Terrible Two's at 21 Months :)

I'm giving mom a run for her money these days! Everything is no, mine, go (as in mom, get out of here), or mommy uppy (pick me up NOW). And I go from wanting mom to hold me to throwing a tantrum in a split second. If mom or dad tell me no, I have a FIT and have even started hitting and biting mommy when I'm mad at her :( She tells me it hurts and that she doesn't like it, but I guess it's just my way of communicating that I'm unhappy. We're all hoping this passes quickly because obviously it's not easy for any of us!

Mom and I went grocery shopping this morning and ended up having a late lunch, and then I didn't want to nap after that. My favorite book lately has been "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." I can say it pretty well and when mom says "the mama called the doctor and the doctor said...," I fill in the rest, wag my finger back and forth, and say "NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!" Well, on our way home from the grocery store, I picked up one of my books that was in the car - it was a book called "Ten Little Ladybugs." Instead of counting the ladybugs like I usually do, I shouted "NO MORE LADYBUGS JUMPING ON THE BED!" Mom got a pretty good laugh out of that one. Mom also discovered that I learned Baa Baa Black Sheep and can sing nearly the entire song :) I learn so much at school!

Speaking of which...I'm starting at a new school a week from Monday! I really liked it when we went to visit and will be moving in to the 2 year old room there. There are two 2 year old rooms there and in my room, there's a hamster and some fish! In the other room there is a bunny named Snickers. This school seems very good in terms of dealing with food allergies, so I'm hoping that will make it easier for mom and me (right now she is sending 100% of my food to school, so that's breakfast, 2 snacks and lunch every day). They have photos in the kitchen and in each classroom of every kid who has food restrictions and the teachers and chef all seemed to know how to deal with it. The new school is actually about half way to work for mommy (we're on the waiting list at the location close to us, but can't get in there until I'm 3!!!). Mom's also excited that she will be able to use my cloth diapers at the new daycare, so hopefully we don't have to buy any more disposable diapers!!!

I haven't been napping well this week and today was no exception. I ended up "talking" to myself for almost an hour (which I usually do, but at some point fall asleep). Mom left me alone thinking I was signing to myself in my bed. Little did she know that I quietly climbed out of my bed, opened my drawer, got out all of my socks and diapers, pulled out my toy bins, got all of the toys out, put all of my books in my bed, and then hid behind my curtains. Whew - that was exhausting and you'd think I'd have to take a nap after all of that, but nope! At some point, mom and dad decided to just get me up and let me nap in the car on the way to Jay and Molly's.

All of my socks and diaper inserts in a nice big pile. When mom walked in the room, I was tossing them up in the air like they were confetti. I thought she was going to be mad, but she just laughed, got dad and came back with the camera :) The yellow blankie was mom's when she was a baby - isn't it nice that she's willing to share it with me? It's my favorite and I always ask her to cover me up with it.



I usually take a lot of my toys to bed with me, but there's not usually THIS much stuff in there!



After we abandoned my nap, we got in the car and headed to Virginia to meet Baby Jake! I slept for about 20 minutes on the way there, then woke up and screamed the rest of the way. Mom is surprised I was as good as I was given the lack of nap. I'll share some photos of Baby Jake once daddy puts them up. I liked him a lot, but I really enjoyed playing with Kona Bean and Holly (a mini dachsund who was SO well behaved and gentle). Jake was really good the whole time we were there. He did go through 3 diapers in a matter of minutes and I laughed about that. I still do that to mom sometimes :) I can't wait to teach him things as he grows up - I promised mom I'd teach him how to say "I like that party hat" from Go Dog Go.

Daddy put up some photos from the 4th at Mt. Vernon and from the fireworks. Here are a few. The rest are on the smugmug site (link on the right).







With that, have a good evening everyone!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Aunt Molly and Uncle Jay welcomed Jacob Orion Huie to the world today! Sounds like mom and baby are doing well and we can't wait to meet him! Mom and Dad taught me how to say "Hooray Molly" and "I love you Jacob." If they'll let me, I'll post a picture of him after we meet him :)

We had a great weekend! Mom and dad's 6th wedding anniversary was yesterday. They went to dinner and a show and I got to stay at home and play with Ms. Sharon! I woke up saying "Sharon, Sharon" this morning. Needless to say I had a wonderful time. Too bad I didn't sleep in a little later this morning, though.

