New Big Girl Bed!

It was like Christmas in September!!! Haha We had decided to get Sydney a new big girl bed in preparation for Baby #2 which will be here before we know it! October 28th is right around the corner!! Friday night Jeremy and I stayed up until 1:00am trying to get Sydney’s new bed together because of our crazy mommy thought it was a necessity to get done this weekend on top of having a house full of people the next day, fundraiser prep Saturday night and serving dinner for 90 people on Sunday at our church. Of course this needed to be done this weekend! Haha God love my husband, I appreciate more than he’ll ever know… mainly because all he normally hears anymore is can you do this, when will you do that! I think one of the worse symptoms on pregnancy is nesting. It not only affects you and makes you completely neurotic about things but it affects the people around you who have to deal with you! Haha But I think Jeremy can agree it was all worth it to see the smile on Sydney’s face the next day when she came into her room to see the “special surprise” mommy and daddy had waiting for her!!!

Pictures

I HAVE TO TELL YOU ALL, THIS BROWN AND WHITE DRESS WAS WORN ON MY NIECE AT AGE 4. MY 2 YEAR OLD FILLS IT OUT QUITE NICELY!

PUZZLES!

Our newest fascination! Recently we found a 25 piece regular puzzle that we decided to get out for Sydney. Not having any expectations since the age on this was for 3 + we thought it would be something new to look at. I figured mom and dad would sit there and put it together while Sydney watches was not what happened. She dove right in putting the pieces right in place, we managed to find two more puzzles, which were left over party gift from her first birthday, so we cracked those open and she went to town! This has now become our newest fascination, hours upon hours have been dedicated the past few weeks to putting these together. We decided to kick it up a notch and whip out a 63 piece one, again no problem. It’s amazing what this kid can do! Only bad thing in all this is that we are finding she has dad’s determination and mom’s patience. She up for the challenge but get quickly frustrated if things aren’t fitting in place. She sometimes quick to give up and yell “no mommy, you do it!” As she holds the piece out sternly. But overall, she’s does really well on her own.

Painting...

“Help daddy? Help daddy?” is all we here now since we have left her do what you see here. Most of you know how neurotic I am about having a dirty kid or a smelling kid…thanks to Lori my coworker, she taught me right! She always said…”nobody likes a stinky baby!” Which is SO true! Have you ever held someone’s baby and they were dirty, or smelled like puke? Or another pet peave, is when their nose is crusted shut from snot build up! Man I hate that. All I what to do is go to town cleaning that kids nose so they can breathe! I’m sure the mom wouldn’t be offended at all right! So I don’t dare… SO needless to say, whenever I take Sydney out, she dress properly, hair’s done usually with a bow in it (marketing opportunity), her face is washed, we do a nose check, and we slap on some good smelling baby lotion if need be. I guess from Lori teaching me that it’s now a reflex! Haha Whoa now there’s a tangent at best! Haha My WHOLE reason for saying this was because here’s some pictures people rarely see of my daughter, in scrubby clothes full of paint! It was great! Jeremy was priming the walls and we went in to see him when Sydney asked “help Daddy paint?” so we looked at each other pondering the situation. And Jeremy says “well now’s to time to let her help, she can’ t ruin anything with primer?” So off I go to find clothes that she can paint in…which let me tell you was hard to find! We don’t have what people would call “play clothes” She plays in what ever she wears…and rarely get dirty so therefore we are missing that category from out wardrobe! So I found and sweat shirt and stretch pants that were Chloe and Emma’s and a pair of “older” socks. And we had a ball! So much fun that even Mimi had to get in on the action! Haha Sydney has SO much fun and so did we watching her!

Tuesday night was "financial services night" at the Williamsport Crosscutters Game. Thanks to State Farm, we got free tickets for the game! Great opportunity to spend sometime with my nephews! These boys are the best! So well behaved, so funny and so sweet to their cousin Syndey. We had SO much fun and looking forward to doing this again sometime!
Thank you Aunt Tammy for my new hat and pom poms!!

