Holidays are right around the corner

Sydney and Mommy made cut-out cookies last week. We've since eaten (or given away) almost all of them. We'll count that first batch of cookies as PRACTICE. Obviously, we'll need to make more! Our set of Pampered Chef biscuit cutters worked the best so far!

Daddy assembled and fluffed our new Christmas tree. Grandpa Lowell offered for he and Sydney to put on the lights (since Mommy wasn't overly excited to tackle that project).

Sydney was a FANTASTIC "helper-outer"... he liked to help Papa plug in the next string of lights.

Sydney gets another string of lights out of the bag.

Sydney helped Mommy put the bead garland, icicle ornaments and snowflake ornaments on the tree. He also picked out "prime spots" for an Elmo ornament, Cookie Monster ornament and Winnie the Pooh ornament.

Papa Lowell and Sydney admire their handy work. They were a great team at putting lights on the tree. Grandpa also taught Sydney how to practice "look, but don't touch". (He was a great teacher at that!)

Sydney and Mommy hang icicle ornaments on the tree while Grandpa and Silas supervise.

Sydney picks out a special spot for Winnie the Pooh. (He also likes how Sydney's first Christmas ornament is next to Silas' first christmas ornament.)

Our new tree... a potted Porch Pine... will be PERFECT in the corner of our dining room this year!

Our stairway lighted garland and our new personalized stockings... Silas, Sydney, Sarah and Michael. Lovely!

Our first 'family of 4' portrait by our tree.

A message for Sydney - from Santa!

A video for Sydney from Santa!

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gS-heWGWd9KNiPIu8RAZJVQ

Regression is the reason

Within the last week or so, we have suddenly started having accidents A LOT! Sydney has been doing FANTASTIC potty-training for almost 2 months; with very few accidents. Suddenly, he started having accidents... in the seat of Mike's recliner or on the couch (every few days), pooping in his pants - convinced that he's wearing a diaper, and announcing that he just went potty in his potty chair, but REALLY was sitting in his booster seat at the dining room table.

Tonight, we went potty before we took supper to daddy at work. While we were there, I took him potty and he went. On the way home, we went to Lucy's house for a playdate. I started to notice his suspicious "dance" while he was playing so, I took him to the bathroom. He had a little wet spot, but went on the toilet; I changed him into dry clothes. A short time later, I had taken Silas out to the car and came back for Sydney - only to discover that he had peed on their floor and Kate was trying to keep Lucy and their dog out of it. When I went to talk to him, I reached for him to pull him closer to me and discovered that Sydney had a tail... he had pooped in his pants, too! (This was his first BATH at a friend's house tonight.) I ended up taking him home with shorts and bare feet - with the outside temperature being less than freezing outside. (Kate informed me that all of a sudden, Sydney announced "Going potty!")

I started to question if we had become too lax; he was doing SO WELL that we were no longer doing the potty chart on the fridge. He was doing so well that we no longer used COLORING WITH MARKERS as incentive to poop; we were coloring quite often - regardless of POOP - because it is fun!

I wondered if we were confusing him that Daddy likes him to wear a diaper when we go out in public when Mommy does NOT... or how we give him an option at naptime: do you want to go potty and wear big boy pants OR do you want to take a nap in a diaper? (He almost always picks big boy pants!) Are we not offering enough PRAISE? (The past 2 days, we has wet the bed during - or after - his nap, where he was almost ALWAYS waking up dry before.)

I wondered if he is doing it because he likes to look at the pictures on the can of carpet/upholstery cleaner... that shows some toy cars. I was searching for answers - wondering WHAT (as a parent) I was doing wrong!

I should have known that SOMETHING was up. We've noticed that Sydney DOES tend to follow suite of the developmental emails that we get - often right around the time of the emails. Hmmm, interesting... our latest email talks about REGRESSION. (Specifically noted kids who had been potty-trained are suddenly having accidents again... or kids that were sleeping well at night are suddenly waking up a lot. BOTH OF THOSE are more recent changes in our house!)

