Go SU! Christmas Party at Grandma & Grandpa Halstead's

Sydney enjoys watching sports on tv with her dad. She might not know it yet, but she roots for SU, of course, the Yankess and the Giants. Ironically, her father likes the same teams. Sydney meets her second cousin, Lily. Lily is 13 months old and loves babies. She was so excited to see Sydney and give her hugs and kisses.

This is one of those pictures where you can read her mind by the look on her face...
"what the heck is going on?..."

"Help...."

"Hey, you're small like me."

Packed and ready to go!

We had our second night away from the baby this past weekend. We had a wedding in Saratoga - congratulations Melissa & Chris! Sydney stayed with my parents. Before we left I was getting a little Christmas wrapping done when Geoff came in saying that he was ready to go. I look at the duffle bag he's carrying and he's got the baby on the top of our packed bag. She seemed to not mind and it was pretty funny to see, so I grabbed my camera. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did :)

She rolled over today!

Just about 10 minutes ago Sydney rolled over from her back to front. She is 4 months and 1 day old today. She's been SOOOO close for days now and she waited until her dad was home from work to complete the roll. We were cheering her on the whole time-- it was pretty exciting. I don't think I've heard Geoff cheer so loudly since February when the Giants won the Superbowl.
Sydney also had her 4 month doctor's visit last week. She was 16.5 lbs and they claim she's 24.5" long, but they were in a rush and totally didn't stretch her out. I say she's over 25" for sure. I measured her today and she's at least 25.5" or maybe I just have height issues :)

Sydney's Christening

Sydney was Christened on Sunday, November 30th. All of her aunts, uncles, cousins and

grandparents were there on her special day.

Bath Time

Throw toys at me!

For some reason Sydney just cracks up when we throw toys at her. Hey, whatever works!

Introduction to Food

Sydney is going on 4 months old. Today we went to get some photos taken of her. She's grabbing and chewing on things, or I guess I should say gumming things. Most often it's her thumb, fingers or fist, but pretty much anything is fair game if it crosses in front of her mouth. We put her highchair together a few days ago and had our first successful cereal eating just a few minutes ago. She doesn't quite understand how eating without a bottle works. Once the spoon touches her lips she starts sucking, which I guess works for now! It was very messy!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! For Sydney's 1st Halloween she was a penguin. It wasn't long before she got frustrated being in it and wanted out. Perhaps it was the hat portion that either covered her eyes or was velcroed under her chin(s) too tightly, the feet that kept falling off, or the big stuffed belly- just adding more to her own :)

Lots of Laughter!

Sydney has given us a few chuckles here and there, but yesterday I was able to get some full fledged laughter out of her! I just started clapping and it cracked her up. I was able to catch a video of it and have watched it several times since. She's just about 3 months old now and things just keep getting better. She's recognizing us, smiling a ton and now laughing. For those new moms out there, it does get easier - I promise! I read that 3 months was a turning point and I'm starting to understand it. Sydney can entertain herself on her play mat or in her jumper for longer periods before getting bored and if she cries, it most likely means she's hungry. She's grabbing for toys, holding up her head, and starting to throw her leg over like she's thinking about rolling over. I think we have a few more weeks before that happens, but we're close!

2 month Dr. visit

Sorry it's been a little while since I posted last, we've been pretty busy. Sydney had her 2 month doctor's visit on Sept. 25. She did very well with her immunization shots and managed to be in the 90th percentile for her length and weight. She weighed 12 lbs. 7 oz. and was 23 1/2 inches long. Sydney was also put on Nutramigen formula - a formula without cow's milk proteins that is supposed to help with a congestion/rattling sound in her throat when she breathes. I'm thinking this has something to do with her snoring too. She's been sleeping in her crib in her room for about a month now and sleeps about 11 hours a night, usually getting up once to eat. Sometimes we get lucky and she sleeps right through.

Aunt Kristin and Uncle James got married Oct.10 and the reception was at Turning Stone. Sydney got to go down the aisle with us and did pretty well during the ceremony. She did get a little cranky because she had to go to the bathroom (we all know how that is), but once she was relieved (during the vows - Catholic ceremony) she was happy :) She stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Halstead's that night and it was her first sleepover without us. The report the following day was a good one, so we might be able to try it again soon. We, however, did not take advantage of getting a full nights rest. I think we made it back to the room around 3am.

Welcome baby Gwen born Oct. 13 to our friends Courtney & Mike!

