Your Daughter is a Flap Ripper

Hello, faithful readers. I know I have enticed you in by that very catchy title. "What is a flap ripper?" you might be wondering, and wonder you should. It's not something you hear everyday, or ever. This title was bestowed on my daughter by my best friend Melissa, and she meant it well and with love in her heart, but it's true. If there is a flap in a book, like a piece of paper that you lift up to see something else, Sydney will immediately rip it off. Pop-up books last about 2 seconds in our house. For some reason it bothers her that there is extra paper on the page and she seeks to remedy it. What a helper she is. Anyway, that's just one of the many interesting things about my little Sydney, who is now almost 22 months old. How that happened, I'm still not sure. I'm so sorry there are no pictures to go along with all this, but I thought you might like to hear about some of the things that Sydney has been up to when she is not busy ripping paper out of books.
Sydney can count to 10, and she does it all the time. And I do mean all the time; in the car, in bed, when she's eating, ALL THE TIME!! It's her favorite thing to say. She still doesn't like to eat, but Melissa did get her to take 2 bites of an apple yesterday and I was so excited I made her take a picture. She's not really into fruit. She still loves Drew Carey and is starting to take an interest in Elmo. She is doing great with her potty training and goes most days without an accident (although Melissa's floor would beg to differ after being peed on twice yesterday). Madison has been teaching Sydney bad things like how to unzip her jammies and take them off, which she frequently does when she's supposed to be going to bed. She loves to pray and when we sit down to dinner she holds out her hands and says "pay" and "men" when we're done (so precious!). She is starting to recognize that some people go together. For example, if my mom comes over, Sydney asks for Papa and Abbie, too. And if she see's my aunt, she asks for "Mike, Shep, and Bre" which is Uncle Mike, cousin-in-law Sam, and cousin Brianna. She laughs and giggles and loves to read, and she is learning to express herself in lots of new and interesting ways (think, screaming bloody murder in the middle of Target). We're exploring the different ways of communicating and disciplining for a toddler. She's mostly good natured, but she has her days. It's crazy a lot of the time, but we love it and wouldn't trade her for anything. We're moving in with my parents this week while the inside of our house in being painted, so stay tuned for some fabulous before and after photos.