7th Anniversary Pictures

On September 13, 2009, Tito and I accomplished 7 years of marriage. Strange, interesting, challenging and probably everything I needed. We ended up in a beautiful little town which happened to have an empty resort waiting for us. Complete with a private pool and cabins. One of the most beautiful places I have been. It reminded me of Guanaja, Honduras for those of you that have been there. I suppose that sometimes the best events really are unplanned.

I love bikes (and agua too)

One of Sienna`s favorite words is "moto" (motorcycle). She hasn't learned "bicycle" yet but she is fasinated with them. Her legs are almost long enough (as you can see in the picture) for a tricycle so this will definately be coming for Christmas. One of our favorite activities is going to ride the bicycle on the Amador Causeway. You get a nice workout and can have a beer and ceviche on the way. For those of you that have visited us in Panama you know what a great place this is. Beautiful view of the city, cool ocean breeze, tankers and cruiseships passing through the canal, overpriced bars and restaurants galore and lots of people doing all kinds of outdoor activities. You have to be careful not to run into any other bikers or skaters or rollerbladers or runners or walkers. This is one of the great reasons to live in Panama City. There are lots of parks and social areas for relaxing. The municipal government has done a great job in making sure there are outside green areas for everyone. These are the times I love living in Panama.

la Pollera (Lah Poyera)

Living in a new country always produces an assualt on the senses. The smells are new, the scenes are different, the sounds are cruelly louder or softer, the tastes are more dull or pungent and even the tile floors feel strangely different on your feet than the carpet or wood floors. So one would think that after living here for three years I would be accostumed to these new flavors of life but I am still astounded at the amount of musical bass needed to satisfy a small crowd in the park on a Sunday afternoon and how horrible it sounds when Sienna hits her head on the floor.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about new cultures is seeing the variations on traditional dress. I believe I owe this one to Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa when all of the people come out in their traditional Dutch dress, wooden shoes and all. So when one of my students suggested that Sienna needed a pollera-being that she is really a Panamanian, born in Panama-I readily agreed. The pollera is simply the name of the traditional Panamanian dress and is worn in all of the important holidays, mainly the Independance Days in November and during Carnival. Sienna is wearing the daytime pollera. The actual polleras (especially the night time ones worn by the queens during Carnival) are in reality very elaborate and expensive designs. Some people spend thousands of dollars on their dress and there are seamstresses dedicated solely to making the polleras.
Sienna looks so cute in her little pollera. Now I am just missing the other half; the Dutch dress and wooden shoes.

Getting Real Dirty

It is rainy season here in Panama, or as they call it, winter. This means that it is hot and rainy most of the time. Thankfully, when it rains it cools down some. But this also means more mosquitos, rivers of water in the streets and muddy pools of water in the park. As I previously noted in my prior blog entry, I am not privy to the afternoon paseos in the park due to my employment obligations. So that means I missed this one. Here is the story as I was told by Tito and Sienna, both of whom thought the whole event was quite entertaining. Tito tells me that he sat down for one minute, turned around and Sienna is face down in a mud puddle while another little girl stands by pointing and laughing at her. He then took her back home washed her off a bit and they returned to the park to get a popsicle. Who is gonna let a little mud ruin a perfectly good afternoon in the park? By the way, Sienna`s first three syllable word is....paleta. That`s right folks. The girl learned how to say popsicle perfectly in Spanish.

So when Tito calls me dying of laughter over the incident, I, being the thoughtful, caring and conscientious mother that I am, first asked him, "Did you get a picture of it?" and then I asked, "Is she okay?" The girl must have been so covered in mud because when I arrived home three hours later she still had mud in her nose. However, being that she is my Sienna Alicia Moon, she just didn't care and continued to run around the house screaming, "agua, agua, mama, luna, papa, tuko (our cat), bebe" and any other word from Sienna language land that leaves most of us laughing hysterically. What did I ever do for entertainment before I had Sienna?

My favorite time of day

Every day (except for rainy days and futbol days) Sienna gets to go to the park that she spends all day pondering from our balcony. She growls at the dogs, screams at the cats, yells at the skateboarders on their wheel-clicking platforms and claps for the goals being kicked and baskets being shot.

Being that I teach classes every evening until 8pm, I do not usually get to participate in the fun. Let me first say, I really have tried not be controlling about what my girl wears but there are times when I am confused by what her father puts on her. On this particular day, Sienna was allowed to pick out her own outfit. (However, I unknowingly accused her father of terrible taste). She loves the gold-colored, madri gras type necklace that she stole from her cousin, Anna B. and her awful, blue spongy shoes that seem to be so popular. The picture really doesn´t do reality justice. It was a really funny outfit.

Transformations

Sienna has transformed into a little girl. This happened suddenly over the past few weeks. She got her first haircut as she refuses to wear anything in her hair, she lost her baby fat, her legs got longer and she lost her beer (I guess, milk, is more appropriate) belly. She finds it unecessary to hold our hands unless she is going down some stairs and now walks around the house practicing all of her new words and frequently repeats them in her sleep. Still, the only English word she says is, apple. But this is to be expected as I am the only one that speaks English to her and she frequently hears me speaking Spanish as well.

She now has stronger opinons about what she wants to eat, when she wants to sleep and whether or not she wants to wear clothes, diapers, shoes and socks. Thankfully, it is very warm here and we have tile floors so she can usually get her way and just roam around naked until she starts pointing at her bum or at her pee on the floor and yells, agua, agua, poo, poo. How can you not laugh at this? Anything liquid is agua so her pee at this point is also referred to as agua. I guess in a way she is right. It probably is composed of mostly water.

Thanks to the nephews

A special shout out to my nephews Keegan, Payson, Benjamin, Ethan and Elijah for taking care of Sienna so that I could maintain my sanity during my trip home. Here is the funny thing about Sienna; she warms up to children immediately but it could take weeks for her to smile at you if you are an adult. She did let her Grandpa hold her and intermitently a few other adults. She only recently smiled at the cleaning lady that she has known since birth. I guess this is a healthy trait.

Sienna learned on this vacation how to effectively manipulate her mother by being whiny and crabby. So here I was, getting very little sleep because Sienna was waking up early and not taking very long naps, without my main man, Tito, there to help me and I am thinking anxiously that Sienna is sick, has allergies, has new teeth coming in, is scared of the new environment, etc... Well, we arrive home and the complaining continues. She only wants Mama to hold her, feed her, bathe her, etc... This is when I realized that I had been had by my one and a half year old. I am proud of her for learning how to get what she wants but now I have taken to ignorning her which is not my favorite activity. I keep on telling my self, just go with the flow and this too will pass. She has actually cut down tremendously on the complaining in the few days we have been back. I wish I would have figured this out in Iowa. My mother said that I was "owly". I am sorry about that family. I really had a fantastic time and I am looking forward to the next time.