Daycare

Among
the fun activities Sydney participates in each day are finger painting and buggy riding. Daycare was kind enough to take a couple shots that the parents could take home and here are some gems. How she didn't come home yellow we'll never know.

Camera Phone

I
can't imagine how much better life is documented now with the advent and wide use of camera phones. It's so easy to snap away, and while not up to printing caliber yet or even in focus sometimes, they are great for remembering a quick moment. Here's a couple I've caught recently, the first a product of boredom while waiting the twenty minutes in a small room for Sydney's eyes to dilate at the eye doctor office. In the second, a trip to the bookstore was a perfect excuse to stand and survey all the fun things around her.

Chew it Up

The onset of quite a few teeth has had a couple of results. One is that Sydney will now actually chew Cheerios, but then upon mashing it up realizes she doesn't like the consistency and spits out the mush. The other is that she grinds her teeth which drives me crazy. Worse than nails on a chalkboard, I actually stick in her pacifier because I can't take the horrible sound. I'm surprised something that sounds so awful doesn't hurt but I guess she knows her limits. I grind my teeth at night and the dentist swears it's stress related. I can only hope an eleven month old isn't stressed or we're doing something terribly wrong.

Mmmm

We made a trip out to one of the local restaurants yesterday and Sydney again found that the table was the tastiest part of the trip. Her teeth have become fascinating to her. She plays with them all day long with her tongue and gnawing at a table is about as good as a trip to the candy store apparently.

Round and Round

Sydney got to experience her first Carousel ride, courtesy of her friends Gabby and (hidden) Mallory. So many of these firsts to capture it's nearly impossible. I read a passage in a book recently that I thought was a good metaphor where the writer likened memories passing to an art lover running through a burning museum trying to grab as many pieces as possible but knowing he could only carry so much before it was gone. Maggie reminds me to remember this during the 3 am wake up calls when Sydney is sick.


Photo credit: Skye Sultan (the multitasking mom of the two on the left)

Easter

Happy Easter!
We've had a busy weekend in the Sydney household. Maybe it's all the bananas she's been eating or something in the air but development seems to be the theme. Yesterday she couldn't stop waving and waved at everything including doors and windows. She has a cute beauty pageant or maybe Queen of England sort of wave with a little wrist action combined with the full arm movement.

She's been standing a lot more as well and we're trying to get her to push her little buggy around the room. Now she starts to get upset if we don't stand her up and put her against something to hold on to, so I'm accelerating my plan to install gates.

And finally, more a development for Maggie than anything else. I think she's been waiting since exactly 60 seconds after we found out we were having a girl in the ultrasound. She bought the hair ties when Sydney was about two weeks old and at last yesterday she pulled up that little crop of hair, measured it in her head and decided "yes!, the time was here". An internal dialogue I could see in the excitement of her eyes so she told Sydney to hold on one minute, raced upstairs and only moments later had the couple strands of hair bound up as she had always dreamed. Sydney didn't mind it and was accomodating for the pictures. Incredibly, she did not try to eat the rubber band.

Tortocolis

Honestly I felt resigned. I knew it was coming. I'd seen it for years and I think I'd joked about it as a young adult that my offspring were screwed. And on that note, I packed up Sydney and we headed on to her first eye appointment. At her sixth month appointment, the pediatrician had noted a head tilt and said it might have something to do with her eyes but we'd watch and see how it progressed. In knew it. I let out a deep knowing sigh then, so when the nine month appointment came and went it was no shock that it would potentially be her eyes. Tortocolis was the potential culprit, a word of which I'm still convinced is some sort of joke and has something to do with turtles. Of course, this was only the first I told myself, then the obligatory bad teeth for which we better just start a savings account now. We have an FSA and DCA, so why not a BSA (Braces Savings Account). Mom couldn't stand to go as she's averse to anything eye related. Like many parents we have our specialties listed out. I'm eyes, puking and blood. She's just about everything else. So I had the pleasure of sitting in the waiting room with 5 other mothers and their kids. I think I was getting looks of admiration but it could have been pitty. And after all was said and done, the dilation drops administered, the waiting in the room, the poking and prodding, incessant rubbing of her eyes, it turned out my resignation was premature. A sigh of relief as I heard the results. She checked out just fine and all we're left with is a mild case of tortocolis and a hope that her teeth come in straight.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patty's Day from our little mischievous one.