Perhaps, I need to start reading ahead in the age-groups for the developmental emails... to see what lies ahead. I might want advanced notice to be ready for it, just as soon as we gain control of this again!

I do feel badly in reading the developmental email; it says NOT TO MAKE A BIG DEAL ABOUT IT - yet, I know that I have made a big deal about it, since I am frustrated with the extra messes and I don't understand WHY he'd suddenly be doing this after he had been doing SO INCREDIBLY WELL!

It also makes you feel like you must be doing something wrong when he yells "not want go potty!" over and over again. He almost always tells you he does NOT have to go, but will go if you set him on the potty chair. (Lucy has been potty trained WAY LONGER and Kate confirms that Lucy does it, too... still!)

I pulled out a new 400-page Sesame Street coloring book and had informed him that I had been saving it for a "big boy who goes poop and potty in the potty chair". He convinced me that he IS that big boy and that he would try really, really hard to go potty better. (So far, my bribery incentive has NOT worked!)

I did read somewhere online where a mom used incentive... for every hour throughout the day that the child was dry, the child earned a reward. Maybe we can try that? Hoping we'll convince him that he's a BIG BOY again soon!

For the record, he has a fear of the dark now, too. (That's rather new as well.) Interesting how these little people's brains work...

Here's that email:

our 2-year-old now

If only all development happened in a straight line! For all your child's progress, he'll slide a bit backward every now and then. For example, someone who's been sleeping soundly through the night (finally!) for months begins popping up in your bed at 3 a.m. A pacifier is dug up and latched on to. Or a child who was potty-trained early suddenly has a rash of accidents.

Regression happens for many reasons. Sometimes a child is working so hard on one kind of skill that he backslides on another. Stress (vacation, a new sitter, Mom returning to work) or fear (of the dark, of separating) may also be a trigger.

When your child regresses, provide extra security and comfort without making a big deal over it. It's okay to give in a little, with a limit: "Okay, you can wear your pull-ups today, and we'll go back to your underpants tomorrow." Kids have a drive to go forward and will soon outgrow any "baby" behaviors they revisit.

If you're really concerned, mention regressive behaviors to your doctor. Rarely, a physical disorder can cause the loss of previously acquired skills.

Say what?

Sydney announced "Just went poop in my diaper, mom!"

Frowning, I said "Sydney, you're not wearing a diaper."

"Well, went poop in my big boy pants instead then!"

I had to refrain from laughing at his matter-of-fact rebuttal. WHAT a FUNNY KID!!!

TODDLER SURVEY What do you want to be when you grow up?

MOM: Hey, Sydney... What do you want to be when you grow up?

SYD: A baby!

MOM: You can't be a baby. What do you want to be when you're big?

SYD: A Mommy!

MOM: You can't be a mommy either! What do you want to be?

SYD: Uhm, Nih-knee!

MOM: You'd be a GREAT Sydney when you grow up!

SYD: Yeah!

Toddler Survey at age 2.5 years old on 11/27/11

Potty Party! Oh, No! Why did baby do that?

Sydney BEGGED for juice this morning. I repeatedly told him that he could have juice AFTER he took off his diaper and went potty. FINALLY, he decided to comply.

Sydney announced that he wanted juice now "really, really bad" so he was going to go potty now. He left the kitchen and I quickly sat down to go to the bathroom myself.

"Potty party!" I heard him announce.

Sydney came running into the kitchen yelling "Went potty! Want juice now please."

Suddenly, we heard baby wailing in the living room. We ran from the kitchen to discover that Silas had pulled the potty chair over... onto himself... and was COVERED in potty!!! Tears rolling down his cheeks.... OK, so - tears AND urine rolling down his cheeks ... I scurried to wipe his face with baby wipes and strip him from his clothes (that he has been wearing for less than 5 minutes.)

