Door Stopper

The other night I gave the girls their baths and after I got Sophie all cleaned up and dried, dressed and done, I set her down on the floor in the girl's room while I finished with Sydney. I started hearing the most adorable giggling! Oh my goodness it was sooo cute! I looked around the corner of the bathroom right into the girl's room and saw Sophie playing with the door stopper, pulling it to where it would twing and rattle and stop, then she would pull it again. It was the most amusing thing to her and she discovered it all on her own, which made finding her giggling like that all the more funny. I grabbed my camera and took a video of it.

Sydney had a friend over the other day while her parents were working on their new house they just bought. So I offered to watch her so they could get more done. We only have one car and since Gabe was at work and I couldn't go over to help them and bring the girls with me, I just offered for them to drop Macy off and have her play at our house so they could get more done. Its a beautiful little house and I am totally envious of the the stage they are in, being able to buy a home. Every couples dream I think. But of course the wait time and restraint and learning and saving stage is I think important and I am glad to still be in that stage. There is soo much I still need to learn and develop when it comes to budgets and saving and all that and I am learning a lot. Buut, how fun it will be to paint the walls the colors I want, decide if I want hardwood or carpet, decorate how I want, do the landscaping I want without asking approval or having to answer to someone else. Not a huge fan of HOA's but I may decide differently when we buy a house. Who knows? Like I said, I still have a lot to learn on the house buying front.

Thats why we have pinterest right? To dream and pin what we one day would like to have.

Sydney started potty training yesterday. Lets say we have had two successful number 1's and the floor or underwear she is wearing, or both, have won the rest. But she has been asking to sit on the potty a lot, and knows how to get up and down on it by herself with her little stepping stool she has, and she at least will sit on it. I think the score is Wins: 2 Loses: 9 so far in the last 24 hours. She had a diaper on at night and during her naptime. I don't know if that is what I am supposed to do but I don't want to deal with having to clean up a mattress since we might have to give that one to Celia when she comes home in August. Not sure yet. So I'm taking all possible routes to keep it clean. I think we need a plastic cover no matter what though. But we will be buying either a new mattress for us or for Sydney come the end of the month.

We have been incredibly blessed with work this Summer. As many of you know, Summer work is not in Gabe's contract, although his company would find it for him, but we would be traveling all summer if he did take it. He works a full years salary during the school year. So Gabe finds his own work at Nursing Facilities or Homes and we have been blessed with hours, sometimes more than what we "want" but the Lord knows that we need it and we are willing to do them. I have also worked a week and a half at Dr Blatter's office already, filling in when I am needed and luckily those hours have come when Gabe's schedule isn't as busy as it can be. This past week Gabe has been working 10 hour days. I have a week coming up where I'll be filling in again for my friend at Dr Blatter's. Its been nice to have a little bit extra $$ so we can take a couple days off at the end of Summer before school starts again to go to Tahoe with Kiel and Melissa for a  couple days with the kids.

Sydney and Bruce Two Years Later

So here is Bruce and Sydney. Bruce I believe was about 2 months, and Sydney was 4 1/2 months. almost 2 years ago!

 Here they are again, same chair, same place, two years later! They are growing up waaaaay way too fast!

"Sydney is CUUTE!"

Sydney keeps going around saying, "Mommy is cute. Sophie is cute. Daddy is..." then she looks at me and I tell her, "Handsome." then she tries so say it. Sydney has really been doing some really cute things. Yesterday she articulated while pointing out a fly, "Its a flying bug!" and then proceeded to grab the burp cloth nearest to her, climb up on the couch and whack the blinds with it. I did that yesterday when there was a fly in the window sill and I was trying to kill it.  Then last night when we put the girls down and Sophie started whining, we heard over the baby monitor Sydney saying to Sophie, "What's wrong Sophie? What's wrong?" and "Its okay Sophie. Its okay." We tried to get it recorded but Sophie calmed down and Sydney stopped talking quickly. I found that to be soo incredibly cute. We seriously have the cutest little girls, ever!

A Little Sun

Its been warm enough to fill up our little kiddie pool and have some fun in the sun this past week! Sydney loves it! I usually just put my feet in and soak up a little sun myself while she plays.

Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Kiel and Melissa came over for dinner last week while Kiel was here and the kids had a lot of fun! I think Bruce taught Sydney how to jump on the bed! I better watch out now in case any little monkeys fall off and bump their heads! Bruce and Sydney also went in the pool! Sydney has a little kiddie pool and she just loves it with all this hot weather we have been having the last week. She is soo cute in her little swimsuit! She got to play with Bruce over at the Brentwood park near Melissa's house last week and she loved playing in the water. Although, she took a nose dive to the concrete after being there for only two minutes and split her lip, but 5 minutes later she was back to running around in the water!

2 Years Stats and 2.5 month Stats

Sydney Babe! 2 Years Old
Height: 35 inches
Weight: 31 lbs 2 oz

Sophie Baby! 2.5 Months Old
Height: 25 inches
Weight: 13 lbs
Head Cir: 15 3/4 inches

Funny story, well at least to me...

Got up and took Gabe to work so I could have the car in the morning for the girls' Dr appointment.

Well I took both girls to the pediatrician by myself. Remember the story of when I took Sydney with me to my 37 week checkup when I was still pregnant with Sophie? Yeah, it was one of those days.

We got to our appointment right on time. A miracle. I has gotten up at about 6:30 that day which helped. The appointment was at 9:30am. We got all checked in and got back to the room by 9:40am. The medical assistant came in right away and said that we should check Sydney's weight and height first. I thought this was odd because Sophie was nice and calm and wouldn't mind being weighed, measured or anything becasue, come on, she is a 2 month old. She doesn't really know whats going on. But Sydney, oh no, she started screaming once the medical assistant was in the room. So I thought it would be good for her to see her sister do all the fung things first so she would know thats its ok. Butm this medical assistant said it would be best for Sydney to go first. I could tell she was new the office because I hadn't seen her before and she needed help with using the baby scale to weigh Sophie. ( I guess I need to stop criticing every office's assistants. I always seem to do that, coming from working in many offices myself.) Anyway, Sydney would not let go of me and since she was screaming while I was undressing her, she woke up Sophie and she started crying. So now I had two medical assistants and one dr in the room trying to get Sydney done so that she would not upset other patients, I imagine. I was kind of laughing actually this whole time. I found it quite humorous watching how frantic the staff was. haha.

After they got Sydney weighed and measured and gave her a cookie, they left for almost 30 minutes. Hello!!! Anyone out there?? It was about 10:15am by the time they came back in and I needed to pick up Gabe at 11:15. I was planning on taking the girls home so I could feed Sophie a bottle before getting Gabe.

So Sydney starts screaming again once the dr came in and I had already gotten Sophie undressed waiting for her measurements to be taken. They finally weighed her, while Sydney was clinging to my legs, and then they start the physical examination of both girls, of coure, Sydney had to go first. Seriously, am I the only one that thinks it would be better for Sydney to watch her little sister be examined first for her to learn that its ok for her to be examined??

So after Sydney screamed the whole time I was holding her still while the Dr finished up with her, I put her down on the floor and she calmed down and ate her cookies. The dr checked Sophie real quick, and then we started talking about their routines and eating habits and then vaccines. She said that both girls look great but that Sophie is a little shorter than average, which sounded really odd to me, since she is already wearing 6-9 month clothes BECAUSE she is soo long. So I decided on what vaccines I wanted them to get and the dr left to get the medical assistants who would administer them. They took another 25 minutes of waiting. By the time they came back in, Sophie had cried because she was hungry and fell back to sleep from exhaustion. And Sydney was getting cold from not wearing anything but a diaper. Ugh!

They took a little blood from Sydney's toe to check her hemoglobin and gave Sophie the Rotovirus vaccine and that was it.

By this time is was 11:25am and I was starting to fume because I had been here for 2 hours!! 2 HOURS! Is this typical when taking two kids at the same time??

Anyway, I got to Gabe's school and picked him up so he could drop us off at home and have the car the rest of the day because he had meetings at another school later that day.

After Gabe got home from work, I told him the girls stats and he agreed with me Sophie couldn't be shorter than average. They must have gotten something wrong. I called the Pediatrician's office and asked for their stats. They had 22 inches long for Sophie. Odd... since she was 21 inches long when she was born. What baby only grows an inch in 2 months?

I measured her myself and she is 25 inches long. Then I recalled that they hadn't measure her at all while I was there. They only weighed her and it appears the new medical assistant forgot to measure her and put her 2 weeks check up length as her 2.5 month check up also. ><

So, my girls are well above average in everything and eating well, sleeping well, and happy little girls... most of the time.

Sydney Had a Birthday!!

I can not believe she is two!!

