Visit and Trip

In my last post I neglected to mention that one of Sydney's molars that had been threatening to break through had finally emerged. Of course, it's almost three weeks later now. Sydney now has all four molars through at various stages. That makes twelve teeth she has. There are the eight in front (four top and four bottom) and the four molars - one on each side top and bottom.

Today Grandma B left to go back home. She had been here a week.



It had been about six months since Grandma B had last visited. Sydney changed a lot in that time. But Sydney took to Grandma right away and they had fun all week.



Grandma B spent most of the week down on the floor playing with Sydney and crawling around. They both had a great time and it was fun watching them together.

The first week and a half of April Anne and I took some vacation time. We had Sydney's first birthday party, which I've posted about. We also took a short trip from April 8-12 to the Oregon coast.

The first day we drove to Portland. We stayed overnight there and visited briefly with my Uncle Dave. He set us up at a hotel room just a couple minutes from his workshop. We went out to dinner and then got a tour of the workshop where he makes trumpets.

At the Chinese restaurant we went to we asked for a highchair for Sydney. This is what we got:



She seemed to enjoy it well enough. We were wondering how old the thing was and trying to determine how many ways we had to worry about her potentially injuring herself on it. But I had to take a picture of it for posterity.

Uncle Dave really liked spending time with Sydney. In fact, he even let her play a trumpet! (No, not really.)



The next day we drove the rest of the way to Newport, Oregon. Along the way we made a stop in a park and Sydney got her first experience on a swing. She really enjoyed it.



The hotel we stayed at had a swing set and Sydney got to swing both by herself and with Mommy.

The Oregon coast is beautiful. There are several pictures posted over in my photo album. By now you should know how to find it. I don't have captions on the Oregon trip pictures as of this writing, but I should in the next day or two.

On the long drive to and from Oregon Sydney was very good. She did a lot of this:



There were only two times when she got really fussy. But as soon as we were able to stop and get her out of the vehicle for a little while she was fine.

For her birthday Sydney got a nice bathing suit.



We took the opportunity of the hotel's swimming pool to give her the chance to "swim" for the very first time. As much as she enjoys bath time and splashing in the water we were pretty sure she would like the pool. She did.



All in all it was a good trip and we had a lot of fun. Sydney did have some minor going-to-sleep issues in the hotels, but by snuggling with her on the bed until she fell asleep she was fine. She would pretty much sleep through the night (like she does at home) except for waking up to have her diaper changed (like she does at home). It was just that going-to-sleep part (especially that first night) that was a little touchy.

Milestones

We've had some milestones over the last couple days.

First and foremost, just hours after my last entry Sydney crawled for the first time. It was hesitant. It was only a few "steps." But it was crawling.

It was in her bedroom after her bath. She wanted to get to something and Mommy called me up (and Grandma and Grandpa M) to see her as she managed her first crawl.

For two days she was very hesitant about it. She didn't really crawl unless she saw something she wanted. She wouldn't crawl just to crawl or because she wanted to get somewhere or just explore. She had to have a specific target in sight and out of reach. And even then it wouldn't be very far.

On Thursday we had the baby gate (we only have one so far - we need two more) at the top of the stairs. We were each doing something and Sydney had free reign of the hall and rooms. She zipped around here and there. That was the first time she seemed to crawl just to crawl and hasn't stopped since.

Wednesday, of course, was Sydney's first birthday. The party was Saturday, but the official day was Wednesday. That meant it was Fievel picture time.



It was tough to get her lengthwise on the blanket. She wanted to roll or lift her legs up. Unfortunately, the one picture I had of her stretched out cut off her feet.

Gah!

Bad Daddy!!!

*Sigh*

Well, we can still see that she's huge.

And here's the obligatory picture of Sydney on the bed with Fievel and Octopus.



As stated previously, these will be the last pictures of Sydney with Fievel taken on a regular basis. She's big enough now it's not needed. She's mobile enough now that the pictures are almost difficult to get. Soon she will start walking and we can maybe get her in a doorframe for marking.

Thursday was Sydney's one-year check up. The doctor told us what we already knew: she's huge. Her official stats put her slightly shorter than our rough measurement of a few months ago. But she's still big.

Sydney's length is 32 1/4 inches. (We estimated she was about 33 inches.) Her weight is 25 pounds, 10 ounces.

Both of those stats put her in the 95th percentile with a little "up arrow" next to it. That means she higher than 95th percentile, but they apparently don't have the figures to tell us exactly where she is percentile-wise.

