Papi's 50th Birthday Party!

I know it's hard to believe, but Papi just turned 50 years old on May 13th! Anytime the family can get together is a blast, but this surprise party was an unwelcomed surprise for Papi. As soon as he drove behind the house and realized the "Memorial Day Party" was actually a birthday party for him, he kept driving past the house! Papi didn't seem that happy about the party, but after a few minutes he warmed up and enjoyed himself. We don't have any pictures of the party, but here are a few pictures of Sydney playing in the yard afterward.

Family Picnic Day

One thing that Darla has wanted to do for awhile was take Sydney on a picnic. We finally had a "free" Saturday, so we packed up a lunch and went to the Milton State Park. Here is a picture of Sydney and Daddy posing for a snapshot that Mommy just had to take. Once we were done eating, we decided to take a nice stroll around the park. Sydney seemed to have a lot of fun riding in her stroller around the trail and playing on the swings. Overall, I think it was a great day, and Sydney seemed to have a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll get some time to get back for another picnic before the summer is over.

Sydney’s big step or should I say jump on her own.

Monday night, 5/12/08, Sydney mommy and daddy were all playing on the floor with Sydney’s new blocks when all of a sudden, Sydney got this look of determination on her and managed to get herself into standing position with no help from mommy or daddy. And what did she do? Jump! Of course took about 3-4 jumps before she lost control and leaped into mommy’s arms! Figures she wouldn’t take steps, but jump. That’s my girl! Lean mean jumping machine! When I got to work the next to share the big news with Lori and Tony, Tony argued with me, he said I’m sure she didn’t actually jump. She might have looked like she was jumping but I bet her feet didn’t leave the ground. So I do want to clarify with any other disbelievers that her feet did in fact leave the ground when she jumped. And if you would like to see it for yourself, come on over! She puts on quite a show these days! Haha I as worried about when she would start that we would have more things to worry about, but she’s been great! And I got to say the constant whining we’ve been dealing with for the past three weeks is finally over. You couldn’t leave the room without her fussing. Unless you picked her up and took her with you and most of the time she would let you hold her so you had to help her walk. Now all we do is have to check to make sure she’s following behind us which is normally the case now. I’ll make sure daddy gets some new pics on here for you all. So sorry (barb) about the delay in writing.

IT'S OFFICAL!

Hi Everyone, so sorry for the delay in posting. Barb yelled at Jeremy the other day about it! We've had way too much going on, with mommy finishing up her play, cousin Brett's first holy communion, etc, etc! But we had to make time to get on to tell everyone's Syndey's big news! She took her first "independant" steps on 5/1/08. She finally took a stroll across Mimi and Pappy's living room on thursday night. As most of you know, Syndey's been cruising along anything that wouldn't move but would not take that "step out on faith" by herself. We been having so much fun with her testing out her new skills, I think the hardest part for her, is she wants to go, but go fast! I think that's mommies fault for making her run across the living room while I held her hands, but I would get such a giggle out of her I couldn't resist. We play "ready, set, go!" I would hold her really still and once I said go, we run run run! Which usually ended up in Mommie dragging her across the room. But its fun and that's all that matter right? haha She never ceases to amaze us. It really interesting to watch those little wheels turning in her head. You can tell she's learning more and more how to communicate. Just this morning, I picked up our phone and started dialing to call Mimi and Sydney heard me dialing and starting repeating "hello, hello" Which actually sounds like "owo" She shapes her cute little lips so tight and out comes "owo" On Thursday, Jeremy and I took Sydney for soem all too important grocery shopping, and Sydney walked ALL around that big store, with mommie only offering a finger to hold and spent the time walking around and socializing, every person who came past her she had to greet with a wave and "hi!" It was so neat to see that transition from people having to come up and say hi to her for her to respond and how quickly she learned that wait a minute, I'm not waiting for them to say hi first, I'll start the conversation! Looks like mom has some competition with being Miss Social Butterfly of the year! haha

How Cute!

I couldn't resist sharing this picture with you. It's such a cute picture of Sydney. She looks absolutely adorable. I don't think I can say it enough how God has blessed us with such an awesome child! She looks so big in this picture and so cute. Don't you just wanna squeeze her?

So, I forgot to tell you all that Darla surprised me on Sydney's Birthday by bringing her in to school over my lunch period. It was such a great gift for me to see my baby on her first birthday! Here's a pic of her standing at one of the desks in my classroom. I'm not really sure how to take this, but one of my students when she saw Sydney said, "Wow! Mr. Bing, your daughter is actually cute". I tell ya.... kids say the craziest things!

I also must say that Sydney is picking up some odd behaviors. So, here's the latest.... Sydney has a difficult time just laying and drinking her bottle mainly because she has to be moving and checking everything out. She has figured a way to crawl and take her bottle with her. Check it out! I tell ya, this kid never ceases to amaze me. What a great problem solver she is. What more could I ask for as a math teacher?

One-Year Check-Up

Just to fill you all in on Sydney's growth. She had her one-year check-up yesterday and she is 31.25 inches tall and 24 lbs 11oz. She is definately one healthy little girl. She also got two shots yesterday. She did cry for a little, but it did not affect her behavior for the rest of the day. What a good girl she is!

Here are a few extra pics I didn't know what to do with. Sydney has quite the array of faces with a personality to match each one! Every day she makes me laugh with her crazy antics. By the way, take notice to the teensie tiny pig tail Mommy put on top of her head in the picture above. Do you think Sydney likes it?

Happy 1st Birthday, Sydney!!!

I still can't believe it's been a while year already since Sydney was born! For those of you that were able to attend Sydney's Birthday party, we want to say "thank you" for celebrating with us. We have included a few pictures from the party for those of you that were unable to attend.

I must say, to my surprise, that Sydney was very dainty with her cake.....at first. Very carefully she touched the cake and tasted it with her finger; however, before too long Sydney was tearing into her cake and shoving handfuls of icing into her mouth (...thanks Mary)! When it was all said and done, we had cake on the floor and the walls, as well as up and down Sydney's arms and all over her pretty dress.

Overall, I'd say that Sydney's first birthday party was perfect. She got some awesome presents, and I think she really enjoyed herself even though she had no idea it was for her. Let's hope that the next year goes as smoothly!