This past weekend was quite an eventful one for Siena. We went to the county fair and saw sheep, pigs, cows, goats, bunnies, chickens, tractors, fire engines, fried dough, the midway, and meager (by dad’s reckoning) drum/color-guard/fife corps. But perhaps the most memorable way for us to catalog the weekend was by Siena’s travails and incidents.

First, she was up at a quarter to six on Saturday morning. Ugh. Mama was dealt that wake-up card, unfortunately for her.

Then, Saturday afternoon she fell on her face on the way down to (or during escapades at) the lake, giving herself quite a black eye.

Sunday afternoon, after her cousin arrived, they “went down a nap.” That’s all in quotes because mostly they were chatting to each other and jumping up and down in their pack-n-plays. Siena managed to vault/climb/fling herself out of her crib and onto the floor. We think she landed on her head. She needed ice and some TLC from mama (dad was helping to bring in the dock, one of the annual end-of-summer activities). Later on, Siena was able to tell us that she had fallen out of the crib, hit her head, and needed ice. We are continually impressed with her language skills! Now she needs to work on cause/effect, consequences, and perhaps delayed gratification while we’re at it.

On Monday, we decided to stay for dinner instead of leaving immediately after lunch (whereby Siena then naps in the car). We segregated the girls for nap in separate bedrooms, and as a result Siena reverted to form with a nap lasting only an hour. She was reasonably cranky the rest of the afternoon, especially because she didn’t get a snack and her blood sugar must have been crashing.

We ate dinner at a local diner and hit the road. We strapped Siena into her car seat along with a little tray that she has for trips so she can have toys and books on her lap without them falling all over the car.

About 15 minutes into our homeward journey, Siena started sticking her hand down underneath the tray, rubbing her side or belly, and complaining, “Boo boo” and “Need ice.” We figured some of the bug bites she received over the weekend (we all got assaulted) were finally acting up, since we knew she had some bites on her tummy.

She looked quietly up at the ceiling of the car (an unusual activity for her), said in response to our query about what she was doing something like, “I’m thinking,” and then she complained about the boo boo again after a minute or two.

And then she threw up all over everything, losing her entire dinner. Poor girl!

Fortunately we weren’t yet on the highway, so we immediately pulled over and extracted the now-screaming and covered girl from the car, and started cleaning her and the car seat off with whatever we could find, mostly our laundry from the weekend. Mama had the girl and I was working on the car and car seat. Several very nice people stopped on the road and asked if we needed any assistance. After about 10 minutes, Siena was acting more herself, and everything was clean enough for us to get back on the road.

Stopping in the next town, we acquired some supplies like wipes, paper towels, Lysol, etc., spent more time cleaning up, and resumed home. By this point, Siena was pretty much back to normal, responding normally to our queries, laughing at certain jokes, and eventually falling asleep.

We realized that Siena had been trying to tell us that her tummy didn’t feel right, but she was using the only words and means she knew how. “Boo boo” and “need ice.” Ice, in fact, having become the cure all for everything after the pack-n-play incident. Sometimes it’s hard to remember she’s not even two, because she seems so big and verbalizes so much. But she’s still just a baby in so many ways.

This realization was reinforced just before she fell asleep in the car. At one point when we asked her how she was doing, she replied, “I spilled.” Oh little girl, yes you did, poor thing.