A simple carbohydrate

While Sydney scurried around the house Friday night, Brian said he was in awe of how quickly she'd grown into a little girl. He said, "It's hard to imagine she was just a potato a year ago."

Here is our potato 17 months ago.



Here is when she was a spud last spring.



Now, she's a tater tot.



As Miss Piggy would say, 'Kissy, kissy." Sydney is all about the kisses right now. She blows kisses to strangers at the store, and even the automated checkout machine at the grocery story. She loves kissing Brian's knee, and tonight during dinner Sydney paused from her meal to ask for a kiss. When we say, "I love you," Sydney tries to repeat it. But, it sounds like she is ordering a waffle.

Mother May I?

Mother May I? Brian makes sure every day is mother's day around here, and he spoiled me a with a fancy new camera this month (part anniversary, part mother's day gift).

Here are my debut photos, which were shot last weekend.




Memorial Day weekend was a nice blend of fun and productivity. We played, ate well and visited with good friends. We also maintained our house and I planted some veggies. Four varieties of tomatoes, two varieties of peppers, onions and cilantro. Sydney helped a bit, until I caught her eating dirt from the trowel just like she would consume applesauce from a spoon.

It was a good weekend and we didn't let Sydney's wailing drown the fun. The area around her mouth continues to chap/blister, and Brian says it looks like we are feeding her fried poison ivy. So, I had an epiphany while talking to a Target pharmacist Friday night and decided to take Sydney's pacifier away. She was only allowed her stifle stick when she slept. So, there was lots of crying (all her) and little sleep (all of us) this weekend. Her crying is frantic bellowing. The first two days her mouth only continued to chap because of the waterworks. Neither Brian and I can resist her for long when she's inconsolable like this, and so we take turns cuddling, rocking and swaying with her until she falls asleep. I know we are only replacing one bad habit with another. The last two nights were the worst, and I found myself not only singing the regular nursery rhymes, but also Christmas Carols and BINGO in Spanish. (Un perro grande tengo yo ... Thank you Green Mountain High School for that lesson. When my sister Julie reads this I'm sure the Spanish tune will be stuck in her head:)

If you ask Sydney, "Is Sydney a big girl or baby?" She quickly responds "BigGirl." It sounds like one word when she responds. I'm not sure when or why Sydney decided it was time to aspire to be a big girl, but I keep telling her losing the pacifier is one those big girl moments. As I say this, she is blubbering in the crib calling for her 'baby' (which we tried to sub the pacifier for) and her beloved 'Webster.' My poor big girl.

Wild Kingdom

We vacated West Lafayette on Friday to spend the afternoon at the Indy Zoo. It was perfect. The weather was gorgeous and we arrived just as the student groups were departing. Sydney was perfect too, despite no naps that day.



Applying sunscreen on Sydney.


"Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" Actually, the creature in the background is a Kodiak bear. Just about every animal exhibit prompted one of us to recite a phrase from one of Sydney's books. Unfortunately, we did not see any "Hippos go Berserk." Obviously, Brian and I are a real thrill to chill with nowadays.

Above is my attempt at playing family photog. Me, not so good. Brian is the talent in the family.



What a busy day at the zoo. While I was buying this lemon freeze, Brian and Sydney watched some lemurs and ducks tussle. We also rode the train. Sydney did awesome considering she skipped her morning nap, then we were at the zoo when she normally would have taken her afternoon nap. Sydney kept her requests for puppies to a minimum, but she did call the yak and elephant 'puppies.'



After the zoo, we stayed at the 5-star Peelle estate. We were well-fed (homemade fried chicken and Cheesecake Factory super chocolate cheesecake) and well cared for.

After dinner, we rested on their porch.


Sydney and Aunt Jackie.


Sydney deep in thought.


Sydney calling her people.


The lack of sleep started catching up with Sydney. Fast forward a couple hours later, and Sydney would crawl into the same position and say 'sleep.' Poor thing. She fell asleep in my lap, while Brian, my sisters and brother-in-law chatted. It's been a long time (at least a few months) since Sydney has fallen asleep in my lap. Precious.

