Thursday, November 29, 2012

Ivory Clouds

Casey and I enjoyed a fun rainy day project today while Sydney was napping.  

We made Ivory soap Clouds. You take a bar of Ivory soap and put it on a piece of wax paper then put it in the microwave for a few minutes. It can make quite a mess but it is fun to crumble it and make it look like snow flakes falling.

Casey and his Ivory Cloud

Crumbling his cloud into "snow flakes."

It's fun to crumble it.
 After we crumbled it we added a little bit of warm water and some food coloring and mushed it back into more of a solid.  Then we used cookie cutters and made soaps in different shapes, a truck, star, candy cane, and circle. Once they dry we can give them as gifts or use them in the bathtub for some cleaning fun.

Casey's very own little soaps.

It was a fun time and apparently tiring because Casey fell asleep on the couch while mommy cleaned up.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Brotherly Love

Dialogue between Casey and me (mom) on September 27th...

It was afternoon Sydney was taking his nap and Casey was playing cars.  Sydney started making noise and Casey ran to check the video monitor....

"Mommy Sydney's awake."
"See look, see him, right here." (as he turns the video monitor to me so I can see)
"I'm gonna go play with him."

No Casey, he's not feeling good, he likes to wake up slow.

"but I want to play with him"

Casey, mommy will go get him, you stay here.

"Why? Sydney doesn't like me?" (sadness in his face and voice, mommy's heart breaks!)

He loves you baby! He's just not feeling good, he's sick and doesn't want to play too much right now.

"I go get him." (he takes off up the stairs)

Casey WAIT! (He waits then when I am half way up the stairs he heads up the rest of the stairs and opens the door)

"HI SYDNEY!!"

Poor Sydney was not ready to be awake. He just wanted to cuddle and go back to sleep. Of course he couldn't with big brother in the room because every few minutes Casey would make some noise or come over and try to tickle or hold Sydney.  Big brother just wanted to hug and comfort his little brother but Sydney wanted no part of it. 

I felt so bad when Casey said "Sydney doesn't like me?" I don't want him to think his baby brother doesn't like him.  I think my poor big boy is feeling neglected since Sydney has been getting so much attention and extra cuddles this week.  I need to give him some extra love!

He LOVES his little brother!!!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Halloween 2012

This being this third time around, Casey is getting pretty good at this. Weeks ago, he went costume shopping with Mommy. He saw a brown UPS outfit, and he fell in love with it. His first day home, he wore it, and insisted that he sleep in it! In the days leading up to Halloween he would blurt out, 'I want to go trick or treating'. I would ask him what he was going to dress up as, and he would reply, 'Brown delivery truck man'. To help celebrate the season, Casey had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. But we wanted to do a family outing to the pumpkin patch to introduce Sydney to the concept. Ol' Casey was a veteran, and was anxious to show his lil bro how to feed the animals and pick pumpkins.

Then came time for the main event: Halloween night. In what has become somewhat of a tradition, Casey went trick or treating with his buddies... Allison, CJ, Ian, Sammy. Often Casey the elephant led the charge from house to house. Despite all the excitement, he minded his P's and Q's, saying thank you to each and every house!

Casey the UPS Delivery Man

Feeding the goats

Hoisting the pumpkin

Group Shot

Trick or Treat!

Leading the Charge

Big Bro and Little Bro taking a break from trick or treating

Monday, November 5, 2012

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