Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Sydney (& Riker's) Clubhouse

Since Sydney is as active as a Border Collie on speed, we decided that she needed another outlet for the energy so we got her a clubhouse. ("We" being an extended family group ranging from Great-Aunts to Grandparents as well as us...we've been saving up!) But it didn't come exactly assembled...


But it started going together fairly quickly



And before you knew it Dad was putting in the final screws.



After only about 1.5 hours of work it was all put togethor. And if I do say so myself it looks pretty good.


It actually looks like the picture from the manufacturer! Amazing!

When Sydney woke up from her nap we took her out to play in her new club house. She took to playing on it immediately.


She loved playing around inside of the clubhouse.


But of course you have to get out of the clubhouse somtime, and she just loves going down the slide


I had to add this next video just to show how much energy it takes for her to even go out to her Clubhouse or come in.



Dad counted 121 steps she took one time on her way out to the Clubhouse.


Syd just wanted to make sure everyone knew how grateful she was...and how much fun she's having!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Big Girl Bed

Sorry this post is a little late (at least a month late), but we still wanted to make sure it got posted.

Sydney is getting older and bigger and because of both of these things it was time to move away from the crib and try and get her into a big girl bed. She has bunk beds in her room so we took the mattress off of the top bunk, and laid on the floor next to the bottom bunk (instead of trying to use a bed rail). We tried to make it as fun as possible. Dad even laid down with her to read her a couple of stories.



After we were done reading stories we tried to get her to get comfortable and ready to go to sleep and give a goodnight kiss.



But she was still jazzed up and had to CHEESE for the camera a bit.


Aren't I adorable!!!

Eventually she calmed down and went to sleep. We have only had one bad night where she was scared with not being in the crib. After some cuddling from Mom and Dad and a few lessons on what shadows are, she has been fine ever since. She has only started emptying out her dresser once. But we have found her riding Max (her rocking-dog) after naps sometimes...


Oh crap I think they caught me!

Overall for a kid not yet 2 years old...we have been very impressed! Good girl Syd!

A bit of a sleepy strecth to start the day - her first morning as a "big" girl.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Another Visit to Medpoint!

Sydney decided it has been too long since her last Medpoint visit (3 weeks is a LONG time). So she decided to arrange another trip. Yesterday afternoon right before dad got home Sydney was being a bratty little kid and wouldn't leave the room. So mom grabbed her hands and walked her out. On the way out of the room Sydney threw a little tantrum, and went all jelly legged and put all of her weight in her butt. But of course she didn't let go of mom's hands! Putting jolting force of all her weight on her shoulders. Mom felt a popping sound in the arm but thought nothing of it. Syd was sat down into her time out and Mom quickly noticed that her cry was not the cry of a kid upset for being in a time out. Sydney wasn't willing to use her left arm to do anything. She would start to use it, like reaching for a toy or her sippy cup but would then think better of it. All the while crying her eyes out. She was obviously hurting and frustrated! It was hard to see miss "Go-Go-GO!" slowed down!

So after dad got home off to MedPoint we went. She stopped crying on the trip over, but after we got their she remembered coming there for her cut on her face (which is healing nicely) and was none too happy about being there again. (She kept sobbing "Go Pleeeeaaase!")

They looked her arm and wrist over pretty good and didn't find anything out of place. Doc said she probably strained a tendon and that it was pretty common at her age. But that sometimes that is accompanied by a tiny fracture in one of the joints. So they did X-Rays. One of each arm to see the difference, and of course Dad's hand is in it too because he had to hold her down for the X-Rays (Mom and Riker, who was lulled to sleep by his sister's screaming, had to wait outside. This nearly killed Mom!).


Left arm that is hurt


Right arm to compair against.

They said they found what MIGHT be a tiny fracture up where the tendons attach. But when we heard back this morning from a Pediatric X-Ray expert, he didn't see anything. We didn't expect it to be anything since she is running around this morning like nothing ever happened!

Well, last night they put her arm in a sling, and Dad thought it was cute saying, "It is unfortunate it happened and I wouldn't want it to happen again, but she sure looks cute with her arm in a sling" Aren't dad's weird?!


Okay she IS kinda cute...

We were surprised that for the rest of the evening she left her arm in the sling and never tried to pull it out. Even while eating dinner!

