To Infinity and Beyond!

Syd is obsessed with Buzz Light Year Space Ranger (she gets mad when you don't say his full name)!  She first discovered him when we were back in Indiana and saw her cousin AJ's Buzz action figure.  That same trip my dad surprised Syd with a few outfits he picked out, one of which was coincidentally a boys t-shirt with Buzz on it.  I actually gave my dad some flack for the shirt along with another one he got her with the "Cars" characters on it.  He didn't realize they were boys t-shirts and said he just grabbed the first things he saw in size 3T...gotta love Dads.  Well, turned out her buzz shirt quickly became her very favorite thing to wear and with that we also showed her clips from Toy Story 1 on Youtube which only fueled her desire for all things Buzz.  Then to take it to the next level my brother, AKA Uncle Nick, got Syd her own action figure and so the only next logical thing to do was take her to Disneyland so she could actually go "To infinity and Beyond" and see the real Buzz LYSR himself!  To be honest we wanted to take her at some point in the near future, but this whole thing inspired us to do it sooner rather than later.  We set a date in early June as this is supposed to be the best time of the summer to go.  Sydney was super excited and we knew it was going to be amazing.  We woke her up at 6:30 am and headed to Anaheim getting there right as the park opened.  We didn't leave until after the Fantasmic Show which ended at 9:30 pm and although Syd only napped a half hour compared to her normal 2 hours, she did great!  We got in everything we wanted to see and more.  Syd never got scared even when we took her on Snow White's Scary Adventure, only realizing once we were on it that we may have pushed our luck.  But no, she loved it all!  Lastly, I just have to say when we were researching what to do with a toddler and mapping out our day at Disney, Clark Griswold style, I came across a blogger advising NOT to take a toddler of this age to Disney as they won't fully appreciate it for the money you spend and likely won't even remember it when they are older.  I don't know why but this comment made me want to take her even more.  Who cares if she remembers it when she's older??  The magic was seeing her reaction to this amazing fantasy world NOW when she's young enough to believe in it.  Her reaction to the mid-day parade said it all.  See video at bottom of this post.  Seth could barely contain her as he held her in his lap!  She jumped up and down the entire parade, overjoyed at seeing all the characters she's come to know.  For us that was all we wanted, no expectations of future memories or comprehension of the amount of god forsaken money a day at Disney requires.  Syd loved every minute and had the experience of her short two and half year lifetime.  That was good enough for us.    

This pic is out of order, but hands down my favorite one of the day.  She is so happy!

We brought the tiara from home so she could be just like the princesses.  

This was the first ride we went on.  A classic.

Weeeeeeeee!!

Minnie!!

Team time at Minnie's house.

Perfect face, looks like she is actually busting out of jail in Toontown! 

In line for the Buzz Light Year Astro Blasters ride! 

After the ride we stopped by the gift shop where we saw Woody and had to get him of course.  What good is Buzz without Woody??

Success, but short lived.  It was enough to give her a second wind which was good. 

We saw on line that you could go to Guest Services at the front entrance of the park and get a button if it was your first time visiting.  Syd wore it proud!

Love, love, love!

The following pictures are from the parade and video is below. 

Happy times.  :)

Getting Caught Up! Whoo Hoo!!

My last post was just two weeks ago, in which I was talking about how I haven't blogged as often as I intended to.  Now look at me...another post!  I have my next two posts planned as well and then this blog will actually be current to the here and now as opposed to the 3-4 month delay it has unintentionally been on since I started it.  Getting caught up is a good feeling.  I am OCD when it comes to organization, a blessing and a curse at times.  It's been on my list for years to go back through all the photos we have in iphoto and organize them by event or date, shirt color, anything.  Pre-Sydney there is mostly just one big stream of photos from the year 2000 on.  I will tackle these PS photos at some point, but for now I am just happy to be caught up on all of the photos since Syd was born, thanks to doing this blog.  Turns out blogging is cathartic in that way.  It's been a means to take stock of the gazillion photos we've taken, purge the not so great photos and organize in a way where we can best find and appreciate all the special moments we have captured on camera with our beautiful baby girl.  

