A Smorgasbord

I took Sydney to her 12 month check-up 2 weeks ago, and it was not fun. She got 3 shots and blood drawn to test for lead poison. There was a lot of crying and screaming, but she recovered from the trauma pretty quickly (I think it took me a little longer...). Despite all that, I'm happy to have a healthy baby that is growing well.


Her stats are:
Weight: 18 lbs. 11.2 oz (11th percentile)
Heights: 30.5 inches (86th percentile)
Head: 44 cm (45th percentile)

She has been walking around like a maniac, usually holding something in her hands to help her balance herself. Most of the time it's a bucket or toys, but the other day she came out of the kitchen holding a thing of applesauce in each hand :) She continues to LOVE eating. We sometimes call her "zigg-y pigg-y" (like in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) because she'll just pretty much eat as long as we're still giving her food- she especially loves bananas and string cheese. She claps when she likes something, and has become really good at imitating us. She says "mommy," "daddy," "baby," and "boo."

Don't let this sweet face fool you, though. Sydney gets pretty mad when we take something away from her or pick her up when she wants to walk around. She'll scream and arch her back to show her disapproval.

Thankfully, most of the time she is good-natured and is content to play with toys, dance to music, or be chased around the house. She especially loves it when we hold her and spin around, and always laughs when we bonk our heads against something and say "ouchie."

What a Weekend

A few hours after I got home from work on Friday night, I got to go to Lorelei's house for our annual Laurel Academy (recently changed to Laurel Experience) with all of the Laurel's in our stake that are seniors in high school. I was so excited to go this year since I missed out last year due to having a baby 3 days before. As a Stake YW Presidency, we got to teach them, do projects with them, and generally get to know them better over the course of the weekend.

The girls making bookmarks after my "Joy in Education" class.

On Sunday morning, we joined the Priests that are high school seniors for a Sacrament/Testimony meeting in the Kirtland Temple. Elder Tobler (who sealed Spencer and I in the Columbus Temple) spoke before the testimony portion of the meeting. It was a pretty cool experience.

On the steps outside the Kirtland Temple.

Afterward we went to Pres. Dahneke's house for lunch, and Spencer and Sydney got to come with me. I gave each girl a hug goodbye before we left. My particularly favorite goodbye conversation was with Hannah. She said something along the lines of, "Your baby is so darling, and you scored yourself one CUTE husband!" Haha. I know :)

Hey, speaking of my darling baby, she is quite the mover these days.

She loves this rocket ship toy from Grandma B., but gets a little frustrated when it gets stuck. Unfortunately, that happens quite a bit since our house is so small and she can't really steer. I saw her go from sitting to standing to walking for the first time on Sunday. Spencer told me she was doing it all day on Saturday! He said they bonded quite a bit this weekend while I was gone, and that every 10 minutes or so she would crawl/walk up to him and lay her head on his shoulder. Such a sweetie pie.

Now I am grateful to have a few days off to catch up on housework. Yikes!!

One Year Old

It is beyond weird to write that title. Even though I've been looking forward to Sydney's 1st birthday, it still somehow snuck up on me. It was a busy day for me; I had progress reports to write for my students, Stake YW stuff to attend to in preparation for Laurel Academy this weekend, and a cake to bake and decorate.

I had big plans for the cake, but I didn't have time to decorate it during the day, and Spencer didn't get home until almost 6pm. We invited friends to come over at 6:45pm, so I had about 15 minutes after dinner to throw something quick together.

My big girl. Such a sweet little face.

She was a little confused by our singing to her, but she gave us a few smiles :) Spencer tried like 4 times to blow out her 1 candle, and he couldn't ever do it. Geoff had to step up to take care of it.

This video of Sydney destroying her cake is pretty awesome. As you can tell, Spencer was the cameraman, hence the jiggling of the camera while he laughed at Sydney.

Digging in with two hands. After inspecting that gigantic piece of cake for like 20 seconds, she just picked it up and took a bite.

And she just kept eating...

and eating...

and eating.

Although she ate almost the entire piece of cake, she stayed pretty clean. Most of it was on her hands and face, and then a little bit on her bib, but her clothes and hair were cake-free!

We waited until after the Barnum's left to open presents (so they didn't have to watch us open her presents for her).

Again, I didn't have time to wrap her bigger presents, so I just threw blankets over them. Am I the laziest Mom ever?

Sydney liked pulling the tissue paper out of the bag,

and pulling out the presents inside.

New toys!! Thanks to Grandmas and Grandpas for the gifts!

Spencer brushed Sydney's teeth before she went to bed since she ate all of that cake. She actually let him do it- she usually insists on holding her toothbrush herself whenever I try, then screams like a maniac when I take it away.

Happy happy birthday to our sweet little girl!! You brought so much excitement and fun to our family during your first year of life, and we look forward to more adventures with you!

Demolition

Today when I got home from work, I saw a bulldozer in the driveway of the house across the streets. It's been empty ever since we've been here, and even for a few years before that. We heard rumors over the summer that it was going to be torn down soon (I guess it had serious water damage), but I figured everyone was just full of hot air after it never happened. Turns out today was the day!

This was our first house demolition experience. Spencer pulled out a camping chair from the garage so he and Sydney could watch in comfort from our driveway. We were soon joined by other neighbors- it was quite a spectacle!



I love Spencer and Sydney's clapping in this video, like these guys were putting on a show for us.

That bulldozer was mighty powerful. I think the house was totally torn down in like 15 minutes!

Now the big question is, what are they going to do with that lot? And when will the pile of garbage they just made get cleaned up (uh, hopefully before some kid falls into it)?

**Update** When I got home from work today, everything was cleaned up! Now it's just a gaping hole where the basement used to be. I'm so sure it took the city like 3 months to finally mow the lawn on that lot, but then only one day to clean up the gigantic pile of torn up house. Have to admit- I'm impressed!!