Christmas Recap

We enjoyed our Christmas day opening presents (slowly, as each one must be played with before you open another one...), eating and spending time as a family. 

Before church on Christmas Eve.

This is Elle. 

Elle reported back to Santa each night about whether Sydney was a good girl or not. Every morning she would be hiding in a different place (in the laundry room, by the coffee maker, hanging from the curtains, etc.) and Sydney would give her a hug and kiss after she had been found.

I know that some people's Elf On the Shelf have been known to get into trouble and make a mess each night that the mommy then has to clean up, but our elf knows that this mommy wouldn't like that, so Elle would just hide in a different spot each day. On Christmas morning, she was sitting with the new toys that Santa brought for Sydney.

Playing at her new table and chairs with Dada.

She was excited about the new sippy cups that Santa put into her stocking.



Santa follows the traditional Victorian Christmas Stocking poem/quote in our house and fills stockings with 4 things: "Something to eat, something to read, something to play with and something they need."   The sippy cups were the 'something she needs'.

 Dan and I

Checking out her bracelet from Daddy. 

Dan got a new tripod and remote for the camera.  So we had to play with it a bit... Here we are making dinner ;)

We hope that your Christmas was as lovely as ours.

A few outtakes

My brother got Sydney a shirt that says "My Uncle is Awesome" for Christmas.  She wanted to wear it after we opened the present, so we tried to get a picture to send to him.  Perhaps some of the funniest outtakes that we've had in a while.

Oh no, Sydney's eyes are closed.

And now mine are. 

"Not the hair, Sydney!" 

 The pointing is the best part of this one.

Going with the windblown look.

 

So THIS was the winning picture that we sent to Matt.

A visit with Santa

Sydney and the jolly old man with a beard got along great this year.  

She was a bit confused, so she stayed pretty quiet and didn't talk to him, but all in all, I considered it a success!

A detour

After our trip to the Museum of Science, we took a little detour on the way home so that Dan could see Fenway.  The only surprise here is that it took us this long to do it.

Since it was so cold, I vetoed getting out of the car and walking around, but did manage to grab a couple of pictures from the car.

Our little scientist

We headed down to the Museum of Science on Saturday and spent the morning exploring - we all had a great time.  Sydney especially....

 Playing with Dada.

 Splashing in the "river".

 Dan and I liked this part more than she did - it was an audio-kinetic sculpture with balls that worked their way through the maze.  

Sydney's favorite part - the model of the Apollo Command Module.  She screamed when we had to leave it.

All she wanted was to push the buttons and say 'beep, beep'.

Thankful

As I mentioned, I totally missed getting this up in a timely manner.  Oh well.  We should be thankful all the time, right? :)

We headed down to Atlanta for Thanksgiving this year which meant Sydney's first plane flight.  I was nervous.  I could only imagine the meltdown that we could have in store.  But she rocked.  She did SO well.  Our flight was around 8am, so we left the house around 5:45 AM.  Early by any stretch of the imagination.   The little lady stayed awake until we were leaving Hartsfield after Grampie and MAE-MAE picked us up in Atlanta.  It was around noon.  I was exhausted.  But she was still rocking and rolling.

sitting like a big girl on the plane

She did figure out how to unbuckle her seatbelt before we'd even pushed back from the gate, so that was fun :)

Our lifesavers for the trip: buying Sydney her own seat (I can't imagine holding her for the whole flight -that would have been a nightmare!), lollipops for take off and landing, stickers and a notebook for her to put them in and this Travel Cart - it's part stroller, part "carry-your-car-seat-through-the-airport" and worth every penny.

We spent a couple of days with my parents and a couple of days with Dan's parents and somehow managed to work 2 Thanksgiving dinners out of the deal. 

Sydney enjoyed getting spoiled by the grandparents and playing with Cousin Joshua.

playing in the leaves at Grandma and Granddaddy's

at the park

"driving" around MAE-MAE and Grampie's house

On Thanksgiving morning, Dan ran the Atlanta Half Marathon.    (Yay - Go Hubs!)
As I waited for him about a quarter of a mile from the finish line, I saw quite a few people who looked like they might collapse as they crossed the finish line.  Those people I could have gotten a good picture of.  Dan, however, was still running strong when I saw him, so all I managed was this picture:

He's the one in the red shorts about to cross behind the tree.

(I know, I know, you are impressed with my awesome photo-taking skills.  But let's not focus on that.  Let's focus on Hubs who was still running strong right before the finish line!)

Our flight home was as uneventful as the ride to Atlanta and we were told by several people after we landed 'she did so well' (with a great deal of relief in their voice :) ).

All in all, a very lovely Thanksgiving.