Look at this sweetie pie! She gets cuter and cuter every day!!

We didn't do a whole lot during the day, but we did get Costco pizza for lunch, her favorite, and brought it home. Then she took her nap and while she was napping, while mom was watching the girls, we ran out to get her favorite movie ever, "Rio"! Then we got her some sheep slippers that were super cute and she actually will wear them, and some Sesame Street books, which she loves! I wrapped them and by the time we got back, she we waking up. We brought out the cake and haagen das, best ice cream ever imo, and we sang "Happy Birthday to her". She smiled the entire time and then when we got done singing, she said, "candles" and Gabe helped her blow them out. She is soo adorable. I can't believe she belongs to us!

After she devoured her cake, but left the frosting and ice cream untouched, we went to open presents. I love it how she got soooo excited when she saw the movie. She loved the books and wouldn't even tough the slippers til I put one on my own foot. Then she wanted them on.

We love you tons Sydney!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Mini Photo Shoot

Uhh taking pictures of newborns/ 1 month olds is HARD work! But I got 3 good shots out of about 50!

Enjoy!

And the girls playing together... or Sydney rather wanting to play with Sophie's toy because Sophie was. haha

 

Big Sister

Sydney has been doing well with Sophie. At first she just ignored Sophie completely but now she comes up to Sophie and calls her "phee phee" and knows that she is the baby. When Sophie cries, Sydney says, "baby! BABY!"

Here is my sweet toddler this afternoon after church

Sydney has been acting up a little bit. She has been a little more argumentative with us and throws a tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants. She has taken to doing things she knows she shouldn't, or completely ignoring me when I start counting to 3.
She is still the cutest little thing and I wish I had more time to spend with her right now. Its just been hard with taking care of Sophie to find the time I would like.

Gabe got a calling today. He is now the Ward Mission Leader! Hopefully we will still have the time in the evenings that we would like to spend together and to take Sydney to the park. He will be meeting once a week for meetings with the ward missionaries and the full time missionaries. And most likely attending ward council. I think I can manage getting the girls ready for church on my own. This will be a little bit of a change but if this is the trial we are to have at this time then I'll take it. There are far worse things people go through than having to give up a little time.

Sophie will be 2 weeks old on Tuesday! What a fast two weeks it has been too! I keep looking at Sophie and thinking how different she will be in just a month or two. I think she has dimples also, like Sydney. Here's a couple photos from the past couple days.

Consignment and Thrift Shopping

We have a consignment shop that opened less than 6 months ago right across the street from us by the Ross and Fresh &Easy and I never even knew it was there. Its called "Here I Grow" and a friend of mine in the ward told me about it because I was saying how I wanted to buy a rocking chair or a glider sometime to have for the girls room for us to relax in while sitting in their room. So Gabe and I went and took a look at it. Its actually had tons of neat NEW stuff there, and of course used stuff too. I know, some of you are probably thinking, "Brittany is buying something used?". Yes I am a germaphobe, and I hate thinking about where things that have been used have been previously, but ever since we bought our jogging stroller for 20 bucks and I actually washed all the material and we cleaned it, I have been getting over my "used things" phobia.

We found this cute little toy for Sydney and she just LOVES it. After we bought it, she was hooked on that toy the whole time we were running errands, having fun going through the alphabet and singing along to the alphabet song. When it gets to the end of the song she will sing"...Y, Z!". At home she starts off singing it "A, C, D, E, M, Y, Z!" and then will say "Me" at the end of the song. Since she knows half her alphabet and numbers and colors, this will help her in a fun way instead of us just asking her what different letters are in her books. It also sounds out each letter for her too, which is fantastic if she were to learn that soon. Gabe says that children who learn to read very early on, around 3 yrs, tend to have better and quicker cognitive development throughout their elementary years and do better in school. I remember Shelley having a couple of these little toys for Mariah and Jack when we were at their house last. Anyway, we got it for $10 and its like new. 

This one is purple but the one we bought is orange, which I can't seem to find anywhere online, so I had to pick a purple picture.

Then we went over to the thrift store and browsed for a Turkey serving dish. We don't have a serving dish that is big enough to hold a turkey on so instead of buying one at Ross for $15, I thought we might have some luck at the thrift store. And yes, I had to get over the fact that these dishes were used by other people. I am getting over it people! Look at this plate we found!

Of course I went home and washed it best I could and also put it through a cycle in the dishwasher, but now we have a serving plate for the Turkey, since we are having guests over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. And we bout it for $4.

