Say "Cheese"!

I'm sure you are getting sick of hearing this, but we are way too busy. I feel like every time we turn around there's something new happening, but we are unable to post it to this blog. Sydney is just over 18 months old now, and we still haven't gotten her 1-year pictures. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to go visit some new friends of ours who asked to take Sydney's pictures. We had an awesome time at Troy and Olga's! They are such great people, and their 6 kids seemed to have a fun time with Sydney.

On Saturday, Olga took us to an Apple orchard near their house. Although we didn't go into the orchard, they were selling lots of pumpkins and we got a few good pictures out of it. On Sunday, we all went to church and then went to Lafayette College afterwards to get a few more pictures. When it was all said and done, Olga took about 1000 pictures and we ended up with some spectacular shots of Sydney and the family. Thank you so much Olga!!! It would be impossible to show you every precious moment caught on film, but here are a few of our favorite pics.

I must say that Sydney kept things interesting for Olga. Sydney was too preoccupied looking at everything around her that she simply was not interested at all in getting her picture taken. What's so ironic about it is that Sydney will say "cheese" everytime Darla and I try to take her picture at home, but not this weekend.

Megan, can I please borrow your toothpicks?

My friend Megan is the best with her witty explanations of life with a toddler. Poor Megan has dealt with her fair share of sleepless nights and has often used toothpicks to hold up her eyelids, right Megan? Actually, I should rephrase that to “unfair” share! HAHA Well, we have two sleepless nights in a row for this week so far. Not sure what’s going, but poor little Sydney is all messed up right now. Tuesday night into Wednesday morning she woke up around 4:00a and didn’t fall back to sleep until my alarm went off at 5:50am. Great way to start your day! Haha Then again last night she woke around 2:00am and then last kick I remember was around 3:30am. I’ve always been really strict about letting her sleep in our bed, normally I would sleep anywhere but our bed, her floor, her chair, living room floor you name it, just not our bed. But the last two nights we gave in and laid her down in our bed between us where she would spend the next hour or so rolling around until she would find that perfect spot to finally drift off. By the way that spot is usually somehow on me. I think she knows just what to do now to make me laugh, just when I think I had enough I roll over to face away from her thinking I can somehow get comfortable on the 6 inches of mattress that’s left and then I feel this little hand on my shoulder with increased pressure with her lean as if she’s checking me to see if I’m really sleeping. I had to laugh, but not wanting to draw anymore attention I contained myself. So this morning as I showered …with my eyes close and only a night light on… literally…I tried to think what might be the problem, then I remembered, when we brushed her teeth the day before I noticed her upper I teeth coming in. For what I have heard, those are not fun to get in. It would explain her runny nose and slight fever she had yesterday morning. We been SO fortunate with her sleeping habits and teething and if we have a couple more sleepless nights, I can deal…now Daddie’s another story. I don’t know what worse sometimes, Staying up with Sydney or dealing with Jeremy the next day with no sleep. Haha I think f we have another sleepless night tonight, Mommie and Sydney are going to camp out in the living room. We’ll give Daddie a break for the night. So when you curl up tonight already to go off to dream land, think of us! And count your blessings! Love you all!

Hat Girl

I'm not one to normally go on about things like this, but I must say that Sydney looks absolutely adorable in hats. I'm sure I'm probably just one of "those dads" that think their kid is the cutest thing ever, but seriously... my little girl is SO CUTE. For those of you that didn't know, Mommy has been making hats for Sydney to wear with her different outfits. Aside from how cute she looks, the most shocking thing is that Sydney actually leaves the hats on. For some reason she has no problem when we put things on her head or in her hair. It's awesome! Mommy is just thrilled that she can dress her little girl up. Here are some pics of Sydney in her hats that Mommy made. My favorite pic is the one with her in the car. Here Sydney is, this little girl in such a pretty, girly outfit sitting inside this dirty car. As they say, "You can dress them up,.... "