Oh my

Remember when I wrote about Sydney's big girl bed and said she had done so well staying in her bed and she didn't make a mess at all?

Well, night time continues to be a success, but naptime is a bit of a different story.  It's probably 50/50 whether or not she'll stay in her bed and nap or get out of her bed and play.

Friday was most definitely a get out of bed and play kind of day.

I walked in to get her, immediately turned around to go get the camera and was able to document this:

What I've Learned This Week...

... There were 3-legged sheep at the manger in Bethlehem.  Apparently.

...Super glue is a wonderful thing :)

...Chocolate Frosting makes a nice dessert if you have nothing else in the house.  Cupcakes to go with the frosting are not required.

...Timeout is not an effective form of discipline:  I sent Sydney to timeout after she took an ornament off of the Christmas Tree (AGAIN).  She danced her way down the hall and plopped herself down in the corner and was content to just sit until I came to get her.
I asked her why she had gone to timeout:  "Tree".  "Yes, ma'am that is correct, we do not touch the Christmas Tree, do we?"
"No no".
Sounds great, huh?  Expect for when you notice that we've repeated the process, oh I don't know, probably 17 times today.  


...I have officially missed my goal of 'Get the Thanksgiving post up before we are closer to Christmas than we are to Thanksgiving'.  Oops.


....Sydney likes the Beatles.  We put Sydney down with music playing for naps and I try to mix it up and play something different for her each time.
I went to put her down for nap this morning and I was turning on her ipod and asked "do you want Christmas music?"
"no"
I tried about 5 other suggestions and kept hearing "no".
So I tried "how about the Beatles?"
"uh huh" and she laid down and went right to sleep.  
We're definitely starting to express our opinions around this house :)

The Elevator Game

Sydney's new favorite game is to empty all of the toys out one of her toy bins and climb inside.  She then wants you to pick her up and play elevator.  
She doesn't seem to understand that our arms get tired of the game much more quickly than she does. 

Up and down and up and down....

Sydney and the Rice

A few weeks back, I needed Sydney to entertain herself for a little while and her toys just weren't cutting it.  So I broke out a bag of rice and some kitchen utensils and let her have at it.

It did require a good sweep AND vacuum of the kitchen afterwards, but it certainly served its purpose.

Trying to sneak a bite of rice...

The WeatherGirl

I'm wondering if we have a future meteorologist on our hands.  Her favorite book, hands-down is a book from a weather class that I took in college. The book made its way to our bookshelf and Sydney LOVES to read it. She carries it around with her and will ask you to read it to her.

On the plus side, she is probably the only 1 year old who knows anything about the water cycle.

Burlington Tree Lighting

Dan's office is in Burlington and they sponsored a couple of trees on the town green for the high school's annual fundraiser.  They put up Christmas trees and you can sponsor a tree and decorate it.  The lighting of the trees was this past weekend, so we swung by to see the trees and watch the official tree lighting.  There was even a Santa spotting, but as the line to visit the bearded fella was VERY LONG, we just let Sydney wave to him from afar. 
Sydney had a great time walking around and pointing at the Christmas trees.  Her favorite was the one with the string of ornaments that both lit up AND played music.  She kept wanting to go back over to that tree even after we'd walked away.  At one point she pulled Dan over to look at the tree with her, then called for me to come over also.  She then pointed at the ground and said 'mama', so I stood where she pointed.  Then she did the same thing for her Dada.  Then she pointed at the Christmas lights and did a little dance for us.  SUPER CUTE.

The Fam.

Santa's arrival.

All lit up.

(sorry for the terrible iPhone photos...I didn't have my 'real camera')

Chores

19 months isn't too early to start her on chores, right? :)

 

Just helping mommy clean the windows. 

Note the windex at the bottom of the picture.

A Big Girl Bed

When I walked into Sydney's room to get her the other morning and she was climbing out of her crib I realized that it was time for a big girl bed.  She has a convertible crib, so we took the front off of the crib and she is into a big girl bed. 

We put her down for bed the first night after a few discussions about needing to stay in bed.  Dan and I left her room and immediately ran to the video monitor to watch.  She fell out almost right away.  Poor thing tried to sit up and sat a little close to the edge.  She is a quick learner though - that has been the only fall out so far.

The first night (and ironically, during her "nap" as I type this), she got out of bed a couple of times to run to the bedroom door and try to open it.  Once she realized it was shut, she just climbed back in bed.

We probably have a few more days before we can declare the transition a success, but so far, so good.  

All of a sudden I feel like I have a big girl, not a baby anymore.

Waking up in her big girl bed for the first time.  I had the camera ready in case there were toys all over the place or the room looked like a tornado had rolled through.  But I didn't find any of that.  Just a sweet little lady in her big girl bed.

 

Looking much older than 19 months!