It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

So, it's been two weeks since our last post.... how time flies. There has been so much going on with the holidays and shopping and the crazy weather that there hasn't been time to update everybody on Sydney's progress. She is beginning to expand her language of babbling to include "da-da"....FINALLY! I was beginning to think she only loved her mama. I shouldn't get too excited, though, because she hasn't made the association of who "dada" actually is yet.

Since our last post, Sydney has become quite the crawler. In two short weeks, she has gone from crawling a few feet to crawling across the house. It's hard to believe how quickly they advance once they figure out all the moves. I'm thinking that Sydney is already getting bored with crawling though. She has managed to figure out that if she crawls over to an object, she can pull herself up. I guess that is the next coolest thing. Stay tuned for our blog on walking....I'm sure it'll be exciting.

Sydney has also managed to perfect the "silent" clap. She just started this a few days ago, but she can clap her hands. It's so neat to see.... and she gets so excited that she can do it. The only problem is that there is absolutely no sound when she does it. Who knows....maybe that's a blessing for mom and dad.

On a sad note, our poor baby girl has started teething again. Once again, she's an over-acheiver. It appears as though Sydney is getting 3 teeth in at once ...all on the top. She definately has to be in some pain. The poor thing... We knew something was wrong because her whole schedule was off. It's so frustrating when you think you have them all figured out and they change the rules. No fair!

Anyways, I hope that we get some time soon to keep you all updated on Sydney and what she has in store for us. We wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

It’s official!! Sydney’s crawling!

Last night I got to see on a few occasions, Sydney taking a few steps crawling in forward position! We would taunt her with her Binki or a toy by putting it just far enough so she couldn’t just lunge forward like she’s been doing for the past couple of weeks. It was so amazing to see. There’s nothing like seeing your child conquering their “firsts” in life! What a moment! I can’t wait to get home to watch it some more! She’s great! We are seeing more and more of her personality (and temper) everyday! Poor Bro Erb, we were at bible study last night and Sydney had almost everyone behind her their attention. Not to mention a few in front of her that kept turning around to see what she was up too! So when everyone was supposed to be listening to Bro. Erb, they were busy going “gaga” over Sydney and her funny faces. She is SO expressive, it’s hilarious. What a joy to have her in our lives, we can’t imagine life without her!

I'm Ready For My Close-Up

So, last week on Friday it was time for us to get the obligatory Christmas pictures. I know we don't get professional pictures all that often, but why are they SO EXPENSIVE!? Regardless of price, it is still nice to have good pictures of Sydney and the family. Sydney is definitely becoming quite the superstar, turning on her charm for the camera (her paparazzi). As we were getting her pictures taken, the workers at the portrait studio were poking their heads in the doors ooo-ing and ahh-ing at the pretty baby. Here are some of the shots we got. I hope you enjoy!

Where’s Sydney…There she is!

So, one of Sydney’s favorite games to play is, “Where’s Sydney” You all know that game. She loves when you cover her face or yours and play peek a boo. And the longer you drag it out, the higher the pitch is of her squeal is! Haha She loves it. Well I think the other day she wanted to play with daddy. Sydney was playing on the floor and Jeremy ran into the kitchen while she was happy and occupied to clean up. After a while, he went in to check on her… and so the game began, “Where’s Sydney?” no really, where is she? Jeremy at a glance couldn’t find her in the living room. Finally he found her backed up behind our recliner. “There she is!” haha Smiling and wedged back between the recliner and the side table. She’s getting very good and moving around. Not crawling forward still, but rolling and back pedaling she’s a pro at.

I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving! We sure did, Aunt Tammy did a great job hosting about 20 people at their house. It was such a nice relaxed day. I really can’t remember the last time I got to just sit around and not have anything to do! I always have my hands into something, whether it dishes of bottles to do, laundry, picking up or going through mail. What a great husband I have, Jeremy spent most of the day cleaning on Wednesday and therefore didn’t leave anything for me. It was so nice! Sydney and I cuddled up in the afternoon and took a nice long nap in the afternoon. What a great Thanksgiving! I’m so thankful for my family.

I cannot forget to mention our new addition to our family! Sydney has another cousin! Evan Michael Battern was born on 11/21/2007 at 12:33pm A whopping 10 lbs 1.7 oz and 22 ½ inches long! God love my sister! The doctor’s response was “What a woman!” My mom commented “he has no wrinkles!” haha Mom and baby Evan are going great and I can’t wait to meet him this weekend. Only thing was poor little Evan broke his clavicle on his way out. I hope to have pictures for everyone next week!

