Turtle soup: Halloween

Sydney and Brian on Halloween evening



Sydney first donned her turtle costume at the Lafayette Columbian Park Boo at the Zoo. However, she was cold and complacent, so it was a short visit. A few days later we celebrated the upcoming holiday at the Hess Halloween party. Sydney was indifferent to her costume as well as everyone else's. She did enjoy the toys.

Days later on Halloween she was quite happy ...

Brian brought Sydney to the News Service Halloween morning.(Thanks for the picture Dave!)



Halloween evening (Before)



(After)






The best part of this costume is watching Sydney crawl.



It will be fun to see what kind of costumes Sydney selects for herself. What will her selection say about her personality? This one represents her mobility. I found the turtle costume just a couple weeks after Sydney started crawling. It seemed perfect.

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.

Butter

Sydney enjoys her new crab that Brian brought from Minnesota. Apparently, the squid was ugly. I know, when you hear Minnesota the first thing you think of are sea creatures.

(Mmmm. Crab legs.)

Guess Girl

Sydney sports her new jeans. She will be 9-months-old in 10 days. Amazing.

Sydney started crawling this week. After weeks of Brian and I wishing she would start crawling,it didn't take us long to wonder why we ever wanted her to crawl. She is everywhere.

Jail Break

Sydney often prefers to play in her crib then sleep in it.

Grrrr!