Sydney 28-30 Months

It's hard to believe, but our baby is already 2 1/2 years old.  I don't know where time has gone!  Sydney continues to amaze us each day.  She is as sweet as can be and a little spit fire all at the same time.  She is smart, sassy, funny, sneaky, and best of all loving.  We are so proud of the little girl she is.

 Sydney Alex Papp

25 lbs.

Sydney continues to blow us away with her language development and motor skills.  We sometimes forget she is only 2 1/2 because she can communicate and reason with you like most 3-4 year olds.  It's fun to watch her process things around her  (words, actions).  She pays attention to every detail and has a memory like you wouldn't believe.  Usually I list phrases (or in Sydney's case sentences of what's she's been saying, but she says TOO much to list).  Here are a few things she says pretty regularly:

• It's okay Mommy- Anything she does wrong or sees wrong is OKAY.
• I'll be carefully Mommy, I know what I'm doing-  if I catch her doing something and she knows I'm going to say something about it.
• I have to tell you something important....I love you.  One of my favorites.
• I'm going to shut my door so Hailey can't get my things.  She is very into "her" stuff being hers and doesn't want Hailey to touch it.
• I'm going to put this up so Avery can't get it.  Doesn't matter if Avery is here or not, she puts things up so Avery won't get them.  *Sorry Avery
• Go on now...go on.  I'm pretty sure she got this from our neighbors Jerry and Diane.  She sounds so southern saying it too.  If she wants you to leave or get away from her things she says this.  Can't you just picture her shoving Hailey away saying, "Go on Hailey, go on now."  It's pretty cute.
• Buddy-  If she doesn't know someones name, she calls them Buddy.  So, if she's sharing with someone she might say to them, "Here you go Buddy, you can have this."
• Is Daddy coming home from work tonight?  Breaks my heart each time, but she asks almost every day.  Does that tell you something about the amount of travel Daddy does??

 Ready to head to preschool one morning.

 Being silly

Fun at the park.

 Here is a little of what Sydney has been up to the past three months:

• Skiing-  The season is over, but she has asked to go skiing.  We are looking forward to getting her off her tails next year and skiing as a family.
• gymnastics.  I really believe we have a gymnast on our hands.  She loves it.  You will find her rolling all over the house doing front rolls, tables, arabesque, and jumps.  One of her favorite things to do is a sit/stand on the trampoline.....too bad we don't have one.
• swimming-  She loves the water.  She just finished up lesson and has been asking to go again.  Looking forward to lots of days at Splash this summer.
• puzzles-  Of all the toys and games we have, puzzles are her favorite.  She will sit for up to an hour putting puzzles together, and not the baby ones, but real "big kid" puzzles.
• motorcycle-  Her favorite of all toys.  It's the first thing she grabs when she head outside to play.  Sydney loves to go backwards on it.
• washing-  Sydney and Hailey love to wash and clean.  If we are playing with water outside, they wash all the toys, the slide, the pool.  They ask for a wet towel and a few dry ones.
• helping with chores-  Sydney loves to help out around the house.  She gets a sticker on her chore chart for putting her laundry away, putting silverware away, taking out the trash, and setting the table.  For each sticker she gets 25 cents.
• helping make dinner-  She loves to sit on the counter and watch/help me make dinner.  She would rather do that than play.  She slides the stool to the counter and climbs right up.
• legos-  Hailey has been really into Lego's, so what is Sydney into right now....Lego's.
• gardening-  The girls and I go out each day and water the garden and check the progress.  We have lots of carrots and beans growing.  The broccoli has also started to grow.

 Playing with her Duplo set Daddy bought her for going to bed so good.

 Playing a game.  She plays independently very well.

 Putting on a show in the front yard.

 Sydney loves to play doctor.  The girls set up a waiting room and bring out all the babies for patients.

Other fun facts about Sydney:

* Sydney is completely potty trained.  No more diapers in this house.....not even pull ups.  Sydney was 100% done with diapers in March (she was 27 months old).  Not only is she potty trained, but she doesn't wear a diaper to bed either.  Hailey got out of night time pull ups in January (she was 4 1/2).  Sydney has never worn a pull up. 

* Preschool-  Sydney loves it.  She asks to go most days.  She has even asked if I'll call the school and see if there is room for her to go that day.  She loves her teachers and talks a lot about them.  If you ask her who her friends are at school, she still doesn't know.  She says she plays with lots of people, but doesn't know their names yet.  She does go the same days as Brooke and Avery and they run around there like the Three Amigos.

 All smiles on Easter.

 Such a sweet things.....

* Sydney is starting to understand that her Daddy is gone a lot.  It use to be easy on her because time really didn't mean anything, but now that she is getting older, she knows and understands he is gone.  We talk about him being gone in nights.  I might say he will be home in 15 nights and she says, "okay, that's not long."  I'm glad she really doesn't get it.  She does ask several times a day if he is going to be home for dinner.  If you ask her where her Daddy is she always replys, "Korea."

*  Sydney has a witching hour.  Anytime around 4 o'clock it hits.  Because she doesn't nap, it all catches up to her and she gets GRUMPY, owly, whinny, and just down right sad.  She will cry at the drop of a hat.  Then, she eats dinner and gets her second wind.  You would think having not napped she would crash at night and go to bed easily.  She does stay in her room and go to sleep, but she stays up and reads books for at least 20-30 minutes each night.

 Riding the carosuel all by herself.

*  She can go on and on about her owies. She does fall a lot and skin her knees up (Because she insists on wearing Crocs).  Usually the scrapes are not bad, but she will talk about them for weeks.  And of course, she needs a band aide.  Finding shorts or pants to wear can be difficult because she doesn't like them to touch her owies.

*  Sydney has a very unique laugh.  Seriously...it's pretty cute.  She does this thing where she chuckles and then inhales making this gasping sounds.  When she laughs its hard not to laugh with her....usually because she has said or done something funny, but mostly because her laugh is so cute.

* Sydney melts my heart.  She will give anything up for her sister Hailey.  If Sydney has something Hailey wants, she will "usually" give it up and say, "here you go Hailey, you can have it."  Doesn't matter if it's a toy, colored plate, food, she will share it.

* Reading is one thing Sydney really enjoys.  I feel like I don't read to her as much as I did with Hailey at this age, but maybe it's because we are so much busier with two.  She gets her books at night and when she does, she usually reads Pete the Cat.  She is obsessed with him.  We have 3 or 4 Pete the Cat books and she chooses at least one of them each night.  Her favorite things about them:  Pete is a cat and all his friends are cats except one dog.  She things it's pretty funny and points it out in the book all the time.  She loves to turn to this one particular page in the book and laugh about the dog.

Her favorite outdoor toy.

Reading books with sister and of course, it's Pete the Cat.

 * Honestly, I don't know if Sydney is growing.  She is, but not very much.  In 6 months she has grown about 1/4 of an inch......see, that's not much.  She doesn't weigh much either.  She is about 25 lbs.  At this age, Hailey weighed 32 lbs.  She is still wearing most 2T and some 18 months still.  Finding pants to stay up on her is VERY difficult.  Most things fall right off.  Her shoe size is a 6.  She is wearing shoes much longer than Hailey did at this same age.  By now, Hailey was in a 8.

*Sydney and Hailey are best friends.  Honestly...they love each other very much and take care of each other.  They are starting to fight a little more lately, but overall, we couldn't ask for a better friendship for them.  They love to cuddles, hug, give kisses.  Having a sister as a best friend is amazing.  I hope they have what my sister and I have....you couldn't ask for more.

Sisterly LOVE.