Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Neigh Neigh


A little too brave..... around my dad's big ASS. (it's a monster mule)


"Here you go" one of her favorite little sayings

Stick to the grass! Stay away from the dumplings!!!






I am still not sure how much Sydney liked her first ride on Grams and Papa's ponies. For a little girl who wants to ride everything, she held on pretty tight, and looked pretty serious. She was most excited when mommy got on for a quick circle. Notice there are no pictures of this!!! The farm is a great place for such a little busy body!

Two Lip Festival!!

Sydney and her wooden shoe ride!

Mommy gave Sydney a sucker pre-maturely, and we handed it off to the person taking the pictures in hopes she would look at the camera for at least one pic. I believe she was saying "I want! I want!) She has gotten pretty good at that!

Daddy and Syd watching a helicopter flying over the fields. Whenever we see a plane she points and says "Ride? Ride?" She also likes to reach up with anything she has in her hand to give to the planes. Mommy has to explain that the plane doesn't need her binky, mickey, or snack, but that it is very sweet of her to share!


The hair needs some work, but the happy little face is pretty cute. She loves to run around saying "Happy, Happy"



Wednesday, April 7, 2010

To all the moms in my life......

"Raising Children" by Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author

All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.

Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon, and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages, dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, and finally what the women on the playground, and the well-meaning relations -- well what they taught me was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.

Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome.

To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow. I remember 15 years ago pouring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.
Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the "Remember-When- Mom-Did " Hall of Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, "What did you get wrong?" (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me awhile to figure out who the experts were."

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Has anyone seen March??

I'd like to say that I have no idea where the month of March went, but that would be a lie. Most of March was spent right here in front of the computer looking for a house..... It makes me tired just thinking about it. We are still searching, and praying that we somehow remain patient in the midst of rising interest rates, and the countdown to get out of our current house. Our poor realator had NO idea what she was getting herself into!! I guess if this is our biggest worry of the moment we really should be counting our blessings!


Sydney has been up to all kinds of new tricks in the last month. She continues to love swinging, but has also discoverd that riding on things can be fun. Whether it's her new trike (thanks Grandma Lois), or daddy's shoulders, while mommy and Toby chase her around the house. She will occasionaly try and sit on her toy train, or piggy bank too, which is always comical. She is also super into blowing/popping bubbles right now. I think I have finally gotten her to stop putting the wand into her mouth after dipping it..... yuck, but there is still some work to be done on her blowing. I am happy to report, however, that she is an excellent popper!! Her vocabulary continues to grow as she began putting words together this month. She started with "He pooped", and now she has moved on to "I want",with a grabbing motion of her hand!! That's gonna be a lot of fun! She continues to test my patience, as she explores her boudaries, but I am so thankful to spend each day with the little stinker!! Here are a couple new pictures, minus Easter, because we need some sunny day retakes in her cute dress.
































Thursday, March 4, 2010

A pink plane and a organic sucker

So aside from me doing a quick trim on her bangs, Sydney has never gotten a "real" haircut. Today was her lucky day! We went to a cute little kids salon, and she got to sit in an adorable little airplane, enjoy a yummy berry organic sucker, and watch a little Elmo!



5 minutes later we were on our way, with what was left of her berry sucker, and a mommy who couldn't believe she just paid $23.00 for a haircut (this did include a card to hold her first locks, and a tip) All this to say her next haircut will probably include a non organic sucker, some elmo, and her mommy doing her best to keep her head straight as she makes a couple quick snips.......












A 3 HOUR TOUR

Serously I have spent several hours trying to load a video of Sydney dancing and nothing...... My mouth hurts from eating more krispy treats...(see below posts) and I need to focus on packing (we sold our house)

Will try again later.......

Life Lessons

This week I have learned the following things: Mostly all the hard way.....

Always make sure you have your wallet before you get in the car to run errands.... Most stores will not except stale goldfish crackers or an extra binky as a payment form.

Shut bathroom door during potty time to avoid Sydney's quick escape followed by her peeing on the floor. I'm not sure whether to give her a potty treat or not for this.......

Never, Never use your husbands razor to shave your legs, even if it does mean getting out of the warm shower to search for a new razor. It's not enough that my legs are as pale as my grandpa's, now they are covered in band-aids.

Uploading video's to this blog is painfully slow..... You may or may not get to see the video!

When your neighbor brings over rice krispy treats, pace yourself.... The roof of my mouth and tongue are so sore and I keep eating more! It sorta feels like I used my husbands razor on the roof of my mouth. Thanks for the delicious treat Sherry!!!