Maybe our conversation was boring her: dream vacations, the first cassette tape we bought (or CD in Jackie's case) and what reality TV show we would want to star in. It was a great visit.


The plan was to run a couple errands, then hike around Eagle Creek Park on Saturday. We made it to aisle 2 of Trader Joe's when the lack of sleep (missing 3 naps and a rough night of sleep) finally caught up to Sydney. She erupted. (Sorry Dad, no porto for you, no wine for me. We never made it very far.) We headed to the park, but detoured back to West Lafayette when the kid finally conked out. She was a trooper.

We even experienced the remnants of her sleep deprivation today. We were sympathetic.

She rarely fusses and is usually agreeable, but she was so whiny, whiny today.

But, she made me laugh. I was trying to put on her shoes and coat so we could play outside, but she didn't want to go and she threw herself in the floor and cried. I've never seen her not want to go outside. The funny part: she's laying in the floor crying so hard and repeating "happy, happy, happy." I don't think she meant happy. I'll need to correct her before her next tantrum.

Sous chef or Suess chef?*

Here is Sydney in her apron, which features dogs, also known as PUH-pees. The apron's purchase was twofold: 1) it's adorable, and 2) Sydney gets to wear it when she 'helps' in the kitchen. Her assistance usually amounts to unloading the spice cabinet or her cabinet, which is full of toddler-friendly gadgets. Then, she relocates their contents to various parts of the house. Brian is usually in pursuit to retrieve the items or at least identify where she stashes them.

Sometimes Sydney gets to be more hands on. One night she befriended a green onion, then would not relinquish it.


It was bath time and Sydney was forced to give up the goods. I didn't need her soaking in an onion soup. We tried the switch-and-bait to distract her, but it obviously did not work.



* Brian gets credit for the 'Seuss chef' reference :)


Another fave: The apron is from Kitchen Art, which is a delectable kitchen store in West Lafayette. I was a attending a class the night I bought the apron. The class was devoted to chocolate: 1,0001 chocolate chip cake, three-chocolate torte, peanut butter & chocolate fudge, chocolate fudge swirl cookies (my favorite) and chocolate chip cheese cake. We sampled everything and I even had leftovers to share with Brian.

The opposite of the affirmative

Sydney is saying dozens and dozens of words: yellow, puppy, grass, table, car, puppy, bus, purple, blue, cow, puppy, puppy, turtle, etc.

What surprises me is how infrequently she says the toddler preferred word ... No! I'm glad this word is not part of her regular vocab. Because its use is a rarity, I'll admit that I think it's cute when she says it. The first time I heard it was one morning when I encouraged her to return her beloved frog to the crib. (This is a routine every morning when she wakes. We lift her from the crib and let her drop Webster in.) This particular morning, she clutched him close and said, "No."

I've heard it a couple other times when I'm sitting in the floor to read to her and she comes over and snatches the book I chose. She says, "No," then hands me the book she wants read.

Maybe such little use of the word means she's the "glass is half full" kinda gal.




She still declares "Book!' regularly. It's never a question, it's always a command. She says it just like someone whose hoisted himself to the counter of a bar and just keeps ordering one shot after another.

Favorites: Sydney's affection. She's starting to give hugs and pecks on the cheek.

Wildlife Works: I recently dug out my summer wardrobe and found my Wildlife Works shirts. This company has a great mission, but I'll admit that I'm not as enthralled with this year's clothing selection. http://www.wildlifeworks.com/mission/mission.html Still, it's always fun to window shop.

Anniversary

Monday was our 7-year anniversary. It's hard to find current photos of us without Sydney, so I'm posting these old hiking photos.





Hiking is one of the many hobbies we share.

Of course, being married means we share interests, but we also support each other in our individual interests. For example, I try to keep straight that there is a difference between Painter the coach (bball) and Painter the quarterback (fball). I once tried to entertain Brian by naming Purdue football players and their respective positions. My attempt was certainly entertaining.

Brian takes an interest in my enjoyment of Gilmore Girls. He does this by mocking me, and when the show was on-air, he occasionally commented on the plot. (Shhh. I'm pretty sure, he's a fan but don't tell him I said so).



Here's to forever and dozens of other quirky mutual and solo interests.