3 Months

I pretty much love everything about this picture. The bow. The chubby cheeks. The partial grin. The gigantic belly. The fact that she's mine. I just can't help but smile when I look at it.

Here are just a few reasons why I have loved month #3:

• Sydney is starting to sleep more at night (11 hours last night and only woke up once- please bless that happens again), and usually takes 3 one hour naps during the day.
• She's even more smiley than before. I love being greeted with a huge grin when I go in to get her after her naps.
  
• She is becoming sooo chatty, and it's fun to hear her play around with her voice.
• She laughs, but only at random times when we're not even trying to be funny (which kind of makes it more funny for us).
  
• We have fun dancing around the living room. I'll sing to her and sometimes she'll join in and start cooing. Our favorites are Journey, Frank Sinatra, and Dashboard Confessional.
• She's discovered her hands and LOVES to eat them. Spencer hates it because when she does this she gets drool all over her face and shirt, but I think it's cute (besides the drool part).
  
• She has grown out of most of her 0-3 month clothes, and it's fun to have new outfits to dress her up in.
• She is so attentive when I read stories to her, just looking around at all the pictures.

Her hair is getting so much lighter, and she's getting a bald spot in the back from turning her head from side to side while she plays. Several people (including both Grandma's) have told us they think her hair is kind of a reddish color. She prefers to be held facing outward so she can look around, and she continues to be a good eater.

We feel so blessed to have such a happy baby!

Growing So Fast!

Tummy time has become much more entertaining these days. I'm just amazed at how strong Sydney is getting! Sometimes she holds herself up like she's trying to do push-ups, and that always makes me laugh. When Spencer got home last night, I told him I wanted him to see her play on her tummy. I went to throw in some laundry, and when I came back upstairs Spencer told me she had rolled over onto her back. I didn't believe him, so he put her back on her tummy to show me. Sure enough a few minutes later she was in her push-up position, and her right arm gave out a little sooner than her left, and she rolled right onto her back! So it was kind of by default, but that still counts, right?

Such a sweetie pie.

This little jungle gym has been her favorite place to play for the past few days. Sydney's a mover and a shaker, and being on her back lets her arms and legs have plenty of room to flail around. She likes talking to these toys too.

This morning after she ate, I put her down to play in it again, and she was squealing and hitting her toys with her hands. I ate my breakfast, checked my email, etc., and when I looked up she had inched herself backwards until she could no longer reach her toys with her hands...

so she started kicking them with her feet instead! That's my girl!!

2 Months

Sydney had her 2 month check-up on January 7th, and it was slightly traumatic for both of us. She was so happy when they were weighing (10 lbs. 14.9 oz.) and measuring her (23 inches), but we had to wait forever to see the doctor, then wait forever for the nurse to come back afterward to give Sydney her first round of immunizations. She would basically almost be asleep in my arms, and then someone would knock on the door. Naturally, the worst part was seeing the recognition on her face when she was getting her shots, followed quickly by lots of wailing and tears. Thanks to my Mom for the heads up on giving her Tylenol beforehand- it worked wonders.

Sporting some cute Snoopy band-aids.

No fevers for this little one, but the one side-effect that I did notice: drowsiness.

She slept for a full 8 hours that night!

At 2 months, she:

• is starting to smile a lot more.
  
• loves cooing and squealing, especially when we read stories to her.
• is getting a stronger neck and can mostly hold up her head (albeit fairly unstable).
• will sometimes have a 5-6 hour stretch of sleep at night, with several 45 minute naps during the day.
• started having more of these:
  

Oh, how I despise the blown-out diaper. Especially the kind that requires a tub immediately! Can you tell this was one of those times?

Spencer was home for her first several blow-outs, so our general protocol was that he would clean her up and get her ready for a tub while I filled it up. It just seemed like a two man job to me. Then the day he started school again, she had a massive blow-out and I was left alone to deal with it. I came up with a pretty good system- basically carrying laying her on her changing pad and carrying them both (along with a towel) to the bathroom and laying them on the counter of the sink so I could get her in and out of the tub easily. It has worked for many a blow-out since!

New Year's Eve

We were excited to bring in the New Year by playing games with some friends, just like last year. Since we still had major jet lag from the 3 hour time difference from here and California, we were all pretty used to staying up past midnight.

Janil, Heather, Dalyce, Skye, & Me.

When we played team games, we usually did girls vs. guys. In these pictures we're enjoying a game of Pop 5, and the ladies pretty much kicked trash.

Janil had to get us to guess the name Martina Navratilova, and Spencer was so shocked that I got it that he made me take a picture with the card. She gave some good clues, but after we got "Martina" I heard the guys say they'd never heard of this person, so I figured the last name had to be pretty funky.

The guys, trying to make a come-back.

The two people I kissed at midnight. Sydney was awake for a fair amount of the evening, but I guess 1:03am was her limit.

Merry Christmas!

I think I had a little more "Christmas spirit" than usual this year, and our Christmas decor went up (amidst some classic Bing Crosby music) promptly after we got home from our Thanksgiving vacation.

At the last minute- meaning late November- we decided to celebrate with Spencer's family in California. We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend time with all of his siblings and parents at the same time. So we hopped on a plane after he took Boards, and headed across the country. Luckily, Sydney was a champion and slept the whole way there!

I criticized Spencer when he packed shorts and short-sleeved shirts, but it was like 60 degrees the whole time we were there. In fact, there were a few times when I regretted only having sweaters in my suitcase.

I love Christmas Eve in the barn! Spencer and I were Joseph and Mary again, and Sydney debuted as baby Jesus. Check out my incredibly authentic Ace Bandage headband. Spencer put it on me while I was holding the babe, and I think the final product was quite attractive. :)

Other highlights: playing the chimes, the bells, and singing the 12 Days of Christmas. Thankfully this year we got to be part of "5 golden rings" instead of "2 turtle doves."

We all got to open new pj's on Christmas Eve, and here we are wearing them on Christmas morning. We woke up at 6:30am to Sydney's cries (she was hungry), and the beating of hooves intermixed with the delightful squeals of small children as they rode their stick horses around the house.

This picture pretty much captures how Sydney spent her 1st Christmas.

I thought it was cute that she was about the same size as her stocking.

She did wake up for a little bit to open one of her presents.

Merry Christmas!

Sydney spread Christmas cheer in one of her new outfits. This particular picture was taken after Spencer made this funny noise that always seems to make her smile.

Later that day we went to see the movie Valkyrie. We thought it was pretty good, and even though we knew the outcome, I was still internally cheering on the good guys hoping they would succeed. When we walked out of the theater into the 60ish degree weather, I remember thinking "Oh yeah, I almost forgot it's Christmas Day!"

Ally's gift of Guitar Hero turned out to be one of our favorite distractions. This game is seriously addicting.

Even the kids tried to channel their inner rock star.

And, of course, we loved playing lots of games with the fam. When these boys get together, a few games of Acquire is pretty much a given.

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Here are a few shots of Spencer both wearing and opening gifts he got for his 26th birthday.

Lucky for me, Spencer wasn't nosy about his presents under the tree, so he didn't ever try to pick this up to guess what it was (which I probably would have done). He would have guessed pretty quickly, so I was glad the tennis racket remained a surprise.

Now he's ready to take on my brother-in-law Dan, who he frequently played when we would spend the night at their house before going to the temple.

Love you Spencer!

Happy Holidays