I am really liking shopping at that thrift store. That is where we got our china cabinet also, and soon we want to get a wine rack that will hold all the different Sparkling ciders and drinks that we like to buy. Its always nice to mix it up at dinner with a fun drink once in a while. So maybe we will get one soon so we have a place to put all our Martinelli's, Clementine, Blueberry, Cranberry, Pomegranite, Grape and other sparkling drink flavors we have, on. I think it will be fun to walk up and ask Gabe what kind of sparkling drink he would like to have with dinner during the week and walk over to the rack and grab a bottle from the many we have to chose from. I guess its just one of those small things we enjoy together... some good sparkling waters and drinks. If you haven't bought the big case of Pellegrino sparkling water from Costco, then you should give a try. Its one of our favorite brands of sparkling water. Along with Italy Blue from trader Joe's. They have a milder bubble than the ones that cost a dollar and are SUPER bubbly.

Anyway, enough about drinks and turkey... I need to sleep instead of make myself all hungry right before bed. Night!

Rearranging

I think I rearrange something in the house at least once or twice a month. I rearranged our room, and the kitchen dining area in the last two weeks. I just can't help but think that there has to be a better way to have things situated to make more space... call me what you like, but its something I can't let go when I see how things could be arranged differently for the better. I don't like feeling cluttered and cramped.

Gabe said last night that its amazing we are going to have another little baby sleeping in our room with us in a few short weeks. I couldn't agree more. No sleep, here we come. Its getting closer to the end and I find myself wishing it was already here, but also wishing it was farther away. I guess when you have your first you have those initial excitements that completely outweigh any anxiety you might have about having a child. But now that we are going to have two kids in the house, one that will hardly stay still and out of the things she shouldn't be in, and then another that will just be staring off into space for the first month or two, crying, pooping, eating, and sleeping, I have to admit that I am a little frightened and apprehensive. But that is to be expected when you are walking into the unknown, right? I can only imagine how Sydney will react to having an actual baby in the house.

She loves babies. She sees a baby or a picture of a baby and she will be saying baby for 10 minutes straight. She has her own little "baby" doll, which was my doll when I was little, and she knows how to hold it on her shoulder and cuddle with it. Its super cute. But she of course throws it on the floor when she is done playing with it. I guess I need to teach her how to put her baby to bed and tuck it in for a nap.

I had dad help me rearrange the master bedroom so we could fit the portacrib and small dresser in for Sophie. We have both our desks, the filing cabinet, bed and now the crib and small dresser in our room, while our dressers are in the closet and nothing hung up in there hangs straight because there is hardly any room anymore. I had to move our shoe wrack out to the hallway leading to the garage and I still don't know where we are going to put the box spring from the Full mattress that is in Sydney's room. I took it out so that the mattress would be the only thing in there for her to sleep on when she eventually moves out of the crib to a big girl bed. And that needs to happen within the next 4 months or so. I don't know how I am going to get her to transition out of the crib.... just another thing I need to read up on. And also get her off her pacifier, which really hasn't bothered me that she still has it. She only has it when she sleeps and it has been nice when she has those tough nights. But still...

Gabe has been working hard to make sure we have enough things ready for the three weeks he has off school for the Holidays by working extra hours at the nursing facilities. It seems to be their slow season so this past week he hasn't had to work any extra hours. But hopefully during Thanksgiving break they will have something for him to do. As much as I would LOVE to have him home for a full week, working is necessary.

I hope that Sophie will come 2 weeks early. That could be as early as the 13th of December! Crazy!!! Sydney was a week early and since I am told by my OB that I carry babies really low, and that Sophie has been head down since 26 weeks, that we might just get our wish. I sang for our Stake Conference Adult sessions this past Saturday night and did have consistant contractions that would not go away unless I was lying down. So we had to leave the meeting a little early. I was sitting there watching the clock, counting the contractions and I had 5 within an hour, so I was periodically getting up, walking around, because there really isn't a place to go lay down at the church, in a skirt. So we left halfway through the meeting after I had called my OB's office and talked to a Dr. So now I am sort of on a lighter schedule. Can't be working too hard or standing up soo long. Its not bedrest but I'm limited again til 37 weeks. I am just glad that its not full bedrest like it was with Sydney. That would be extremely tough trying to take care of Sydney and try to be sitting and laying down all day.

