1 year Photos

While in Utah at Susan's house, we were able to take Sydney's 1 year photos

Here is Sydney in a cute little dress that was given to her (as a hand-me-down) by the "Greek Lady" Aphrodite...yes, her name really is Aphrodite & yes, she really was Greek.  Her little boy was in the NICU for a few days and shared the room with Sydney.  She was done having kids and since she had a boy, there was no need for her to hold on to her girls's dresses.  She said that she would like to see them go to someone who would appreciate them...I do appreciate them!

This dress reminds me of Audrey Hepburn - the poka dot dress she wears in "My Fair Lady" 

The fact that she was sitting up for those shots is a miracle!  I think Susan did a great job getting her smiles before she fell off the box!  After that getting her to sit up by herself was almost impossible!  What is irritating, is that she can sit by herself, she just won't!

It was Easter while we were there.  Susan had picked up this cute little knit bunny ears hat.  Sydney is wearing a little short & shirt outfit the Easter bunny left her.  Sydney LOVED playing with the plastic eggs.  I love all the colors in these shots!  The little bunny in these pictures is the same bunny that Sydney got her weekly growth pictures taken with while she was in the NICU.

More fun props...we had to do something so that Sydney would "sit up"...

Her favorite bunny again...

Quick..get the picture before that smile turns upside down!

That is more like it...we were picking on her...having her sit all by herself!

I know...I am such a mean Mom! :)

Daddy's home!

"I'm so glad when Daddy comes home, glad as I can be.  I clap my hands and shout for joy and climb upon his knee..."

Sorry about the quality  Sydney and I were sitting on the couch when I heard the garage door open.  I asked Sydney if she could "hear Daddy"?  She turned and looked at the garage door.  She started smiling and clapping.  I grabbed my phone and turned the video camera on.  Unfortunately the time of day and where we are sitting means catching some major glare from the windows.  You can see her wave every once and awhile.  It's her "talking" I was trying to capture.  (Maybe getting those tubes put in wasn't such a bad idea after all!)

I am thinking that we are going to have a little talker on our hands....Maybe this is what happens when you are frozen for 4 years, you just have so much to say! :)

 

Patty Cake?

Ummm... Did Sydney just say Patty Cake?  Watch and find out. 

Bluebonnets & Blue Bell

It's springtime in Texas and that means BLUEBONNETS!  Jeff, Sydney, and I decided to go to Grandpa & Grandma Phil's house to watch General Conference.  With no extra church meetings today for Jeff, we took advantange and decided to get Sydney's first Bluebonnet picture.  It was however a bit windy....

I love her expressions...

She didn't like the ground on her bare toes...

It is a bit windy...

We came home and Grandma Phil had some Blue Bell icecream for us.  Sydney just jumped from person to person hoping for "a taste".

Mine was all done, so she moved on to Grandma Phil...

Trying to get every last drop of ice cream...

Grandpa Phil wouldn't share his milkshake...although Sydney did try!

Jeff was smart and ate all of his before she made her way to him!

Saturday Night in Austin

On Sunday, Feb 27th I am going to have 2 nephews who are going to be ordained a Teacher at church.  One in Circleville, UT- Jason and one in Austin, TX - Jacob.  Jeff, Sydney, & I decided to road trip to Austin to be here for this event.  We drove down Saturday and met up with Brad, Monica, Jacob, Sam, Monica's parents, and Cami & Ardean at a little pizza shop. 

The whole gang at the pizza place

Since we are kinda close to San Antonio, my old teaching buddy & friend, Lisa, came up to see us and meet Sydney for the first time.  It had been about 3 years since I had seen Lisa.  She totally surprised me though & brought my other 'old' teaching buddy & friend, Monica.  I hadn't seen Monica since her baby shower for her little girl - who also joined us - who is now almost 7 years old!  Time sure does fly!  We were able to sit for awhile & chit chat.  It was a nice evening.

The 3 amigas! Lisa, Jill, and Monica

Lisa & Sydney

Monica & Sydney

It was such a wonderful surprise to be able to see them & catch up.  We are going to have to do it a little more often - 7 years is way too long!

After the catch up, Jeff, Sydney, and I headed over to Brad & Monica's for a late night visit.  Sydney LOVED it!