For some reason, Sydney had decided that he wanted to sit next to Baby Silas when he went to the bathroom so, he had placed the potty chair on the blanket - on the floor - RIGHT NEXT TO SILAS! (And because I was going to the bathroom myself, did not witness this until it was too late.)

"Why did you put the potty chair right next to baby?" I questioned angrily.

Sydney and Silas were BOTH wailing as I scurried to pick the soaking wet blanket off of the floor and salvage the area rug underneath, if possible. Naturally, this was the first PEE of the day and there is normally PLENTY of it in the potty chair. I was left with a potty chair - without a drop left in it! NICE.

I stripped Silas, wiped him as best I could and re-diapered him. I assured Sydney that we would clean it up and that he should NOT worry, but he was really upset. "Come here," I announced "I think you need a hug!"

"Why did baby do dat?" Sydney sobbed.

"You put it so close to him, I think he just wanted to see what it was."

"Potty all over baby!"

"I know! It'll be OK though."

I soaked up as much as I could from the area rug and sprayed it with carpet cleaner. Our living room wreaked of it. Naturally, it happened right-smack in the middle of the room so, I had to prop large objects over-top to keep us from stepping or sitting in it.

Mike reminded me that Sydney's only wrong-doing was moving the potty chair next to baby and he was glad to hear that Sydney DID go potty in the potty chair. (I was glad Mike pointed that out to me.)

After I got off the phone with Mike, I praised Sydney. "Sydney, you did an AWESOME JOB going potty in your potty chair! Thank you!"

"Tank-ew Mommy!"

As I cleaned the potty chair (from top-to-bottom since it had tipped onto itself) Sydney whined "Want juice. Went potty. Want juice!" (Of course, at that point, I could have cared less about the juice and I snapped at him that I was a little busy right now.)

"You'll have to wait a minute" I scolded. Then, I heard the bang-Bang-BANG from inside the washing machine. (Crap, there was a pee-covered toy on the baby blanket and I threw it all in the wash!)

I paused the load, opened the door and peered inside - hoping to SEE the toy. Ended up, I had to remove all-but-one item from the washer... soaking wet and super heavy... to retrieve the electronic toy, which - you guessed it - no longer works now!

I need to remind myself from time-to-time that he is ONLY TWO and he does NOT see the world the same way that we do. To him, he went potty and earned his juice. He did not care if the mess(es) were cleaned up... he JUST wanted juice... right now!

Once I gathered my bearings, Sydney got his juice. Baby was dressed. Sydney was dressed. The mess was cleaned up. And I could FINALLY sit and enjoy a cup of hot chai tea.

Mental Note: We will need to keep the potty chair(s) out of reach of Silas from now on. He'll be crawling soon so, they will likely have to live in the kitchen.

Houdini learns art of escape from babygates

Sydney learned (self-taught) how to escape from the babygate in his bedroom at naptime. After being a repeat offender, I finally had to outsmart him at his own crafty game:

Boy, was HE mad at me!!! (Ha!Ha! I think I won... this time!)

At bedtime last night, I had to install the gate UPSIDE DOWN to keep him in his room. Thankfully, he had NOT figured that out before Mike could install a new babygate. It was $45, but appears to be well worth it! (Will have to post pics of that one tomorrow.)

ABCDHIJ

For the longest time, Sydney has been singing the alphabet and skipping EFG. In fact, he would request "Music on. Music on radio please. Want ABCDHIJ. Want dat one!"

This past week or so, he has filled in the gaps.

"A-B-C-D-E-F-G... H-I-J-K-Nah-Noh-Nah-Noh-P... QRS... TUV... bayou... X Y and Z!"

As long as you don't count Nah-Noh-Nah-Noh-P (LMNO)against him, he sings the entire alphabet himself.

Mike keeps trying to correct him. Mike specifies L-M-N-O, but Sydney quickly yells "_top! Don't _ike dat part!"

