Ant bites...OUCH!

Well, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. We were visiting Craig's parents on Saturday and Sydney was playing with her cousins in the yard while we were sitting on the porch. She was having a ball! When she came up on the porch, I noticed her scratch the back of her neck so I looked at it and noticed there was an ant. I brushed that ant off and started inspecting her and sure enough they were ALL OVER her shirt. So as quick as I could I stripped her down and made sure we got all the ants off of her. Most of the bites are on her hands and just a couple on her shoulder and foot. The craziest part of all is that she never cried or alerted us that there were ants biting her. I'm just glad I saw them when I did! Poor thing! Luckily they don't seem to bother her. We've been keeping her on benedryl to control any itchiness but other than that she pretty much just ignores them. I hope they go away quickly!

Dallas Cowboys Parade

Last Friday, Sydney's school had a parade to cheer for the Dallas Cowboys. Every kid was supposed to dress up in their Cowboys gear. We were told probably 3 weeks in advance so I had time to find the perfect outfit for her. Check out our little cheerleader!

Craig and I got to the school a little early...the parade was supposed to start at 3pm and our local ABC news station was coming to film the festivities. I've been to one of these "parades" before. It's pretty funny actually. The kids come out class by class and literally walk in a 20X20 foot square. Then they all sat down and said a couple of cheers for the Cowboys and that was it. I mean, you can't expect much more from a class of one-year olds. Sydney looked so confused when she first came out. Almost like she was thinking "what are ALL these people doing here?"

Here she is walking out with the assistant director looking pretty confused.

Here is when we finally got her attention...now she's confused as to why mommy and daddy are here too... Sitting with her class and teachers...I swear she never sits this still at home.

State Fair of Texas

We took Sydney to the State Fair of Texas this year. There's still not a whole lot that she can do but she still had fun. We went on the carousel, to the car show, the petting zoo and walked through the Midway where they have all the games.

Sydney and Mommy in front of the Ferris Wheel

On the carousel She waved the whole time...like a princess on a float in a parade...it was hilarious

In front of flowers in the shape of the Texas flag

Better picture of the Texas Flag In front of Big Tex
Me feeding an ostrich...I hate ostriches...they scare me to death so this was a big deal. I was trying not act scared in front of Sydney but look at that thing...looks like it might attack me. Sydney checking out the piggies...apparently the baby piggies were pretty hungry while we were there.

18 months old

Really? Can she really be 18 months old already?? I swear she just turned one...and now we've somehow catapulted half way to her second birthday. Okay, enough with the denial. Sydney is so amazing. Craig and I say that everyday. She really does amaze and surprise us...with what she says, what she does, & what she understands. We went to her 18 month checkup on Friday. Everything went great. She weighed 24 lbs 10oz (48%) and was 32" tall (52%). She got 3 shots and took them pretty well. Our pediatrician said that Sydney was hitting all of her milestones and was doing very well on her verbal skills. She asked us if Sydney could say 8 words other than mama and dada...we said that she could probably say between 40-50 words right now. She seriously picks up at least one or two new ones each day. We call her our little parrot because she'll repeat everything we say right now. (gotta be careful!) She's started handing out kisses to everyone and everything. She'll kiss me, she'll kiss daddy, she'll kiss her baby doll, her food, her toys, the blinds at the doctor's office...like I said, EVERYTHING. It's so cute and so sweet. I can't believe how much she looks like a little girl now. She's so not a baby anymore. We are having so much fun with her and love watching her grow up everyday (even though I know I complain about it sometimes!)

Playing by her swingset...she has learned how to go up the stairs and down the slide all by herself now

PJ's and sunglasses...what more can you need before bed?

Chillin' with her sippy cup in hand...

This is what we call the "fake cheese" smile

What a precious face...

She's discovered that she can walk around on her knees now...it's pretty funny to watch

AW....

Plano Balloon Festival

Yes, I know...I'm soooo late posting about this!! We went to the balloon festival again this year and it was quite different with Sydney than last year. She was an absolute wild child running around the whole time. We met up with our friends the Mizell's, Leach's, Olson's, and Kampen's. We had such a great time watching the hot air balloon take off, the sky divers fly in and the big balloons blow up for the glow at night. This time Sydney was pretty beat before the glow so we didn't get to stay for that. Here are some pics from our evening there.

