syd elton

Its about time for an update on Sydney.

She is becoming quite the fun little punk. Her favorite shoes are these very red sparkly slip-ons and she has no idea about The Wizard of Oz. When jumping into bed she requests "sories" and her favorite series is Olivia. In the car, she can sing along to Lady GaGa, Black Eyed Peas, and still belts out Abba tunes - her highly requested one is walerloo.

When at home or the daycare at the club Sydney will put on her dress-up shoes that have a bit of a heel and she walks in them better then I do whenever I wear heels - sometimes she even runs. I invision a twisted ankle as I see her run down the hallway - but she makes it. Favorite color is still pink and will never turn down a cookie. Swimming lessons have started and I introduced her to the art of relaxing in the hot tub afterwards. When asked if she is ready to get out, her response is "no, relax mama" only I am about to pass out.

We got her a bike for christmas and will be putting it in the camper this weekend to toodle around the campground. Lots of adventures ahead with this one.

Oh, and she drives her brother crazy.

Trouble with capital T

Mornings are supposed to be calm, quiet, and serene. I get my coffee, get Seth off to school, check my email, send out 50 emails, harvest my fb farm and do mafia jobs - just a normal morning. NOT TODAY. As I am at the computer I get a whiff of Gold Bond diaper powder - but then again I gave Sydney that on her bum this morning and she was just at my side. Then she leaves and I turn to see her go and notice this:

This CANNOT be good, so I look around the corner and see this:

I am getting pretty good at counting to 10 these days

Trouble - again

We all have a few regrets in life and one of those for me is letting Sydney see me doing a mud mask one day because I think it has led to this. Although she decided to continue onto the legs.
At least her skin was nice and soft when we washed her all up.

Mother of the Year

My kids are pretty creative and they are starting to show some independence - and I am all for that as I was raised to be independent. We have been going though the "puke" sickness in the house - last week it was Sydney and this week it was Seth who stayed home from school on Tuesday. Out of the blue they just hurled whatever they could and then did not have an appetite. I actually thought for a moment that maybe if I got it I might lose a pound during the temporary semi-bulemic state. But alas, I am healthy. Well, today I got played. Seth woke up early and laid on the couch - normally he is quite a challenge to wake up (thank you Bennett DNA) so when this happens something is not right. He said his tummy hurt and although he went to school on Wednesday I figured maybe he relapsed. I told him he could stay home from school because you don't have to tell this mother that teachers frown on parents who send kids to school and puke at their desk. Blech.

Then when we were at Syd's gym class - my son, who cannot tell a lie, said he played an April Fools on me. What Seth? Mom, I really just did not want to go to school today so I said my tummy hurt, but I am really okay. Ah, well then you can clean the toilets when we get home and read 10 books and give me your DS.

Then there is Sydney who has figured out how to entertain herself when I am preoccupied with laundry, kitchen cleaning, and doing really, really important things on facebook like wordtwist and mafia wars and leaving comment threads all day: she helps herself to a lapfull of oreos and plops herself in the stroller in front, and I mean right in front of the TV. Look at how happy she is!!!!!! Mother of the year award is mine for sure.

Progress?

This is Sydney's new entertainment - she likes to run and run away from me whenever I need to do things like get her ready for bed or get her shoes on or sit her down to eat or get her naked little self in the bathroom - are you getting the idea? . As she runs she giggles and says "I gonna get you" We will be signing her up for track. A few times she does not make the corner into the bedroom on the right and goes into the door jam - I try not to laugh, but she looks at you like where did that come from? We shall work on her cornering ability too.

Lately, she has shown some interest in wearing underwear - and I am not sure if this is the right parent thing to do, but hey if she is interested in wearing them this way and it makes me think she is getting that much closer to me not buying diapers anymore then so be it.



and don't worry - we don't go out in public like this.

Start them Young

Normally Sydney likes to bust out of the club after our morning shift, but today she decided to explore the equipment. It was slow and the manager is in the Caymans, drinking a tropical elixir, running her toes through the sands and ahhhhhh soaking up the warm sun - slap, back to the story- so I let her wonder and she decided to jump up on the treadmill. I tell you this kid has no fear and so as a good mom, I decide to start it up. She was walking at a speedy gonzales pace of 1.0mph.

Caught in the Piggy Bank

When you hear your child talking in their room and you know they are just waking up, you tend to just let them be until you know they are ready to get out. This morning was just like that, except Sydney is now able to reach over and get things off her shelf and this happens.

By the way, this is not an expression of pain but rather a "if I close my eyes, maybe mom won't see me" expression.


I think its time to move her stuffed animals up to the shelf.

At it Again

When things go quiet in the night and Sydney is not down to sleep something is wrong, very wrong. So you go searching for the little tyke and this is what you find.

Any guesses on what the white stuff is?

Pin the Tail on Syd

So what do you think of my fast thinking and creativeness. Told Beth, the fabulous graphic designer, to print out a picture and she (with Lindsey, the fantastic marketing extrodinaire) said e-mail it to Kinkos and have them make a poster. Those marketing people have all the quick and creative ideas. Well, that takes my idea up a notch and wa-la. The winner was Mikayla who put it right on the nose.

Only now I am thinking of having them do a more quality picture so I can frame this great pic.

Oh, the madness.

Strike a Hat Pose

Grandma is in the house and she always has a camera ready to shoot pics - the many happy faces of Sydney.