We've also discovered that if you interrupt him ANYWHERE in the song, he MUST start again... from the top! (Reminds me of when my cousin Rachel was a baby... she did that same thing, but her song was Richard Marx "Right Here Waiting for you". Ahhh, memories!)

What a (fun) Wednesday

Teacher Patty (Parents as Teachers) has not been to our house since October! She had gotten in a car accident and has been unable to do home visits ever since. TODAY was her first day back in our house since then and Sydney was SO EXCITED!

We had seen her a few weeks ago and she asked him what he wanted to do the next time she came to our house. Quickly, he announced "Paint!"

"Paint?" she chuckled. "What color paint?"

"Blue paint." he stated so matter-of-factly. "Red paint. Yellow paint. That'd be fine, too. Want paint blue paint at my house."

All morning long, I had to listen to his chatter as he announced "Teacher Patty come today. Teacher Patty crashed blue car. Got hurt, but she be OK. Yeah, she be fine. Did pretty good job painting Teacher Patty car blue. Teacher Patty come and probably bring blue paint for Sydney. Sydney likes paint. Sydney likes paint a lot!"

As soon as she arrived, Sydney asked her if she had brought blue paint. He's been talking about it for a few weeks now!

Guess what? She DID bring blue paint! And red. And orange. And green. She also brought cotton balls, Q-tips, feathers, popsicle sticks and paint brushes for him to use with the paint.

Sydney paints with Teacher Patty.

Sydney LOVES to paint!

I was proud of him; He would politely ask "Want orange please. Want blue please..."

NAPTIME! Sydney went down for a nap, resting up for his "date" to see Sesame Street LIVE. I had laid Silas on the blanket on the floor, thinking that he would fall asleep, but instead, he just kept scooting himself around and playing with toys.

Silas gets up onto his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. He also is excellent at pivoting in a circle to move around. He tends to push himself backwards and doesn't yet understand the concept of crawling to move FORWARD. One of these days... he'll figure it out!

Sydney napped. Daddy napped. Silas and Mommy stayed awake.

When Sydney woke up, he got ready to leave for Sesame Street Live and had picked for Daddy to go with him. He was excited to ride in Daddy's red truck.

While they were gone, Silas took a short nap and woke up a little fussy. (Not like him at all!) I got dinner started, picked up all of the toys and folded 5 loads of laundry (that I had been storing in the playpen).

Oh, yeah.... and I also snuck out into the garage, assembled this yard decoration and turned it on as a surprise for Sydney when he got home:

He was SUPER EXCITED to see Elmo on his deck. He was also THRILLED to tell me all about going with Daddy to "Bert and Ernie's house", what characters he saw and what songs they sang. It was pretty darned cute!

What a fun Wednesday!

Sydney draws Daddy's red TRUCK

Sydney dragged Mike by the hand to come see his creation while coloring with markers.

"Nih-knee draw Daddy's red KUCK!" he exclaimed proudly.

(Translation: Sydney draw Daddy's red truck)

Mike and I were both pretty impressed with his drawing and attention to detail. He'll turn 2.5 years old at the end of this month.

Way to go, Sydney! It is an INCREDIBLE drawing of Daddy's red truck!

_ook Mommy! _ooks just _ike...

Sydney had started to do his crazy person **I'm going to poop my pants** dance when I quickly escorted him to his potty chair. Relieved, I'm sure, he sat immediately down and did his business, announcing "Went poop. Potty, too!"

"Awesome!" I praised.

Sydney hops off his seat, peers inside and announces (proudly) "_ook Mommy! _ooks _ike _urtle! A-nutter day _ooked _ike _nake. Dis one _ook _ike _urtle dough!"

Translation: Look Mommy! Looks like (a) turtle! Another day (it) looked like (a) snake. This one look(s) like (a) turtle though.

Peeking into his potty chair, I confirm "YES, it does!" (WOW! Was HE proud!!!) Holy cow... it is SO HARD to NOT LAUGH at him when he does/says things like this.

P.S. I realize that it is a little on the gross side to take a picture of poop, but I did for the sake of story-telling and to help document the active imagination of our two year old.

