A'maize'd!

Sydney has never been a picky eater, and she will typically eat just about anything.  Sometimes when she is consuming a new food, it does require shoving it in her mouth, taking a few chews (maybe to test the texture...it's unknown to scientists at this point), and then pulling it back out to inspect it again.  If all is fine at this point and passed the additional visual inspection, it goes back in and down the hatch.

So, it's no huge surprise that Sydney ended up liking corn.  She's certainly had it before (and let me tell you little people digest corn about as well as adults do), but she had commonly had it either in a prepared meal or cut from a cob.  Well, we recently learned that she loves to eat it straight from the cob.  And, of course, there is no place for manners when eating corn.  Sometimes you just have to throw etiquette out of the window and just go right in for it.  It likely means butter squirting places, and colonels bursting...creating a short perimeter that is clearly the danger zone, but that is what it takes.  Sydney demonstrates no fear in putting her determination of corn consumption to the test.  We just can't wait for her to tackle some BBQ ribs with the same vigor!

Like other kids, Sydney has learned how much she loves to color (technically, she has only tried to eat crayons twice that I know of, and that was months ago).  So really her pleasure is in the act of coloring and being creative.  Sometimes she colors in the mornings at school, and she does it at home when her parents aren't worried about the walls or other objects being colored on.

Sydney's words explosion still seems to reveal new words on a daily basis.  While she has mastered saying "Starbucks," she is even starting to master phrases, such as 'I love you' and 'you're right dad.'  It's pretty fun to see her try out new words she hasn't said before, too.  Some come out sounding Dutch, while others are completely spot on.  For better or worse...I guess you just never really know what's going to come out of her mouth :)

In addition to Syd's recent corn adventures, I thought it would be fun to share some older pictures, too.  The picture of her flipping through the channels still makes me laugh, and the last picture I came across and was just amazed to see how much shes grown since then...so I had to include it.  She was such a cute baby...and now she's a cute toddler (I'm ok if there seems to be a little daddy-bias there :)

This coming weekend Sydney will get to see her BFF Maggie, and will also get finish her swimming class and start her tumbling class.  This will be a great new experience for her.  Sydney also wanted to wish Happy Birthday to her Grandpa Don, who adds another year of wisdom to his resume!  Really he is just a young pup in the scheme of things. 

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Speaking of...

Sydney's rate of expressing words vocally is errupting at an exponential rate.  While both parents are ecstatic, her dad realizes that the days of him getting a word into any conversation are numbered.

But as she becomes more proficient at speaking, it is certainly interesting to see her learning process unfold, and the resulting audio outcome.  Some words come out crystal clear.  Sydney very clearly said 'bubble' one day while in the bath.  Some words she uses only in a high pitch...as she commonly does when she says 'thank you.'  Other words, or perhaps more directly cetain letter combinations, may pose a challenge to her.  When she says 'chai'...yes, as in chai tea, she sounds eerily like Daffy Duck.  It could be the 'ch' combination, because she often has that Daffy sound when she says 'cheese' for the camera, too.  It's certainly interesting to see the words she excells at, and others that are "under construction"....truly works in progress.  All in all, I would say her vocabulary has at least doubled in the past month.  I guess this might be a good time to pull out the 'swear jar' just to be safe!....haha!

Sydney, like most other kids, shares a fascination for trying to fit in adult shoes.  Sometimes she can actually manage to walk around the house with them on, and I'm sure that's no small feat...feet, get it?  Ok, I had to use another bad pun.  But she loves to play and have fun with shoes, regardless of whose they are.  It's possible she learned this from the cat, since the cat will actually pull slippers out of the closet and drag them all around the house.

Just a quick FYI...next weekend will be a blog-free weekend, as we will be preoccupied with soccer tournaments and other life activities.  I know you will miss the genius writing, the sure poetry in motion of this blog, the suspense and wit and humour that also comes with it (and again the modesty)...but I hope you can wait until the following week.  And if you only check out this blog for the pictures (more likely), then I hope you can wait, too...haha!

The second and third pictures were from when Reina was in Bellingham.  Just too many fun pictures to share!!!

Have a great week everyone!!!

Seeing Seeing Double Double!!

What do you get when you put nearly 36 months of active life force together in one area???...that’s right, four pigtails and a lot of trouble…haha! Actually, four pigtails is the accurate statement, but Sydney and Reina were anything but trouble.  In fact, on most occasions they were just cute.

Reina, along with her parents Chris and Jillian, made the long trek from Okinawa, Japan, to spend a little bit of time in Washington before continuing on to England. This gave Sydney a chance to have a great time playing with Reina, marking only their second get-together (see pictures at bottom of post of their first meeting).  They seemed to have a lot of the same interests, probably because they were born just weeks apart.

It became clear pretty quickly that Reina, much like Sydney, enjoyed the mystery and excitement of the rocking chair. On any given day Sydney usually squishes into the chair when I sit in it, and then quickly motions for the chair to start moving. But, with two little ones, I have been successfully relegated to Sydney’s little chair while the two of them have their own fun.  Chris has had better luck, lately, being able to manage possession of the chair than I have.

During their stay, I think Sydney may have picked up some words and mannerisms from Reina…I just hope Reina won’t take home any ‘bad habits’ from Sydney lol :)

It was great to be able to spend time with Chris and Jillian, who we don’t get to see enough.  We hope they had a great stay, and that their travels back over the blue are fun and enjoyable!

Stay tuned next week for all of the new words Sydney is saying.  Some are normal, and some seem completely random.  Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Will work for food...

