Sydney's birthday was actually on Monday. It was not a good day for her. She cried a lot. I am not sure why but she was definitely not happy. When she was born she cried for the first 2 hours then she was such a happy baby. Then on her birthday she cried most of the day. She must not like that day of the year. We wanted to take the kids to the park and let them do a smash cake again but since Sydney was so cranky we decided to wait until Tuesday.
On Tuesday evening, we went to the local park and set up for a second smash cake just for pictures (she also had one at her party). Interestingly, Sydney was not a big fan of the cake this time. Austin loved it though. He really enjoyed getting messy and eating the icing from the cake. Nevertheless Brian got some good pictures. Sydney opened up her presents from Nana, Grandpa, and Great Grandma that night too. It was a great few days of celebrating her birthday.
We love Labor Day weekend. Usually Cleveland has its airshow but this year it was cancelled (government funding cuts). I think Brian was bummed about that since Austin would have liked to go. Every year on Labor Day weekend we go to the Taste of Hudson. We get to sample some very good food pretty cheap and the kids can play in the Little Tikes area. This year it was great because they both played there. We were there for at least an hour and they loved it! They also had a duck tape art project that they both did too. Austin enjoyed cutting the tape with scissors and Sydney liked to color. It was a lot of fun. We enjoy doing fun family things like this.
Recently the weather has been very hot, so we went swimming in Kaitlyn's pool. The kids love to swim and they have a very nice pool. It makes me want a pool too but we will see. It is also a lot of work and is dangerous with the kids being so little. We have not been taking swim classes since this summer was so busy with the swing set. We will probably start again in the late fall.
Also this weekend we had to make "All about Me" posters for the kid's school project. Since Brian is so good at taking pictures we had pictures for all the things. It is a fun project. We learned that last year at this time we did not know Austin's favorite color. This year we clearly know that his favorite color is yellow. It is cute to see how much he has grown too.
On Tuesday after Labor Day, Sydney went to the doctor for her 1 year check up. Everything looked good although it was difficult to talk with the doctor since Austin was running around and climbing on everything. Sydney had to get 4 vaccines and Austin got his flu shot too. There was a lot of crying. Then they got a sticker and we went home. The doctor wanted Sydney to have her blood drawn to check her blood count and lead levels. I knew I could not do that by myself. So later that week, Brian picked Sydney up early from daycare and he took her. Sydney did so well getting her blood drawn. She did not even cry! The technicians couldn't believe it. She just looked down at the needle, looked back up, and smiled at them. The blood tests all came back normal too.
I am only nursing Sydney at bedtime and when she wakes up in the morning. Sydney is going to bed awake now and I rub her back and lay on her floor until she falls asleep. At least I am no longer nursing her to sleep. She has been waking up a lot during the night and I am making her cry it out. Last night Brian rubbed her back for 30 minutes until she finally fell asleep. I really want to stop nursing her during the night too.
Brian puts Austin to bed every night. They brush their teeth. Austin now uses big kid toothpaste and is able to spit it out. Then Brian reads to him in his room and Brian lays on his floor until he falls asleep. It usually takes about 30 minutes. Brian and I don't get back downstairs until about 9:30 pm. That leaves very little time to watch any TV.
Sydney is walking all the time now. She will rarely crawls. She still is not saying much other then baba, dada, mama, and uh oh. But she will go get a book or shoes if you ask. It's clear she understands so much. She likes to get her shoes and sit on the steps for them to be put on. She can climb up the step ladder in the kitchen too. She really likes to be on it. We have to be careful because they will fight on who gets to stay on the top of it. The kids are keeping us extremely busy, but we are having fun.
Sydney's birthday was actually on Monday. It was not a good day for her. She cried a lot. I am not sure why but she was definitely not happy. When she was born she cried for the first 2 hours then she was such a happy baby. Then on her birthday she cried most of the day. She must not like that day of the year. We wanted to take the kids to the park and let them do a smash cake again but since Sydney was so cranky we decided to wait until Tuesday. 
