Sydney and Bella

These 2 have been partners in crime for quite a while now. 

Bella is INCREDIBLY patient and sweet towards Sydney. She'll let Sydney sit on her or pull her ears or drag her around by the collar.  Or dress her up.  As seen below. :)

I know this is hard to see.  But Sydney put her sunglasses on Bella and said "haha, Bella gla-gla (glasses)".

 Bella wearing a headband.   Sydney kept exclaiming "ohhh cute!"
Bella was not amused.

Two

Sydney turned two on Wednesday and she is as busy as ever.

This time last year she was only really saying a couple of words -- this year she's talking up a storm.  I often get a running play-by-play of much of our day. She was a bit slow to get started talking, but as Dan said, now that she's started, I'm not sure that she's going to shut up. :)
Her most common phrase is probably "No Mama!  Syd do".

She has no problem yelling at Bentley and Bella if they are stirring up trouble.  She'll tell them 'no', or to 'go, lay' (go lay down). She's also been known to shut a dog in her bedroom and think it hysterical when I realize (sometime later) that I haven't seen that dog in a while.  (me: "Sydney, where is Bella?"  her: (laughing) "Bella my room" (more laughing).).

She is still a great sleeper.  She finally dropped down to 1 nap a day.  And boy was Mommy sad to see that morning nap go away.  She decided she was too big for 2 naps a day right around the same time we found out that we're pregnant - so Sydney got to learn all about cartoons as she laid on the couch with me while I snoozed in the mornings.  She takes an afternoon nap from 1 til 3 or 4.  And sleeps from 8-8 at night.

Sydney's a great eater and will eat just about anything.  The exception is noodles.  She won't touch them.  It's the craziest thing ever.  What kid doesn't eat pasta??

She LOVES the park and playing on the swings or the slide.

She's learning her letters and knows most of them.  Most of them she calls by name, but she calls the T "tree" and K "key".  And (my favorite), W is "dub dub."

Her favorite thing right now is balloons. Our apartment complex puts balloons out on the sign at the front of the neighborhood most days.  Every time we get in the car, she asks for the balloons and either cheers or says 'sad' when we get to the front of the neighborhood, depending on whether or not the balloons have been put out that day.
Our conversations usually go something like this:
S: "Ba-bloons?"
Me: "I don't know, sweetie, we'll have to see if there are any balloons today."
S: "YAY Ba-bloon! Red ba-bloon! Blue Ba-bloon! Pink Ba-bloon! (etc)"
---OR---
S:"No ba-bloon.   sad."
Me: "Sorry Sydney, maybe we'll see balloons tomorrow"
S: "Mama try"
Me: "Try to find a balloon?"
S: "Yes, Mama try"

Daddy brought the little lady balloons and cupcakes on her birthday and she was SOOO excited when he came in the door.

We had a low key celebration with Sydney, but she didn't seem to mind. 



She didn't get quite as dirty as she did with her cake last year, but we did put her in a bib for the first time in a long while.  And it was a good thing we did. 

Slugs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails...



It's A BOY!

 Sydney needed to give the baby a few 'tap tap's.

Kisses from Big Sister

Cheering on the Red Sox

We took Sydney to her first baseball game last weekend.  I wasn't sure if she was going to be cooperative for the whole game, but she did great!  It was a beautiful spring day and Little Lady liked cheering "Yay Sox".  Sydney loved her new shirt and hat!  She stayed up until we got home (WAY past her bedtime), but then passed out as soon as Dan and I put her in her bed - she was asleep before we got out of her room. 

A New Party Trick

Putting In Her Contacts

Is it obvious that Sydney watches me get ready on a regular basis?

New England Aquarium

We went down to the Aquarium in February.  While it certainly isn't as big as the Georgia Aquarium, it was perfect for a toddler.

Sydney LOVES the movie Happy Feet (it's about penguins), so the penguin exhibit was definitely a favorite.  

They also had a touch tank with sharks and rays.   She wasn't interested in actually touching the animals, she was more than happy to watch.  She also made sure to correct the little boy who was standing next to her when he started splashing in the water.  She shook her finger at him and gave him a stern 'no no.'

looking at the fish with Daddy

She kept calling the penguins Mumble (the character from Happy Feet) 

Watching the penguins (check out that ponytail!)

In Like A Lion

Our winter was VERY mild.  We had snow a few times, but it really wasn't as bad as we were afraid it might be.  (That snow back in October had us a bit nervous!)

Sydney was a huge fan of the snow: she loved running to the window and exclaiming "SNOW!!" and especially loved playing outside in it.

These pictures are from the snowstorm that we had at the beginning of March.  Winter may have been a bit confused overall, but Mother Nature did get her act together in time to bring March in like a lion. 

And we're back...

The details are still being (frantically) worked out, but we're moving back to Atlanta!

With the layoffs that Dan's company went through a couple of months ago, his role changed - and the new role is available in both Boston and Atlanta. So we pick the Atlanta one.

It'll be a quick move - again. He needs to be in Atlanta mid May, so we're figuring out the details of packing things up here and getting back to GA.

So - yeah. We're keeping things interesting.

Excused Absence

I'm well aware that we've been slacking on the blog, but I have a good excuse. 

See, I even got a doctor's note:

This little lady or fella has pretty much wiped me out, but I'm starting to come around. 
Thank goodness for good anti-nausea medicine. 

Baby #2 should make his or her appearance around Sept 25th, so I'm about 17 weeks along.  We should (hopefully) be able to find out if he/she is a HE or a SHE next week (and get some pictures of the little one where he/she doesn't look like a "bubble" as Sydney has called it).  
For what its worth, Sydney has guessed the new baby to be a girl, but as I mentioned to Dan, I'm not sure that she knows the word 'boy.'  So, take that with a grain of salt :)   We'll see next week if she's right or not!