11 Months

The last few months have been very busy (like usual). Sydney is still growing and getting a stronger personality. She still is an easy going little one, but she has her moments when she wants what she wants. She has become a very social person, and usually goes to everyone happily. She still has not crawled and is pretty sure that she will walk before. She is getting around all over the house by scooting, it is hilarious. She pulls herself up on everything. She can even stand up without anything occasionally. She has taken steps on her own, but will sit down after two steps. She is getting closer to walking all over the house.

Her dermatologist is very happy with her hemangioma on her nose. He thinks it has stopped growing and we are slowing reducing her medicine. Our choice to treat her nose was the best decision that we have made.

We spent Easter in West Hickory, but we still had to dress her in a pretty Easter dress.

In late April, Sydney had her first sick evening, this was right after she threw up in her crib, poor baby!

 

We have been enjoying the outside every chance that we get and she has been loving it. She absolutely loves to swing and a little unsure of the slide. She loves the car that Papa has, she knows to put her hands on the steering wheel which we think is very amusing.

Sydney had her first experience with water at her cousin's birthday party. She wasn't quite sure at first, but quickly loved it. She clung close to us but she started splashing and bouncing up and down in our arms. Can't wait to get her into swim lessons.

Sydney has developed quite the independent, strong willed personality that we all knew she would have. Here is a photo of her wanting her pretzel rod and Daddy's as well. Get used to it Daddy!

Now that she is approching 11 months old, she has conquered the sippy cup, scooting all over the place (still no crawling) and standing up and taking a few steps, we are just waiting for her to toddle all over the place. She is just learning how to drink from a real cup and putting whatever may be lying around into our pantry. She is still babbling away with an occasional new word.

7 months already - Happy Valentines!

Sydney is acting like a big girl! She is so excited about food these days. She has liked everything pureed and cereal that we have given her so far, squash seems to be her favorite. We are working on the sippy cup, she wants to chew on the spout instead of suck on it. Practice makes perfect! She has drunk from a straw in a glass but has yet to repeat it. We just recently tried solid foods. She is quizzical about Puffs, she loves to play with them and is trying her best to put them in her mouth, but they can be awfully sticky to her hands. She eats them with a puzzled look on her face. Winston is loving it, since she accidently flings them off her highchair. I have also started to let her play with her own spoon and is surprised at how well she is doing (pictures to follow).

She is showing signs that we will have to baby proof soon! She moves herself backwards most of the time when she is on her belly, but when she does get her knees under her, she is starting to rock back and forth. Standing is becoming her favorite thing, we have to manually bend her legs to get her to sit. The moment we get her on her feet she starts jumping up and down and smiling from ear to ear. We have started pushing her around on her toys and is very excited about it.

Sydney had a great valentine's, she loves her blocks from Daddy

We are teaching her how to handle the animals and it is going well.

Sydney went to her first baby shower and was a very well behaved baby, and now that Lyra is here, we need to go visit her.

Sydney has fun hanging out with her older cousin. Lanie loves to play with her. There are moments of jealousy, but we work through them.

Here is a picture of what Sydney  first thought of Puffs but them decided she liked them.

She is getting good at handling a spoon, maybe soon I may put some food on the spoon???

We now have retired the kitchen sink for her baths, she is way TOO interested in the faucet handle. We now have a bathtub in the shower upstairs and she is loving it. Mommy is happy that there is no way she can turn on the hot water and burn her, like she was trying to do in the kitchen sink!

Finally we make it to St. Patrick's Day and we can't forget that since she has plenty of Irish from both sides of her family. She showed up to daycare with the appropriate onesie.

That brings us up to date, I am sure the next post will be filled with many updates. She is starting to pull herself up and she is close to crawling and continuing to teeth away. Thank goodness Spring is in the air, we can't wait to get her outside.

6 Months

It has been a very long 6 months. Sydney is at a great stage, she is showing her personality more and more everyday. She is a very happy baby most of the time.
She now has 2 teeth, the bottom 2 front and teething continues..... She is sitting on her own unsupported and can move herself backwards when on her stomach. She will be mobile very soon. She is loving her food and expect the food to be nonstop.

We have been enjoying her personality, she is usually pretty happy and is laughing more and more. She finds her Daddy to be quite funny. (Dan, I did put her in the U of M outfit, despite my better judgement).

We are giving her belly time as much as possible, luckily she doesn't seem to mind it.

She is learning new things every day.

Her favorite passtime is in her exersaucer, she really get bouncing.

She got to meet her cousin Daphne, she wasn't at her best, but it was a fun day.

She is great at sitting up on her own.

Her 6 month pictures were fun and went well.

The Holidays

Sydney is growing so quickly, she is getting to be so big. She is very insistent on standing up and her legs are so strong. She is loving her exersaucer

It has been a very busy holiday season, I wouldn't have expected how much work it was. Thanksgiving was very fun. We spent Thanksgiving with my family and again JD loves holding Sydney.

We then spent the weekend at Rich's parents where Lanie is such a great older cousin, she is always ready to help change Sydney's diapers.

She went to her Dermatalogist right after Thanksgiving and he was very happy to see that her hemangioma on her nose is getting smaller, he increased her dosage because she is gaining weight. She also had her 4 month check-up where she weighed in at 15 pounds 3 ounces (75%). She had another round of immunizations. This didn't go so well this time. I took her home from daycare where she cried most of the night. The doctor gave us the go ahead to start her on rice cereal. I was very excited and started it that weekend. She is loving it. We are also starting to let her taste other foods as well, she loves sharing a banana with Daddy at breakfast.

And as soon as Thanksgiving was over, the Christmas celebrations had started. We picked out our christmas tree as a whole family, it was a great success. We found our tree quickly and Sydney had her moments of impatience, but was overall content. We finally decorated the house after a week of doing it a little bit at a time, Polly is enjoying the nice snow blanket on the TV cabinet.

Sydney was paraded out to a few parties where she was amazingly very well behaved. Sydney received her first gift from Santa at my work's holiday party, it was a rattle. She had her picture taken many times in front of a christmas tree in hopes to get a good photo for cards.

We have been having a great time playing with her and loving her responses, she is now talking and laughing quite a lot.

She had her first ornament delivered to her by her Grandpa.

We celebrated Christmas with Rich's cousins the Sunday before Christmas. As I was getting her ready for the day, I discovered that she has a TOOTH that has surfaced. I was soooo excited! This party was the first time all the cousins were together in several years, it was a very nice day.

We spent Christmas Eve at Rich's parents, where we had a wonderful breakfast and unwrapped gifts. Sydney actually assisted with the unwrapping. Later that day we celebrated at the Rich's Aunt's house and then we swung in to visit other friends as we headed home, it was a LONG day and Sydney did not want to take anytime to nap.

We happily settled ourselves into our home on Christmas eve and woke up for Christmas morning and unwrapped gifts at our house where Santa came with gifts for Sydney (even though we did not leave out milk and cookies). We spent Christmas afternoon and evening at my families. It was a wonderful first Christmas with Sydney and we couldn't be happier!