This is how my mommy felt last year at this time!

I couldn’t resist these pictures when I was thinking about the agony I was in this day I thought this picture of Syd could best describe how I was feeling!

So today was the day, I was filled with emotion from tears to laughing! Happy to finally evict the tenant I’ve been carrying around for 10 months, and to finally see her beautiful face! That last month was a nightmare it was like all of a sudden a switch got flipped and I was miserable. Bye bye happy glow, hello red swollen face and feet for a month straight! Haha And like all mothers would agree, I would do it again in a heartbeat for that little bundle of joy! Boy, to think how fast that year went. It’s been one of the best years of my life! I can’t imagine life without her! We will make sure to load up the blog with a bunch of birthday pictures of our wonderful little girl!!

A note from Daddy....

Did you ever have one of those days where everything went wrong? That was me and Sydney last night. As soon as Darla left for play practice, the night went south..... quick. Withing 10-15 minutes, Sydney had managed to find my soda which was sitting on the end table by the couch. Somehow she reached up and pulled the entire glass of soda all over her head and onto the carpet. That means I had to not only clean the carpet, but then I had to give Sydney a bath. Unfortunately, Sydney wouldn't let Daddy alone to clean the carpet so I put her in her crib temporarily. It was at that point Sydney fell asleep with soda in her hair and everything..... yuck! After letting her nap for a half-hour or so, I figured I wake her up and give her the much needed bath. No such luck! Sydney woke up in such a bad mood. Nothing I did would calm her down! I gave her a bottle, which she sucked down like she hadn't eaten all day. I then tried to feed her some food, but she wasn't in the mood for that as she hit the spoon and sent food flying. At this point, I'm extremely frustrated with how the evening is going, so I decided it was "bath time". I strip her down and get ready to put my sticky baby in the bathtub. The second I put her in, she starts sobbing like I had just scolded her for something. After her bath, Sydney finally started acting like herself..... finally. Just in time for Mommy to walk in and see a perfect little angel. Figures.

Got Mail??

I had to share these pictures with you. For lack of a better place to set it. On occasion we will put the daily mail on the chair in the foyer until we get a chance to go through it. Well, we are learning that we need to head for higher ground. With Sydney able to pull herself up on to anything she decided one day to go through the mail for us. I know it shouldn’t surprise me when you have a room full of toys and she’s rather sit on the floor for a half an hour playing with the mail, but I can’t help wonder what’s so fascinating about a pile of envelopes! Haha And her new thing this week if velco. We got her a pair of velco sneakers and she will spend hours (literally!) opening and closing the velco on her sneakers. It’s hilarious!!

I also had to share this pic of Sydney’s bed head! She even still looks sleepy on the picture. This was of one morning when she first woke up. Her hair is growing so fast and is such a pretty color!

Sydney's 1st Easter

So technically this is actually Sydney's 2nd Easter seeing as how she was born the week before Easter last year, but this is the first one that actually counts. I still can't believe she's almost a year old! Where has the time gone? Anyways, Easter isn't truly Easter until you see the little girl in her Easter dress. Here's are some pictures of Sydney in her cute yellow dress. As you can sorta see, she was not a huge fan of the hat. You know what that means: It's a quick put-the-hat-on-her-head-and-snap-a-picture moment. Even thought these were only small glimpses of Sydney's 1st Easter, she looked absolutely adorable. Enjoy!

Go ahead and say it. "She is SO cute!" I know I'm sounding a bit partial being her Dad and all.... but seriously, have you ever seen such a cute baby? I didn't post all of the pictures that we took, but there is one with her putting plastic eggs in her hat. What's funny is that Aunt Tammy bought her a fancy Longaberger Easter Basket, but she would rather use her hat. It just goes to show you that you can buy all the best toys in the world, but give the kid a cardboard box and they will play for hours. Go figure!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Okay.... I know it's been almost a month since our last post. We are such bad parents for not keeping up with our child's blog. Honestly, though, we have been running around like crazy people getting ready for our Easter Drama. Sydney has done remarkably well considering how hectic our lives have been. Her schedule is off a little, but I have a feeling it could be much worse.

