I think I say this every month or so but here I go again...the stage of development that Sydney is in right now is my favorite!!! Everyday is a new adventure with our Sweetie. She really helps me see how precious everyday things are and more importantly, she helps me live in the moment. She has started to do this really cute squeal when she is excited - it brings joy to everyone around her. She is constantly laughing and running. She loves to be outside exploring and drawing with sidewalk chalk. She loves to read her book and sing with Mommy in the car (although, she does not do well with long car rides - she gets way too bored). She can now sing the ABC song, Old McDonald (parts of it), Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, & BINGO. She eats well with a spoon and plate - in fact she demands it now! She talks to other kids and adults in sentences - it blows people away! She loves to color. She is very polite and continues to say "thank you" and "welcome". And if she really, really wants something, she will say "Pleeaazz"!

So many more things that she can do that I am forgetting right now - I need to start writing this stuff down as she does it so I can blog about it. She is beginning to master the magic of imagination which is so fun to watch. It usually involves the use of her Little People animals. She tells big stories about them in the car when we are driving - I have to admit, I don't always follow what she is saying during these big stories but they sure seem exciting!!

She continues to spend lots of time with Nana and Pap and she just adores them. Last night Sydney and I went out to eat with them and as I was putting her into our car to drive home, she hollered out "Paaaap" and reached her arms out for him. Pap walked back over to our car and gave her a big kiss and pat on the head and then she was fine. It was very sweet. She is just such an affectionate child - I just love all of the kisses and hugs she freely gives me throughout the day.

I have decided to join a different Mommy group. I waited for almost a year to even join a group because I was waiting for us to sell our house and move. Since the process was going so slow, I ended up joining a group that was in the neighborhood that we thought we would be moving to after our house sold. We have been participating in that group for 6 months and have really enjoyed it - the problem is - it's not close to where we currently live. We ended up taking our house off the market (due to the horrible economy right now) and we are not sure when we will be putting it back on the market. The drive to our Mommy group activities was long and it was difficult for us to be really involved in ALL of the activities. To make our lives a little easier, we have decided to join a Mommy group that is in our neighborhood - just makes more sense for where we are at right now in our lives. I am looking forward to meeting more families in our own Desert Ridge neighborhood and hopefully we can be more involved in our community. I will keep you posted.

18 Month Checkup

Today was Sydney's 18 month old checkup. Thank goodness she only had one shot today! She was not happy to be at the doctors office and cried most of the visit!! She weighs in at 28 pounds and is 34 inches tall - both over the 90th percentile for her age! We discussed her extensive vocabulary and her temper tantrums and night screams. The doctor says she has definitely reached her "terrible twos" early and that the night screams are probably a result of her active brain and dreaming. After asking several questions, the doctor said that Sydney is probably ready for us to start introducing the "little potty". Of course, she will not understand how to use it for awhile but introducing it now will keep her interest peaked and she will catch on faster. I cannot believe we are entering this stage already...it makes me so sad yet excited at the same time that my baby is growing up.

Sydney continues to be so loving. My favorite time of the day with her is from 6:30 to 7pm. During this time she usually sits on my lap, facing me and we give each other lots of hugs, kisses, and giggle. She is so funny and so darn cute!

Jordan came for a visit this last weekend and Sydney could not have been more excited to see her JoJo...

And here is "Miss Little Independent" using her plate and spoon. They are a MUST now during mealtimes!


And here is a picture of her and Jack (her cousin from Minnesota) playing together. When Sydney first saw him, she immediately asked to give him a hug and they then embraced. It brought tears to my eyes because it really means so much to me that she gets to know her family well.

18 Months Old!!

I cannot believe that Sydney is 18 months old today!!! My baby is growing up so fast. Today we went to a Valentines Day potluck with the other Mommies and kiddies from our playgroup. Sydney was a happy little bee because they had a little kids table set up with colored pencils and paper - her favorite thing to do! She could of cared less about any of the other 10 kids there - all she wanted to do was color.

A really "fun" thing that Sydney has started to do this week is have meltdowns!!!! She is averaging about 2-3 a day. Lots of "fun" is had watching my little angel throw herself on to the floor and rant and rave:) Daddy got to experience her new behavior when Mommy went to work on Wed!!

Sydney is learning how to eat with her own silverware and plate now. She is doing pretty good - and it slowes her down a little so she actually sits in one place for awhile!! I took some pictures and will post them later.

Happy Valentines Day to everyone!!

Little Miss Independent

My poor sweetie is fighting a bug. She has had diarrhea for 2 days now. She is actually quite the trooper and is still running around the house, although, her fuse is a little shorter than usual. She has had a few meltdowns this morning, mostly over things that she wants to do herself - like feed herself yogurt with her own spoon...wow, what a mess that was! She is definitely becoming Little Miss Independent!!

She is talking in more sentences now - if you can believe it! Yesterday when we were at playgroup...before I knew we were going to be dealing with the diarrhea, she came up to me and said, "Want to go home." She said it several more times until we finally packed up and left for home. One of the little girls kept taking toys that Sydney was playing with and kept trying to poke her in the face...can't blame Sydney for wanting to go home!

She also kept saying, "It's raining out" all day, as it was! She is very good at letting us know what her needs and wants are... "go outside" "go play" "want to color" "give Mommy hug (that's my favorite)" "watch movie" "watch Monsters (Monsters Inc." "watch Nemo" "want blueberries" "want to go upstairs/downstairs"...and the list goes on and on. It seriously never fails to surprise me at the words/phrases that come out of her mouth!

