Siena's First Snow!

We have had a visit with a pretty good amount of white stuff this weekend. I'd say we got about 3 inches here at the house. That's very unlikely for our area. Since we are in the valley, usually the mountains get all the snow and we end up just getting cold rain or a light dusting. There was a small "snow" back in December, but Siena was teething and had a cold with it. We didn't want to get her out and just make it worse. So, this time, we were so excited to get her out and see what she thought. We had planned on building a snow man and getting her picture with it, but it was so cold we didn't want to keep her out any longer. Well, that and she was sooo exhausted. You can tell by the pictures that she was ready for a nap. We had one of the roughest nights with teething that night; so we were all lacking rest. It was definitely a great weekend to be snowed in!

We are STILL waiting to see Siena crawl! She wants to so bad. You can see her get excited about something and she pushes up like she is going to take off, but then, she just collapses on the floor. We are also waiting to feel some new teeth poking through. The hardest part of this set of teeth is night time. She's fine during the day, but turns into a screaming baby at night. She don't sleep very well, either, and that's unlike her. We are thankful that the nights vary, though. Some nights aren't as bad as others. On a better note, Siena has finally learned to walk in her walker. Boy does she go, too! Here's a video of her going at it. Tommy says she gets her driving from me. I'm not sure that's a compliment. LOL (Will post video later; Blogger is giving me some kind of error.)

7 Months & Sickness..

I know the word "craziness" seems to be a new theme for the past few blogs. This the past two weeks really has been one of the hardest for me as a new mommy. Siena had her second ear infection. Which, typically wouldn't be any problem, but for some reason, the pediatrician put her on an antibiotic that she hasn't tried, yet. It tore up her stomach; so, the doc called in a sulfur antibiotic (yet, another new one). To make a long story short, this one didn't work either, and I finally got the guts up to just ask the nurse why in the world they didn't just put her on amoxicillian the first time. So, they called her in some of that to finish out her 10 days. Toward the end of this time, Siena started throwing up and having diarrhea. We thought her stomach was still upset from the first antibiotics. As it turns out, Mom and David, who had kept her for a few days (since our babysitter was sick, too) caught a stomach bug from her. I got it the next day, then Tommy got it that night. So, this has been our first bout with family sickness. I, now, sincerely have a whole new sympathy for parents with sick kids. It is rough! I want to say an especially big THANK YOU to my mom and David for helping us out. Luckily, she was off and able to fill in when our babysitter came down with bronchitis this same week.

Now, we are heading toward another stage. We believe Siena is starting to teethe again. Her top gums are swollen and all the symptoms are there. She has been a lot more fussy at night with these, but I have heard the eye teeth are a lot different than the first ones. She is now 7 months old. We are waiting to see her crawl! She has finally put together being on her knees and pushing up on her hands, but she is still rocking when she wants to go somewhere. We are not hearing any obvious words, yet, either. Every now and then she'll say "ut uh" or "yeah." I'm still holding out for "Mommy!" LOL.. Of course, I say it all the time to her; all the while, Tommy's echoing "Daddy" in the background. So, I'm sure she's wondering, "What in the world are these crazy people thinking?"

Tommy and I are doing good. We just celebrated my 26th birthday. It's hard to believe I'm on the "down" side of my 20's and sliding closer to 30. I know it's just a number. I just can't believe how quickly it's all went since we've gotten married. Time is going by way too fast! Even looking at Siena, I can't believe how big she is or how beautiful she is becoming. She's going to be starting kindergarten before I know it! I'm not big on New Year's resolutions or anything, but one goal I want to make a priority is to slow down and enjoy the time I have with her and the rest of my family. Family time is too priceless to waste.

Botello Family Christmas!

Wow! Things have been so hectic the past few weeks. It has been so great, though. Siena definitely had a wonderful first Christmas, and just having her with us proved to be the best gift ever! I totally loved seeing her excitement every time she tore into the wrapping paper. She got really good at opening them, too! I am going to try to put a few of our top pictures on here. There are just so many! I want to try to give you a glimpse of how much we all enjoyed the time together. We found Siena a small tree to start for next year. I thought silver and pink would be a cute color scheme.

Here's a video of her playing with her phone Aunt Freda and Uncle Rick got her. She loves pressing buttons on the remote control, cell phone, or keyboard. So, she loves this thing! Thank Freda and Rick!

I love the fact that, now, Siena's bottom two teeth have come in enough that when she smiles really big, you can see them. It makes her look even more adorable, and big! So, here's my favorite "tooth" shot.

She is learning to use her tongue, too. So, when she gets tickled, she'll start sticking her tongue out after every laugh. She does it so quickly, it's hard to get a picture, but here's one.

Tommy also took Siena to the pediatrician yesterday for her 6 month check up. I was excited because, for once, I wasn't the one sitting in on the torture of shots! Tommy said she did wonderful and was smiling at the nurses after 5 seconds, though. She had her vaccinations and also her first round of flu shots. Siena now weighs a whopping 20 pounds, 12 ounces and is 27 1/4" long! I really need to find that growth stunt potion! Any help would be appreciated.

