Sunday, June 27, 2010

Long overdue post!

The Stricklands have been MIA from the blog world - sorry! Danielle's mom was here all of this past week and she and her husband, Patrick, just left this morning. It wasn't too tough waving goodbye since we'll be in Virginia in 5 1/2 short weeks - yay! Mom and Patrick enjoyed lots of time with Sydney and many, many walks around our 'hood! The little hat she's wearing is one of two new summer hats Grandma brought with her. Babies are so adorable in hats!
Sydney is loving all her strollers. This is her newest - the umbrella stroller. It's great to throw in the car for quick trips. We use the jogger mostly for walks, but this one is great if we're just strolling around the block.Soon after they arrived in Arkansas, we celebrated Randall's very first Father's Day! We cooked a yummy steak dinner at the daddy's request, and Sydney gave him an adorable new picture of her for his desk at work as well as a new golf shirt. Here they are posing the next day when he wore his shirt to work.
Of course all parents love to spoil their grandkids, and Danielle's dad sent along a couple of early Christmas gifts for Sydney since Mom and Patrick were driving and could transport a few things out to Arkansas. This beautiful painting of Sydney's name - made with animals and flowers - now hangs above her crib. What's funny is we have been trying to find something we like with her name to hang in that spot. Thanks, Grandpa, for handling that for us! It was too cute to pack away and save for Christmas morning :)
During this week, Sydney also hit a few milestones. She started eating "real" food (sweet potatoes were the first one - she loves them!) and tonight we are having peas. I've decided to make her baby food, and so far, I am really enjoying it...almost as much as she loves eating it. The second milestone is demonstrated in the video below. Our little girl is getting so big and we love her more and more each day if that is even possible!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Flying High!

Sydney and I flew to DC last week for four days! It was the perfect opportunity to get together with friends and to see a couple of new babies and one newly engaged couple! Here are a couple of shots from the second leg of the trip to DC ... we lucked out with our own row so I was able to bring her car seat on board. Sydney was PERFECT on all the flights --- not one tear! She was a hit with all the passengers :)
Here are a couple of shots of Sydney meeting her new friends: Laura's son Isaiah (two months younger) and Tracey's daughter Alexa (two months older). It will be fun to watch all these babies grow up!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Oh Happy Day

People ask if Sydney is always happy. Of course the answer is no, but we are very lucky that the honest answer is "usually." Here are a couple of shots of her recently: Quite proud of herself after rolling from belly to back, and then back again (smiles due to our cheering, probably), and then playing peekaboo all by herself after waking up one morning. You can see she easily comes out of her swaddle blanket when she wants to ... but she still needs it to fall asleep.