Feelin' much better

Sydney is over her 2nd round of roseola. She had it first over Memorial Day weekend (remember, Jeff went to play v-ball in the Big Easy & I was alone with a sick baby for 5 days over a holiday weekend-yeah) "But isn't roseola like the chicken pox, you only get it once" you say? Oh, I thought so, but apparently not, and there are different strands of the highly contagious virus that are like a magnet to my 7 month old. I don't know how many strands of roseola there are out there, but there are two we are definitely not getting again! I keep telling myself that she's really building up her immune system everytime she gets a fever.

Here she is feeling much better. You can see the rash all over her body, but by the time it showed up she wasn't fevered or contagious. The rash is benign, so she didn't even know it was there. The only person it bothered was Mommy.

Her new thing when she gets excited is to stiffen up her whole body, make fists real tight, and make the loudest noise possible. Here she is expressing her excitement over a new diaper.We went to St Louis to visit the fam this past weekend. Saturday morning Trevor joined us in our room, where he found mommy's laundry baskets. Sharin' some love w/ Uncle RyanAnd some more love to Aunt MeghanShe's started to become more interested in feeding herself, but she's just not that coordinated yet. She wanted to pick up the banana, but it was just to slippery. I held it for her & she ate it like a big girl instead of all mashed up in a bowl w/a spoon. She doesn't have teeth, so she just gums it up until all that is left is banana mush all over my fingers.Happy 2nd Birthday, Trevor!

Here he is enjoying his cake. However, he liked it better from the #2 candle instead of with a spoon, or a fork, or even his fingers.Sydney loves to help Mommy brush her teeth. Its a Sonicare, so she probably likes the vibrations & the noise it makes. She goes right for it every time & lights up as soon as I turn it on.(She's wearing her Chief's outfit here, again, because Jeff had fantasy football draft night & he thought she would bring him good luck)

Health Report

Two things to report on, one good & one not so good.

Here's the not so good...Sydney's had a fever of 103 for the past 2 days. She lost her appetite Saturday night & threw up twice on Monday. She seems to have her appetite back today, but she'd lost a little weight when I took her in on Monday afternoon. The doc said she probably just has a virus that we can't do anything about, but they made me come in since her fever was over 102. Neither of us have much time off work left this year, so I hope she gets better soon! Keep us in your prayers!

Here's the good...Actually wonderful! After more than 2 years of waiting, Chris (Jeff's dad) is scheduled to have a bone marrow transplant on 9/18. He'll be admitted the 12th for chemo & should be home within 4 weeks. Keep him in your prayers also.

Baby Parade @ 7 Months

I never actually got the post up from 6 months, so I'll just add it to this one.

At the Mommy & Me store we measured her at 18 lbs 2 oz and 27 3/4". I think that length may be a bit generous, but she was too excited to hold still for us to get a good one.

1 month

2 months3 months4 months5 months6 monthsHer eyes just amaze me. So much of her daddy in there. 7 months

Good Lamb!Naughty, Naughty Lamb! I'm going to spank you! Sydney-FREEZE! HANDS UP!

7 months old

Sydney's first taste of blueberries got a little out of control! She loves them, and we discovered that they're blue on the "way out" too!
Bathtime baby w/ a mohawk Super Splash

"Mommy, I want to help.""Here, just let me hold the bowl."
Go Chiefs!
Dinner date w/ Tanner

Florida Vacation, Vol. 3

I realized that there were a few more picts that I wanted to get up here from our vaca.

Here's Syd wollering on the floor with her grandpa.
We were lucky enough to have friends let us borrow a car seat while we were down. Its a "big girl" carseat, her first. It made us realize that she's outgrown her infant car seat, and we've ordered a big girl carseat, much like this one.
Showing Sydney the fish tank.Sydney, can you find Nemo??
This is my dear friend, Sabrina. She's expecting a little girl of her own in December.
We met up with Bridget & her little one Laci. Laci is just a month older than Syd, so they enjoyed eachother's company while we caught up over lunch.

Florida Vacation, Vol. 2

I think I'm able to get this into just two installments since blogger was nice enough to take most of the pictures I was trying to upload.

Sharon thought it would be nice to have a family portrait while we were all together. We decided it would be better to take beach pictures in stead of in a studio, seeing as how we were in Florida and all. It was like $200 just to get someone out there to take our picts, so we decided we would just do them ourselves. We had 3 cameras going, and I've only got pictures from ours. I'm sure a professional would have been better at setting up the poses to go with the lighting, but I'm not sure that anything could have been done to keep both babies on cue.