I was going to sing with my singing group til the baby came and do Christmas programs and parties, but Gabe and I both decided that it would be best if I just sit out for the rest of the year and start singing again with them next year.

I am 33 weeks along as of yesterday! so just 4 weeks of taking it easy and then I'll probably be going crazy trying to get things ready. I really want to get the dirt in the backyard all cleared of rocks and throw some grass seeds out before the baby but the rain has made that a little difficult to sift through. I still need to see how Sydney's car seat and the infant car seat will fit together in the backseat and still leave room for me somewhere. My OB said my bulging bump was measuring small....

...yeah, I don't think so. The only bulging bump I wish was small is the one in the back.

But, I get to have another ultrasound. So whatever.

We pay off the Honda next month! I am soo excited! I really want to see how long we can go with just one car and save up what we would have been spending on a car payment until we have a good down payment for a family car. Gabe doesn't mind Mini Vans and I would definitely go with a nice used Honda Odyssey, but I also like a good GMC Suburban because those things last FOREVER! The one my parents had lasted almost 20 years, until I unfortunately wrecked it. But I'm sure it would have gone for at least another 5 or 6 years. That thing was a beast, but fit all of us 6 kids, mom and dad, AND grandma in it. If we chose to get another sedan, I am pretty sure we would look at a Civic or another used Accord. Maybe a Camry.

This past week has been exceptionally stressful due to one little 6 legged thing that needs to be eradicated from under our house. I. hate. ants. First they were all over in this cupboard where I keep the dehydrator, crock pot, ice cream maker... bla bla bla.... and there was nothing obvious that they were going after. Then I noticed them in the bathroom around the shower head. Then they were all over the washer in the garage. Then this last week I saw them all over the counter and dish washer, so I cleaned the kitchen really well. I think they are thirsty, but hello!? it just rained. stay outside you little itty bitty bits of stress! Then today I found them back in that first cupboard. Argh!! I feel like I am itchy all over all the time because I sometimes feel like one is crawling on me. Dad sprayed the bug killer outside and around the inside of the house. I have even sprayed a little here and there. And supposedly the property owner has a pest control and bug guy come once a month to spray around the house too. But, like dad said, the earth is one big ant pile and there is no way to get rid of them all. Maybe if all of you would just try to step on 1,000 of them within the next week, we might be able to do some serious damage to their population, k? Ready? GO!

Halloween!

Halloween was fun this year!! We actually dressed Sydney up, which was the real difference. Last year we didn't bother since she was just 7 months old. This year she was a Pumpkin!!! Gabe was Loki from Thor, and I found a cute Raggedy Ann maternity costume online that I thought would work for me. At least it will work for the next years when I am pregnant again and maybe even my sisters could borrow it if they need a maternity costume at Halloween time.

I has bought my costume already off of Amazon, but Gabe found it cheaper just a couple bucks on another site along with his costume so we ordered both of ours off of that. I went back to cancel my order on Amazon, since I had only placed it 45 minutes earlier, but it had already been processed. I am sure glad that I wasn't able to cancel it after all. The one from the site Gabe found it on was a total Knock off and it was horrible material and dying and sewing. I was glad to have the other one which ended up being perfect! Gabe's costume was great, but we could tell it was on the cheaper end also. At least Amazon has the ratings and reviews you can read from other people who have bought it and everyone who had bought the Raggedy Ann costume loved it. Gabe still looked great in his costume! His first choice was Captain America and then Thor, but we couldn't find either of those under $40 that were his size. He needs the Teen Medium or Large, not the adult sizes. 

Anyway, we went to our Ward Annual Trunk or Treat and I brought a cheese and cracker platter, Gabe worked at a ring toss booth for half an hour. We stayed for an hour tops because I was tired of holding Sydney and it was waaaaay hot in the gym. We decided that Halloween has officially become a kids holiday, unless we are going to an adult party with friends, which didn't happen this year. I guess it will be a little more fun when we actually get to take the kids our Trick or Treating. But that still seems to be a few years away. Next year I think we will throw an adult Halloween party or get a group together to go to a corn maze or something. Those fun types of things aren't only for the teenagers! we are still young and need some adult time wit friends! So next year, I plan on having an awesome time!

On Halloween, I dressed Sydney back up in her Halloween Pumpkin Costume and Dad and I drove her over to Northgate High School so Omi could go show her off to all her friends and co-workers. Of course Sydney was the cutest thing around and everyone wanted to come and say hi. Sydney got a little scared of one of the teachers and started having that pout face and calling for me. haha. It was soo adorable! 