Sydney's Grandma Fritz stated the following, "With how crazy-active that girl is you may just want to reserve a room at the Medpoint"

I hate to say it, but she maybe right!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Ready to Roll!



I thought a bit of a Riker update would be nice - especially since we finally caught him rolling over on camera!


Riker rolls over -- what an amazing kid ;-)

He has rolled over (tummy to back) several times since before he was 2 mths old but we had never had proof before (his first rollover was at his doctors appt.! What a show-off!). Unlike Syd he uses his mighty arms instead of his large noggin to flip himself over. He also is quite the babbler and loves to chat face to face. His face is full of dimples when he smiles, which is often as he never stays angry very long. He also is really starting to try to grab things -- and has caused both Mom and Dad to have purple fingers from his super-action grip!

Sometimes he even fights himself...


Poked himself in the eye this time!

He is just such a positive little guy and so much fun. Even Syd agrees -- she likes to shake rattles for him (and tried to feed him a Cheerio this morning...hey, it's the thought that counts!)


In this video Riker appears to be lecturing Mommy on how cool it is to be him!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Sigma Beta Indiana Beach Bash 2008



Our Sigma Beta college group got together again this summer in Monticello, IN. It was a great location, with great weather and great people. As you can tell it was lots of fun!

If you remember from previous get-togethers Sydney had found her first "boyfriend" in the Sigma Beta group, her buddy Gus. They hit it off again.





Riker made a friend while he was there as well. Riker and Jasper decided they enjoyed sleeping in their car seats.



Thanks to generous free passes provided by Matt and Kelly Kiser we were able to go to Indiana Beach with Sydney for her first time on amusement park rides. Gus and his dad Tim and Sydney and her dad road some rides. Its hard to decide who had more fun!



Here are videos of her adventures:

The Carousel



The kiddie boats



Sydney riding her first Ferris Wheel. (Note: it was also mom's first time on a Ferris Wheel)



Back at the house we had a Baby Shower for Eric and Kelli Childs who are expecting in November. They seemed pretty happy with the gifts they recieved including the beautiful diaper cake from the Kisers.



After the shower was over Riker was getting a bit fussy, but Steve Tanner thought he could get him calmed down with Grover. So do you think it calmed him down or made him worse? :-) IT was hilarious either way!


As you can tell it was another great college get together! Can't wait until winter!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Potter



Yesterday we had to hand our cuddly Potter into the capable hands of Christina C. (who brought him to our family) to find him a new family.

He is an awesome, loving, energetic young dog (still technically a puppy) - who loves everyone, unfortunatly that is the problem. Unlike the other dogs (who run away) he constantly wanted to be around Sydney (and she hung all over him). 99% of the time that is fine but when he finally tires of all the "love" he is right in Syd's face. Saturday evening syd got nipped because she had him in a headlock "hug". Potter would be horrified if he realized how seriously he could have hurt her. And Syd would feel bad if she knew her pestering him had led to him going away. We feel terrible for not keeping them apart more, they were so cute together that it was easy to not make her "respect" him. The two of them just love each other too much!

We love Potter so much and he will leave a huge hole in our family. We are hoping he will get a frisbee family , as his training was REALLY starting to come along -- and he loves to play. We just want him to get tons and tons of love and fun. He is such a lover and impacted us so much in a short time.

This has been very difficult for us and we will miss him so much.



Photos by Tim Zimmer and Marshall Smith

The Storm

Last night we had a pretty bad storm coming through. But the storm was moving slow enough that I was able to spend some time out on our front porch watching it. I took some videos, none of them are really great, but you do get to see a bit of lighting and hear the tornado sirens going off while there is thunder rumbling in the background.










As things started to get worse I headed back in the house. As you can see here, it was a pretty nasty little storm that was coming through.



We then headed for the basement. Had to get Sydney out of bed, which she didn’t get upset about. We put her on a big pillow in the basement to continue sleeping while we waited.



In the end we thankfully didn’t get any tornadoes and we were only in the basement for about 20 minutes. If I had the TV working a bit faster in the basement we probably would not have even been down there that long. So it was a cool storm to watch roll in, but didn’t really do any major damage, which is the best kind of storm.