Wednesday, July 30, 2008

New Adventures

CHANGES:
In the past couple weeks our lives have changed dramatically. It all began when Sydney started crawling. I mean really all out, hands and knees, across the house kind of crawling. She crawls to different objects throughout the apartment and pulls herself up to stand, she gets into things, behind things, and to places that I would have never even thought of. It is interesting to see through the eyes of a baby. Let me tell you…you think the floor is spotless, and she’ll find something! She is like a human vacuum cleaner.

CRAWLING:
Going in to the crawling stage I would have thought that Sydney would just wear herself out crawling around all day and be nice and ready for bed at night. However this has not been the case. She is so full of energy I don't know what to do with her. She will not take naps, and will not go to bed. The small naps she does have take place when we are in the car or she is in the stroller. It has really taken its toll on me and my laundry and housework. I have decided that since she has been crawling a whole new world has opened up to her, and she is so curious that she just does not want to sleep ever. She does not want to miss out on anything!

BEDTIME:
We have been trying to get Sydney into a night time routine to try and help with the "not going to bed" stage she seems to be in. We give her a bath, with bedtime soothing bath & lotion, which is supposed to calm her down. (Doesn't she look so relaxed in this picture? She'll get the whole bathroom wet from splashing. I don't know why but she loves to sit like this in the bath- with her feet up high...)
Then we wrap her up tight, feed her, and lay her down to sleep. The second she is in her crib she begins screaming her little lungs out. I have tried rocking her to sleep in the rocking chair, which she won’t have…she does not like to cuddle. I have tried standing next to her crib for countless amounts of time, which won’t work because she plays with my hands. And I have tried letting her yell for any amount of time up to an hour. I hate listening to her cry in her crib…yelling “mama” and I usually break down, but I have been told several times that the best thing to do is let them cry themselves to sleep. Most nights I will go and get her after a half hour or so and let her crawl around the house some more until Matt and I go to bed. Then when we go to bed, we bring her with us, lay her down in between us, and when she is finally asleep we put her in her crib. Usually we begin the process of putting her to bed around 9:45 and we end the process sometime after midnight. It has made our nights awful!

THE OTHER NIGHT...
Matt and I had to speak in church on Sunday, and I also had to play the piano in sacrament because the primary kids were singing (I am the primary pianist). Needless to say, Saturday night was a very busy night for us. I was SO nervous! I haven't spoken in church since the first week of my freshman year in college -and there were 4 speakers so I didn't have to speak very long. This time, Matt and I were the only speakers, and it has been almost 5 years since I have spoken in church. So because I am the kind of person who stresses out pretty easily- I was stressed out on Saturday night. I decided that I was, no matter what, putting Sydney to bed so I could work on my talk. And I stuck to it! I did not go get her out, and she cried and cried. Around 11:30 I finished my talk and was practicing giving it to Matt, when we heard Sydney's cries getting louder and louder. All of a sudden, we heard her at her bedroom door. We rushed to the door, and Matt had to squish her fingers to open it because Sydney was right next to the door with her fingers under it. She had fallen out of her crib! I started crying because I felt so bad and guilty, and I was afraid that she was hurt. But the second we got in there and turned on the light, we had a happy baby. She crawled around the house for another half hour and talked away. Apparently, all she wanted was to crawl around. Thankfully Sydney was not hurt! We immediately moved the mattress down in her crib. So we were up very late that night, and had to get up for 9:00 church and speak. Our talks actually went well, and I am glad I got speaking over with.

Sydney's crib before we moved the mattress down...

How Sydney used to lay in her crib before she started crawling...

Sydney after falling out of her crib...waiting for Mom & Dad to come to bed, happy as can be...and waving!

Sydney playing in her crib after we moved the mattress down, for some reason she really liked it, probably because it was "new"

More playing...

Standing in the lowered crib...at least she can't fall out!


How Sydney lays in her crib now that she crawls...oh wait, she doesn't lay! We solved the falling out of the crib problem, but still have not figured out how to get her to sleep!



Not only did crawling indirectly bring about the crib incident, it brought Sydney's first bruise. She hit her head on a low table at my parent's house and actually got 2 bruises! Crawling also brings along all of the injuries. We are now very familiar with Sydney's "hurt cry." You can kind of see the two bruises on her forehead in this picture...


