What Sydney's up to

Sydney has changed so much lately, not only is she looking so much older these days but she's acting way older too.

Here are a couple conversations from the past two days:

Sydney: When do I drink coffee?
Me: When you are 16.
Sydney: How about 8?
Me: No, 16.
Sydney: Okay.
Sydney: How about 6?

Me: Sydney, we need to go inside in one minute.
Sydney: I not Sydney.
Me: Who are you then?
Sydney: Alisa.
Me: Well what time does Alisa need to go inside?
Sydney: Five more minutes.

Sydney mastered the somersault this past week! She's been trying and trying but those little legs just weren't able to push her body over until now! She loves somersaults and practices daily. That and backflips off the chair, with mommy's help of course.

Sydney also "reads" her letters. She always reads the letters off shirts and signs, and she does well at recognizing nearly the whole alphabet. She still hasn't quite mastered singing the ABC song yet but she is getting close. She also counts to 12 now, which she's been doing 1-10 for a while but the eleven and twelve are new. After that it's sixteen, nineteen, two." Close.

Sydney also drew her first face the other day! I couldn't believe it, I thought Samantha had drawn it because she draws some really great people. We were at lunch with the posse and Sydney said, "look, it's mommy!" There was a face with two eyes, nose, ears and mouth. Today she drew a picture of face with a phone up to the ear. What's with my kid and phones? LOL

And the toddler bed is going really well. She loves sleeping in her big girl bed. She still waits until we come get her, so it's nice not having to worry about her roaming the house. She just sits there and waits. No yelling "mommy!" Today I took a nap and when I woke up I checked on her. She was wide awake and sitting up reading a book. I wonder how long she was there?? Poor kid.

Speaking of reading...she still loves books. We read books every day, and her new favorite thing after I read a book is that she "reads it to mommy." She repeats back some of the book and makes up the rest on her own. Or she starts reciting "Monkeys jumping on the bed." Apparently that's her favorite.

Swimming Pool!

Today Sydney and I broke out the swimming pool. With temperatures hitting balmy 70 degees in Seattle, it was fabulous!
Sydney had a great time in the pool, playing with her watering can and buckets. She also ran through the sprinkler a few times too. Something completely new for this year since last year she wasn't having any part of the sprinkler. We had so much fun we're doing it again tomorrow.
In fact I decided today this is how we'll spend most our summer, hanging out in the backyard, Sydney playing in the pool, me vegging out on a chair with my feet in the pool....ahh nice. I also decided I love summer so much that one day when I go back to work I will have to have a job with summers off. There's no way I am missing out on this stuff.
Pictures of my water baby:

I asked Sydney to smile for the camera and she told me, "I too busy playing mommy." So there you go....
Finally I got her attention...

Running through the sprinkler


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Father's Day

We enjoyed a really terrific Father's day today. We went to one of our favorite parks, Bothell Landing with Papa. Unfortunately nana Kay had to work so she wasn't able to join us. We enjoyed a Quiznos picnic, Sydney and papa played soccer, Sydney played on the swings and slide, we fed the ducks, took a walk and enjoyed the awesome 70 degree weather. Ahh how we love this weather!

We only had one injury-poor Sydney was running along and stepped off the trail which is normally not a big deal since it's mostly surrounded by grass but she stepped onto this gravel hill area and actually rolled twice down the gravel hill into sticker bushes. Luckily she didn't hit her head and just had a few scratches. She's been talking about "falling on the rocks" all afternoon. We put a cute bumblebee bandaid on her "injury" and she is doing just fine.

On the way home we stopped by Lowes and Anthony picked out his Father's day gift-a pressure washer. I admit I am excited about this purchase because I can't wait to start pressure washing some stuff! Weird, I can't believe I just said that. We went to dinner at one of our fave burger places and ended the evening with a nice walk around the neighborhood with Sydney on her trike. She calls it her Santa trike since Santa brought it for her for Christmas.

All in all it was a perfect Father's day. Papa e-mailed me to tell me he had an incredible Father's day so fun was had by all.

