Happy Fourth!

Hello, everyone out there that is still checking this blog! Apologies for the infrequency of posts. I've been a single mom for ten days until a couple of days ago; Brian just returned from his field study trip to central CA for his master's degree in geosciences. We're both extremely happy to have him back! (Although when we asked her repeatedly while he was gone if she missed him, she replied, "No, happy!" We take that to mean that she was happy for him that he got to go on his trip.)

While Brian was gone, Sydney woke up early (5 or 6 am) several days which, combined with my unable to get to sleep, made me even more tired than usual! Gone are the eight-hour sleep nights, huh? Hey, I can dream. (Today we all took naps - mine lasted three hours.)

Sydney has been a little chatterbox parrot the last few weeks. We've noticed a great increase in her word bank and sentence structure. She has just started using "I" to refer to herself, particularly when she says "I did it" or "I got it" or "I'm okay." It's also great to see her recognize relatives - I've been showing her pictures of her Arizona family and she says "Grandma Joe, Grandpa Joe, Unco Mike and Auntie Ray Ray and Maddie." She doesn't have the "L" sound down yet, so when she asks to sit on my wapp I know what she means. (That's LAP, people.)

Here's Sydney sharing lunch with her Dad. She refers to him as Dad now instead of Baba.

Along with her verbal skills improving, Sydney has also moved right along with potty-training. Although she still wears a diaper, she goes pee in the potty about five or six times a day and poops almost daily in there as well. Sometimes when she wakes up from naps or in the morning, her diaper is dry. So we're definitely making progress! Riveting news, I know.

Here's Sydney trying to keep the cheese away from Ellie at a recent BBQ at Grammy and Grandpa's. We told her to hold up the cheese and this is the result.

And finally, here's what happens when a 29-month-old can reach your dresser drawers and get into your socks.