Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Fighting back

Growing up as a younger sibling is tough. You get constantly picked on and taken advantage of. Take it from me, I know. I am a younger sibling myself. Sydney, if you could understand my words of advice right now, I'd tell you... Hang in there little man. It'll get better. Right now, older bro dominates you. But as time passes, the age gap will proportionally shrink, and your size differential will lessen as well, (if not outright disappear one day).
Don't worry, I see all the stuff he does to you. Taking your toys, pushing you, tackling you, dragging you, etc. But KNOW THIS; your big bro loves you. You may not realize the times he acts very concerned with your well being. He is protective of you. There are times he is the first one to see you fall, he will drop what he is doing, and run over to you and see if you are OK and console you. There was the time where we had two small bags of candy. Big bro took one, and I was about to eat the other. He took it from me, and said, 'No Daddy, that one is for Sydney!'

All that said, it must feel great when opportunities like this arise...

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Happy 80th Bday Nai Nai

Sydney accompanied us on a trip to SD recently. We all gathered in town to help celebrate Nai Nai's 80th birthday. For someone with such a big number attached to her birthday count, she sure was active with the little ones. She helped teach Sydney how to beat the heat by getting the garden hose and watering. (OK, so he got much more joy out of just squirting the hose, but whatever) Maybe someday we'll take to gardening like Ye-Ye. If there were two traits used to describe Sydney, they would most likely be his smile and his burp rag. That boy is always smiling. He can brighten my whole day by cracking that huge smile when I come home. I can get really p!ssed at him, and he busts out that smile. That's just not fair. And those burp rags. There are tons of them scattered around the house. No matter where he is, there is likely one within easy reach.


That trademark smile!

Can't ever get enough of that smile.

There's that omnipresent burp rag!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Growing up fast

They say the 2nd child grows up fast. I would imagine this is partly due to self preservation. Being a younger sibling myself, I remember the need to protect myself, fend for myself and stick up for myself. Another trait common to a lot of younger siblings is achieving milestones faster than older bros and sis'. I would imagine that has a lot to do with 'monkey see, monkey do'. When Sydney sees big bro doing all kinds of cool stuff, he wants to try too. Sometimes this desire exceeds both fear and ability. That's when it gets a little dicey. For the most part, Sydney has been doing pretty good. He's navigating his way around the jungle gym at the park pretty well on his own- Climbing up, and sliding down the big boy slide, climbing up and down the inverted ladder all by himself. So cool to watch him develop and master skills!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Thanks Cuz

We recently had the opportunity to spend some time with family. Casey and Sydney had some quality time with their cousins Chantal and Elena. Maybe because they are both younger siblings, but whatever the reasons, there is no doubt that Elena and Sydney formed a bond. When Sydney was napping, Elena asked me, "Can I go wake him up; I miss him and want to play with him". She volunteered to take him outside and play, and would follow him, and make sure he stayed out of danger. She went with Sydney to the park, and escorted him on all the equipment. And oh yeah, she even changed his diaper.. A poopie diaper no less...

It's all you, Elena

Plug the hole so nothing comes flying out

Diggin' in!