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!

One year and a half!!

I can't believe we have an 18-month-old. It's amazing to watch her grow, learn and change. Some days I wake her up and I think I still have a little baby, and other days I think I have such a big girl!

At 18 months, sweet Sydney Drew:

• would live outside. We hear "side, side, side" as she runs to the back door every single day...many times.
• thinks sitting on the potty is funny, but we haven't seen any action there yet.
• moves to a new classroom in a new building next week! This next level does so many fun things; I know she'll love it once the adjustment period is over.
• is shy with strangers or people she hasn't seen in awhile, but normally warms up after a little while.
• is sooooo silly. Her sense of humor gets more and more mature all the time. It's amazing how she finds things funny that I think are above her level.
• is still a wonderful eater and sleeper. We try to always remember how lucky we are for that.
• loves to mix up mama and daddy. We assume this is on purpose, but calling Randall "mama" too many more times may give him a complex.
• is a puzzle pro.
•  learns new words all the time, and the ones we hear most often are "bow," "snack," "bubble," "[out]side,"no," and "book."
• is obsessed with her hair bows. She wears one to school and then a different one at night after her bath. We do put it away before bed, which is an improvement :)
• is quite the expert with her animal noises. Current favorites are the horse, rooster and monkey.
• has favorites at school. If your name isn't Emery or Max, she isn't really interested in playing with you. And if you like puzzles, you get extra points.

We have Sydney's 18-month check-up next week, so we are excited to get her updated height/weight stats. We also start swimming lessons Tuesday evening. Happy 18 Months, sweet girl!!

 

Father's Day Fun - Daddy's Turn to Blog

I usually leave the blogging to Danielle, but she and Sydney made sure I had such a nice Father's Day today, that I wanted to write about what a great day it was.
This is my second year being honored as a father and it was so much fun! Danielle brought Sydney in to me after she woke up, and it was so much fun being woken up by a smiling Sydney this morning, with lots of hugs and kisses.

 Shortly after that, Danielle brought in a couple of gifts and cards that she and Sydney had picked out for me.

My cards were so sweet and I absolutely loved my gifts! The first was a new bottle of cologne. It is called Black by Kenneth Cole and it smells great.

The next gift, I was so excited about! I recall a couple of school years in the mid 80's when some of the coolest shoes on the market were suede Puma's. They came in many colors, but as I shared with Danielle many times, the coolest ones came in navy blue. I never did have a pair...but now I do!

 

 

After gifts, Danielle told me that she had made a reservation for us to have brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Copeland's of New Orleans. The meal was amazing, and as predicted, we completely overdid it, but it was so good and Danielle and I had the most fun with Sydney, who was an angel at the restaurant.

I wanted to post this picture because it shows Sydney's cute curls.

After such a big and delicious meal, all I wanted to do was come home and relax and spend the rest of the day with my girls. Sydney took a (short) nap when we got home. Later in the day we spoke with several members of our families and it was nice to share our day with them. The last part of the afternoon was spent in front of the TV watching the final round of the U.S. Open. I want to thank my wonderful wife for helping Sydney to give me such a great and fun Father's Day! There is nothing more special to me than the time spent with my beautiful family and I am so grateful for them. Here's hoping all Dads enjoyed their day as much as I enjoyed mine!

Little Fishy

One of the great things about our golf/pool membership is that we have access to a whole suite of courses and pools around Northwest Arkansas. Today, we went to a pool close to our house, and we finally got a few quick pictures. Going to the pool with an active toddler is much busier than last year! This pool has an inclined shallow end, so Sydney loved walking in until the water was up to her neck.

 

Her other favorite activity was being thrown back and forth between Mom and Dad. The next time we go to our regular pool, I'll have to get video of her going down the slide with Randall catching her. I think her favorite part was watching me slide down after her :-) We start swimming lessons in July - can't wait for that. I'm so glad she likes the water!

Grandpa and Golf

We enjoyed all last week with my dad. I worked shorter days so I could have time with him, and that also meant he had some quality time with Sydney alone. We loved having him here. He got a lot of good pictures, so I need to get those from him to complete my collection from the week. We will see him again in September for a family wedding, and we can't wait! Syd warmed to him right away, so I think there was some recognition from all our Skype sessions since the last time we saw him in person, which was at Christmas.

