It's Christmas!

Well it was on this day.

Sydney made out like a bandit on her first Christmas. She received more than double the presents Donnie and I received combined.

She loved to rip off the wrapping paper, but then she would try to eat the pieces of paper, so opening presents took a little longer than we thought.

Her favorite toy was the Tigger my parent's gave her. She started dancing to his song. Unfortunately, that was the favorite of almost every kid there, so you either really had to like Tigger's song, or learn to block it out and find a happy place.

Winter Wonderland

This year we went with Donnie's family to a couple of cabins in the mountains for Christmas. We were gone almost a week and so I am a little behind on the whole bloggy magic.

It was very exciting for me because it was my first White Christmas. In fact, there was so much snow that most of the family couldn't get in to or out of the driveway at our cabin. Here is the outside of the cabin we stayed in. Can you find the driveway?

Since we were pretty stationary due to the weather, we spent most of the time outside sledding. This was another first for me. I only went down the hill three times, and I crashed into snowbanks each time. I went down by myself at first, but then I had a partner or two for the last couple of times. One time I was so deep in the snow my brother-in-law had to dig me out and get me back on track. After this picture (we were just pulled out of the snow), my nephew said, "I think I'll go down by myself from now on."

Donnie helped me out of a snow pile too.

It was a great trip and Sydney was able to play with all of her cousins. She now has 15 on Donnie's side, and 4 were born within a few months of Sydney, 3 of those were girls.

We're in trouble now...

So we thought it was cute when Sydney started crawling around and we loved it when she started pulling up on the couches and bookshelves.

We even clapped for her and cheered her on while she was pulling things off the couch or finding papers nestled in a bookshelf. Now, however, we are regretting it.

She has recently discovered the stairs in our home, and she loves them. The problem is she moves really fast and so I can't take my eyes off of her when we are in the family room or she is on and up the stairs.

A new hat...

We will spend Christmas this year with my husband's family. As part of that, we are doing a gift exchange. The kids all drew names, but the adults (guys with guys, ladies with ladies) just have a random go at it.

Each girl is making a homemade gift to exchange. I decided to knit a scarf. Then I decided to knit a hat to go with it. After I finished those, I decided to knit a few for Sydney too. She really likes her scarf, but the hat she constantly tries to remove.

I pulled out the camera and she finally decided to leave the hat on long enough for a few shots. She even decided to show off her teeth!

Yes, I know she is holding a bulb syringe in her hand. It has been cleansed and disinfected. She likes to suck on it. I think it is gross, but it keeps her happy.

Be it ever so humble...

There's nothing like our Christmas tree.












We are going out of town and will be gone for about a week around Christmas so we weren't going to get a tree this year, but since it is Sydney's first Christmas we changed our minds. We ended up buying a little fake 3 foot, pre-lit wonder. It fits nicely on the countertop so the baby can't pull off the ornaments.

It doesn't look too small until you see Sydney next to it (keep in mind though she is really big for a 10-month-old girl).









Her favorite part of the whole deal is her dad's present - it's a watch so it is nice and easy for her to crawl around with. She pulled it down and clutched the box in both hands and proceeded to "belly crawl" around the living room. Everywhere she went that morning, the box was there too!

Looks like Santa overspent this year - a small box with pretty paper would have sufficed.

Third time's a charm, right?

So Sydney has been rather unlucky in the health department. She was born with jaundice, which the doctor failed to treat effectively so she spent the first week of life recieving heel pricks. Then she was treated for thrush. Two months and three medicines later we learned it was just fat deposits from breastmilk. So we're now on to pediatrician No. 3 and things were starting to look up...until September came.

Sydney went to the doctor September 15 and we found out she had an ear infection in both ears. We gave her amoxicillin like it was going out of style, but on October 4 we went back and she had an infection in her left ear. So we moved on to medication No. 2. Then we went back on November 4 and she has an ear infection in her right ear. Now she is on Augmentin, but the doctor upped the dosage, so hopefully we can get over the infection for good this time.

She's such a sweet girl, so it is so hard to see her sad and in pain. Her dad has been helping out a lot more too, but it is still hard for her.

So third illness, third doctor, third ear infection...hopefully the old saying is true.

Halloween

Sydney had her first Trick-or-Treat experience on Tuesday. We dressed her up as a cat.













It was pretty cold so she had on about 3 other layers too. I wanted to take a million pictures, but Donnie was afraid we would miis out on the "good" candy, so he didn't want to wait for pictures.

We went with Donnie's sister and her family and his brother and his family. It was nice to go in a group. There were 7 kids and 6 adults (Donnie's mom was in town too). The oldest kid walked, but the others were in strollers. After about three houses Donnie realized he could get to the doors faster if he carried Sydney, so he ditched the stroller. We made it about 2 hours and then it was time to call it quits - Sydney was screaming her lungs out!

All in all it was fun, but next year (when she can actually eat the candy she gets) will be even better!

On the move...

Most kids sleep with a blankie or a favorite doll, but not our baby - she loves her shoes. She totally gets that one from her dad (he needs a closet just for shoes, seriously).














Sydney's new favorite game is destruction. Donnie will stack her blocks and then she will "crawl" (it's more like a gimpy army crawl, but you gotta start somewhere right?) to the stack and knock it over. She thinks it's great fun. I pulled out the camera, but she had already been going for about 10 minutes so she was starting to wind down by the time I started recording.