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.)