This is Boomer, Sydney's new best friend. If Boomer was not in sight, Sydney was asking for him. She was funny, she loved him from a distance but as soon as he got too close, her "where's Boomer?" turned in to "No Boomer!" haha

church camp

This is where Sydney spent the week of Church Camp, in the passenger seat of a golf cart or on Toby's four wheeler. By Wednesday people just started to pick her up. They knew if she saw them she would ask for a ride so they didn't even hesitate they just picked her up. I started to think that the drivers enjoyed it as much as she did! Above is Bro Cluster from the State College area, him and his wife areto of the sweetest people I know! They would drive up and ask her "go for a ride?" Sydney would hop right up and off they went!

Inner Harbor

What a fantastic time we had at the aquarium! Sydney was in Fishy Heaven!!

It's been awhile!

So sorry everyone! Boy how time flies! As you can see she's changing from month to month! We've just been overloaded with activities and life that I haven't had a chance to check in! But I couldn't wait another day to get you some pictures and tell you about our recent success! About two weeks ago we made a drastic change in Sydney's bed time routine. Which consisted of Mommy and Sydney passing out on the couch watching whatever may be on that night! What a great routine huh? We have found over recent weeks that the television was no longer soothing but now a stimulant that kept her little peepers from closing. So one night when I had it. Daddy took our little girl upstairs and put her in her crib awake. I was terrified, not knowing how long he was going to have to endure the screaming, whining and negotiating. yep, negotiating, I think that night she asked for everything under the moon! haha Milk, crackers, candy, couch, tv, hugs, kisses, and of course mommy and daddy's bed that I have recently given in to. So after about 35 minutes of this, I assumed it was success due to complete exhaustion. Since it was 12:00 am when Jeremy was able to sneak out. When Jeremy said we are going to take her up from now on and put her to in her crib awake I thought he was nuts. So of course I agreed only if he would take her up each night. Which he did, consistently now for two weeks! I am SO incredibly lucky to have a partner in my life, not just a husband. Last night was the topper, Jeremy was running late from music practice and at around 9:30p Sydney turns to me, kisses me and says "night night mommy, sweet dream." So I asked her, "Sydney, do you want to go up to your bed?' She said, okay mommy and proceeded to walk towards the steps!" No crying, no yelling, no need to pry her from my arms! So I at least asked her, may I carry her up so I could get at least one more squeeze in before she goes to bed. I asked Jeremy..."why have we waited until now to start this?" Why do any parents? We so often find excuses as to why, well she's not ready, it's not convenient, she won't we tried once. Well, I'm now up to try anything!!!

Fun With Markers

PICTURES!

Pineapple Straight from Hawaii

Pictured here are two of my favorite things in life. Sydney and fresh pineapple. Now, this was not just any pineapple, this one was special delivered straight from Hawaii Compliments of my Boss! Tony is always great at bringing things back or Lori and I from his trips and this time we joked with him about bringing us back a pineapple. When he returned from his trip I thought, well I guess he didn't take us seriously. The very next day the Dole box showed up at our office. Freshly picked just for us.

“Kitty! Get down…now!!”

Parents, be careful of what you say! Last night as we try to wind down for the night, while we are setting the scene for sleepy time which is turn the low lights on over the fire place, turn the TV on, open the window to let some of that wonderful cool rain air in, get Sydney her sippy cup of milk and maybe a snack, Simon our kitty decides he needs to get in on this fresh air and try to fit in the window along with the box fan. SO Jeremy of course tells Simon not to jump in the window and of course like cats do, he does exactly what Jeremy telling him not to do. So he says “Simon get down”. Well since Simon wasn’t listening, Sydney took it upon herself to yell at the cat until he came out of the window, for a good five minutes she stood at the window with her sippy cup tucked under her arm and her finger on the other hand pointed at the cat and yelled “Kitty! Get down…now!” With authority! So then we needed to spend the next five minutes convincing Sydney that its okay that Simon’s in the window but she felt differently about that. Haha It’s amazing how quickly a child’s language skills flourish. I feel like it was just yesterday when we were cheering her on for saying, mommy, daddy, car and ball. And here we are, in full sentences having conversations with a 2 year old! Boy does this time fly.

Easter 2009

So, technically, this is Sydney's 3rd Easter even though she is only 2 years old. We had to take a picture of her Easter dress... doesn't she look adorable?

We also had to get a pic of Sydney with Mommy and Daddy. If you look behind us, you will notice our church platform has the black curtains up. This year was the first year we have not done an Easter Drama at our church. Instead we had an Easter Concert. Overall, it was a success. And Sydney was a real trooper through the endless hours of music practices. She is such a good girl. We couldn't ask for more!

Sydney's 2nd Birthday

Can you believe it's been 2 years already since Sydney came into our lives?! It's crazy! In celebration of Sydney's 2nd Birthday, we had a birthday party and invited some of her friends and family over to the house for an egg hunt (since it's so close to Easter). Everybody seemed to have a lot of fun... until Sydney had to blow out her candle. For some reason when everybody starting singing "Happy Birthday" to her, she didn't like it at all. In the picture, you can see the pout on her face and her flushed cheeks. When it was all said and done, Sydney had a great time and I think the other kids did too. Before you know it, she'll be three!

On an additional note, Sydney went for her 2-year check-up. What a HUGE kid she is! She was 36.25 inches tall and 35.25 pounds. That's a big 2-year-old. To look at her, you'd think she was much older. I have a feeling she's gonna be taller than most of the boys....

Daddy's Sick.... Yea!!!

So, Daddy was recently sick and had to take a few days off of work. Although Daddy didn't feel that well, we still got to play together and have lots of fun! One of Sydney's favorite things to do right now is play with Play-Doh! Here is a pic of Sydney playing with some shapes that we made. I don't know if you can tell in the pic, but she is holding a bright pink giraffe which had to eat something... so then we had to make some trees. Her absolute favorite animal is the dolphin. Of course there always has to be water for the dolphin to swim in. She so cute!

A Day with Mommie.

Last Friday, I took the day off knowing how busy our weekend was going to be to spend some extra time with Sydney. I tried to plan a fun outing to McDonald's playworld only to find out it's for ages 3 to 12. Now usually we can get away with something but because of the way this thing was constructed, all we could do was play with the end of the slides. And of course we made the best of it. Sydney had fun yelling and listening to her voice echo and just looking around in amazement at this jungle of colors.

Just for the fun of it, more pictures!

What's that sound, Daddy?

Sydney's newest favorite line. Anytime she hears ANYTHING out of the norm we get. What was that sound? I think for at least 5 minutes striaght last night she repeat the following lines:

"What was that sound, choo choo?"
"What was that sound, car?"
"What was that sound, truck?"

Over and over and over... Actually for the first two minutes t was only car and choo choo. So I thought I would ask her if it was a truck? to throw her off but she just added it to the mix. It was TOO funny. Just like my daughter, she thrives on communication even when she doesn't know how to express herself she'll name off everything she sees! Two morning's ago, she calls for me when she woke up. So I walk in and greet her with a "Good morning Sydney, did you sleep well?" She pauses, looks around and says "binki?, butterflies?, blanket?, blanket?, (because there's two in bed with her) pillow?" And that's how her day started. And this girl LOVES to talk on the phone. Whether there's someone on the other line or not. Her newest best friend is that nice lady on the phone that tells you "If you would like to make a call, please hang up and try again." They talk all the time! haha

I'm sure I could read back over the months to see how many times I typed this but "I love this stage!" I love the communication, the intential hugs and kisses, the playing ball, pretend play, etc. etc. I swear she's more and more fun everyday.

cousins!

pictures pictures pictures!!!

Okay So it's been awile since I posted pictures so we'll have tp ask daddy to fix them! The one's above are Sydney's impression of the pied piper!