Kids are Fun

I am very fortunate to have a daycare at work where I can bring the kids for the few hours that I work. Yesterday, the daycare lady, Amber had her infant son with her and he was acting up, ready for food and a nap so Amber attended to him. Sydney watched this and grabbed a doll and started doing the same thing. Holding the baby doll, rocking it, and using a Lego as a bottle. Very cute - maybe a maternal instinct. I recall Seth on the other hand, when once in a similar situation, cover his ears and say "your baby is loud, can you make it quiet" - okay, not so paternal. When Amber's little guy finally dozed off she put him down for his nap, Sydney then took a cue and did the same - only she put her baby doll in the Fisher Price microwave and shut the door.

Seth has been watching Jon & Kate plus 8, the family that had sixtuplets, and the other day Seth, in a very timid tone, said "I don't want a baby to come out of me" I assured him that Daddies don't have babies, only Mommies do - an instant relief came over him and the questions stopped - thank goodness.

Weekend fun

Sydney found her comfort zone away from the bouncy building because she could not stand when everyone was jumping around. She managed to have fun in the other areas and sometimes just wandered around. She was about wiped out on the way home and took about 2 minutes to fall asleep

Can you tell who is having more fun? the kids or the moms? I got in there and it was quite a leg workout, maybe our club should consider a new piece of equipment.

Glen built the backyard playground and added on the swings. The funny thing is I have posted this swing on craigslist at least 3 times and not one person called on it. It is one of those times you can say things happen for a reason. So we finally have something to attach it to and you can hear Sydney saying "weeeee." One of the best sounds is laughter from a child.

Love thy child

Sydney is at a place where she wants things but does not know how to communicate with you. She does like to point and say "Seeeeee" so sometimes we can figure it out and then she says "tank ew."

Yesterday she was in prime form and a few times I was having to take a deep breath, count to 10 and say "love thy child, love thy child"

She likes to climb on the dining room table and most recently Seths bed - both are high up and she does not know how to get down so many a times we had to help her - not to mention telling her no. She does not like that answer and proceeds to cry and collapse to the floor. She was quiet for a bit, and then my Jedi instincts kicked in, and I found her getting into all the wrapping paper - its all torn to shreds. Glen must not have The Force because he thought she was still sleeping. Eating is becoming an event as she will turn her head away from you and smile the whole time. You try the train or airplane thing and she just looks at you like you are crazy. The neighbor kids found a little bird at the base of a tree that could not fly so they put it in a shoebox, Sydney of course wanted to hold it and was told no - hence, scream and collapse. She prefers to play in the cul da sac or the neighbors yard vs. our nice mowed lawn. She will kick and push herself away on the diaper table so you are trying to change her and save her from falling off.

Are you feeling my pain yet? Oh, but it goes on.

Good thing craigslist/ebay have policies against selling children.

Glen was trying to download computer software and she found the button to turn the CPU off - so he had to start over. When I ask her to say mama she says da da and giggles - she knows what she is doing. Seth never liked dirt but I found Sydney with dirt around her mouth, if she is not eating dirt outside she is inside doing an excavation of the drawers. She loves apple juice, but you know what it does with little kids, and must I review what she does on the changing table? So we give her water - hence, scream, throw down of sippy cup and collapse. She has discovered how to get water from the fridge door - only she does not use a cup, no, she just likes to push the lever and out comes cold water. She likes to stand right in front of the TV, so we have to move her back, and she goes right back to it. She wants to be in Seths room ALL THE TIME when he is in there and Seth just wants to get away from her. Pops put a door handle on that can be locked from the inside, so that was solved - Seth does not know that we can unlock it yet from the outside.

All this happened yesterday and I can't wait to see how today goes. I don't think we need the supernanny quite yet, but after I put her down for the night I did help myself to a glass of wine and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Our lil Stinker

Sydney has decided that it is easier to eat her chicken with a screwdriver and she likes to help with the dishes - sort of. She is also going through the "take my clothes off" phase.

Photoshoot - Sydney

Going down

Sunday was the warmest day yet, so the deck got cleared off and the chairs brought out. Time for spring cleaning, de-cluttering, garage organizing, and the ever popular "what can I post on craigslist today?"

Sydney's adventure

Sydney has figured how to entertain herself around the house and I am enjoying the time I get to do other things when she plays. This day things were very quiet and then all of a sudden I hear a scream - the scream that makes moms stop what they are doing and go into "save the child mode" Well, this is where I found her, she got herself stuck and tried to get out between the black rods - Hence, the scream so of course I took pics first then saved her.

This is Food?

These are the little plugs that are in the back side of the cabinet doors so when the doors get closed they don't make a loud noise. Well, little miss Sydney has discovered them and she likes to pick them out and put them in her mouth. She will even put them back in their holes when I tell her to, but once you turn your back she has it again. When I see she has one in her mouth the chase is on and I she runs away much like E.T. did when he and Gerty met (I tried finding that clip, but no luck), sort of like a fast waddle with arms above his head and squealling. The other day I took all of them out and she inspected all the doors with disappointment - hope she does not notice the ones in the lower corners.

Come out, Sydney!

How do you deal with a situation like this:

Sydney is in the bathroom and she will shut the door, but then she cries with her "I'm scared" cry. The lights are off because that is normally how I get her out of the bathroom. From previous experience, I know the bathroom will be decorated with Charmin toilet paper or the toilet water will provide a splashy entertainment so its best not to leave her alone for long. I open the door to let her out, but she pushes it shut and cries again. I leave the bathroom thinking she will follow me. OH No, she wants to stay in, but she keeps closing the door.

This cycle goes on for awhile while I am standing in the hallway coaxing her to come out (trying not to laugh) then big brother comes over, sees what is going on and says "oh, Sydney get out of there" which is what I was saying as well, but she comes out for Seth and is all giggly.

I think there is an alliance forming