The wordsmith

Photo taken 10.9.07

Sydney's babbling continues to evolve. She started with the baby basics - "da da," "ma ma," "ga ga" and "ba ba." She associates "da da" with Brian. Granted, she sometimes refers to inanimate objects as "da da" too, but she is making the connection. She also calls Norton and Vader "gat" A couple times this weekend "cat" came out of her mouth. "Gat" may be short for "Get the cat."

This photo is Sydney sitting by the caterpillar statue at the Colombian Park Zoo in Lafayette. The zoo re-opened its renovated sections this summer. Sydney and I spent a lovely fall day at the zoo during fall break. Looking forward to spending more time at the zoo next summer.

Fear

What do pumpkins, tape and vacuum cleaners have in common? Sydney is afraid of them. Our bold, brave daughter is usually quite the Marco Polo, but when it comes to these three things, her curiosity and fear collide.

I put 'sticky paw tape' on the bottom stair to keep Norton from expressing his sibling rivalry. It also keeps Sydney away. She approaches the tape, pokes at it, then starts to whimper. She takes the same approach with her pumpkin (named Jack, Jack Sparrow). It's obvious Syd is excited and wants to explore, but something triggers her whimpering and quivering. It's the same with the vacuum cleaner, only she doesn't get real upset until the vacuum cleaner is turned off.

The 'books' say to take the fear serious and comfort the child. Then help her learn about the object she fears. I found quite a bit about babies' fear of vacuum cleaners, but am not sure what I will find about tape and pumpkins ...

I can only imagine how vast the world is for an almost 10-month-old and I am surprised she is not anxious about more.

I was going to post an old photo with this post but the Photo Uploading tool is unavailable. I would draw a stick figure of Sydney but my pen just keeps smearing on my computer screen.

Speaking of pens ... I am searching for a Pens for the Poor charity. We have more pens (in part because Brian tends to pick them up naturally like Velcro picks up lint) then two writers who type on laptops need.

Think Pink

'Thinking' is what I failed to do Friday night. I was a few days behind with Sydney's laundry, so I crammed everything - including her new red hoodie - into one load. I hope pink is a popular fall color this year because about 80 percent of her current wardrobe (12-18 month clothes) was in that load. Her white pants are pink. About a dozen pair of socks are pink. But, don't worry the bibs will match too because they are pink :)

This photo is from Sept. 28. Sydney was enjoying a Friday morning with her Dad.