 

 

Today, on Memorial Day, we spent a little time at the golf course --- Sydney's first time there. She loved riding in the cart and I think I got some of the cutest pictures of my two golfers. I just hope Sydney has a tiny bit of skill and/or interest as she gets older so her daddy doesn't cry!

 

 

 

 

And here's one last picture from our cookout Saturday evening. We got Sydney her own little chair so she fit in with the rest of the group. Before our guests arrived, she kicked back for a quick read in the sun. :-)

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, too!

Two videos

This first video just warms my heart. I took piano lessons for many years, and I love seeing Sydney's interest in music. Hopefully she'll want to take lessons one day. For now, we have this beautiful song to listen to. As you can see, she thinks her performances are worthy of applause, already :-)

For the next video, we knew we wanted to get a swing set for our backyard this year. When my good friend decided to upgrade the one she had for her kids, her old one was the perfect first set for us. She even sold it to us with a baby swing - all ready to go! This is the minute it arrived at our house. We hadn't even found a good place for it yet. I think the swing gives the wagon a run for its money. This may be the new favorite. (She seems to love having a swing at home; we never get giggles like this at the park.) Now if we could just figure out how to end swinging sessions with no tears, we'd be all squared away!

Mother's Day 2011

One word to sum up today? Perfect! Randall helped Sydney create the best Mother's Day any mom could ask for ... and then some! This pretty set of goodies started my day.

Included are flowers (which I later split into two bouquets so we could have fresh flowers in more rooms), two sweet, sweet cards, and three gift cards to three of my most favorite stores: Brighton jewelry, Francesca's (clothes, accessories, etc.) and Ann Taylor Loft.

Before the shopping spree, we went to a drive-through safari (learn more here) in a town about 30 miles from our house. It was the BEST thing and Sydney went crazy over all the animals. There were hundreds of animals covering 400 beautiful acres. If you can think of an animal, we saw it, and we saw it CLOSE UP. The 5-mile loop took us about 1.5 hours, and the animals come right up to your car. You'll see Sydney is sitting up front with us, which is allowed because you're only going about 5 mph.

Following the drive-through part, there is a walking component where you can see more animals up close and personal. It was so hard to choose favorite images, but here are some. We could have stayed all day.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

After the animals, we had lunch and did all the shopping. I had the best time, and Sydney was a trooper! It was 90 degrees here today, so we didn't stroll around too much at the open air mall other than in and out of the three stores. I successfully spent all the money, which was my specific instruction. :-) I can't wait to debut all my new things.

So, we got home and Randall surprised me yet again by giving me a pedicure! One of his coworkers does pedicures at her house so she let him borrow all the stuff. He made me a mimosa and the pampering began amidst all the baby toys. My feet look and feel as though I was at the spa. This could be bad news for my sweet husband!

For dinner, I requested Randall's awesome grilled hamburgers - delicious! I should also mention that we had a great "Mother's Day" brunch last Sunday. The place we wanted to go is usually packed, especially on special days, so we went a week early. The food was fabulous. I also love this photo of Sydney while we were at brunch --- being silly and showing off her pearly whites!

 

I must say I am feeling especially lucky this evening as I type this re-cap, which barely does this day justice. It was so special, and I can't imagine how I will ever make Father's Day as special as this for Randall!! I know he deserves it, and I am so thankful to be married to someone who loves me this much. Becoming Sydney's parents has only made our life together more complete. Here's to making every day Mother's Day and Father's Day.  :-)

Wedding Bells

Yesterday, we were able to attend the wedding of our good friend, Rachel. Rachel and I are co-workers, and quickly became close friends. She has been through a lot, and seeing her happily walk down the aisle was a wonderful thing! This was Sydney's first event of its kind, and she did pretty well during the ceremony (Randall did take her out into the hallway half-way through because she was fidgety), but she had a blast at the reception.

 

 

 

 

Sydney thinks kids in the 5-10 age group are just sooooo cool. My co-worker's daughter, Alyssa, fit that bill nicely :-) She will be a fabulous babysitter in a few years.