18 Months

One thing that was interesting at Sienna’s 18-month check-up was that the doctor asked if she could stand, bend over and pick something up, and then straighten back up.  I told her that Sienna was doing that before she started walking.  The doctor was surprised and said that usually the child walks before doing that.I don’t think it looks like it in this picture, but she’s in the 10th percentile for body weight (meaning that 90% of girls her age weigh more than she does).  We’re not concerned since she isn’t at the 5th percentile anymore, and she is steadily growing.  She around the 50th percentile for height.

I’ve written this before, but Sienna absolutely LOVES to read.  Every time she gets out of or into bed for naps or the night, she always points to her books on the shelf and wants to read.

     She’s gotten 2 more teeth… now having 8.

She loves going outside. Our neighbors let us come over and use their slide, etc.  The slide is actually pretty steep, as you can see in the picture, where Sienna’s bottom is completely in the air.

  She likes to play with balls and loves playing with Ethan’s cars.  She’s into stuffed animals more than he ever was.

Since Sienna began walking she and Ethan are playing more together.  It has been really fun to see this change and wonderful during times like this week when Gary is out of the country on a teaching trip.

Sometimes he will “read” to her.

Who Needs Pets When the Neighbors Have Them

Our teammates, who live a block down the road, recently got a new puppy.  I took Ethan and Sienna to their house to “meet” Merlin.  As soon as we got there and he saw the dog, he didn’t pay much attention—he just headed toward the toys.But after a while he petted the dog and played with him a little.

Callie is our neighbor’s cat, and she hangs out at our house a lot.  Sienna likes to see her (as well as dogs), but doesn’t want to get too close.  They frighten her.  However, she has begun to pet Callie when she sees her and will pet a dog (even a big one) if they are calm and laying down or something. 

Gary and I see how difficult it is for the missionaries here to find people to take care of their pets while they are on furlough/stateside assignment in the States.  It’s also a big responsibility and expense to own pets, so for now, we think it’s great that the kids have plenty of animals around that they can see and play with.  Ethan helped feed our other neighbor’s cats and fish a couple of weeks ago while they were at a conference.

The Washcloth Cast

I noticed that Ethan had some blood on his arm and asked to see it.  He had scraped his skin in a few places to where it was bleeding some.  He wanted a band-aid.  As I was walking upstairs to get them, he said that he wanted an adult band-aid.  Later he said that he needed a blanket to wrap around it for it to not hurt.  We’re not sure where he got that idea.  But Gary was creative and came up with the idea of putting a washcloth around it.  Ethan didn’t want him to use safety pins, so Gary just taped it.  I was putting Sienna to bed when Ethan came upstairs so excited to show me his new “cast.” Proud of his “cast.” 

Ready for bed, cast and all!

Swinging as High as Goliath

Ethan loves reading about David and Goliath in his Bibles.  When he is swinging he often wants to go higher and sometimes asks if he is going as high as Goliath.  So, we decided that we would measure how tall Goliath was and mark it with chalk on our house in front of the swing set. Gary marking the house

  Ethan, looking as brave as David

Ethan having Gary push him while trying to swing as high as Goliath.  Sienna was content to stay as low as David.

When Ethan saw that he wasn’t swinging as high as Goliath he asked if he was as high as King Saul.