It is very hard to believe our little girl is 11 months old today! She is such a fun little girl, with a her own sweet personality and an adorable sense of humor.
After shopping on Black Friday, in her precious outfit from her Auntie Brandy!
Just this morning, bundled up about to leave for school. It's a cold day today, and I loved using her new pea coat (irresistible from Baby Gap) and winter hat (from our local Farmer's Market) today!
At 11 months, Sydney:
can stand independently for quite awhile, but hasn't taken steps yet
LOVES music. She moves and dances every time she hears a song
shows real preferences in people now - adults and other kids
appears to really thrive in the Montessori setting, and her teachers say she is very smart!
gets so excited to see her mama and daddy - we love that!
loves to sleep! We have to wake her up every morning, and she takes marathon naps on the weekends to catch up from all the interrupted sleep at her school.
is an easy giggle. It doesn't take much and she is falling apart in laughter. What a great trait!
eats like a champion. Her current favorites are any fruit, green beans, yogurt, yams, any pasta, peas, cheese and whole wheat waffles.
uses a sippy cup pretty well, but we anticipate a slow transition away from bottles entirely, especially her last bottle before bed. She loves it.
is the sweetest little baby we could have ever asked for, and our lives get better every day she's in it!
We've been busy this weekend! Here's a peek at the Strickland home all ready for Christmas. I got this gold ornament wreath last Black Friday and I love it!
Cute bunny shirt, a gift from Grandma :) Can't wait to start wearing all her Christmas outfits in December!
Pardon the appearance - it was early!
Holding Syd and her grabby hands is safer around gifts and ornaments.
Love the new addition to our stockings in the middle! I plan to have our names monogrammed soon.
Lots of gifts already wrapped and ready to go to Virginia!
As our first Thanksgiving as a family of three, we decided to keep it small. But if you know Randall, you know it turned into a feast!! On the menu: ham, dressing, maple cranberry yams, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie for dessert! Sydney had a sampling of most of the items, and she was quite pleased with her first Thanksgiving. The leftovers are a bit insane, and Randall will take a lot of it to work tomorrow (yes, he has to work- so sad!!). Our kitchen looks like we were expecting our entire families and no one showed up! Here's a photo re-cap :-)
Yesterday was my 29th birthday! Although it was a Monday and I had to work, it turned out to be a really great day. I got lots of cards from friends and family, and we met up with some of our dearest friends for a sushi dinner, my favorite! Sydney had not napped much during the day, so she was fidgety during dinner, but between feeding her, passing her around to different laps, and entertaining her with somewhat safe "toys" from the table, we had a wonderful time! :) Here are a few pictures from dinner with our friends. This was the best shot I could get of Sydney who was constantly moving! Randall surprised me with petit fours for dessert - YUM. I brought a few to work today so the leftovers aren't staring at us in our kitchen!!! (The necklace I'm wearing is from my trip to NYC --- an early birthday gift that I saved to wear until yesterday. It is jade and pearl, and I absolutely love it!)
I was out of town this weekend at my dear friend Wendy's wedding. If you're a friend of mine on Facebook, you can find more pictures there. Here I am at the gorgeous Veritas Vineyards, a lovely wedding location! And here is the happy couple, Wendy and Jason! I am so happy for them. It's always a good day when a friend finds her perfect match :)
It was a wonderful celebration, and I also got to see family during the quick weekend trip east. As is the case with time away, I was excited to get back to Sydney and Randall, and I picked Sydney up as soon as my flight landed! She took a long nap and then woke up to play with mama. Here are just a few cute pictures from our fun play time, waiting for daddy to get home from work.
First, talkie. Sydney has four words that are understandable to us right now. They are: Dada, Mama, Hey, Huh .... Baba may be bottle, but her usage isn't consistent, so the jury is out on that one.
"Hey" is the funniest! It is just so cute that she says that instead of "hi." Of course, we never really say "hi," either. And the "huh" is funny because she says it as if she seriously needs you to repeat yourself during a conversation! I do imagine, over time, "huh" will become quite annoying and we'll have to teach a more polite alternative. :-)
And as far as the walkie part of this post, I don't think first steps are far away! Sydney stands for quite awhile on her own now, and she applauds her hard work as she stands there. Last night, Randall took video of Sydney walking and pushing her truck. We tried this a few days ago, but she couldn't quite get it. Last night, I guess it clicked! I predict she'll be walking unassisted in the next few weeks. Here are two short walkie videos.
(In other news, Sydney's first tooth popped through yesterday! She runs
over it with her tongue constantly now, and she seems to have a little
discomfort with the start of all this.)
At Sydney's first football game last weekend, which was also the homecoming game, we had awesome seats thanks to our friend Ellen! Second row of the seat-backs, which provided so much comfort and space for the STUFF that seems to always accompany any activity with baby in tow :-)
We were seated right in front of the high school football recruits, and, as it turned out, right near the holding place for last year's Homecoming Queen. She loved Sydney and asked that we take their picture together! Sydney was almost asleep (the way she spent almost the whole first half), but we thought it was a cute opportunity so we disturbed her for the photo opp. Sydney loved her sparkly eye shadow and wanted to grab it! Here's a quick shot of the princesses, taken with Randall's phone:
