Father's Day Fun

                              

Happy Father's Day, Daddy/Erich!  You are the best daddy and you don't hear it enough.  Thank you for all you do for us.  We love you!!

We took a scenic drive for Father's Day to a couple of historic sites (Erich's choice of course, but I didn't mind!)  We went out to Washington Monument State Park and the Antietam Civil War Battefield.  It was a really hot day and Sydney and Parker were real troopers through it all.  Of course, air conditioning helps ;)

Here is Parker at the first Washington Monument.  

We stopped for a picnic about 5 miles from Antietam, which was really nice.  The kids got to play at a playground and we enjoyed it a lot!

Here are some photos from Antietam...

A live firing demonstration

Smelling the cannons...

What does she see?  Here we are on the site of many killed and wounded soldiers during the Battle of Antietam right before heading back to the car.  We were able to drive and tour the battlefield in the comfort of the car and AC, so that was really nice.

Family Visits

I can't believe this is the baby we picked up 9 months ago.  Happy 18 month birthday, Sydney!!

We went to the Live Butterfly Exhibit at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum two weeks ago.  

Sydney was actually very interested in the butterflies.  

Sydney and my nephew Parker.  He is great with her and she loves him!

My step-mom and Parker were out to visit this week.  We had the opportunity to go to Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday.  It was quite awe inspiring.  Even seeing all the grave markers, it is hard to grasp the number of people who are buried there.  It really angered me to think about the general mucky-muck that took place with the management there these last few years.  What happened there?  Craziness!  Anyway, here are some photos.

It was really hot and humid!!

MMMMM...smoothie

A day at the zoo

We spent our Saturday morning at the National Zoo and had a great time.  We were able to beat the crowds by getting there before 9 am and it was a relaxed, fun morning.  Sydney loved seeing the animals and was very engaged in pointing them out and even doing some animal noises.  We had a lot of good signing opportunities when pointing out the animals as well.  I am so impressed with her signing abilities.  She soaks up the signs like a sponge and has even started using two signs together, usually in conjunction with 'please'.  Tonight at dinner she said "thank you, mommy".  Verbally, she is still making a lot of sounds, but not really communicating that way too much.  Her one word right now is "bubbles".  She often says it along with the sign so I know she isn't just saying bu bu.
Healthwise, Sydney is doing much better now.  Her viruses seemed to have gone away and her good humor and appetite have returned.  She is definitely becoming a picky eater though and is starting to reject a lot of food she used to love.  Normal toddler behavior! :)
Yesterday at day care she had a great day, playing, dancing and smiling...something she hadn't really been doing at all.  I think it may have been due to the photo album I took for her to look at during the day.  Thank you to Lora for that suggestion.  I believe it really helped her and will continue to do so :D

Here are some photos from our day....

Taking a walk

Visiting the farm animals (cows and alpacas)

Watching Prairie Dogs (and waving at Mommy)

At the Panda exhibit. Look how long those legs are getting!

Watching the elephants.  We had just seen that one elephant going #1 and Sydney is actually signing 'potty' there. When she saw how much potty the elephant was doing, she started emphatically signing "potty" with both hands. I thought that was too funny! :)

Our 7th Anniversary!

Unfortunately Erich and I couldn't do anything special for anniversary this year as Sydney and I are both fighting viral infections (ugh).  But I want to give my thanks to Erich for being such a wonderful, patient husband.  I am truly blessed to have found someone who loves me, understands me (most of the time) and is willing to put up with my moods.  Erich is the best daddy any little girl could have (just ask Sydney) and I am so grateful that she loves him so much.  Thank you for 7 wonderful years, Erich.  I love you!

Adjusting...again

It has been a rough couple of weeks in the Keough house.  I started my new job last week, and Sydney started day care as well.  I started work with a cold and Sydney, being around a whole bunch of new kids, got sick too.  She has really been under the weather for the last week or so, poor baby.

It has been really hard for me not being with Sydney all day.  I feel a lot of guilt.  It breaks my heart when I have to leave her there crying, because as much as I would like to, I can't go see her too much throughout the day.  It's hard on her when I leave her and it doesn't reflect well on my job performance.  So I peek in on her and call the room to ask about her ;)
I am sure things will be better in a couple of weeks once we have adjusted to our new schedules and are not sick anymore.  It will just take some time.

Here are some pictures of better times and how I hope things will be again soon... :)

Quality Time

I officially start my job on Monday, so we have been making a point to spend some really good quality time together this last week.  We went to a really cool place in the Shenandoah region of Virginia called Luray Caverns.  It was really beautiful there and the caverns were spectacular.  

Sydney and Erich in the cavern.

Erich and Sydney in front of Dream Lake.  This is actually a reflection of the ceiling on a very shallow pool. It was amazing. (Click the photo to see more)

Sydney and her "furreal" puppy.  

Sydney is really learning to love and care for the cats.  She loves to feed and pet them and they are so patient with her.  Here she is with Sebastian.

       

    Sydney loves to "color".

            

        Play time!

      

   Ready for bed...maybe ;)