Syd's Tutu Pics

When Millie was a baby, I had nothing better to do than dress her up and take pics.  Now, there never seems to be a good time to do that with Syd.  I've managed to always get her monthly pics done on time, but that's about it.  Well, I decided I needed a few pics of Syd in Millie's old tutu before she grew out of it.  Good thing I finally stuffed her into it because it would've been a lost cause in a few more weeks. ;)  Have I said before how much I love having a juicy baby?!

Millie Says...

Oh, Millie (now 2 1/2 years old)...she says the funniest stuff:

• Whenever she wakes up, the first thing she always says is "I heard something" when we go in to pick her up.  Then when asked, she'll elaborate - she'll say she heard the wind or the rain or a truck.  We laugh pretty often at how she's always "hearing something".

• She still loves to watch Little Bear, and one of the episodes is about how Little Bear is scared of the wind.  She loves to watch this episode, even though she hides her face a lot.  She'll ask to watch "da WIND" (big emphasis on the word 'wind').

• She may turn out to be an adrenaline junkie because she loves to be scared.  She likes to watch this old Care Bears movie that has a green ghost in it.  She hides her face in Blankie and gives herself little pep talks: "it's okay, it's okay, it's just a ghost...it's just on TV...can't hurt you".  I should probably delete it from the iPad because I'm not sure it's okay for her to be scared like that...I don't want her to have nightmares (like I did for years after watching Gremlins).

• She's also really good at consoling Syd by saying "it's okay, Millie's here".  Awwww

• She starts most sentences with "well..." or "how about..." or a simple "not today...".
• Me: Millie, what do you want for lunch?  
• Millie: Welllll...how about a peanut butter honey sammich? (or mac-n-cheese, her new favorite thing in the world)

• Me: Millie, time to turn off the iPad.
• Millie: How about...2 more minutes??

• Me: Millie, let's eat some breakfast.
• Millie: How about CANDY?! (with a hopeful grin)

• Me: Millie, let's go get ready for school.
• Millie: Not today... (said in the most pleasant voice)

she's been my baking buddy lately

• When we drive to school, we pass a Dressing Stable that usually has horses out grazing.  Sometimes, if it is really cold, these horses will be wearing blankets.  Last week, when we drove by, Millie shouted: "Mom, look a donkey in a jacket!!".

• Also on the way to school, we see a field with cows.  It's a large field, and sometimes the cows are over a hill or in the trees where we can't see them.  One day when they were out of view, I asked Millie where the cows went.  She replied "don't worry mom, we'll find them".

• We heard her on the play phone saying "yeah, that's a good idea...".

• She rarely cusses anymore and has moved on to saying "oh my goodness" or "holy moly"...or sometimes "gosh dammit".   It's a work in progress.

• Recently, I asked her to get me a washcloth from the bathroom and she replied "no, it's dark in there".  Guess that's starting up...

• Whenever she wants to ride on JKK's shoulders, she asks to "ride the head". 

• Currently, I think our favorite thing that she does is give random compliments.  Today, she told me she liked my dress (I wasn't wearing a dress...I think she's confused on what a dress is).  She'll tell JKK she likes his pants or shoes; she'll compliment Syd on her pajamas.  A couple of weeks ago, we took Beansie to the groomers and told Millie she had a bath.  When we brought Beansie home, Millie said "Beansie, I like your hair!"...we absolutely died laughing.  

A talking 2 year old is one of the funniest things on the planet. ;)

Currently

This week, we are lounging around the house trying to recover from illness and a weekend in (snowy, rural) Illinois for Bubba's funeral.  Two weeks ago, Syd was sick with a virus and just when she was getting better, Millie came down with something.  You can see she looked terrible and sickly on the airplane last Friday morning.  Poor girl, not a fun trip for obvious reasons...poor JKK.  The silver lining with terrible events like this is that we get to see family that we normally wouldn't be seeing for a long time.  We enjoyed a family dinner with everyone Saturday night and even got to help celebrate Luc's 13th birthday!

Poor JKK had to deal with the extra whiny and needy sick kid on the plane

This was both girls second time to fly.  Syd did great!

hotel livin' is for the birds

happpppppy birthday, lukey!!

Funny family pic.  Millie was driving us crazy and wouldn't sit in her chair or eat her dinner.  Thankfully, Aunt Kathy is a genius at keeping toddlers busy, and Aunt Coco was willing to go walk around with Millie.

Ben, Mike, and Beth

Dan, Luc, Uncle Tony, and Aunt Coco

Jack, Nick, birthday boy, and Aunt Kathy

Kathy & JKK

Benjo & Syddles

Sunday, instead of waiting around for our flight, we hopped in our rented minivan at 6am and headed home!  It was a good decision.  The girls did great, thanks to the iPad and the third row seat.  It almost made me want a minivan. ;)

making Syd laugh is her specialty

Monday, I kept Millie home from school.  Even though she was feeling much better,  I felt she could use another day of rest.  It was so nice out though, we couldn't stay indoors.  We drove to a favorite nearby park that morning...

...then walked to our neighborhood park that afternoon.  It was a really good day.  Any day with sunshine and 60 degrees in the winter is a definite mood-booster.  Loving my new double jogger and can't wait to use it more in the Spring!

All seems back to normal and looking forward to Millie going to school tomorrow.  I have a million errands lined up, but I really just want a nap. :)

8 Months Old

Syd Pid is 8 months old!

one week old:

one month old:

two months old:

three months old:

four months old:

five months old:

six months old:

seven months old:

eight months old:

She's always sitting like this with either her ankles crossed or the bottoms of her feet touching.  Such a lady.