Sydney loves pasta...but really what kid doesn't?  I thought I'd share this picture that was taken on Father's Day.   She loved that there were longgg noodles.  This gave her plenty to do and kept her busy trying to slurp them up.  And she figured...why bother with hands???  Might as well cut the middle man out and get the food straight to it's destination in as streamlined a manner as possible.  There is some wisdom in this...and she learned this new eating etiquette while on our latest travels.  While in Australia, we ate at a place called YumCha...in China Town in Sydney.  At one point, she decided she would eat directly from the plate.  Although we couldn't capture a picture of that, we thought we'd share a couple of other that we took during that lunch.

In other news, Sydne loved spending time with Grandma Gloria this past Sunday.  It gave Sydney's mom and dad a chance to escape for a little bit, but also gave Sydney a great opportunity to show Grandma just how funny and crazy she can be!

In upcoming news, Sydney will get a visit from her buddy Reina this weekend.  Of course, her parents Chris and Jillian will be with her.  Reina is just two weeks younger than Sydney, and she looks forward to playing and sharing her toys, especially since she only gets to see her once a year!

Once again, we also wanted to share a few other pictures that were taken in Australia. 

Have a safe and great 4th of July weekend everyone!!!

Sydney in Sydney...

I know what you're thinking...Sydney in Sydney sounds like a bad chick flick.  Well, in this case it is just reflective of the fact that our little Sydney's first big trip was, well...to Sydney.  We considered the trip to Australia a huge success, mainly because we actually survived the 15 hour flight to get there, after the shorter 2.5 hour flight from Seattle to LA.  I think the key to a successful long flight is to book a night flight, when they naturally want to go to sleep.  We didn't fair as well on the return trip (a daytime flight), but we still made it home.

Dennis, Christina, and Rebecca were all great to us.  They are very wonderful people that are enjoyable to be around.  We look forward to seeing them down the road, and wish them the best with the recovery!!!

The written portion of this post is short, mainly because we wanted to share some of the pictures from our Sydney experience.  And since a 'picture is worth a thousand words,' this is probably the longest post I've done...hehe!

18 months and coming out of her shell!

On June 15th Sydney turned the big 1.5 years old.  There is a lot of experience gained in that extra half-year, and she really has come a long way with her vocal speaking abilities, physical coordination, and general outgoing attitude.  So, she really does seem to be coming out of her shell!  This first picture was taken at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia (please note: no animals were hurt in the taking of this picture...actually, I'm sure it had already been dead for quite some time).  While at the zoo, she also decided that she was going to be the navigator.  She was more than happy to tell us which direction to go, and which animals to see.  Among all of the different species, she liked the koalas.

Regardless of where we went, people would comment on how cute she was.  She loved the attention, and she's even developed this one face, which we refer to  as 'cheesy face,' where she tilts her head back and comes up with the biggest and cheesiest smile you could picture.  She really is a ham.  So where did she get that, among her other odd  behaviors?  Well, I guess it's not that hard to understand where Sydney gets some of her unique behaviors...please see next picture...need I say more???  Actually, it was all in good fun and we had a great time at the zoo!

Sydney did pick up some new words while we were over the big blue.  She has learned 'apple, up, shoes,' and a few others that escape me right now.

There is sooo much to share about our recent trip to Australia (including pictures), but I thought I'd pick up the blog with just a couple of experiences from the trip.  But, before concluding this post I just have to mention that Karen did a great job on the trip.  She donated bone marrow for her Uncle Dennis.  She was a trooper during the procedure, as well as prep visits to the hospital.  We are wishing Dennis the best of luck, and hope the graft works.  We also wanted to wish the best to Rebecca and Kris, who are both being such wonderful support to Dennis.  We enjoyed getting to spend time with each of them.  Well, that's it for now, but expect more Australia pictures over the next few posts.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Speaking of...

Sydney has covered all of the critical words.  Momma and Dada have been spoken, much to the relief of her parents.  She has also said puppy, repeated 'kitty' on rare occassion, and has also said yeah, as well as yea!  These are all fairly basic, and nothing to be surprised about.  So, it made sense to expect the next few words in her growing list of vocabulary to be somewhat similar. 

Well, it turns out she decided one of her next words was going to be 'doctor.'  Really?...how strange is that?  But there is a context for this...it does come from the 5 silly mokeys book.  But what are the odds she would pick that word to say?  Then, during the same week her dad was watching the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie, and Sydney was playing with toys next to him.  When she looked up and saw the tv, her dad pointed and said 'Spock.'  To his amazement, she repeated 'Spock.'  I wouldn't have guessed that either of those two words would be a part of her limited vocabulary, but I guess you should just be proud, whatever word comes out.  The fact that she is increasing her vocal skills is great!  The only other word she likes is boat.  There is a picture in the house that has a boat on it, and she appears fascinated with it for some reason.

This will be our last post until we get back from Australia.  So, I hope you can wait for an update until we get back in mid June.  So, if Sydney comes back saying g'day, crikey, and few other terms that are common to that continent, don't be surprised. 

Great Grandpa Pagels took some great pictures the last time we visited that we just had to share.  He managed to get one of Sydney with her Great Grandma, another picture with her dad, and one with her favorite pet species...dogs.  Grandma Gloria was also able to get a picture of her while she was reading.  A thumb to suck on...a good book with predictable story line...what could be more perfect :) 

Have a great few weeks everyone...and wish us luck on the 15 hour plane ride!!!