Congrats CJ & Jaime on finding out It's a Boy!

Congrats to Izaak & Julie on finding out It's a Girl! Happy 1st Birthday Ethan (Oct. 9)!

Adam & Tammy's wedding 9/20/08

Adam (my brother) and Tammy got married last weekend, Sept. 20th, in Buffalo. It was a beautiful wedding and we got very lucky with wonderful weather. Below is photo of my nephews, Connor and Seth, with Sydney. Connor is 7 and Seth is 4. Seth was the ringbearer in the wedding. He wanted to hold Sydney, but when the time came to hold her for the picture they were both understandably pretty nervous about it. I was too! Geoff and I were standing right there, ready to dive and grab the baby if they decided to let go and let her faceplant into the cement :)

Sydney slept through the night!!!

Sydney slept 8 1/2 hours last night! It was from 8:30pm to 4:00am. It probably won't happen again for a month. There was a big wind storm last night and we lost power for most of the night. Of course, the one night that I can get some decent sleep I was awake listening to the wind, wondering whose lawn my patio furniture would be in, and overheating because the fans weren't on (I felt like I was pregnant again). I read that the first night your baby sleeps through the night you'll wake up and rush to them to make sure they are okay. Our baby snores, so we don't need to check her breathing, we can just listen for it!
Here are some pictures of Sydney with her second cousin, Madeline. Sydney just loved Maddy and stared at her whenever she was near. Maddy rubbed Sydney's belly when she sat on her lap. As soon as she started crying Maddy looked at me and said "I don't want to hold her anymore!" Geoff said Sydney will be looking up to Maddy the rest of her life :)

Boppy and Me

The link below is a short video of Sydney on her boppy pillow. It was too large to attach to this website. It will be on the snapfish website until Oct. 12, so don't miss it :)http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=120131221334354133/l=427117390/g=49910089

I can see clearly now!

Sydney can now focus on objects and loves her mobiles. Even though she sees the same objects several times throughout the day they are still a big surprise to her. She'll take a quick snooze in her swing, wake up to stare at the mobile some more, and fall back to sleep. What more can you ask for?

Tummy Time

But she's pretty exhausted afterwards...

We're working on tummy time and she's holding her head up pretty well now...

Sydney was born with brown hair, but its starting to fall out now. My mom tells me this is normal and it will probably come in blond. Geoff and I were both pretty blond as kids, so we're not sure where the brown hair came from...

It's a miracle!

Sydney is 3 weeks old and holding up her own bottle! This photo is proof! She always has her arms moving, scratching me, or grabbing my hand and on this morning she held onto her bottle. I decided to move my hand and she continued to hold the bottle. I yelled for Geoff and he took the photo.

Our first sleepover at Kamp Kent

Sydney got an adorable chair from some friends of ours and I had to prop her up in it. Yeh, she tipped over several times in it before I got the photo, but I thought it turned out pretty cute.

This is Jack Rigabar, the son of our friends Joe and Jess and Sydney's boyfriend :) A cutie, right?! He's 6 months old and we think he's already got his eye on Sydney. They came to visit us at Kamp and to meet Sydney for the first time. Sydney was 2 weeks old when she had her first sleepover at Kamp Kent. She got to ride on the party barge and got plenty of attention from Grandma & Grandpa Kent, Aunt Kristin and Uncle James.

Our first weeks at home

Sydney really likes her swing and often takes naps in it. Everyone told us the first few weeks at home would be tough and they definitely were. At night I was nursing every other hour for an hour each time. It was brutal. I eventually decided to suppliment with formula and things got much better. She was more full and therefore slept longer. By the third week she was sleeping 3 hours at a time. She's also been very good about going right back to sleep after being changed and eating. She is an early riser though - up by 7am and wanting out of the bedroom. We've had her sleeping in the pack-n-play next to our bed. I've considered moving her to her room to sleep in the crib a few times, but I'm not ready yet. She does nap in the crib from time to time, but seems to sleep the longest in her carseat. I think its because its snug? She falls asleep in the car and on walks, both of which are in the carseat. Its great because she can stay right in it and we can bring her in the house.

We've definitely gotten a few smiles out of her. Aunt Kristin calls it her "cheerleading" moves. I have her on my lap and raise her arms up saying "yea" and it gets a grin. My mom touches her toes to her nose and that gets a smile too. Oh, and she's humming between gulps from her bottle. Its pretty cute. I love hearing her soft little voice. Speaking of voice, I swear her screams get louder by the day!