Lots of Catch Up

It's been a week and a half since I updated. Lots of things have been going on.

Grandma B came for a visit and was here for a week. It was a pleasure having her, as always. This trip she got to spend a lot of quality time with Sydney. She got to play with her, feed her, change her diaper, baby-sit her and spoil her as only a Grandma can.

A few days before she arrived Anne threw her back out. Some friends were kind enough to come over on Monday when I had to work to help Anne out. Then Grandma B arrived on Tuesday (for an already scheduled trip) to help out and take care of Sydney. By Wednesday Anne was well on the way to being mended.

Anne and I got a lot of appointments and errands out of the way during the week Grandma B was here. It was good to be able to be together alone even for a little while. (We even went out to dinner on a date on Saturday!)

While Grandma B was here Sydney got her first taste of carrots.



As you can guess, Sydney wasn't a big fan. Anne ended up diluting them a little by mixing them with rice cereal so she did eat a good serving of carrots. Season of Violet, Grandma B's blog, has a terrific entry about the carrots on October 29, 2005. Pictures included.

While Grandma B was here we also bought a new computer and a piano. The piano is an electronic mini-mini grand piano. It's only three-and-a-half feet deep. We have yet to move it into place, but it's set up and Anne plays it regularly. She's wanted a piano for some time.

I have a feeling Sydney will be playing it in a few years, too.

And, since Anne got the piano, I got a new computer. I got a great deal on one and got a great set up. I won't bore everyone with the technical specs of it. Suffice to say it's fast and has lots of memory.

It took me the better part of a week to get everything set up and back and running. My old hard drive from my old computer I had installed in the new computer as a secondary drive. That made it easy to copy the files I wanted saved from that drive to the new one.

Luckily, I was able to convert my old email files to the new hard drive. I was able to retrieve all email addresses and saved emails. Yay!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the file containing all my Favorites (or Bookmarks in Firefox). I have found about 90% of them again. Of the other 10%, they were sites I rarely went to anymore, so aren't a big loss. There are a few more I will remember over time and replace, though, even if I don't go to them as much as I used to. And, with the new set up, I have my Favorites sorted a little better than I did before. I still have to get used to the new order of things, but overall it's much better than the way I used to have them.

But enough of that. You probably want baby stuff, don't you?

Well, tomorrow is Halloween. Sydney won't be trick or treating. She is a little young, after all. I'll be working and Anne goes to bed so early there's not really a good chance to get her out. Or to answer our door for the trick or treaters. Anne bought a little bit of candy, but expects to stop answering and turn off the lights early.

We do have two Halloween costumes for Sydney despite the non-celebration factor for her. Today we pulled them out and tried them on her so we could get pictures regardless.

The first one is a Hershey Kiss. Or "Sydney Kiss" as the case may be.



It was a little small for her. The body piece actually fit her fine, though it wasn't in the best shape. But as warm as we would have needed to dress her if we were going out, I'm not sure how well it would have fit. The headpiece definitely did not fit. The elastic piece in it was only about half as big as her head when stretched out. Just setting it on her head didn't work. In the picture you can see me holding the piece up.

The second costume is a jack-o-lantern jump suit. Or "Sydney-o-Lantern" if you prefer.



This was also too small. While it appears all right in the picture, that's because two of the snaps (over her diaper) in the back aren't - and can't be - snapped. It's a shame, though. It is very cute.

Next year I'm going to try and take Halloween off. And we're going to make sure to have a good costume for Sydney that fits.

Pictures

For those who didn't check, the pictures did get posted the day after my last post. Picturetrail was only down temporarily and I got them up the next night when I got home from work.

Speaking of pictures...



That is Sydney last week on her six-month birthday. Next to Fievel as usual. And here's Sydney at five months for comparison:



And as I mentioned, Sydney seems fascinated every time I wear a baseball-style cap. And when I take off my Washington Redskins cap and put it on her she simply adorable. And here's photographic proof:



For you keen observers I don't need to point out that her top tooth is showing in the picture. And speaking of showing teeth, her second top tooth (her right top one) is finally starting to grow out. It had broken through a few weeks ago but then seemed to recede. It finally decided it was ready to come out. Luckily she had already gone through the teething pain, so there isn't any fuss.

What? You want photographic proof of the fourth tooth? Well all right.



Sydney is also really starting to play with her feet. She is even starting to stick them in her mouth on occasion. (Only when they're bare. Mostly.)



Drat! I was just a split second too late with that shot. I almost caught her with her foot in her mouth.

Solid food is progressing well with Sydney. She's still on rice cereal, but Anne wants to try her on some veggies this weekend. The doctor recommended vegetables before fruits. That way she won't be as likely to develop such a sweet tooth for fruits and shun the vegetables.

