8 months

Where has my little baby gone?  It's as though overnight Sydney has changed from a tiny baby to a big girl.  I keep reminding myself to soak in this precious time because it's sure not going to last long!

Miss Sydney is growing, growing, growing!  I thought Grandma was CRAZY last year before Sydney was born when she was pushing me to buy 12 Month Christmas clothes for her this year but guess what Grandma...you weren't crazy!  Don't ya love hearing that?!  Right now she can really fill out a 6-9 month outfit or fit comfortably in a 9-12 month outfit.  Last month when we went to get her 2nd flu shot (they have to take them in 2 doses now) she was weighing in at 19.5 pounds so I'm pretty positive that we have a 20+ pounder on our hands right now.  We will see little babies out and ask how old they are...most of them around the one year age...and they are smaller than Sydney.  hehe!  She's just lucky cause her Mama feeds her good!!!!  Someone was holding her the other day and said she was heavier than their dog.  I wasn't sure how to take that other than thinking GUESS YOU HAVE A SCRAWNY DOG!!  We moved up to size 3 diapers which meant she went from "swaddlers" to "cruisers".  I really hated that sad, but true, transition.

She is lovin some food, thank goodness!  So far her future is looking bright as being a NOT PICKY eater.  Yay!!!  She has eaten every single baby food veggie and fruit option and loved them all.  Green peas sometimes take a little longer to choke down but do ya blame her, really??  We have cereal mixed with fruit in the mornings, milk throughout the day and a veggie and fruit for supper.  She's still doing really well nursing and once again I'm thankful for that.  We may get lucky and get to skip formula all together!!

So, she has a new "Grandad taught me this" trick...drinking from a straw!  It's the ONLY way she will take in liquids other than nursing.  She absolutely refuses a bottle and doesn't dig a sippie cup too much.  People seriously have to feed her milk through a straw or she refuses the milk.  It is hillarious!!!  And forget the milk, if you have water in the glass she is in heaven!  See what I mean about my baby being a big girl now...babies DO NOT drink through straws! :(

We've learned exactly when to say uh oh (like when we drop paci every 2 minutes) and bye bye too.  She even waves (backwards) when she's saying it.  Precious!

Man is she getting around these days!  I think I'm constantly dragging her back to the center of her blanket in the middle of the living room floor only to find her under my feet 30 seconds later.  Her preferred mode of transportation is army crawling these days and boy is she fast!  She's not the only one who has to be fast...we do too in order to catch her before she drags stuff off of the bookshelf, finds a dirty shoe to chew on, finds a lonely piece of paper on the floor to eat, etc.  Corey has been on a babyproofing mission for the past month so I think we're good! 

We're up to 6 visible teeth at this point and she has been WONDERFUL while cutting them all!  I mean seriously, I've heard teething horror stories and we haven't even had to go down that road and might I add we are SO THANKFUL for that!  She's got 3 big teeth on the bottom and the three on top are each making their way in, so she may have a couple of top teeth showing in time for Christmas!

She's already been showered with several new Christmas toys from friends and family and she's loving them all!  It's already a pitiful sight with all of the options of toys to play with on her blanket!  She enjoys spending time playing in the floor, especially at night when Daddy lays down and plays with her.  She is still loving Sesame Street so that's my "hour a day" when she hardly moves and I get a few things done around the house without really worrying that she's into anything.  Elmo must have a spell on her that makes her stay very still! ha!  Needless to say we both LOVE Sesame Street and Elmo. :)

We've been extra busy over the past month and are never in one place for very long...at least not long enough to get bored.  We've stayed on the move every day...I don't want to get her out of the habit since we've been doing this since about 6 weeks after she was born. :)  We've been running errands, Christmas shopping and working at Grandmas lots this month. 

This month we've got to give a "favorite playmate" award and it's goes to....GRANDAD!  We've decided that he is Sydney's most favorite babysitter by a long shot!  They have the BEST time together and completely wear eachother out by the end of the night.  Corey and I went in the other night to pick her up and he was seriously dragging her around on a blanket all through the house while she squealed and hung on tight!  She was absolutely, positively in heaven. 

