23 Months!

Not a lot has been going on this past month other than normal day-to-day activities.  We did take a trip to Nags Head at the end of June and Sydney really enjoyed the ocean!  One of our friends was also down there with her 2 yr old daughter and she and Sydney had a blast the day we met them at the beach. 

Sydney and Quinn at the Ocean

 

We didn’t do anything for the 4^th of July…Sydney was in bed and asleep by 6!  She was dressed for the occasion that day thou!

 

On July 8^th we went for Sydney’s monthly PT appointment and basically we go back in another month and hopefully get released.  She is doing really well except for when she is tired then her tilt is more noticeable.  Unfortunately she was sleepy around her appointment time so, of course, she was tilting a bit.  The therapist said that Sydney is finding midline thou so the tilt is more of a habit than a medical concern at this point.  We just need to keep working with her and hopefully next month, cross our fingers and toes, we get released….we shall see!

We almost have all of the details of her birthday party worked out…so more to come on that.  I have started her wish lists at Target (search under Nikki Basham) and Toys R Us (search under: Creator/Basham/VA) if anyone is interested.  She is obsessed with Thomas the Train and bubbles.  She loves to color and likes Elmo.  She also recently started taking interest in stickers.

Since she is sooooo obsessed with Thomas the Train (she wakes up asking for the choo-choo sometimes) we decided to get tickets to a Day out with Thomas on Strasburg Railroad in PA as her birthday gift from us.  We are going to spend a couple of days in PA in September and actually get to ride on Thomas the Train!  So, today we took Sydney to a railroad museum that is in Fredericksburg as a prelude to our trip.  She loved looking at all of the train stuff.  We got to ride a maintenance train out to the main tracks and see a CSX train go by.  Sydney loved seeing the train and hearing the whistle blow.  Hopefully she will love seeing Thomas in September and riding that train.

 

22 months!

Sydney is 22 months old today!  I almost can’t believe that I’m actually posting on the day (since I’m usually a tad late with this).  And, I almost can’t believe that in 2 months she will be 2!!

 

She really didn't want me taking her picture this afternoon!

 

This past month was another one that just flew by!  It might have had something to do with Steve and I going on vacation to Jamaica to celebrate our 15 year anniversary and a close friend’s wedding!  Sydney stayed with Granny while we were gone and had a blast I’m sure.  We Face Timed with her every other day or so and she would say hi then go back to playing…LOL…I guess she missed us a little bit.  While at Granny’s she did use her potty once (that I know of) so that was good.  Since we’ve been back she has asked me once to use the potty (and she actually used it) so I think it’s time to start stepping up the potty training!

I know this blog is about Sydney but I had to share this picture I took in Jamaica :)

 

It’s been hot here the past few weeks.  We got Sydney a small pool to put on the deck so she can play in it while I sit out there with her.  She absolutely loves it!  She sure is a water baby!

Water Baby!!!

 

Our friends that got married while in Jamaica with us held a reception this past weekend and Sydney was a dancing fool there!  She certainly is a social butterfly!

 

We went to PT Monday and the therapist said Sydney is looking really good!  She said for us to keep using the TOT collar but scale back the amount of time it is on and to come back to PT in 4 weeks for an assessment.  Cross your fingers that Sydney keeps looking good and we might be out of PT for her 2^nd birthday!

Beach Girl & Caterpillar Uh-Oh

21 months!

This month has flown by!  We went on our first family beach trip of the year to Nags Head.  Sydney loved the water even thou it was REALLY chilly!!  She wanted to run into the waves the entire time we were at the ocean.  We also saw the wild horses and visited the aquarium.  Sydney liked looking at the fish.

We also took part in the Fredericksburg Walk for MS this past month.  It’s a 3 mile walk around downtown Fredericksburg and money raised goes towards MS research.  Sydney kicked back and enjoyed the stroller ride J

The warm weather has brought out caterpillars and Sydney has discovered them.  She laughs like a silly person when she tries to “pet” them.  It is hysterical!

 

Sydney also LOVES her Daddy's bike....Harley Girl!

 

I have some videos I'll try to post separate from this post.

PT is still at every two weeks and no real changes yet.  We’ll just keep working on it.