Sydney checking out the dog - Peanut

Sydney & Sam

Sydney & Aunt Monica checking out Peanut

Sydney & Aunt Monica

Sydney being balanced by Uncle Brad

A fun little video of Uncle Brad balancing Sydney on his hands.



Hot Tubbin'

This week the weather has been wonderful.  It has been mid to high 70's.  Tonight Jeff & I thought it would be perfect for Sydney's first "pool" experience.  We got out the cute little swimsuit Jeff picked out for her.  It is a 9mo suit - somehow when we bought it, we thought Sydney would be wearing 9mo clothes closer to her birthday (not already caught up on the growth charts...) ...So it is great that we are doing it now so she can actually wear the suit before she out grows it.

Sydney's first foot in...She is not digging the flash on the camera! 

(next time maybe daytime might work better for non-squinty pics...)

Got some smiles as we floated around...she is diggin' it a little more...

In the bubbles...

Overall, I think she had a great experience!  This will make summertime better for me!

(and next time we do videos..I promise to turn the bubbles off!)

Teaching Moments

Jeff is so good with Sydney.  He "plays" with her every night.  They have their cute things they do together.  If he walks into the bathroom with her, she starts squealing with delight because she knows that she is going to see herself in the mirror.  They play in the mirror, they "walk" around the house together.  Jeff pushes her just enough to try to move to the next developmental level.  He is good about having some exercise time with her.  He "sits" her.  His newest thing is to help her get ready to crawl.  He crawls around in front of her and puts her on all 4's to help strengthen her body and get her ready to crawl.

Love that little butt sticking up! 

After awhile she does start getting mad because she can't do anything yet in this pose. 

Last Friday, Feb 11th, Sydney turned 9 months old!  I can't believe it!!!  Her stats are:  16 lbs (10th %) 27 in long (35th %) and her head is in the 25th % - I can't remember how big it is...

We now have the ok for: meats, processed milk products (cheese, ice cream... etc), she encouraged us putting some of our food cut up real small for Sydney to pick up with her hands.  She does the raking thing and she will palm her food, but then can't figure out how to open her hand up to eat the food.  If you hand her the food, she will "pinch" it out of your hand and has a bit better time eating.  She loves goldfish, gerber disolveables, saltine crackers, yogurt melts, Sunday she even tried "Kraft Real Mac & Cheese" one noodle at a time - she kept grabbing the bowl and pulling it down to get more especially if we weren't being fast enough!

Today for Valentine's Day, Sydney decided that she needed to share my Kit Kat Bar...hmmm, what do you think - did she love it or not?

I'm thinking that she is definately my child - Kit Kat is one of my favorites as well as my Grannie Whitford's favorite....it's in the genes!

We had some chocolate ice cream the other night, hmmm chocolate & ice cream what a good combination!

I think we are in trouble!  Sonic drinks are going to be the least of my concerns!  Love this girl!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Superbowl Party! Go Broncos!

We were going to debut our expanded media room for the superbowl.  It isn't quite ready yet, but we were going to improvise.  We found a great 7.1 receiver/speaker system online.  We ordered it, it said that it would be delivered by Thurs, Feb 3rd.  Perfect!  It would give us time to clean up the media room, bring up some extra chairs, and hook up the sound system.  Then comes the nice ice/snow storm.  We got notices that due to circumstances beyond UPS control the system has been delayed.  Thank heavens we got free shipping!

Luckily Grandma & Grandpa Phil have a big screen system already set up, so we changed the venue to their house.

Sitting down to watch the big game.... GO BRONCOS!

Before the football game, we played a little "hand & foot"... Girls Win! -Twice! (The boys never even put down a single stack!)  Sydney helping me play...

Sydney and Grandpa

Look how into the game Sydney is...

And soon Grandpa followed....

But everyone wakes up when ice cream is being served!

 (We even balanced standing up so we can see the ice cream and make sure that we get our share!)

Now that is a TRUE parent...did you catch what Jeff did at the beginning of the video?

Sydney knows how to work it too!  Once Daddy quit giving her ice cream, she moved onto Grandpa.  Grandpa said that he doesn't share his ice cream, but after she smiled, opened her mouth a few times when he was lifting his spoon, he caved and gave her some of his strawberry ice cream.

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for letting us come over and watch the Superbowl.

Next year is the year of the BRONCO!