Number 2 has TWO TEETH!

I thought I caught a glimpse of it yesterday... today, my eyes did NOT deceive me! Silas, formerly known as "Number 2", is the proud owner of TWO bottom teeth!

Thankfully, he has NOT been fussy AT ALL with this whole concept of teething. AND so far, knock on wood, we haven't had any diaper rash either. (In fact, last night was the FIRST TIME IN A LONG, LONG TIME that Silas slept all the way through the night! ... insert chorus of angels singing here... YAY Baby Boy!!!)

• • • • •

Sspeaking of "number 2", Sydney is currently in the bathtub... for POOPING in his big boy pants. (Since the weekend, we have SADLY had a few occurrences of that happening again... and we HAD BEEN DOING SO WELL! I remind myself that he is ALMOST 2.5 years old and that he is doing very, VERY WELL with potty training!)

So, you know what they say.... __it happens!

Saw A-panes at A-ya-por

Photos have been added throughout this post. Enjoy!

• • • • •

Sydney had a play date on Saturday morning with Papa Lowell AND Papa Olson. The three of them went to the local airport in hopes of seeing airplanes (while we visited my parent's house for the weekend) .

Nana and I both got super excited when we heard a plane flying over the house, hoping that they had seen it at the nearby airport. They were gone quite a while and came home with big smiles on all of their faces.

Sydney bounced across the deck to the back door.

"Did you see airplanes? How many?" I questioned.

"Saw a-panes at A-ya-por. One. Two. A couple." (My dad, Papa Olson, signaled number FOUR.)

"Four airplanes? WOW!"

"Yeah..." insert excessive excited chatter here with LOTS of hand motions of propellers, gassing up, take offs and landings...

Sydney was SO EXCITED all. day. long!

He and Grandpa Lowell drew airplanes on cardstock, cut them out and created an airport of their own on the dining room entry mat. He would proudly tell anyone all about the experience if they asked him about it. It was SO stinkin' cute!

Then, while Papa Lowell was at Sunday morning church, Papa Olson and Sydney (per Mommy's suggestion) made a 3-dimensional paper airplane. Soon, Sydney announced that they needed to make "One, two A-panes. Papa have A-pane, too! Nih-knee have A-pane." So, Papa made TWO paper airplanes and was quickly dragged by the hand to "the dining room airport rug" to play.

A while later, Papa Olson disappeared into the garage. Soon, he came into the house and surprised Sydney with an airplane made out of wood - complete with moving wheels and propeller. It was SO COOL! (Now, Sydney refers to it as his "board a-pane dat papa mate Nih-knee in gahhhge" which translates to board airplane that papa made Sydney in garage.

Sydney recruited fellow pilots (Papa Lowell and Papa Olson) to play with the assortment of airplanes that they had made over the weekend at their imaginary airport. Sadly, however, they had to alter their flight path when a golden retriever (Beamer) decided to lay on the runway.

Daddy thought we should leave the airplane at Nana & Papa's house (to play with next time), but Papa Olson and Sydney BOTH protested.

After we got home tonight, Nana called and asked us to go Skype. My gut told me that Papa had been "up to something". I had announced "I'll bet Papa built another airplane." so when we turned Skype on, Sydney immediately announced "What papa build?" (They played dumb for a little while and then, surprised Sydney with not one, but TWO MORE wooden airplanes!!!)

Sydney was THRILLED to discover that now, Papa Olson built THREE wooden airplanes... one for our house, one for their house and one for Papa Lowell's house.

Thankfully, Papa Lowell's house is also nearby his local airport; I see another field trip in the future...

Our Monday morning trip to the library had a strong influence now, as you can imagine:

since Sydney has planes on the brain!

• • • • •

Thanks to Nana and Papa Olson AND to Papa Lowell for a terrific weekend - filled with great food, family and fun! Thanks to Daddy for using your last vacation day to take Mommy and family to WI.

