Just Some Pictures

I don't really have anything particular to tell you today. But I had a lot of pictures (most taken today) to upload and decided a blog entry would be good to draw attention to them. Plus, Grandparents like lots of pictures. (Even though Grandma and Grandpa M are currently on the road on their way here with a truckload of stuff for their house - and for Sydney's birthday party on Saturday.)

Here is Sydney kicking back. She's lately taken to putting her hands behind her head when she's lying down. And, of course, I had to take a picture of it.



When Sydney eats her little star snacks (or her Cheerios) she first likes to scatter them around her high chair tray. Then she'll pick one up and slowly, deliberately put it (and two or three fingers) in her mouth.



I love this picture. In the original, at least, it is very sharp and her eyes are crystal clear. (If anyone wants this picture in its original size emailed to them let me know.) I have even cropped it a bit to get more of her in it and now have it for my desktop.

Sydney and Mommy were playing while I snapped some pictures. Some playing also involves getting kisses.



Mommy needed to learn how to use the new camera. Coupled with some mentions that there aren't enough pictures of Sydney with Daddy and Sydney got double play time.



Sydney knows where her head is. If you ask her she will (usually) pat the top of her head. She may look at Mommy first to make sure she has it right.



There are several more pictures over on Picturetrail, so go check them out.

Camera

First things first. And one of the very rare times when that isn't Sydney.

This is really cool. Someone built a HUGE aircraft carrier out of Legos. Unfortunately there is no information as of this writing on the web site showing the pictures. The webmaster does have a request for any information, though, especially from the builder. (Edit: They posted info while I was writing. Plus a link to more pictures.)

This thing looks like it's pretty much got an entire room of this house dedicated to it. It looks to be to scale, too. At least, to the scale of the little Lego dudes.

In other news, the following picture marks a special occasion: This picture is quite possibly the last picture of Sydney I will be taking



with my old Vivitar digital camera. The other day I bought a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. I've been wanting to upgrade for some time. The Vivitar isn't the best camera. (Only about one out of every three pictures seems to come out decently - not blurred or not too dark, that is.)

I have also been wanting to learn more about photography and be able to take better pictures. And now I have a camera that will allow me to do that.

Luckily for me it has a fully automatic mode. I can turn it on, point and click to take a picture. In fact, here's the first picture I took with it.



The eight megapixels is way too much for everyday pictures. It will be nice for when I want a really nice picture, though. It can be reproduced into larger prints easily and without distortion. Yay!

For now, though, eight megapixels for a picture is way too much. The smallest setting for the camera is 1728 x 1152. The Vivitar had its largest setting (which was my default) at 1280 x 960. I'll keep the Canon set on the smallest setting for regular use.

The few pictures I took of Sydney on the bed (see Picture Trail) were done at eight megapixels. I hadn't done anything except charge the battery, put it in, put the memory card in and snap away. I had barely read any of the instructions yet, so I definitely hadn't changed the picture size.

This evening I cropped the pictures I took. I then resized them. The before sizes were still about 50% again bigger than the 1728 x 1152 I resized them to. Holy cow!

Speaking of picture size, I'm going to have to take some pictures off Picture Trail pretty soon. For the amount I pay I am close to my limit. In fact, I had to delete some pictures tonight to be able to upload the new pictures. (The deleted ones weren't Sydney pictures.)

After Sydney turns one I will back up her first year pictures to disk from my hard drive. I will then selectively delete pictures from Picture Trail (starting with the oldest) to make more room. Most of my personal favorites will stay on Picture Trail, but I'll have to get rid of many to make room for the future. Hard decisions are ahead.

Anyway, consider this fair warning. If there are any pictures you want save them now or order the prints. Or just let me know and I can email you the full version. (And for those of you that have a Costco near you and have a membership, you can upload pictures to their website and then order prints. Picture Trail is nice, but I can pick up prints in an hour at Costco instead of waiting to have them mailed to me. Plus no postage and the prints are a little cheaper, too.)

Miscellany

It was my birthday Saturday. Had a good time and got lots of nice presents.

Spent most of the weekend watching the NCAA basketball tournament. It was great (as always), but I'm just about basketballed out. At least for three more days until the next round of games start on Thursday.

I was fortunate enough to see (and hear) a Monette trumpet in action on Wednesday. I had Mr. Rogers turned on for Sydney while I was getting ready for work. Wynton Marsalis was on it jamming for Mr. Rogers and the neighborhood.

Sydney is really starting to chew. Even with only eight teeth (the rest of them just aren't coming in, darn it) she has been imitating us chewing and has started chewing most of what needs to be chewed on her own. Before we know it she will be ready for "grown up" food.

We're expecting crawling anytime soon. She sits up and lays down (on back or stomach) on her own without any problem. She will even get on her hands and knees on her own. She rocks and reaches out like she wants to go but just isn't doing it yet. Sometimes she will even move backward a little bit. She just hasn't figured out the forward yet.

Her first birthday is only a couple weeks away. The official celebration will be on Saturday, April 1. (No, really.) The cake is ordered. Sydney gets her own personal cake to smash, squish, play with and smear all over.

