The Cutest Ever

Sometime last week, Sydney and I were playing and I started singing "Pat-a-cake." Sydney totally joined in by clapping, then even said "Woll it, pat it," right on cue, motions and all. I've been making her do it like 50 times a day now because I think it's so adorable. "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" is another one of our favorites.

We also usually bust out "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

And if that's not cute enough, she's also been requesting to wear these ladybug boots (which are a little too big and sort of heavy).

That makes walking a little awkward.

So she goes really slow and watches her feet, and it cracks me up.

Today

Today was busy, mostly because I'm coming off of two days of being more or less out of commission. A few hours after going to bed on Saturday night, my stomach started to hurt. I pretty much had lay in the fetal position to even be sort of comfortable, and I was restless for the next several hours. That all culminated into puking a few hours before church on Sunday morning. While Spencer and Sydney went to church, I slept. And when they came home, I slept. I then on Monday when Sydney slept, I slept. Needless to say, my house reflected my "absence." I woke up this morning finally feeling rested. My appetite was back, my back wasn't achy, and I didn't feel dizzy after standing up for long periods of time.

I cleaned the kitchen and did the dishes, then we went outside to play. When Sydney went down for a nap, I washed 2 loads of laundry, dusted, Swiffered the floors, and cleaned the bathroom. When she woke up, we played outside again. Then we came inside to make dinner, which we didn't eat until around 6 pm when Spencer finally got home. Unfortunately, he had to turn around and leave again at 6:30 pm, so Sydney and I played "kitchen" upstairs until it was time to get ready for bed. After she went down, I gathered up my baskets of dry laundry, threw in New Moon, and got to folding. Spencer got home around 8 pm (and made fun of me for watching New Moon again), then made a bunch of calls to arrange things for Scout Camp next week. So after the laundry was done, I headed outside to mow the lawn before it got too dark. Just before I got it started, Spencer came outside to relieve me. I opted to pull weeds while he mowed. When he got to the side of the house, he said Sydney was standing up in her crib and pulling on the blinds so she could watch him out the window. How cute is that? She was still awake when we came in, so he went in and rocked her while I put away the clothes.

There is just something fulfilling about getting so much done in one day. And there's nothing like getting sick to remind me how wonderful it is to be healthy!

This Girl

Sydney is 19 months old, and growing every day. In fact, our little 4 yr. old neighbor Macie keeps telling me, "You baby is growing up!"

I've been trying to think of all the things she can do now, and the list is certainly much longer than what I would expect anyone would actually want to read. But here it goes:

• talk- She continues to be a great repeater, but she uses a lot of words on her own. She has even been putting short phrases together to make requests like, "I want hold you," or "I want eat," and "I want kitchen."

• play- Her favorite thing to do play with her kitchen, and she thinks I'm funny when I pretend to eat food that's not there. But she joins in and feeds her baby or grabs a few "be beans" (green beans) for herself. Like most kids, Sydney loves to be outside too! I think we go knock on Addie's door every time we walk by her house. Sometimes we take Sydney's dog Stella for a walk around the block, and she'll usually have her baby in one hand and Stella's leash in the other. She loves going down the slide, but has become a little more timid after falling off the steps several times. She really likes to dance and spin, and she loves reading books. Her favorite book right now is a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and she loves it when we sing the songs that go with the poems.

• manners- She's pretty good at either saying or signing please, but sometimes needs to be reminded how to ask nicely. We also love that when we give something to her, she'll sometimes say "You're welcome." She has also started being much naughtier, including pinching, hitting, and biting (only once). I put her on a little seat in the corner for time-out, but I still don't know if she understands all of that yet. I've also noticed that she is BY FAR the whiniest when she's with me. During Spencer's break when I'd go to work, he said she would be totally happy all day, and then just cry and cry once I got home. No me gusta.

• help- She loves to sweep the floor with the swiffer duster, help me throw clothes into the washer or dryer, take things out of the dishwasher, help me water my plants, and pour ingredients into whatever I'm cooking.

• food- She continues to be a pig! I swear Sydney could eat a 4 course dinner and then still ask for a "nack" (snack) like 10 minutes later. Her most common food requests are berries (loves blueberries and strawberries), pretzels, and "bishies" (Goldfish). She rarely drinks milk, and since we've never introduced juice or anything else, she just gulps down plenty of water every day.

• potty- She has used the potty once so far- a fluke last Tuesday. I bought a potty chair that fits over the regular toilet seat, and she loves to sit on it. I put her on it that night while I was filling up the tub, and she totally started peeing! It was just good timing on my part, but now she is always telling me when she goes "pee-pee" in her diaper. I'm hoping to potty train her this summer!

Love this girl.

Happy Memorial Day!

