Mermaids & Jack-o-Lanterns

Sydney's 1st Halloween has provided us with a lot of laughter! From pumpkin carving (and trying to eat it!) to her adorable mermaid costume, Sydney was quite entertaining this holiday. The highlight, for me, was visiting Kenny & Amanda's house during our quick trick-or-treating rounds, where a gorgeous blond wig was added to her costume temporarily. We had fun celebrating another "first" for our sweet girl!

Spaghetti Face

Sydney is typically a fairly neat eater with finger foods, but spaghetti is a total exception! Tonight she had some chicken and zucchini = very neat. Last night = anything but neat. You'll notice Randall gave Sydney much more food than she wants or needs. This is for the simple reason that most of it ends up somewhere other than her mouth, as you can see!

A Night in the Life

I thought our life pre-baby was pretty great, but I realize now that we were probably bored :-) Sydney makes every night so fun. It's not that we do anything special; there's just constant entertainment seeing life through a baby's eyes. It brings a lot of youth back to us, and it makes the smallest things seem quite significant. All in all, I give parenting a big thumbs up ;-)
Here's a quick look at Sydney's bath tonight .... one of her favorite activities!

Tonight before dinner, Sydney spent a little time with her favorite toy - Tonka. Maybe it's an innate love for transportation from Daddy's career in the industry. Who knows, but it is stinkin' cute! (Please forgive her stained pants. Since becoming a super crawler and loving time outside, this child comes home every day from school looking like a total rag-a-muffin!)

Date nightin' & Craft fairin'

This past weekend, Randall and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary with date night - dinner & a movie. What used to be a regular weekend activity was a rare treat! Sydney spent the night with our friends KC & Joe (who are due w/ their first child in December) and they had a ball...they went to the park, a block party...and Sydney loved their big dog, Olive. She slept all night and was a perfect angel for them! We were originally planning to go out of town, but even after deciding against that, KC & Joe wanted to have her over. Such great friends! We went out for Japanese and then to see "Life As We Know It."

Sunday morning, we picked Sydney up and headed to War Eagle craft fair...an annual event we try to get to each year. You can read more about War Eagle Mill here. Below are a few pictures from the fun day. We bought a few Christmas gifts and of course a few things for Sydney!! We had lunch outside and just roamed around for a few hours, looking at all the neat booths. It was a tad warmer than I would have liked for October, but all in all, a beautiful day.

One of the most entertaining things while at the craft fair: Several people commented to us how "cute HE is" referring to Sydney. Randall started correcting people about our daughter, who was clearly in a dress! I guess until she has more hair or will leave a bow on, that's the way it will be :-)

Cabbage Patch Baby @ the Pumpkin Patch

This has been a fun, FULL Saturday! We first visited the local farmers market and bought lots of fresh goodies for the week. The Fayetteville Square (where we got engaged) gets crowded with families and dogs (lots of dogs and babies!) shopping for veggies, plants, crafts, baked goods...you name it. Without fail, you will run into people you know.  Today was a gorgeous day for it. Here are our finds, which we will use to plan our week's dinners: peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, fingerling potatoes and brussel sprouts:

We then went to a pumpkin farm in Pea Ridge, Ark., about 25 or so miles from our house.

Here are a few shots of us enjoying the morning. We picked pumpkins (actually cut them ourselves), went on a hay ride, and took lots of cute pictures. The video is my favorite .... Randall pulling our pumpkins and our real baby pumpkin in the wagon :-) We already talked about getting Sydney a wagon for Christmas, but now we know she will love it!

After we got home, we decorated our yard for the season and posed our sweet Sydney beside it to show it off :-) Don't worry about her being in just a onesie....it got hot here this afternoon!

Sydney Drew or Sydney Stew?!

Randall comes up with creative activities when he has one on one time with our daughter. Today's evidence is below. Randall and two buddies recently bought a new stew pot to use for camping and tailgating, and maybe he was trying to figure out just how much it would hold. Poor Sydney! (Not really...she loved it, I understand) :-)

 

Here is a video from this evening of Sydney exploring her new favorite place: the deck.

20 Lbs. of Joy!

Today was Sydney's 9 month check-up and she weighs exactly 20 pounds! She is also 27.5 inches long. (50th percentile length / 75th percentile weight). Her 18" head is still at the top of the charts. :-)
During this visit, she had to get a small prick in her toe to test her iron, and she is borderline anemic which is very common. We just have to give her a drop of vitamins every morning until she's 1. They also gave her a flu shot, so after the two needles, Sydney was so over the doctor's office, and truth be told, so was mommy! She took a nap after we got home, and now she's back to her old self. Here's a short video from this afternoon:

This photo is from earlier in the week. We are still enjoying such gorgeous weather, which tells us summer is O.V.E.R. Thank goodness. I think her expression says "It sure is nice to play in the backyard without sweating!" We all agree, honey :-)