Cherished Moments

One of the reasons I started this blog was to share stories about my daughter, Sydney Lynne. Now, I do not want this to be a "Sydney Blog," so don't worry. I will not always just talk about her. I do want to share some things about her from time to time that you might find interesting, though. I had two such occurences in the last 24 hours.

First, I bit of a funny story from yesterday afternoon..... this might be a "you had to be there" type of story, though. Sydney and I were in the car on the way to Publix to purchase a roast to cook for dinner (yes, I was going to buy the roast on Sunday, but you know what happened if you read my last blog post). When I have Sydney in the car with me, I try very hard to listen only to Christian music. I usually listen to Christian music when I am alone, too, but I really try to when she is with me. Yesterday was a day when I decided to listen to secular music instead, though.

For those of you who know me well, you know I love 80's music. Duran Duran is my all-time favorite group, but I like almost all 80's music, including some heavy metal (I know, strange coming from "little miss goody two shoes"). On the way to Publix yesterday I had the radio on a station that plays a lot of 80's music, and the song "Paradise City" by Guns 'n' Roses came on. If you know this song, you know it starts out kind of slow, "Take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is green, and the girls are pretty." After singing this phrase a couple of times, these guitars start goin' to town, and it's kind of heavy (not quite ACDC type heavy, but still a little heavy). Well, at this point in the song I looked at Sydney in the rear-view mirror, and what did I see??? My 16 month old daughter was head bangin' in the back seat!! I just about died laughing!! I said, "Peeps, are you back there head bangin'?" to which she laughed and continued to head bang even more! She and I did a little head bangin' to "Paradise City" until the song was over, and it was sooooo much fun! It's a good thing my mom was not with us, though. She would NOT have approved!!!

The other moment I want to share with you happened at 2 AM this morning. I was sleeping soundly when Sydney awoke and was crying. Apparently, she had lost her paci and could not find it. I try to keep extras in her bed for this very reason, but last night she could not find any of them, even with her nightlight on. After a couple of minutes (I wanted to wait and see if she found a paci before going into her room), I decided to go and help her out. When something like this happens in the middle of the night, Sydney usually wants me to get her out of bed to rock in her big pink rocking chair (sometimes she decides she wants to go downstairs and munch on some animal crackers or fruit loops before returning to bed, but she didn't do that last night). After rocking Syd for a while, I put her back in the bed, and she drifts back off to sleep.

Last night as I rocked Sydney in her big pink rocking chair, I cherished that time. While I was very sleepy and wanted to return to the comforts of my own bed, I knew how special this time together was. She is growing up sooooo fast, and sometimes I just want to stop the clock and hold her back. I know I can't do that, but it's during these precious moments during the night that I feel like I am stopping time just a bit. I know that before I can blink an eye Sydney will be off to kindergarten, then off to high school, college, and beyond, and someday she will have her own little angel to cuddle with in the middle of the night. So, instead of being irritated that my nice sleep has been interrupted when my daughter needs me in the middle of the night, I thank God for these moments because they mean more to me than I can ever explain.

I hope you have enjoyed these little tidbits of life with Sydney Lynne, and I hope God blesses you as much as He has blessed me. I may not be "rich" by worldly standards, but I am rich beyond measure in all ways that really matter.

P.S. An update on the car...... we are still waiting on it to be fixed completely, but we do know the battery was dead. So far with parts, labor, and the towing expense we are at about $400, but it will probably cost more than that by the time everything is said and done. I hope God provides a ram in the thicket for us!!!