Play me some country music

Last week, Randall, Sydney and I drove to Nashville and spent four days with my best friend from Virginia, Brandy, and her husband Earl. It was the best half-way-ish point that offered lots of activities (for the adults and a toddler!). We had a great time, despite the crazy weather. We had a perfect 78-degree sunny day on our first full day, and then it got wetter and colder from there. But, we persevered! The boys golfed, the girls shopped, and we spent time downtown, went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, went to the Nashville Zoo ... and ate some really great food! We will be planning another trip :-)

The group at the Neely's BBQ restaurant - from the Food Network!

Downtown

Sydney's first trip to a zoo - brrrrr

Opryland Hotel

Opryland Hotel

From Houston to Hawaii, and home again

Randall and Sydney had a very fun daddy/daughter weekend while I went to Houston to help in my friend Ellen's apartment search for her upcoming relocation. A great time was had by all! Saturday morning, Randall took Sydney to the farmer's market and took some adorable pictures. He also took her to the U of A campus Sunday to run around. Sydney is as happy as a clam when she is outside and roaming free! We just lather up her fair-like-mommy skin and let her explore. Here are a few of my favorite pictures, and I feel like I know what a beautiful weekend they had :-)

Taking time to smell the [not really] roses!

Look at mommy's name on Senior Walk

My name will totally be on this walk someday :)

This Chi Omega Greek Theatre has LOTS of stairs and space to run!!!

Mommy had a great time, too! From apartment searching to delicious meals and fun nightlife to an indescribable (in a good way!) Lady Gaga concert,  Houston proved to be a great city and we can't wait to visit Ellen in her new place! Thanks, Ellen, for inviting me to be your "plus 1" for this trip!

Before Day 1 of apartment hunting --- in the hotel lobby

Pre-Lady Gaga in front of the Houston skyline

The people watching was to die for, including these lovely caution tape wrapped gals!

 As a grand finale to this post, our dear friends Aaron and Erin recently returned from a vacation in Hawaii, and they brought Sydney a souvenir. Are you ready for the cutest thing in the world?

Fifteen and focused

 Sydney is 15 months and five days old --- how is that possible, you ask? We have no idea. She is such a big girl these days and keeps us on our toes! One of the traits I love about Sydney is her focus and determination. Whether she is doing puzzles, matching shapes, doing motions to a song or helping me get her dressed, she is always extremely focused on the task at hand. I hope that trait sticks, and that she is always a determined little girl! Here's a video that captures a tiny illustration of this characteristic. This was going on at least a minute before I was able to sneak the camera. I appreciate how she rarely gets frustrated; she just keeps at it, successful or not.

In other news, Sydney and I had a wonderful mommy/daughter weekend while Randall went to Texas with seven friends for a golf weekend. These crazy guys played 72 holes of golf in just two days! I understand there was also karaoke, beer and participation trophies, but I don't ask too many questions ;-) Here's a picture of the group.

This coming weekend, Randall will have quality time with Sydney while I go to Texas, ironically enough, to help one of our close friends find a new apartment so she'll be all set for her upcoming relocation. While we are enjoying the weekend on her company's dime (woohoo!), we decided to fit in a concert - Lady Gaga here we come! We're trying to remember that the focus of the trip is to find her a place to live, but it's hard to think about deposits and square footage when Gaga is involved. (To be clear, we paid for our own concert tickets - ha!)

Girl vs. Wild

Today, we took a drive to the Mulberry River, where Randall and several of his friends go camping a couple of times each year. We packed lunch and enjoyed the pretty drive out into one of the more rural areas of Arkansas I've seen (I'm sure there are many areas that are much more rural, but this was pretty removed!). We had the best time, enjoying our picnic, walking along the trail by the different campsites and venturing down by the water, which you can see has a unique green color. Syd was such a big girl sitting at the picnic table! The weather was a little cooler than we expected, but it was still a perfect day to spend outside.

 

 

 

 

 

(Don't worry, Randall was right there. He just moved his hand quickly so I could snap the picture!)

Little Miss Repeat

As any parent knows, it is close to impossible to capture the best moments on video. As soon as the video camera appears, babies shut down. This evening (a gorgeous evening - yes, she's in shorts!) we were playing outside and I was lucky enough to capture a tiny bit of her sweet voice repeating a few words. Every day, she is able to say more and more words, and it is the sweetest sound I've ever heard! You can also see how quickly her attention fades (and how early golf is being introduced to her life) Haha! Maybe next time I'll have better luck getting her to point to all of the parts of her face. The other thing I must get on video soon is her acting out some of her favorite songs from school. When the baby on the bus cries, it is hysterical. ;-)

For now, here's a short snippet:

Visit from Grandma!!

