Eight Months

Sydney turned eight-months old on Monday, December 5.



She is incredibly long. I have no idea where she gets it. I mean, sure. Anne and I are both tall. (I'm 6' 6" and Anne is about 5' 11".) But that's height and Sydney has length!

(Yes, that was a joke.)

And just for comparison, here was Sydney at six months. You can see how much she's grown in just two months.



Sydney has developed a touch of Separation Anxiety. I think Thanksgiving really kicked it off (see last post), but we didn't really see it very much until Grandma and Grandpa M left last Wednesday. There was almost always someone around her then, but since she gets left alone from time to time we're noticing it more.

It was really prevalent at night when Anne would put her down to bed. Sydney just started crying and crying. She wouldn't calm down and couldn't be soothed. I think the first really bad night of that (other than Thanksgiving) was a week and a half ago Monday when Grandma and Grandpa were still here. Last night (Monday), however, Anne said she went down fine and without a fuss. Anne was sound asleep when I got home tonight, though, so I didn't get an update about how it went.

Sydney had been sleeping and going to sleep so well for several months now that it was rather jarring to have her suddenly start doing this. But this, too, shall pass, as they say.

Another sign of the Separation Anxiety was when Sydney would be out of eyesight from us. She wouldn't do a full-out cry like when she went to bed, but she would whimper and moan a little bit, wondering why she was alone. She would do it while playing in the living room even though I'm just in the kitchen. Or if I was in the shower and she was in the bathroom sitting in her bouncy chair.

This also seemed to be "better" today. Just like she went down easier on Monday, on Tuesday she didn't seem to have as much of an issue with this. She still did it a little bit, but it was seriously toned down from what it had been.

And the funny thing about all this that when Sydney was going down for her naps she would be fine and wouldn't cry at all.

Regardless, it's a normal part of her development and we'll deal with it as best we can. And Sydney will still be a happy baby like she always is.

Since it was Sydney's eight-month birthday on Monday I took some other pictures, too. I really liked the picture I took last month with her sitting on the bed with Fievel, so I did that again. This month, though, Sydney wasn't having any of this "sharing the spotlight."



First Sydney clobbered Fievel backward and out of the picture just as I went to snap it. She's a smart one!

That apparently didn't work, though, since I just set him up again.



So the next time she tried to push him forward and off the bed just as I snapped the picture. She didn't get quite enough into the shove and he just flopped over face first.

So we tried it again.



This time the picture was a success. Sydney has a maniacal-looking laugh going. I'm not sure what she was plotting for Fievel, but I got the picture. She can do what she wants now.

Oh. And I have a nice 800x600 version of the picture of Sydney on the bed with Fievel (both this month and last motnh). If you would like either one to use as a wallpaper just email me and I will get it to you.