Six Months

Picturetrail is currently down due to server issues, so I'm unable to upload the two pictures I have. One is Sydney with Fievel for her six-month picture. The other is Sydney with my Washington Redskins hat on.

In the meantime, here's a quick pop quiz. Question: What is the length of an average eleven-and-a-half month old?

Today was Sydney's six-month birthday. She had her six-month check up at the doctor's on Monday. She got three shots but handled it really well. She cried a bit but got over it quickly. Ten minutes later when we got out to the car she hardly seemed fazed.

The doctor told us a couple things. First, the beginning of the spoon-feeding for a baby isn't necessarily to get them nutrition. He said rice cereal actually isn't all that nutritious (other than what's in the breast milk or formula you mix it with). The main use of it is to help the baby get used to eating that way and help them get over the tongue thrust they have to expel things from the mouth.

Second, the fact that Sydney isn't rolling over yet isn't a big deal. We knew that, but he explained why, which was good to know and we hadn't thought of. Sydney is a big baby girl. It takes a lot of muscle mass for a baby to turn herself over. Sydney is still young and her muscles haven't developed enough strength for her to be able to do all the things other babies may be doing at that age.

He said he's seen babies in the fifth percentile for their age rolling over at just a few months old. It doesn't mean they are developmentally gifted necessarily, it just means they are smaller and their muscles can help them move in that way. Sydney's going to take a little time to get strong enough to do those things.

So now I guess you want vital statistics?

Sydney is 28.5 inches long.

If you guessed that the answer to the pop quiz question was 28.5 inches you were right. If you guessed "as long as Sydney is now" without an exact number I'll give you half credit.

Sydney weighs in at 19 pounds, 3 ounces.

Both of those statistics are in the 95th percentile for her age.

I'll get the pictures posted in the next day or two when I get a chance and when Picturetrail is back up.

Anything Beside Baby News? No!

Edit in before I post: Happy Birthday to my Step-Dad, Bob. Every year I seem to let his birthday sneak up on me and I never realize it until it's too late. Sorry, Bob. Happy Birthday.

Well, what a surprise. There's baby news to share. And some new pictures, too.

Sydney had her first spoon-fed meal today. I would say it was "solid food," but I hardly think the soupy rice cereal she ate required much chewing. But I know that the feeding process requires baby steps (excuse the pun) for her to develop into bigger and better foods.



Sydney still isn't rolling over yet, but I think she's getting ready to. This morning she started rocking her hips. She did it when I was changing her diaper, a little while later after Anne fed her and we had her between us in bed, and then numerous times when she was playing on the floor. She just rocks her hips back and forth several times like she's gearing up to roll over.

She will roll onto her side and has been doing that for some time. She lifts her legs up like she does all the time and then will roll onto her side until her legs stop her. She can then roll back onto her back by herself. If she could just figure out how to get those legs out of the way she could roll over.

Sydney's teeth are causing her to learn and practice all sorts of facial expressions. And for those curious, Sydney "almost" has four teeth now. Her two bottom teeth are well in. Her top left tooth (on the right as you look at her) has been in for a while, but still has a ways to grow. Her right tooth broke through a week or so ago. It was there. We saw the white where it broke through her gum. But now there's no white. It's like it receded. We'll be asking the doctor about that on Monday.

Otherwise Sydney is having a good time and playing with all sorts of mouth and face muscles. She sticks out her tongue a lot. She even sucks on her teeth (and gums) while keeping her tongue completely inside her mouth. For a while she would pout for no apparent reason. She was happy as could be and then the bottom lip would just come out. Then it would go away. And then come out again. (Practicing for teenage years?) I haven't noticed her doing that much over the last few days, though.



Sydney seems enthralled every time I wear a baseball-style hat. She'll look up at it and frequently reach for it if she thinks she's close enough. Sometimes I'll let her and sometimes I'll even let her take it off my head. If she does she tries to chew on it. Usually she has it at the wrong angle and can't get a bite on it. She drops it before too long.

I had a great picture of her with the hat on. Unfortunately, it was blurry. I'll be taking another one and get it posted. She's too cute with the hat on. And she hardly seems to even notice she's wearing it. She doesn't really reach up to try to take it off.

Sydney is sitting up for longer periods of time on her own. Today she had several stretches where she sat and played on the floor for ten minutes or more on her own with hardly a wobble and nary a nudge to put her back upright.

Sydney has her six-month check up on Monday. Her six-month birthday is on Wednesday. I hope to post again on Wednesday night with her six-month Fievel picture, the hat picture (hopefully) and any other miscellaneous shots we take between now and then. And, of course, I will post any doctor news then, too.