Happy Father's day to all the wonderful dads out there! I feel so lucky to have such amazing dads in our family-my hubby Anthony, my dad and Pop-o. You guys are truly the best and we are blessed to have such wonderful dads in the family.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon:

Papa and Sydney playing soccer. If you didn't already know this my dad actually retired from soccer recently after playing for over 20 years. After multiple injuries over time, a doctor visit between my dad and the doctor went something like this: You can either choose to play soccer for a few more years or you can choose to still be able to walk at age 70. Not surprisingly my dad hung up his soccer cleats. So now his soccer attention is focused on the next soccer star in the family-although I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up coaching Sydney one day in soccer. This of course after griping that the coaches don't know what they're doing, and he could do a better job. Haha, mark my words.

Putting the sunblock on-but I mainly took this picture because of the sunbather in the background. This guy just had shorts on and was soaking up the 70 degree weather for some sort of tan. He was out there for hours, and it looks like he is wearing a white body suit but that's actually his pale white skin. Ahh, only in Seattle. You have to remember we've only had like 5 sunny days this spring so people are taking whatever they can get!!!


Feeding the ducks and geese
Riding the tractors at Lowes. Every time we pass Lowes Sydney says, "Go to Lowes, they have tractors and toys." She sits on every single tractor in the place, moves the steering wheel and "honks" the horn.
Mmm, sweet potato fries

The Backyardigan

Sydney's favorite thing is to go outside. She would spend every day outside if we let her. Although our backyard is on the small side, it's perfect for playing. Between the playset, the rocks in the playset area and the slip n slide ready grass area, it works out to be a great toddler backyard.

Here are some pictures of my little backyardigan:

Sydney's hands were cold so she made her own "gloves"


One bucket for leaves, one bucket for rocks
Frisbee anyone?
Sydney has mastered our climbing wall. Here she is climbing up all by herself.

Sydney

Sydney is such a ham for the camera at times...she'll ask me to take her picture and then she'll ham it up big time. Here is my little girl earlier this week. I don't think it's possible to adore this little girl more than I do...I just can't get enough of her.

Blissful summer

I just finished reading "O at Home" and they provided recommendations on how to have the most blissful summer ever.

That sounds good to me. Sydney is at a great age to do so many fun things. We have a terrific group of friends we get to hang out with this summer. And next summer I will have an almost four year old (wait, what?) and 6 month old. Next summer will definitely be quite a bit different. So here is what we have planned to have our most blissful summer ever...

*Appreciate the sun-if it ever decides to make an appearance
*A playdate at least once a week with the friends
*Hang out with Sydney at the beach
*Spend some time at Jetty Island
*Play outside every day
*Visit the local farmer markets
*Hit up our fave Children's Museum frequently
*Hang out at the new spray parks in our area
*Eat dinner outside often
*Have friends over for bbq's
*Date nights with the hubby
*Go to a drive in movie
*Explore every park within 5 miles of our house-there are tons!
*Take the ferry to Friday Harbor or one of the San Juan islands for the day
*Have a playdate at the inflatable bounce place once or twice
*Take walks around the neighborhood each night
*Run through the sprinklers-and I don't mean just Sydney
*Work on my tan
*Watch a little less Dora the Explorer
*Enjoy our only organized activity this summer-Mommy and Me Soccer
*Enjoy the Kids Concerts in the Park series through the local library
*Also enjoy the regular concerts in the park they offer around the Puget Sound
*Play outside until it gets dark out-didn't we all do that as kids??
*Have a great road trip down to California this summer and see things I keep meaning to see
*Play with more sidewalk chalk and bubbles than I ever imagined possible
*Have lots of picnics
*Let Sydney have five more minutes when she is having fun playing and not ready to end the fun

So my friends, I ask you-what are you doing this summer to have your most blissful summer ever?
And for my blogging friends-tag, you're it!

