Adoption

I have to post a somewhat sentimental "mushy" post here guys. Just to warn you. If you're not into that, skip this post, or read on at your own risk. ;)
I've been thinking a lot lately about how absolutely lucky we are to have Sydney. Yesterday as I was walking Sydney to the park in her stroller, I thought, this is my absolute dream come true!


A friend and I were talking about our babies yesterday and how we both usually wake up before our babies actually cry. Whether it's because their breathing patterns change, they start rustling, or because we just have a connection with them, it happens. I already knew it, but it was a nice reinforcement that giving birth isn't mandatory for being a mom. It doesn't matter how we got this little monkey, she's ours. She knows and loves us and it's so fun to be her parents. I don't want to turn this into a "you should all go have kids" because that's not what it is. I just feel incredibly blessed to have been able to be a part of this adoption.

I love my baby. I love feeding her, playing with her, dressing and bathing her, and I don't even mind changing her! I know a lot of women don't feel fulfilled enough staying at home with their kids (and I know that many other women are not actually able to stay at home - I'm not judging anyone here), but I couldn't imagine a more fulfilling and wonderful way to spend my days, weeks, and months than with this amazing little person. Plus, after taking so long to get this little squirt, how could I let anyone else raise her if it's humanly possible for me to stay home and do it? I couldn't miss a single moment - every new discovery is an absolute joy. Aaron often says that I have all the fun, and he's totally right. Taking care of kids is sometimes hard and is a lot of work, but gosh it's great. I'd totally rather change 6 poopy diapers than go to the office each day. :)

April Fools!

This is a song that I learned in Elementary School that I loved. Just had to share it! follow the link at the bottom to actually hear the music for it.

YOUR HAIR IS THE COLOR OF TOMATO SOUP,
APRIL FOOL, APRIL FOOL.
THERE'S A GREAT BIG GORILLA IN THE CHICKEN COOP,
APRIL APRIL FOOL!

Refrain:
OH, LOOK OUT THE WINDOW, WHAT D' YA SEE?
PEACHES ON THE CHERRY TREE.
I FOOL YOU, YOU FOOL ME,
THIS IS APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

2nd Verse:
THE CAT'S IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CUSTARD PIE,
APRIL FOOL, APRIL FOOL.
THERE'S A DOG IN THE KITCHEN AND HE'S TEN FEET HIGH,
APRIL, A PRIL FOOL!

(Refrain)

3rd Verse:
THE PIG IN THE PARLOR HAS A BIG CIGAR,
APRIL FOOL, APRIL FOOL.
THERE'S A TWO HEADED ELEPHANT IN DADDY'S CAR,
APRIL, APRIL FOOL!

(Refrain)

4th Verse:
THE COW IN THE CLOVER GAVE THE HORSE A K ISS,
APRIL FOOL, APRIL FOOL.
YOU CAN'T EVER SING A SILLY SONG LIKE THIS,
'CEPT ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY! APRIL APRIL FOOL!

http://www.msu.edu/~eulenber/John/Songs/AprilFool.html

That's My Baby

I wanted to share our big news with everyone. On the 22nd we had the opportunity to go to the new temple in Rexburg and have Sydney sealed to us! It was such an amazing experience and we are so happy to have been able to do it. The next day she was blessed, so it was an all around great trip. I want to post more pictures, but at the moment I don't have a cd drive and my camera card has been (most likely) permanently lost. This means a lack of picture posting for a bit, sorry! Hopefully I'll get some more pics on here soon. My mom made her beautiful dress out of my wedding dress material (which she also made) and my sister made her cute bow. She was sooo beautiful!

Big Week

In addition to turning 6 months old, having her first flu shot, and getting her highest fever ever (see previous post), we had a few other milestones/picture worthy events:

Made pizza with mom

First BBQ of the year (at our house)!
First time in court
Sydney also rode the swings for the first time ever but the camera was not present, so we have to go back. Aw, shucks. :)

More about the court photo - on Wednesday we took Sydney to the courthouse and were able to finalize Sydney's adoption. She is now lawfully ours forever and ever. Yay! It was a great day, despite the fact that little Stinky Pete here pooped her diaper in the courtroom. I don't think the judge noticed though - he was too busy admiring her painted toes and she was grinning at all the attention. We now have our final adoption paperwork and can take Sydney through the temple with us! Hooray! What a great week. Also we had Book Club, and I finished 3 books this week, so it was the perfect icing on the cake!

