Appointment for Mommy and Sydney!

The Helget fam had a busy day today! I had a big check-up including the glucose tolerance test, sonogram, and check-up with the doctor and Sydney had her 2 year check-up. It began with me drinking the infamous syrupy sweet orange "GluCola" drink (for my 1 hr. glucose tolerance test)--as I was chugging it Sydney was playing with all of the radiology ladies. (She's become pretty comfortable at the hospital!) One of the ladies was pregnant with her daughter when we were pregnant with Sydney; we actually went through the birthing class together. It was fun hearing what her daughter was up to and comparing notes as parents of 2 year olds/almost 2 year olds. We then went in to the ultrasound room where we discovered our little one is breech! Butt down facing my back he/she really challenged the sonographer to find all of the measurements she needed. She got all that she wanted but we unfortunately were only able to get one decent profile photo of the baby--the rest of the time he/she was hiding from us! Most importantly the baby is measuring right on target and weighing in at a whopping 1 lb. 13 oz.--give or take some ounces :), heartbeat was 144 beats per minute! We're blessed again with a baby that appears to be very healthy!

After our sonogram was over we had about 45 minutes to wait before my blood could be drawn so yet again Sydney played with the radiology ladies, read some books, ate some snacks and "raced" up and down the hallway. She did such a fantastic job today; especially considering this all took place during her regular nap time! Anyhow once that time was up we headed to our doctor's appointments. Sydney weighed in at 28.4 pounds (75th percentile) and measured 35 1/2 inches (90th percentile). She passed all the "2 year check-up" questions too with flying colors and we found out it was okay to introduce her to peanut butter and strawberries........um....she had a PB&J for lunch! Apparently there was some miscommunication between the little pamphlet we got at her previous check-up and our doctor. :) Anyhow she, thankfully, does not have a peanut allergy nor has she ever had any negative reactions to strawberries--she loves both. :) We just found it very humorous that we got permission 6 months after we had already "introduced" it! To top off our wonderful day (why did we save this for last?) we got Sydney's last round of immunizations. She was so very brave! She got the second round of the Hepatitis A (which isn't required yet but will be soon and she'll need it to start Kindergarten) and the HiB (which they had been out of the last several times we've gone for immunizations). It feels good to have her done with the immunizations-especially since now she's done until she goes to Kindergarten! Gosh that sounds so bizarre! Of course we'll start all over again on the immunization front with our new little one....*sigh* It was a long, yet exciting day for all of us. We'll sure be glad to hang around and do n-o-t-h-i-n-g tomorrow. :)

Christmas (in Ottawa and in Delphos!)

Also in no particular order...we had Christmas at our home in Ottawa on Christmas Eve morning before heading to Delphos. We caught most of that on video so we have very few still shots :S. The other pictures are from my dad's house in Delphos where we spent Christmas morning and my Grandma's house where we opened presents after lunch time. I also included some pictures of when we returned home and she had more time to play with some of her toys. It was so nice to get back and get all of our Christmas decorations packed away. I was going to take Monday as a day of "rest" since I couldn't Sunday...but sitting on the chair staring at the Christmas tree was driving me nus! So I just got started and didn't stop until almost everything was put away. :)

Her first official ponytail! Aagh she looks so big!

Sydney referred to these styrofoam packing "devices" as her binoculars. :)
Just catching a show with Dad!


Trying to lift her present from Santa--to no avail!





Watching Tom & Jerry on her new portable DVD player---THANK YOU THANK YOU Aunt Bailey!! :)
One of her favorite new toys: a doll stroller Santa brought for her!

Sydney's birthday-day!

In no particular order here are the pictures from Sydney's birthday day. December 23rd we woke up and ate chocolate chip pancakes and watched "Dora" before heading off to the Kansas City Children's Museum. Sydney got to open a few presents we had set aside for her special day before we left. She had a BLAST at the Children's Museum! It was so much fun watching her discover new things and play!

Happy Birthday Mom

Today would have been my mom's 56th birthday and I thought a great way to remember her was to share a memory I have of one of her birthdays. I will never forget it! Growing up, to celebrate either Dad or Mom's birthday we would usually go out to eat and to a movie or something that involved all of us as a family. It was the year that the movie Dumb and Dumber came out. After watching Ace Ventura our family (well everyone but Mom) had become big Jim Carrey fans. The three of us (Dad, Bailey, and I) were dying to see Dumb and Dumber and it just so happened to be released very close to Mom's birthday. She fought us tooth and nail but in the end the 3 of us won out and she spent her birthday "watching" the movie and laughing at Dad laugh himself to tears at probably one of the most stupid movies of all time. :) (Bailey and I were at that stage where it was very un-cool to sit with your parents so we were several rows in front of them--but I guarantee we were laughing just as much as Dad was!) If she were still here we'd still laugh about that night! She was always making sacrifices for the rest of us--big or small. That is just the kind of mom and person she was!

I think of my mom every day...some days more so than others but she is never far from my mind. Some days are worse than others too; just last night I was joking around with Joe about something then I thought of my mom's birthday and instantly started sobbing and could not stop. Other times I can talk about her as if nothing ever happened. It's such a bizarre journey and I can't imagine how the rest of it will play out. All I can do is hang on tight to the memories I have of her and keep those memories alive for myself and for the rest of my family...especially for Sydney whose time with her "mamaw" was cut way too short.

If you've made it this far--thanks for reading. It isn't one of my typical posts that's for sure. Once I "dump" the pictures from our camera to the computer, I'll post our Christmas pictures!

Sydney's 2nd Birthday Party!

We celebrated Sydney's 2nd birthday party on Saturday. We were so incredibly grateful to the wonderful family and friends who made the trip to celebrate with us. Being so far away from our family (and always feeling like we're the ones on the road) it was wonderful to have family and friends share in her special day in our very own home. My dad and sister came and also Joe's sister Ginny, Joe's Aunt Deanna and Uncle Jim. Our friends Ed, Tiffany, and their son Noah joined in as well as Kim, Sydney's daycare provider, and her son Evan. It was so fun watching the three kids play together and learn to "take turns" with all of the new (and old) toys! Sydney sure is a lucky little girl--she got tons of new toys to play with--I'll have to add pictures later! I have very few because our camera battery died shortly after taking pictures of the cakes...so I am going to have to rely on pictures sent by my dear sister or dear friend Tiffany. (hint hint girls!) :) We did catch everything on video--and I mean everything. Even Sydney's tantrum after she opened a gift that contained a Dora book and all she wanted to do was read it! Then came the fit as I tried to coax her in to opening another gift and so on and so forth. Finally the Dora book got to have a spot next to Syd on my lap as she opened the rest of her gifts.
Here are my few pictures of her day!
The cakes:
Sydney enjoying her cake!! :) She had about 3 pieces. :)

Two of the kiddos enjoying the shopping cart--Noah is patiently waiting his turn!

Christmas with Noah!

First off here are a couple of pictures that I mentioned I would post:

The beautiful Christmas lights my dear husband put up on the coldest afternoon in December! (in the nearly freezing mist he would add :) ).
Also here is Sydney enjoying a gingerbread cookie! I think we'll try doing sugar cookies and decorating them next...these little guys were quite tedious and she didn't get to help decorate as much as I had planned. Her favorite part was eating them though!
Saturday afternoon/evening we met our friends Ed, Tiffany, and their son Noah to eat supper and exchange gifts between the kids. Once we were done eating and the kids were "all done!" they got to let loose a bit in the Olive Garden. :) Here are some pictures of them dancing and playing around.

Noah gave Sydney a Dora Bathtime Castle for Christmas which she loved! When we left she insisted she carry the box by herself....it sat on her lap nearly the whole way home! She played with it tonight at bathtime and it was even harder to get her out of the tub this time than it has been before...thanks Noah. :)

Bedtime and dr.'s appointment!

Last night was the best bedtime Sydney has had in so long (well since her pacifier mysteriously disappeared ;) ). We did it a little differently and it worked out beautifully so I am hoping that we can continue with this. The night before was just horrendous so I was kind of nervous as to what last night would hold...but as the saying goes each day is a new day and we had a wonderful afternoon and evening and then bedtime with our little girl!!! She kept us laughing all evening long. :)

I also had a doctor's appointment yesterday. According to their calculations I am 22 1/2 weeks. Sydney has become my little tag-a-long buddy to the appointments since Joe has to work 30 minutes later and he carpools he hasn't been able to make it to as many appointments as I know he would like. Sydney is just becoming an old pro at this traveling and dr. appt. business. We counted the "memis" (aka semi trucks) on the way to Burlington and she told me their colors. She was really hoping to see a pink one though. :) Anyhow once we arrived at the appointment, she knew after my blood pressure was taken I was "all done!" and then I laid down on the table so we could hear the heartbeat and then we were "all done!" She even smiled and giggled with the doctor!! :) Anyhow, we are so busy enjoying/chasing/parenting Sydney that I often forget to do the same little things for this baby that I did when I was pregnant with Sydney. It's so easy to breeze through the day and not even have time to stop and just enjoy the little bumps and kicks...so I am trying to do that more and more and when I do I try to just say a little prayer of "thanks"! We are truly blessed to be having another child and one that is seemingly very healthy and active! (The dr. couldn't keep the doppler in one place yesterday to calculate the heartbeat...Baby was all over the place!) Our next appointment will be Dec. 30th and we'll have a sonogram! I am SO excited to see this little baby and hopefully see that he/she is just as healthy as we've been praying for and growing just as he/she should be!

Our little comedian...

The other night we were eating supper when Joe let Maggie in from her "restroom break." Maggie gets pretty excited when she comes in, especially when it's really cold out! Therefore she usually pays no attention to the toes/feet of the person who lets her in...she peeled out right on a couple of Joe's little toes and apparently, it hurt pretty badly. :) He was still commenting on the pain when he got back to the table and we were trying to make him think of other things or to take his mind off of it somehow. So I said "Sydney, make a funny face for Daddy!" And this is what she came up with! :)
Of course once she started doing it we were laughing hysterically so she continued to do it. She loves to entertain, that's for sure!

