We made it around to a few houses this year to show off our little pumpkin and had fun with our traditional setup out on the driveway. Sydney loved her Elmo candy bucket and even gave Elmo a kiss on the nose, an act so cute that a picture just can't do it justice. 
With such a beautiful day out we tried to stay outside and make sure the pumpkins were all arranged nicely. Syndey enjoyed going down the slide with her new friend at the park.
You know, sometimes at the end of a long day, you just want to curl up with a good book and sit in a box.
Some cooler temps and the smell of hot cider in the air called us recently to the pumpkin farm where unlike last year, Sydney is old enough to actually play with a pumpkin. It was a fantastic day of slides and goats and pumpkins bigger than Sydney. We brought home apples and little freebie pumpkins which are setup on the front porch for her to admire. A day or so later I had a fun first. I'm sure we've unknowingly taught her things before from observation, but at dinner time she pointed to one of the apples we'd picked up from the farm. I washed it up and took off the stem, a choking hazard of course, and handed her the apple. She sat down and looked at it and didn't know what to do. Do I eat it? Does this outer part need to come off? Is it just a strange looking ball? 
So I sat down next to her and took the apple and as best I could turned so she could see me and took a slow bite out of the apple. Her eyes grew wide and her hands shot up for the apple, a knowing smile on her face about what she needed to do. She looked up at me and dug into the apple and I just had this big smile on my face. It wasn't algebra or how to drive a car, but I taught my daughter how to eat an apple, and that just made my October.
Although there are many cute moments, this one ranks up there. We were out for a walk down the sidewalk and Sydney was dutifully pushing the stroller that she can barely reach. Apparently her energy was finally expended and rest was needed, so she looked up at me and stopped the stroller, pushed me away, walked around to the front and grabbed her ducky(little blanket). After plopping a paci in her mouth she laid down on the stroller, closed her eyes and actually afforded me enough time to get a picture from a couple angles. 
When the recuperation was complete she sat ducky up in the stroller, gave it her paci, walked back around and we continued on up the street. Just too adorable.
We're walking around a toy store and I see this....a fully decked out pink Cadillac Escalade with more features than my real car. We'll be keeping Sydney away from that part of the store now.
With October here so quickly, Sydney was outside preparing for the baseball playoffs this week. She been enjoying the cooler weather, is getting better at tossing a ball, has her baseball cap and is ready to go! I just haven't had the heart to tell her that most of the games start after her bedtime.
One of my favorite James Bond movies suggested that you "never say never again" and I have proved that twice in the last week. My first was entering a movie theater at 9'oclock in the morning, something that just doesn't feel right to begin with, and then when confronted with Elmo and about 30 moms it felt even less so. It would appear I am one of the few and proud dads that can make an Elmo run on a random Wednesday morning. Then a week later I find myself playing the "where's your belly button, now where's my belly button" game in seat 20C of a regional jet streaking home on a Monday morning surrounded by 90 business professionals all headed to the capital for a busy work week. It turns out, both for Sydney and I, this is a whole new world of experiences.
To be honest, we probably pick her up too much when she should be walking around, but if this face is looking up at you, what choice do you really have? :)
I don't know if it's possible for a 16 month old to be sassy, but this picture was taken moments after I specifically indicated that, "We don't try to eat the floor and we don't lick the handle on your play baby stroller." Mmmmm...stroller handle.
After her first visit, Sydney couldn't wait to bring a friend to the farm park, so Natalie accompanied her. For some reason, the theme song to Laverne and Shirley comes to mind when I look at this picture. Shortly after, a cow almost digested most of Natalie's shirt and it's unlikely she'll be back for some time without counseling. (Photo Credit to Maggie)
We recently took Sydney to a farm park where she was enthralled with the pigs, horses, goats and cows. She howled when a goat stuck it's tongue out and we're still not sure if she was afraid or was laughing hysterically.
With some vacation I was finally able to join Maggie and Sydney for a Mr. Knickknack concert. There we listened to 45 minutes of what all seemed to be variations on the either the alphabet song or a song where he just pointed at children and said "You!", and they would look around confused thinking, "Me?!". Sydney clapped and had a good time pining over all the other children's toys, and watching while up on on my shoulders.
This girl loves water and loves to splash. I caught this one outside the other day while she proceeded to soak herself and the blanket (b/c she won't stand on grass :) ) and right before she actually tried to crawl into the water part thinking that it looked like a perfectly good place for bath time.
You might ask yourself what a picture of three guys camping would be doing on Sydney's blog. But a closer look reveals three dad's who look a bit tired after a night out in the wild under the stars. After a couple days of fishing and a night around a campfire, why no smiles? Three dads who had a night away from diapers and pureed bananas and bath time. Three dads whose only care was how rear the steak was off the grill and how good the fish were biting. But yet, no smiles. The reason is that apparently some other family nearby couldn't bear a night out without their little one, and so, on cue at 5:30 in the morning a baby started crying. I thought maybe it was my imagination and I had become so used to it that I was hearing things. It couldn't possibly be. There it was again though, louder and screaming and I woke up realizing it was actually a baby. I couldn't believe it. Only our luck and I don't think any of us really slept all that well the rest of the morning. So then here's the picture, probably caught a moment before we were actually smiling, but a better representation of what each of was thinking right about this time.
Her face belies the fun she's having going round and round on the carousel. Now if she even senses a carousel nearby it becomes a mighty struggle to hold her.
I swear that a moment earlier she was staring at the sky and pointing at something, but of course I think she's starting to pick up a sense of humor and left me looking....well, up.
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Sydney is already building her network of friends and we were lucky enough to have one of her North Carolina friends stop by this weekend! Here's a happy Syndey after a fun play date, and a tired Mom after the drive from North Carolina :)
After getting all the first visits out of the way, things were a little calmer when we stopped by yesterday. Lauren was crying a little here and there but Mike was a natural and had her pressed tight in his arms which she loved. Sydney has yet to meet her little cousin (due to a runny nose), but I showed her these photos from the visit.
Now that Mike has put some incredible photos up at the link below, I can share a couple I caught the first night!