Sunday, July 20, 2008

Lagoon

Friday was my family's Stake Lagoon Day. Last minute Matt and I decided it would be a fun change of pace to join them in the activities, so we packed up two diaper bags and joined in on the fun. It has been a long time since either of us had been to Lagoon- actually the last time we went was before we were engaged- so there were a few new rides and attractions to see. Sydney actually loved the whole day. She loves being outside and going for walks in her stroller, so it was very fun for her. I decided to not get a pass, but just buy tickets for a few rides, to save a little money, so I went on Rattlesnake Rapids, the Swings, and the Train and Merry-Go-Round with Sydney. Matt went on all the big, scary roller coasters- including Wicked- and the Skycoaster! It was a fun day!



Sydney thinks she is big like us when we let her "drink" from a cup. Somehow she loves it, even though she doesn't even get anything!


Rattlesnake Rapids! You pretty much don't get wet the whole ride until the waterfall at the end...this is just before the waterfall.

This is after the waterfall.


Taking a nap...


Sydney and Allie

Just hanging out


Tilt-a-Whirl...I skipped out on this ride, even though it is wimpy it makes me sick!



Sydney with the fish my mom won for her. She played the "Guess Your Age" game, and walked up with Sydney in the stroller and Allie next to her. The employee guessed her to be 28 years old! If they are within 2 years they win the game...needless to say my mom won, she is 46!


Matt and Tim walking to their death...the Skycoaster!

Flying on the Skycoaster!

They lived to tell the tale!


Waiting to ride the Wild Kingdom Train

Riding the train...Sydney loved it, but I don't think she even saw the animals we drove past. She enjoyed looking at the red bars on the train.


Waving to Daddy on the Merry-Go-Round!

Holding on tight!



We topped the night off with ice cream! Sydney always enjoys ice cream a little too much! We try to be careful with how much we give her, but she always begs...it is hard not to give in to her cute little face!


Sleeping in the stroller after a long day...everyone was still going on rides!

Monday, July 7, 2008

4th of July Weekend

Life is so exciting when you have a new baby because there are so many "firsts." Literally almost every day there is a new "first" for Sydney. This weekend was filled with a lot of big "firsts" which made it all the more special. I LOVE the 4th of July! The 4th and 24th combined are my favorite holidays. I love summer, summer food, summer weather, hanging with the family, swimming, barbeque's, fireworks, and everything about the month of July! Because I love it so much, it was exciting to share some of my favorite things with Sydney.




first parade: When we were younger we used to always go up to my grandpa's cabin for the 4th of July. We would go to the Oakley parade, the Oakley rodeo, roast marshmallows, and play in the mountains all day. So parades are a big memory of mine. We actually didn't plan on going to a parade, but were driving around the mall waiting to eat and stumbled upon one. So we parked and watched a bit of the parade. It was kind of a small parade but fun still the same. So here is Sydney's first parade!











first fireworks:
I absolutely LOVE fireworks! I would 100 times rather go to a big fireworks show than light a few dinky ones in the front yard. Surprisingly enough, I love the crowds. It reminds me of Draper Days, which I loved as a kid.
Someday I want to go to New York for the 4th of July so I can watch the fireworks over the harbor! So we watched the fireworks show in Sandy. It wasn't the best show, but not too bad. Sydney really liked the fireworks at first but got bored with them after a while. I was afraid she would be scared of them because of the noise, but it didn't bother her one bit. Here is Sydney's first fireworks show!












first campfire: On Saturday we went to Courtney and Tyler's house to cook dinner and have a campfire and make s'mores. We did that a lot last summer when I was pregnant with Sydney and this summer Courtney is pregnant. It is funny how the years change so much. We have been waiting for Courtney to have the baby so Sydney can "have a new friend." And next year we will be roasting marshmallows with Sydney and Kate. We rolled Sydney's stroller up next to our chairs and she happily watched the fire and enjoyed being outside- which is her favorite thing. I don't think Sydney has ever gotten sick of being outside- she must take after her mom. Anyway, it was a fun night. Too bad Sydney couldn't have her first s'more, but she did have her first gram cracker and loved it!








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