We had 1 trick or treater. Just ONE! I should have given that kid the entire bag of candy because I saw those bite size Twix and HAD to have one... or two.... or 10 of them.... for breakfast the next morning. What a mistake that was.

Don't forget to read the post below! 

Runny Nose

Gabe had a little bit of the sniffles for a day last week and it seems to have caught up with Sydney and I. Sydney seems to have it the worst, not being able to breath through her nose at night and waking up several times because of it. Here is what she looked like this morning when she wasn't facing me for several minutes. I called her name and she turned around and looked like this....

The flash was a little bright so she closed her eyes in the middle of the shot, but you can see what I mean that she isn't having fun with this little cold.

I have the sniffles too and its the kind where you are constantly sniffing and wiping and eyes watering and sneezing, but thats it. No cough or anything. Which I am very happy about. I have to sing on Saturday for our Adult Session of Stake Conference and I better be able to hit those high notes! 

Elder Scott isn't going to be coming after all. He is apparently sick at the moment and can't travel so we are going to have an Area 70 come instead. 

Sydney also LOVES Monster's Inc. She wakes up asking for "Inc? Inc?" and so sometimes I put it on for her while I need to do a couple other things. She loves the jello monster in the beginning when it falls through the street vent... watch in the video...

Maybe It Was Her Teeth Afterall

Sydney, thankfully, hasn't had a repeat of waking up super early, but I can see her two lower bicuspids coming in now. Her naps are still shorter but I think it may have been a combination of the two; too long of daytime naps and teething.

Anyway, Sydney has been doing so well in Nursery. (She even made it til the last 10 minutes of Sacrament meeting without us having to take her out. Our Sacrament meeting is the third hour so she is sometimes cranky by the end of church.) She LOVES to play with the other kids. She LOVES bubbles and coloring and playing with the toys. But yesterday at church we went to get her and she was soo upset. The nursery leader said that she started getting fussy but then she calmed right down when she was given a book, or a puzzle. She just LOVES her books. That is what she "plays" with the majority of her time here at home. She is always surrounded by a pile of books on the couch or on her bed in her room. (I took the box spring out from under the queen bed in her room so she can get used to climbing up on the mattress and being on it, so when the time comes she can transition to that bed and out of the crib which will be needed in the next couple months.) She LOVES "There's A Wocket in my Pocket" and "Go, Dogs, Go!" and now she is smitten with this huge book, also by Dr. Suess, that has six Dr. Suess books in it. She knows how to get to her favorite page in the entire book which has a moon on it. She LOVES the moon and every time we go outside, night or day, she looks for the moon and calls for it.

She is also obsessed with Elmo! haha..... sigh. It was really cute, at first. But now that I started playing some of the Sesame Street episodes off of the netflix for her, that is all she wants. So these last 3 days we haven't watched any tv at all. She never watched tv before Elmo, even thought it was on sometimes. She just never showed any interest in it. She was much happier with a book. But now all she asks for when we go out o the living room is "Elmo?"

She even turned on the tv and Wii the other day. I have no idea how she knew how to do that, but she was sitting on the couch holding the tv and Wii remotes and it was on the Wii Menu. Luckily she is fine with my answer that Elmo is either "sleeping" or went "night night". I don't know when I can watch Elmo again. The whole "Elmo's World" music has gotten into my head and I have started humming it, singing it, whistling it, and it has to STOP! haha Now I know why my mom fins Elmo to be soo annoying sometimes, haha.

This past Saturday Gabe got up at about 4:45 and went to the Temple, and it was the Walk for Smiles charity event that one of my former employers does every two years to raise money for kids in our county that can't afford dental care. They raised over $14,000 this year! I was in charge of the face painting booth for the kids, like I was was two years ago. I think I painted probably 20 to 30 kids faces this year. Lots of fun! They even had a pretty talented balloon guy and the kids LOVED that. It ended up being tons of fun and we were done with the walk and raffle prizes and presentation of the check within 3 hours of it starting. Then Gabe came and picked me up and we went to the Farmer's Market. 