More tricks...

So this is really cool. I know we get way too excited over the smallest things, but up until this point Sydney has not been able to do much other than roll over and rock on all fours. As of a few days ago, she has added two new tricks to her repertoire: sitting and sliding. It's not much, but when Sydney is on all fours she now slides ...... backward. It's not in the right direction yet, but we're getting there. She also has learned how to sit up on her own. This is the best trick yet! Every time Sydney got tired of laying down, she'd fuss a bit so you would come sit her up. Now she can do that on her own! YEA!!! Before you know it she'll be all grown up...

New tricks!

Hi everyone! It’s been an interesting couple of days with our little girl! She’s picking up some new tricks that we are just fascinated over! Last night when I came home the first thing out of our proud Daddy’s mouth is “Guess what Sydney can do!” Some may read this and think “boy they get way too excited”, but when it’s your first child, the shock value doesn’t wear so easily. So, her new trick is “clicking on demand!” Yeah I know you are all thinking… “What?” Well I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s that clicking noise you make with your tongue. It’s the cutest thing ever!! We clicked all night last night and also practiced our other new trick. Clapping! On Saturday, Grand Pappy was playing patty cake with Sydney and when he finished the song, she kept on clapping. And last night every time we got her to “click” we celebrated and clapped! We had a blast last night! They picture is from us playing last night.

Blackmail for Sydney’s first date (which will be when she's 30)

If looks could kill....

I can hear it now, “Mom, why would you dress me in such a silly coat!” I had to show you all a picture of Sydney ready to get into the car this morning. She even looks mad at me! hahaI found this cute puppy coat at Gymboree for only $10.00! Not only was it adorable, it was a bargain too! HAHA The ears actually don’t stand up like that, I had to put them up so you wouldn’t miss them! HAHA My poor girl’s been having a rough couple of days, and so is Mimi Bingaman. Sydney hasn’t been napping any longer than a half an hour at a time. Tina said she’s even waking up tired. So either that tooth we’ve been talking about is finally ready to make it’s debut or she’s getting sick. I’m rooting for the tooth! We’ve been lucky so far, Sydney has not been sick once yet.

The natives are getting restless…

Hey everyone! I’ve got to fill you in Sydney last night, you know it’s never good when your spouse refers to the child as “YOUR CHILD” haha I called Jeremy on my way home last night and I heard it in his voice from the moment he said hello. Sydney fought with him all night, he said no matter what I did she screamed and even when I held her she was rough. She kept grabbing and hitting at me. Not sure what is up with that. So once I got home, she was happy for about an hour and then started with me. So we moved bath time up and she was happy with that. I just made the comment this weekend I think it’s time to move Sydney to the tub. After Saturday night’s bath, we all got at bath from her splashing, my kitchen was flooded. She literally splashed a couple of inches out of the sink. I gave the sink one last try. So last night, we had the same, splashing, splashing and then she stopped dead in her tracks…the cat walked in to the kitchen. I haven’t mentioned this yet but about two or three weeks ago Sydney discovered that Simon is this amazing phenomenon. She is fascinated with the cat, doesn’t matter what she in the middle of, if he walks into the room, she stares and then screams to the top of her lungs to get his attention. It’s the funniest thing! Now back to last night, Syd’s in the sink, Simon walks in, she stops, stares, then screams and then tries to climb out of the sink to get him! She actually got herself to her knees and then was leaning over the side of the sink! Perfect example of why you should never leave the room! We would have had a fish out of water!

Our other newest conquest is fighting with her for diaper changes and getting her dressed after her bath. I think because she getsall wound up in the bath she can’t calm down to let me dress her. I usually have Jeremy help with this part because she’s getting to be too quick for me. What am I ever going to do when this child starts crawling! It’s gonna be a nightmare! It’s funny, we do all this encouraging to get out child to reach these important milestones, for what? More work? I decided I rather have Sydney be an under achiever for right now. Haha I know I mentioned this earlier in her blog and even got a picture of her in her towel in crawling position. I have now mastered a diaper change while she’s up on all fours. Not sure how I’m going to do with a moving target! We’ll know soon enough!

Halloween Nightmare!

