Smartie

So, tonight as I was getting Sydney ready for bed, I told her that I was going to brush her teeth. She then looked at me and pointed to her teeth. I'm pretty sure that we didn't teach her where her teeth are and since she did it several other times after that I think that she may just know where her teeth are. Well, she may have been signing "food', since she does that a lot anyway, but I'm gonna go with the whole "look at how smart my child is" approach rather than the "my child is constantly wanting food" one.

My Ramblings

This weekend I decided to take my personal rantings and ravings to a new level. I have started blogging about political things I feel are important. You can find them at Within the Pachyderm. Let me know what you think. You add comments, and after I read them and make sure that some physcho isn't spouting vulgarity I will allow it. I have no intentions of blocking any comments even and especially if they do not agree with me. If you wish to dispute something I said, or you feel it is factually inaccurate, I would ask that as part of the comment you provide a source or link that I could go to.

Sydney's doings

Some of Sydney's favorite things to do now:


Climb up on mom's kitchen stool.
(She really loves to do it when I am trying to use it)


Climb up on to the dishwasher door.
(She got in trouble with her Papa tonight because she wanted to do this while mom was loading dirty dishes)


Make messes with her food.
(This is tame compared to the inside of her high chair)

Picture post--some of my favorites from Elisha's wedding

Walking Along.

Sydney took her first real steps on Monday. (yeah, I'm a bit slow in posting this, we've had family staying in our apartment for two weeks now...be patient with me) She had been cruising around the couch and when I looked up to check on her she was actually walking on her own down the hallway. I would have gotten a picture or a video, but she heard the chair creak and sat down. Now, she still much prefers to crawl or have help walking, but she can take about five steps at a time before she falls or sits down.

Three years

Today is our third anniversary. It's kind of funny to me that it seems like it was forever ago, and at the same time it's not been that long since we got married. Anyway, we didn't do anything too special today. We did go to the Provo Temple and do a sealing session. That was pretty neat. We did one of Charles' family file names and then some names the temple had on hand. The sealer was the coolest man who was from Holland and had lived all over Europe and in South Africa and the United States and he just breezed through all the Dutch, German and French names that our group did. And after the session, we went to Sub Zero (they've opened one here in Provo, which is pretty neat) for some ice cream. It was a nice and simple anniversary, although Charles wants to go out to dinner later this weekend since we didn't have time today.

Lessons I learned this weekend

• Sydney gets very jealous when I pay attention to any other kids now. (Charles says that this means we need to have another baby now...he's been outvoted.)
  
• Sydney cannot fall asleep on her own without her blanket and her own bed. (we are currently in the market for a playpen now)
  
• Novelty dates (such as 8/8/08) are very popular days to get married...so sealings run very late. (There were 45 sealings in Manti and it is rumored that there were over 200 in Salt Lake City...Yikes!)
• Having your wedding and reception in two different towns almost two hours away from each other makes a long day twice as long.
  
• Being a wedding planner is not a relaxing career.
• Nobody really believes you when you say "take as much cake as you want".

Elisha's wedding was very nice. She and Greg looked amazing and there are at least a few usable pictures that they should like. I wanted to take more than I did, but with so many weddings, we had to wait forever just to take group and family pictures and by the time that was done, we were all hot and just ready to be done. And, thankfully, between their sealing and their reception there was a huge thunderstorm (really huge...we had to pull of the highway for a few minutes because we couldn't see the road) that cooled the day off and made it the perfect temperature for her outdoor reception.

Wedding prep

This week is Charles' sister's wedding. So, all of his family is either here or coming in the next few days. We will be quite busy with temple sessions, bridal pictures, trips to Mapleton and Manti, a sealing, wedding pictures, and other such events, not to mention just trying to get everything else done. But, I promise you will get to see all the pictures I take for the wedding...eventually.

Called to Serve

Sunday, Charles and I were released from our calling as Sunday School teachers at the last minute before sacrament meeting started. Apparently, you can't be Elder's Quorum president and teach Sunday School at the same time. Go figure. So, while Charles is dutifully serving the Lord, I am quite free from obligations...at least until we get a call from the bishopric here in a few weeks. (they claim that there is something in the works...that phrase frightens me a bit.)

Milestones and Stats

So, I realized that I never blogged about some of Sydney's recent milestones.

Teeth
Sydney now has four teeth coming in...all on the top gum. They all broke within a couple days of each other and for now she has a stepping stone kind of look to her top gum. It's really cute, but I'm not too excited about her using them on us.

Milk
With Sydney turning a year old, her doctor gave us the go ahead to give her whole milk. Charles was pretty excited about this until I told him that in no uncertain terms was he to drink the whole milk. Sydney seems to like it, but she much prefers it warm than right out of the refrigerator cold.

Words
Sydney has been saying "hi" for a few months now. She says it all the time, especially when she is around people. However, she won't preform on cue. Usually, if we tell her to say hi, she does so...about ten seconds after the person we want her to say hi to has left. She has also started saying and understanding the word "no". She now says no right back to us when we tell her no...like the other day when she kept pulling her shirt up in Ross and I would put it down and say no, she would pull it right back up and say no right back.

Walking
Sydney can walk when she is holding our hands or pushing anything: shopping carts, strollers, her push toy. And yesterday she took three steps between chairs, but only when she thought no one was watching. She doesn't even think she can stand on her own. If you distract her enough, she will stand on her own...but as soon as she realizes that she is standing without support, she sits right down.

Stats
At her one year well baby check up, Sydney weighed in at 16 lbs 8 oz and is now 27 inches tall. She has gained nine pounds and grown nine inches since she was born. She's super tiny, most people who don't know how old she is guess that she is about eight months old. Plus, since she isn't over twenty two (maybe just twenty) pounds, she has to say in a rear-facing car seat for a few more months.

Random pictures accruing in my Flickr account.

"This is the best way to ride in a shopping cart."



"This is a bagel, you say?"



"This walking thing is so overrated."

One Year Old!...continued

Here is our "big" one year old! At her one year well baby check up, she weighed 16 lbs and 8 oz and is 27 inches tall. She has gained 9 lbs and grown 9 inches since she was born.



Being sung to on the phone. She would kick her legs and move her head to the beat while she was being sung to. It was adorable!



Testing out her cake...



...it must be good....



...and this was her reaction when we told her she was done. All she really did was run her fingers through the frosting and smear it all over her face.



Happy Birthday, Sydney Renee!

One Year Old

Pictures are coming, but just a little FYI, today is Sydney's First Brithday!

Flying in an Airplane

Sydney, Chelsea and I left Utah today and flew out to Nebraska. Sydney was so good on the plane. She only cried when she was getting tired and then I nursed her and she went to sleep. That's really about all we did today...travel.

One year older

I'm twenty four today. It's been a pretty nice birthday, especially compared to last year when I was huge and uncomfortable and pretty depressed about having our camera stolen. We went to Ikea this morning and Charles bought me my birthday present from him and Sydney...two new nightstands for our room and some serving dishes. And then this evening, he threw me a little party with some of our friends: the Phairs, the Wiggintons, and the Boyces. And...he got me a Coldstone ice cream cake to top it all off.

**For Olympus...there are links for all of the gifts, so you can see them. Been there the whole time.**