All in all it was a really busy weekend, but also a really good and productive one. This coming week is going to be busy also. Gabe has extra hours today at the nursing home, and Wednesday probably, we have the Missionaries over for dinner tomorrow, followed by Gabe going home teaching after dinner, and then I have a singing rehearsal after he gets home, a baby shower on Thursday I'm going to, and the Ward Trunk or Treat on Friday that we are bringing a crackers and cheese platter too and also working a shift at one of the booths at 6. Then Saturday Gabe might have more extra hours and of course we run our errands mostly Saturday mornings. Life just seems to keep getting more busy. Which is why I am glad that General Conference happens twice a year because those are the most chill weekends. I am singing with the ward choir also, which has its practices at 3:15 every Sunday. Our church is over at 1:20, so its right in the middle of where I can take a nap before starting dinner. I actually totally forgot about choir practice yesterday and slept right through it. But I'm not too sad about it. Although it probably would have been a better use of my time by just going to the practice... I woke up from the nap kind of cranky anyway. Its funny, because I was sitting there, knowing perfectly well that I was cranky but I couldn't get my head around it to stop being cranky. I wanted to not be cranky, I wanted to be happy, but I just couldn't! It was sooo weird. Stupid short nap. =P So anyway, Gabe turned on some soft music, sountrack stuff, while we cooked dinner and it calmed me down.

I will be 31 weeks along this Tuesday! Woohoo! Once I hit 37 or 38 weeks, I am soo going to do yard work. I have been wanting that backyard free of rocks ever since we moved in so we could plant some grass, so when its ok to have this baby safe and clear, then I am going to work and hopefully induce my labor that way. Also because I really want to have this baby before Christmas and I am crossing my fingers for the 17th or the 18th because that is when Gabe's Christmas break starts from school.

I also had an appointment last week with my OB, I'm now seeing her every two weeks, and she says that everything looks just fine! I am measuring big and so is Sophie. She was already at 3 1/2 pounds when I had the ultrasound, so I am guessing she is probably slightly over 4 lbs now. Another reason to have her a couple weeks early. I think a 7 1/2 lb baby is a perfect size and she will probably be well over 8 lbs if she goes all the way to 40 weeks.

Play Time at 2:30 am??

The other night Sydney decided to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and think to herself, "I want to play in my room. I am done sleeping!"
Of course we heard her yelling for us and so Gabe and I took turns going to her room and trying to get her sleep again but she wouldn't have it. She was going to stay awake no matter how long she yelled and screamed at us. So, we got up. Gabe stayed with her in her room for a little bit and then I went in there so he could get ready for work. We were both soo beat.
The next night Sydney decided to wake up at 2:30 to play in her room. She screamed and screamed everytime we left the room after rocking her to sleep and we even let her cry for an hour to see if she would just fall back asleep from being tired. There really was nothing else we could do. So instead of her keeping mom and dad awake too, we went and got her to bring her into our room. It was about 4am by then. We let her play in our room for a little while we tried to keep our eyes open. It was a long night since we were already sleep deprived from the night before. Finally around 7:30 she went back to sleep and slept til 10.
I am not ready for the sleep deprivation yet. I don't know how I can handle it if both Sydney and Sophie are going to be waking up in the middle of the night multiple times. Comes with the job I guess though.
I was talking to Brigitte on Skype later that day and she mentioned that maybe Sydney just needs a shorter afternoon nap. Sydney only takes one nap and its usually 3 hours long around noon. So I decided to try it out and shorten her nap. I put her back down for a nap around 1 pm and I woke her up at 2:30. She was not happy. She wanted to keep sleeping.
Her bedtime is usually between 8 and 8:30 so since she was soo tired we put her down right at 8.  We went to bed at 8:30. We both were completely drained.

She slept the whole night. We didn't have to get up once. Of course I am always waking up during the night because I am soo uncomfortable as it is, and at one point during the night I woke up and heard Gabe talking in his sleep. More like singing. He said, "Oh yeeees!" Haha!
I told Gabe that morning after our restful sleep and he said, "you know I was probably singing because I was soo happy to be sleeping the whole night."

Sydney has been sleeping through the night again her usual 11-12 hours and I am cutting her nap to an hour and half to two hours now. We thought she was teething since she still hasn't gotten her kanine's but we think now that it was probably she was just getting too much sleep during the day.

I am still trying to recover from the whole thing but its Friday and we are going to have a great weekend starting with a date to dinner tonight!

Sydney Lately...

Since getting my our Mac back up and running, I have tried to do a little more videos and photos. Here are a couple from the last few days...

"I'm so cute and don't I know it!"

In my new pj's...

Watching the cute video of my cousin Bruce and his friend Presley...

Such a good video... I'm hooked!