She also continues to be my little love bug...we hug and cuddle throughout the day - I will NEVER get enough of that!!!

ABC's

It just amazes me when I look in on Sydney and find her sleeping in positions like this...

how can that be comfortable? This is a prime example of why I don't take her bumper pads out of her crib - she loves to be pushed up against them. Notice "bear-bear" under her cheek, "baby" behind her and "ubie" over her feet!! She MUST have all three of these in her crib when she goes to sleep!

I took some video of her in the bathtub last night which I hope to post soon. She is singing the ABC's!!!!!!! I am not kidding you! She has always loved the ABC song and she has been hearing it forever. Last night I started it by saying "ABCD" and she finished!!! I am just so amazed by this. She sang it for Daddy this morning. What a doll she is!

Our Perfect Day

After a busy and stressful weekend, Sydney and I have been laying kind of low this week. Monday we stayed home all day and relaxed and played. Tuesday I went to work and today we went to the Zoo!!! It was a last minute decision and the 80 degree weather was perfect! Sydney held my hand and walked much of the way but I was able to get her to sit to eat!! We really had a great time. It was so nice to do something like this under our own time schedule without any stress. It was difficult to take pictures since I didn't have anyone else with us but I did manage to get a few...

Having a snack!!

They have added a Fisher Price Little People farm this year. It was so cool because Sydney actually has this Little People set at home and loves to play with it. She recognized the characters and the farm immediately!

It was so cute because she would run up to each Little People animal, stare at it for a moment, yell out what animal it was and then hug it.

She gave many hugs!!!


We spent a long time at the Little People farm!!! She cried when I carried her out. Although, she quickly got over it when she realized that I had carried her into a petting zoo!!

She got a kick out of the big turtles because they looked like the ones from her Nemo movie.

Here we are at the petting zoo. She was a little overwhelmed at first with all of the goats - she just stood in one place for a bit and checked everything out.

My Sweetie...

Video of the petting zoo. It was hard to keep up with her in the petting zoo because she kept wanting to pick up nasties...you get my drift!!!

Sydney loves giraffes. We watched them for a long time!

And this was our ride home!!!

On the way home I bought her some chalk for the driveway and she LOVES it. We ended our awesome day with some artwork of all the animals we saw at the zoo!

I had been feeling pretty down the last few days...just a lot on my mind. Taking Sydney to the zoo was just what I needed. It was a good reminder of how lucky I am to have her. I am so blessed!

17+ Months

Wow, it's been way too long since I have written. I feel horrible. Since the last week of December, time has just flown by. Sydney has grown so much physically and developmentally. She talks in sentences, counts to 15, says more than 50 words, is so loving and affectionate, and so much more. I have a ton of pictures below and I will write more under each.



We love to dress her in pink, of all shades, and skirts and leg warmers or tights. We almost always have her hair up in a high ponytail or two high ponytails because her bangs are so long. People are constantly stopping us to comment on how cute she is. Of course, she just loves the attention! She loves to play with her ball-ball!


She loves to watch movies. She will actually sit/stand/walk around, and watch the full movie. She has a very long attention span and you can tell by her comments and expressions as she is watching the movie, that she totally understands what is happening. Don't worry, we don't sit and watch movies all day...movies give Mommy bits of free time to get things done!! Her favorite movie right now is Finding Nemo. We have watched it well over 20 times!! When we go to our neighbors for dinner and cocktails on the weekends, she loves to watch Shark tail on their big big TV. Another movie that she is getting into now is Monsters Inc.



Nana and Pap are back in their Arizona condo for a few months. Sydney couldn't be happier to spend time with them. She still calls Pap "Paps"!!

This picture was taken as we were watching the Cardinals win!!


Daddy loves to put hats on her and she loves to wear them!

On this day, we were feeding the ducks. It was a beautiful sunny day and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together as a family. With our schedules, we rarely have time to do such activities together as a family. We will remember this fun day forever!!

She wasn't too sure about her piggy back ride...but she LOVED the park!!

Feeding the ducks! Man, I look at this picture and it just brings me so much joy!

At the park

Feeding the ducks. She is just soooo beautiful and so joyful. We are so blessed!

These are two owls that frequently sit in our backyard tree. It was hard to get a good picture from the patio because I didn't want to scare them away. We often hear them at nigh time. Extraordinary, aren't they!

She wants to help with everything. And, we usually let her. Here, she is helping Daddy make her morning cinnamon raisin toast! Yummy!!

She is learning to eat with her own spoon. As you can see, she is very proud of herself - as is Mommy!!

She is focusing so hard..."pick the pea up, put it on the spoon, pick up the spoon, the pea falls off, put down the spoon, pick up the pea, put the pea on the spoon, pick up the spoon, the pea falls off..." Mommy usually ends up helping!!!

New Year's Eve at the neighbors house.

She made it until 9pm or so and then we had to walk home to put her to bed. She was so sleepy!!

Well, that's it for pictures. We are still in our Mommy/Play group and have our play dates every Monday. Sydney is getting so much more comfortable and talks to everyone there. Unfortunately, the other kids (most of them are almost 2) don't really talk much yet, so she usually ends up talking to the Moms. The Moms continue to be amazed by Sydney's development and her vocabulary. I joined a gym, for my own sanity and health, and Sydney attends the daycare there. It's a very small, private gym, so she gets lots of attention. They have video cameras and screens around the gym so I can check on her anytime I want to. She loves to go there and play. I think it is good for her socialization skills also. It's also good for Mommy!! Happy Mommy makes for happy Sydney and happy Daddy!!