Wednesday
On Wednesday, Meghan and I both worked half a day and then Meghan picked up Sydney from Early Days and took her in for a flu shot around noon. …Actually she got the 2nd normal flu shot and an H1N1 shot.
Later in the day we were all going stir crazy so we took Sydney to Golf-Mill mall, which has a small kids play area. We figured she might be able to interact with some older kids and burn off some energy.
At the mall, Sydney was super shy at first and just clung to Meghan. We eventually put her next to a plastic tunnel and she went in. Meanwhile other kids from Sydney’s age to maybe age 6 were running all around. Most were in the 3-4 year old range. After Sydney warmed up to the tunnel, she got into the mix with 2 other kids that were chasing each other through and around the tunnel. At times she seemed to be playing with them. …at times trying not to get run over by them.
After some playing in the tunnel, Sydney went over by Meghan, laid down on the floor, and started kicking her feet. It was like a tantrum without the screaming and anger. We don’t know why she does this. Even odder, another little girl who had taken a liking to Sydney laid down right next to her and imitated her. She might have been 4. She gave Sydney a lot of attention the whole time we were there.
Later Meghan took Sydney over to a little slide on the other side of the play area. She led Sydney up the slide several times and sent her down it. Sydney smiled and clearly wanted more but had a tendency to linger on the stairs. While she stood there unsure, other kids (all bigger) climbed up past her and went down. Eventually Sydney actually climbed up the slide by herself and went down by herself with us standing several feet away. She was so proud.
The whole time we were there, all of the kids took a lot of interest in Sydney, which surprised us. They all kept petting her head. One little girl came up to Meghan and said “He doesn’t have any hair because he got a hair cut.”
Thursday
For Thanksgiving, we went to Pam & Dave’s house and got there around 12:30. Sydney’s only nap had been in the car and she was asleep for at max 20 minutes.
In attendance were MeeMee and Papa; Emily, Chris, and Kendall; Tom, Carrie, and Laura.
Sydney has been getting shyer as she gets older and this occasion was not an exception. In fact, she exhibited her oddest public behavior yet. She laid completely limp in Meghan’s lap while Meghan sat on the floor and wouldn’t move. Meghan couldn’t stand or sit her up and Sydney wasn’t willing to be left un-held. As dinner was being served, people started leaving the living room and Sydney quickly warmed up. She was quickly up and running around the living room.
At dinner she was picky which has been her latest thing. Faced without bananas, peanut butter, Wheatables (crackers), or applesauce she wasn’t real sure what to do but settled on cranberry. She at a bunch of cranberry but wouldn’t touch turkey or even a buttered roll. Later she devoured most of the non-crust part of Meghan’s pumpkin pie including the whip cream. It’s worth noting that this was the first time she has tried either of those things.
After dinner, Sydney and Kendall climbed up the stairs and looked over the balcony at the Brigg’s house. Sydney was so excited that she was holding on to the railing and jumping up and down and screaming. Up until this point, no one in the dining room had seen her do anything let alone heard her say anything (someone actually asked earlier if she was walking yet). Let the jabbering and silliness begin.
After everyone went back into the living room, Sydney clamed back up quite a bit. She didn’t go limp but she did sit behind Meghan on the outskirts of the room much of the time. When put in the middle of the room she just laid down. When transplanted to another room for a diaper change, she perked right back up. It was very clear that Sydney just couldn’t deal with that many people in one room.
Friday
On Friday, we were going completely stir crazy. Sydney was in dire need of entertainment and it was too cold to go outside. We managed to work out a last minute play date with the Roushes and headed to their house late in the afternoon. We got there around 4 and left around 7.
Initially, Austin ran around and Sydney just sat on Meghan’s lap and watched him. She thought he was hysterical and laughed out loud as he ran around. Slowly she relaxed and midway through the visit, she was willing run around too. She played with a few of his toys and discovered the Roushs’ “fake” remote control, which she played with for awhile. By the time we left, she was running around like she owned the place. She even ate some Doritos and pizza for dinner.
Saturday
On Saturday, Sydney was somewhat beastly so I took her to the park to burn off some energy. Sydney got on the swing 3 separate times. She didn’t really want to teeter-totter with me, which is fine because it’s hard to do when you outweigh her by 140lbs. She walked on the wall around the park, grinning the whole way. AND, to my surprise, she went down the slide a few times.