Fries

I forgot to share a little story, short but cute, from a few weeks ago.

So we had a little 24 hour bug going through and Gabe was home from work for a Thursday and Friday before our trip to SoCal.  He wasn't feeling well, but since the car was at home, I could run a couple errands and get some things done that we needed to do before out trip. But since Gabe really needed the rest I took Sydney with me so he could.

We were going to Costco to get a couple things and she was being really cranky for some odd reason. So I said, "Hey, want some fries?"  She looked at me in the car mirror and I said, "lets go get some fries before we go to Costco, because Mommy is hungry and I think you are too."

She stopped whining and this is what I hear from the back seat all the way to McDonald's from then on, in an almost whispered little voice; " fries .....fries .....fries ...... fries ..... ". And of course she can't really say fries with the "r" articulated yet so its was more like "fies". But it was sooo cute. I didn't want to laugh out loud and interrupt her so I had to keep my giggling to myself. It was so cute!

Anytime that we go down that street towards McDonald's now, she will at some point say "fies". She knows her way around town.... at least her way to get more fries.

Sydney Watching Bruce

Sydney will not watch the TV. Which is fine with me. But she will watch every video on the computer that has a little kid in it or herself. Here she is watching a video of cousin Bruce! She loves Bruce.

Recent Videos

A couple videos for you all to see of Sydney lately.

 

Daddy and Sydney playing and chasing each other around.

Sydney loves to dance and sing with her musical toy puppy.

 It was sure fun running around outside.

And going swimming... we got her a new suit since the one Uncle Kiel and Aunt Melissa got her was getting small. At least the top was. The bottoms still fall off of her. And this one I just couldn't get over how cute it was. There was another suit that was navy blue with little ruffles around the v-neck collar and little reddish pokadots that was sooo adorable, but they only had 12 month ones left. This suit is just as cute, and she is wearing 2T now. She is getting sooo big.

 

And playing with cups. It was soo funny. She would stack them all together. Take them apart. Put the ones on the outside in the center cup. Pick them up and move down the bench slightly, then start all over, lol she stood there doing this for almost half an hour.

Learning New Tricks

I forgot to blog about the little adventure Sydney, my mom, and I had a couple days ago! Boy was it tons of fun.

Sydney has learned to take off her diaper.

She first did it a couple weeks ago. So we made sure she had pants on whenever she went down for a nap, or anytime now. She will take it off if she does not have something on to stop her.

Last week it was really hot. I felt bad because her room seems to be the warmest in the house and although she has a good strong fan in her room which is always on when she sleeps, it still seemed warm to me the other day when I put her down for a nap. I wasn't thinking, or maybe I was, but with my pregnancy brain, because I didn't put any pants or shorts on her, thinking she would be too warm and she would be more comfortable with just a shirt and diaper.

Well, an hour after I had put her down, she was still talking and singing to herself. which isn't uncommon. Sometimes she just likes to play in her crib, but she had been rubbing her eyes and yawning before I put her down, so I was a little confused as to why she hadn't gone to sleep soon after going to her room.

I found out why... about 5 steps from her door. I could smell it.

I walked in and she of course was beaming at me and saying, "Mommy, Mommy!" and then ran around in her crib a couple laps and then smiled at me again.

She had taken off her diaper, thrown it out of the crib, and then it looked like she had smeared poop all over the sheets and bars of the crib. She also sat on Teddy's face and left a nice mark there. There were piece all over the floor where she had flung it and it just smelled bad. And of course, after my initial reaction of "OH...MY....GOSH" after walking in, she giggles and does another lap around the crib and then smiles at me again.

I honestly didn't know what to do. I knew I had to get her clean, but.... how!?

She was covered in her own poop except for her face, thank goodness. I still had to do a smell check of her mouth to see if she had tried eating it.

Well, to make a long story short, I took her downstairs and mom helped me clean her up in a bath. Mom finished washing Sydney while I went up stairs to clean the crib and grab all the dirty sheets and toys. 

Never again am I going to forget pants on that girl. She already tries to get undressed all the time. She knows how to take her shirt off and step out of her jeans when we are getting her ready for bed. I just hope she doesn't start doing that in her crib. I guess I might have to take an idea my sister used and put her sleepers on backwards so she can't find the zipper.

...oh, and Sydney got into the paint I was using while painting crafts today and none of us noticed until she had walked into my dad's office and tapped him on the knee with her paint covered hands. What a trouble maker, but an incredibly cute trouble maker.