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After much deliberating, the decision was made to combine Casey's blog and Sydney's blog into one. There were several factors that weighed into the decision, but the main reason the switch was made is because more and more, da boys are doing the same activities, and experiencing the same things. All of the old blog posts from both blogs have been transferred over and are arranged in chronological order. The combined blog can be found HERE

Please bookmark the new blog!!

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It's the simple things

We had an exciting holiday season in 2012. Teaching the boys about Christmas, decorating the tree, opening presents, etc. One of my personal highlights took place on a rainy day. I spent about 2 weeks under the weather, and Sydney hasn't been 100% healthy either. But when the rains came, and puddles formed, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. We bundled the kids up in the snow gear, and we set out to find some puddles. And find puddles we did. It was more like a pond. There was some BAD engineering/ planning going on here. I'm no genius, but shouldn't the landscape slope DOWNWARD toward the drains? And shouldn't the landscape not slope downward TOWARD the foundation of the house? Anyhow, we took full advantage of someone's screw up. We found a spot, right near a huge drain, that had standing water, maybe 4 inches deep. The boys, (the two small ones, and the big one) all ran through the puddle pond multiple times.
I can't put into words the joy I felt watching my boys' smiles as the enjoyed the activity. Such pure, innocent, simple joy... That was my highlight!

Sydney in the puddles from p wang on Vimeo.

Daddy Splashing Casey from p wang on Vimeo.

California Adventure

Sydney was a cheap date. Due to his age, he can get into Disneyland,and California Adventure for free. Kinda like a drug dealer giving samples of his product for free. Get the little ones hook early, and you have a customer for life. Even if it was free for Sydney, we had some planning to do. Going to Disney isn't something to dive into blindly. We sure were not going to go on opening day, we managed to miss the summer crowds, we didn't go on a weekend, we planned the excursion for a weekday in early December. Consider it a stroke of luck, but the day finally came, and it was dark, drizzly and a little chilly... In other words- perfect weather. Apparently, the thread of rain kept the crowds away, because with the exception of one ride, there were NO lines longer than 5 minutes. Before leaving, I consulted with many friends with prior Disney experience, and asked for advice. The most succinct advice I received? 'Don't go'
We got to the park, and went straight for the Carsland Racers. Unfortunately, Sydney got turned away at the gate. Something about not meeting the minimum height requirement. This being the premiere attraction of the park, I assumed it was more of a case of 'Don't give away the milk, or else no one will buy the cow'... Mommy and Sydney shook off the disappointment and headed for Mater's Crazy Tractor and Luigi's flying tires. Tip of the day!!!--- Ca. Adventure has this feature called 'Baby Pass'. It works like this. One parent waits in line for a ride, while the other parent can request a 'Baby Pass'. When parent #1 is done with the ride, parent #2 can present the 'Baby Pass' and go straight to the front of the line. In this case, Daddy waited in the brutal 90 minute line with Casey, while Mommy and Sydney checked out the other attractions. Then, Mommy took Casey, skipped the line and went right back on the ride, while Daddy and Sydney...
ventured over to Bug's Life. We tried to get on the bumper cars, but once again, Sydney was turned away due to lack of height. We did ride the bug train. After we met Mommy and Casey, we all rode the flying something or anothers.. Dont remember exactly what it was called, 'cept I do know we mounted what looked like a giant Chinese Food to-go container for a ride in the sky. After that, we headed BACK to the bumper cars, cause Casey really wanted to go. Mommy stood in line with Sydney, and suddenly, I look back and they made it past the guard and into a bumper car! Don't know if Sydney hit a growth spurt in that 15 minutes, but whatever, it looked like Sydney enjoyed being a Crash Test Dummy! From there, we went back to Carsland and rode Mater's crazy tractors, and Luigi's flying tires. After exhausting Carsland, we rode the giant ferris wheel. After that, we got some ice cream before heading over the Monster's Inc. attraction. Our day ended with a front row seat for the Disney character parade. It featured characters from movies such as Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc. Sydney took one nap in his stroller, and made it through the day without any fussing, and complaining. What a trooper!