Inbetween family poses, Jeff grabbed a shot of his ladies.

Its hard to have them both awake & happy at the same time. For a brief moment no one was crying or running around, so we snapped away as fast as we could. We were taking pictures at Sydney's bedtime, so it was really a stretch for her to stay happy this night.
Eventhough she's got her own sunglasses, she likes playing with mine even better.

Life's a Beach w/ Uncle Jamie.
Uncle Reece is a tennis star, so he wanted to get her started real early on her swing. Jeff has another swing in mind & has been working on that one also. Doesn't it look like she's paying attention ever so closely?

30 Weeks Old

From babyweekly.com

Your New Baby
At this age your baby may show a strong preference for Jeff over you, or vice versa. Try not to take it personally. Babies generally will go to one parent for a specific need, such as comforting, and the other for play. Remember that parenting isn't a popularity contest, and showing a preference isn't rejection. She actually prefers for Jeff to feed her the "solid" foods and she wants me when she's tired or upset because she bumped her head. We're on equal ground for playtime.
Encourage your baby to practice crawling by placing a favorite toy just out of reach or sit on the other side of the room and call to him or her. Give your baby time and space to practice this new-found skill and to strengthen his or her muscles and fine-tune his or her coordination. She doesn't really show any desire to crawl yet. When she's sitting she'll stretch far out to reach a toy, but if she can't get it, she just watches the ceiling fan instead. When she's on her tummy, she'll "crawl" with her legs, but her upper body is laying flat on the ground so she doesn't really go anywhere. Then she'll pick her upper body up with her arms, but then her legs quit trying. I'm sure she'll put it together sometime in the next few months. In the mean time, we're enjoying our immobile baby & our un-babyproofed home.
Is your baby teething yet? NO! Most babies begin teething between 6 and 12 months of age. Usually, the incisors erupt first (four on top and four on the bottom), and then four molars. These are followed by the four canine (eye) teeth, and the molars will appear when your baby is about 2 years old. Early signs of teething include drooling (which may then cause a rash, cough or diarrhea), fussiness, waking at night, biting, and loss of appetite. To relieve some of the pain associated with teething, give your baby a cool teething ring and, with the consent of your pediatrician, children's acetaminophen.Click here to read more about teething. We haven't noticed any signs of teething, which is a-okay with us. I'm sure our day of painful biting is awaiting us.
As your baby starts eating solid foods, he or she will quickly develop preferences for certain foods and a strong dislike for others. If your baby seems to dislike a particular taste or type of food, don't force it on him or her. Try the same food again in a day or two. If he or she still isn't interested, move on to other foods. After a month or so has passed, introduce it to your baby again, perhaps prepared differently this time. Her or his tastes may have changed in the meantime, or he or she may have forgotten that he or she didn't like this food. If he or she still rejects it, take it off his or her menu. Her or his tastes may change as he or she gets older, or he or she may never like this particular food. Forcing it on him or her can turn into a battle of wills, which can in turn lead to eating disorders. We should start calling Sydney "Mikie" because she'll pretty much eat everything. She definitely loves avocado the best, but doesn't protest anything else we've given her. Well, let me take that back. On the way home from Florida we ran out of food we had prepared, so we brought along pre-packaged baby food. She didn't like the carrots, greenbeans, applesauce, or sweetpotatoes. These are all the things she loves at home when we make them, and I'm not sure what the difference is, but she just decided to only have milk & banana puffs the day we flew home.

Florida Vacation, Vol. 1

I can't believe its really been this long since I've posted a blog! I hope everyone hasn't totally given up on me & forgotten about us! I'll try to make a "condensed" version of what we've been up to since 7/24 over the next several posts.

First, some much needed Sydney picts:

Kissin' Cousins"Trevor, where is the baby's nose???"

Chilling in the early AM with the grandparents. We're still trying to come up with their grandparent names. My dad likes Grumpy & Grally, but Ally's not sold on it. We definitely need more names than just Grandma ___ or Grandpa _____, since she's got a total of 6 grandparents!!! This could get mighty confusing in about 2 years!Sydney is being held by my life long friend, Gia. We've been friends since we were 11 years old. Those are her two kids in the picture, Zoe & Jayden.This is the night we flew home. She didn't even make it to her bedroom she was so tuckered out.

Sydney wants to type something too:

nhm jb..hZ, ,M /. N/;.o.;p/ hMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM