Sydney Amazes me even while she drives me nuts :-)

So its been a little while since I've written and since this is pretty much an update on Sydney its going to be a long one. Sorry in advance....

My daughter (firstborn--in case this little one growing inside me also turns out to be a girl) is beautiful, energetic, super intelligent, insane, boisterous (what 2 yr old isn't), loving, loveable and downright amazing. (what mom doesn't say the same thing about their kids?) In other words she does everything she possibly can to keep me on my toes EVERYDAY! It's exhausting I tell you...but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Sydney is about to turn 2 years old. In approximately 1 week. TWO! IN ONE WEEK! WHERE THE HELL did 2 years go?!??!?!?!?! Its hard to believe my little booger is almost 2. Its incredible. AND she is so darn smart! I mean really smart. (here is where I'm going to brag a little...or alot...skip ahead if you think i'm being obnoxious. apologies. i'm really not trying to be...i'm just amazed) Syd can count to 10--most of the time. Sometimes she gets to 8 then goes right back to 7 and 8 again....but if you coax her a little she gets to 10 more often than not. She can also count to 5 in spanish. YES I said it! She can count to 5 in espanol! Unfortunately, I can take no credit for this. I give it all to Dora the Explorer. (who says TV is bad for kids :-P) Also unfortunately I can't really prove this because whenever I ask her to count to 5 in spanish in front of anyone...or for the camera she says no. I think I got one video of it once but I'm pretty sure she was whispering and it was in the middle of a whole bunch of other stuff so it may have gone unnoticed. She did count to 5 in spanish today at the doctor's office...but of course i did not have the time (or inclination) to whip out the video camera. Oh well.

She is also becoming really good at identifying shapes. And not just the typical shapes but also the not your everyday variety shapes like trapezoid and octagon. Most of these she has known for a while and I really attribute it to her shape sorter (ya know the hollow ball that has all the different shaped holes and all the different blocks in all the different shapes...i think i just confused myself) but also some of it I attribute to Moose and Zee from NickJr (i think I've mentioned before somewhere that I think I let Syd watch too much TV). Just yesterday she was playing with her puzzle train which has a bunch of different circular and rectangular blocks that you can arrange and rearrange on the train any way you like. She had taken all the blocks off of the train and was arranging them on the floor. I was watching her do this...kindof...when she turned to me and pointed at the floor. "Ott-gon, mama" she told me. "Ott-gon!" and I replied: "no my darling (or something to this affect) those are circles and rectangles and squares, not octagons." "NO! OTT-GON!" she repeated still pointing. and then it clicked. She had used the other blocks to make the shape of an octagon on the floor. Now I know this may sound a little crazy and I might be stretching it a little but damned if she didn't arrange the blocks into a shape with 8 sides. Its not perfect by far...but she's only friggin 2! (here's a picture so you can see for yourself):

Sydney has also been on her way to becoming alot more verbal. Now, she has been talking for a while now. I can't tell you when she started exactly because I'm a horrible mom and didn't really keep track of it. I can tell you that her first word was "duck" (well besides mama and dada...but i truly think duck came first) but I can't really pinpoint at what age or stage she became so much more conversational. I'm also not going to list all the words she knows because a) i don't think I could if i tried and b) i don't think you really care to know every word she can speak. She will now answer questions you ask...for the most part and not just with yes or no. She also likes to make sure she points things out to you, just in case you happened to miss the huge line of school buses on the other side of the street or that the traffic light in front is green or red. She can tell you what most animals say, what colors are what and that she "got you" or "tickle you." Her new favorite expression is "What zat sownd?" (what's that sound in case you don't speak toddler) everytime she hears ANY LITTLE NOISE. This has become especially fun at night since it tends to extend bedtime just a little longer if she "hears" something outside of the window and you have to explain to her what sound it is and why it is perfectly ok and that she needs to get in the FRIGGIN BED already! Her favorite things to hear at night outside of her window are 1 of 2: "crittits" and "Bob and dawggie." The "crittits" (crickets) because she has heard them on a few occasions RIGHT OUTSIDE the window (aggravating damn bugs) are particularly fun because then once she doesn't hear them anymore her second favorite phrase can be used: "what hattened? Crittits?" and I of course answer her with the same answer I use for any question about anything when it is bedtime. They went night night. Just like the sun went night night and mommy and daddy are going to go night night and Sydney needs to go night night. Eventually after asking her question 500 bajillion times she will get in the bed and *fingers crossed* drift away to sleep. Now the "Bob and dawggie" thing I blame entirely on Chris. One night Syd asked "what zat sownd" and then said she was scared and asked for daddy. She was so forlorn that I went to get him and then let him try to calm her down. When I came back she was standing at the window pointing and saying "I see I see! Bob and DAWGGIE!!" because apparently when she asked chris what the sound was he told her it was Mr. Bob (our neighbor) taking the doggie (whose name is Auggie) outside which is a GREAT THING to tell a toddler (who happens to be in love with dogs) when she is supposed to be going to bed. I guess it wasn't horrible because at least she wasn't scared anymore....but she also was in NO WAY ready to go to bed. Here I revert again back to my stock answer. Yes it was Bob and Auggie, but they are going night night, just like the crickets, just like the sun, just like EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD and just like SYDNEY! *clenching jaw together* GO TO BED PLEASE! But I can't complain too much because I am still so very amazed everyday at all the new things she has picked up and learned to say.

Ok so I'm coming up short on more things to brag about. I'm sure there is more...but this blog is already pretty long and I haven't had a nap today so my pregnant brain is a little bit foggy. I will update soon with more preggo related stuff. I just thought it would be a good idea to talk a little about how absolutely wonderful my Sydney is (and give a little update since I never blogged for her, either while preggo or for her 2 years) since in most of my other posts I really just touch on how much she drives me crazy.

Now I'm not saying she doesn't drive me crazy, because she does, but I AM saying that she also makes my heart grow a little more each day, and almost brings tears to my eyes by how much she loves me and her daddy and how much she learns everyday. She really is amazing. and I don't care how cliche that sounds or how many other parents say the same thing about their kiddos :-P