Mom and dad told me that Uncle Steve and Aunt Angela *totally* surprised them and paid for their dinner as their wedding gift!!! That was SO nice of them and they really didn't have to! Mom and dad said that the looks on their faces when the waitress told them that dinner had been taken care of by Steve and Angela were PRICELESS. Their jaws were on the table and they couldn't stop talking about it all night. So my props go out to Steve and Angela - you've got mad game for pulling that one off and mom and dad REALLY appreciate it!

Today we drove down to Mt. Vernon. Mom had never been there and they had some cool festivities going on that dad wanted to see. It was hard to find parking, but once we did we had a really nice time. It was pretty hot and we didn't actually tour the mansion (there was an hour wait), but we walked all around and got to see the water (i.e. the Potomac). I also got to pet a mule (I thought he looked like a horse, but he had HUGE ears) and we saw horses and a few sheep. We had a blast and were all tired by the time we got home. Of course I had slept in the car on the way down there, so I didn't nap again at all this afternoon, much to mom's chagrin. All she wanted to do was nap, but no such luck. Even when daddy stayed with me so she could try to sleep I was so wound up and was shrieking and she couldn't sleep.

After throwing a tantrum because mom took my barrette away from me (I had pulled it out of my hair and was chewing on it), we went out to dinner at Red Robin. Mom and dad had huge burgers and I got stuck with a plate of spaghetti and some broccoli. I didn't even touch the spaghetti, but at least ate the broccoli and some of daddy's fries. Daddy's water had a lemon in it and I asked him for it. After taking a bite out of it, I exclaimed very emphatically "I lika dat lime!"

Then we went to see the fireworks at the Soccerplex near our house. Mom and dad had prepared me for the "boom boom," so I knew what to expect. The "secret" entrance that we always use was blocked off by the police, so we ended up making a U-turn and parking in a random church parking lot and walking over. It worked out well and we still had a pretty good view. We took some toys for me to play with and those kept me occupied while we waited for it to get dark. When the fireworks started, I got really excited! Mom and dad were afraid I'd be scared, but I had a wonderful time and was SO good, especially for being up s much past my bedtime. I kept saying "LOOK daddy!", "LOOK mommy!", "Boom, boom," "Baby see!" (as I held my baby doll up to see the fireworks) and "Blankie see!" Like they say all the time, I make mom and dad laugh :) Of course I fell asleep in the car on the way home and then chattered myself to sleep once mom got my jammies on. She's hoping again that I sleep in a little tomorrow, but chances of that are slim to none ;)

Hope you all had a Happy and Safe 4th! I certainly enjoyed mine and am so excited to be able to say Happy Birthday Jacob!

My new bike!

Mom bought me a bike last week and daddy put it together for me a few days ago while I sat in the garage and watched him. Now I ask him every night to put his shoes on and let me ride my bike :) It's so much fun, but I'm still a little too short to actually reach the pedals. I'll get there, though. My helmet is almost bigger than me! But mom wanted me to get used to riding with my helmet on because she wants to get a bike seat for me to ride on her bike when grandpa brings it in a few weeks. It sounds like a lot of fun. I already love going for runs in my stroller with mom and dad, so I'm sure I'll enjoy bike rides too. I've been getting in lots of stroller runs lately. Mom is training for a 10K and dad is training for a half marathon!!! They're crazy, huh?



Whatever stomach bug I got on Saturday lasted until yesterday. Mom had to keep me home on Monday and Tuesday and took me to the doctor on Monday. She said it was probably a virus and to keep me hydrated. Mom's advice to new moms and dads is to find a good pediatrician! She has really gotten to know my doctors well and feels really comfortable with most of them (OK, all but one in the practice and even that hasn't really been an issue). She's even formed a relationship with the nurse who always calls her back - now that the nurse knows me, she and mom get along pretty well. Of course mom gave me lots and lots of diluted juice just to get me to drink fluids. I don't usually get juice (mom tells me it has too much sugar in it - what fun is she???), but now I'm asking for it all the time and mom just gives me water, harumph. After eating not much other than applesauce for 3-4 days, I finally ate a good dinner tonight. Mom made pasta with peas and tuna and I picked out all the peas first, then the tuna, then ate the pasta. Not too bad, but I kept calling the peas green beans.