20 months

Last week Sydney was 20 months old!  My how time flies when you are having fun!  There’s not really anything new to report other than her vocabulary seems to be growing daily.  She is extremely fond of the word NO and uses it whenever she is asked any question…even if the answer is ‘yes’ she’s going to tell you no…LOL.  She loves her ‘shoooose’ and if she can’t find something she asks ‘where it go’?  She is also extremely independent but loves to help do things around the house.  Every morning she helps feed that cat and empty the dishwasher.  She also gives the dog his bone too.  She loves being outside and swinging on the swing.  Now that it’s been staying nice outside we try to spend time outdoors as much as we can. 

PT is still every other week and no real changes there either.  She’s not getting worse but they still want us to work on getting her to stop shifting her weight to her right hip when she’s seated and also using her left hand more.  We’re working on it….

This week, my nephew Mason came to Virginia from Florida to spend spring break with the family.  We all went to the Metro Richmond Zoo.  Sydney loved feeding the animals and Mason deemed himself “the bird whisperer”….LOL

 

19 months!

I’m a few days late on posting her 19 month update but I wanted to wait until I had something to show you J but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Sydney is allll over the place and into everything!  Her current favorite things are watching Thomas the Train (she dances to the theme song and calls it the “woo-woo” – kinda like a train whistle) and she loves to color….more so on the kitchen table than her paper but that’s okay, it comes off pretty easy since it’s just crayons.  She’s learning more and more words and her new favorites are cup and whoa…LOL.  We’ve not really pushed the potty training yet.  She likes to play with her potty seat but the drawers in the bathroom vanity are just much more exciting when she is in there.

She is back to PT every other week again.  We are seeing a new (old) physical therapist, Shannon, now.  I say old because this therapist is the first one we saw when Sydney started going to PT but she went out on maternity leave shortly after we began visits.  Now she’s back once a week and our normal therapist, Brianne, was booked solid so we ended up back with Shannon.  Shannon asked that we start bringing her back in every other week so she could monitor her a little more closely since she hasn’t seen her in a very long time.  Sydney is still holding steady in her measurements which is good and bad.  It means she’s not getting any worse but isn’t progressing either.  We still put her in her TOT collar too.  Hopefully we’ll be cut loose sooner rather than later.

This is why I was waiting to post the blog.  We got Sydney’s pictures done….it was supposed to be for her 18 mo b-day but things kept pushing the session out so it’s for her 19 mo b-day. J

 

18 months!

Yesterday Sydney had her 18 month check-up.  She is 31 inches tall (45%), weighs 24 lbs and 14.5 oz (80^%), and her head is measuring at 50.5 cm (upper 98% as usual).  The doctor said that we need to watch her carb intake (such as crackers, goldfish, juice, and packaged foods).  She said that Sydney is not “fat” or “overweight” and that she might be stockpiling her pounds right now in preparation for a growth spurt but just to be safe only give her those types of things every now and then.  This is kinda funny since one of the only multi-syllable words she can say and we understand is cracker….LOL. 

Her doctor said that everything else looks good and even commented on how her speech is good for her age.  She said the words she does say are very clear understandable and that’s great! 

We did ask the doctor about the rough patches of skin Sydney has on her upper thighs, back of her arms, and cheeks – I’ve tried using Aveeno lotion, Lubriderm lotion, and changing her bath soap…pretty much everything to get rid of those patches and nothing works!  As soon as the doctor saw and felt it she told us it was Keratosis Pilaris or “Chicken Skin”.  She said that it is basically an overabundance of skin cells around the hair follicles in those areas that cause the skin to have bumps – to me it feels like fine grit sandpaper and is usually always pink or red.  She also said that the symptoms are sometimes seasonal (we didn’t notice it was so bad until around December).  She gave us some hydrocortisone ointment to use on those areas to see if it helps any.  She also said there is nothing really that can be done about it and it’s not bothersome to Sydney so that is a good thing! 

She also got two shots.  The first one wasn’t so bad but she tensed up for the second one and the crying began!  She was okay by the time we got her dressed so it didn’t last long.  Sydney’s next appointment won’t be until she is 2!!

For Valentine’s Day we got Sydney a potty…hahahaha…no really, we did.  She’s starting to tell us (by pointing to her diaper) that she has gone potty and she’s been staying dry for longer between changes soooo….it’s about that time!!  She’s interested in the new potty because it has a top that opens and closes so she likes doing that.  We practice sitting on it each day just to get her used to it so hopefully potty training will go smoothly!!  We shall see!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

 

This is her most favorite thing to do when she's REALLY sleepy...suck her thumb and play with her belly button...this is what she does every night before going to sleep.