Little Sissy, you have once again brought us more joy in the past month than we ever thought possible.  Your Daddy said to me the other day, "she's too good for us", and he's probably right!  We love you with every ounce in our bodies and want nothing but the very best for you always!

Love Always,

Daddy and Mama

Snow Day

Sydney witness her first snow day today (12.13.10) but it sure didn't keep us at home.  :)  We called Daddy up and asked him to take us to Grandmas to "help out" in the kitchen.  I helped Mom most of the day and chased Sydney the rest of the time.  Sydney thought she would kiss up to Grandma by wearing her Christmas onesie that says, "Forget Santa, I Have Grandma." 

Sydney's "work" area in the kitchen floor.

I've got friends

We spent our past weekend catching up with some of our closest friends and it was absolutely, positively fabulous!!!

Friday night we had the Millers over for a crazy (ha!) night.  We ate nachos and then hung out in the middle of the living room floor with the girls.  They were too fun to watch!  They have started interacting a little with eachother by doing things like stealing (toys), grabbing (faces), and rolling (over eachother), etc.  But really, they were sweet playing together.  Thank goodness Sydney can finally sit up and look Cecilia right in her pretty eyes!  And as usual, Kacie and I can go weeks or even months without talking to eachother and by the time we leave eachother it's like we haven't missed a beat!  I am so thankful to have such a wonderful and precious BFF!!!

Two sweet girls!

Then on Saturday morning we traveled to Kattawa, KY (central location for us all) to meet up with the Givens' and Porters...two of Coreys best buds and their families.  We met at Oasis for lunch (just like here in Franklin) and just camped out (literally) for a couple of hours letting the kids play, eating, opening presents, and catching up with eachother.  Our poor waitress!!! :)  It sure was soooooo good to see them all!  If only they would just move to Franklin so we could hang out more often. :)

Seriously, this was the best of about 10 pics! ha!

Clayton and Carley...Sydney's entertainment!

What a great weekend with some GREAT friends!  Love you all!!!

Sydney and her "Aunt" Debbie!

Santa's lap

Sydney sitting in Santa's lap...check!  Finally I get to check that off of my list.  But as Granny Konow would say...there's a story to this! :)

I was working for Mom Saturday (12.4.10).  She was catering a huge family Christmas party for QNet (formerly Quebecor) employees and their families.  It was the coolest kids party I've ever seen complete with Santa's workshops, awesome decorations, Disney characters singing Christmas carols, a train ride, bouncy things, kid friendly food, corn hole and pictures with Santa.  When I saw it all and everyone there with their kids I almost wished I worked at QNet so I could bring Sydney to enjoy the fun...ok, so that's going a little overboard I think.  Anyway, I was whining to mom about how I wished Sydney could be there so she could sit in Santas lap and bless her, she called Mary Thomas (who was keeping Sydney) and told her if she wanted to she could bring Connor and Sydney to play for a little bit.  Whether Mary Thomas was really "into" that or not, bless her SWEET heart, she brought them both which just made my day!  Sydney finally got to sit in Santa's lap and she didn't mind one single bit.  Of course I was stressin because she didn't have a Christmas outfit on for her first Santa pic but oh well...I'm over it! :)  After her pic (and while Connor was still bouncing) Aunt Nat Nat rode the little train with her.  She wasn't quite sure what to think about that. 

At least somebody is paying attention. :)

Bringing up the rear.

So...long story short we snuck Mary Thomas, Connor and Sydney in to crash the company work party just so Sydney could sit in Santa's lap.  There's a first time for everything I guess!  Plus, I'm pretty sure nobody even noticed. 

leggo my eggo

Now isn't this a picture?  :)  Here's the story...Sydney (bless her heart) is cutting 3 teeth right now to add two the already 2 pearly whites in her mouth.  She was having a rough time the other day.  She wouldn't eat her baby food and wouldn't nurse either, we're assuming because it hurt too bad.  I was asking several people for "teething" advice and one friend told me she used to give her babies waffles to chew on while they were teething.  I thought hey, we'll sure try it.  Well...I'm not sure how much it helped her gums but she had a big ole time with the waffle and it occupied her while we ate our lunch that day so it was a win-win! 

