Ten For Ten

This sweet baby turned 10 months old yesterday!

Doesn't even seem possible...


So, here are ten random facts you might not know about Little Miss Sydney.

+  Move over purees - Sydney is loving finger foods now.  Her favorites are sweet potatoes, string cheese and lima beans.

+  She's a water baby!  She loves hanging out in her little raft float or splashing around in the pool.

+  Sydney is pulling up on all of our furniture.  She is even crawling up onto our couch.  Crazy baby.

+  The girl is NUTSO when it comes to her bouncy swing!  Her latest thing is to bounce like crazy and then swing around in a huge circle.  

+  Sydney can be quite the chatterbox.  She is really trying to talk.  She can say Da-Da and now with Peyton around she is trying to say dog.  I would give anything for her to say Ma-Ma though.

+  She is not sleeping through the night! 

+  Girl has got TWO more teeth {her eye teeth} coming in.  We're going on six teeth here.

+  Dog food is her biggest temptation!  Gross.

+  If Sydney is fussing in the car, I can play the theme song to Jake and the Neverland Pirates and/or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she will instantly calm down.

+ And, as if you didn't already know this, I love this sweet girl more than I ever thought possible.  She is just the sweetest, most loving little baby and I am so very lucky to have her as my daughter.  

Happy 10 Months, Baby Girl

Brave

We took Olivia to see Brave in the movie theatre today!  It was such a great movie -- Olivia loved it! 

We're so glad Uncle Rhino is here visiting!

Dinner in Flagstaff

David had a work project up in Flagstaff on Thursday and we decided to make the trip a mini vacation. It was nice to escape the triple digit heat for a couple of days.  Flagstaff has the cutest little town and I'm  excited to head back up there again to explore some more.

We found a little brewery with outdoor seating and had one of the easiest dinners out with both girls that we've had in a long time.  The sun was setting and I pulled out my real camera to take some pictures of the girls.  By the looks of these pictures can you tell which one was more cooperative?

Good Golly, Miss Molly.  I sure do love this baby.

Olivia actually initiated this picture, but Sydney just was NOT having it!

Heaven help us when she becomes a teenager.

Yeah, she does this all the time.

Thanks for taking us along for the ride - we had a blast.

Details to come

That's What's Happenin', Man!

Sydney is sleeping and Mom, Dad and Ryan are having fun with Olivia, so I've taken a few minutes to go through some cell phone pictures.  I honestly need a week of doing nothing else but getting my pictures organized.  I'm behind on my photo albums in a BIG way.  {Like, haven't finished Olivia's 1-2 year book or even started on 2-3.  I haven't touched Sydney's baby book and am about 2/3 of the way done with our Disneyland book. One of these days...}  I'm so grateful for keeping up on this blog.  I just printed out two more books and have loved looking back over all of our adventures.

So, here's the latest...

+  For Father's Day, we took David and my dad to the Arizona Museum of Natural History.  Olivia was so exited to see the dinosaurs.  We were so impressed with the museum.  When we walked through the entrance, I thought it was just going to be a few rooms, but as we started going through it, we couldn't believe how much stuff they had!  There were several floors and SO many things to see.  We will definitely be heading back there again.

Happy Father's Day to two amazing fathers!  We are so lucky to have you in our lives!

She looks just like David here.

And, she looks just like Mom here.

+  Sydney had a fever that started on Friday night and lasted until Monday.  Bless her heart, it was so easy to see when her Tylenol was wearing off.  Olivia is currently rocking that fever.  My poor sweet girls.  I hate seeing them sick.

Burning up with a fever, but freezing cold.  

Still rooting on those hoosiers though! 

+  Olivia and I had a busy week last week with classes.  We are doing our pottery class and then signed up for a two-day art class with our favorite teacher, Miss Kathy.  {And, she is still doing swim class Monday - Thursday evenings!}

Glazing our pinch pot.

