Joy!

I love when my kids are truly happy and having a great time:

Wes and Sydney playing in a tent.

Sydney climbing in the dishwasher.

And proof that she walks (more for our benefit than yours).

My Good Girl

Sydney had her 1-year check-up last week. Here are her stats: height - 31.5 in. (98th%), weight - 21.03 lbs. (49th%), head - 18.23in. (83rd%).

She's tall all right! And she's no longer a crawler. She really hasn't been for the last couple of weeks. She's all walker now. She's getting really good at going down the stairs backward (as opposed to trying to walk down them forwards).

The ped was impressed with her verbal skills and said where she is at is more typical of a 15-month-old. She can say a bunch of words already: "apple" (her favorite word), "hello", "mom", "daddy"/"donkey"/"doggie" (they all kind of sound the same), "bye-bye", "hot dog" (thanks to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), "happy", "thank you", "all done", "up please", "no no no", and "bite". She's very good at mimicking sounds and can also tell you what a doggie says and what a sheep says (which I should get on video, actually, because it's pretty funny).

She's also learned to blow kisses, how to push Wes' buttons, and how to throw mini tantrums. She also knows when something she's doing is wrong but gives us a little knowing smile and tries to get away with it anyway.

I'm lucky to have such a wonderful baby girl!

Sydney makes a lot of cute and goofy faces.

She like to pretend like she's shy sometimes. (I also included this picture because it reminded me of a picture of me when I was little!)

This girl loves her dad. Have I mentioned that before? Pretty cute the pair of them sitting on the couch together. (Sydney was watching a show, but she was ready for a nap so she was super zoned out.)

My Good Boy

Wes is becoming more of a little kid all of the time. It's always pretty weird to me when I realize my little guy is growing up.

The other day we were all sitting at the table having dinner and Wes said, "Thanks Mom. Thanks Dad." Then he said, "How's running going, Mom?" Of course I chuckled to myself and said, "It's going very well, thank you!" It was pretty hilarious.

He's a sweet and social little guy and obviously very polite. He loves when he's funny, too. I think preschool is going really well for him. Honestly, I feel ike it's already making a difference in his knowledge and vocabulary.

I'm lucky to have such a great little boy!

As a prize for keeping his underwear clean the other day, we put together this Thomas puzzle. He was very excited about it!

Yesterday he made this spider hat at preschool. He was wearing it when I went to pick him up and I was so excited to see him in it! He doesn't tend to want to wear stuff like that, but he wore it all day. I think it was one of those "big boy" moments for Brian and me. Our kid is going to school and coming home with crafts and enjoying it! Pretty cute!

Firehouse Museum

Last Friday some of our friends invited us to the Michigan Firehouse Museum in the neighboring town, Ypsilanti. Brian happened to be home so he came too!

The kids in their fire helmets.

I tried on some fire-woman gear and hopped in the engine with Ernie.






Wes driving an old-school-looking firetruck.

Sydney is a big fan of dogs. There were a bunch of (fake) Dalmatians around that she enjoyed making friends with.

The kids also had fun coloring firetrucks and Dalmatians.