The World According to Sydney

Sydney is growing up so quickly and really is a "little girl" now. She has her own opinions - on EVERYTHING - wants to do everything herself, says the darndest things and really just delights us in so many ways. Now that we have a backyard with some grass, we got the kids a swingset. This is not any ordinary swingset, no, it has a double-story cubby house, slide and other bits and pieces (like a basketball hoop) that we haven't necessarily put on because the yard isn't wide enough! 

Above is one of the rare occasions Syd has decided to go DOWN the slide instead of up. No doubt it was because Mommy was about to take a photo and the whole world stops when the camera comes out! Reverse psychology is starting to work with her - so when she's really crabby or about to cry, all I have to do is say "don't smile" and she busts out into a grin. Now if I could only say "tackle your brother" and get the opposite effect! It doesn't work that well.

She's had a bit of a growth spurt lately and on Easter we went to put on some shoes and they were to small. So we tried another pair, too small. All pairs of shoes tried on later - 7 pairs were too small, including all sandels. So she and I went off to the store on Monday to buy some new summer shoes. Wouldn't it be nice as adults if we outgrew our shoes and could just go replenish them because we HAD to?!?!

Two Fridays ago was Sydney's school's Spring Fling carnival. We took the kids for an hour or so and Sydney had a great time. The whole thing was free, which amazed me, and each class sponsored different games for the kids to play. There were some really great prizes - new books, fresh-baked goods and of course candy. It has a safari theme and the gym was completely decorated (it poured rain all day, so they moved it inside). John thought all the animals were great and it was enough entertainment for him just to find the animals and make the sounds. 

We have also started the kids in swimming lessons again. The Houston Swim club teaches in the floating method - you may have seen a video that went around a year or so ago showing a kid falling into a pool, fully clothed, and flipping themselves over and floating. It's really amazing. Sydney is in a two week, daily intensive class - the first week is now over. As you can see from above, she was really thrilled to be swimming again. She spent the entire 30 minutes the first day screaming. 25 minutes the second day, and only 5 minutes the third day. By Thursday, and especially Friday, she was LOVING the pool, and her teacher Mr Rudy.

Here's Mr Rudy and Sydney swimming across the pool. She's got her arms over the barbells and is kicking her little heart out. If you can make out the florescent green dot by her ear, that's her earplugs she has to wear to keep the water out of her ears. Talk about multiple battles at one time! But I've been very proud of her for leaving them in every day. We are looking forward to when the pool at the YMCA opens up (we think next week) so we can go swimming lots and lots together. 

And here's our intrepid little "Explorer" at the zoo the other day. She insisted that she hold the map and direct us where we were going next. She gave a running commentary as we went and directed us at each viewing point. We went to the Houston Zoo as a family on Saturday and it was really cool. They have an amazing variety of animals. I think our favourite was the Tapir (pronounced "TAY-peer"). We have learnt about Tapirs on Diego, but of course had never seen one. We also got to see a Spectacled Bear, again from Diego, which was greeted with the response of "Oh, MY" when I told her what it was. There's nothing better than viewing the world through the eye's of a child!