Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sydney's Name Change

Oh, and by the way, now if you ask Sydney what her name is, she will tell you it is Aurora (as in the princess in Sleeping Beauty). We are trying to fix this clear case of identity theft ASAP.

Jonas, the model








A lady in our ward offered to take some pictures of Jonas. I absolutely love how they came out!

Sydney-isms

Sydney is learning to say more and more things everyday- some good and some bad. Not like she is saying bad words just that her words are some times oozing with attitude. She has been super helpful and sweet when it comes to Jonas but she has been a handful when it comes to her own behavior. The bed time routine has become quite chaotic. She has always struggled to take naps for me but I know she really needs one. She gets so cranky in the afternoon and if she doesn't take a nap in the afternoon she will pass out at dinner time (around 5:30-6) like she did last week. One day, she had not had a nap and she went into her room and collapsed on her bed on her own. We were frantically looking for her for about 10 minutes before we discovered her half on and half off her bed, asleep. So, we're really trying to get her to take a nap. This is what happens:

Mom: Sydney, please go get in your bed. You need a nap.
Sydney: I don't want a nap, MAMA!

And that "MAMA" is the part dripping with attitude. So sad, most of the time when she calls me "Mama", she's angry with me and says it with that attitude.

On the lighter side...
Brian and I have become a conglomerate "Mommy-daddy!" when ever she needs something. She wants juice, "Mommy-daddy!" literally no break between the two words. When looking for something, she calls to it, "Piece, piece? Where are you? Piece?" when she was looking for a missing puzzle piece. The same applies for her shoes when she's looking for them.

And overall just saying more words in her favorite song. She started out only saying the end part of the lines that rhyme, like "once there was a snowman TALL, TALL, TALL! ....he melted SMALL, SMALL, SMALL!"

With the baby around she knows "wrap up" and she can say "Jonas" pretty well.

And she's learning to say "You're welcome!" more often as well. And of course, she knows what "nap" means.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Family Portrait Session

Last Saturday, we went with my sister to a great location to get some family portraits for Christmas cards. My sister, brother-in-law and his mom got some great shots I thought. Which one do you like best?

Well, this one is not in the contending because as you can see, Sydney is not in the shot. This is when Sydney decided she was not part of our family. I guess I can't blame her- she fell asleep in the car on the way over and so we woke up her from her nap to try to take some pictures.





A mommy and baby shot- I know, he has his pacifier in, not ideal, but he was getting cranky.


#1- I don't really like Sydney's "get me out of here" look but the scenery was nice!
#2- I tweaked the colors on this one a bit, trying to get the bright glow from the background. Any photoshop pros know how to reduce that glare? (Wendy???)

#3- This one might actually be the same pose as before just at a different angle. we had two cameras going at once.

#4- Sydney has a huge grin but I like it!



And here are just some more fun shots from the shoot. This picture was actually taken by Sydney's cousin, Liam, which you'll see in the next pictures. I know! He's got talent for a not-even-four-year-old.
Sydney and Liam:

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Look Alike

I get so many comments that Sydney looks like Brian that I decided to do a side-by-side comparison of Sydney and a picture of me about the same age. What do you think?

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Siblings










Halloween

Here are my belated Halloween photos:That's Sydney's cousin Liam in his Horton outfit. He loves elephants (which is an understatement). I love Sydney's puckered face. combined with the attennae I think it makes her look like Cindy Lou Who.As you can see, I dressed Jonas in the penguin costume Sydney wore her first Halloween. Still strange to me that we weren't even expecting him to be here for Halloween!


There's a purple Halloween butterfly in my hair, in case you were wondering.


Sydney, super-excited to "hold" Jonas.
I loved having Sydney be a lady bug this year. She was an adorable monkey last year but it was very gender-confusing. This year, there was no doubting she was an adorable girl dressed as a lady bug. She got so many compliments and was so polite as we trick-or-treated. She did not get the phrase down but she was sure to say "Thank you!" and "bye!" and even "excuse me" as she went by the other trick-or-treaters. The "excuse me" part would even come unprompted! I'm so happy with how she has picked up the habit of good manners.