Fridays

Sydney
loves her Fridays when mom is home to go out for walks. As "good clothes" don't go to day care this is also the day to dress up fashionably or just in things we don't want to potentially lose. So we stepped out and grabbed a few photos before the walk of her in a little Clemson sweatshirt that Maggie used to wear as a baby. Momma's so proud.

Evolution

The natural evolution over millions of years was swimming in water to crawling on land and finally to walking. While most babies still test out the crawling stage before moving on, our little one seems primed just to jump straight into walking and skip nature's due course. But maybe this is evolution as well and eventually crawling will be a thing of the past. Now the fact that she will only eat bananas seems to either be a jesture to Maggie who has filled her room with monkeys, or the fact that you really can't escape your past. In either case, we now call her our little monkey.

Here we captured her "american" evolution which is riding lazily in a car. Not pictured is the evolution of horrible bed head which her hair is now long enough to accomodate.

In The End

In the end we had an incredible first trip with little Sydney and were so happy we got to share it with friends. The plane ride back went smoothly and for all our fears of Sydney or Natalie screaming for two hours, they were quiet and it was in fact another little girl behind us who screamed for two hours and made the flight nearly unbearable.

There were many big changes about vacations with a baby but some small changes that were funny as well. It was about day 3 we realized there was little point in putting on heavy suntan lotion for example. At the pool where we'd normally soak up the sun, we sat in the shade. At restaurants where we'd take the sunny table on the water, we needed the table with lots of umbrellas to cover the strollers.

The pictures below are a before (last year in Aruba) and after (this trip) which I thought was a funny comment on how things have changed over the past year.



Lots of pictures and video on the trip as it's one hobby I can do with her, so here's a very short clip of some of the highlights. (there's music so make sure your volume isn't cranked up too high :) )

Hammock Days

Maggie is passing on her love of hammocks to the little one day by day, here on a nice walk around sunset last night. We both agreed this is about our favorite time of the day after you get all cleaned up from the pool, the colors in the sky radiate and the wind dies down to reveal a calm that just makes you take a deep breath and soak it all in. We'll soak it all in one more time today before we start packing for the adventurous trip back home.

The picture to the right was from my daily sunrise walk with Sydney this morning. An incredible way to start the day.

Birdies

What better place than on vacation to cut her fourth tooth, so at least the short nights are followed by a day off. Symptoms we had taken as a cold took us about three days to realize that a dab or Oragel would fix, and she's been much happier.

Sydney has been enjoying the birds of the Keys and we've seen lots of different small birds as well as some large pelicans waiting for the fisherman to come back. She continues to love our afternoon swims in the pool and just enjoying the breeze anytime we get outside. In one picture here, the six of us enjoy a relaxing lunch out by the water while we listened to some great Carribean music. This was followed by a trip to the large Worldwide Sportsman (Bass Pro Shops like) just down the road where I honestly pondered a purchase of a little pink tackle box for my fishing buddy :) If I didn't fear checking one more thing on the plane ride back I would have walked out of there with it.

Sun Drenched

The girls (Sydney and Natalie) are both enjoying the sun and being outside. In fact Sydney moans as soon as we go inside now which could really be a problem when we get home. They both love the water and we spent a couple pruny hours in the pool yesterday splashing and slapping the water.


Here's a picture of Sydney who just can't wait to try out her new floaty boat (the light is too harsh but I love her smile in the pic), Natalie with a local flower in her hair and the sunrise we can see each morning from our deck which looks out over the marina and ocean beyond. Oh yes, we're up each morning well before the sunrise so I can have a nice cup of coffee and take my time preparing to see it. I remember when we actually had to set the alarm to see a sunrise, so I could take see this as a positive thing if I wanted. :)

Up, Up and Away

When
all was said and done, Sydney did a great job on her first flight. She wasn't scared. Her ears didn't seem to bother her and with the exception of a brief crying period she gave the other passengers around us a break. It helped that it was an afternoon flight to Florida so the vacationers were all drinking and didn't really mind a couple kids making noise (Kaija, Josh and little Natalie were next to us). Here are a couple pictures of daddy showing her everything about the airport and the airplane, and then we watched the safety video together of course. Not so much for the safety but more for the distraction of a small tv :) She loved watching outside the window and seeing the clouds after we took off. Then she settled into her car seat and fell asleep after all the excitement of the afternoon.

Flying

Another picture from yesterday as we tried to show Sydney what it will be like her first time on an airplane tomorrow. Now begins the payback for all those kids that have punched my seat, screamed for two hours, threw up, and pooped on too many flights to count. She'll be traveling with her friend Natalie as well so there should be safety in numbers.

