baby girl's first day of kindergarten.

Sure she participated in the vpk program last year, but that was only from 9am-12pm, it was only enough time for me to get a quick breakfast and an hour in the gym.

She's beginning her academic career, which is HUGE. I'm still working on mine, although it is FINALLY coming to an end, and I'm 24 years old.

Kindergarten today isn't like when I was in school. It used to be more socially oriented, and only half a day long. Now she'll be expected to begin reading, writing, and math during a 6 and a half hour long day.

On top of all that, shes only 4 year old. She'll be five on the 23rd of this month, but had she been born only 9 days later, and she wouldn't even be eligible to begin kindergarten. In case you can't tell, I'm a bit apprehensive about my baby's kindergarten readiness.

We're going to take it one day at a time, and luckily for me, 08/18/08, was a great day. Sienna really enjoyed her first day of school, and is a bit miffed at the fact that her second and third day of school have been canceled thanks to Tropical Storm Fay.

Free Rice

I found this awesome website called Free Rice. Basically you go to this site and there is a word and they want you, the visitor, to select what the word means from a list of definitions. For every word you get correct, 20 grains of rice will be donated through the United Nations World Food Program to help end hunger. Sponsors who are able to advertise on the site pay for the donated rice. So if you don't know the word, look it up on dictionary.com and answer it. While you're learning new words and expanding your vocabulary (b/c lets face it you can never know too many words), you'll also be doing a small part in the effort to end world hunger. Hows that for good karma?

http://freerice.com/index.php

"Its raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring"

Here's a questions for you, (albeit a stupid one to you the reader I'm sure), do you wear rain boots over your shoes? Or are you stuck wearing them all day. We're in our rainy season over here in sunny FL, and they have such adorable rain boots to suit every personality. When purchasing a pair, do you get your size, or do you get a bigger than usual pair to allow for shoe room??? I'm looking to invest in a pair for both my daughter and myself. Input in much appreciated :)

Fun in the sun

This summer has been an awesome one for my little lovely. Late nights, sleeping in, lots of friends available to hang out, days at the beach, splashing in the pool, and lets not forget about the fireworks! We're definitely both going to have a hard time adjusting when school starts-- I don't even want to think about it. For now we'll just relax and enjoy the rest of our incredibly laid back summer, because we may never have another one quite like this one again.

I've been advised to start a blog, that it'll be more addicting than my myspace habit. So here I am, not too sure what to write about, so I suppose I'll wait until I have something to say!