Well, reality took over! All my hopes and plans for Halloween literally blew up in my face! Sydney’s favorite toys are ducks, every duck toy we have she LOVES! So obviously, when I was planning on what to dress her for Halloween, a duck came to mind right away! So the hunt began, where to find the cutest duck costume at the cheapest price! Finally I found it! I bought her costume about a month ago in the size she was wearing at the time, thinking it looked huge and it should fit her just perfect on Halloween night. So because there where people to see all over the place, we started early. Jeremy came up and met me at work with Sydney and her ducky costume and our plans were to dress her at the office, go to Lori’s, eat a nice dinner at Olive Garden, and hit Tony’s house on our way home. So Jeremy arrives and I’m all excited, “let’s get her dress!” So we lay her down, and I laid the costume next to her and it wasn’t good. In my mind I’m thinking, “well, it be a tight fit, but we can get her in it!” Note, I was still in dream land of having a happy Halloween at this time! I proceeded to put on her costume, and it’s not fitting, not even close, and I start to panic. I didn’t plan for a growth spurt when I bought the costume. At this point Sydney has had enough, I tell Jeremy to grab a pair of scissors, we’ll cut the feet out and that should be enough. Again, not even close. We get her feet in and they hang about 4 inches past the bottom of the feet. And the shoulder of the costume is about inch or two down past her shoulder. Meanwhile as I’m doing this Syd is screaming! I start shoving her shoulder in and she gets even more mad! So finally thru the sweat and tears (thank God there was no blood) I get her in. Trying to regroup, I hold her up with a happy face and say “see doesn’t she look cute?” As she continues to cry and now can’t even bend because the costume is so tight! It was almost like the little boy from A Christmas Story, if Sydney could speak she would have said “I can’t put my arms down!” So we get her in her car seat and off to Lori’s we go. We walk in her door, and the most we said was “trick or treat” and I was already undressing Sydney. So at least Scot and Lori got to see her in her first Halloween costume.

So after Sydney was free from her costume, she still fussed, so we fed her, and she fussed, we played, she fussed. Finally we leave and go to Olive Garden, and once again…she fussed. There’s nothing I dislike more than a crying baby at a restaurant, oh wait there is…being the one with the crying baby. I was so tense and upset myself I think it only made Sydney worse. So finally our food comes, and Jeremy pick up Sydney and walks in the waiting area to put her to sleep, she was exhausted and couldn’t fall asleep. So there I sat, alone, eating my salad. When Sydney’s that tired, it usually doesn’t take her long to fall asleep and Daddy has the magic touch when it comes to that. So in about ten minutes he was back and his soup wasn’t cold yet. Haha We she slept through dinner and we had a nice meal. We decided, because of everything that happened and how late it was, it wasn’t smart to make any more stops, so we headed home. Once we were home and I got to talk to mom, she mentioned how Sydney was fussy today and she thought it was because of her teeth. (that would have been great to know earlier that evening!)

We had plans for the next day to visit some more people and travel to Elysburg to see my nephews. After the events that happened on Tuesday. I couldn’t handle anymore. So we planned to buy some candy, and stop at Megan and Jason’s to see Joshua. So we roll in, Dugan family was on the porch ready for the kids. It was alittle after 6:00 and her neighborhood was hoppin! Kids and parents everywhere! I was so excited and finally in the spirit. We get out the van and Megan’s all excited to see Sydney in her costume and we roll in with a beautiful baby in a sleeper. That’s it. So we visited with them for a bit, we always have fun when we are with them! And all the parents and kids were so friendly, I couldn’t wait to get home and hand out candy at our house! So we get home, I’m all happy and back in the game, now Sydney’s not quite there, still alittle fussy because of her teeth. I get out the candy and turn on the light and wait…wait…wait…wait… At about 7:30, a half an hour after the light was on, we get our first trick or treaters. I tell them, go ahead take a BIG handful and they looked at me like I was trying to trick them. I had to get rid of the candy somehow! So in the hour and a half our light was on, we got 11 trick or treaters. I think there were 11 in the first ten minutes we were at Megan and Jason’s house!

So finally we turned of the light and got ready for tubby time! So we did finish the night out with some fun. Sydney LOVES getting a bath. She had our floor soaked last night from all the fun! These pictures are from after her bath last night!

“We’re gonna rock this town…”

So it’s only a matter of time and our girl will have to be gated in! haha Sydney is getting up on to “all fours” with ease! Let me tell you, diaper changes are becoming a challenge! As soon as you lay her down she instantly flips over on to “all fours” and then rocks. The good news is she can’t do much than rock, but I don’t think it will be long before she figures out what to do. She has the strength, just doesn’t know the steps yet. While we were wrestling to get her dressed last night after her bath, at one point she was in push up position. It was too funny. So we know she has the strength! The picture in her yellow towel was from last night. She rolled over and I couldn’t resist I had to get the camera. After about the fifth snap of the camera, Jeremy says, you better watch it, your soon gonna have a puddle! I agreed and sure enough when I flipped her over to put her diaper on, we had a nice pee stain! If you look closely you can see it on the picture!

