Faces

One of the best things about babies is the entertainment provided by their many facial expressions. These pictures were taken in about 30 seconds, and you can see she goes from silly to serious to mischievous to very happy! We realize this is much more interesting to her parents, but still worth sharing :)

Snow Day

Sydney knows exactly what snow days are for: sleeping a lot and staying cozy. She looks so happy because we haven't lost power! This little smile is something we've seen a lot lately, but can't say it's a "real" smile just yet. It's hard to believe she is a month old!

We had ice and sleet overnight (not happy Randall had to drive to work in it this morning), and the snow has been falling all day. We have all the blinds open and it is so pretty! I can relax a little more once Randall gets home safe and sound this evening.

Grandpa Meets Sydney

Grandpa (Danielle's dad) arrived in Arkansas to meet his granddaughter Tuesday afternoon, and will be leaving tomorrow, Saturday, to head to Florida to visit his folks. The days we've spent together have been great, and he has told several people that Sydney is the easiest baby he's ever seen. This makes mom and dad very happy ;-) We are up to 5-hour stretches of sleep at night, followed by a second stretch of 2-3 hours. We are NOT taking this for granted as we realize most new parents are not this lucky.
Today, we spent a couple of hours walking around Gulley Park; it was a beautiful 60 degrees and sunny today - not typical for January, that's for sure! We took this picture to share with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Povar as they bought us the stroller and carseat as a baby gift. Here's your gift in action!
Tonight, we ventured out as a family for dinner at a sushi restaurant. Sydney was fast asleep the entire meal and you wouldn't have even known she was there. This was the week of new outings for our little girl! This photo was taken at home after dinner. We're now settling in to watch a movie, and will be taking Grandpa to the airport in the a.m. The next visitor, Laura, is not scheduled to arrive for two weeks, so I think we'll take the company-free time to make some visits to mommy's co-workers on campus and to visit daddy and meet his co-workers, too.

Love letters

Over the next couple of weeks, Randall and I will be asking our family members to write a letter to Sydney. It can be whatever each person wants to write - deep & meaningful life advice, fun stories about themselves and our family, words of wisdom...whatever. The end result will be a bound book of "love letters" from all of Sydney's relatives that we hope will serve as a compass to guide her through life. Randall and I will each write one as well, which will be at the beginning of the book. I think mine will focus on my wishes for her life...happiness I hope she finds and dreams I hope she chases. This idea came to me recently, and I think this exercise could be quite fun for our relatives, and will certainly be meaningful to Sydney for many, many years.

Welcome Grandma!

Grandma Nelson (Danielle's mom) arrived yesterday afternoon to meet her first grandchild. We all rode to the airport for the pick-up, and she sat in the back with Sydney for her first meeting. Randall surprised Mom and me with tickets to Little House on the Prairie the Musical last night, which was a great outing, and a nice little break for mom :)

Grandma was a little nervous at first, not having held an infant in many years, but she quickly fell back into the groove, and was a huge help overnight, giving late night feedings and allowing mom and dad to get a little sleep!

Lotsa Firsts!

Sydney's first nap in the big crib in her nursery - Mama and Daddy only checked on her a thousand times!

First swing time - She's not as wild about the swing as she is the bouncer

First visit to the doctor's office - doc says she is perfect!

First bath - Sydney doesn't love being naked, but we were able to bathe her quickly, and she smelled oh-so-good after

Bright eyes

Sydney slept a good part of the day today (and very little of last night!), but for about an hour she was wide awake in her bouncy seat. She was also wide awake during one of our Skype sessions with family and friends...something that I imagine will be a very regular part of our days.

Welcome home, Sydney

It is January 2, and we are finally home from the hospital with Sydney...settled in watching the Hogs play. Well, not everyone is awake:

We dressed her up in an outfit we selected weeks ago for the big day. Randall specifically requested black patent leather shoes, and wouldn't you know we found them in newborn size! They were too big, but they fulfilled a need for today.

Sydney is such a good eater and she's a sleepy girl too. When she's awake, she is very alert...and she just steals our hearts! Our dog Macy is checking her out, but doesn't seem too concerned with our new family member. Sydney also seemed quite accepting of the barking as she slept in her bouncy seat earlier!