Her one-year check up will also be coming soon. Expect official reports on length and weight then.

We're also looking forward to the one-year birthday because it means she will be able to have her car seat turned around. Yay! She's a very big baby so we have no worries about her meeting the requirements to be forward facing. We also think she'll be happier being able to see us. (We know we'll be happier being able to see her easier.)

Sitting Up

Sydney is now sitting up on her own.

She rolls to her side and pushes herself up with her arm.

Further baby proofing will be done this weekend. Her crib will be lowered, too.

That is all.

Eleven Months

Sydney is eleven months old today.

There's good news and there's bad news.

The good news is that there are twelve new pictures over on Picturetrail to see. I had a hard time deleting them out and choosing just a few to post, so they're all there.

The bad news is... I know this is going to be tough for the grandparents to hear, but there are people out there that don't care as much as you do, so this is bad news for them.

The bad news is that there are twelve new pictures posted over on Picturetrail to see...and many of them will be featured in this blog post. (But the good thing is that you don't have to go over to Picturetrail to see the rest if you don't want to.)

Today helped reinforce the idea that next month - Sydney's one year birthday - will be the last regular picture she gets taken with Fievel. As much as I enjoy doing it, a mobile baby is not that easy to work with.

"Okay, Sydney, let's get this picture ta..."



"No, no, Sydney. The idea, if you remember, is to get you next to Fievel. He is the constant that shows how much you've grown. Now le..."



We did finally manage to get a few pictures of her actually next to Fievel. (Unfortunately, the ones where she rolled on top of Fievel were too blurry to salvage. They were even funnier.))



Next, of course, came the shots of Sydney up on the bed next to Fievel and the My-Oh-My Octopi Octopus. There were several of these. They were all unique and I kept them all. They were too good to get rid of any and not share them.

There's Sydney being shy...



I love how you can still tell she's smiling even though you can only see one of her eyes.

There's Sydney looking in Octopus' mirror...



And there's Sydney concentrating really hard...



I love how it looks like she's trying to use the Force to remove her sock the rest of the way.

And, of course, there's the plain, old Sydney being happy and normal...



And last, but not least, the photo shoot was over so it was time for Mommy to have some fun. And she decided it would be most fun to...uh...put Sydney on her head?

Wave Bye-Bye

I'm home in the morning with Sydney. Anne gets home right about at noon and then I leave for work.

Usually Anne is there holding Sydney and we all say our good-byes. Frequently Anne will wave Sydney's arm for her and say, "Bye-bye, Daddy." Then I head off to the garage, get in the car, and back out the driveway.

The last several weeks Anne has then taken Sydney to the sofa in the front window to watch as I leave. As has been told here before - and shown (see that picture right below this paragraph)- Sydney enjoys being propped up on the back of the sofa to look around at the outside world as it goes by.



In the picture, you can see the driveway in the right side of the window. I back out and then turn in front of the house to head up the street to the right.

Sydney always seems to sit up attentively and watch as I leave. Anne waves good-bye and also waves Sydney's arm good-bye.

On Tuesday (February 28) when I left for work they were in the window. Anne waved good-bye. Anne waved Sydney's arm good-bye. And then Sydney waved her own arm good-bye!

I was shocked. I was amazed. I was elated. I wasn't really sure that I saw what I saw. I waved again and Sydney waved again.

That was enough to melt my heart and put me in a terrific mood for the rest of my day.

Today (Wednesday, even though this won't be posted until after midnight so it will probably show it as a Thursday post) I asked Anne when she got home if I had seen correctly. I had. And then Sydney proceeded to do it again when I left for work today.

The last two days Sydney has been fighting a cold in addition to learning how to wave bye-bye. Monday night she woke up a few times before I got home and gave Anne some fits getting some sleep. When I got home she seemed to be sleeping fairly well, but was breathing heavily from the nasal congestion. She was restless and woke up a few times through the night, but put herself back to sleep without problem.

Tuesday her nose was really runny. She didn't have a fever, though, and seemed her fine, happy, regular self otherwise. Except maybe a bit more tired than usual. (Though she didn't nap well probably from not being able to breathe well.)

She slept hard and long Tuesday night and was a lot better today. Her nose was still running, but not with the volume she had on Tuesday.

On Tuesday because of the cold Sydney got indulged and spoiled a little by Mommy. After watching me leave they sat at the window for a while. Every time Anne went to get up Sydney would fuss and want to stay, so they stayed.

Sydney also got to play with some newspaper, which she never gets to do. She loves paper and will play with a piece almost constantly if we give her one. But newspaper is off-limits because of the newsprint. But Mommy felt sorry for her because of her cold, so she let her play with it when she managed to get a piece.

Sydney also got a nice, relaxing bath Tuesday night. She really likes getting a bath and gets so excited when Anne takes her into the bathroom to turn the water on. Tuesday's bath was in an exceptionally steamy bathroom (but not hotter water) to help Sydney breathe a little easier.

Sunday is Sydney's eleven-month birthday so you can probably expect an update Sunday night.