Who Pushed Fast Forward?

So we've all heard it before: "Enjoy your baby, it goes by so fast".  I knew it was true, but that saying has been in my mind a lot the past month or so.  I don't know what it is lately, but it seems like Sydney has lost all her "baby-ness" and seems to be entering into more of a little girl state.  Ok, so she's still not crawling, but she is doing so many other things it's amazing. 

It seems like almost daily now she learns something new.  Some things are simple yet cute.  For instance, she likes to take her fingernail and "scratch" different textured fabrics and listen to the sound it makes.  Silly, I know, but it makes me smile.  She also gives herself a "hug" and makes an "mmm-mmm-mmm" sounds as she does...melts my heart!  A few times she has "talked" to her dad on the phone.  Now when she sees my phone, she takes it and holds it up to her ear.  Ok, so then she puts it in her mouth, but how cute is it that she knows it goes at your ear? 

Other things blow my mind.  I guess it's because at one point she was, for all intensive purposes, a blob and now she has this emerging personality and curiosity about the world around her.  So one of my favorites is when you ask her what Sophie (our dog) says, she says "woof woof" (it sounds more like "ooof ooof" but she routinely responds the same) OR when Sophie barks, she mimics her.  She will also say "quack quack" (sounds like "whack whack") when you ask her what a duck says.  This one is more hit and miss than the dog sound, but she still does it.  One of her favorite things to do now while she is having her diaper changed is to drop whatever she is holding over the side of the changing table and say "uh oh" (sounds like "uh uh"). 

Her mind is certainly becoming quite the sponge.  I think Blake and I will have to be careful what we say around her because she is already absorbing it all!