Living in fast forward

I cannot believe the time that passed since we “blogged” last!! So sorry to all our friends and family! It just feels like time is flying by! Where to begin! Boy oh boy!! Well, Sydney’s skills are increasing daily anymore. She is able to repeat most of what we ask her to say! But I have to start off with this one. Sydney, about 3 weeks ago started counting to 10! The three of us were sitting down to dinner one night and Jeremy was counting something out for Sydney and stopped around 4, well Syd picked right up with 5 then Jeremy said 6 and she continues with 7,8, 9 and “t” for 10. It was amazing! 17 months and counting to 10. I’m sure some of you with your baby geniuses may not be too impressed but we are!!! I’m hoping we can record this for you all and hopefully post it on the blog for you all to hear. Along with her many tricks, animals sounds are a favorite! She can do a dog, cat, monkey, sheep, coyote and our favorite the cow. Where she got this cow sound from, we don’t know, but she will never learn to moo because we incourage the “new” sound. When’s she’s in the mood, if you ask her what the moo cow says, she crinkles her cure little face up and yells out “new!” not moo but new! She’s able to recognize many different pictures and put some wood puzzles together by herself. Some of her vocabulary is: hello, see ya, baby, mommie, daddie, mimi, pappy, gi gi, more, please, thank you, drink, pizza, bath, shoe, swing, up, tickle, ducky, no, yea, oh no, uh oh, car, ball, boat, kitty, choo choo (train), fishy, cake, cookie, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, shoulder, elbow and elmo. These are all words that she not only she says on her own, but she can recognize too. Body parts that she can point too on command, hair, head, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, tongue, teeth, ears, elbow, fingers, belly, knee (sometimes), and toes.

So now you see why we don’t have time to blog! Haha We will try to update more often! Hope everyone’s well!!

Our Big Scare!

I must preface this entry by saying.... please don't report us. Sydney gave me the biggest scare thus far as a parent. Our morning routine throughout the summer is pretty predictable. Sydney wakes up around 8:30am, and then we go downstairs. We turn on the cartoons and drink a bottle of milk. While Sydney is busy drinking her milk, Daddy goes out to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. It doesn't take that long --maybe 5 minutes or so-- but evidently that's enough time for something bad to happen.

Yesterday Sydney and I were right on schedule. After getting her breakfast, I walked into the living room to get Sydney and put her in her highchair so she could eat. As I get closer, I notice that she is chewing on something. I couldn't tell what it was, and since Sydney has been pretty good about not putting stuff in her mouth I didn't feel the need to rush over. That was until I saw Mommy's sewing basket on the floor. Just then I see what Sydney is putting in her mouth.... a straight pin!

Of course, I try to remain calm and say... "No, no, Sydney", as I carefully pull the pin out of her mouth. Investigating further, I realize that Sydney has more pins that she had already put in her mouth. So I start pulling one pin out... and another.... and another.... and another. Seven in all!! Never once did Sydney cry or fuss. After taking Sydney to the doctor and getting an x-ray, it was a relief to know that she did not swallow any pins. It was an absolute miracle that nothing serious happened. In fact, the only thing Sydney had to show for this experience was a tiny little scratch on her cheek.

On a more "positive" note, we lost one of the magnets to Sydney's Magna Doodle. We weren't too concerned that she had swallowed it since the magnets are pretty big, but we have looked everywhere for it. I guess the x-ray served two purposes by confirming that neither the pins nor the magnet was in her belly. Hmmm.... I wonder where that magnet is..... I guess we'll have to keep looking.

15-Month Check-Up

We always say it, but we have a BIG baby girl. At her 15-month check-up on Monday, Sydney was 34.25 inches long (above 95th percentile), and 27 lbs. 9 oz. (93rd percentile). It just shocks me as to how fast she is growing. I keep trying to remind myself that even though she is in the 93rd percentile for weight.... she is not fat. People always mistake her for being older than what she is. I swear, by the time she is 5 years old, people are going to think she's 10!

Sydney also had to get 3 shots at this appointment..... ouch! I think she is soon going to start associating the doctor's office with pain. It's obvious she is starting to make connections because everytime she sees Mimi and Pappy's house, she yells out, "Mimi!". I guess it's just a matter of time before she's kicking and screaming all the way from the car into the doctor's office.

A Day At Knoebel's

With Sydney getting older and July 4th making a long weekend, the three of us along with Mimi and Pappy went Knoebel's for a day of fun. Of course Darla was all about getting Sydney to go on the kiddie rides. Well, for the most part Sydney had fun. One of the words she says all the time right now is "ball". So we decided to take her to the ball pit. I think Mommy was reliving her childhood because she crawled right in there with Sydney and probably had more fun! After that, we took Sydney to the air trampoline thingy... but this time it was Daddy's turn to go in with Sydney. She had a lot of fun in there, but had a very hard time walking... so she just crawled everywhere she wanted to go. Of course Mommy hadn't tortured her enough, so our next stop was the little Carousel for kids. Sydney didn't seem to mind it at first, but as the ride continued you could see she was getting scared and started grabbing on to me. Overall, though, it was a great day! We had a lot of fun. A lot of food. And a little fantasy. All I have to say is Sydney better like the rides, because Mommy and Daddy need somebody to ride with them on the rollercoasters.... we can't just let our kid(s) running around without supervision. I know it will be a few years until then, but maybe next year Sydney will have more fun on the rides that are her size! I can't wait!