Baby's First Christmas!

First of all, I just want to apologize for how long it's taken to sit down and blog. Things have been going great, but it's just been busy like most people's lives around this time of the year. We have officially started going through the teething phase for about a week and a half now. Her first bottom two are coming through. You can see the tops pretty good now. I feel we are still blessed with the best baby. We have experienced some crabbiness with her, ALOT of drooling, and some fighting sleep at night. It really hasn't been as bad as some of the stories I had heard, though. I hope it continues to be this easy with the remainder of her teeth!

She loves giving kisses right now. By kisses, I mean, grabbing both sides of your face, pulling her open mouth to you, and latching on! It's the funniest thing. I did happen to get a video of her doing this to my mom. As you can tell, Mom thought it was hilarious!

Here's another fun video of us giving Siena some melt away strawberry yogurt bites. They taste just like strawberries; so we assumed that she would enjoy them. Boy, were we wrong! Please note that this was about the 4th attempt on getting her to like them, and she made this face every time!



As for Siena's first Christmas, we have made sure to get lots of pictures of her in all of her Christmas attire. We had so many photo ideas that it was hard to narrow it down. We took a pretty good amount of them here at the house, but we did opt to have some taken with a photographer so we could have some family shots. I also put a picture of her opening her first Christmas present. She's really been enjoying ripping paper here recently. What perfect timing for Christmas!

5 Month Milestones!

It's so hard to believe, but our baby girl is now officially 5 months old! I would say that this month, I have observed more milestones and changes in Siena than any other. It has truly been amazing to see the baby that she is growing to be. Milestone #1: She is now ROLLING OVER!! Well, she can roll from back to belly, but not back over. She gets aggravated that she can't do anything after a while of being there.

Milestone #2: She laughs and smiles so much! Recently, it's seems most nights between 7:00 and 8:00, EVERYTHING is hilarious. On the top of her giggle list, is the dogs. She loves to watch them move and play with each other. Here's a clip of the first night that we noticed it.



Milestone #3: She's definitely found her feet. She's actually started grabbing them. I just love seeing babies grab their feet!

Milestone #4: She is starting to sit up on her own. She typically can't sit up long, but the fact that she can balance herself unassisted for some time is great this early!

Observation #1: Siena is sooo loving. She just adores burying her face into your shoulder when you are holding her. She also likes pulling her baby into her face and holding it for a second. The newest thing she's into is giving "kisses." This includes slobbering all over your face from one cheek to the other! It's messy, but I just love them!


Observation #2: I'm amazed that she is already starting to reach for things. She reaches for the dogs all the time when they are near her, and she will actually pet them! I guess she likes feeling their fur, but she'll rub on them and "talk" while she's doing it. It's so sweet.

Observation #3: Now, when Siena gets super excited, she is starting to scrunch up her nose and breath harder, while kicking her feet and swinging her arms. It's adorable to watch, but hard to get on camera. Here is a picture of her face, at least.

Observation #4: Little things like the fact that she is already ticklish on her belly are just neat to take note of at this point. It's usually a great way to get her laughing. Of course, I could go on and on with other miscellaneous things. It's just all of these little things together that make up our beautiful, sweet girl. We are so thankful and praise God every day for allowing us to be her parents. We have SO much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We are very blessed with wonderful family and friends. You all mean so much to us! We hope and pray you have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!

Baby Got Bling!

Okay, the topic of ear piercing at a young age has always been a toss up for me. I have heard that getting a baby's ears pierced before they can find them goes over well. (And looks adorable, by the way!) On the other hand, I wondered who in the world would want to torture their baby more than they have to. After all, we are already forced to let a nurse put some needles in their thighs every two months! Also, I always thought it should be left up to our little girl whether she even wanted holes in her ears.

What made me decide to take my child to Wal-Mart and punch holes in her ears was pretty funny. I remember back when Mom took me to get mine done. It was back at the old Wal-Mart in Athens. (before Wal-Mart got so big and added all the extra stuff.) I remember sitting on the stool at the jewelry counter, watching some woman mark my ears. I vaguely remember only getting one done before deciding that I didn't want to go through that pain again! Mom tried walking me around, looking at toys, and promising a new Barbie if I would just get the other one done. That sounded great until I was perched back up on that stool with the same woman coming toward me with a piercing gun! Yeah, that's right. It took my mom three attempts/trips to get it done. (I clamped down and refused the second time, too.)

One great thing is now they have two women that can do it at the same time. One pinch and it's over with. I just figured she is easier to hold down and can't scream, "You're a bad Mommy!" at me yet! I still felt bad; but I'm so glad I did it. Siena really did great! She didn't like me holding her head still while they were marking; so by the time they used the guns, she was already aggravated. She did cry, of course; but, after about 5 minutes, you wouldn't know she just had them done. My friends Tracey and Tamson insisted on documenting the "occasion" by recording and taking pictures. So, here's a few pictures so that you can share in the "joy" of that night.