+  We are taking Olivia to see Brave tomorrow in the movie theatre.  One of my favorite bloggers did a tutorial on how to do pancake art {specifically for Merida} so when Olivia asked for pancakes this morning, I decided to give it a try.  My first attempt didn't go so well, but I think once I got the hang of it, I did alright.  Of course, Olivia is now asking for a bunch of different ones.  Ha ha - we'll have to see about that.

Wooops.

Olivia said, "Where's her arm?" I'm more concerned with where her other eye is!

She's happy regardless.  

+  We just got back from a little trip to Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon and Sedona so stay tuned for some pictures from that.

Slow Down Father Time

Happy {Belated} 38 Month Birthday, Sweet Girl!

{I love you, too!}

Here are a few things you are up to these days:

+  You have a few funny things that you are saying now, with the cutest little intonation. I wish we had them recorded.  You say to your dad a lot, Uhh, are you suuurree about this?  And, you say to anyone and everyone, Mmmm Ohhhkkkayyy.  And, Hey, I've got an idea!  That's probably my favorite.  Especially when we are at the store and you see something you want.  Last week you saw some toy you wanted and I said how cool it was, but that we weren't going to be taking it home with us.  You thought for a few seconds and said, Hey, I've got an idea!  Maybe we could do all of our shopping and then come back and get this to take home.  

+  You are completely done with naptime.  And, it is making my life all that much more difficult.  But, even if I only have you nap for an hour, you are up until midnight.  On the days when we are home, I have you take a little rest time in your room.  Your favorite thing is to play with the Disney Jr app on your dad's iPad.  Crazy that you are barely 3 and can work that thing like a pro.

+  You are doing SO great at swimming.  We could not be more proud of you.  You love to dive after your little princess diving toys and you swim like a little mermaid under the water.  You can tread water for a good amount of time and you are working on floating on your own.  I love the days when Sydney is napping and you and I go out by ourselves into the pool.  Your favorite thing to do is play swim class.  You get out of the pool and then run to the steps so I can say, Hey, look, Olivia's here! The other day you had me get out of the pool so I could run over while you said, Hey, look, Mommy's here!  And, then you had me float on my back while you put your hand under me and kept reassuring me that you wouldn't let go.  You really can be the sweetest thing.

+  Your Grandma Irma gives you a blessing before bed whenever she is here or we are at her house.  It's something to the effect of God love you and bless you forever and may you sleep with the angels {and then she does the sign of the cross on you}.  At first, you thought Grandma was silly because there are no angels in my room.  But, the other night when I was putting Sydney down, you came up to me and started tapping on my arm and said, You can sleep with the angels tonight.  Be still my heart.

I love this one.  It is just so...YOU.

+  I have a collection of picture frames adorning our mantle - there are pictures of you and Sydney and pictures from when I was pregnant with you and then pictures from our wedding.  You were sitting on the couch the other day just staring at the pictures and you said, Was I there the day you were the queen and daddy was the king?  I had to tell you that, no, you weren't there quite yet, but soon after you were in my belly.  

+  You got to go to the movies {Madagascar 3} on Friday with your Nana and Poppy.  I'm so sad that I missed your first theatre experience, but I'm told that you were as good as gold.  I'm also told at one point during a chase scene in the movie, you screamed out No, No!! Can't wait to take you to see Brave next week. 

+  One of your favorite books these days is Ponyella.  It's a sort of pony version of Cinderella.  In the story there are two horses who are mean to Ponyella.  We talked about how the horses weren't being very nice and you said, You know what?  They don't have Jesus in their heart.  No, they don't.  But, I hope you always do.

Love you to pieces.

Amazing pictures taken by my sweet SIL, Marissa.  

Sydneygrams: The MRI edition

I will be glad when this week is over.  And, by week, I mean all of the unpleasant hospital visits / doctor's appointments / baby fever business is over with.  Hoping that is tomorrow.  Or tonight, for that matter.

