Half Birthday

Today Sydney is two and a half. Shes done a lot of growing the past few years. In honor of her half birthday, she and I took some "growth" pictures and had a mini photo shoot in our living room because she adores pictures of herself :).

At 2 1/2, Sydney is about 34.5 inches tall and weighs 27-28 lbs. It goes back and forth. She has 16 teeth with 3 of her two year molars currently coming in. Her hair is actually about halfway down her back if you brush it out straight, but when fully dry the curls bounce up to just below her shoulders. She has thick, fine hair, so regular clips and barretts will no longer hold it back sufficiently. We've switched to headbands and ponytails. She knows her alphabet, the names of all the letters, and each of their individual sounds. She LOVES letters and numbers. She can count to ten and even some rudimentary addition when only 5 or less items are involved. I did not teach Sydney any of her verbal or math skills because I'm not really into the early reading/math/school stuff. Somehow she taught herself, and obviously I don't discourage it. She loves to sing and has recently gotten a lot better. She can usually sing a melody correctly instead of in a monotone voice now. She has an excellent memory and constantly reminds me of things I promised her hours ago or told her about days before. She keeps me on my toes! She is a very good eater and is willing to try almost everything and pretty much always eats what we are eating. Among her favorite foods are broccoli, raisins, spinach, green beans, regular beans, olives, watermelon, strawberries, all fruits, noodles of any sort, pizza, peas, and yellow cheese. If any of these items are visible, I usually can't get her to eat anything else. Her least favorite foods have to be bread and tortillas. Outside of crackers she doesn't really like starch. She still naps for about 3 hours most days and sleeps for 11 hours at night. She really enjoys her time either before or after she wakes up to play on her own in her room. It seems to help her be more cooperative throughout the day. I am so grateful for her love of her alone time and don't rush to get her either in the morning or after her nap because of it. When we out and about, she gets flustered if there are too many kids or too much chaos after about an hour and gets pretty whiny and wants to go home. She is a MAJOR cuddler and loves to be hugged, kissed, held, rubbed, anything touch. Her favorite thing to do every day after nap is have me lay in her bed with her, cuddle, and talk or read books. She loves to talk and will carry on very long conversations about random stuff with me every day after nap. She loves her daddy asks what he is doing and when he will be back when he is gone. She likes most Disney movies, watching the "Princesses" sing, Tinkerbell, but her all time favorite is still Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

At almost 30 weeks, I'm doing relatively well. Baby feels bigger than Sydney was, but its hard to remember. We have yet to seriously discuss names but probably will soon. I've recently switched care to the Juneau Family Birth Center and am excited about having a different kind of birth experience.