We had a great Memorial Day! This morning we went to swim with cousins at Ginger's. It was kind of cloudy, but still warm outside. After about an hour of swimming, the skies turned dark gray and the wind started blowing like crazy! We all took cover in the house and enjoyed chatting and eating some tarts :)

This evening we finally took advantage of our deck and hosted a barbecue. I hit up the Dollar Spot at Target for some festive decor, and we had fun putting everything together. We certainly enjoyed good food with good company!

Note to self: don't be a cheap skate the next time you buy plates, especially if you don't have a table for everyone to sit at and you're serving heavy stuff like corn on the cob.

This was my first ever attempt at making cheesecake. It was fun to decorate, and it turned out pretty good (minus that huge crack on the bottom).

I think the highlights of the night were:

• Jack peeing his pants and having to wear some of Macie's princess panties and short shorts.
• A game of couple's boccie- the Heaton's ended up winning. I think it was because Justin kept making farting sounds while everyone else took their turn... threw off our game. Haha!
  

Things kind of ended in a hurry when those dark clouds came rolling in again, this time with thunder. Luckily, we got everything cleaned up before the rain started falling. It was a good way to end Spencer's 3 week break.

A Day at the "Beach"

The weather this week has been beautiful and hot, hot, hot! I have been practically melting at school in my windowless cracker-box-of-a-room. Spencer has a low threshold for heat and has been running the AC nonstop (except when I make him turn it off!). This morning we enjoyed cooling off at a beach on Lake Erie with the Barnum's.

Sydney is a water baby! She wanted to be in the "waters" (sometimes "tubby") almost the whole time.

The water was pretty cold at first, but that didn't stop us from plopping down in it and playing with our new sand bucket and water toys. We also had fun walking around in it and doing "motorboat" over and over.

The gang: Macie, Geoff, Addie, Becky, Sydney, Spencer

I put SPF 70 sunscreen on Sydney two times while we were there, and she still got sunburned! I got a little bit burned too, but I'm always grateful for at least some color to replace my bright white skin (even if it's red).

The Perfect Thursday Afternoon

We've had a good time having Spencer home for the past few weeks, but it kind of stinks that I have to work for most of his time off. Thank goodness that I'm only part-time so we can take advantage of having him home! This afternoon was the best- we have some friends with season tickets to the Indians games, and since they couldn't make it to this afternoon's game, they offered them to us! Score!!

Sydney telling Daddy she wanted to "bock" (walk) while I tried to take a picture. It was the best one I caught of the two of them with the whole ball park in the background :)

Our seats were sweet! We were about 10 rows back from the dugout, and felt totally spoiled.

The highlight of the game for Sydney was seeing Slider, who she started calling "Spider" and then transitioned to calling him "Elmo." She must have a mind like a steel trap because we have only seen Elmo on TV like 2 times (although one of those times was this morning, but it was only for a few minutes).

Spencer giving Slider a high-five. He said that Sydney said "Whoa" when Slider walked by. She watched him walk around near our section for a while and kept asking me, "Where'd he go?" (or in Sydney talk, "Whey go?").

She sat on our laps for most of the game and ate the lunch I stashed for her in my diaper bag.

We had such a great time (even though the Indians got killed) and couldn't have asked for better weather. Thank you thank you thank you to our friends!!

Later that afternoon, Sydney and I took a little walk down the street. She always like to go to her friend's house to climb the stairs and knock on the door.

It was such a perfect day! Now work tomorrow... but only 7 more work days for me. Hooray!!

Farm Park

This afternoon we went to the Farm Park and had a great time! It was so fun to take Sydney to see farm animals in real life instead of just in books. We went late enough in the day that there were hardly any other people there. We started out seeing cows, including a 10 day old calf that was soooo cute. Then we headed over to the barn to see some sheep, pigs, and goats.

Sydney is such a good talker and was so good at repeating the names of all of the animals, especially "goat." These cute little baby goats were wandering around outside of their cages, and they were the perfect size for petting.

She had no fear getting right in there and petting them, and they had no fear of her not-so-gentle touch. It was the perfect combination, and so cute to see!

When we went over to see the outdoor pigs, sheep, and alpacas, it was dinner time for the animals. It got LOUD when the truck pulled in and the animals were all making noise to let the workers know they were hungry!

I think Sydney was a little intimidated by the animals that practically climbed onto the gate when they were waiting for their food, so she pretty much stayed in my arms the entire time. Sometimes she'll say "Hold you," when she wants to be held, which always makes me smile.

We got to do lots of walking around outside, and found this little play area.

Then we played on this swinging bench for a few minutes before heading out. Despite Sydney's negative reaction to swings earlier this spring, she seems to be coming around.

We had to admire the "wa wa" that we passed on the way back to the car. Sydney was mesmerized by the water fountains in the ponds throughout the park.

Afterward, we drove through a nearby neighborhood that had tons of beautiful homes. We couldn't help but dream about our future dream home, and I had to snap a picture of this one. Love love love it.