Priceless...

I have a few older pictures I wanted to share with you all that I just love to look at. It’s sad, I miss Sydney so much when I’m at work I look at these pictures I have saved on my computer at least once a day. It helps me get through the day. I knew it would be hard to come back to work, but never thought it would be this bad! She just growing so fast I can’t get the pictures developed quick enough! Thank God for modern technology, no need to developing. All we need in life is a blog site! haha

Happy Birthday to Sydney’s Prom Date!

Today is Joshua’s 1st birthday. I’ll never forget when we heard the news we were having a girl, I called Megan and Jason almost right after and asked if Joshua had a date yet for the prom yet. It so nice to have such good friends in the same town, I remember when Megan told me the good news they were buying a house in Milton, I think my response was, Oh great! We can be soccer moms together when we start having babies! Haha And here were are, with babies and a mini van for practices! We are set! Haha We are very lucky to have a couple of good friends in town, Anastacia, Lucas, Joshua, Remmy, and Joshua! Look out Milton! Here they come! Haha Time is just flying by! Sydney’s already 7 months old and her birthday’s coming quick! It’s amazing what all we have experienced, how quickly she has grown and her personality is coming through more and more everyday! She’s such a joy! Even when she’s teething! Yeah that’s right, tooth number 3 is almost out. Her fruits and veggies are going down so well, we’ll soon be on to finger foods! Let me tell you that kid loves to eat! Sydney right now is eating cereal and a fruit for breakfast and a veggie and fruit for dinner! We got to get her crawling so she can burn some calories! Haha We getting there, last week we were still “setting her in position” to crawl and we had fun rocking back and forth and then falling on her face. This week, as soon as she gets a chance to get on her belly, she right up and rockin! It’s too cute!

Sydney’s cousins

Just wanted to post some recent pictures of Sydney and her cousins. Unfortunately, I don’t have one with her and Joseph so we will have to make it a priority to take some pictures of them together next time. I love the one of Sydney and Brett, they we so cute together, Brett would have let her do anything to her. On the one picture Sydney was grabbing his ear and he just sat there and watched TV and kept saying it’s okay Aunt Darla, I’m use to it. Now the last picture was a cute shot I cought of Sydney playing in her pack in paly hugging her lion, she was too cute, I had to snap a picture. As you can see from the "bed head" she had just woken up from a nap.

Not enough time in the day!

I’ve been trying all week when I get a chance to post some recent pictures and every time, I get an error and I haven’t had time to figure it out. Apparently it’s still working because I always find new and cute pictures of my man Joshua and his blog page, but I’m not having much luck. So here are some pictures I promised a while ago of Aunt Jennie’s shower.

Aunt Jennie’s Baby Shower

Yay! Sydney’s going to have a new cousin in November. At least this one she might be able to maule instead of being mauled all the time by her older cousins! Haha Her cousin Chloe and Emma love her so much they can’t keep her hands off of her! Literally! Haha It so cute to hear little Emma with her lips puckered out saying “Sydney’s so cute!” On Saturday we had a small shower for Jennie to help prepare for the Blue team invasion! Finally Mike will have some extra testosterone to help balance the girly girls out! Haha It was so nice to have a relaxed small “get together” instead of the 60 people Shin Digs we are used to! Of course I still went over board on food. I got at least one comment of “Boy Darla, how many people are coming?”. Aleast I didn’t order another batch of 200 pieces of chicken like I did for a party of 50 people. Yeah, that’s 4 pieces of chicken per person. I still haven’t lived that one down. It was a nice time and hopefully it helped Jennie and Mike be more prepared for Baby Boy. I will post some pictures of the shower when I get a chance. Hope everyone is doing well!

The words all mothers are waiting to hear…

Last night Sydney was laying in her pack n’ play and rolling around and talking, and I finally heard it…yep that’s right the moment I’ve been waiting for…”ma ma ma ma” it was brief, and…I haven’t heard it since. I’m trying not to get too excited, especially for the fact that I was no where to be seen, I was sitting on the recliner across the room from her. So it wasn’t like she saw me and then said ma ma. But the fact that we finally are getting some sounds other than “AAAAAA” is awesome! We even got a “ra ra ra ra ra” this morning. So we are getting there… Slowly but surely!

