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!