Super BIG update!!!

Okay...I know, I know. Most of you are wondering...are we ever going to see new pics of Sydney? The answer is YES!! Sorry I've fallen so far behind. To make it up to you, I'm making the gran-daddy of all posts today. Where to start?

11 months old!

Well, she's officially 11 months old as of March 2nd. I can't believe in less than a month, she'll be ONE!! It can't be. She is doing soooo many new things. For one thing, she is very adventurous now. (and rebellious...but we'll get to that later) She's always discovering new things. For instance, when I took her new convertible carseat out of the box, she thought it would be so fun to play in it.

Back to the rebellious part. Maybe that's too harsh...she's just hard-headed and wants to do everything her way. She loves to play with electrical sockets (yes of course they are all covered), wires, computers, phones, lamps....and the dishwasher. First I thought she wanted to help me do the dishes (yay!)...but alas, she just wants to use it as her playground. She climbed up on it just the other day so I had to take a picture before I told her no...just to document it! Yes...that's my foot in the picture...I was afraid she would fall backwards!!

She is also saying new words now like dog, bath, and bear. Well sort of...bath is more like BA without the "th"...but she's trying. She's also getting good at recognizing objects. She has this fish spout cover in the bathtub and if we ask her "Where's the fish Sydney?" she always points to it. Oh, that's another new thing. She points at everything...sometimes with words associated, sometimes just pointing into space. Who knows what's going on in that fast-moving brain of hers.
I've started to introduce the spoon to her. The hardest part is coming up with thick foods so it doesn't slip off the spoon before it gets to her mouth. In these pictures, she's eating the inside of some enchiladas we had for dinner that night...though it doesn't look that great in pictures, she LOVED it.

In other big news, she is officially taking multiple steps!! She took one last week and I thought it was just a fluke...like she stumbled or something and accidentally took a step. But it wasn't!! Saturday she took 3 steps at one time and today she took up to five at a time...and she'll do that multiple times. I'm so excited about this next stage. So many things to do when you have a walking baby!! Hopefully she'll be walking strong by her birthday!

Texas snow

Another big thing that happened last week was that we got snow!! Oh, and not just once but TWICE. Here are some pics from it.

The first snow on March 3rd. It was really early in the morning when we took these so that's why it's still dark outside. We didn't get much snow this time.

Then it snowed again on March 6th. This time it snowed a pretty good amount!!

A look outside our home.

Me and Sydney...introducing her to snow...she wasn't that thrilled...

And by the time daddy got her, she was so over the snow!! So he hung her upside down. (no babies were harmed in the filming of this event) :)

Sydney gets tubes
As most of you know, Sydney has been getting so many ear infections lately. Around the end of February, we went to the pediatrician because Sydney wasn't feeling well again, and lo and behold, another double ear infection. Our pediatrician suggested that we go see an ENT which we did and he suggested that Sydney would be a good candidate for tubes. For those that don't know, they make a tiny incision in Sydney's ear drum and insert a teeny tiny little tube in that hole. This allows the fluid behind her ear drum (which collects and causes the infection) to drain out of her ear...thus preventing future ear infections. Well we finally had that little surgery today and it went fantastic!! For one thing, I would absolutely recommend Dr. Tom Frank to any local people who are considering tubes. He is awesome and made us feel completely at ease about the whole process. We woke up early and were at the surgery center by 6am. We filled out some paper work and were back in our waiting room by 6:30. Sydney actually fell asleep in my lap which never happens, but I think it was partially because she was tired and partially because she didn't feel well. Dr. Frank showed up around 6:45 to explain everything to us and ask if we had any questions. They took her back and 7am and Dr. Frank was back out to talk to us at 7:15am! Can you believe it?? 15 minute surgery! She woke up a little cranky which they said is completely normal. The anesthesia made her feel a little loopy and she was starving since she couldn't eat since midnight the night before. Everything went perfectly and Sydney is already feeling so much better. He said he could tell why she wasn't feeling well because when he made the incision, she had yet ANOTHER ear infection. Now all that nastiness has drained out and she is feeling like a new girl! You would never even know she had a little surgery this morning. Here are some pre-operation pictures.