We finally got Christmas lights today too--we went last weekend and couldn't agree on any lights we both liked and since Joe was going to be hanging them, I thought he should like them a little bit too. :) Anyhow we finally agreed on some today and Joe is joyfully preparing to hang them up. Being the good wife I am I even brought him an ice cold beverage to help him out. :) He's truly doing this all for me--I love Christmas time and we've never put lights up on the outside of our house. He's really not in to the decorating at all so bless his heart for appeasing me! :) I hope to share pictures soon!!

Silly and MESSY girl!

We had such a fun evening last night just the 3 of us. While I was fixing supper Sydney was playing so well with the few Christmas decorations she can play with (Rudolph, Santa, her nativity scene Little People) and Joe was busy packing away his deer hunting stuff. Supper was a joy (which if you have a toddler or have had a toddler you know that this event is usually hit or miss!) We had spaghetti, green beans, and garlic bread--3 of her most favorite things! Noodles, green beans, and BREAD! :) For this reason she ate about 3 helpings of each with some pieces of bread interspersed here and there. We had such a fun supper--Sydney and Joe playing with their food (*sigh*) hence the reason for the following photos! When she was younger her spaghetti would be all over her face but now that she's using utensils it gets kind of on her face, but mostly on her clothes! She was so messy--and as she and Joe walked to the bathroom to take a bath (straight from supper) she left a trail of noodles down the hallway!!! :)

Proud of her work. :)

Thanksgiving! and decorating for Christmas! (lots of pictures to follow!)

We had a very blessed Thanksgiving! We were able to spend a day or so in Delphos with my side of the family, Wednesday I went shopping with my sister (Sydney-free courtesy of her dear dad and my dear ol' dad!) and we had a wonderful time together. Thursday we headed out for Manhattan where we could spend most of the day with Joe's side of the family. A few years back we switched our "rotation" so that we could be there with our family when (most) everyone else was there with theirs. The holidays are some of the very few times that all of his siblings and their families can get together and we wanted Sydney to experience her Helget cousins--every single one of them. :) It took her awhile to warm up but before long she was coloring with Nicklas and reading with Gabbie..and even snuggling with Uncle Jim!

Getting her fingernails painted by Aunt Bailey!

That afternoon we headed back to Delphos where Sydney got to spend lots of time playing with her cousin Addison. This is probably one of the first times (that I remember anyway) the girls actually playing together...before they would each do their own things but this time with the help from Aunt Traci they warmed up to each other pretty quickly and before long they were tearing up Grandma Dodo's front porch! It was so much fun watching them play together. Each Thanksgiving for the last seven years (according to my grandma) some of the grandkids would put up the inflatable snowman in Grandma's front yard. So Traci and Justin got that started when someone mentioned that the little girls might like watching it go up (with the lights, etc. and who doesn't love a snowman?!) So we bundled up the little girls and headed out. Oh my dear Sydney started crying at the sight of the frightening snowman which got Addison wondering about it too...Addison bless her heart finally stopped fussing but Sydney kept right on going. Aunt Rhonda's idea to sing "Frosty the Snowman" was a great one, but only made us grown-ups feel excited for Christmas--it meant nothing to the little girls! :) Once we got inside both little girls were so worried about the snowman they kept hanging out by the front door and asking us about it. He's far less frightening behind a glass door apparently!

Playing with Addison behind Dodo's curtains!

Waiting for Aunt Bailey outside the bathroom!

We headed back to Ottawa Saturday afternoon and got back that evening at Sydney's bedtime. (We forgot her pacifier when we left so thought we'd try not offering it anymore--she did okay while she was there in Delphos but bedtime still isn't the same here at home!!) The next morning I was SO excited to start decorating for Christmas! Joe even offered to get up with Sydney but honestly....I don't think I could have slept! So I got Syd, he went back to sleep, and we started unloading everything! I took out my Christmas village pieces first and Sydney helped me carry them in to the kitchen. She was such a big girl--it was so fun to see her being such a great helper! By the time we had it all unloaded Joe was up and it was time to start decorating! While Sydney helped Joe eat his cereal and watch some cartoons, I set up the village and some other decorations downstairs in the living room. Then Joe graciously brought up the tree and it's tub of goodies and we started putting it together! Sydney was so cute helping me "fluff" the tree and fix the bows that were left on. It was SO much fun! We turned the t.v. on to the Christmas music channel and sang Christmas songs while we decorated. Sydney even danced a little bit while taking a break from fluffing the tree! Next step was to put the ornaments on and that took a bit of work but she finally got the hang of it! I still haven't moved the two red ornaments from right next to each other. :) Here are some pictures from our fun-filled morning! It was so much fun having Sydney help--I feel so blessed; it was truly just a joyful time!



Here is a picture of Sydney's tree; it has my collection of Barbie ornaments that my mom started for me 15 years ago! (Wow that sounds like a really long time ago!!! :) )

Next project on the agenda: GINGERBREAD MEN cookies!!