A Little OCD with Organization

This week I got sick of having all of my grocery bags full of food storage just sitting in front of my food storage shelves. (They often get left there when I get back from the store since Sydney has often had it by the time we get home. !) So Thursday while Sydney was taking a nap I went and organized everything. Yay. I need to take inventory more often to see what I do and do not need to buy. For example, we have about 30 boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats, which I really like, but I am buying them faster than I eat them! Definitely do not need any more of those for awhile. But I do need more pickles, peanut butter, and pineapple (alliteration not intended).

I love when all of my food is lined up by type, flavor, etc. It looks so pretty. I think I might be OCD in this way. I love to organize books, cds, etc. My movies are in alphabetical order by category/shelf, Sydney's books are organized by height & type, and now you've seen my food storage.

Tonight I went grocery shopping and ended up buying 30 lbs of ground beef and 20 lbs of chicken. I love sales. I grew up in a family that could have invented food storage - my mom does home canning for everything and has a large food storage room, a garden bigger than my back yard, and 1 extra freezer and 2 fridge/freezer combos. Needless to say, it was sort of ingrained in me. We got a freezer when we were still poor college students and moved it out here with us when we came. I'm not sure what we did before we got it. Where did I pack all my meat? Oh that's right. We couldn't fit anything in our regular little half freezer because it was packed with meat. Hmm, anyway, this definitely holds a lot more, and it all looks so pretty stacked in there. After putting the new beef and chicken away, I organized the freezer my meat types. Ground beef and breads on the top shelf, chicken and turkey on shelf 2, hams, steaks, ribs, and roasts on shelf 3, then pizzas and other various items on the bottom shelf. Too bad it can't stay always so organized!

6 Months Old

Sydney is 6 months old now! It's pretty hard to believe, but it's true. She's now tasted squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, rice cereal, and peas, and beans. She's loved all the yellow/orange veggies, but when she tasted peas it all ended. As you can see below, they haven't gone over so well, both canned and frozen.

Watching her e-card from her Auntie Jessica! Thanks again!
On Monday we took her in for her 6 month well care visit and found out that she weighs 17 lbs 7 oz, so she's gained a fair amount in the last 2 months (she was at 14 lbs 13 oz). She's a big healthy girl and she got her immunizations and a flu shot. She was perfectly silent through the first 2 shots, and on the third one she realized something was going on she didn't like. She started screaming and she was pretty much mad the rest of the day. She ended up getting her highest fever ever that night (102.1!) and not only refused all solids, but actually wouldn't drink a bottle until we got the fever to break with some Tylenol. It wasn't until she wouldn't drink a bottle that I got nervous since anyone who knows Sydney knows that she's obsessed with bottles and has NEVER turned one away in the history of the world. Thank heavens it did pass, although that was a long night. She had a fever the next day too, but not as high, and with some Tylenol, we kept it away until it left on it's own for good. Yay. Only one problem. Since the shots, Sydney will not eat solids. I'm practically force feeding her! I've gotten her to eat a little rice cereal, and she's decided that squash and sweet potatoes are ok again, but she's so incredibly anti carrots and all things green you'd think I was feeding her rotten potatoes. That stinks.

Sydney

Often while laying on my lap now, Sydney likes to push her legs on my stomach and kind of fall off. Here are some silly pictures we took the other day.

Just hanging out!
Everything is upside down! That's more like it!

The Zoo

On Friday the weather was beautiful (72 degrees!), so my friend Karen and I took the kiddos to the zoo! It was so much fun and we really enjoyed just getting out of the house and seeing everything!

Sydney and I at the elephants

Karen and Eli checking out the bears
Sydney being much too busy eating her stroller to be looking at the bears
Eli's favorite animals - the geese!
Two tired kiddos ready to go home!
As we went into the zoo I turned to Karen and said, "This is the cute part of motherhood!" I always imagined going on walks and to the zoo with friends and all our babies. Obviously there's so much more to it than that, but as we went through the gates (and saw some other friends of ours!) I still thought to myself, "I've arrived." :)

We've Had a Busy Week!

Things have been busy at our house over the past week or so! Sydney changes so quickly, it's like something new happens every day! Here are a few things we did:

Ate a whole tub of sweet potatoes (first time finishing a whole one in one setting!)