Sydney's original MRI was Wednesday morning at 8.  I was worked up for a number of reasons, the biggest being the fact that she would have to go under a general anesthesia for the scans.  That is scary stuff for this mama who worries over each little bump, bruise and scratch.  In addition to that, Sydney does not generally sleep through the night, and relies on the Mommy Pacifiers to get her back to sleep.  {As sleep deprived as I am, they are only young once and I cannot stand to hear her cry unnecessarily for any length of time.}  I was going to have to cut her off of those at 3am, so I was worried we might have a nightmarish early morning.  Fortunately, I was able to nurse her and have her back down by 2, but she was up at 5 and could not go back to sleep.  Thank you, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, for keeping her mind off of her hungry belly.

We got to the hospital around 7 and fortunately she had slept some in the car and was very happy and relaxed in my Ergo {which is more than I can say for myself}.  They did the work-up and I think I teared up through most of it.  The nurse and anesthesiologist were both very nice, but I couldn't help but bawl my eyes out once they took her back.  The procedure lasted a little over an hour and it was just the saddest thing to see her coming off of the anesthesia.  She took right to nursing {duh, she sleep nurses a lot} and eventually came back to her normal happy self.  We were so relieved to have that over with.  The nurse told us that no news was good news and we would hear something from our doctor in 24-48 hours.

When Thursday morning rolled around, I was feeling pretty confident that it was the hemangioma that the doctors had originally thought - there were no calls for more tests, blood work, or emergency surgery, so I felt more relaxed.

Around 5:15 Thursday evening, I got a phone call from an administrator at the hospital who said she was conferencing in with the doctor from radiology.  Oh my word, I can't tell you how quickly my heart began to beat.  It's amazing what my mind could race to in a matter of 15 seconds before she told me the reason for the phone call -- at Wednesday's MRI, they imaged the wrong arm.  It is unbelievable to me that something like that could happen as I stressed to the anesthesiologist, the nurse and the tech which arm it was.  They felt the mass and everything.  But, it happened, and the MRI needed to be done again.  You can't imagine how upset I was.  I think there were at least four different people on the phone with me - all apologizing and promising to make it right.  My only thought was that she was going to have to undergo anesthesia again.  I called my doctor to make sure that he was okay with her having this done two times in 48 hours.  He was just as upset with the hospital, but assured me it was completely fine for her to be put under again.

My dad and I took Sydney up Friday morning {as David had work things to do and couldn't get them all done the night before}.  It was pretty much the same routine as Wednesday except completely different people and a lot of apologies.  They promised us the results before we left the hospital, which was going to be nice so that we wouldn't have to wait over the weekend.

Sydney again did great under the anesthesia, but she was a lot more disoriented this time coming out of it.  But, within 10-15 minutes of nursing she was smiling and clapping {although she was very annoyed with the IV left in her arm in case the doctors wanted blood work done after seeing the scans}.  One of the administrators came in and brought Sydney a Gund teddy bear as her way of apologizing.  Definitely an upgrade from the snail Beanie Baby she got on Wednesday.

The waiting for the results was hard - it seemed to take longer than the imaging itself.  The nurse came back to let us know that the radiologist and Sydney's pediatrician had talked and wanted Sydney to have an X-ray of her arm to further prove it was a hemangioma and to rule out some other possibilities.

We took her up to X-ray and that was the only time she really cried - she didn't want to lay still on the table.  Totally reminded me of how difficult it has become to change her diaper!  Once we got the X-ray done we were free to go.

I heard from our doctor a few hours later and he let me know that they still can't be 100% sure that it is a hemangioma.  He said there must be something in the scans that is a little different from a typical hemangioma.  The good news is that the tumor {I hate that word, but that's what it is} is benign and is completely contained.  Our next step is to meet with a pediatric surgeon to see if we wait and watch it and ultrasound it again in 3-6 months to see if it is getting smaller or to remove it.  If it is a hemangioma, it should begin to get smaller because they typically peak in size around 9 months.

Throughout all of this, we realize how blessed we are to have two very healthy girls.  There are so many things that could potentially go wrong and we are so very grateful for good health.  Thanks so much for all of your prayers and good thoughts that you have sent our way over the last couple of weeks.