My mom left this morning to fly back to Virginia after a great five-day visit! Sydney quickly warmed up and figured out that the lady she has been seeing through Skype actually is standing in our house :) I worked half days which gave them lots of time together for grandma/granddaughter time and they worked on colors and even some Spanish. Sydney was such a performer and showed Grandma all her little tricks --- movements to Wheels on the Bus, movements to Row, Row, Row Your Boat, identifying the parts of her face (though sometime still a little mixed up), brushing her hair, dancing, you name it --- and she even repeated some new words we had not heard before, including "yellow"

Here is a photo re-cap of the visit. You can tell we had pretty extreme weather from 70+ on Saturday to 39 Monday! They both love to be outside, so it was a match made in heaven. We had a great day Saturday at War Eagle Mill (one of our favorite spots) and spent some time at the park Tuesday afternoon where Sydney experienced her first trips down a slide. The adorable outfit in the first few pictures was a gift from Grandma, and she will be wearing her new St. Patrick's Day outfit, another gift, tomorrow. :-) We won't see Grandma again until July, which makes us all pretty sad!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 Months

Our precious little girl turned 14 months old sometime during the night since February doesn't have a 30th day :-) And at 14 months, Sydney Drew:

• is walking so fast everywhere --- and she desperately wants to run
• cries for a few seconds when dropped off at school each day, but quickly remembers she likes it there
• loves music more than anything, and the dance moves are priceless!
• is soooo silly! We just know her sense of humor is going to be a hoot.
• says a few words from time to time (mama, dada, hi, bye, eyes, yay, uh-oh) but isn't too verbal yet
• plays independently very well
• has two teeth fully in (bottom) and six more poking through  (four top, two bottom) --- slow process!
• loves her teachers at school, and just tolerates the other kids ;-)
• shows strong preference of some people over others, even though she is OK with most folks
• loves to eat, but has become a little picky
• still takes a couple of bottles each day (we hope to break her of that in the next month or two) but does well with her sippy cups, too
• loves to play in the bathtub, and would stay in there all night if we let her; we have to work with her on staying seated b/c standing is apparently more fun :-)
• is still a fabulous sleeper and has to be woken up every morning, and even sometimes on the weekends if she has just slept forever!

Tonight, we took a few pictures of her before bath time. She loves to run around in her diaper. It is so funny to her! Then I took a few of her in her PJs. Happy 14 month birthday to our sweet angel. From our biased perspective, she really could not be more perfect. :-) We are so very lucky to be her mom and dad.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday grin

I thought Sydney looked so cute this morning so I snapped a quick photo before we headed out. This tunic/dress was a gift from our good friend Ellen. She gave it to us with leopard print leg warmers, but I think I'll save those for a non-daycare day! :-)

Quality Time & SNOW!

This week is kind of a repeat of last week, except with a LOT more of the fluffy white stuff --- 18 inches of it at our house! I ventured out this morning to take a few shots. If I went up and down my driveway in this crazy snow a bunch of times, it would probably be equivalent to a decent workout on the treadmill, but a lot more fun.

 

 

Sydney was created to be an awesome snow day baby, I think! She woke up this morning at 9:00, and she is so great at entertaining herself, taking naps, and just enjoying the day. I think we've read almost every book we own, but we are managing to stay busy and it really is such a treat to have so much time with my little gal. I took this first picture as soon as I heard her making noise this morning. I wish I could always let her sleep as long as she wanted!

And here is my snow bunny after I got her dressed, before she enjoyed her breakfast. I don't think I know how to work a full week anymore. Working a couple days and then being off a few days is much more my style :-)

Randall, of course, has worked every day, and that is the only thing I would change about having these days at home. I know he would agree!!

Children are like snowflakes --- no two are alike

Children are also like snowflakes in that I've spent a lot of time with both this week! Tomorrow will be my and Sydney's third snow day home together, and it has been wonderful, aside from worrying about Randall as he drives on the snow and ice. Our schedule has been: eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep, play. No complaints here!

With snow days also comes interesting methods of staying entertained, and not all of the ideas have come from me. This is what happens when playing with the tupperware is simply not enough.

I cannot explain to you how fun this was to her! The best part was playing peekaboo behind the closed cabinet door.