EAT:
This past month has been full of routine busters, so we haven't stuck to much of a schedule lately.  She's still nursing at least 4 times a day...sometimes 5, sometimes 6....sometimes it's a full feeding, sometimes it's a snack....sometimes she likes the right boob, sometimes she doesn't (most of the time she prefers the left).  Meh.  This is what happens with the second child...you just go with the flow.  She also gets her oatmeal and veggie/fruit purees twice a day; well, sometimes it's three.  Basically, I just feed her when she looks hungry. ;)  It's beginning to look like we might have a picky eater on our hands.  Anytime I include avocado in her meal, she refuses to eat it.  Gags.  This has also happened with a baby food pouch of carrots and broccoli (must've been the broccoli because she eats carrots fine).  And it has also been happening anytime I add butternut squash into her meal, which is very frustrating since I made a huge batch of butternut squash puree that's taking up room in our freezer.  I'll keep trying though.  Millie still eats avocado so well...Syd can't shun it forever, or I'll be so disappointed!  New this month: I've introduced a sippy cup with water.  She always looks surprised when she actually gets some out.

I've tried adding some dairy back into my diet, but she isn't quite ready for it.  Whenever I have cheese, she spits up the entire next day - it's an awful, vomit-smelling spit up.  It must taste terrible because she makes a disgusted face when it comes up.  That's really all that happens though.  She doesn't get the terrible diarrhea that Millie did, so that's good news.  In fact, she's quite the opposite: constipated a lot, so I have to give her pear juice, and while in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago (milestone alert!), she had her first suppository.  Poor baby.  It's too bad she has this issue because she  LOVES bananas in her mesh feeder, but I'm really trying to limit the bananas now.

Still no teeth yet, but there has been plenty of drool.

She has a habit of sucking in her bottom lip so that it pretty much disappears.  It really changes her appearance.

SLEEP:
She's still sleeping like a champ 99% of the time.  There are still random nights where she'll get up and need attention, but most of the time, she's able to put herself back to sleep.  I usually go in to feed her between 5-6am and then she'll go back to sleep until 7ish.  However, we've traveled two out of the three weekends in January, and she's formed some bad habits that are going to take some effort to undo.  She's used to sleeping with a paci again (arggghhhh!), and she's been a little more fussy when I lay her down in her crib to go to sleep.  She's been a tad spoiled, so this week is off to a rough start.

The above pic is her very last time trying to nap in the pack-n-play, which didn't end up happening.  No more naps in the pack-n-play...that era is officially over!  She now does all of her sleeping in her crib.  I fixed the blackout curtain in her room to make it super dark, so she now takes a much better nap in the afternoon.  Just two naps during the day; we've dropped the catnap around dinnertime.

PLAY:
It's all about the standing these days!  She's starting to cruise just a little bit, and she'll take some steps holding onto our hands.  She's getting better at using the walker too.

Her feet seem so tiny...I'm amazed they can hold her up.  She can now cruise from one side of this Fisher Price jungle toy to the other side; it's in a semi-circle shape.

 

I'm really surprised she isn't full-on crawling by now.  She gets up in position and then hops her back legs up under herself again and again...then she gets tired and lays down.  She can get to what she aims for by inching on her belly though.  I guess it's sort of a crawl, but not really.  I was surprised to find her in the middle of my oatmeal bowl I had left unattended in the living room one morning.  She's definitely resourceful.  Maybe it's just her laid-back nature that's causing her to take her sweet time.  It's almost like we can read her mind when she's trying to crawl towards something...then she gives up and is all like "yeahhhh, I don't really need that" and rolls over on her back and starts babbling.

I took her to the doctor 2 weeks ago when she was sick...she weighed 18 lbs, 1oz and was 26.5 inches long.  Hubba hubba.

Millie continues to be her favorite person; she can crack Syd up like no one else.  It's the best sound in the world.  Syd is learning to be vocal though; when she's had enough of Millie messing with her, she lets out an ear-piercing scream that makes Millie cry.  Ha!

Dear sweet Syd,

You're such a little person now, constantly watching us wherever we go.  I love to see your big blue eyes light up when I meet your stare from across the room.  You definitely know who momma is, and the adoration is mutual.  Just a few days ago, you reached for me for the very first time...awwww.  I love to hear you squealing and giggling with your sister - my dream come true.  You're so vocal now and make all sorts of sounds, but "da" or "dada" is the most common.  We've come up with a new car seat game where you make a sound and we all repeat it.  It makes all of us laugh.  You make my day better every day, Sydney.  Baby of mine, you're loved more than you'll ever know.

Goodbye, Bubba

John's father, Bill, passed away unexpectedly last week.  I've always known him as "Bubba", his endearing grandparent moniker, and I've enjoyed watching him interact with his grandkids (8 total!).  Although we didn't get to see him often, he more than made up for the lack of quantity with quality time.  He was such a loving grandfather with our girls and was often referred to as the baby whisperer.  He just had a way...babies loved him.  His love of history also made for interesting conversation; he was full of good trivia, an avid reader, and passionate about continuing to learn.  This past year, we were very fortunate to have him be a part of some special moments in our lives.  In June, he came to Millie's 2nd birthday party and loved on Syd the whole time.  He also came back in September to stay the weekend with JKK, Coco, and the girls, while I flew to LA for a wedding.  I'm so thankful our girls were able to know Bubba and his big heart.  He will be greatly missed.