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...

Are you ready for some football?

Football season 2012 just started, and coincidently, I just ran across a few pix from LAST football season. I wanted to share a funny story connected to the pix. One day in the fall of 2011, I was watching football on TV. Casey was hanging around, kinda playing and kinda watching TV. Suddenly, he gets his mini football. Then he runs downstairs.... I hear the door to the garage open.. A few moments later, he coming running up the stairs, WITH HIS BIKE HELMET on!!! Gotta love the thought process and imagination. He grabs his football, runs in a tight circle, and falls down, just like he was tackled...

Casey's touchdown dance


Touchdown!

Rock Climbing Wall

One of the interesting activities we sampled this summer was a rock climbing wall. The local YMCA has family nights once a month, and they have activities for the kids. I came up with a great idea that I should expose Casey to a rock climbing wall. My thought was that I would go first, climb up and demonstrate for him... and hope that he would want to be like Daddy and try too. We get to the facility, and see the wall for the first time. I ask Casey if he wants to try. Thankfully, he said yes. We get harnessed, and he bolts straight for the wall. I ask if he wants to watch Daddy go first, he doesnt even answer, he's too busy getting locked into his climbing harness... And he just goes for it... Like it was nothing. No instructions needed, no encouragement.. He spiderman'ed right up the face of the wall, until he got about 20 feet in the air. I suspect he looked down at that point and realized just how high off the ground he was, cause he suddenly asked to come down...

After Casey was safely back on tierra firma, and since I was all harnessed up, I decided I would try a climb, even if Casey no longer needed me to lead by example. Good thing too, cause about 10 feet up the wall, my fingers started cramping, my groin muscled started spasm-ing, and I aborted the mission. Good thing Casey was off playing in the foam pit by this point, and didnt have to witness Daddy's sad attempt.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Casey-isms

I've been meaning to post this entry for a long time, but couldn't settle on a good format. Suddenly, I look up and 3.5 years have passed. I realized that I'm gonna forget some Casey-ism's... In other words, the unique ways Casey describes things. So, format be damned, here goes. Check back periodically, as Casey is bound to add to this list.

Cacish- Early on, he had a fascination with vacuum cleaners. For some unknown reason, he called them cacish.. Which happens to be the Portugese word for poop!

Ses-Ses-Ses- One of his first favorite TV shows was Sesame Street. He would point at the TV and say "Ses-Ses-Ses".

Pork-a-cheese- Mom was talking to Casey, but not in English. Apparently, she was speaking "Pork-a-cheese" instead!

Mac-a-oni- One of his favorite meals is Mac-a-oni and Cheese.

Guac-a-oni- Casey sure likes his chip and guac-a-oni... We had to concentrate to differentiate between Mac-a-oni and Gauc-a-oni.

BBBBBBB-chips- For some unknown reason, he would add a bunch of B's before getting the word 'chips' out of his mouth when requesting potato chips.

Yennow- The color yellow.

Peppa-oni- His favorite pizza topping.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

SD trip- Happy 80th Birthday Nai Nai

Each visit to San Diego produces new memories. And Nai-Nai's imagination produces new and exciting activities for Casey each and every time. This time, one highlight was watering plants and squirting the garden hose. I'm sure it helped that the water can was shaped like an elephant (one of Casey's favorite animals). And Ye-Ye sure has a lot of plants for Casey to water. I'm not so sure about the hose squirting thing. I foresee Casey hosing his baby brother, and Sydney attempting to fight back and the whole episode escalating to a full blown water fight.

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!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Football game

Tonight was another first. Well, lemme back up. A few weeks ago, Uncle Andy and cousin Nate invited Casey to a baseball game. He enjoyed himself, particularly the junk food and the cheering. He didn't understand the nuances of the game like hitting behind the runner, advancing runners into scoring position with less than two outs, etc. But Casey made it clear how he felt. In the parking lot, on the way out of the game, he says, "Daddy, I had fun at the baseball game." "I want to goto a football game now." Fast forward until now, (when football was actually in season) and I made his wish come true. Tonight, Casey went to his first football game; West High v Torrance High. When the home team scored, Casey raised his hands overhead and said "touchdown". We capped the night off with a stop at the 'ice cream factory' where he got some ice cream. On the way home, he said, "I want to goto a basketball game"...

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!