Artist, Swimmer, Librarian

So many new activities have made their way into our lives lately! Sydney now likes to sit and color in her booster seat. It usually keeps her interest 15-20 minutes. She calls every color "blue" so we need to work on that. :-)

 

The last two weeks, we've been taking her to swimming lessons - a parent/tot class. Randall and I both went with her each day, and she got very comfortable going under, blowing bubbles and jumping in. It was four days each week, and she loved it. We get in lots of pool time on the weekends, so she was comfortable already, but this helped her even more. Last night was the final lesson, and she was not too pleased when diving board time was over! Randall didn't get in the water the first night so he could get some pictures.

 

The final new activity was just this morning - our first trip to the public library! I was worried she was too little and wouldn't understand that we had to leave the books there, but it worked out great. There was story time going on in the kids' area, so we sat in for some of that, and then played and played with all the books. We selected five to take home with us, and she didn't care that I had to put most of them back on the shelves when we left. As long as she had one in each hand, she was happy.

 

 

The only library-related meltdown was when we were leaving. We had to walk down a lot of stairs, which is one of Sydney's favorite things. When we got to our floor in the garage, there were more stairs, and she didn't understand why we didn't need to keep going. Oh well --- at least the only screaming took place outside of the library, technically :-)

BABY News & Toddler Stats!

We're not exactly sure if the world is ready for another Strickland, but we are going to find out in January!! Here's the first peek at Sydney's little sister or brother. He/She had a very strong heartbeat of 169 beats per minute at yesterday's ultrasound. I've been feeling great - just like with my first pregnancy - so here's hoping all the good news continues. It's such a happy time for us, and we couldn't be more excited!

In toddler world, Sydney had her 18-month check-up yesterday. She weighed in at 24.5 pounds and was 29.5 inches long ---- 50th percentile on both. We, of course, don't think our little gal is average in many areas, but happy to see that she is in these areas. Haha!

Dropping Sydney off in her new classroom this week continues to suck - pardon my French. She is thriving according to her teachers, but the initial hand-off is just awful. I am sure this will get better, but today was day three of me wanting to cry right along with her (I did cry Tuesday, which I realize was counterproductive). This too shall pass!!!

Firecracker, Firecracker Boom Boom Boom

I hope you all had a very fun 4th of July weekend! We enjoyed lots of family time, including time at the pool, a trip to see fireworks Sunday evening, projects around the house, short walks around the neighborhood -- it was hot!!! -- all in all, a fantastic weekend. Here are a few pictures from the weekend and a cute video that shows Sydney just before the fireworks started. Thank you to my mom for the adorable outfit!Unfortunately, the flag shirt only lasted half of the day before a drink was spilled, so she had to switch to plain white for the evening activities. :)
I love looking at this side-by-side comparison from last 4th of July until now - WOW!

 

 

I was laughing watching this video clip because she had a mini-tantrum in the middle of her dance moves. :-)

And this last picture I had to include... It's of Sydney before school Friday morning. She wore this cute dress I found at a consignment sale this past spring. And this is her doing her "ta-da!!" presentation when I asked her to stand on her toy box for a picture (I know, bad mama). I think her expression is priceless ... if only I could be this excited for work each day. Haha!