Sydney Talk: May 2010

Mom took me to see the doctor again this morning, fearing another long and sleepless weekend. I've been poking at my ears, not eating well, and waking up at least 2-3 times a night, even since finishing my last round of antibiotics earlier this week. I am now 23 lbs 10 oz, though that was with my diaper and blankie which I would NOT let go of. We were supposed to go back in 2 weeks for an ear check anyway, but decided to go today since it's a long weekend and we wanted to be sure. Turns out my ears are FINALLY clear, so that is good news. This means we might avoid having to see an ENT specialist and get tubes. But it also means that the cure to my lack of sleeping is still a mystery. I'm getting 2 of my 2 year molars, so that probably has something to do with it. Who knows how long those are going to take to pop through, then there are still 2 more to come in on the other side! Even though they are "2 year" molars, they can come in anywhere from 18 months to 3 years, so hopefully I'll get this phase done and out of the way SOON. I'm also going through a pretty bad phase of separation anxiety, so the doctor felt that could be making me wake up at night too. What can I say, I'd rather snuggle with mom in the glider than be alone in my bed! Speaking of which, my big girl bed is almost here!!! We're going to convert my crib to a bed as soon as the conversion kit comes in, which should be in another week or two. I sleep on a cot at school and did pretty well on the air mattress in the hotel last week, so we're going to give it a shot. I'm not sleeping well anyway, so it can't hurt and will hopefully make bedtime a little easier. Right now I go back and forth between wanting to sit in mommy's lap ("I sit in mommy's lap) to wanting to be in the crib ("night night"). We do this at least 5 times before I actually lay down and say "Night night mommy, I love you." It's pretty frustrating for both of us to keep getting up and down, so maybe the big girl bed will solve that problem. Well, better get going. Hope everyone is able to enjoy the long weekend ahead of us!!!

It's been a while since mom let me post anything again! We had a fun filled weekend and I have a lot to update you on!!!

Two of my cousins, Jennifer and Christine graduated this weekend! Christine graduated from Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville and Jennifer graduated from Elon University in North Carolina. Wouldn't you know that both graduations were the same day :( We had to make a tough decision and chose to travel to Elon this year and will plan on going to Mary Washington when Beanie graduates a few years from now :)

Mom and dad tell me I did a pretty good job traveling this weekend, but we're all glad to be home. We left home Thursday night at my bedtime and mom drove for a few hours until we got south of Richmond. When we stopped for gas at some point, mom and dad switched and we drove just in to North Carolina and stayed in a hotel there. Dad has a ton of Hilton points from his work travel, so we were able to stay for free :) Only problem was that we drove from 8 to midnight and I was WIDE awake by the time we got there. I was up until almost 3, then finally fell asleep. Mom and dad got me a really cool air mattress instead of my pack and play, so I had a fun new bed, but unfortunately (for them at least) it meant that I could get up and wander around.

Friday morning, we woke up and mom and I had breakfast and did a quick shopping trip to Target while daddy got to catch up on a little sleep. We drove the rest of the way to Elon, which was a little over an hour away. We met up with Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jeff in the hotel, got changed and went to the Baccalaureate on campus. I didn't make it too far in to the ceremony before I started "singing..." Mom had to leave and walk around the halls with me. When the ceremony was done, we took a tour of campus. It was so beautiful and smelled SO good. We walked all over and got to walk inside a bunch of the buildings. We got to see the library and "reading room" which was beautiful. The campus is very different from Penn State, the only other college campus I've really been on. After our tour, we got to eat dinner at a cool place called the Mellow Mushroom! I had some hummus for dinner because I couldn't eat the cheese on the pizza. I didn't eat much, but that's ok because I snacked all day :) It took me several hours to fall asleep again once we got back to the hotel, but I slept pretty well once I did fall asleep. I woke up once at 4am and then mom got me up a few hours later for breakfast and I was bright eyed as can be!

