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...

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!

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!

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!

Sneaky Little Guy

One day, I was watching Sydney... and then... I wasn't. I turned around, and he was gone- poof. I searched high and low, and found him up to no good. Kicking it in a little space between two pieces of furniture, playing with electrical cords. When he saw that I was on to his game, he promptly flashed that smile of his...

Family Vacation

Sydney was too small to enjoy some of the water park features, such as the waterslide, but he had fun regardless!

About a month ago, Mommy and Daddy had a relaxing get-away to a swanky oceanfront resort. Quiet meals, scenic hike and rest and relaxation... Sitting on the balcony, overlooking the family pool and Pacific Ocean, we both had a realization: we both kinda missed our boys. Isn't that ironic; we FINALLY get away, and we miss the kids. At this moment, an idea was born. Family vacation to a resort hotel. After a month of research, recommendations and planning, we ended up at a resort near Palm Springs, CA. Its major attraction was a giant kids pool complex, complete with water slides, lazy river and kids pools. The 2 hour drive went pretty fast, Casey talked virtually the whole way; calling out trucks and construction equipment. Upon arrival, we hit the pools. The original plan was for me to take Casey in my lap down the water slide. Once we climbed to the top of the slide, that plan went out the window. Only one rider allowed at a time. Additionally, riders needed to be a min. of 42" tall. Thankfully, Casey wanted to go by himself. And more thankfully, he BARELY cleared the minimum height. When he got to the bottom, his first words were, "Let's go again".. So we did, over and over. We also had a great time in the kids pool. We did lots of Casey bombs, both forward and backwards. We also did Sydney bombs. The little guy had tons of fun jumping into the pool. We spend some time at a friends house. He and his son have quite a car, truck collection; it was one of the highlights of the trip for Casey and Sydney. We also ran into some friends at the resort, so Casey had the added bonus of splashing in the pools with his friend Cassandra. Each night, the boys were so worn out, they fell asleep without a fight. Alas, it wasn't all fun and games. One day as we were leaving the pool area, we momentarily lost sight of Casey. We looked around for him, couldn't immediately find him. We enlisted our friends' help in locating him; no luck. We asked the lifeguards and gate monitors about the missing boy; they put the call out on walkie-talkies and had the hotel staff looking for him. A good 15 minutes passed, and he was finally located. He had exited the pool area, took a 5 minute stroll along the path that led back to our hotel room, somehow deviated off path and ended up in the hotel lobby. Thankfully, this being a hotel resort that caters towards families, a family saw him wandering around alone, and they escorted him to hotel security. Alls well that ends well, but he put a scare into Mommy and Daddy :(

Father's Day 2012

We took a trip south to San Diego to celebrate Father's Day with Ye-Ye. Sydney got a ride in Nai-Nai's laundry basket.

Sydney hanging out with Ye-Ye

Ye-Ye reading his Father's Day card from his grandsons.