August?

Ummm...what happened?  August zoomed by.  We packed it full of fun and didn't sit on our behinds wasting one day.  It was the beginning of August one moment and now it's the beginning of September.  Hmph.  Summer is over, officially.  Even though I'm no longer a student who has to go back to school once the big S month comes along...but because after living in Boise all my life I'm smart enough to know that September is the beginning of the end.  The positive side of that?  The end is the gorgeous beginning to FALL!!!

Sydney is growing up.  Robby said the other night- "She's getting so big."  I replied- "As in size or mentally?"  He said- "Developmentally...she's a little girl that understands things so well and communicates efficiently."  It's a happy time and a sad time.  It's going so fast and I'm not sure how to slow down the freight train.  Her vocabulary impresses me daily.  Not very often does she say something that I sincerely can't understand.  She tries to talk in sentences which sometimes leads me to piecing it together.  She'll say "Mama sit der, reeeed book" or "Daddy home, big box" when he brought home the UPS package today.  Yesterday in the car she told me "Mommy, eat right now!"  She's starting to realize that what I'm eating should be fair game for her to as she'll say "I wannnn try it...Sydney bite." 

Hide-and-seek is still a favorite and she comes up with some pretty good places.  Robby was counting to ten the other day and I saw her run into her bedroom closet.  He came back out 3 minutes later and started down the hall to look for her in our bedroom.  I looked at him and said- "You're kidding, right?"  "Where is she?  I looked all over her room, even in her closet."  He hadn't looked hard enough- she was tucked in a little nook and cranny. 

She is a water baby through and through and has started taking showers with me...mostly so that I don't have to trap her in the bathroom and worry that she's going to eat an entire tube of toothpaste or deotorant and also because she loves it.  She holds the soap (ok, she spends 98% of her time trying to hold the soap and 2% actually holding it.)  At the end she will say "cold shower" so I oblige (move out of the way) and let her at it.  She squeals and runs through it with delight, shivering all the while. 

She's got one little ornery streak to her and some days I just don't know what to do.  I suppose that's part of having a 20 month old.  She's started being possessive with things and will walk around the house holding something and shout "Mine! Mine!"  When we get to the playground and she sees another kid on the frog or her favorite swing she will shreik "NOOOOOOO!!!" at which she immediately gets told that we are here to share all the slides and swings and if she can't, then we'll go home.  That's usually all the talking to that she needs, but still...she's that kid screaming NO at each park.  Yeah. 

Oh, and this:  I can't help but blog about it, it's entirely too inappropriate and adorable.  Thanks to myself, her Daddy and I'm pretty sure others, she has picked up the word "damnit".  We're working on it, but the adorable part about it is that she knows the EXACT context to use it in.  If she's struggling to get her shoe on or open a box, she'll whisper under her breath - "damnit".  The other day she was into something she wasn't supposed to be and Robby goes "Come here, Sydney" to which she replied "damnit"...as if she knew she had been caught.  I try to tell her that it's a naughty word which of course means that it is then repeated 5 times just because I called attention to it.  Oh my belly laughs.  I guess I outta watch my mouth closer, huh?  :)

So that's our little love- she covers herself in dirt any chance she gets.  Rocks are still amazing.  Every animal in the house needs milk (and I don't mean cow's milk) and everything goes ca-ca.  She throws sand at people at the park, she loves everyone in her life and constantly brings up their names which is followed by "eat?".  For example:  "Uncle Matt?  Home?  Eat?"  She is a book worm through and through, she lights up like a firefly when Daddy is around and she melts my heart when she tells me I need a "monter hug" (monster hug) and asks to hold my hand while we are rocking. 

I think I'm caught up.  Now for some pictures!

Strollers are the best thing ever.  They keep a little girl on track while walking the Greenbelt!

She loves feeding the goats at the zoo and while she starts out timid, she's giving them handfuls at the end.  As a side note:  goats' eyes freak me out.

We were lucky enough to visit McCall again this summer with Robby's family for a few days.  We went jet skiing and rented a pontoon boat.  It was Syd's first boat ride and she loved it.

Can you ever have too many pictures of a Dad with his Son?  I think not.

Sydney and MJ baked a white cake with Granny Jo Jo due to a photo contest that my Mom wanted to enter.  Granny Jo Jo was a good sport!

"MJ, how did you get so messy?"  "Sydney."  Yep, true story...this boy didn't have one speck on him until Sydney realized it and thought she better change that.  Cause really- how do you bake a cake and NOT get flour everywhere?!?!

I love those red lips.

The FAIR!!!  I love the fair!!!  Sydney loved the fair!!!  Here she's feeding goats with Daddy and all is well until...

...the goat steals your cup of food!!!

Syd and Robby were watching a tractor pulling contest when she left his side, took her place among strangers on the bleachers and then proceeded to clap for everyone. 

And then Grampa joined in on the fun!

All happy and no tears?  I don't think so.  She cried bloody murder getting on, but sometimes Mommy knows best and in the end, she had a BLAST.

So much so that she was willing to go on the big girl swing with me.  I think I was more scared!

Carefree Cuteness.