Sydney’s 6-Month Checkup

As an end to the festivities of Sydney’s 6th month birthday, we took her Monday morning for her 6 month checkup. It's been a long time since I've been to a doctor's office that makes you sit for an hour after your scheduled appointment... because I’ve learned a way around the system. Unless it’s an emergency, I will only schedule an appointment if it is the first one available for that day. So far it’s been working to our benefit. Since we schedule her appointments months in advance, we usually can get the 8:00am appointment and be out of the doctor's office within 30 minutes! It's awesome!!!! Anyways enough of that nonsense... haha. That was your tip of the day if you are sick and tired of waiting an hour to see your doctor. “They” recommend you schedule first thing in the morning or right after lunch. Who are "they" you may ask?.... my baby magazines.

So anyway, Sydney passed! haha It’s official... she finally weighs more than our cat Simon. Simon is 17 lbs and Syd is now 18lbs, 1.5 oz. and is 28 and 3/4 inches long. Once again she's in “upper 95th percentile”. I’m assuming their chart ends there, because we never hear anything like she's in the upper 97th percentile! I have a feeling she's gonna be an overachiever.

I don’t know why I worry so much about these appointments. I think I’m worried they will think I’m an unfit mother because she had some belly button junk. Yeah that’s right; I inspected all of Sydney’s crevices to make sure there was no smelly crust anywhere. All you moms do it, I’m the only brave one that's willing to admit it! I never thought it would happen, but I am now "that" mom. You know.... the one who uses her own saliva to clean her child's face. Your thumb and spit works just as good a washcloth in a pinch! haha

Thanks to Lori, I also have another complex. One of the first things should told me after "Congratulations! You're pregnant!" was... "Nobody wants to hold a stinky baby. Make sure that baby smells good"! So far, I have followed her advice. Thanks Lori! The first thing people say is, “I love holding her. She always smells so good”! So,... the whole purpose for this post was to update you all on her milestone chart, and instead you got a whole bunch more than expected. I hope you at least got a good laugh! Take care!

Happy 6th Month Birthday!

In honor of Sydney's 6th month birthday, we planned a day full of events! We started the day with sleeping in until 8:30am. Not planned but a nice surprise. Once Sydney woke up we had our first bottle of the day and then laid in bed with mommy and daddy until 10:00am Even nicer surpise! Finally at 10:00am I had enough and had to get up! Once we got up and moving, we evenutally made it out our door around 2:30pm and on to Ard's Farmers Market for a photo shoot. I don't know what I would do if Megan didn't come up with all these great ideas for Joshua! So once again, we copied...haha Thanks Megan! We got some great pictures out at Ard's of Sydney! We had so much fun, well, at least mom and dad had fun. After the fifth hay bale we sat her on she about had enough. And good news, no one reported us Children and Youth for placing Sydney on the "For Sale" table with all the dirty pumpkins! You know, the tables where there's the dirty hay cushioning the pumpkins along with the 3 foot drop onto the concrete if she just leaned far enough she'd hit! But again we got some really good shots! And Sydney's just fine.

So once our photo shoot was over, off to Walmart to get them developed right away and pick up some happy birthday toys! Once we got home, again another monumental moment...eating peas for the first time! What fun! I have never seen her shake like that. She would take a bite and just shutter from the taste, like "what the heck was that?" She only gagged twice! haha Now Sunday was a totally different, no head shaking, but still dislike. I was smart and only heated up a little bit, but she finished no problem so I got a little more…then rest of the container, by the end she was back to her old self with mouth open and hands in the air. It was exciting! So hopefully tonight will go well and maybe try something new tomorow!

Bath Time Fun

Hey Everyone, Here are some pictures from when Sydney got promoted to the big sink. She had a blast! I was getting worried, because bath time wasn't all that fun. Syd would just sit there and stare. Well once I moved her to the big sink I found out why. The poor kid had no room to move! (Way to go Mommy) haha Once we moved to the big sink she screams, splashes and just has a blast! And we get to mop the floor more often because of all the water on the floor we have to clean up after bathtime!

First Time Blogger

Welcome everyone! I want to start off with saying, I'm not a writer nor a good proof reader! See right there I already spelled proof like proff but I caught that one and fixed it! HAHA Thanks to my good friend Megan, she got my hooked onto the world of blogging! I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do. And if not, you can blog me and tell me you don't! haha