Catching Up

I know, I know, it' s been two weeks since I last posted. Chasing after a certain little 14-month-old can be quite time-consuming. I'm sure all of you out there who are parents know. Let me ask you this: what is the secret to changing the diaper of a squirmy, wriggly baby trying to escape your wrath?

Sydney is So Big, as you can see.

She is getting more and more confident in her walking ability. She walks more than she crawls now, and along with that, she falls more too. Last Friday when Brian got home from work, she was walking through the kitchen to greet him and Ellie wanted to get to him first. (Ellie won.) Sydney biffed it, smacking her hands and face down on the kitchen floor. I thought she was okay until I saw the bloody mouth. She only cried for a few minutes and then proceeded to walk around some more, sucking the loose strand of skin that was hanging from her upper lip.

Here she is with her "bling" - a strand of beads and Ellie's dog collar.

The next day she was trying to get away from the Mommy-monster and face-planted on the carpet. This time only a little bit of blood was coming out of her nose. She disliked my trying to wipe her nose more than the pain of the bloody nose itself.

"Come on Daddy, I'm ready for my bath."

Generally, though, she remains fairly happy and even-tempered. Except when her new teeth are bothering her. She has about four or five coming in at the same time. And now she despises getting them brushed, when before, she enjoyed it. (They make kids' toothpaste really tasty these days.)

Here's Sydney, the aspiring dentist, working on Daddy's teeth:

Sydney continues to imitate things she sees and hears, such as facial expressions, mouth noises, and hand gestures (nothing obscene, folks). She tries to snap her fingers, "roll the dough" from patty-cake, and tickle her parents. She picks her toe-jam (sock lint) out of her toes, holds her brush up to her hair, and flips board book pages with ease.

Sydney discovered juice boxes this past week.

She also attended her first softball game. However, we didn't bring the camera. She had fun walking around with Grandpa Jim.

Here she is looking at her Bee-bo (belly button).

And finally, here's Grammy Kathie's favorite face:

P.S. Sydney's new favorite snack: baby Goldfish (the crackers, silly).