Mom tried to work while she was home with me on Monday and Tuesday and every time she talked on the phone, I said "hi grandpa." Too cute. Mom ended up moving my table and stool from the kitchen to the dining room so I could play with my play-doh and draw with markers while she worked. I did *really* well and mom kept telling me how proud she was of me :)

I've also started using the potty a lot more!!! I almost always tell mom *after* the fact that I need a new diaper, but I've started telling her that I want to go in the potty before hand! The downside to this is that sometimes I wake mom up several times a night and ask for a clean diaper. She's gotten pretty good at changing diapers in the dark and going back to sleep quickly. I think it helps that we use cloth diapers at home, so I can tell when I'm wet and I don't like it. I'm sure it will still be a while until I am out of diapers, but mom can hope, right?

What else is new??? Mom and dad are going out for their anniversary on Saturday night. Can you believe it's been 6 years already? They tell me that they first started dating 14 years ago! That's a long time! They got tickets to a Reduced Shakespeare show at the Kennedy Center and Ms. Sharon is going to come stay with me :) I'm so excited to see her - I miss her from the infant room at school!!!

Hope everyone is staying cool. At least the heat has broken for a little while at least. Happy long weekend :)

It's definitely summertime!

Wow - I can't believe how hot it's been the past few weeks! It's been in the mid 90's and has felt even warmer than that. Thank goodness for air conditioning and lots of water play at home and school!

I've been sleeping a little better, though have gone back to waking up a few times at night the past few nights. I do love my big girl bed, though. I've been drinking a *lot* of water because it's been so hot. I must have had too much water last night because I woke up early in the morning and my pj's, sheets and blankets were all soaked :( Mom changed everything and I went back to sleep for a few hours. She put up some light blocking shades in my room and they help me sleep a *little* later now that the sun comes up so early. Only one night have I climbed out of my bed and mom found me sleeping on the floor when she came to wake me up in the morning. I didn't seem to mind, though!

My vocabulary has absolutely taken off. I repeat almost everything and babble incoherently at times. I'll tell you what I want to eat (or not), what I want to read or what toy I want to play with. I'm back to being a pretty picky eater about half the time. I've been loving steak on the grill, but don't do so well with the veggies. Mom made us some kabobs the other night and I did well with those, but I didn't like the onions. I guess it's good that she's still making me some chicken "nuggets" with veggies hidden in them. And I *love* hummus, so at least that's a good source of protein!

Last weekend I had an awesome play date with Alanna, Zachary, Rachel and Jacob! We went to the Adventure Playground that's at the soccerplex near our house. I met everyone through school and they are all such good friends. I think our mom's all had fun hanging out too. Here are some photos of me at the playground:





Saturday afternoon, we went to Gemmell State Park to hang out with some more friends. Marie was kind enough to blow up Belle's pool for us to play in - we had a BLAST!!!



Mom brought some popsicles since it was so hot. I'm not sure why she thought it was a good idea to give me the wild berry flavored one when I was wearing my white swim cover-up :)



Belle was kind enough to share her car with me. I was yelling "Bad Driver!" as mom often does, ha ha.



Belle was lounging and trying to dry off after our dip in the pool.



I painted a picture for daddy for Father's Day. It was a lot of fun and I ended up dumping a plate full of paint on the carpeted floor of the dining room :( Mom got it cleaned up, but once again was reminded how terrible of an idea it is to have a carpeted dining room!







We went to Angela's baby shower today, but mom forgot to take the camera :( It was incredible, though! They had a Dr. Seuss theme and the food was awesome. I had so much fresh fruit and didn't want to eat anything else :) I was pretty well behaved which mom was surprised about given that I had missed my nap. I fell asleep on the way home and then mom was able to transfer me to my bed and I slept for another hour and a half! Mom even got a quick nap in there in the process. I was so excited to see Molly and Angela and kept saying their names the whole way down there. I can't believe that we'll get to meet Baby Huie in less than a few weeks! We're wishing them all the best and I promise to give him some pointers as he grows up :)

When I got up, we finished watching the US Soccer game (boo) and then went shopping to get some more summer clothes. I had fun there, but started fussing on the way home. Apparently I had a pretty bad tummy ache and had the worst diaper explosion that I've ever had! Mom had to completely disassemble my carseat, remove the cover, wash it, wash all of my clothes, and wash her clothes. Fun times. Now she has to put everything back together tomorrow morning :(

I just *had* to have this hat while mom and I were shopping this afternoon. Pretty cool, huh?