As far as the teeth go, she's much better.  The one coming in on the bottom is totally big already and the top two are sure working their way through.  She's definitely been a trooper through this teething stuff!  She's going to have a mouth full of teeth by Christmas!

Just one little touch!

Somebody found the Christmas tree and thinks it's awfully pretty.  Now that she's crawling everywhere I think we're all in trouble (by the way she's crawling...well, sort of...at least she's moving fast on her belly, this started last week)!   She keeps venturing in the direction of the Christmas tree and I keep pulling her back to the other corner of the room.  Looks like I've got a fun month ahead of me.  :)

Do you see what I see?

Look what Sydney found last night while her daddy was TRYING to feed her supper.  He was so frustrated because she just COULDN'T take her eyes off of this cat at the back door.  She was seriously breaking her neck to watch the kitty so finally he just turned her around and let her watch.  Green beans were definitely not at the top of her priority list!  I thought the whole thing was kinda funny until he reminded me what the cat could do to my pretty decorations out front!!! ugh!

Jackson got showered!

Last weekend, some of Jamie and Natalie's "family" threw them a big ole baby shower.  Our cousin, Carrie Cook, was in charge and she and the other ladies did a FANTASTIC job!  It was soooo stinkin cute there!!  We had a huge snack spread and then Aunt Nat opened tons of presents for Jackson.  Boy did he get some great stuff....and there's still two more showers to go in January!  

I brought a blanket and spread it out on the floor for Sydney to play on while I helped Natalie write down the gifts.  She did great...as long as our cousin Rachel kept bouncing her! :) 

Only about two and a half months to go before we get to meet him!  We can't wait!!!

Let's Talk Turkey!

Yes, I realize that was a week ago but it's been a busy week! :) And I sure don't want to deprive her "scrapbook blog" of her 1st Thanksgiving!

We had a total of 4 Thanksgiving "feasts" which meant 4 wonderful family gatherings.  We started the holiday off with the 2nd Annual Crafton/Thurmond (and several other) Wednesday night Thanksgiving dinner!  Man, Ann Mary, Kristen and Mom (sorry if I left anyone out) can sure cook up some good grub!  I seriously had 2 full plates and STILL ate dessert. Shew!  There was no lack of entertainment for Sydney because all of her favorites were there....Mary Thomas, Andrew, and Connor to name a few!  Grandma and Grandad even took her highchair over the night before so she could sit at the table with us like a big girl.  She even got a sampling of the REAL mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes to go along with her supper-in-a-jar. :)

Thanksgiving morning is one of my favorite mornings for two reasons....1)I love spending the day with our family & 2)It's 1 of 2 days in the entire year (except for Sundays) when Corey doesn't have to get up early to go to work.  We love waking up when Daddy is home with us! 

My family started a little Cracker Barrell breakfast tradition 4 or 5 years ago on Thanksgiving morning so we met them all there at 9.  We felt like after Mom had already fed hundreds of people in the last 5 days we should give her a well deserved break!  Off to Cracker Barrell we go...

That afternoon we went to Papoos for a late Thanksgiving lunch and once again Sydney was well entertained by her cousins and everyone else who joined in!  Thank goodness she opted for a 2 hour nap between Cracker Barrell and Papoo's.  It made for a wonderful afternoon of food, family, football (not so fun) and watching Sydney playing hard (I needed another "f" word there didn't I??)!  After Papoos we changed into our comfy clothes and went to Grandma and Grandad's for a lazy evening.  Grandad entertained Sydney while Aunt Nat, Grandma, Corey and I played Sequence. We always seem to drag that game out around the holidays and love playing it.  Oh yeah, we ordered pizza for supper too LIKE WE NEEDED THAT!!! 

Our last Thanksgiving "date" was Grandmamas on Saturday for the Burr family Thanksgiving.  We spent the evening enjoying visiting with all of the Aunts, Uncles and cousins and Sydney got some good play time in with her second cousins...Eliza, Macey, Zoe and Ty! 

What a fun filled week of Thanksgiving festivities!  We really do have SO MUCH to be thankful for!