That is correct folks. 2 years ago, Sydney sprang into the world changing our lives forever. In some ways it's hard to believe it's been that long ago. In other ways, it seems like she's been with us much longer. Let's quickly review 2 years of cuteness.
Flashback 1 Year
For Sydney's 1st birthday, we invited all of our family and friends to a sports bar (The Stadium II) where we used to hang out frequently. The turnout was huge. Nearly everyone came. Everyone had a great time... except for Sydney. Sydney was pretty much scared the whole time and wanted no part of it. She actually tried to get us to leave while we were setting up for it. She clung to Meghan while we sang happy birthday. She was afraid of the candles on the cake. Those reading the forum might note that there was no 1st birthday party post. ...we just decided to leave well enough alone with that one.
Birthday Take 2
For Sydney's 2nd birthday, we decided to reduce the size of crowd and host the party at home. That wasn't a particularly easy task because even when inviting family we're still looking at over 20 people. Everyone managed to cram into our tiny living room though. In attendance were: Mary, Pam & Dave, my Parents, MeMe & Papa, Tom & Cindy, Courtney & Tom, Laura, Carrie, Emily & Kendall, Sarah, Meghan, me, and of course... Sydney. Many thanks to everyone who came and for all the wonderful gifts.
Sydney has been obsessed with Elmo lately so Meghan made her an Elmo cake. The full sized pictures of it didn't turn out well but the thumbnails aren't too bad. Here's one:
Sydney's mood throughout the weekend was kind of all over the place. On one hand, she's been entering the terrible twos and testing us. On the other, she's been recovering from a cold that really beat her down and has been more irritable and tired than she normally is. That left us not knowing what to expect from moment to moment.
My parents came up on Friday night so they got a little bit of Sydney time the evening prior to and morning before the party. They got some good Sydney and some bad Sydney.
About 45 minutes before the party started, Sydney started acting very odd. She kind of withdrew into her self. She was very quiet. If a 2 year old can be nervous about an upcoming party, then she was clearly nervous.
Shortly after people arrived, Sydney and Kendall went downstairs with Aunt Emily and played some. This was about as social as Sydney ever managed to get.
The party started without much drama. Sydney did a remarkably good job of opening her presents although she did get upset once when she wanted to play with a toy that she unwrapped instead of opening the next gift. It was kind of odd because we opened a few and then suddenly she was crying and reaching for the puzzle. I need to figure out a creative way to edit an intermission into the video. Here's some pictures of Meghan and Sydney opening presents:
Later during the party we sang happy birthday and like last year, Sydney clung to Meghan. Unlike last year, our little girl yelled for us to "Stop It!" twice while we sang. In retrospect we should have just stopped singing because Sydney clearly didn't want to be the center of attention. Those were the only words I heard her say during the party. Happy Birthday looked like this:
After singing happy birthday, we cut the cake. Sydney wanted help so I forked two pieces of cake into her mouth. Interestingly she got the food coloring from the dark icing all over her lips and fingers when she reached up to wipe her mouth. After that she made me pick off all the icing before she would eat the cake. Sydney did not eat ice cream because she doesn't like ice cream. I offered her some, but she just gave me a blank look. If I were to translate her thoughts, she probably was thinking - "Oh god, you're not going to make me eat ice cream after all this are you?" Here are shots of Sydney waiting for and eating cake:
After the cake, Sydney vanished and Meghan later found her playing by herself in her room with a toy. She clearly just wanted to be alone.
And that was Sydney's second birthday party.