First Christmas

The bright side of Brian's mom, dad, grandma and extended family living down South is that we get to spend a lot of time with each of our families during the holidays instead of having to go from place to place trying to see everyone on the same day.

We came home from San Antonio middle of the afternoon on Christmas Eve and we were so tired. Sydney decided to regress to waking up between 3 and 4 in the morning over the weekend and she's still doing it. Hopefully since we're home and she's going to daycare some this week she'll get back on her schedule.

Anyway, we woke up Christmas morning at our house and opened presents. We really didn't get that much for Sydney and Santa brought her a few things. I figure she's 3 1/2 months old, has a lot of new things already and there's not really many toys she can play with yet we'll just wait until her 1st birthday and next Christmas to do a lot more.

We went to my parents house for lunch and to exchange gifts then went to my grandma's middle of the afternoon. I've spent the better part of the day today trying to organize our house and put away, display, wash, etc our new gifts. Everyone was so generous, especially for Sydney. I think I'm going to have to ask Santa for a new house next year with bigger closets to hold all her clothes! Like mother like daughter! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas in San Antonio

We spent the weekend in San Antonio to have Christmas with Brian's family. We trade off Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families and fortunately can always make it down to San Antonio before or after Christmas since I always get several days off work for the holidays. We had a lot of fun even though it was a short trip. We celebrated Christmas on Saturday at La Fonda, of course! Brian dressed up as Santa so we could get a picture of Sydney with Santa Claus. I didn't take her anywhere to have it done since it's always so busy and if we'd have to wait a long time she'd either be asleep, mad, sad, etc. I'll have to plan early next year so we can avoid the long lines for Santa. I'm also planning for our San Antonio trip next year and told Brian that we'll have to start going down to the Riverwalk during Christmas since it's decorated so pretty and I know Sydney will like it a lot.

Christmas Party

Today was Sydney's Christmas Party at school. We drew names for a 'secret santa' so all the babies could exchange gifts. The party was during lunch so Brian and I were able to go and most of the other kids' parents came too. She likes her reindeer bib that she wore because the antlers come up close to her face, so they're easy to suck on. The last picture here is her with her teacher, Ms Max.

We're leaving tomorrow for San Antonio to have Christmas with Brian's family then we'll be back on Christmas Eve. I hope this roadtrip goes as smoothly as the Thanksgiving one did.

Getting Ready for Christmas

We've been very busy the past several days getting ready for Christmas. Sydney was sick again last week with a mild fever and the Dr was pretty sure she had RSV, although it was very mild. So far this week she's been doing good, I'm hoping we can make it through this week (her 4th in daycare) without missing a day. We put up our tree a couple of weeks ago, but haven't really put up much more as far as decorations. I usually love to have everything up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but it's been so hectic with going back to work and having Sydney and everything I just haven't had the energy to do it all this year.

Sydney loves the tree, she likes to stare at the lights. Cara, Jordan and Jared came over last weekend and we went to look at lights. There's a house close to us that puts up I think over 100,000 lights, the whole house, yard, trees, bushes, etc are all covered in lights it's like on Christmas Vacation to the nth degree. It was really cool to see and the house across the street from this house had a live band in the yard signing Christmas songs. Sydney was so wide-eyed she didn't know where to look!

Little Giggle Box

Sydney laughed for the first time tonight. I was changing her into her pajamas and she was smiling and in such a good mood and she just started giggling. Brian heard her from the other room he got the camera and she did it again, which I'm surprised she didn't stop as she usually does when we get the camera out.

Graduation Day

It's been a crazy week for us it was my first week back at work and Sydney's been sick all week with a stuffy nose and cough. I told Brian I would be better about leaving at a decent hour but by Wed I was back to getting home at 6:30 and Thurs it was 6:45...oops.

Thurs morning I could tell she felt bad but she didn't have fever and slept well (9 hrs) the night before I really didn't want to take her to daycare but I had an all day client meeting I had to go to and Brian had a dr appt that a.m., what are the odds we both had things to do that we couldn't get out of? I felt really guilty for taking her to daycare and that I couldn't stay home with her but Brian picked her up after his dr appt so she was only there about three hours. Anyway later that afternoon she had fever and I also had caught her cold by this point and this was the night of Brian's Christmas party at work. I told Brian that I wouldn't go to the party and would stay home with her. I got home from work about 6:45 and I looked at Sydney and she just looked so sad when she caught my eye she gave just a little tiny smile as if to say, "I'm happy to see you mommy but I just feel too bad to smile." She was so sad and whined and cried most of the night, I did the hot shower trick and gave her Tylenol, by the time I put her down to sleep around 11 her fever was gone. She was in a much better mood Fri morning and didn't have fever, but the dr still wanted to see her. She just had a cold nothing major and she's doing a lot better now.

Anyway for the big news this weekend Cory graduated on Sat from UTD with a B.A. in Chemistry. Jason keeps calling him "B" since he got a B in biochemistry...I probably could never even get accepted to a biochem class much less get a B in it! She was 'dancing' with Cory in this picture and having so much fun! Congrats again Cory!

3 Months Old

Sydney is three months old today. I don't know where the time has gone, and I'm sure I'll say that every month form here on out so I apologize in advance for being redundant. I started back to work this week and it hasn't been too bad, I think starting daycare last week helped the transition for all of us. She's doing really well with daycare of course she's so young she doesn't know any better. She has been coughing and has had a stuffy nose for the past several days and of course Brian's paranoid and has been researching and it's making him more paranoid. He talked to the nurse today and she gave him a few tips like use the humidifier, give her drops in her nose, have her sleep sitting up...we'll see how these help. Otherwise she's been fine, she's in a good mood and smiling and playing a lot, sleeping well (9 hours the past two nights) and eating well so I'm not too terribly concerned.

We put her in her exersaucer for the first time the other night, which we had given the exersaucer to the Lieck's and they so graciously gave it back to us, we have to stuff a blanket around her since she's really too small for it and her feet don't touch but she sure had fun in it...watch the video.

It's Been A Big Week

Sydney started daycare this week since I go back to work this coming Mon. It's been good to start early so we have a week to try to get on a new schedule. She had a little fever on Tues night so she didn't go on Wed I think she's already faking sick so she doesn't have to go to daycare and she can stay at home with mom all the time! So far she seems to be doing really well, but how hard can it be to just eat and nap whenever you want!

This picture is from her tonight watching the Cowboys game I swear she smiled when the Packers got a pass interference call against them in the middle of the 4th quarter.

Thanksgiving Road Trip!

We went on our first roadtrip with Sydney to San Antonio to visit Brian's family for Thanksgiving. She did great although I think the tiredness caught up with her this past weekend. We left the Sat before Thanksgiving and came home the Fri after. It was really nice to be able to spend the whole week down there since we're usually only able to do a 3 day visit. She met her Grandpa Dalton (Brian's dad), two more uncles, some second cousins, and great uncles and a great, great aunt and uncle. The pics attached are with Grandpa Dalton, her great, great aunt Midge (her house is at camp which you can see the hill in the background, with Brian in front of the #11 enchilada dinner at La Fonda (Brian wasn't too happy because the food arrived just after he started feeding her...I didn't feel too badly for him I just said welcome to my daily life :)). The pic of her and Bim was when the Cowboys game was on, of course! The picture of Sydney sleeping is from Friday afternoon she was exhausted and she needed to rest up so she could meet more family that night! My uncle Tony and aunt Marlene from St Louis came in for Thanksgiving so we had everyone over Fri night for Tamales. I don't know what I was thinking having Mexican food because we ate it everyday in San Antonio except for Thanksgiving day. This has become a really long post now, but that's what happens when I go so long between posts and have so many pictures! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Playing Bears

Sydney's becoming so much more alert and active everyday. She's recently discovered her bear mobile on her pack 'n play and smiles and has so much fun watching them. We took a video of her playing with them.

2 Month Check-Up

We just got back from Sydney's 2-mo check-up. She weighs 10 lbs 9.5 ozs (50th percentile), 23" tall (70th percentile) and her head is 39 cm (55th percentile). Compared to her 2-wk check-up where she was 6 lbs 11 ozs (13th percentile) 20" tall (40th percentile) and her head was 35 cm (25th percentile) she has grown a lot over the past several weeks!

She also had 5 immunizations one was oral which she sucked it right down and the others were shots, 2 in each leg. The nurse was great she did those shots in what seemed like 10 seconds. Sydney of course screamed and cried but was much better when she got to eat after. She's sleeping soundly now, I haven't taken her out of her car seat because I don't want to disturb her sleep just yet. I took a pic of her in her car seat and the others are from the past couple of days.

2 Months Old

I can't believe Sydney is already two months old today, time sure has flown by. We visited her daycare today and met her teacher, she'll be starting in three weeks so we'll have a week to get used to her new routine before I go back to work. Here are a couple of new pictures of her, in the one with Brian she wouldn't look at the camera she was more interested in the Cowboy game. She must get that from both of her great-grandmothers! I went to Canton yesterday with Michelle and Tracy and I bought several bows for her. If she doesn't have a big bow in her head people assume she's a boy!

Happy Halloween

Sydney's first Halloween was pretty busy. I took her up to my office this afternoon for our party and when we got home the Lieck's came down to visit. They were so cute Grace was a zebra, Sophie a monkey and Mack a Lion.

Grandma & Grandpa (my parents) and uncle Jason (my brother) came over to see Sydney, she was dressed as a pumpkin (thanks to Jen R for the costume loan) for about five minutes but was the cutest pumpkin I've ever seen!

I Finally Got It!

Sydney's been smiling for about two weeks now a little more each day, but it's been so hard to get a picture. She's either stopped by the time I get the camera or when I shoot she quits and I miss it as evident by the pic of her sticking her tongue out. I finally got it tonight although it's a little hard to tell that she's smiling because her mouth's open so wide!

Another Pumpkin Patch

Today we went with Cara, Jordan & Jared to the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound. If you've never been you have to take your kids it's huge and they have a lot of activities for the kids. Sydney went on her first hayride, although true to form for her she slept pretty much the entire time we were there.

She wore her Baby's First Halloween bib (thanks Cindy) and her Halloween onesie (thanks Jackie) she looked so cute!

BTW, if you want to see the pictures in a larger size just double click on them.