Last day of school

Last night was Family Night at Sydney's school, the culmination of the toddler program at the community college.
We have enjoyed this program so much. Sydney looked forward to school each week and enjoyed painting, playing in the water at the sensory table, singing songs, and most of all taking all the clothes off the babies and strolling them around class naked. Every single class. Yup, that's my child.
Family night was a potluck and a chance for the kiddos to show their daddy's what they do each week. Sydney was so excited to show Anthony everything, on the way to class she had a running list of everything she wanted to show him. We played, ate and sang the last of the songs.
I took some pictures, but sadly I had the camera on some funky setting and they are all grainy...grrr. Here's the class:

The class-kinda. The two girls on the left are Sean's older twin sisters (the boy wearing the firehat.) I think we're missing a kid or two here too. Getting toddlers together for a pic is definitely a challenge!
Sydney, Matthew and Samantha were still giving up smiles long past the photo op...
The three amigos and their teachers, teacher Terrie and teacher Penny.
Giving last hugs

Big Girl Day

Today Sydney and I celebrated Big Girl day. It wasn't a planned day, it just sorta worked out to be that way.
We started out getting her bangs trimmed. You know it's time to cut your kid's hair when they have to keep pushing their hair out of their eyes.
Next Sydney got a manicure. Yes, you read that correctly, my 2 3/4 year old had her first manicure. It all started a month ago when I painted Sydney's nails. Ever since the polish started chipping off she's been asking me to paint her nails again-every day. Today we walked past a nail salon and I asked her if she wanted a woman to paint her nails. She excitedly said yes. For the low low price of $5 I watched my little girl beam with pride when the nail technician trimmed, shaped and polished her nails. She would look up at me every minute or so, flash a big grin and give me a big kiss. She was so excited and did really well. I told her that normally mommy would do this but it was a special treat today since she was such a good girl.

Then we headed off to Babies R Us. I used to spend a lot of time in that store when she was just a baby. Now we rarely go, but today we went to check out toddler beds.

I mentioned before the big bed decision. After much research, deliberation and asking Sydney what she wanted, we decided on a toddler bed. She told me she wants a bed like Cole's (toddler bed) instead of a pink race car bed. We also looked at twin beds today and she said she didn't like them because they were too tall and too big. So there you have it-we went for the toddler bed. She has been talking about her bed non stop since we bought it, and even toasted her bed in a box next to her with her juice box while riding home in the car. Right now Sydney is helping Anthony put it together...I can't believe she was able to wait this long. She is so excited to sleep in it tonight....I wonder if she will really sleep or explore her room all night? We shall see.

Helping daddy put the new bed together
Sydney loves her bed!

**Update**
Sydney did great in her bed! She was so excited to go to bed last night and take her nap today. In fact when we came home tonight she said, "Almost night night time?" Wait, what? My child has never said that before....wow. She also hasn't figured out she can get out of her bed yet. She just sits there and waits for us to come get her. Wonder how long this will last?

Playdate

Last week we had our final playdate with Courtland, baby Ada and Trista.

I met Trista on a September 2005 birthday club message board a while back-Sydney and Courtland even share the exact same birthday!! (I think this is so cool!!) Trista and her family moved out here when her husband was transferred to Fort Lewis for the Army and we had some pretty fun playdates. Her husband is now being transferred to the mid-west (wait, that's where we lost Traci to also...what's with the mid-west getting all our friends?) so they are packing up and getting ready to move back. The great thing for them is Trista's family is close by and when you have a couple kids that is a very important thing. We will definitely miss our friends. Trista is a sweetheart and I've enjoyed her friendship, and her kids are terrific-adorable and well behaved too.
So here are the pics of the kids:

Courtland, Ada and Sydney
Courtland and Sydney-what's funny about these pictures is you see Courtland feeding a baby in both, however most the playdate he was using a drumstick as a gun. He is ALL boy!! (Anthony loved it of course.)
Ada hasn't received the memo she is just turning one. She is hilarious, she does things a 3 or 4 year old would do. She literally crawled into the shopping cart in 10 seconds flat.
My all time favorite picture of Sydney and Courtland. This was taken last spring, how cute are these two? They could easily pass for twins.

Sydney loves deevee

It's no secret Anthony is the cook in the family. He especially loves to bake cookies and such, he has since he was a kid. One of Sydney's favorite things to do with daddy is to bake. Her favorite thing to make and eat is divinity (deevee is what she calls it.) She loves it. We actually have to cut her off when she's eating it because she could eat the whole batch and well, we really never have to cut our little peanut off from food...ever. Tonight Sydney and Anthony made chocolate divinity, yummy.

Here's Sydney posing with the goods: