Sydney Sue

Most times I call Sydney "Sydney Sue" not "Sydney Jo"- not sure why, but that's just how it is. Sydney is growing up. I can't believe all of the things that she can do now, and how her little personality continues to develop. Sydney is a light hearted, fun loving, little girl! She is very independent and will play by herself for hours, but she does love to play with Cooper and me. She is developing quite the imagination. She loves "making cookies," she loves to play with dress ups, and she loves to play with 'Little People' and dolls. I often find her telling her dolls or stuffed animals to "go potty" or "take a nap." I am afraid she will have first child syndrome and be a little boss (not unlike her mom). She loves to wrap her "babies" up, just like we wrap up Cooper, and gives them bottles. Her imagination has taken new heights... she has named our vacuum "Bubbles." She likes to give Bubbles hugs and talks to her. She will tell me, "Mommy, Bubbles is Loud!" "Bubbles scares me!" If the vacuum is out, she will talk to it... "Bubbles you have long hair" (while stroking the hose part) "Don't be sad bubbles, it's ok, I will come back."

Sydney is also loving Cinderella. She wants to watch it all the time! I never let her watch it more than once a day (and it's a pretty short movie actually). Most of the time she will watch a little bit of it, then go play, then go back and watch some more, unless she is tired, then she'll just sit and watch. But all day she pretends she is "Cinderelly." Daddy is the king, and Cooper is the prince. She isn't quite sure who I should be, but Matt always tells her I am the queen. Maybe she is confused since there isn't actually a queen in the movie! She likes to tell me about how Stepmother is "so mean" and about the "big pumpkin!"

Sydney has just started a phase where she always wants to wear a dress. She loves to twirl in dresses and look at herself in the mirror. We only had 2 dresses for her (pretty nice church ones) so yesterday we went and bought her a few dresses. Her Cinderella dress ups just don't quite work for outside of the house :) Sydney is very interested in 'girly' things, but I think she's pretty well rounded actually. She also loves cars, trains, balls, sports, and very boyish things. The other day Matt had a football game on, and told her to go play in her room and she said, "no, I watching football!" She also says, "Mommy, I want to go to beam (nursery) and play with boys!" And she LOVES playing with blocks and building towers!

Sydney LOVES to dance and sing! She is always saying, "mommy, dance with me!" We made her a cd with all of her favorite songs on it... she loves Disturbia (bum bum be dum to her), Party in the USA, Goodbye, and Pokerface. Yes, a very refined taste in music, I know! Whenever we get in the car, she asks us, "Dance, Daddy, Bum bum be dum please!" She always tells us if she likes a song or not, and will ask us to change it or turn it up. "Mommy, I like it this song!" Sydney also likes to sing I am a Child of God, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Rock-a-bye Baby, I Love to See the Temple, We Did It (from Dora), and Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. Here is a video of her music skills... please excuse the bed head, Sydney has horrible cases of bead head!

Sydney is such a "Big Girl" now! She is pretty much potty trained (half way I guess). She still has accidents sometimes if we leave the house, and has a hard time with pooping, but we are working on it! I think it just takes time, but she is pretty much understanding it for the most part, which is good. She is also pretty close to counting to 20- gets a few of the teens mixed up, and sings the ABC's pretty well! And she can recognize the letter "S" for "Sydney!"

We sure love having Sydney in our family! She definitely makes our lives so much more fun! By far my favorite memories of her right now will be the times I put her down for naps and bedtime. We sit in her bed with Cooper on my lap and read books! Tons of books! Sydney's favorites are Fancy Nancy; Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Did You See?; The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Chicka Chicka 123; and Ten Wishing Stars. We have so much fun reading together! Then we lay Cooper in his crib, and lay in Sydney's bed talking about our day. Sometimes we match animal noises with names, sometimes we sing, and sometimes we just giggle and laugh. And we ALWAYS give each other lots of hugs and kisses! It takes a lot of time out of my day, but I sure love having those moments twice a day with her!

I know that I go a little overboard sometimes with blogging and pictures, but I just really want to remember and cherish these precious memories!