One of the gifts that Sienna received was a dress made beautifully by Hanna, Papous wife. The proud Grandpa wanted some photos of her wearing it so we did an impromptu “photo shoot” in the garden. Some of them were lovely so I thought I would share.
To celebrate Sienna’s birthday we invited over some friends for “Happy Hour’” at our place. It was a super fun evening with lots of good company, and well behaved kids. The kids played on the jumpy allowing us overworked parents to enjoy a drink (or two or three.) Sienna was a super star, looking cute as a button in her little party dress. A very fun time was had by all. For photos click the link below.
******SIENNA’S PARTY PHOTOS******
And here’s a video of us singing Happy Birthday to her, little peanut!
Singing Happy Birthday to Sienna from Jo Papaioannou on Vimeo.
I know I always seem to be saying it but really , time is whizzing by these days. Sienna’s first birthday has been and gone and I can hardly believe it’s been a year since she wimpered her very first cries.
She had a lovely birthday, at least I assume she did as she didn’t actually tell me! We bought her a little climb and slide thingy for the garden. The boys have done well from this present, as they enjoy it as much as her. In fact, within several hours had concocted a scheme to collect buckets of water and pour them down the slide to make a water slide. They are an industrious pair.
She had some lovely presents, especially loving the musical octopus from Uncle Martin and Aunty Lou.
For photos from her birthday click the link below.
I just found these on my computer. These were of us a couple of weeks ago at the party of a friend of ours.
Well, much has happened since my last blog, too much to blog about in one sitting, especially given that as soon as I start typing you can guarantee one of the little loves will wake from their naps 
The boys have been home from school for over a month now and so summer has begun with a bang. The main trick is to keep them busy, which mainly involves outings to the zoo, Sea World, the Science Museum, the Train Museum, the park, the beach, the swimming pool and more. It’s certainly busy around here.
I’ve posted a bunch of albums that show some of what we’ve been up to.
Alexander is doing Karate twice a week, he has his white belt and is working t/w his yellow. In June he participated in his first competition and did some sparring. Check him out in his full helmet and gloves! It’s a full contact sport, even when you’re (which mummy had stupidly not realized). Basically, first to punch or kick the other wins a point First to 3 wins. Alexander got to the semi finals of his group and we were really proud. Unfortunately he is plagued by seizures, daily. Medicine is still in flux and medical professionals have no idea how to really help. I’d give more info, but honestly, by time you read this, things will change again and who knows what will be happening.
Oliver is full of beans, as stubborn as an ox, and hugely entertaining. His imaginary play is wonderful. His sport of choice is soccer and he does it every week. Both boys can now swim as you can see from the underwater photos in Palm Springs. Sienna is a water baby too and loves to be in the pool or the ocean.
Alexander’s birthday party was a hit. A Star Wars Jedi Training Camp….no work at all to organize, it did not take me 2 weeks to plan and get it together, I did not go over board at all….(I kid, I totally did)
Sienna is blooming. She’s a peanut, I don’t remember the numbers but she’s in the 10 percentile for size and weight…..a little poppet. This does not however, prevent her from wreaking havoc on the boys who call her Dooku (after Count Dooku in Star Wars; he destroys things, as does Sienna when they are playing) She is a one man wrecking crew, who of course has NO interest in playing with the many toys bought just for her….she’d rather destroy lego, or knex or train tracks that the boys have spent hours building. Brilliant.
Speaking of Sienna she is now walking (attempting to run) and has realized it is the quickest way from A to B. She has 5 “words” Mama and Dada, baba (bottle), nana (banana and food in general) and uh (up). She is terrific.
So that’s it, my time is up, the littlest is awake and I’m needed. Enjoy the photos.
There are three new albums up in the new photogallery.
ENJOY!!!
THings have been busy around here as you can imagine but I have finally managed to upload lots and lots of photos to our new photo gallery.
No time to blog right now but click here to go to the gallery and see a ton of photos, including some of our new house (before we moved in and messed it all up!), Oliver’s birthday party, and pics from December this year.
At the moment we have another set of grandparents visiting with us; Granny Jill and Granpda Les. Sunday September 14th was Les’ 60th birthday, so as his birthday gift, Todd, Alexis and myself treated him to a day out on the water in a pretty spiffy boat. Todd’s friend and colleague does a lot of sailing and had offered to rent us a boat for the day from his club, and come and help us sail. The day started with us all getting to the club and climbing aboard this very nice boat. Click here to see it on the club’s website (Scroll down to the boat called Ms. Sera, that was ours). Of course, Les and Todd are both avid sailers, so between them and Doug, they had it covered. After a lunch at Lowes Hotel on Coronado, we sailed back to port. All in all, a great day! CLick below to see those photos, or here for an entire gallery.
It’s been a tremendously busy few weeks here in team P. At the end of August Grandpa John and Granet (Gran Janet) came to visit. We had a brilliant few weeks, with a trip to Sea World, lots of trips to the beach and swimming in their hotel pool, as well as the usual soccer classes, gym classes and of course preschool. Gran and Grandpa worked extremely hard, what with playing with the boys, comforting Sienna during her cranky patch each evening and cooking dinner. In fact one could say that it was hardly a holiday for them at all, rather more like a working holiday if you ask me!
There is a new photogallery up in the mac gallery so click here to go straight there.
Wow, is it hot around here. The boys are permenantly half naked, (if not fully naked) and it’s very sticky.
All continues to be well in the household. Admittedly I’m a little tired of a four year old’s incessant need to chant either the phrase “Yay, chicken fat!” over and over, louder and louder, or his need to make everything and anything have the word poo or bum in it. And yes, I am a little weary of an almost 3 year olds ability to roll his eyes and sigh loudly at just about any request I make of him, or indeed of his sudden ability to pee just about anywhere but where he is supposed to pee (ie the toilet). But, such is motherhood. Who knew that 3 and 4 year old boys were just like stroppy teenagers?
I am not tired however, of changing diapers, dressing my daughter in pink, watching her smile and laugh or indeed any other thing she does. She’s a lovely little dream. We are very lucky.
Alexander’s appointment in San Francisco went well. The surgeon confirmed the need for surgery, but concurred with our surgeon that the risks were minimal (as brain surgery goes) and he should recover quite nicely. The next step is the MEG study (magnetoencephelogram) which will basically map out the different areas of his brain in preparation for surgery. He continues to be on a very high dose of medicine, but is not seizing at all at the moment.
Anyway, here are a few photos. I have been a bit slack lately in taking any, so I ought to get my act together. Mind you, it’s not like I have anything else much to do……