Today was a beautiful day. It was sunny and around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. We took a walk. New houses are being built as a new phase of our housing development. Luckily, they don't really affect us or our street, though we can hear the construction behind our house. But we headed over there to look around.

One of the construction guys had his black lab with him while he was out working. Sydney got extremely excited about the dog. She giggled and laughed and reached out for it. It was friendly and so was its owner. He went over and talked to Mommy and Grandma M. (Grandpa M and I were separated from them for a minute.) I caught up to see the end of Sydney's excitement. It was really something.

On Saturday morning we're leaving on a short vacation. We're going to drive to the Oregon coast. This will be Sydney's first long car trip. It will also be the longest she has been away from home. But Mommy and Daddy will both be right there with her, so we don't anticipate (m)any problems.

As always, there are more pictures over at Picturetrail than I posted here. Head over and you can see wonderful pictures of Sydney with Grandma and Grandpa M. And that includes one of Sydney giving a raspberry to Grandpa M!

First Birthday

Saturday, April 1, 2006, was Sydney's First Birthday party. (No foolin'.) Fun was had by all.

Both Murvosh Aunts came for the party. Grandma and Grandpa M had arrived a few days prior with a moving van full of stuff for their house. (They're moving in next door, remember?) They're not even close to completing the move yet.

Our good friends Mark and Jackie were here (honorary Uncle and Aunt of Sydney) with their boys Caden and Rylen. Kathy was here with her boys Evan and William, along with her boyfriend John and his daughter Riley. Jackie's mom and stepfather were there, Diana and Ruffy.

All in all we had a full house of people who love Sydney and wanted to celebrate her birthday.

Everyone (except Sydney) bellied up to the taco bar and had dinner. Sydney woke up from her afternoon nap and had dinner. Then we waited a little while before having cake. (The first game of the Final Four was on. As important as cake is, the NCAA tournament will always be an important part of Sydney's birthday. Anne was in labor during the 2005 National Championship game.) We did cake and then presents between games.

Sydney's birthday cake had Tweety Bird on it. Mommy saw it in the book at the store and knew immediately that was the cake she wanted.



And since it was her first birthday, Sydney of course got her own personal cake to destro...er, eat.



At first, Sydney wasn't sure if she really could have her cake and eat it, too. She lightly touched the frosting.



After a few minutes of playing with the frosting Sydney really hadn't tasted the cake yet. Mommy decided to help her out a little bit. It looks like Sydney wanted to tell Mommy that she knew perfectly well what to do and she was just having some fun first.



Sydney really did know how to eat cake.



In fairly short order Sydney had about half of her cake pretty well demolished.



About this time Sydney decided that she was done with the cake. She didn't really eat anymore. And, as she does when she doesn't want to eat, she started flapping her arms and hands. Cake and frosting went flying. (Look above her right hand in this picture and you can see the frosting flying off.)



Her expression in that picture is priceless. There are so many things I can see her trying to say. Top of my list is, "What else do you want me to do?"

Then it was time for the cleanup and aftermath. Frosting was all over. It was on Sydney, of course, but also on the walls, the side of the bookcase, the carpet and I think there was some on the sofa and end table, too. If you look closely in this picture you can see a glob of frosting in the center-bottom of it (about a third of the way up). It's about even with the piano bench leg. It shows how far frosting went flying. Aunt Jackie is helping clean up. (She said the tarp under the chair should be fine and talked us out of doing it in the kitchen.)



Sydney got lots of presents for her birthday (though nowhere near as many as she had for Christmas).



Quite possibly her favorite present was the Radio Flyer wagon she got from Grandma B. (Except maybe for the two cards she held and held and wouldn't let go of.) Sydney bounced with excitement when we set her in it. She laughed and smiled and just had a great time. I tried to capture it in the pictures, but they really couldn't do justice to her level of excitement.



The party was a lot of fun. Sydney had a great time and got some really cute clothes (big enough for her to grow into) and some fun toys. Everyone had a good time wishing Sydney a Happy Birthday. (She looked a little perplexed at the singing when the cake was brought out.)

Before the Aunts left the next day we snapped a picture of Sydney with the Murvosh Clan. Now, if you're the center of attention and you know it, raise your hand.



There are plenty more pictures of the birthday (cake and presents) as well as Sydney with various Murvosh relatives over at Picturetrail. Make sure you check them out. Only a few of them made it into the blog this time.