As for how we are doing, things are pretty good.  May was a blur and June has been excitement overload with taking Syd to Disney for the first time and our recent way overdue vacation to Seaside, FL (hence the two posts to come).  Big news with Syd is that we potty trained her in May.  We knew she was ready when one day we were talking to her and she said "hold on a moment, I'm peeing" then following a short pause said "ok..." as if to say "you can proceed with what you were saying now".  Yea, it's time.  We decided to do the 3 day naked potty training where you stay at home with your toddler who wears nothing from the waist down for 3 days all while giving them gallons of liquids so they pee as much as humanly possible.  I have friends that have done this and say after the 3 days your child will pretty much be trained to use the potty with very few accidents.  It was exactly that only on day two we were like ok, let's put on some big girl undies and get OUT OF THE HOUSE!  We broke the rules, but Syd has only had a couple accidents since so safe to say it was a success.  No other news is as big as that so now on to the fun stuff.  

Below are pics from May and the beginning of June, starting with the most recent pics first.  Enjoy!      

I've talked about the Tiny Tots class Syd and I were in which was offered through the city of West Hollywood.  The spring session wrapped up with a great tea party.  I love any reason to get dressed up so Syd and I got out our best hats and matching dresses and had a blast!

Syd really gets into circle time.  She loves to sing and dance so this was always her favorite part of class.  

Our teachers, Ms. Guia and Ms. Patty

First time Syd actually wanted to get her face painted.  

No holding back!  She went for the arm tat as well!

Happy girl!

Below are some examples of the art projects we did in the class.  I say "we" because I had to help to some degree although I really did give Syd the creative control.  I saw on Pinterest the idea to scan your child's artwork so you can make a photo book each year.  Love this idea...done and done!

Ok, this one is a little scary so I have named her "the mental patient".  Syd loves this thing and even asked to sleep with her in her crib, which I promptly said no to.  Not because I am afraid it will scar her to wake up in the middle of the night next to this creepy paper doll, but because there are buttons which she could choke on of course!

Below are a few random photos from May.  

One of our favorite parks has this little stream the kids can play in.  Such a great idea and wish all the local parks had this.  

Syd has recently become obsessed with Buzz Light Year.  This started in Indiana when she saw her cousin AJ's Buzz toy.  We have since shown her Toy Story and she seriously loves Buzz.  One day I drew this pic for her to paint and she was soooo happy.  My art studies in high school and college paid off on this one.  I may not be able to make something of a blank canvas, but copying from someone else's work, I can do!

I LOVE THIS PIC!!  Syd always does this when Daddy does push-ups!

Yet another great idea I saw on Pinterest.  We added a name calling this a "Disco Bath" and played some awesome disco music to go along.  It's hard to see in this pic, but Syd is laughing and absolutely loved it.  

My friend Bri and her baby girl Ella visited from New York in late May.  This was the first time we have met each other's little girl and it was sweet to see them play together and of course bath together because what's more fun for little girls than that?! 

Sweet face!!

The following photos are from a nice adult night out to celebrate our great friend Kevin's birthday.  Kevin was the one who married Seth and I in Puerto Vallarta and the first friend we made in LA when we were neighbors.  I told him I wanted to make a cake for him and he requested strawberry with whipped cream topping.  I added some white chocolate and it turned out pretty yummy.

Farrah, Eric and Kevin

Nice, husband, nice.  I think they call this "photo bombing" now.  

These last few photos are from when my "mom" Janice came to visit.  Syd calls her Nana and was so excited to see her!  She came to visit from Naples, FL towards the end of May and stayed with us for 5 nights.  The last time she visited was a year ago, so this visit was tons of fun now that Syd is older and able to have conversations.  We had a lot of fun and hope we don't have to go as long between visits this time.  

Nana bought Syd her first watch.  So cute and Syd feels like such a big girl wearing it.  

March ~ April Update

One of the things I intended to do once I officially became a SAHM in March, was to blog more often and by often I was thinking once every week would be a good place to start.  Sounds easy enough with all the free time I was going to now have, right?  Ha.  My new life as a full time mommy is a total dream come true and I feel blessed immensely, but free time??  Not so much.  It's amazing how much busier I am now.  Syd's not in preschool yet and Seth is now on days working from 10-8 so most days it's just me and it's a lot.  And I mean that in the most amazing way of course.  It's just different.  In my career days, after my work day I would be mentally exhausted but still have the energy to use my "me time" after Syd went to bed however I so chose.  Now after a full day entertaining and just taking care of my rambunctious two year old, once I have her to bed I am physically spent.  Nothing gets done past 8pm now aside from eating my dinner and maybe catching up on a little TV, Chelsea Lately to be exact.  Days pass in the blink of an eye and here we are in June, and I have only updated the blog once.  I still haven't organized our weekly craft schedule, updated the family calendar with the daily activities we are going to do each month, sought out and ranked the best Mom Blogs to follow, cooked all the sneaky recipes in my cookbook for Syd, learned how to knit or even sew really for that matter and so on and so on.  The Pinterest version of my life is taking a back seat to the real one, but you know what, I am OK with that.  I am enjoying just being with Sydney right now and watching her grow from a baby to an actual individual with tons of personality.  Our days are mostly filled with play and laughter and I can tell she is really happy.  I am not missing a minute with her and that was the whole point.  So when I have the moments of feeling inadequate because another mom has a blog solely dedicated to 365 days of crafts with toddlers (and God bless her for that!), I remind myself that my priorities are in order and for that alone I am doing a great job so far and well if I ever learn to knit then that will just be a bonus. 