Bug's Life Train

Merry Go Round

High Atop the Ferris Wheel

Bumper Cars!

Luigi's Flying Tires

Luigi's Flying Tires

Napping in his stroller

Halloween 2012

We recently celebrated Halloween 2012. This is the first one where Sydney had the ability to explore and learn on his own. Last year, he was confined to a stroller following his big brother around. Sydney had his first visit to the pumpkin patch. He was dressed as Tigger. Just to be safe, we made sure his costume was ready for any floods, just in case Hurricane Sandy touched down anywhere near us. (Sorry, too soon for Sandy comments?) Sydney has developed a habit of saying 'ouch' anytime he doesn't like something. It doesn't have to hurt, but apparently he has figured out if he says 'ouch' we'll come and remove whatever he is tugging at. In this case, he clearly didn't like the Tigger headpiece. And by the looks of it, the combination of the costume being a little small and his head being a little big, the headpiece wasn't very comfortable. We introduced Sydney to pumpkins, and he got to feed some animals. I think the animal tongues tickled his hand has they ate food out of his palm!
For Halloween night, Sydney resumed the family tradition of donning the Emperor costume. As soon as the Emperor exited his vehicle, he took off down the sidewalk. Perhaps he remembered the concept from last year, or maybe he quickly saw all the others traveling up and down the sidewalks, but he took to this trick or treating thing like no one's business. I didn't exactly have to twist his arm to get him to approach a strange house and stand by the front door. Granted, I had to do the knocking for him, and he can't yet verbalize "Trick or Treat". But once they held the candy bowl out in front of him, he KNEW exactly what to do. He reached in there and grabbed the KING SIZED 3 Musketeers bar. With a little prompting, he remembered his manners and signed "Thank You"... After that, he was off to the races. He proved to have more stamina than his older bro, as Casey called it quits and Sydney wanted to keep the night rolling.. Alas, the final tally showed Sydney scored a bigger haul than older bro! Not bad for a beginner!

Tigger is ready for the flood waters!

Bros!

Pumpkin!

His tongue is tickling my palm!

Fences are for climbing!

Sydney the Emperor!

Pitching a Fit

Group Shot

Digging In!

Score!

Distracted

Helping Hand

Trick or Treating is Hardwork

Long Hot Summer

The summer of 2012 was a hot one. Even located near the beach, it got uncomfortably hot for long stretches of time. Often, we found solace at the pool or at the beach. Thankfully, Sydney got acclimated to water pretty quickly.

A few pics of Sydney enjoying pool time!

Remedy or Torture?

I witnessed a horrible, heartbreaking scene tonight. Sydney has been sick for about a week now. Saw the doctor today and she recommended a saline flush 2x daily. I didn't have a clue what this entailed. Well, here it is. First you get two towels. Wrap him tight in one. I'm thinking, why? Its about 90 degrees today; what about this process is going to make him so cold that he needs to be wrapped tight in a towel? I soon realized this towel wasn't for warmth. It was more like a strait jacket. Think mental hospital patient, or super max security prisoner- it was so he couldn't use his arms and legs to flail and escape. Next was a towel spread out under him. And finally was the saline bottle. Reminded me of a canister of compressed air, like the ones used to clean computer keyboards, etc. Except instead of compressed air, this canister held saline solution.
Now for the application. You have to straddle the victim child, and use your body weight to keep him from escaping. You are assisted by the fact that you previously put him in the strait jacket. Then, you stick this canister up his nose and pull the trigger. It pretty much floods the victim child with saline, effectively cleaning out the system of all snot, flem and boogers. Kinda like an enema or a douche, except different orifice... It was right about this time when I figured out what the second towel was for. The saline/snot/flem/booger mixture came pouring out of his nose- like a faucet left wfo. (wide-f&^%^%ing-open) It just pours out and soaks the towel beneath him. All the while, victim child is crying hysterically and really uncomfortable. It broke my heart to experience this... all constrained, helpless and miserable. After what seemed like an eternity, the flushing was done, and his breathing sounded much better. Hopefully he's headed for a peaceful night sleep, uninterupted by a snot induced failure to breathe!
Good night little man, I hope you feel better soon!

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...