I can't believe it's Easter already! Where has the past year gone. Sydney was born last year on the week before Easter. So guess what that means....... Sydney's almost 1! In fact if you ask her, she may even show you how old she is...... if you're lucky.

So, there isn't really anything new to tell you. Sydney still is not walking, which is a surprise to me. She cruizes on everything and pulls herself up to stuff all the time, but she does not have enough courage to let go yet. I know it will come in time, but I'm anxious. Well, anyways... that's all I have time for today. Stay tuned.... Sydney will be a 1-year-old in about two weeks. We will be sure to post pictures from her first birthday party.

A Quick Update...

I've been reading all sorts of books on how babies develop and seeing what the monthly milestones are so I can tell if Sydney is on track with her skills. Every place I have seen says that babies don't develop many new skills at her age because they are preparing for walking. All I keep thinking is.... "Yeah, right!" Sydney seems to constantly be exploring her surroundings; however, now that I think about it...... she really hasn't done anything new since our last posting.

As of right now, Sydney can point to her nose and ears on command as well as play some other word associaton games like "So Big". She is still cruizing on the furniture although she is slowly getting more and more brave as the days roll on. Sydney is now starting to let go of these supporting objects so she can grab on to another object. It's so cool watching her grow up.

I've got to say that we've been pretty fortunate because Sydney has not gotten sick at all since she was born. Unfortunately, Sydney appears to be getting sick. She has been a little "sad" the past 2 days or so. I don't think it's anything serious. She's not running a fever or anything, but she just seems "down". The poor thing....

So what did you do on your snow day?

Sydney lounging on a lazy snow day! How cute is that!
Hopefully she will learn early what this is for and how to use it!
I love this one! She was doing everything possible to get up there. She's even on her tip toes! Soon she will be using the stove handle as a chin up bar like her little friend Joshua!

This child will sit for a good 15-20 minutes making sure there's not one single dry spot on this string. Soon it's going to stand up on end!

Here are some fun pictures we took of Sydney when we were snowed in for the past couple of days. Every day is a new adventure with her. She’s getting more and more courageous every day. She’s not afraid to pull her self up on to anything anymore. And yesterday I watch her contemplate whether or not to sit and crawl to the next obstacle or if she just reaches far enough she could eliminate a step. I caught her in the bathroom yesterday standing at the toilet which we now realized we need to start putting the lid down just in case! She was in front of the toilet and I watched her reach to the vanity as if she going to cruise to that next. She didn’t quite have the nerve to let go, or at least last night she didn’t. But today’s a new day, who knows what she’ll conquer today! Haha I do have to say with all the action she gives, we do get our down time too. Mornings are so great with her. Once she wakes up and has breakfast, she’ll either play by herself or sit and cuddle with you while she watches Mickey’s Clubhouse. And within 2-3 hours after she wakes up she ready for nap 1#. Mom jokes with us and says we really don’t know what it’s like to raise a baby because she’s so out of the ordinary, we are so lucky to have such a great baby! Even as she’s teething we haven’t had too many problems. Last night was alittle difficult but still nothing compared to some of the horror stories I hear. Syd woke up around 12:30am screaming like as if she was in pain. She seamed to cry more when I gave her, her binki which lead me to believe it was her teeth. So daddy gave her some yummy drugs and within 15 minutes she was back to sleep.

Batten Down the Hatches

It's been a bit crazy around our house recently with Sydney's new found freedom of being able to get pretty much anywhere she wants. This has proven to be a restless time for us. Especially since I have been sick battling some sort of unknown illness. At any rate, Sydney is pulling herself up to everything, pulling on knobs (and pulling some off), eating cords, licking windows, and pretty much anything else you can think of. If she's awake, she's busy doing something. The good news is that Sydney is such an independent baby. She is able to sit for hours playing by herself. Thank God for small miracles!

OH! Before I forget, ... Sydney has learned how to wave. It's so cute! The other morning when we were waking her up for the day, I said "Hi, baby girl!" She struggled to pull her head up and barely cracked her eyes long enough to give me a wave. That was enough for her... she immediately flopped her head back down and tried to get a few more seconds of sleep. It's so neat to see her learning to communicate. Supposedly, Sydney can blow kisses too; but I have yet to see that happen.