Independence Day!

We had such a good weekend! Uncle Martin and Auntie Suzie stayed with us and we all got to meet baby Logan. He's so cute and sweet and tiny and just a joy to be around. Sydney was all about him and wherever he was, there she was also. There was only one occasion where I picked him up and she threw herself on the floor in jealousy and demanded I hold her in my lap too! Besides that, she couldn't get enough of him. It was so good for us all to spend some time together.

We took a few pictures of them and man! It was like controlling zoo animals. One would be sitting and the other would be going headfirst of the couch or one would be standing and the other would be looking anywhere but at the camera. It was funny. Of course, it doesn't help that our ancient camera takes forever to take pics.

We didn't dress them alike on purpose. They just came downstairs wearing the same colours. Cute!

Auntie Suzie stepped in to ease the chaos. Bless her heart for trying

Daddies and their babies

Silly Boys

They loved being on their daddies' shoulders but were ready to move on to something else within a minute

Awww!!

This is her latest game. Whenever she is scolded, she opens her eyes wide to try to make us laugh or she does it whenever she's feeling playful. We do it back to her and she laughs soo hard! She's a silly goose.

:love:

The post that has no title

I'm out of post title ideas today so we're going with none. :D

All is well in our world and Miss Thang is delighting us daily. That is, when she's not trying my patience or having a toddler fit. She's 99% rainbows and sunshine but that 1% can be a real challenge. I've heard about teen angst but no one mentioned toddler angst! Apparently they're sometimes cranky and inconsolable for no known reason and the parents are expected to ride it out. At least teenagers can talk! I give her some leeway because she went from having no teeth up until last Christmas Day to having EIGHT as of today. That cannot be a pleasant thing.

We delight in watching her play by herself and seeing the things she comes up with all without our prompting our suggestion. Every object becomes a telephone and she will spend all day calling her Dada. Her favourite word is not even a "real" word but nothing beats hearing her little voice squeak, "Boo!" when we walk in the door, instead of the usual Hi. We all sit and practice words with her and she just laughs and says, "Boo!" instead...over and over and over again.

Then there's the attitude. When she is corrected she "argues" with us in a language only she understands and does everything to get our attention. I told her last week that children who give attitude should be able to walk for it to be effective. How ever is she going to stomp to her room and slam the door if she's too chicken to walk? Last week she took 10 steps while chasing the therapist and then dropped to floor as soon as she realized she had no support. I gave her the handle of a spoon and put my finger tip on the ladle and she walked around that way, thinking she was getting support from me. She walks around with us, holding ONE of our fingers and she goes so fast now, we have to keep her pace. If she's standing and playing with a toy she will play and be fine, not realizing she's standing on her own and be there for a long while until she moves on to something else. We used to think she was afraid of falling but the Therapist thinks she's past that now. She thinks she just isn't confident and doesn't feel "safe" doing it on her own yet. She isn't getting any lighter so I hope she does it soon.

In the meantime, lugging her around should be good for my biceps.

Pics:

With Grandy's friend, Mrs. Vickers

Yes, she stuck the binky in his mouth. She thought it was the funniest thing EVER!

Happy Father's Day!!

So I already posted video about the moment Brian learned he would be a father. Here's when he learned the sex of our baby. Is it me, or was there a HUGE difference between when he thought the baby was a boy and when he knew it was girl? Happy Father's Day honey...I'm so happy I have the moment you fell in love with your daughter on tape.

Dear Friends and Family,

As you all know, I've basically been on house arrest since I left the hospital 16 months ago. Between RSV seasons and the doctors' need for me to maintain good health, I haven't had much of a social life at all. Well, it seems like all that has changed and I'm not sure I can keep up. Mommy and Daddy say they want me to do "regular kid stuff" and have all these activities planned...I've left the house every day for the last 14 days!

Hold me.

Last Friday, Mommy took me to story time at the library and honestly, I was simply shocked to find that there are other babies in the world! You mean the world doesn't revolve around me? I don't even want to think about it. :cry: Those pesky babies tried befriending me but I just stuck close to my Mommy and played with her purse instead. The stories were cool but I don't see why I had to leave my house just for that. We did some dancing and I really, really loved that! Dancing is my favourite thing ever so I kept dancing even when the singing was over. When it was over, some babies told me "bye-bye" and one even gave me a hug but I stuck to my convictions and didn't speak to them. Maybe they won't take me there again but I hear a rumour that I will be going weekly.

Save Me.

Today was my favourite day of all! We went to a park and man oh man, it was sooo much fun! I rode a pony and at first I was scared but then I got the hang of it and it was great!

Then I went on a swing.

I have one question.

Where have those things been all my life????

I.was.just.beside.myself with glee!!

If you can tune out Mommy's cackling, you will hear my excitement in this video. It amazes me how easily I can entertain her. She sounds like she was having as much fun as I was!

