On the warpath

Today Sierra discovered how to holler like a war chant. She sings out as loud as she can and claps her hand repeatedly over her mouth so it changes the sound. She was so excited that she could actually do it that she was completely beside herself. She strutted around the house for a long time showing off her new talent. Her other new favorite sound is to talk while holding her nose. Well, she really likes holding other people's noses and getting them to talk, but she sometimes does it herself as well.

Dip

Sierra has decided that dipping is in vogue. She wants to dip whatever food she is eating in... something. Anything. She'll dip it in her water glass as long as it gets dipped. If she doesn't seem interested in a food and then I "dip" it, then she suddenly wants it very badly and relishes it heartily. This may be because I get a big veggie/dip tray each week and I typically munch on veggies and dip at lunchtime so she sees me dipping, eating, dipping, eating. A few weeks ago we were out for sushi. Our waiter could not get over how Sierra would take every little piece and very carefully dip it in the soy sauce before eating it!

Easter 2006

I just realized that I never wrote about Sierra's Easter which was already -- what? -- two weeks ago I guess.

Sierra received two very special easter baskets from friends and so we put both of them in the backyard and spread various plastic eggs around the yard with none other than..... (drumroll, please) Quaker Oat Squares in them!! She was absolutely thrilled, to be honest, because she loves those things! Actually there were a couple of eggs in which I put Cheerios instead, and she could not be bothered with those. She fed them to Daddy but would not deign to eat them herself!

Ever since Easter the baskets have been her favorite toys. She drags them all over the house and keeps looking and looking inside the eggs, but alas, no more treasure is to be found therein.

Slinky

Today I showed Sierra how the slinky works on the stairs. She was absolutely thrilled and watched me walk it down several times, and was laughing and laughing. A few minutes later I caught her at the top of the stairs, hurling the slinky down the stairs with all her might. I think she was a bit perplexed that the result was not quite the same!

Hollywood, here I come

Today Sierra posed for a picture. I can with fair certainty say that this is the first time she has actually done this. I stood her in front of the armoire and told her to stand still and smile really big. I have also said this to her before and sooner than I could turn on the camera and point it at her, she was halfway across the room. But this time she stood still as could be and fired a huge flashy smile at the camera until I finished taking the picture and then headed her merry way. She was very anxious to see the picture in the view frame on the camera and was quite pleased to see herself standing there so proud.

Sips "R" Us

Sierra finally got the hang of sippy cups today. She has always liked playing with them but could never actually get anything out. Today I caught her actually sucking on the spout. Since the cup was flat on the floor she wasn't getting anything out, but I tilted it up and she did it again and the look on her face was priceless... "AMAZING! I can actually get water out of this thing!" She proceeded to drink from it for about the next half hour. I've been following her around in case her diaper starts leaking a river!

Playing dress up

Sierra actually played dress up the other day. She had found a shirt of mine on the floor and had been carting it around for awhile and kept trying to hand it to me. I thought she wanted to trade it back and forth so we did that a few times, but it was clear that that wasn't what she wanted. Then I spied her trying to pull it over her head and so I helped her into it. It was of course dragging on the floor and falling off her shoulders, but she was the proudest little lady in town and went parading down the hall to show Daddy and whoever else might be there to see (no one, but it's always worth checking!)

Stylin'

Sierra received her very first haircut this week from Grandma. Instead of hair hanging in her face at all hours, she now sports nifty and tidy bangs at about eyebrow level. We kept putting off doing it because we thought it would change her look a lot, but basically she looks the same except she is less irritated! :-)