Below are pics from March and April.  I will do a post with pics from May soon....maybe.  ;)

Seth with his dad and my amazing Father In Law, Sidney.  Although he was not in good health, his passing at the beginning of May was still unexpected.  We were so fortunate to have been home and see him the week prior.  He was a wonderful man and Sydney was named after him.  He will forever be loved and missed.  

Big Sid sharing candy with little Syd

Syd and her cousin Madi

Cousin love, Syd and AJ

Madi, Sydney, Hannah, Payton

Syd and her Bubbe

My dad and proud Grandpa

My Aunt Tonja and Syd with some crazy hair!

At the end of April we went to a Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena, CA with my good friend Helene (AKA The Mayor and also Meema) and her granddaughter London who is just over a year older than Sydney.  It was awesome!  There was so much for the girls to do, everything from an outdoor creek they could run around in to reptile exhibits and more.  Syd was in heaven and we will definitely have to go back this summer. 

This was a little bike course they had where the kids could race or just ride around the track.  When I showed Seth this pic he pointed out that I put Syd's helmet on backwards.  Yep, I sure did.  I am pretty sure the girl in the background has her helmet on wrong as well.  

That's my big girl all the way at the top of this 3 story climb house.  She went all the way to the top by herself but needed a little help coming down.  London came to her rescue and guided her way.

This spider was enormous!  Syd was obsessed with it and we had to go back about 10 times so she could see it again. 

End of the day and somebody is tired

Here are a few random photos from April.  

Syd wearing all her play jewelry.  Such a big girl.

Also in April we went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time with my brother Nick.  It was cool and Syd enjoyed herself.  She wasn't so sure about the show, but loved all the rides.  

Syd and I just finished up our Tiny Tots class.  We really had a great time with this and looked forward to going every Tue and Thu, so it was a bit sad to see it end.  Every class involved art projects, singing and dancing, story time and play.  We met some great people there and hope to stay in touch with them.  Below are a few pics from a recent class.  

Syd and Lou on Easter, searching for eggs

Syd wasted no time cracking those suckers open to get to the jelly beans!

Me and my big girl

Uncle Nick and Tati

Also in April we went with my good friend Allison to "Travel Town Railroad Museum" at Griffith Park.  Syd LOVES trains and this is a whole little museum dedicated to them.  There were lots of different style cars you could walk thru, a little train ride that went around the entire grounds, a mini train set and village and more.  The best part for Syd was the seeing the pink train.  She is a pink fanatic and it was perfect that they had a pink train amongst their collection.  We had a great time and not to mention parking and admission is FREE.  The only thing that cost money was the train ride at a whopping $2 per person, so in total we spent $6.  Not bad for a fun day in LA.  

I just love this pic.  Syd is so small next to this massive locomotive.  I know I will look at this pic one day and be amazed at how little she once was.  For right now though she is little and still mama's baby so that day can just hold off for another decade or two.  

We took a trip to the Santa Monica pier back in the beginning of April.  There's a carnival on the pier and of course the amazing coastal view.  There are also lots of street performers and just good ol' people watching.  Below are some pics from our trip.  

Syd gives a kiss she calls the biggest kiss of her whole life, where she grabs your face and pushes on you as hard as her little body can all while giving you a long sweet smooch.  It's so yummy and I can't get enough of them!

Syd and dada enjoying some ice cream

This last group of pics are from our trip to San Diego in March.  We went to see our dear friends Matt and Lili and their daughter Nakisa.  Matt and I are friends from college, so it's really awesome to see our little ones together now.  Nakisa is about a year and a half older than Sydney and was so incredibly sweet and gracious with her.  Syd really loved being around her as most of our friends' little ones are boys, so she doesn't often get to play with other little girls.  We had a wonderful weekend and hope to go down there again soon. 

  

I love this pic of the girls having breakfast

Trying on some lipgloss just like mama

Too much fun for this little fairy princess

The last few pics are from our visit to the Birch Aquarium in San Diego.  

Kiss kiss Mr. Fish