Now, if I can get this fever that Sydney has had for the last 18 hours or so to completely go away, I will be one happy mama!

Bless This Baby

Last Thursday while loving on Sydney, I felt a small mass in her upper right arm.  At first, I thought she was starting to get some biceps from her fast & furious crawling, but a quick feel of her other arm proved that wasn't the case.  I quickly called for David to check her out and saw a bit of concern on his face {which sent my worry in to overdrive}.  I called the doctor's office and, fortunately, they were able to get me in right away.

Before the doctor came in, I told my mom that I knew that he wouldn't be able to just tell me it was nothing and be done with it.  I knew it was going to take further testing.  And I was right.  The doctor definitely felt something and wanted to have an ultrasound done to see if we could get some more information.  He scheduled an ultrasound at the Children's Hospital for the next morning.

Bless her sweet heart, she was so good during that ultrasound.  And, walking through the hospital really put things into perspective for me.  As worked up as I was {and still am}, I know I am beyond blessed with a healthy baby.

{Looking closely, I feel like I can see the bump in her arm here.}

The doctor called with the results of the ultrasound and said that he and the hospital doctor were about 90-95% sure that it was a hemangioma presenting under the skin.  He said that if that is the case, it is generally harmless and would go away on its own.  However, they want to be 100% sure and in order to do that, they want to do an MRI.  

We have one scheduled for Wednesday morning at 8.  Sydney will have to go under general anesthesia for the MRI, and naturally, I am a bit of a wreck.  Tuesday night and Wednesday morning are going to be rough on our family.  If you can, please remember us and keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Oh, this sweet baby.  I couldn't love her more.

{Amazing pictures taken by my sister-in-law, Marissa.}

If These Phones Could Talk

And Siri doesn't count, because apparently you have to be Samuel L. Jackson or Zooey Deschanel for Siri to really work.  {Trust me, my husband tries enough, I just don't see the point when I can type something in faster than I can get Siri to even turn on.}

Anywho, here are a few cell phone pictures {off of my phone, David's phone and Poppy's phone} and their corresponding stories from the last couple of weeks...

The girl is obsessed with dressing up like a princess.  She has certain requirements for a dress to be a princess one - it has to touch the ground and cover her feet.  She has found my "nightie" drawer {Jill, that's not pronounced naughty} and loves to pull those out and wear those.  This, however, is more blog appropriate and is my swim cover-up.

This is how I spent Mother's Day!  

{After kicking David off of his birthday raft and floating around the pool like a Queen.}

When the house is a mess, I'm driven to drink.  And, I am loving this Summer Shandy.

When she is sweet to her baby sister, it just melts my heart.

We celebrated my mom's birthday with a trip to Oregano's and some FroYo for dessert.  

Let's just say well-checks are not fun.  And, they are especially not fun when you take both girls at once.  Never will I make that mistake again.

Olivia and I are taking a Mommy and Me Precious Pottery class.  I took ceramics and sculpture in high school and was horrible.  Let's just say I haven't gotten any better with time.

But, it sure is more fun having this little buddy working alongside me.

This little nugget has two teeth poking through on top, but is still her normal happy self.

She just learned to clap to Pat-A-Cake {thanks Nana} and even tries to say the Puh-Puh-Kk sounds when she claps.  Love her.

This happens a lot more than he thinks it does. 

I secretly love it.

Sometimes it's really fun being silly with this girl.

Love her too.

Found these pictures from Portland on David's phone.  Cuties.

This one over here is kicking butt and taking names at swim lessons!

Go Olivia!

And, if this isn't just the sweetest picture ever....

Today, Poppy treated us to lunch at the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and while I finished my lunch, he held a very sleepy Sydney.  It only took him about 45 seconds of Doo Dee Dooing, Uncle Hank style, before she was sound asleep on him.  So precious.

And, folks, that's about all our phones have to say about that!