Meet Sydney

No, Mom, I'm sorry. She's not mine.

I just had to share this baby with my blogger friends. Sydney is the daughter of Anneke and Jake. Jake is the son of Sally and Bruce. (I know Sally from the beading meeting and met her through Greg, as he is good friends with Sally and Bruce.) Ok, so now you know how we know them.


I have to say this. I'm not typically someone who holds a baby. I'm the youngest in my family and most of my cousins/friends aren't much younger than I am, so I never grew up with babies around me. Most of my friends do not have children and the few that do, I'm a little nervous being asked to hold the children when they are young.


When I told Greg that, he said, "Your maternal instincts must have kicked in, because you looked great holding Sydney." Anneke handed her to me and oh my gosh, what a little bundle of joy. When Sydney smiled, I laughed and she smiled a lot! I absolutely loved holding her and that's such a strange thing for me to say, because I never felt that way. She was happy to be with me, not squirming like some children or crying like others. Sydney was all smiles and giggles and making sounds like she wants to talk. (Oh, one time I did hear her cry... she doesn't like to be changed, doesn't like her cloths taken off. Sally told me, "The first time they changed Sydney, you would have thought we were murdering someone from the sound of it.")

At one point when I was holding Sydney, she turned and put her cheek against my chest; I melted. I told Greg, "If we can have a child, I want one just like this!"

When Anneke went to pick up Sydney, she gave a little bounce and said, "Do you want Mommy? Do you want Mommy?" Oh my - Sydney was all giggles and reaching her arms out. If joy could be caught in a picture, it was at that moment ~ too precious!


Anneke told me, "Sydney was named after Sydney, Australia, where Jake and I met. Maybe one day she'll want to go and visit Australia." I thought that was so sweet ~ not just a name, but a special bond and reason.

Anneke ~ isn't that a lovely name? She gave me her email address so we could keep in touch and then wrote the phonetic spelling "onika" saying that many people don't know how to pronounce her name. I can appreciate that, given I'll answer to anything even remotely close to Aleta.


Mom asked me where Anneke was from and I said "Holland." Mom was all ears. My parents would love to visit Holland (so would I). I mentioned this to Anneke. She said to go in late April, to see the Tulips and enjoy Queen's Day, which is April 30th. It's not the current Queen's birthday (which is in January). In honor of her mother, the current Queen kept Queen's Day on her mother's (or is it her grandmother's) birthday. (Dad, I know you read my blog. Make a mental note - when to go to Holland - April)

Anneke said that on Queen's Day, they are allowed to fly their flag (which, I had to ask, "what does that mean, allowed to fly their flag". Come to find out, there are restrictions of when people in Holland can fly their flag, how interesting) and they can have garage sales on Queen's Day. They can't just have a garage sale whenever they want to, (like we do in the States). On Queen's Day, everyone puts his or her things out for sale and you walk around to see what everyone has ~ wow talk about a neighborhood garage sale!


I love hearing about new cultures and traditions. Anneke, Jake and Sydney were a pleasure to meet and I hope to see them again in the near future!

To see more pictures, please feel free to visit my Picasa site. You'll need to scroll down to the end of the pictures ~ On there, you'll also see Bev and her "mid life crisis baby" - Cricket - he's a cutie, very well trained!

It was a wonderful gathering of friends. I learned that Bev and I share "isms" - that we both reverse our words, but we know what we mean! And that I'm not the only one who "can clean, but not cook" - yes - I'm not alone, thanks for sharing that too Anneke!

We even had a celebration ~ Bev bought a cake for Carol's birthday, plus a sugar free angel food cake for Greg. (Greg really appreciated your thoughtfulness Bev.) Good people and a lot of laughs. Thank you, Sally ~ for inviting us over and sharing your family and friends with us!!


And.... if I can get Greg to be a guest blogger.. hehe. I'll ask him to blog about "what a cake taste like."