A year in review...

Well this weekend marked not only Thanksgiving, but Sydney's 13 month birthday. As I look through her pictures from the last year, it is amazing to see the changes that take place. This is the first picture of Sydney ever taken and although she was of course beautiful to us, the general description of her on her chart was "beautiful baby". Brad has always been one to deny that a newborn is cute, but even his heart melted when this little one joined our world.

Of course one of the first pictures you try to take when your baby is born is one of you holding her. This picture was taken moments after Sydney was born & I am sure neither Brad nor I had any true concept of how much our lives and hearts were going to be changed forever.

Although I will not hesitate to tell anyone that I do not enjoy the newborn stage, I now know that the stress you go through in the first 3 months of your child's life is well worth the rewards that come in spits & spurts throughout the days to follow. There are so many "firsts" to enjoy in your child's life...
...first smile at 2 months














...finding her hands at 3 months












....first Christmas together














...lying on her tummy for more than 3 seconds without screaming at 4 months (this one was a long time coming)

...trying solid foods for the first time around 5 1/2 months. Was a short try...Sydney's system just wasn't ready for it yet.

...sitting on her own at five and a half months. This is when we finally got to meet the happy child that we have today. Once Sydney could sit on her own, she became a consistently happy little girl. That made for a much happier Mommy...which also made a much happier Daddy.









...looking like a stylin' chick in her first jean jacket & sunglasses. Keeping the sunglasses on her face only lasted a couple of weeks...then they became a toy to play with.







Playing at the park with friends on a beautiful day in May...one of the first of many for the summer.











Hanging out with Logan.













Crawling for the first time at 9.5 months on Father's Day. Sydney's inspiration to get the forward motion going was to steal Logan's chew toy.










"Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool. When days are hot, when days are cold, in the swimming pool". Anyone else sing that in swimming lessons? Sydney is definitely a water baby & loves to go in big pools, little pools, lakes, anything with water.










For Sydney's first vacation we went to Balsam Lake Resort and to friends cottage. Again, the theme for Sydney's vacation was water....











At 11 months Sydney was cruising around on furniture, but she waited until a few days shy of her first birthday to walk on her own. She literally has not stopped since.

So that is the summary of Sydney's accomplishments in her first year. We will save the birthday shots for the next time.