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!

Good Dad

Today Casey and I were at the park. He was having a great time playing, when he hit his head and starting crying. He came to me for comforting; hugs and kisses. I finally was able to console him to the point the crying stopped... Then he told me he needed a tissue. 'Cept, I didn't have one. So, I had a choice. End his fun time and go home... or take one for the team. I offered him my arm to wipe his boogers/snot on, and he said he wanted my shirt. So, I gave him my shirt sleeve, and he proceeded to take four HUGE swipes of both nostrils across my sleeve, leaving streak marks that soaked thru my sleeve. And he went on his merry way, back to playing... Meanwhile, it started getting cold, and the wind hit the wet spots on my sleeve and made me freeze. But I man-d up and continued to let him play!

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...

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.