Is it Spring yet?

First nice day in March out on the deck!

It's been a while since we put Sydney in her swing and looking back at her old photos in the swing... she's huge!!! Look how long she is! She may have hope to not be short like her parents. There is a photo of her as a newborn in the swing earlier in the blog... go ahead, check it out.

I gave her a tomato to hold while I was making dinner and she decided to try it.

She bit right into it and it was a surprise!

Ahhhh, this is so relaxing Grandma... I could do this ALL day. Nice thighs!

Catching Grandma's bubbles.

First time going to the park.

On April 1st Sydney not only turned 8 months old, but she also had her first sick visit to the pediatrician. She had a fever of 102 with a cold, so I took her in. Turns out it is a cold and nothing more, so we just have to wait it out. The fever is now gone, but her nose is running like a faucet and she has that yucky congested cough. I hate seeing her like this and just wish I could be sick instead of her. I know... I better get used to it, because it may be her first sickness, but definitely isn't the last!

Sydney is moving around pretty good on the floor now - mostly an army crawl. She can stand while holding onto something too. I just measured her at home, so it isn't the official dr. measurments, but she was 29" long and weighed 25 lbs. According to the growth charts she's maintaining her high 90's percentile for both her length and weight. She's officially into her 12-18 month clothing.

Laughing...

Sydney and I got Tyra a new toy and squeaking it was just hysterical to her.

Toes in the sand...

Sydney, Geoff and I went to Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers for a few days for a little birthday get-a-way. It was nice getting away from the cold. Sydney enjoyed the sand, ocean, pool, and warm weather that allowed us to take walks and not have to bundle up. She hates putting her winter jacket on. It's hard to believe she's already 7 1/2 months old. It's been several weeks now that she's been sleeping all night, never fail, 11-12 hours. We're enjoying every moment and she just cracks us up daily.

Sure, I'll try broccoli... I'll try anything

Dunking dad

Loving the pool

Splashing and getting water in my eyes!

Floating in the pool with dad

Walking with mom in the sunet

Mom & me in the sunset

Posing with a sand snowman

Toes in the ocean for the first time

Touching the sand for the first time

I love being on dad's shoulders!

Wearing my pumpkin hat Katie got me in Bali

Visiting friends and already mimicking?

Sydney (7 months) and Cooper Alvarez (10 weeks).

She was happy to see cheeks like her own and just had to squeeze them.

Sydney and Bailey Faldzinski (14 months)

I think she went for a squeeze of Bailey's cheeks too.

Flinging the spoon during dinner is fun.

Look at all of my toys in my new toy box!

Nice play, right dad?!

What kind of move was that?!

Sydney's first pancake

Cruising around in her walker.

Mastering the sippy cup.

Loving to eat her toes

Sydney is expanding her menu options daily. She had a pancake last week and some cake, ice cream and frosting at a birthday party. Luckily, she also likes cooked vegetables (mainly carrots) and will share a banana, peach or pear with me. Her bottom two teeth are coming in nicely, but we haven't seen any other teeth yet. That limits the variety of food we can give her.

A few weeks ago, Sydney went to a Syracuse basketball game with us. I was a little nervous that she'd get nervous with all of the noise, but she is one of those babies that likes to be startled and scared. She thinks it's funny, so I figured we'd give it a try. She did get nervous when all 32,000+ people there started cheering all at once, but that only lasted a few seconds.

Sydney loves to "fake" cough. She thinks it's funny to hear someone else cough and then she'll mimick it. That is her latest fun thing to do.

Eating, eating, eating...

Sydney's new chair... quite warm and furry. Tyra has been so good with Sydney. Sydney has a big smile when ever she sees the dog and reaches right out to pet/grab her. She usually grabs right for Tyra's eye or ear and then grabs a handful of skin squeezing it as hard as she can and Tyra just tolerates it.

Sydney LOVES ritz, graham crackers, biter biscuits and just about anything she can hold onto and feed herself. She always gets it everywhere though!

Jumpin' Jumperoo!

Sydney's Aunt Kristin & Uncle James got her some adorable letters for her room that we put up the other day. I had to share how cute her room looks now...

Sydney has figured out how her jumperoo works. Here is a short video of her daily jumping exercises.

Our 6 month check-up

We had a very busy weekend driving out to Saratoga for Jack's 1st birthday and then celebrating Sydney's half birthday at a Superbowl Party yesterday. She had a fun time watching all the kids running around her at both.

Sydney's 6 month check-up was Thursday. The doctor's words were "she's perfect," which, as biased parents, we already knew :) She's been surprisingly healthy with all well visits to the doctor's so far. Sydney is 27" long and weighs 19 lbs. 6 oz. She's in the 90th percentile for her length and head measurements and 95 percentile for her weight. In other words, a very well rounded girl, according to her measurements, and her belly too :) She also had 3 more immunization shots and didn't cry again. She's tougher than her mother, that's for sure. Her bottom tooth poked through and a second bottom tooth isn't far behind. The pediatrician said her top gums are all swollen too, so her top teeth are coming in as well. She's sitting on her own, blowing raspberries, and learning to feed herself. She's pretty independent. Often times I have a hard time feeding her with a spoon, but if she can help, or if I hand her a cracker that she can feed herself she'll eat.

Sydney's been going to bed around 7:00-7:30 and waking up around 7:00am. Typically she'll wake up once for a bottle during that time and go back to sleep afterwards. The doctor recommended putting her to bed a bit later and letting her go if she wakes up for a bottle at night. Last night we tried it, putting her to bed around 9:15 and she woke up at 1:00am. I went in to let her know I was there and then left. I felt like I made it worse, because she cried harder when I didn't pick her up, but about 15 min. later she fell back asleep and didn't wake up again until 7:15am. This little trick might just work! We'll see how it goes the next few nights. She's still napping pretty good too. One nap in the morning and two in the afternoon about 1-2 hours each time.