Yes...that is exactly how I laugh. :D

I hear there's a trip to the beach in my future. I'm not sure what this is but man, I'm exhausted! Having fun is hard work!

Do me a favour and make sure my parents pace themselves, ok?

Love,

Sydney

Better Late...

I know. I know. It's been a while. I had exams last week and I'm kind of an all or nothing girl. When I'm in exam mode, it's alllll about exams and virtually everything else gets left behind. Anyway, exams are OVER and we're back!

I'll post more of an update during the week but for now, here are a few pics:

Hey Sydney! Look at me. Smile for the camera!

No, not a fake smile! A real smile!

So that's the alternative? A fake smile or nothing? Let's try again.

Getting better! Big smile!

Oy! You win. Fake smile it is.

We are not buying her any more toys. She played with those things longer than she had played with many of her toys.

The good old days

I've mentioned before that we used to spend hours per day holding Sydney upright during the worst of her reflux issues. It would lead to her taking her daily naps on one of us and she would sleep peacefully for hours, leaving the person holding her unable to move. We looooved snuggling with her, even if I did complain some days about not being able to do any.thing. Anyway, that came to an abrupt end when she became active and mobile and chose poking her finger up our noses or riding us like horses instead of snuggling. 

For the past two weeks she's been teething hard and then she got shots last week so she's been quite cranky and clingy. The upside is that she is all about the snuggling these days. Last week she fell asleep on me at bedtime and I stayed up for two extra hours just enjoying it. "They" don't joke when they say it all goes by so fast. Then on Sunday, it got really quiet in the house and I came upon this. 

*melt*

I know I've posted a million pics like this but this one is special because we thought we were past this stage. I hate teething, but it sure has it's perks. 

Based on all the recent pics, some of my friends have asked if I've not combed her hair at all in the past few weeks. To them I say, "Shame on you!!" I don't like hair combing  (do *you* like doing things you aren't good at?) but it's not like it's optional. Her hair is combed and brushed daily. Life is too short and her hair is too fine for me to torture myself with those elastic hair ties if we aren't leaving the house. If we are, I do my best to make sure she doesn't look like a raggamuffin:

So there. :p

The whole walking business

So my girl is still not walking. She absolutely can but she won't. It was the same when we were trying to get her to sit up and then crawl. She just would not do it. For months we would have to keep a pillow behind her and sit her up ourselves and then she would just throw herself back when she didn't want to sit anymore. She never really practices anything so we're left worrying until she just surprises us one day and does it perfectly. One day she just sat up and that was that. Same thing with the crawling...she didn't do a lot of "trying to crawl" and then falling on her face. Instead, she got around by laying on her back, knees up and moving around like a crab on the floor. I kid you not. I had never seen anything like it in my life but she perfected it and moved around with ease. Then one day we went from, "Oh my goodness, she's NEVER going to crawl!" to her just doing it the next day. She's not a trial and error kid, apparently. 

The Physical Therapist says she's her most puzzling patient but she does all the right things physically and clearly doesn't have any reason for not walking besides just not being ready to do so. Anyway, everybody set May 1 as The Date She Absolutely Must Be Walking because that's when she would turn 15 months adjusted and the"average" baby is usually walking by then. We have a neuro appt on June 17 and he would like her to be walking by then. Everybody is all a twitter because "we're so close and she's not doing it." She will walk around all day holding on the anything by her finger tip but she's just not ready to let go of that security yet.

This is where it pays to be friends with other micro preemie moms who had to wait for their kids to walk too. My friend Dianna didn't get her son (a 24 weeker) to walk until his grandmother gave him a big spoon! The spoon made him feel like he was holding something stable and he finally walked at 21 months (18 adjusted). Every other micro preemie mom I know has the same story. I maintain this blog for our family who lives far away, for Sydney to be able to look back on but also for other moms who are going through what we have been through. In the early days I would spend hours online just reading other blogs and seeing how these tiny babies developed and thrived. It's gave me so much hope then and still does now. Plus nothing beats telling the doctors, "She's doing all the right things and I don't know any kid born before 30 weeks that walked at 15 months adjusted!" There's a world of difference between a full term baby, a 32 weeker and micro preemie. It's just a fact. 

Anyway, we're not gonna stress about it in light of the fact that she is showing NO signs of a true developmental issue. The Therapist gave me a brace to "motivate" her, while acknowledging that my child is just like her mama - she's self-motivated and you can make her do any.thing until she's ready. 

I give you the brace:

There are rods at the back and front that make it impossible for her to bend her knees and sit. It's supposed to force her to balance and be inspired to walk. She thinks it's funny. 

I put them on her anyway and took this picture so that when she is a teenager and thinking about dishing attitute, I can wave it around and say, "You see what you put me through!! The things we did to make you walk! *This* is the thanks we get???" Then I'll cry and she will feel bad and tell me she's sorry and loves me and won't do it again. 

That's how it works, right?