Sydney Reece

When Sydney was born, my Mom offered to print/buy all of the pictures to put in an album of Sydney's first year.  When she asked if I would like her to mail them to me so that I could create a binder or have her do it, I quickly accepted her offer as I knew the end result would be organized, placed neatly in a binder with the pictures in chronological order, and dated.  Each month I would upload my pictures (never less than 175 a month) to Snapfish and share the link with her.  I knew the album would be good.  I knew it would be great.

A few days before Easter she gave it to us, and I was wrong- it's not good, it's not great.  It's an absolutely amazing, beautiful, love-filled encapsulation of our daughter's first year.  It's not a 3-ring binder.  It's a 150 custom paged, leather bound Snapfish album.  It contains all of my favorite Sydney pictures and then some.  And here's the part that chokes me up.  It's got every single blog post I ever did about Sydney printed inside.  All of them.  It's perfect, and I love it.

While reading the blog posts I'd written over the past year it dawned on me that I haven't written about Syd in quite awhile...sure, I've posted pics and talked about what life is like relocating and all, but I haven't really sat down and talked about the sweet little girl that I have the privilege of calling my daughter.  Having all of those posts preserved with details of life as a new Mom, milestones that seem to have come and gone so quickly and the joy she brings us makes me want to document more...you're welcome to read on- hopefully you have a minute, I have a lot to say...but more so for me.  I suppose it's a way of capturing a moment of time as I know this moment floods into the next and before I know it- she's grown up. 

Let's start with the physicals.  She's tall.  Tall as in the lady at Monkey Buziness the other day wanted to charge me $5 because she was convinced she was older than 24 months.  I politely told her I would pay $3 since she was 16 months.  She's 34 inches tall, which continues to keep her off the charts for height.  She weighs around 23 pounds which means she's flirting in the 30-40th percentile for weight.  Her hair is growing at an exponential rate...in the back.  The sides still haven't decided to join in on the party.  It makes for kind of a shabby hairdo when it's down, but let me tell you- that girl has the CUTEST stinkin' pigtails I have ever seen!  She's up to 12 teeth now with no new ones in sight (yay!).  She's got the bluest eyes (still) and a smile that will knock your socks off. 

Now to the more important stuff.  Personality.  My oh my is her personality growing everyday.  She's a HAPPY girl.  She's recently added a touch of shy flirtation.  If you look at her you might spark a shy head tilt with a flirtly glance your way.  She's lovable and will give just about anyone a hug if asked...will hold anyone's hand and wants SO badly to be friends with all the little kids at the playground who (mostly) want nothing to do with her.  She squeals with utter delight when she sees a squirrel, Gramma's cat, or a rowdy dog bouncing around.  She loves the swing at the playground and I've recently dubbed a new giggle:  The Under-Doggie Giggle.  You remember the under-doggie, don't you?  She giggles a giggle that I've never before heard and cannot duplicate with any other action then under-doggying her at the swings.  She's fearless when it comes to the slides and loves the ones that are tunnels.  Rocks are the best thing next to sliced bread and bananas and you can't go anywhere without stopping to examine the rocks along the way.  In her mind it's definitely not the destination, but the journey and I'm trying to be more that way myself. 

She continues to dislike the stroller and wants to walk herself.  When asked the other day how I did anything without the stroller I simply replied:  "We take a long time to do a simple task, and I go without large expectations of accomplishing a lot."  Our wonderful pediatrician in Honolulu once told us that there were so many things about a child you could influence:  character, morals, personality...but that the temperament of a child was something that they were born with and there was nothing you could do but accept it and move on.  I accept the fact that Sydney hates the stroller, doesn't like to sit on my lap and cuddle, would prefer to not be in a car seat and wants down as SOON as dinner is done.  I'm embracing the fact that she's a busy-body, independently wants to accomplish things and has no time to just sit.  She's perfect the way she is.

Her vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds.  She said her first sentence this week:  "Let's Go!"  It's a sentence, right?  ;)  Some of her favorite words are river, apple, banana, dog, ball, book, nack (snack), pssss (please), nneow (meow), duck, sharrr (sharp), cheese, hot, dipur (diaper),  mama, dada, bye, hellowwww, nore (more) and amen (pronounced aaaaaaa-men!).  (Oh, can't leave "no" out!)  She's our little helper- unloading the dishwasher, setting the table, making coffee, and she never misses a chance to take out the trash with Daddy.  Such a gleam of pride and happiness when she's helping out and being thanked for it. 

Hide-and-seek is her absolute favorite game.  It doesn't matter if she's hiding in the closet, behind a cup, a chair or those little hands- when she is found a low giggle or a squeal comes out and she's off to repeat the fun.  She's running and moves her little elbows back and forth when she's doing it...usually away from me when I tell her it's time for a diaper change. 

The first word out of her mouth in the morning (if I go get her from the crib instead of Daddy) is "Dada?"  The last words before bedtime as she's nursing is "Dada?"  She loves that Dada of hers, and the delight on her face when she sees him gives me a safe, happy, warm delight myself.  

The kisses, hugs, smiles, hand holding and "i love you" signs are flooding my love tank and I am going to burst.  Everyone should have a 16 month old in their lives.  ♥