Tried on my new shorts
Did a bit of sun bathing on the front lawn
Went to the Zoo (more on this in the next post)Read some stories
Tried some carrots (yum!)Grew out of my long johns because my thighs are so big that they don't want to snap.
She also learned how to roll from her back to her belly on Friday and is figuring out the whole sitting up thing. She found her voice - again (she lost it while she was sick and had to relearn how to squeal, yell, and just talk). My how they grow!

Mommy Time

Sydney and I have lots of time to play together since we are at home all day, so we try to do some fun things along with the usual ones. This week we picked out the perfect shades to go with her other summer essentials (Children's Place for $3.50! Best deal ever!)

And Sydney got her first pedicure! (In home - I did not pay $30 to have my baby's toes painted)

Isn't she stylin'? Why did I need a girl again? Oh yeah...

Who's Ready for Summer?

This little girl is! She loves being outside, but her time out there is limited at the moment! To get ready for summer we thought we'd post a few pictures!

This is a swimsuit someone gave us that is so cute, but too small right now, so it totally won't fit this summer! Cute though!

Here's the one we've purchased for our 2008 pool time!
Doesn't she look ready to hit the beach? All she needs are some little flip flops!
Mostly this picture just really cracks me up. Her expression, her little lips, the fact that she's standing, everything.
Is it really still only February? Man we're in trouble.

Johnny Jump Up

We finally got a jumper for Sydney! We got it on Tuesday and almost immediately had to try it out. Here's how it went. Aaron translates the directions (which could have been in Latin) and figures out how to put the fool thing together and attaches it to the door frame.

What in the heck is this thing?
I'm standing up like a big girl. This part is cool.
What? Am I supposed to do something?
Yeah, so she totally doesn't get the whole jumping thing. I know she will, but it's actually really funny to watch her just hang there. She loves it when we make her jump, but she hasn't figured out that she can do it on her own. When she does, we'll post a video. :)

We've Been Busy!

We've had a busy last few weeks since I posted! Sydney has bronchialitis, so she's bee hacking for about a week (good news though, it's not RSV!), and is just barely starting to get over it. Her sleeping patterns have gotten all screwed up though, so she now thinks that 4:30 am is the best time to wake up. I completely disagree and we squabble about it EVERY morning while I attempt to sleep and she does a really good job of stopping me.

This was taken almost 2 weeks ago before she got sick, which is why she's all happy!

Last week we had a bunch of contractors at the house fixing some warranty items when the flooring guy discovered the cause of our vinyl discoloration - while the house was being built they cut a whole in the door accidentally, which lets water in under the vinyl every time it rains, which grows mold and is not good. We now have a part of our floor that has been completely ripped out and we are waiting to hear back from the builder on what they are going to do to fix it. Joy.
Tax time! This year Aaron had a tax buddy to sit and help him make sense of everything. Don't let that confused look on her face fool you - she knows more than she lets on!

Happy 5 Month B-Day

For a special treat today we let Sydney try squash since she is now 5 months old (can you believe it?). We tried it this afternoon and after about 5 bites she pitched a fit and demanded a bottle and a nap (note to self - do not try anything "not normal" when your baby is hungry and tired). We put the food in the fridge, put our cranky baby to bed, and let her sort things out her way. After a bottle and a short, but apparently adequate nap, we tried again. This time it was gold! She was all over that squash and ate over have a jar! Yay Sydney!

Also for those of you asking for pics of me, here you go. It's not a great one and I'm not looking at the camera, but it's proof that I'm still alive and kicking! We'll work on another one to follow. Maybe I can teach Sydney to take some pictures...

Guess What I Can Do?

Bouncing with Dad

Two Weeks in Pictures

I'm getting chastised again for not having recent pictures and videos up, so here I am complying and posting. Enjoy my back post.

She's such a happy girl

Recent development - she CAN hold her own bottle. Doesn't feel the need to most times, but she can. Here's proof.
This kid is all business when it comes to food. Of any sort.
Talking to grandma (or listening to grandma) while trying to eat mom's phone. Such a multi-tasker.
This one is my fault. We were going through all her clothes determining which ones were all the same size and she kept trying to eat them, so I tied it on her head like a turban. Mostly it was just funny.

Now I can post more stuff because I am caught up!