Warming Up

A holiday and perfect weather, at least for a couple hours. It doesn't get much better so we went and sat outside on the grass and took in the sun. I couldn't help but snap a few photos so here's one from Maggie holding Sydney over her head against the bright blue sky.

On a Roll

We know there's no curve. No certain age where your kid should be doing this or that. We tell ourselves over and over. But then every book proceeds to tell you when your kid should do what and when they should be crawling. You walk into the doctor appointment and they make you fill out a sheet that starts with "development activities your child should have mastered by now". And it seems like every other kid is ahead of this curve that doesn't exist, crawling here and there, pulling themselves up. But then we realize, and people tell us, that we really should enjoy the fact that we can just sit her down somewhere and not worry about it. She is starting to roll pretty well and that's just fun to watch. We've talked and agree that in the end, it's probably not development related, she's just really lazy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Happy Valentine's day to all.

I usually give Sydney her bath each night and she started doing this a week or two ago. She'd be holding this duck up and chewing away, probably working on soothing that tooth, and then she'd drop her hands and look right up at me. I'd start laughing and then she would laugh and the duck would drop down and we'd start over again. I figured I had to get a picture of this, so finally Maggie was home and could watch her while I snapped away. Just too cute.

Teething...again!

Although it's painful for her, I'm feeling some pain as well. Not acute pain like her, but this growing aching feeling day after day. It's partially in my biceps because she refuses to be put down and apparently carrying her around somehow soothes that aching, almost there tooth. My legs ache too because I have to do squats to pick up anything as I certainly couldn't put her down down for two seconds. My ears twinge from the barely audible moaning and my fingers are swollen from the knawing she inflicts hour by hour. If that were not enough I'm cold from all the drool I can't keep up with on my shirt....and each day Maggie and I look at her upper gum hoping to see the tooth finally erupting but no, just a white mark and another day of aching. I'll check again tomorrow though...maybe tomorrow :)

Sydney's grandpa did a fun, what I almost liken to an old 'VHI bubble video' of Sydney's ride home from South Carolina a few weeks ago. In lieu of a picture this posting, check out this short and terribly creative work of art!

http://webpages.charter.net/tompriddy/MISC/SYDNEYS_WEEKEND/

The Great Outdoors

We're not there yet, but Sydney got a taste of walking around outside again this weekend as the temperature rose a little. I think she takes after her mom with the cabin fever and her face lights up at the site of the Baby Bjorn and the sunlight. As her cute bear hat no longer fits and we were starting to look like negligent parents, Maggie picked up this gem at the store which at the very least keeps her warm and makes us laugh when we look at her.

2008! and kisses....

After a nice hiatus to South Carolina for Christmas and then to India for a two week trip around the country, I've finally gotten things organized enough to start taking pictures and writing about our favorite little girl's antics. Two weeks seemed like a good idea last summer but I never knew leaving Sydney (and Maggie) for that long would be such a tough experience. Now...don't get me wrong, had I been sitting in Hawaii sipping Mai Tai's it probably would have been slightly easier, but when you're worried every time you take a sip of water or take a bite of food for two weeks....that's just hard. So I came back to a little girl that was sitting up more, that was grabbing toys more, that ate bananas more, and was more....everything. It's amazing how they change now and two weeks away magnifies it all. So I've spent the last month holding her as tight as I can and look forward to documenting all that continued progress here. At least I hope there's progress or I'm spending way to much time putting up all these gates :) Here are a few pictures of Sydney who apparently just couldn't wait to give herself a big wet kiss!

Christmas Eve

With parents in Virginia and South Carolina we have the privilege of having two Christmas's with the first being completed this weekend. Sydney enjoyed her stocking, toys and especially the tasty wrapping paper. Now onto Christmas #2!

Let It Snow

Sydney's
first trek into the snow was not met with smiles but more an extended look of concern as she tried to figure out what was going on. To be honest I'm not sure the snow itself was most interesting but rather this large snow suit we wrapped her up in which was just hilarious. It's too big now but by February she'll fit right in. We had a nice walk around the neighborhood anyway and she put up with us for longer than we deserved.

Happy Holidays

Things have kicked up quickly after Thanksgiving and we've got the tree set up for Sydney to see and her first ornament front and center! (right next to her other first ornament from Dee Dee and Grandpa). Like everything else that lights up, she's been staring at the tree intently this morning. We're going to enjoy this Christmas tree as much as we can as next year we'll be running around trying to keep her from pulling it over I'm sure.