2

Dear Sydney,

You turned 2 exactly 2 weeks ago.

You are a little thing, but a mighty thing.  Always quick to exert your independence with every.single.thing.  "I do-ed it!" rings in our ears all day long.

You are a girly-girl with the sweetest heart and the sweetest smile to match.

Today at your 2 year old appointment, you weighed exactly 24 lbs and were 34 inches long.  You screamed and cried while you were weighed, measured and examined.  At one point, you even tried to fold your little body into my belly.  You would NOT be won over by the doctor, CMA or NP student. 

 But I knew you would do that.  You are quite shy with most people you don't see very often.  Not unlike me as a kid.

But you are quick as a whip, knowing many of your colors and even doing some counting.  You are so very silly.  Your brother always says, "Sydney's hilarious!"  I have never met a sillier kid!

One request, could you try not to be such a stuntwoman?  It's freaking your father and me out.  Try to stop jumping recklessly off the couches and out of the car the second I unbuckle you.  We would really appreciate that.  We are quite relieved that your trust-falls-off-the-counter phase is over.  It was completely heart stopping.

And I will try to take more pictures of you like I did for your brother.  I will do better to photo document your growth and early life.  I am sorry I have been really slacking at that.

Even though I have only held you, rocked you, kissed you and loved you for 2 short years, I feel like I have known you forever.  You are like and old friend.  Some one I have known and who has known me my whole life.  We get each other.  Completely.

I am so thankful every single day for you and your brother.  Even though it means I never pee alone and have to share all my food with slobbery mouths.  And my body is now forever "softer."  Along with my heart.

I am We are thoroughly enjoying you in all your two-ness.

 "Mommy, I done!"

So, I cheers my wine with your sloppy, drippy whole milk sippy.  On to bigger and better adventures together!

Love, 

Mama

18 months

Dear Sydney, 

Hey girl.  Today, you turned 18 months!  I took you and your crazy brother to Olbrich Gardens to celebrate.  

You explored, climbed and tortured your mother together.

You are such a little person these days.  With clear likes and dislikes.  Unlike your brother, you have much more likes than dislikes:)  And you are more easily distracted and redirected than he was at 18 months.

Even though you two are as different as night and day in so many ways, you have a special bond.

He helps you and you help him.  He loves you and you love him.  He annoys you and you annoy him.  Its perfect.

Everything he does, you want to do.  Monkey see, monkey do.

Your vocabulary is huge.  You will try to repeat anything we say.  Currently, my favorite word that you can't even come close to saying but you try super hard is "brother."  And any word ending in "k" or "ck" is said with a hard "CKKK" sound.  It is hilarious!  A lot of German in you:)  Your first two word phrase was, "HI Turbo!"

Your personality has completely blossomed into the silliest kid I have ever met.  You enjoy "dressing up" with beaded necklaces, crowns and hats.  You even pretend to "go bye-bye" by slinging a purse of bag over your shoulder while waving and saying "Bu-bye!"

In the morning after I dress you, you look down, pat your belly and say, "Pretty!"

You eat like no kid I have ever seen.  Sometimes, you have 3 dinners.  It's crazy!  You are our little garbage can.  You also enjoy sharing your food, typically after you have licked it or had it in your mouth.  You offer it up saying, "Bite??"

At 17 months, you took up the Nuk.  I think it is comforting for you since we are weaning off of nursing.  I can't help but think it is adorable:)

You have been and continue to be such a joy in our lives.  You are the perfect piece we were missing without knowing we were missing it.  You shower us with love- continuous hugs and kisses and back pats.

I can't get enough of you and am always wondering what you will do next.  I am having so much fun being your Mama:)  Here's to more adventures together!

Love,
Mama

Her

Dear Sydney,

I don't know how this happened but you are 14+ months old.

 Easter 2015

It seems nearly impossible that I am the mother of a 4 year old and one year old!  You are quite the little smarty pants.  I'm scared for what is to come when you are a pre-teen...

But lets not get too ahead of ourselves.  Lets focus on what you are doing right now.  Right now, you have finally decided, at just under 14 1/2 months, that you are going to be a full time walker.  Prior to this, your preferred mode of getting around was the ever popular knee walk.  Now we just need your feet to grow to fit into all the cute shoes you have!

But what might even be more exciting is your language development.  You are right on the verge of a vocabulary explosion!  Everyday brings new words and sounds.  This past Monday, you added "poop" and "blue" to your repertoire.  And on you started making the sound "ssssss."  I just know Sully is on the tip of your tongue.

