22 months

Our little girl is 22 months old (as of yesterday)! She celebrated with the most fun day --- the fall carnival at her school with face painting, crafts and lots of time outside in perfect fall weather. I'll post pics this week. This photo is one Randall took on his phone when they were at the park Saturday afternoon while I slipped off to see a movie.

I can't wait to see how trick-or-treating goes tonight. Of course we didn't go last year when she was so little. We've been practicing the whole routine, but I think the idea of going to a bunch of random houses may be lost on her!

The biggest change since my 21 month post is the talking. I can't believe how much she can say. I know she talks way more at home and at school than anywhere else, so you just have to take my word for it. :) She talks the whole time we read books, pointing out the names of anything she recognizes. And along with more talking comes more demands, of course!

She is also really into counting. She is pretty good at 1-10 in English (gets hung up after 7 most of the time), and she knows the even numbers in Spanish so we fill in the gaps. The ABC song is completely unrecognizable but every now and then you hear a few letters that sound familiar. :) She has an alphabet puzzle that she loves, too, and she knows quite a few letter sounds. I'm so thrilled with her school experience. I probably underestimate myself, but I always say if I stayed home with her, she'd know none of these things!

She's still going to the potty often, though I wouldn't say we're in full-on training mode just yet. Her teacher thinks she's ready to start in a few weeks, but I'm leaning toward waiting until the baby arrives. I'm just not sure. We'll see how she progresses and then we can make the best decision. Her teacher says once we commit to switching from diapers to big girl underwear (Montessori says no to pull-ups!), it should take less than two weeks, aside from overnight, when she'll still be in a diaper for awhile longer.

In just two short months, we'll be celebrating her 2nd birthday --- really hard to believe. We plan to just have a few friends over since it's during the holidays and not ideal for doing anything outside and inviting any of her friends from school. Soon after that, she'll earn the title of Big Sister. That's even harder to believe!!

Carving cuteness

A few days ago, we carved our pumpkin, and Randall used one of those carving templates and tool kits, which ended up being very easy (so he says). I love the way it turned out! Sydney wasn't into digging out all the pumpkin gunk, but I think she liked watching :)

 

 

 

Yesterday morning and this morning, I took a quick pic on my phone before school so they aren't great quality, but I love her Halloween shirts! Yesterday's cat is my favorite, and was a gift from our good friends. The witch one that she has on today was one I picked up last year on sale after Halloween. I've been surprised at the lack of Halloween attire at her school this week. Maybe they are saving it for Monday.

Pumpkins, Hay and Super Girl

Fall is definitely here! We had a fall-filled day yesterday, starting out at a great new pumpkin patch and ending the day at our friends' Halloween party. The pumpkin patch had pony rides, a petting zoo, a corn maze, tunnels and wagon rides. It was great. After nap, we got Sydney all superfied in her Super Girl Halloween costume and I must say she was the cutest superhero ever!! Randall and I wore Superman t-shirts. We are lucky that our friend who hosted the party is a photographer, so we're hoping she got a good family pic of the Super Stricklands. :) 

Here are lots of pics and a couple of quick videos from our day!

 

 

 

 

Introducing..... Super Girl! My mom found this costume after Halloween last year, and it fit like a glove when we put it on.She was clearly excited about it. She will have two more opportunities to wear it - once at her school's fall festival next weekend, and again for trick-or-treating.

 

And lastly, I love looking back and comparing Sydney's first year with her second year. It BLOWS MY MIND how much a child changes in just 12 months (which seems like a millisecond to us!). Here are her first two pumpkin farm wagon pictures and then her first two Halloween costumes.

Nursery no more?

We've been making a lot of progress on Collin's nursery, and with that, Sydney's rocker was moved out of her room and into his. Sydney never actually required much rocking, so it still looks brand new, and the lime green color fits in well with a boy's room just as much as it did with her very girly room. That was always the plan, so I'm pleased to see it was a smart purchase.

In place of the rocker, we got Sydney a little table and chairs. She already loves it! Here's how it looks in her room.

 

The last piece of Collin's furniture should arrive this week and I'll be able to post pictures soon. The color scheme is navy blue, lime green, and two shades of brown. It's really coming together!

Completely unrelated, Sydney's teacher asked that every family send a collage of family photos to school so the kids could look at them during the day and learn about each other's family members. I was resistant at first because I thought it would make her miss us more, but I finally gave in and did one Sunday afternoon. (Peer pressure still exists at this age. Ha!) We had to limit it to her parents and grandparents because I noticed the other kids' projects weren't very big. Here's the outcome, and I'm quite proud :)

Name that Baby

Naming a person is a big responsibility. I say this all the time. And maybe that's why it took us so long to choose Sydney's name. We narrowed it down to three names (Sydney, Blair and Natalie) and sat on those names for months. We were leaning toward Sydney Drew the few weeks before her birth, but didn't officially decide until the day she was born.

For some reason, naming our little boy has been so much easier! We came up with a few names we loved, quickly identified a favorite, thought about it for a couple of days and then decided it was the one. Then the decision of whether to keep it to ourselves or not.....and we've decided to do things completely different this time and share ahead of time. I already have a couple of things being made with his name, so now it has to stick:

We're so excited to have it all set, and we're already using silly nicknames like Colony. We can't wait to meet our boy!!

Woo Pig Sooie!

Yesterday was football-filled! We tailgated in the morning, then I took Sydney home for a nap. A babysitter came at 3, and I went back to campus to meet Randall for a pre-game work event I needed to attend, which was also lots of fun. Then, we went to the Arkansas v. Auburn game which was a great game that ended with a WIN. All in all, a very fun and busy day!

Our tailgating group "Turkey Hill Social Club" has a big spot just near campus, and it's always a good time with good friends. Randall bought my shirt and Sydney's jersey this past week --- I think he did a good job getting all [four] of us Hog-ready. As a bonus, our friend Ellen was visiting from Houston, so we got in some good time with her. It was a great day to be a Razorback fan in Fayetteville. You can tell by our clothes that the weather also cooperated. It was 80 degrees and the sun was shining. :)

 

 

 

 

24 weeks

I was so lucky that our ultrasound tech captured some great 3-D images of our little fella yesterday. Normally, you'd have to go to a special 3-D place for this. Here is our favorite. He found a cozy resting place on my placenta, and I'm sure that means he LOVES to sleep just like his big sister, right?? RIGHT????

It's hard to believe I'm already 24 weeks into this pregnancy. It has been smooth sailing, and time is flying. The nursery is coming along, and I will post pictures when it is blog-ready.

A few people have asked if we're registered anywhere, so I decided to do a small registry at Target. I wasn't sure if that was tacky for baby #2, but it must not be if people are asking. :) We're pretty well equipped already, but a new life certainly brings a few new needs with it.