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Sydney has always usually slept well. She mostly sleeps through the night and usually has no problems going down for a nap. She is a creature of habit, however, when it comes to her sleeping.

She did not like the pillow when we tried to give her a pillow to sleep with. She still sleeps flat on the mattress. She has a pink-checked blanket for her covers. If we try to use a different blanket - or even add an extra blanket - she doesn't like it and has a mild meltdown.

She has a Baby's First Pooh and Baby's First Tigger. They have been in her crib since she was about a year old. One on each side of her. About two months ago she started putting them both on one side of her (the outside). When we put her down she would scoot almost to the opposite side away from them. She wasn't afraid of them. I don't know what the reasoning was. But if we tried to remove them there were problems.

Then, about three weeks ago, Sydney had another sudden and unexpected change. I went in one morning to get her up. She had her plush classic Pooh bear with her and her blue duckie blanket. The other Pooh and Tigger and the pink blanket were still in there. When she realized we were getting up she grabbed the classic Pooh and the duckie blanket and brought them with her.

Apparently, the night before, Sydney just decided that she wanted both these items with her. So they went to bed with her and then they got up with her.



Sydney clutches and hugs them until she gets put in her highchair. She then hands them over and they get put down on the floor where she can see them. After breakfast they are usually forgotten and left alone. At least until it's time for a nap. They must go with her. If she gets as far as her crib without them we have to be prepared for a minor baby meltdown. Not really a crying fit, but some whimpering and whining.

After her nap (she's taking just one nap per day now, mostly) she will hug them to her for a little while. She doesn't eat right after her nap like she does with breakfast, so they stay with her a little bit. If she's not quite awake yet we'll snuggle with her. Sometimes she just wants down to play. Once she's awake enough to play and gets down on the floor Pooh and Blanket are usually set aside and forgotten.

Walking is coming along. Sydney still prefers to walk around on her knees, but she will frequently get herself up on her feet and practice. She hates wearing shoes (mostly our fault for not putting her in them very much when she was younger) and will try to avoid walking when we have her in them.

We got our first significant snowfall today. It snowed most the day and I'm guessing we got about four inches. We're supposed to get another 2-4 inches overnight.

Luckily we bought snow pants for Sydney a week or two ago. So we bundled her up today and took her outside. We bought a cheap sled at Target a couple weeks ago. It was the only one we could find with a seat/back in it. We were going to save it as a Christmas present, but today was a good day to bring it out.



Sydney had fun getting pulled around by both Mommy and Daddy. When we were both sucking wind we took her out of it and let her play in the snow. She saw a basketball in the garage and wanted to play with that. She rolled it around in the snow while we started to shovel the driveway. Anne then took her inside while I finished the driveway. Sydney was quite upset at getting taken inside. She really enjoys being outside - apparently regardless of temperature. It was probably just a bonus that she got to play with a ball outside.

Grandma B was here a week and a half ago. Sydney was right in the middle of a cold when she arrived. Sydney was nice and shared with both Mommy and Grandma. I was lucky enough not to get it. And I didn't get any pictures of Grandma during her visit this time.

We took our picture today that we're going to have printed for our Christmas cards. If you want a preview of it (but not the actual picture) head over to my Picture Trail album.

Vroom!

During the week Sydney didn't get much walking practice in. With Anne and me working opposite schedules we weren't both home enough to practice with her. And practicing with her alone is a little difficult. Get behind her and tell her to walk to no one over there?

We still tried during the week, but there wasn't much going on with the walking. We did a lot of walking while she reached up and held our hands, but we've been doing that for several weeks now. Anne even got her to walk while only holding one of her hands toward the end of the week. (Previously Sydney would stop walking if we let go of one of her hands.)

Saturday rolled around and we were both home. But Sydney had a play date in the morning so we didn't get a chance to practice walking early. (More on the play date a little further down.) After the play date we had dinner and then ran some errands.

Finally, Daddy asked Sydney if she wanted to practice walking and she was very excited at the idea. Sydney picked right up where she had left off. She walked from Daddy to Mommy. She walked back. She even fell down several times and got herself back to her feet to continue on.



Sydney is walking in that picture.

Walking practice went on for about ten or fifteen minutes. Sydney zipped back and forth, fell down and got up several times. She tired herself out and we called it quits for the night. We watched some television for a few minutes before we were going to put Sydney to bed.

At about 6:50 PM Sydney walked (on her knees) over to Mommy who was relaxing on the couch. She grabbed Anne's finger and pulled her like she wanted her to follow. Sydney usually does this when she wants to play the piano. Anne told her it was too late to play the piano and that Sydney was going to go to bed in a few minutes.

Sydney stood up. She held her hands out toward Anne wanting her to come with her.

"How can you resist that?" I asked her. Anne couldn't and started to get up.

Sydney took off.

Sydney walked from just in front of the couch to the stairs. On her own. Without falling down. (She looked like a drunken sailor, but what baby doesn't when they're first learning to walk?)

In the above picture it's about ten feet from the couch to the television. It's about 25 feet further around to the left from the television through a slightly winding path to where the stairs are. Sydney did that all on her own. Without falling.

As it turns out Sydney just decided it was time for bed and wanted to go upstairs. So we did.

Sunday brought more of the same. Sydney continued to stand and walk on her own. It wasn't an all the time thing, but when she felt like it she would get up and walk. She still uses her knee walking for her main mode of transportation.

Sydney has a new friend. I'll call her MJ here. MJ's mother said I could post her picture, but I figured I wouldn't post her name online just in case. I didn't ask specifically about the name and her mother didn't seem to be bothered with any of it going online, but I thought I'd be safe rather than sorry.

We met MJ and her mother last week for lunch. B (MJ's mom) is the daughter of a doctor Anne works with. She is also a friend of a lady Anne works with. MJ was born about ten days after Sydney was born, so they are the same age.

On Saturday MJ and B came over for a play date. Sydney and MJ had a great time. They played. They shared sometimes. They got upset the other one was playing with a toy they wanted other times. But mostly they just had a good time.



I think that's all the excitement for now. Grandma B arrives on Wednesday for a visit.