Let us ...

Sydney helps with dinner ... I mean Sydney holds a piece of lettuce while I make dinner.


Irony: Brian spends almost five days in Washington D.C. covering the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament and has no luck spotting any politicians, elected officials or lame ducks in office. Less than 48 hours back in West Lafayette he gets to hear a former president (Bill Clinton) talk at the West Lafayette High School. Too funny.

Walk, Don't Run

Sydney's not quite as graceful as Cary Grant, but she is making strides. She's evolved from walking from person-to-person to room-to-room. These recent mobility moments have been captured via camcorder and not camera, so I'll just describe her efforts.

She walks with her arms extended like Frankenstein. Usually, her tongue is hanging out of her mouth and she's bug-eyed. Her smile is so big, it seems that her cheeks are bursting with ping-pong balls. When she lands - reaches her destination - she is overcome with relief and sometimes giggles. We're hopeful she'll outgrow the Frankenstein impersonation ... if not, she'll have a Halloween costume ready for next year.

Just a fun, post-bath photo below.

The early days ...

Daddy's girl.



Mommy's girl.

Random Retrospective

This is the first of what I plan will be a retrospective of Sydney's first year. More detailed posts may be sparse for a while ... busy-December is turning into busy-January. My goal is to post her 1-year-old photos before Feb. 3. :)



Sydney holds Brian's finger while he rocks her in the neonatal unit.



Brian holds Sydney in our 'room' at Home Hospital. Brian and I lived in this tiny dorm room for more than a week in what seemed to be an empty hospital wing. It was cramped but it meant the world to us to be at the hospital with Sydney.