Proof of the tooth

Silas has been CHEWING like crazy!!!

Chewing on ANYTHING he can get into his mouth! (AND when chewing on our fingers/hands, it is starting to actually hurt a little bit now!)

Here's some close-up PROOF of the TOOTH! (His lower left... viewed on the right.)

Silly paper props and LOTS of giggles

Our fun and giggles all started when Sydney asked to color with markers. Immediately, he drew a happy face and announced "_ook at deez eye balls." (Look at these eyeballs.) He was proud.

"Is nice happy face." he boasted. "Make gasses for happy face now." (Make glasses for happy face now.)

And so, he did just that... he drew a pair of glasses – just a short distance away from his eye balls:

Glasses at left. Eye balls at right.

That prompted me to go upstairs to retrieve some cardstock and scissors. I drew a pair of glasses and cut them out of paper. I had mis-judged the dimensions by a long shot so, we had to tape them to the side of Sydney's face. We giggled.

"Want _kype Nana. Wan tow Nana please."

Translation: Want (to) Skype Nana. Want (to) show Nana please.

So, we called her and told her to log in to Skype.

We were having a good time on Skype and then, we got the idea to put the fake glasses on Baby Silas. They fit his smaller head a little better, but we still needed TAPE on his cheeks to keep them on. He didn't quite know WHAT to think. We giggled... and giggled... and giggled!

Here is our self-portrait:

Afterwards, we went downstairs to make bigger glasses since Sydney wanted both he AND Silas to wear silly glasses. He also got the idea that he wanted a mustache so, I cut one out and he went to work coloring it. Here's his mustache:

We were having a pretty good time with it:

But then, when we put the fake glasses back onto Silas, he decided that he didn't want to play along anymore. We just wanted one picture of the boys together:

Sydney wonders "Mommy, what wrong wit' baby?" as his Yosemite Sam mustache hides most of his mouth.

"I don't think he likes his glasses." I reply.

"Whoa, baby really mad!"

And then, as fast as he turned ON the mad, he turned it OFF again and I quickly snapped a picture:

"Baby has thumb. All bettah now baby!"

Coming clean on Barney

I am afraid that Sydney will someday "throw me under the bus" so I may as well come clean.

Mike is NOT a controlling person; HOWEVER, when we first discovered that we were pregnant, he asked that we NOT let our kids watch Barney. (I wondered if he has ever even WATCHED Barney before; I remember cousins Rachel & Kristen watching it YEARS AGO.)

Barney is (still) on PBS. I believe that Sydney has watched it twice... in 29 months. Being a two year old boy, he LIKES dinosaurs... and bright colors... and singing... and dancing... and kids; Barney has all those things.

Today, I had turned on the tv and Sydney caught a glimpse of Barney before I could get the remote to change channels.

"Want to watch Barney." he stated.

"Who?" I played dumb.

"Barney. Dinosaur Barney." he stated with a furrowed brow.

"I didn't know you knew his name."

"I _ike Barney. _ike dat guy."

"Don't tell daddy you like Barney. Daddy does NOT like Barney."

"Why?" he wondered.

"I don't know. Sorry Buddy."

Daddy encourages Sydney to criss-cross his shoes... a "fun trick" that he learned in June 2011. All on his own, Sydney crosses his velcro straps and announces "Criss Cross oooshz. Mommy don't _ike dat!" (Translation: Criss cross shoes. Mommy don't like that.)

I keep hoping that he will someday forget about criss-crossing his shoes; Mike brings it up on purpose quite often... knowing that it kind of irks me. So far, I've had no luck with that "fun trick" disappearing. Dear Hubby... Gee, thanks for that! P.S. I'm really sorry your kid likes Barney.

Photographers proofs from photoshoot

Here are our photographer's top pics from our family photoshoot over the weekend. (NOTE: Two year olds are NOT the most cooperative models and infants don't REALLY know where to look. All-in-all, she didn't do too badly for us.)