Big Girl

Sydney has been mindfully working on two areas of her development--sitting up and eating. The pictures above demonstrate her progress thus far in both areas.
She now prefers sitting up on her own, vs. laying on her back. The view appears to be loads better from her new vantage point, and toys much easier to inspect (and eat).
In addition, Sydney has now joined us at the dinner table. She is really getting the hang of it! She now appears to regard the spoon as more of a utensil rather than a run of the mill chew toy. The bib, well, it still winds up being used as a chew toy. Perhaps it's the leopard spots? She didn't really dig the rice cereal, but applesauce appears to more suited to her palate. Soon, she'll be a foodie just like her parents!
Sydney has also experienced her first fever, and given her first time parents a bit of a scare. She woke on Friday early morning with a high fever, so we took her to the pediatrician on Saturday. It appears she has Roseola, which has symptoms of a fever, followed by a rash a few days later. The virus has thrown off her daily routine, and made her a bit, shall we say...sensitive. Hopefully it will pass soon!

Sydney's First Christmas

The Forster family enjoyed Christmas 2007 with fun, rest and family. Monday, we enjoyed a peaceful and restorative Christmas Eve service at church. On Tuesday, we visited with Grandma and Tim Simpson and the rest of the family up in LaCenter. It snowed the entire afternoon which made for a lovely white Christmas. Let's face it...snow is much more visually appealing than rain and gray skies! Sydney enjoyed playing with the crinkly paper and ribbons on the packages, and was quite pleased to have attention showered on her by her grandparents, cousin and aunt/uncle.
This Christmas has been particularly warm and relaxing for both Steve and I, likely due to our gratefulness for all that we are blessed with...a beautiful daughter, each other, loving families, a good career and a comfortable home/lifestyle. We look forward to all the joys and new experiences 2008 will bring to us, and our friends and family!

The week before Christmas

The pictures above demonstrate one of Sydney's latest and greatest accomplishments...sitting. Props go out to her father for his hours of patient coaching and endless words of encouragement.

It is the last weekend before Christmas, and after driving around Portland/Beaverton for an hour... it makes you just want to stay in the house and not leave until after Christmas! Thankfully, Sydney and I finished up our Christmas shopping last weekend w/ Erin, and we (the Royal We) need to finish up wrapping our gifts.

Sydney has turned into an excellent shopping companion, and believe me, I am cherishing this. She is quite comfortable in her stroller. Her routine goes something like this: playing with an assortment of crinkly, rattling and/or squeaky toys for a bit, taking a quick nap and then demanding a lift out of the stroller for a good view of the stores and some people watching. Of course, once out of the stroller, Sydney flashes smiles to everyone who will cast her a second glance...Thus making a quick shopping trip take slightly longer, as everyone likes to make comments about a baby (including what I've concluded is THE world's most asked question to new parents: how is she sleeping??!).

Steve is working his last day of the week today, and then has a week off to hang out with Sydney and I. He is planning to get back into his hobby of working on our house. The basement will be the next zone under construction. I've been told this is an "easy" project, and will not take much time at all to finish! At least the dust can stay behind closed doors, and out of eyesight. We are planning on making the basement a type of guest quarters...so yes, that is an all-call for future friends and family who want to visit (and babysit!) :)

We are planning a relaxing Christmas with friends and family. We're starting the festivities on Sunday evening with dinner with Sydney's best friend Lauren (and her parents), the annual breakfast with the VanderSluis/Murray family on Christmas Eve morning, Christmas Eve service @ CHUCC, and then a dinner at the VanderSluis' on Christmas day, after a visit to Grandma Simpson. We like to keep it busy around here :)

Merry Christmas!