Thanksgiving 2008

We hope everybody had a good Turkey Day! If you celebrated anything like us, you probably need to start the "New Year Diet" in December. Daddy's pants are fitting a bit too tight for his liking... haha. But overall, we had a great Thanksgiving and ate lots of food. Sydney got to see some of her cousins which are growing just as fast as her.

It's so funny to watch Sydney interact with other kids. Since she isn't around kids on a regular basis, she always is a little cautious. I love to sit back and just watch her mind work. You can just tell she is trying to figure out how to play with the kids. But you what.... I don't think it would even matter. She ends up doing her own thing anyhow!

I uve you…

So we need to update you on some of Sydney’s newest milestones. There are coming on so quick it’s hard to keep you updated. There’s not a second that goes by that I’m not grateful to have her and Jeremy in my life. Even when I’m fighting with her at church stay in her seat. It’s funny, during one of Sydney’s break aways on Sunday night, she ran and then danced as though she won! “haha, mom I’m too fast for you” was the look in her eye. So as she dance Sis. Connie laughed and said, Oh Darla I prayed she would be just like you!” I of course fired off a “thanks a lot!” Did you realize what you were really asking for? haha I guess it’s pay back for all the time I misbehaved during Jeremy’s music practices… She becoming more and more curious of others and you can’t find an 19 month old that friendlier than Sydney. She got this thing about her that just draws people in where ever we go… and if their not drawn in…she in your face about it, sending out her loud and friendly Hi’s. Whether that person is 2 feet or 12 feet away for her she’s offering out a greeting of some sorts. It’s quite amusing to see people’s reactions when they are forced into being friendly with her. I hope she never loses her zeal…

Sydney is learning to play make believe with her toys. We had quite the conversation the other day with Mr. Potato Head! It was the neatest thing, Sydney was playing with Mr. Potato Head as usually, ripping off all his body parts and creating Picasso’s out of him with sticking his eyes where his left ear should be and his ear where his nose should be and so on. Well, once Mom put him back together as he should be, Sydney grabbed Mr. Potato Head little hand and shook while saying “Hiiiiii!” When I finally caught on to what she was doing (because mom can be slow sometimes or maybe it’s the fact that I can’t believe she gets it) I would interject (or speak for) Mr. Potato Head with a “Hi Sydney and how are you?” Not expecting a response of course, Sydney gives us a “Good!” Now of course Sydney vocabulary is still limited we spent a good 20 -25 minutes reciting this dialog:

Sydney (while shaking Mr. P’s hand): “Hiiiiii!”
Mommie (voice of Mr. P): “Hi Sydney, how are you?
Sydney: “Good!” ……… “Hiiiiiii!” (and repeat)

My other favorite new milestone is comprehending “I love you”
Up until just recently, whenever you told Sydney “I love you” she would always say “Bye!” Mainly because whenever we say good bye it would be followed with and I love you. So I made it a point to teach Syd to say I love and make sure we were doing it not only when we were leaving somewhere. So while we were playing Monday night, my efforts paid off. I was laying on the floor and Sydney was climbing on my back and all of a sudden, she laid down and squeezed me and said “I uve you.” Well, I just about melted.

We've Got A Climber

Sydney has never been a climber,.... that is until recently. On Saturday, Sydney had just awaken from her nap so I went to the kitchen to get a snack and a drink for the kiddo. As I return to the living room, I see Sydney sitting cross-legged on one of our endtables. Now those of you that don't know, our endtables are pedistals -- a round table top with one main leg that branches out into four feet at the bottom. How in the world Sydney didn't tip the whole thing over is beyond me. I tell ya.... you can't leave that child for a second.

Later that same evening, we made some popcorn and put the bowl on the dining room table out of Sydney's reach.... or so we thought. Our new adventurer pulled out the chair climbed up and onto the table and started eating the popcorn right out of the bowl! God help us!!!

Ugggh.... The Stomach Bug

WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! This posting could be highly contagious to your health. If you have not experienced the stomach bug that's floating around, here's to hoping that you don't get it. Our poor little girl woke up this past Tuesday night at 1:30am throwing up in her bed. And then again at 2:00am.... and again at 2:30am.... and again.... and again until 5:30am. When it was all said and done, Sydney had thrown up 5 or 6 times and we had to change the sheets twice in her crib and twice on our bed. Yippee!!! I love doing laundry at 3:30am! Needless to say, Daddy did not go into the work on Wednesday, seeing as how he only got about 2 hours of sleep. The good news?... An extra day with Sydney! YEA!!!

Luckily, this bug only lasted for a day....for Sydney. However, Mommy and Daddy both got sick on Friday with the same thing. And Grammy got the bug on Saturday. Our daughter shares really well! Here's to hoping that this doesn't happen anytime soon.... Stay healthy!

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,.... "