Up, Up and...not Quite Away

Sydney stands!

It was a couple days since Anne first reported that Sydney pulled herself up on the sofa before she repeated it. Now it is a fairly common occurrence.

Sydney likes to be up on the sofa. She will crawl around it, going back and forth from one end to the other. Sometimes she sits there and watches television with us if we have it on.

A day or two after Grandma B and Great Grandma M left from their visit Sydney was on the sofa. We had washed a load of kitchen towels and baby-cleaning washcloths. They were dumped in a pile at one end of the sofa. Sydney pulled a washcloth with green stripes out of the pile. She crawled to the other end of the sofa and set it down.

She then crawled back to the pile, grabbed another washcloth with green stripes and crawled back to the first one. She pulled all the green-striped washcloths out of the pile and piled them up at the other end of the sofa. When she had them all she took them back one by one and put them back in the big pile of towels and washcloths.

And this is to illustrate why Sydney is pulling herself up on the sofa. So far she hasn't shown the least bit of interest in trying to walk. She's just trying to get up on the sofa.

Of course, she is still very new at the being-on-her-feet thing. I know in time she will become steadier on her feet and try to take steps.

For now we're just excited she's finally trying to stand on her own.

Now For a Sydney Update

Last Wednesday (July 5) was Sydney's 15-month birthday. It was also the day of her 15-month check up. She didn't like the part with the shots (she got four of them), but held up like a trooper.

Her growth chart was not up much and up quite a bit. Her weight only went up one ounce (now 25 pounds 11 ounces). That puts her in the 80th percentile. That's down from the 95th-plus percentile.

Her length went up one and a quarter inches. She's now 33 and one half inches long. That is apparently no longer qualifying her for the 95th percentile with a little arrow next to it pointing up. That now puts her at the 100th percentile. (Though I think technically you can only go up to the 99th percentile since you can't be better than 100% since you have to be included in the figure.)

And now on to the stuff I wanted to share last update but had more important issues to share.

On Friday, June 23, Grandma B left after a week's visit. Coming with her this time was Great-Grandma M. (Grandma B's mother - not related to Grandma and Grandpa M.) It took a little less than a day for Sydney to remember and warm up to Grandma B again. It took slightly longer for her to get used to Great-Grandma M. But before long they were all getting along marvelously.



Grandma B, as always, delighted in doing whatever she could for and with Sydney. They both enjoyed every minute of it.



One time Grandma B even went out with us to get the mail. It has become fairly common practice for us to take Sydney out in her wagon (a first birthday present from Grandma B) when we go get the mail. On this particular trip with Grandma B Sydney also got to meet one of the friendly neighborhood dogs. Grandma B got to witness firsthand how excited Sydney gets when she sees a dog.



While Grandma and Great-Grandma were here Sydney started showing the first signs that she's thinking about walking. She will put her head down and push with her legs to straighten them out. She has yet to move while on her hands and feet, but she's building up strength.

She will stand flat-footed while being supported. That was something she would rarely do previously. She will also sometimes stand on her own if she's against something. (She scooted out of my lap once and "stood" with her butt against my knee. She has also stood at the sofa holding herself up on the cushions if we put her there.)

The other day Anne said she pulled herself up on the sofa and stood for a second. She has yet to repeat that. And she hasn't started trying to walk yet.

Sydney is also in her stacking stage. About a month ago I got out of the shower and found this in the bedroom:



She has also been using her stacker to actually stack the rings on rather than just pulling them off. She started by putting the little star on top. She has worked up (with Mommy and Daddy's help) to being able to place the rings on the pillar.

She is certainly still destructive, though. Several weeks ago I was taking a bag of clothes into work. They were the things that Sydney had outgrown and a coworker has a sixth-month old little girl, so we've been giving him Sydney's old clothes for his daughter.

Sydney saw the bag sitting downstairs and decided she wanted to know what was in it. When I pulled the camera out she came to pose for the camera. She wasn't going to be caught red-handed.



But the allure of the bag was too strong and within a minute she was back exploring it. This time the camera was already close at hand to take the incriminating picture!