All the balloons taking off

Craig and I

Mommy and Sydney

Madi looking up high to see the balloons

Jack Olson

All the girls and babies

Brooke holding Sydney, me holding Madi

End of summer fun

Well Summer is drawing to an end so we're probably going to pack up Sydney's pool soon. Here are some random pics we've taken of her in the backyard. She LOVES to be outside!

New York City!

A few months ago, Craig and I were watching the All-Star game at Yankee Stadium. He started boo-hooing about how he'd never been to a game at Yankee Stadium and how this was the last season before they open the new season, yada yada yada. So (warning...I'm going to toot my own horn), being the GREAT wife that I am, I decided to SURPRISE him with tickets to a Yankees game. Needless to say he was shocked and we were off on our first trips sans baby! We got to New York City around 12:30pm. We hopped in a cab and headed to the hotel. On our way there, we got stuck in some traffic around 59th and Park, so what do I do...people watch of course!! It was a rainy day in NYC and everyone had their umbrellas out. Well as I'm watching people walk by, I realize someone looks very familiar. Lo and behold it was Matt Lauer from the Today Show on NBC! Unforunately, this was my first and last celebrity siting in NYC. After we got to the hotel, we decided to walk over to Time Square to check it out. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that this was my FIRST time to NYC so everything was new to me. Here we are posing in Time Square:

After that we had to stop and grab a slice of pizza...what's a trip to New York without pizza right??
After that we finally were able to check into our hotel and get cleaned up for the game which was that Friday night (September 12th). Before we left for the game we decided to try out this place called the Burger Joint. It's very strange because it's this little dive place in the back corner of the Le Parker Meridien hotel. This hotel is a bit more on the swanky side so you can see why a dive restaurant seemed a little out of place. Anywho, it was AMAZING and we totally felt like we knew about some little secret.

On to the game. Well like I mentioned earlier...it was a rainy day in NYC...not storming or anything, just rainy. We grab out ponchos and hit the subway out to the Bronx. Sidenote: Subways aren't scary at all like I thought they would be...it's actually a pretty neat way to get around. So we show up to the game at 6:30pm and it's supposed to start at 7:05pm. (you already see where this is going, don't you?) Here is Craig standing outside the NEW Yankee Stadium:

And here we are all decked out in our rain gear and ready to watch some baseball!

But it rained and rained and rained and rained.

And finally, at 8:30pm they called the game. Only to be rescheduled right in the middle of my fabulous dinner out Saturday night. Needless to say, we went to the game instead, and I still have a dress that needs to be worn somewhere! :)

So, since the game was canceled, we called up Craig's friend Richard (who lives in NYC) and met up with him. We had a great time catching up!

NYC is just a different place. We went and ate dinner (again...remember the burger?) around midnight that night. And apparently this isn't unusual for that town. We finally got back to the hotel around 2:30am and CRASHED! Saturday we woke up around 10am (yep! you read that right) and from there we did everything! We went to central park, Rockefellar Center, FAO Schwartz, Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, Canal Street, saw the Statue of Liberty, and more. Here are some pics from our Saturday.

Yankees game Part II!  So we did cancel dinner plans at Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay's restaurant) and went to the Yankees game again on Saturday night.  This time the weather cooperated and we got to watch them play!  Craig can mark that off his life list now.

After the game on Saturday we grabbed another slice of pizza and headed back to the hotel room.  Once again, we were exhausted!  We just aren't night owls like we once were.  All in all, it was a fabulous trip and we had a great time!  Thank you to the Russes and Mizell's for watching our little one while we were gone!  We were very happy to see her again when we got back on Sunday!

Zoo!

Craig and I took Sydney to the Dallas zoo a couple of weeks ago. I count this as her first time though I did take her last year. She was only about 4 months old then and slept most of the time so I don't really count it. She loved seeing all the animals this time. We got there around 10am thinking we would beat the summer heat, but we were wrong. It was sooooo HOT!!! Thankfully Sydney was shaded in her stroller so it didn't seem to bother her as much as it did mom and dad. We were a little disappointed that the elephants and giraffes weren't out...what's the zoo without them?? But we did get to see a gorilla, penguins, a tiger and some other fun animals.


Checking out the elephant fountain




















Pretending to be an Otter!

Oooohhh....a TIGER!

Wearing Daddy's sweaty hat!

Mom...what are those things??

I wanna be that tall!




















This monkey is not too scary!














But this one I'm not too sure about....
(notice how she is holding on to me for dear life!)




















It's a stare off!




















Taking a break and having some juice in a butterfly chair!