With that, I will say good night!

Big Girl Bed!

That's right! I made the move to my big girl bed on Sunday :) Mom ordered the conversion kit for my crib about 4 months ago, but it finally came in and she decided it was time to try it. Off came the front rail of the crib and on went the bed rail. I was SO excited that I couldn't get out of mom's way while she was trying to put it together. She *finally* got it tightened up enough and let me climb in. I put all of my toys, books, blankets, and pillows in bed and was so proud of myself :) I've done great and haven't gotten out of bed at all at night and have actually slept through the night for 4 nights in a row now! That's the first time in probably 6+ months, so mom and I are feeling *much* more rested. I've only had one nap so far since I've been at school all week, but I slept for 2.5 hours on Sunday afternoon (that's a pretty good nap for me!) and when I got up, I opened my dresser drawers and was playing with the diapers that were folded in the drawer. If that's all mom has to worry about, she's ok with that. That's easy enough to clean up and there's not much else I can get in to in my room. These aren't the best photos, but this was me the first morning that I woke up in my big girl bed.

Still sleeping...



Just wakin' up...



I guess I should update on the past few weeks! Memorial Day weekend was pretty busy. Mom ran another 5K on Saturday morning and beat her previous time by over 2 minutes, but she thinks the course distance was off by about a tenth of a mile. Still a pretty good race, though. I gave her a big "Hooray mommy!" when she got home :)

Mom and dad *finally* introduced strawberries to me and I adore them. They were waiting to give them to me because they are so allergenic, mom's mom had issues with strawberries, and given my issues with dairy, they are trying to be extra careful with what I eat. Thankfully I didn't have a reaction to strawberries, so they took me to a local orchard to go strawberry picking on Sunday. I call them "strawbubbies" and could eat them by the pound if mom would let me.

Here's me picking a strawbubby off of the vine.



Me and daddy with our buckets of berries!



Me and mommy




Here are some other photos from the past few weeks:

I found the "soccer horn" and have figured out how to make it sound funny.



I love books at bedtime :)



I wake up happy and with HORRIBLE bedhead! Mom doesn't want to cut my hair again, but it gets quite crazy while I sleep.



Daddy and I waiting to get in to the VA Wine Festival. He was trying to plan out which booths we were going to stop at. Thankfully mom and dad let me stop at the Balloon Lady on the way out and she made me a Kitty Cat! The Kitty Cat is still inflated and is "sleeping" on the shelf in my bedroom. We had so much fun at the Wine Festival! Uncle Jay was so much fun and Molly and Baby Huie walked around with me for a while and kept me occupied :) Mom and Molly got me a frozen Cherry Limeade to cool me off and it was so yummy.



Eating sushi with mom while dad was out of town. I had a vegetable roll and actually enjoyed it once mom cut it up :)



My kitty and blankie - two necessities for bedtime...



Last weekend I got to spend an afternoon and evening with Ms. Laurie, Mr. Chad and Zachary!!! Ms. Laurie was my favorite teacher at school and she so graciously agreed to let me stay at her house while mom and dad went out for the evening. They went to see Thurgood at the Kennedy Center which they say was truly amazing. Mom and dad can not thank Laurie ("Lolly") enough. She is a wonderful friend and I'm so happy to know her.

Hope everyone is doing well! Hopefully I'll have some more time to update in the coming weeks / months. Take care!

Ears are finally clear!

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!!!

Congratulations to Jennifer and Beanie!

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...



Helping daddy put the new pot rack together



The ball that I wouldn't let mommy leave Target without :)



Riding the bike at school after the spring gala



Thinkin' about what to draw next...



Enjoying a sunny day by my pool in the front yard :)





I think that's enough for now! I hope everyone is doing well!

Much love,
Sydney