Here are some of the photos from campus. I'm sorry I don't know the names of all of the buildings, but you can see how beautiful it is!

The organ :)

My cousin Jen!

Cousin Jen and Uncle Jeff! I had such a fun time with them :)

Saturday morning, we met Uncle Jeff and Aunt Laurie in the hotel before the graduation ceremony. We all drove over to campus and parked and walked to the Oaks where the ceremony was held. It was supposed to rain at some point on Saturday, so we were all hoping that it held out for a few hours. We all got seated and waited for the ceremony to begin. The weather turned out to be wonderful - it was actually a little chilly, but at least wasn't stifling hot! I got a little restless, so mom walked around with me in the stroller and I got a bit of a nap. I was asleep when they called Jen's name, otherwise I was fully prepared to yell HOORAY JEN! It started to rain a little near the end of the ceremony, so mom took me to the back of the seats and put up the umbrella (which I'm really good at saying, by the way...). We met up with the rest of the family after and walked over to find Jen. We did find her and were able to get some cute photos.

Jen and Ricky

Grad Jen and Proud Dad Jeff

After the ceremony, mommy, daddy, Aunt Laurie and I grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hotel to try to take a nap since I had napped so early in the morning. We all finally got to sleep and had a nice long nap, then met everyone for a wonderful dinner at a Japanese steak house! I had never been to such a place, but had a great time watching the cook make our food :) He gave me a whole big plate full of fried rice and noodles that were SO yummy! I ate really well and was pretty well behaved the whole time. We stopped at a book store on the way back to the hotel and I got a few new books :) Bedtime on Saturday was a LOT better, though I was still up way past my bedtime.

Sunday, mommy, daddy and I drove to campus so we could go for a run around campus. We did a lap around the campus, then mommy stopped with me and dad kept going for another lap. Unfortunately, by the time we were done, we had missed Uncle Jeff and Aunt Laurie :( We showered and hit the road... I fell asleep in the car almost immediately and about an hour later we stopped for lunch on the UNC Chapel Hill campus! We had a great lunch at the Carolina Brewery restaurant, then walked around campus for a bit. I can't even believe how HUGE that campus is! We probably only saw a quarter of it, but stopped at the bookstore and got me a t-shirt on the way out :) When we left, we drove by the Dean Smith Center! What an impressive site - it's enormous!

When we left there, we drove to Duke! We didn't really get out of the car there, but we did drive around and got to see a lot of the campus. Mom thought it was really pretty, but dad said he didn't think he could go there. We stopped at Cameron Indoor Stadium and dad took some photos there too :) There were some lacrosse players on the field across the parking lot and we were wondering if they were the Duke team, but turns out they were a high school camp...

From there, we left to drive the rest of the way home. I slept the whole way through the Duke campus and slept for several hours on the drive north. I only woke up when we stopped to switch drivers just south of Richmond. Daddy had to drive through some TORRENTIAL downpours and was not thrilled about that. Mom lucked out and the weather was pretty clear once she started driving. But she did get stuck in a 6 mile long traffic jam around Fredericksburg (where Mary Washington is!) and I was awake and quite unhappy through that bit. We finally were able to get off of the highway and grab some dinner. Daddy sat in back with me and we made it home around 8pm. Surprisingly, I got my bath and went to bed pretty easily! Hopefully we can get back on a normal schedule now.

In other news, I have my third ear infection in 2 months. During that 2 months, I've had constant fluid behind my ear drums, even when my ears weren't completely infected. So I'm on a stronger antibiotic this time and if my ears aren't clear 2 weeks after I stop the antibiotics, we'll have to go to an ENT specialist and I'll probably have to get tubes in my ears :( Mom doesn't think they're getting better because I haven't slept through the night in over 2 months and I'm still pulling at my ears and saying "owie." We go back to the pediatrician in 2 weeks, so we shall see. Thank goodness we have good insurance, because mom and my doctor are getting to know each other quite well.

Here are some other random photos from the past month:

Penn State proud...