Speaking of Sully, he loves you so much.  So, so much that he just can't keep from bugging you:)  Sorry but it is only the beginning of a long brother/sister bickerfest.  No worries, I have no doubt you will put him in his place very soon:)

My sweet baby girl, everyday is fun and new and exciting.  I am enjoying seeing life through your eyes just as much as I did seeing life through the eyes of your brother at your age.  You are social and silly and so darn smart.  How lucky and blessed could one Mama be?

Love,
Mama

1

Dear Sydney,

Today you are 1.  You have endured 1 loop around the sun on this crazy Earth.  In this crazy life, with your crazy family.  Mostly, you have survived one year growing up alongside your crazy brother.

(He was all excited to get his house pillow and take pics with you only to refuse to put that spoon down and no make eye contact or any other face than that one.  Crazy kid.)

This last year has held more joy than I have ever known.  It's like I was waiting for you to complete us all along.

And then you were here and all was just right.  Adding the perfect amount of sweetness and softness that we were missing.

You sure made it easy and fun to have a baby again.  But it would silly to be sad about leaving your babyhood behind when we get to wake up to this girl everyday...

This girl that is so goofy and loves to play peek-a-boo with anything she can find.   She who can easily scale the stairs and walk around the room while holding onto furniture but is not quite ready to walk independently yet.  She who loves Minnie Mouse and singing and dancing.  "Her" who has so quietly and without force made her way to the center of our hearts (which I did not know how that was possible before but now I do).

Which makes me excited to watch you grow in this next year.  And the year after that.  And the year after that.

But before we do that, lets remember your 1 year old toes...

Your petite 1 year old little body standing with assistance of a 1995 Barbie Dream House filled with Marvel superheroes taking baths, doing push ups, riding the elevator and cooking dinner.

Your 1 year old bedroom...

But because Mother Nature decided today was the perfect day for a blizzard, we will celebrate all of your first year next weekend.

Loved your first year.  Loved every minute.

Love you,
Mama

Fail.

Yeah, this is how today has gone.  I had high hopes my girl would be the perfect cake smasher and I would get kick ass pics but that was not in the cards today.  

But lets focus on what I did get out of it, some camera practice.

 Sorry but I am still learning how to get great pics with very little natural light.  Our house just doesn't get great light and on top of that, it is overcast today.  I took this pic with the AV setting (Canon) and ISO 1600 (I think).  I also edited it a bit in Picassa (because it is free).  I am using a Canon EOS Rebel T3i with 85 mm 1:1.8 lens.

A sheet draped over two dining room chairs, gold and lace banner, 2 gold picture frames and a chalkboard banner.  A cake and cake stand.

For this shot, I switched to manual mode with shutter speed 1/80, aperature F 1.8 and ISO 400.  The cake is out of focus because I had my point of focus behind it.  It definitely gave me more light and I am liking those setting for this area of my house.

The set:

I started with a bed sheet that I ironed but I am a terrible iron-er and there was still wrinkles.  But I was willing to work with it anyway.  Pinterest seems to suggest using a large sheet of paper instead of a sheet so you don't get wrinkles.  

Next, I made a banner using some wall decals and lace and twine I had laying around.

 I think I got these from Target about 6 months ago.

I cut a section of lace and twine and then applied the decals.  See below.

I sandwiched the twine between two decals then strung the twine through the lace after each set of decals I applied.

The lace is only attached where the twine intersects it.

The frames I picked up from an antiques mall on the east side of Madison yesterday.  I got them for my living room or maybe for a Craftshop project but they were gold so I had to use them.  

The little chalkboard banner I picked up at JoAnn's months ago. 

I got the cake at Metro Market and added some gold sprinkles.  

I waited alllllllllllll night for daylight and finally, it was today!

I dolled up the girl in her perfect gold hair bow (Etsy) and tutu (Carters) and set her down with the cake in front of her.

Annnnnnnnnndddddddd.....

Foiled by an uncooperative child again!!  I didn't even try this with the boy as he was highly offended by anything wet or sticky.  I had high hopes for the girl.  Nope.  Apparently I just have kids that don't have the same vision at I do.

I kept with it for about 30 minutes and got a few ok shots...

Then we called in some superheros to assist....

And then we started sticking stuff in the cake so she would take them out of the cake....

And we ended where we started.   Sigh.....

I had to do some straightening and cropping in Picassa so I lost some quality with the photos.  I don't shoot in RAW as I am afraid I am going to need a whole lot more room on my computer for this but that would definitely help keep the quality during edits.  I know Photoshop is the optimal edit software but I am not sure I have the time and patience to delve into that right now.  Meh.