brunch.

to celebrate the holidays (really just an excuse to get together) we had a quick brunch with the maxon's before leaving town. the girls, as always, were totally excited to be together. they took their daddy's for the longest 3 block walk ever according to nick, but still had energy to crawl around the benches and play in the dirt.

one.

our sweet friend sinai turned one last month. he was in israel for his actual birthday so we had a little celebration earlier this month. siena and him are starting to play and be into one another which is a treat to witness.

celebrate!

siena's school had a festive holiday party last weekend. it was raining so the place was packed, but still so much fun. yummy food, great music, a fairy princess who did magic, singing, dancing. it was totally fun and made me even more excited that siena goes to such a great place to learn and grow. the second photo is marina singing, who is one of siena's teachers and the bottom photo is roxana getting down who is the head teacher.

dinner with friends.

a couple of weeks ago we had a nice dinner and gabe and sammy's place. muluk, sinai, julius and siena had a great time playing with one another. even though they are all different ages they were totally interested in each other. i hope to have another friend dinner in january.

winslow.

last week winslow came over to play. winslow is about a week older than siena and the son of my friend ben from mills. it was such a joy to see them both. last time we saw each other was over a year ago when we ran into one another in the mission. winslow and siena took to each other very quickly. winslow has a lot of things to say and such a good attitude about things. when siena would get bothered by him touching something he would just repeat her protest and smile while giving her space. i think he's a good influence on my feisty little one, hopefully we visit more often in the new year.

dot.

last weekend (or maybe the one before) we headed out to the city to spend a morning with mara, chuck and dottie (dot is what siena calls her). we had a nice breakfast at their house and then went to hear some kids music at their local community center. dottie goes to hear enzo play music often, but this was siena's first time. i think the girls enjoyed themselves very much. we also ran into a friend named lula that siena hasn't seen in many months. it was a nice way to spend a saturday morning.

our best!

we had a short visit with khalil recently and it was so nice. i love how well he plays with siena. how lucky we are to have him in our lives.

making playdough...

a totally fun activity, especially when you make a pretend birthday cake and blow out the candles.

babygirl...

devon and aaron were in town recently to visit with family and friends and celebrate their babygirl who will be arriving shortly. siena had lots of fun at the baby shower especially when she found a hole in the floorboards that allowed her to view the lower level. we can't wait to meet the new hanley-cook late this summer when the new family will be moving home from st. thomas.

it has begun...

so dress-up has officially begun. after watching tutu put on a skirt siena demanded that we find her a skirt to put on. we looked long and hard in siena's closet and finally put on a pink ballet like skirt for a few minutes, but she made me take it off only to then put on two pairs of carefully picked pants and cowboy boots. she was very into her outfit and stayed in it for the rest of the evening.

thanksgiving.

i know these photos are totally late, but that's the way we've been rolling these days. thanksgiving was spent in sonoma with family from all sides. siena was the only babe and loved all the attention. we did however visit with levi and his cousins down the hill for a bit. the following day muluk, aya and khalil came to spend the day and siena was in heaven. i think i finally got her out of her pj's just in time to drive home and fall alseep.

mateo.

our friends that live in nyc, ricardo and jen, were in town this past week with their 4-month-old son mateo. siena loved having a baby in the house, but didn't like me holding him at all! it was such a treat to visit with them and meet mateo who is a perfect mix of his parents. thanks for spending time with us, we hope to see you all again soon.

aya!

siena says many names now (i'll list them when i get a chance) but by far her favorite name to say since the beginning was aya. aya is almost exactly 2 years older than siena and just recently they have become very nice playmates. aya has a lot of little special toys that she shares with siena. i think aya likes that siena just follows her lead. whatever the reason is, it's the sweetness thing to watch them play.

matching pacifiers.

papa's 60th.

papa turned 60 recently and we got to celebrate with a nice family party. as always the highlight for siena was playing with tashi and cousin sophia, but of course siena just enjoyed being around so many familiar faces. there were 3 cakes and siena even got to blow out her very own candle. happy birthday papa we're glad to have you in our lives.

art space...

last week i created an art space for siena in the dining room. so far the table has been a huge success. she has been drawing and attempting to use stickers. she also is really into cutting lately so we sit her down to cut food with a butter knife. all of her art from school is displayed there and we have conversations about the glitter and pom-poms. everyone should have an art space, don't you think?

socks!

the other morning siena was determined to put her own socks on. this process was taking way too long, so i left her in her room while i continued to get ready for work. after about 3 minutes siena ran out of her room letting out a delightful shriek. she had put one of her socks on her hand and was making it be a puppet (i think tutu bobbin had shown her this). she was so proud of herself she ran into the bathroom to show nick and them turned on her keyboard and made the puppets dance as she smiled from eye to ear. it was such a treat to witness the pure joy that a pair of simple socks brought my silly babe.

hot tubbing.

after a lovely dinner at the colllins' (anna, nate, mia and levi) everyone got into the hot tub for a late night dip. siena loved the tub and even hung in there after going under water a couple times. there were lights and jets and everything, it was too cool. i think we need to come back to tub again soon, next time i'll definitely bring my suit.