My surprise at the slide was for two reasons. First off, the last time we went to the park, Sydney had a couple of slide related accidents. In one she went face first off the slide and into the dirt/wood chips on the ground. In the second, she flipped and went face first into the bottom of the slide itself. Secondly, Sydney climbed up and went down the slide unassisted.
The sliding started out with me putting her on the top of the slide, letting go, and catching her at the end. We did that a few times on both the red curvy slide and the straight blue slide. Then I let her play on the metal steps that lead up to the slides. There’s a platform up there with a steering wheel and holes to look out which she really likes. She went up the steps, then wanted help back down. Then she’d go back up. Then to my surprise she walked over to the blue slide, sat down, and went down the slide. I was stunned. Later she did the same thing on the red slide only on that one she went down head first with her hands in front of her. She did that twice.
The whole slide saga was rather stressful for me because without someone on the end of the slides to catch her, she’d be in the dirt and the platform up top is far from safe for a 1 year old. The platform itself has two levels one step apart and one side is open for big kids to crawl up a ladder into. She of course wanted to play near that hole. The whole time she would go from the steps to the lower part of the platform, check out the hole, climb up, go over to a slide, play with the steering wheel next to the hole, etc. For her it was only 4-5 steps from side to side. For me it was a run around the whole structure based on where I thought she was going. Oddly, if I was standing right next to a slide she wouldn’t go down it so I had to hang back a little when I thought she was going to go down one. Anyway, it was successful, although we did have one wipe out. She backed up too far on the upper platform and fell over backwards onto the lower one. She didn’t cry, but she went down hard and the platforms are made out of steel. We’ve got ourselves a tough little baby.
The other amusement from Saturday was Sydney’s love for Wheatables crackers and lack of understanding for what an empty box means. She kept going in the kitchen and pointing to the shelf where we keep the cereal and crackers. One of us took the plastic bag out of the Wheetables box, left the box on the counter, and took the bag into the living room where Sydney polished off the rest of the bag. She then wanted more. I explained that the bag was empty and showed it to her. Then I got up to throw it away. She followed me into the kitchen and saw the box on the counter and pointed to it. I hand her the box and explained that it was empty. She looked in the box, handed it back, and didn’t understand. The same exchange happened between her and Meghan. Fortunately Meghan had another box stashed in the basement pantry.
Sunday
Sunday was also not without its surprises. It was a rainy day so we didn’t get to go out but Sydney did play pretty happily inside. In fact, she didn’t go down for her morning nap until 1pm. …that would be the nap that is supposed to start around 9:30 or maybe 10:00. We have no idea where all the energy came from but she just kept going.
At 12:30pm, she was sitting/laying in a comfy chair that we pushed up by the window and was clearly trying to find a comfortable position to lay down and go to sleep. She was too tall to lie in any of the directions she was trying though so it wasn’t going to work. Eventually Meghan picked her up and put her in her crib. She was asleep before long.
We figured that nap would last for several hours but to our surprise she was awake after one. She may have heard Meghan cleaning the bathroom. In any case, she was awake and NOT happy about it. For the rest of the day she was extremely clingy, quick to cry, but otherwise very good. To our surprise she lasted all the way to 7pm.
Other random thoughts
- Sydney may have a Wheatables problem. She pretty much wants one any time she goes in the kitchen.
- Sydney really doesn’t like it when we aren’t all in the same room. She follows whichever parent leaves the living room and clearly wants us all in there together.
- Sydney seems to use her sippy cup to get attention from the parent that isn’t paying attention. On Sunday when I went to take a shower, she picked up her sippy cup off the coffee table and chased me down before I got to the bathroom so I could help give her a drink. I helped her polish off the milk and then got in the shower while Meghan got more for her. She didn’t really want more though. It’s also common for her to not take a drink from one of us and hand the cup to the other of us. Very odd.
- Sydney’s diet has been crazy lately. She’ll eat anything at school but is very picky at home. Peanut Butter on bread, bananas, applesauce, and milk have been about all she will eat lately. We’re going through a lot of bananas and applesauce.
