Feb 2011

A few notes from the past couple of days...

Sydney went potty and poo on her potty seat for the first time this week. I can't her to do it again although she tries two or three times a day whenver she feels like it. I'm not pushing it but I'm excited that the end of diapers is getting nearer.

Her hair is long enough to get a good ponytail and its really really cute. However, she is very picky about how I do her hair and most days insists she just have a clip to hold her hair back.

Her favorite princess is "Cinderelly" and she has taken a liking to her blue Cinderella dress and crown again.

Andy and I are still in full job search mode. We are applying everywhere from one end of the country to the other... so hopefully we'll find something good! If you know any pilots or companies who are hiring, one of us would love to talk to them ;)

I'm attaching Shutterfly album b/c I take too many pictures but I'll post two just for next year's "Blog Book."

Click here to view these pictures larger

First Blood

Here's to another milestone. We had our first real fall on Saturday night. We decided late in the evening to go get a treat at McDonalds so Sydney could run around in the playground. She loves McDonalds. As anyone with kids knows, they ask that the children don't wear shoes in the play area, so we removed them. Sydney had a blast running from the toddler area to the bigger playground and was laughing and screaming as she ran along... well turns out they don't have non slip mats between the two areas--but TILE instead. You know what comes next. As soon as she hit the tile, her feet slipped out from under her and face hit the floor. The impact was ridiculously loud and then the blood and screaming even more frightening. It turns out that at least three teeth went into her bottom lip and a few either came out the other side or she bit down on the lip with her top teeth too. There was so much blood that she was choking on it, and it was all over both her and me. Andy rushed to get us napkins and ice. As soon as we got the ice, the bleeding stopped and we examined the wound more closely to determine she didn't need stitches. She just was really cut up. Her lip on that side was like 3 times the size of the other side, but an ice cream cone later she was happy as can be. I've been giving her Ibuprofen to keep the lips swelling down but two days later she doesn't even need that anymore and its healing really well. We got really lucky that she didn't lose a tooth or need stitches, so I'm grateful it went as well as it did even though it was really rough at the time.

Are you happy?

Sydney loves to ask me questions. All day long she asks me about what I am doing and how I am feeling. Her favorite question is, "Mama... are you happy?" She does other ones like "Are you tired, sleepy, hungry, frustrated, freaking out (see Andy's post), hurt, sad, all clean...? But she definetely likes "Mama... are you happy?" the best. Today she and I were playing on the couch and she was brushing my hair and taking turns putting her crown in her hair then mine. After she successfully put the crown in her hair right for the first time, she looked at me with her pride and a big smile and said, "Mama... are you happy?" I had to try and catch the moment on my camera before she pulled the crown out again. The picture is fuzzy, but I don't care because I got the crown and her real genuine proud of herself smile. 

Then here are some better pics of her on another smiley day. She loves to see herself smiling in pictures :)

Sydney Would Rock the SAT

When we were driving in the car today, we were talking with Sydney. She was mostly just repeating everything that I said, so I just started reading every word that I saw (business names, billboards, etc.). Then we stopped at Albertsons and Amy went in to get some coupons or something, and I stayed in the car talking with Sydney. I said "Mama loves ..." and she said "Sydney", then I said "Donna loves ..." just to see what happened and she said "Kaylee!" I was amazed that she realized the pattern so quickly, but I thought it must have been a fluke. About this time Amy came back into the car and we started over "Mama loves ..." she said "Sydney". "Donna loves ..." Kaylee. Lindsey loves ... Beckham. Emmy loves ... Wyatt. Anna loves ... Ollie. Julie loves ... Lincoln. We were amazed. The game broke down a little when we got to the grandparents. "Grandma Shinsel loves ..." she said "Sydney". "Grandma Pack loves ..." she said Brooke. So we decided to try a different game. I said "Sydney loves Mama", then tested Sydney by saying "Kaylee loves ..." she said "Donna" She went on back through the list. Loren loves Kimmy, Mya loves Amy, Brooke loves Emmy, Lincoln loves David, Baby Will loves dude (What she calls Kevin). We were impressed. She is going to kill the SAT.

Bling Bling and Happy Valentine's Day

I know its not quite Valentine's day, but I wont be posting tomorrow and in all the following pics, Sydney has on her V-day attire. So, Happy Valentine's Day!

One with the post... I haven't talked about Andy and I for a while so here is brief update on what we've been up to.
Andy is flying a whole bunch trying to accrue as many hours as possible while we are applying for jobs. We need more night hours so most of his flying takes place after I go to bed at night. Its a good thing he is a night owl. I don't have anything too exciting going on. I am working on making a bound book of Andy's mission pictures, letters, certificates, etc. It should be done later this week. I am also working on getting rid of Sydney's binky. I cut a huge hole in the tip of it and she doesn't care at all, so now I'm torn about what to do next. I'm undecided on how I'm going to explain it needing to go away. I'm also trying to get motivated enough to finish the t-shirt quilt I started a while back. That will be my next project after the book is done :).

Sydney is crazy as ever. She loves her bling. Purses, necklaces, bracelets, stickers, clips, anything she can find and wear, she wants to. She gets upset when I remove them for naps and bedtime and insists on wearing all the things she owns at the same time. She is also quite a model now as you can see from this impromptu photo shoot with Daddy after lunch today. My favorite is when she wants something and cocks her head to one side and smiles when she is trying to get attention or is really happy about something.

Ice Cream Party

We decided to go to Baskin Robbins tonight to get some ice cream with Sydney. She was pretty excited to get some ice cream, and we learned not to get an ice cream cone for her unless it is homemade. Ice cream parlors just stack it so high that it is too messy (we also forgot a bib), so Sydney got to trade her ice cream cone for mama's bowl. Amy decided that she was cold and started shiverring pretty violently, to the point that she was shaking the table. Sydney looked at her and said "Mama's freaking out!". Amy could not stop laughing. Sydney then tried to comfort her by putting her hand on mama's and patting it. Such a nice girl. She also randomly said "old macdonald outside". We then realized that Baskin Robbins is right next to McDonald's. She is a smart girl.